Subject: hacking rubberbands

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 14:28:34 +0200

This post was prompted by a link in slashdot, but since it's burried quite
deep in there, and I bet people didn't try it themselves, I hope you don't
mind that I mention here.

I'm not sure what the "hackers" in the mailing-list's name refers to, but
if it includes "hacking" of prose or philosophies, I believe it should also
include messing around with more "physical" contraptions like rubber-bands.

Did you ever try to shoot a rubber-band from your hand? [1] [2]
It's easy: put the rubberband around the end of your thumb pointing away from
you, pull it with the index finger of your second hand, release the index
finger, and watch the rubber band fly. Unfortunately, you'll also feel the
pain of the rubberband hitting your thumb during its flight, which in
addition to being annoyingly painful slows down the rubber-band and lowers
the length it can fly.

Tough luck, right? Wrong. Bored weirdos (rubber-band hackers?) have been
working hard to find a better way to shoot rubber-bands with your bare
hands. You can see their genious in action in
http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~alain/magictalk-wisdom/discussions/shooting_rubber_band.html

I tried to replicate their method (yeah, what can I say, I'm a geeky, bored
scientist...), and lo and behold - their method actually works, and resulted
in much farther (more than two times as far) rubberband horizontal travel!

Kids, do try this at home [2] :)

[1] No, not with a 144-rubberband gatling gun as mentioned on slashdot ;)
[2] Needless to say, if you shoot rubber-bands, do it in an empty place
    (like a hightech company who fired most of its employees) and not at
    humans or animals!
    You might also want to wear glasses or goggles while experimenting...

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |     Wednesday, Mar 13 2002, 29 Adar 5762
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Cigarette: tobacco wrapped in paper, fire
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |at one end, and a fool at the other.

---

From: "Amir Abiri" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 18:28:51 +0200

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>

[snip]

>     (like a hightech company who fired most of its employees) and not at

For cryst sake man... have a heart ! What are you trying to do ? Make ppl
here cry ? Jeez...

[snip]

--
http://abiri-e.com/
"God is a programmer".