Hacked Mac mini delivers news the old-fashioned way (sort of)
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
We’ve seen a lot of Mac mini mods in our day, but this one ranks right up there with the best of them.
Scott Walker, assistant editor at the Birmingham News, has found a truly unique use for his Mac mini. Using an old newspaper vending rack found on eBay, a 17-inch LG LCD display, some rope lighting, a Mac mini and some AppleScript, Scott was able to create a digital newsstand that delivers a constant stream of current headlines to his living room, and look extremely cool while doing it.
An iCal alarm wakes the mini each morning and sets in motion an AppleScript which takes some screenshots of various online newspapers (including the Birmingham News, of course), crops them (using GraphicCoverter), then launches a PhotoPresenter slideshow of the pics complete with transitions. The result is geekery at its finest. Check out Scott’s YouTube video (below) to see the device in action.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader TheWarpedOne for the tip!
It even has a remote! How f-ing cool is that!?!?
niiiiice!
What does an assistant editor make that they can just throw away a Mac mini like that?
don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool mod and all, but the mini could be put to a more useful purpose.
At MY house.
🙂
that is freakin’ cool as all hell. He should sell those.
i wonder where he gets his feed for those up to date headlines. of course, his job. but is it a digital scan that youd find archived library style, or maybe he just brings home a cd and loads it in every day. or has it networked. all the same, pretty cool.
could be MORE useful at mine I love macs and need more power
So you have to sit in front of this thing to read your news? I agree he did a nice job and its cool…but not exactly practical…
Sweet mod. This would look great in a news room office.
I would say this seems like the future of newsstands… with the ability to show all the headlines to attract paper buyers!
Anybody have a “how-to?” It should be easy to do with alot less computer power though.
It would be even cooler if when he opened it up it printed the displayed paper.
That’s cool, but I don’t understand the point of the rope light. What’s that all about? Didn’t the LCD come with a backlight already?
I normally regard MSM folk as somewhat below worms in intelligence, but this fellow is obviously the exception. Mega cool!
Very cool.
http://www.ebooksbay.org
http://www.ebooksdb.net
so what is the rope lighting for??
This is sooo cool. Thanks for sharing this.
i was just thinking to myself the other day that there hasn’t been any enhancements in newspaper vending technology in a while
That is awesome doc!
Cool, but already been done a couple of years ago. As seen at Quakecon 2004…
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2004/11/24/newspaper_box/1
I think I have seen something similar at the Paris Subway – Gare De Norde. It is a great idea. 🙂
The light rope is cosmetic… provides the backlight behind the vending rack.