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comrh

> With the orb on their desk telling them at that their integration and unit tests were passing.

Anymore info on this? Is it in house hardware?

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IIRC, it was built on a hacked up Ambient Orb

http://ambientdevices.myshopify.com/products/stock-orb

Wow, $150? Shocked there isn't a cheaper USB version that is more easily hackable. I mean, is it really more than color-changing LEDs in a plastic sphere?

It's also a perpetual? subscription to a

   nationwide wireless network

to obtain e.g. the latest stock prices.

blink(1) is a small USB light to give you glanceable notice of anything on your computer or the internet. blink(1) makes it easy to connect data sources in the cloud or on your computer to a full-color RGB LED so you can know what’s happening

https://blink1.thingm.com/

Thanks for the link--looks awesome, wish the form factor were a bit larger and not so directly attached to the computer. I'll bet I could create an extension cable for it and rip off the housing to make the LEDs allow more light through, then put it in a translucent plastic sphere.

Started with a project that used the Ambient Orb to show test status, they were expensive which led to a contest to make the cheapest one, basically an ATTiny with a software USB hid stack tied to an RGB LED. Henner Zeller won that contest and I think maybe 5000 gOrbs were built.

I built something similar as a hack project... Closet dome light fixture turned upside down. Rip out the innards. Install RGB LED. Connect LED up to Arduino and pull information from an API. Adjust LED based on your conditions. I spent around $75, but that was years ago, probably far cheaper now.

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