P.S. Why not in Boston?

More than you want to know about the Boston police and things they don't recognize.

Note that the presence of this note means that they're *aware of the problem* of people putting the plug in backwards and it *still* doesn't occur to them to use the mature, tested, well-nigh foolproof solution to this very common problem.

That's pretty funny, IMO.

Somebody made a T-shirt with a scrolling LED text display but most sites report being out of stock.

I'd like to make my own improved one (to play Life on a small grid, maybe) but that seems a sure-fire way to attract unwanted bomb-scare attention these days.

Second: The headline had me ROTFL. I saw it in my RSS feed and thought "why on earth would something involving the Yankees be mentioned on Making Light?"

(back to watching the Sox game...)

Actually, the use of the cable that can be inserted both directions, but works only in one makes good design sense to me -- assuming that the wrong-way connection will do no harm, it simplifies the design and makes for a more sturdy implementation -- there no extraneous "keys" to be broken off, and also bypasses the lackwits who would try to insert the connector the wrong way anyways, and,if it didn't work the first time, would simply apply more force until it was seated -- damaged and non-working -- but seated.

The panel is pretty thin and lightweight; it's some sort of flexible electroluminescent. It wears pretty well, so I didn't have another shirt on underneath. There is a cable (encased in a cloth sheath for comfort) running down to a belt battery pack so the heavier components are not on the chest.

On the other hand, it's not quite as comfortable as wearing a normal T-shirt. The velcro connecting the panel and the T-shirt can cause it to hang somewhat funny, or give way and let the panel curl up a little bit.

It really needs one addition, though -- an upward-pointing arrow which says "Eyes up here"

Before I went to look, I was expecting that the shirts would be running Conway's cellular-automata "game", which would definitely be cool. But that may be beyond current technology. Next would be Pong-on-a-shirt, which would be extremely cool, if potentially complicated by the "Eyes up ^ here ^" problem.

But from there, it's not a big step to people walking around with real-time full-colour video on their tummies, and primary-colour full-body outfits, which would be very very disturbing. And probably unacceptable in Boston.

It usually stirs up more interest than xkcd shirts, as even non-geeks will react to it in one way or another.

It would be even better if the LEDs were hidden behind a thin layer of cotton, so that it would look like you are actually lighting up :)

a/k/a "Teletubbies".

Teresa, did you see that V**** B**** has surfaced again?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14002908/

John Boston

(However, I think it's just an animation, not an actual playable game. Unlike the playable drum set (not linked because I don't feel like falling into moderation, but it's at thinkgeek (the top linked store)).)

Invoke not the wrath of BabySun; the Teletubbies are heroically doing their best to keep the madgod distracted from destroying reality (the Big Burp Theory). The true reason that the valiant Bostonian pop culture warriors punished the distribution of the mooninite Brite-Lites was to prevent their infiltration of the bunny rabbid community that covertly supports the efforts of the Teletubbies.

Yes, but does it light up differently to indicate WEP, WPA, and/or Unencrpyted? And does it come with a program to instantaneously tests unencrypted signals for actual viable Internets, and play a little tune when it tests positive? so that I'll know if it's worthwhile to hork out my laptop for that sweet, sweet connectivity?

I didn't think so.

Harrumph!

Well, there's clearly work to be done for version 2.0. What are you doing next week?