If the headline surprises you, we may be talking across purposes… In this post I am talking about creating rather then destroying things, which is also referred to as lifehacking. I am probably a hacker and from a very early age and perhaps you as well.
Many of us have probably, at some stage opened up a perfectly working alarm clock only to discover that it was impossible to get it working again. The next step was to use the springs and cogs of said alarm clock to drive meccano projects.
Many lifehackers have turned their skills of taking every day devices and hacking them into something useful and I believe that one of the best examples is Trevor Baylis who took a clockwork, attached a dynamo and connected it to a portable radio. Each of these elements were nothing new but by combining them, a radio was born that required no batteries or external power and thus great for the developing nations to further awareness of fatal illnesses etc. When looking at these kind of groundbreaking applications one often wonders “why did I not come up with this?”
Web searches give us the most sublime, useful, novel and sometimes even funny examples of such hacks. The most extreme I have seen is to use and old Apple computer case as a mailbox, it gives the phrase “let’s have a look what is in my inbox” a whole different meaning.
My concern is that we are so used to off-the-shelf products and when they stop working, they go in the bin. People in general and in particular youngsters are not encouraged to be inquisitive enough to find out how stuff actually works and how things can be used in ways never intended by the manufacturer.
And even in electronics and computing, this kind of hacking is great and pushes the boundaries of technology. For example, in my early days colleagues discovered that failed EPROMs (an early form of computer memory) could be used as a great coffee cup warmer if connected to power in the right way (actually the wrong way…), most likely setting the scene for pyro-elements we see in products today. I probably should not endorse experimenting in this way as it could be dangerous I suppose, you have been warned.
I am also surprised to see that crystal radio kits are sold again, giving people an insight on how early radios worked, something I used to do with an empty jam jar, some aluminium foil, a spool of wire and a germanium diode. Even older readers may have used a piece of lead crystal and two gramophone needles rather than a ‘sophisticated’ diode.
Reminiscing aside, a recent big attempt has been made with the Raspberry Pi project and the latest thing I read was how a lorry driver, who had past experience of hobby computing used the Raspberry to create something that made his “trucking” better….
It just goes to show that the young hackers in the context of this post, may be the innovators of the future and I wonder whether the same drive and curiosity exists today as it did when I used to break and make things. Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts or even your (life)hacking experiences….