January 26, 2009

Hacking

My photographer friend Emily Felger let me know that Hack-a-Day blog author Eliot Phillips wrote a post about my raisin box camera mask that I use for taking some of the photos of my hands.

I don't know that strapping a raisin box to my head counts as a "hack", even by the loose definition I see on BoingBoing these days. I mean, if I pick something up, is that a "gravity hack?" Is any method of getting around and problem by any means now a hack? Now that thing I did a few years back to that busted fountain pen- that was a hack. (And let me address something some commenters brought up about that: I was fucking with a broken pen that I was going to throw out anyway. Some people seemed to think I was advocating doing this to a new pen, making Frankenstein out of perfectly healthy living people, so to speak. Do NOT do this to a new pen, or baby fountain pen Jesus will cry. Also, I have since found better ways to accomplish the same goals I did with this, ones much less aesthetically harmful to the pen. That having been said, years later it still works just fine.)

In any event I'm grateful that he was tickled enough to post about it and plug my blog on his. If you're reading, thanks Eliot!

5 comments:

Eliot said...

Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this. ;-)

We tend to lump "inventions that would never be commercially viable" in with regular hacks. I don't see many people wanting to buy face straps for their D90.

...or maybe it was a slow news day and I needed a good laugh. Your ingenious solution--I've had to make how-tos before--and the cyborg appearance made for a fun topic.

Keep up the good work!

Comic Tools said...

I have to admit that even I get a kick out of how I look wearing it. You can't tell from the photo but it sticks out from my face a considerable distance, and I look like some sort of aardvark universal soldier or something.

You don't think "Uncle Matt's old-fashioned raisin box camera masks" would be comercially viable?

Anonymous said...

The reason i subscribed to your blog is because of Hackaday.

Comic Tools said...

Welcome!

Ambassador MAGMA said...

Hey Matt, this is Sabin (Liz's friend). I am in desperate need of a purdy big scanner and heard through the grapevine that you might happen to own one?

Would you be willing to let my paper sheets rub against its slick, smooth yet cold and unfeeling surface? I'd buy you dinner. Or booze. Or hookers. Or a raisin box.

My email is: presspermanent@yahoo.com

That would be awesome!