The Mandelbear's Musings

What can one say about the first day back at work after a 5-day trip? In some ways it felt like a vacation.

I got to interview the guy who would be my new boss if he gets hired. I'm not very good at that. The Mac mini that I ordered last week with the last of last fiscal year's hardware budget showed up. I decided it would be more useful, and a great deal cheaper, than a new laptop.

Got in a walk, and my weight was back down -- no complaints there.

Go take a look at the Victorian Organ Command Desk & Steampunk Home Tour -- it's amazing. The owners/perpetrators are my nephew's aunt and her husband.

A Steampunk Monitor and Keyboard for a Mac mini

There is nothing in the world that I like better then receiving pictures of things that people have been inspired to build by my projects. When I opened my mail and discovered these photos I squeed like teen on LJ! In interviews I've often described Steampunk as the intersection of technology and romance - well here is the story to prove it!

vonslatt

This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts.

Ok, so we're not exactly certain how Apple will incorporate this feat into their next batch of "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads, but running an internet connected iMac off a steam engine is impressive, for lack of better words. Two Brits struggling for an artistic concept to connect the "industrial revolution to the digital revolution" somehow settled on this contraption, and have garnered a good bit of attention. The demand for the spectacle has become so large that the creators, Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane, are touring through Kent and Margate over the next month to show off their machine; it can also be seen at the Turner Contemporary.