I can’t figure out why this board has The Pit, MPSIMS, and IMHO when pretty much everything is the same and all of it fits under the same BS. Kind of retarded.
IMHO is for Opinions.
MPSIMS is for miscellaneous crap (which could be an opinion).
The Pit is for gloves-off attacks on other posters.
Sometimes these divisions tend to overlap, but most times they work very well.
You’re just new here (and you are likely to get shit about your use of the word “retarded”).
Or it should be.
Mostly it seems to be recreational outrage.
Obviously, you didn’t see it…
WTF would put a clock in a briefcase?
Something like this happened to me- I brought a pool stick to work in a gun case. Can you believe the racists who thought that I was going to shoot up the place??
nm
Anyone who wanted something better than a cardboard box to carry it in, and had no budget.
Geez! I can’t believe how many bozos here are chiming in on things they have no experience with - as I kid I used any box I could find to house my projects - Cigar boxes, coffee tins, and tupperware.
And, that “briefcase” is like 8” wide…
I think a law suit is in order… he should win.
He could have just used the case that the clock (a 1980s Radio Shack model with a built-in 9V battery backup) was originally built with. But then I guess he couldn’t pretend he “invented” it.
Man, you must have been insufferable as a teenager.
To you? Probably. I had plenty of friends and dates though, so fuck it.
The boy is 14 years old and probably just getting started in electronics. That is how you learn. You take shit apart that already works and put it back together. Using wires and component parts would demonstrate to the class and help you understand what makes the thing keep time.
Do you tell little Suzie that her painting isn’t really a painting because Da Vinci never would have used that particular accent tone?
Further, if people were scared that this was a bomb, where was the explosive content? What part of that device was going to go “boom”?
That makes me happy - special needs kids need love, too.
Slacker’s got it. This is an “invention” and “home made” like a tyrannosaurus made from Legos. Many of us have indeed “invented” and built much more complex items at similar ages.
I had a tabletop radio when I was about 13 - I picked the smashed thing out of a dumpster and re-housed it in a cigar box. I had no tuning indicator so it was old-school tune-by-ear… but I did not and never would have claimed I “invented” it.
I did invent (= start with idea and a few sheets of graph paper) many, many things, some of which were purely for me, quite a few of which appeared in the hobby magazines and a number of which were produced as kits or finished goods. I just “invented” a solid-state replacement for a ridiculously complex and expensive relay used in vintage cars, and am doing very small-scale production.
Taking the guts from a clock and putting them in a different box is NOT inventing, even for a kid. It’s clever, and it shows a certain degree of technical aptitude (and imagination), but neither “inventing” nor “home made” applies to this case.
Which has nothing much to do with the legal, racial and other human issues involved. But the whole whoop-te-do about Mohamed being some kind of genius inventor tech whiz is just a tiny tad inflated.
BFD.
This kid started just they way I did - taking electronics apart, and running them without their cases. Being able to do that shows an aptitude far beyond most 14 year old kids. If he exaggerated when he said he “invented” it, so what? We’ve gotten into arguments on this board about Apple, saying that they didn’t actually design their processors in the iPhone.
None of that is germane to this issue.
I already conceded that the human/prejudice/profiling issues are the real ones and the tech issues are secondary.
However, a good part of most stories so far include the angsty wail about how this incredibly brilliant kid has been slapped down for being the next Steve St. Jobs, which is hyperbole at best, and plain bullshit to anyone who’s ever taken the back off an electronics device.
I was designing from scratch when I was 14, having passed the “take the back off things and add switches” stage at around 10. I had many friends who were at that level, or beyond, at similar ages. Neither they nor I every made the pretension of being a tech genius based on that, nor did I let anyone use the word “invent” for such tinkering and modifications - we had a high regard for the word and its meaning.
Anyone who’s actually INVENTED something of moderate technical sophistication knows what I mean. It’s the difference between a performance medal and a participation one.
It sincerely sucks that 2015 America treats any kid the way Ahmed Mohamed has been treated, and I am glad it made such a splash, and proud of the Muslim terrorist in the White House for stepping up so quickly and decisively.
But the media needs to look up “invented” in in any grade-school dictionary.
I was designing from scratch in 3rd grade, and etching my own circuit boards in Jr. High.
And, I’m still willing to cut this kid some slack.
I’ve known adults who say that they “designed” a power transistor when what they did was specify its current-handling requirements.
I don’t think there is any argument that the kid’s abilities have been over-hyped. But that shouldn’t obscure the essential injustice about what happened to him. And Slacker has been arguing the the whole thing was done for sinister intent, for which there is zero evidence.
… and I don’t give a shit if people are offended by the word retarded.
It’s a great way to get banned…
You can be banned for using the word ‘retarded’?
Probably not, but disregarding friendly advice on this board is usually indicative of a short stay here. The continued use of such a word might be considered the dreaded “T-word”.