Clock made from a whirling, strobing hard-drive

This Strobeshnik clock is made from an old hard drive: "The digits are etched in the original platter and they're strobed from behind with leds. The HDD motor is driven by a custom circuit without feedback, hence poor startup performance and awful noise. Rotational feedback is provided by an IR LED/phototransistor pair near the place where the head arm formerly was."

The result is a whirling, grinding, eye-catching, unreadable kinetic sculpture. Now that's a timepiece!

Strobeshnik (final) (via JWZ!)

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Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

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