5 ms·

Dead weight added to video transfer gadget to make it feel more solid

24 points by elsewhen 17y ago

jws 17y ago
The weight also serves the purpose of keeping the unit in place against the forces of the cables. I wish I could find a USB hub that weighs a pound or more. Edit: Ok, after googling I must amend. I wish I could find a USB hub that weighs a pound or more, actually supplies power, and isn't abusively priced.
- ars 17y ago
  Mix sand with glue and you can mold your own weight.
- riahi 17y ago
  Here's a USB dome hub with 7 ports that weighs around a pound on Amazon with a $10 rebate (I bought one long ago from Circuit City with a large rebate)... http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-DomeHub-ports-Weighted-33118/dp/B0002FHENE http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-DomeHub-ports-Weighted-3311...
- timcederman 17y ago
  I use blu-tack. Not sure what it's called elsewhere, but here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Tack http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Tack
jacquesm 17y ago
That's pretty common actually. Think of it, all the stuff that you have is packaged, the weight of something is a big factor in its day to day use. The right weight is just a decision in packaging something. It will also help to dampen vibrations in some cases, usually a slab of some dense metal taped to the inside of an otherwise thin and relatively flimsy panel. Most electronics if packaged 'minimally' would weigh next to nothing, they would literally feel cheap and flimsy. We're conditioned to think of something that is 'dense' as 'solid'. Boris the sneaky Russian said it best: "The weight is a sign of reliability". Imagine a skill saw that worked just fine but weighed only half a pound... Or a 10 gram keyboard, it would skitter all over your desk if you typed on it.
icey 17y ago
I made a small bench when I was going through my woodworking phase. I didn't like how it sounded when I moved it around on the floor, so I routed out a couple of channels on the underside and implanted a couple of rods of rebar in it. Suddenly, everyone asked where I bought that "wonderful bench" - after it had been in my house for 6 months.
- kragen 17y ago
  With epoxy? Did the rebar add weight, change the sound, or what?
  - icey 17y ago
    Sorry, yes - I epoxied it in, and then capped the channels with wood strips. It added weight and it changed the acoustics when it got moved around.
tlb 17y ago
20 years ago, I wrote an intermediate compilation step for a big software project. It basically took the text strings and compressed them. The program only took a fraction of a second to run, so I added a sleep(1) to make it seem more impressive.
- blhack 17y ago
  I believe this is the inverse of a speedup loop. Although, if you removed it a few releases later for a drastic performance improvement, then I guess it is both! Good show!
  - ars 17y ago
    Speedup loop: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Speedup-Loop.aspx http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Speedup-Loop.aspx And this one is even better: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/It_Must_Be_Broken.aspx http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/It_Must_Be_Broken.aspx
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Hehe. Neat! Here is a variation on your theme. A customer I worked for as a freelancer suddenly got it into their heads to pay me by the byte of object code. I didn't comment at all, switched off link-step optimization. Next bill was by the hour again :)
blhack 17y ago
I'm not entirely opposed to this. In fact, I wish that more manufacturers would do it... I hate setting things on my desk, then having them slide all over the place...one of my favorite pieces of kit is my old 1987 model M keyboard. Not entirely because of the bucky-spring keys, the wonderful noise it makes, or the stark contrast between it, my monitors, my wacom tablet, and whatever new-aged gizmos happen to be floating around on my desk, but because of its heft. My frineds and I have got a scale for judging the utility of a piece of hardware. "could you kill somebody with it? I mean...in the event of zombie apocalypse, could this device be used to take down a zombie?" The answer with the model M is likely a solid "no". (it's heavy, and sturdy, but zombies are freaking TOUGH!), but it's close. The extra weight, even though artificial, gives us that feeling of "this is a sturdy piece of equipment". This is a good thing. I liken it to eating a nice steak. Your brain is going "good job! Eat a lot of this!" because it is assuming that protein (and fat, and all the other good things in a steak) is/are scarce, and that you should ingest as much as possible. Well, this is silly...steaks are not scarce! It's the same thing, it's false, it's stupid, it's trickery, but I still like it.
- Tichy 17y ago
  My Logitech mouse comes with a set of weights to allow you to modify it's weight. It's a bit of a gimmick, though, and sometimes the cartridge with the weights slips out of the mouse.
DTrejo 17y ago
I heard they did this with plastic phones when they first came out (the kind you have to dial with a dial).
fburnaby 17y ago
I don't think this would have been surprising back in the days when we put things on desks and sat at them all the time... It's just that we now expect everything to be "mobile/portable" and lightness is then presumed to be good. Weight is definitely a legitimate feature, as this example so clearly demonstrates.

24 points by elsewhen 17y ago

jws 17y ago

The weight also serves the purpose of keeping the unit in place against the forces of the cables. I wish I could find a USB hub that weighs a pound or more. Edit: Ok, after googling I must amend. I wish I could find a USB hub that weighs a pound or more, actually supplies power, and isn't abusively priced.

ars 17y ago
Mix sand with glue and you can mold your own weight.
riahi 17y ago
Here's a USB dome hub with 7 ports that weighs around a pound on Amazon with a $10 rebate (I bought one long ago from Circuit City with a large rebate)... http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-DomeHub-ports-Weighted-33118/dp/B0002FHENE http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-DomeHub-ports-Weighted-3311...
timcederman 17y ago
I use blu-tack. Not sure what it's called elsewhere, but here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Tack http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Tack

jacquesm 17y ago

That's pretty common actually. Think of it, all the stuff that you have is packaged, the weight of something is a big factor in its day to day use. The right weight is just a decision in packaging something. It will also help to dampen vibrations in some cases, usually a slab of some dense metal taped to the inside of an otherwise thin and relatively flimsy panel. Most electronics if packaged 'minimally' would weigh next to nothing, they would literally feel cheap and flimsy. We're conditioned to think of something that is 'dense' as 'solid'. Boris the sneaky Russian said it best: "The weight is a sign of reliability". Imagine a skill saw that worked just fine but weighed only half a pound... Or a 10 gram keyboard, it would skitter all over your desk if you typed on it.

icey 17y ago

I made a small bench when I was going through my woodworking phase. I didn't like how it sounded when I moved it around on the floor, so I routed out a couple of channels on the underside and implanted a couple of rods of rebar in it. Suddenly, everyone asked where I bought that "wonderful bench" - after it had been in my house for 6 months.

kragen 17y ago
With epoxy? Did the rebar add weight, change the sound, or what?
- icey 17y ago
  Sorry, yes - I epoxied it in, and then capped the channels with wood strips. It added weight and it changed the acoustics when it got moved around.

tlb 17y ago

20 years ago, I wrote an intermediate compilation step for a big software project. It basically took the text strings and compressed them. The program only took a fraction of a second to run, so I added a sleep(1) to make it seem more impressive.

blhack 17y ago
I believe this is the inverse of a speedup loop. Although, if you removed it a few releases later for a drastic performance improvement, then I guess it is both! Good show!
- ars 17y ago
  Speedup loop: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Speedup-Loop.aspx http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Speedup-Loop.aspx And this one is even better: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/It_Must_Be_Broken.aspx http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/It_Must_Be_Broken.aspx
jacquesm 17y ago
Hehe. Neat! Here is a variation on your theme. A customer I worked for as a freelancer suddenly got it into their heads to pay me by the byte of object code. I didn't comment at all, switched off link-step optimization. Next bill was by the hour again :)

blhack 17y ago

I'm not entirely opposed to this. In fact, I wish that more manufacturers would do it... I hate setting things on my desk, then having them slide all over the place...one of my favorite pieces of kit is my old 1987 model M keyboard. Not entirely because of the bucky-spring keys, the wonderful noise it makes, or the stark contrast between it, my monitors, my wacom tablet, and whatever new-aged gizmos happen to be floating around on my desk, but because of its heft. My frineds and I have got a scale for judging the utility of a piece of hardware. "could you kill somebody with it? I mean...in the event of zombie apocalypse, could this device be used to take down a zombie?" The answer with the model M is likely a solid "no". (it's heavy, and sturdy, but zombies are freaking TOUGH!), but it's close. The extra weight, even though artificial, gives us that feeling of "this is a sturdy piece of equipment". This is a good thing. I liken it to eating a nice steak. Your brain is going "good job! Eat a lot of this!" because it is assuming that protein (and fat, and all the other good things in a steak) is/are scarce, and that you should ingest as much as possible. Well, this is silly...steaks are not scarce! It's the same thing, it's false, it's stupid, it's trickery, but I still like it.

Tichy 17y ago
My Logitech mouse comes with a set of weights to allow you to modify it's weight. It's a bit of a gimmick, though, and sometimes the cartridge with the weights slips out of the mouse.

DTrejo 17y ago

I heard they did this with plastic phones when they first came out (the kind you have to dial with a dial).

fburnaby 17y ago

I don't think this would have been surprising back in the days when we put things on desks and sat at them all the time... It's just that we now expect everything to be "mobile/portable" and lightness is then presumed to be good. Weight is definitely a legitimate feature, as this example so clearly demonstrates.