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Comment by jotux | Hacker News Reader

Picture of the clock the kid made: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPCXrKUVEAApkmV.jpg

Slightly better picture: http://i.imgur.com/jGZ8RBU.jpg

This is just an off the shelf alarm clock disassembled and crammed into a box from Target. I see an AC cord going to a bridge rectifier, a transformer, 9v battery holder, a display driver board and a long thin PCB for buttons. Here is a similar clock with a 2.5" tall display: http://i.imgur.com/1FceYfG.jpg

Surprisingly that box does make it look like a TV bomb, but I'd never actually mistake it for something that could explode.

the fucking giant 7 segment LED doesn't make you think "clock"? Or at least "no idiot would put a ridiculously large flashing display on a bomb"?

I mean, he probably needs a bit of advice about mains wiring and safety. He can probably get that when he's being shown the Mars rovers (or any of the other stuff kind NASA people have invited him to)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/ahmed-mohamed-arrested-clock...

EDIT (after several comments) I mistakenly thought this was a briefcased sized case, but it's not, it's much smaller. There's a battery connector for scale. So, I shouldn't have said "fucking huge LED". It's just normal size LED clock.

He's 14 years old. He'll figure it out.

That's exactly what made it look like a bomb to the dumbass principal:

> The principal threatened to expel him if he didn’t make a written statement, he said.

> “They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’” Ahmed said.

> “I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.”

> “He said, ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me.’”

Bombs on tv ALWAYS have giant flashing 7 segment LEDs counting down to the time when the white male American hero disarms them.

I think the biggest thing that says not a bomb was that he asked permission _before_ bringing it in[1].

[1]https://twitter.com/AnneClaireCNN/status/644158607035133952

Also, that it wasn't a bomb

That's funny, I would have thought the utter lack of anything explosive would differentiate it from a bomb. :)

In England several people (including children) have been arrested, and prosecuted, (and convicted?) for terrorism offences because they owned things like The Anarchists Cookbook.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7030096.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-33705944

(The explorer Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes while on service with the SAS used to work out how to efficiently use explosive, allowing him to keep small amounts after training exercises. He accumulated a small stock of explosive which he used to demolish an ugly damn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulph_Fiennes

)

In the photo, there is something that looks like a pouch next to the transformer. If someone thought they might be looking at a bomb, they might think that the explosive is in that pouch.

Anyone have a guess what that thing actually is?

Hollywood lernin. Bombs always have big countdown timers. And they beep. And they're made by brown people.

Ergo, bomb.

I'd love this to be parody, but it seems to be the literal explanation here - with a side order of revenge for having an uppity father:

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9339063/ahmed-mohamed-elhassan

Those stories about his father are awesome. I'd like to be that guy.

So you fancy being a ringer for Al-Bashir?

I bet the guy knows very well that the Sudanese politics are farce and he was just playing along maybe for the limelight or to play the controlled opposition part so Al-Bashir can claim that he wins in a free and fair elections.

Did he solder the board for that or did he just take apart a nightstand clock and put it into another case?

This is what happens when people in charge have no clue anymore what is inside electronics. Computers and smartphones are just "magic".

The pictures I've seen look like the guts of a cheap digital alarm clock. I'm a little disappointed; from initial reports, I was hoping it was something he'd actually cobbled together using discrete logic or a microcontroller. :)

Seeing that photo did remind me of an episode of "24"

Does anyone else think that this story seems a little bit contrived? There are so many photos of the incident at each of the various stages -- it makes it look like it was engineered as a news story. The youtube video comes across as prepared and polished and the response (no talking without a lawyer present etc.) seems like something you'd see on PR wire.

I'm not saying that the whole thing isn't ridiculous, but I'm skeptical that this is the full story. Honestly, I'm as familiar with working on circuit boards as the next guy, but if I saw someone (anyone, any race) carrying something like that in an airport, it'd raise an eyebrow.

> There are so many photos of the incident at each of the various stages

Welcome to 2015. I think Ahmed is just really sharp and articulate.

His father is also an pro-Islamic activist according to some of the news articles. It is quite possible that the father is taking advantage of his son's interests to further a political cause.

edit: I am not commenting on whether the father is righteous or malevolent; simply positing an idea which may explain why there is so much video, documentation, and attention on this event.

where "pro Islamic" means he ran on a campaign including things like "ratifying human rights" and repealing laws against converting from Islam.

There's a bunch of anti-Muslim sentiment around. Standing up to that doesn't make someone a radical hardline Islamist.

This is a kid that enters robot competitions. https://twitter.com/sudanibae/status/643999495131262976/phot...

He wasn't at an airport. he also asked before bringing it in. He also kept it in his backpack, out of view.

What else should he have done? Just given up and not tried to make something cool?

If you trace back the source for these facts, the source is a tweet referencing an interview with Mohamed's father. These "facts" get bubbled up the chain until they make it into reputable news services without verification. It may be true that he asked, but I guarantee you that some of the critical "facts" you're reading about this will turn out not to be true.

The critical facts are:

1) He took a clock to school

2) He got arrested

3) He got suspended

That alone should be sufficient to cause anger. US isn't a crime free zone. Why aren't police spending time dealing with real actual crime?

These are not the critical facts. The news media wants you to be outraged because it drives eyeballs. That's why it is in their interest to write the story in such a way that you think these are the critical facts.

You're debating that he was at an airport? Or that he didn't keep the thing in his backpack?

Both of those were reported by the school itself. And the tweet came from a reporter at the CNN.

I'll grant that CNN isn't the best, and has had issues, but for the purposes of this convo, I don't know how that is relevant (it's not like anything you or I say is going to matter to anyone anyway).

A school isn't an airport. And he ASKED to show his ENGINEERING teacher a project he had created. It's not as if he just showed up with an assortment of PCB's and wires that he whipped out in class.

In short, yes, it perhaps wasn't the greatest idea for Ahmed to be walking around in school with something that could be perceived as a bomb, but you'd think the police/school administration would have figured out he meant no harm after he told them several times that it was simply a clock. The outrage here is over the extreme reaction, not over the wisdom of his actions.

> In short, yes, it perhaps wasn't the greatest idea for Ahmed to be walking around in school with something that could be perceived as a bomb

This part of the issue has been less focused on than the racist angle, but the fact that kids are scared to tinker because of the zero-tolerance hyper-sensitivity of schools is in my mind the more interesting part of the story.

You're probably not wrong, but it's hugely sad to me that you consider it a bad idea to bring in a personal project, with permission, advance notification, and repeated clarifications of what it actually is, simply because it "could be perceived as a bomb" (which means it has wires?). I can't think of a better way to discourage kids from tinkering around with electronics.

I absolutely agree with you and was going to post a comment to similar effect but couldn't really find the right words. I'm presently a university student so I'm really just a few years removed from Ahmed's age and mindset. It's tragic to me that the default position of figures of authority toward students who are interested in technology (even in today's increasingly technology driven world), is one of suspicion and fear.

While I suspect that a lot of this is due to a generational divide between administrators and students, the message this sends is that students should not be interested in science and engineering because those topics sort of abstractly distant and scary. Students should be ENCOURAGED, not punished for being creative and inventive, even if it means they're being a little bit subversive or have viewpoints that run counter to those in people of positions of authority.

> While I suspect that a lot of this is due to a generational divide between administrators and students

I'm sure this is part of it, but the theory[1] that schools in general are built around churning out uncreative, docile workers for the industrial economy has been around for a long, long time. Hell, "Another Brick in the Wall" was, what, 1978?

[1] Note that I'm specifying that this is a theory since I've never done enough research on both sides to feel certain that this is a particularly well-founded belief. What little I've heard is fairly plausible.

> it perhaps wasn't the greatest idea for Ahmed to be walking around in school with something that could be perceived as a bomb

And women should dress modestly because you know... there are bad people out there who might perceive a short skirt as an invitation, amirite?

are you seriously implying that it's a conspiracy?

I'm not implying its a "conspiracy." It happened, but likely not in exactly the way it is being reported in the news.

From what I've seen, this looks like it was engineered for sensationalized media consumption. The photos, press conference, celebrity/politican PR releases etc. indicate to me that someone wanted this to blow up to make a point -- it didn't really happen organically in the way that the press is making you believe. If you are actually interested in how these stories end up making headlines, I would recommend reading "Trust Me, I'm Lying." It completely changed my perspective on our media and why it emphasizes the things that it does.

A good question is did the kid take apart an alarm clock and just rebuild it in another case or did he make a synthesis of many different parts? In that Brad Pitt movie about the Dalia Lama, the later had to take apart a clock to learn how it worked, I think the quote is "the best way to learn how something works is to take it apart." However, in this case the kid might have put together several different parts such as an LCD screen, the circuit from an alarm clock, and something that rings to act as the alarm. I don't think the point is that the kid is some type of genius but rather that he is doing it and not until today afraid to do it. That at 14 he started the process of learning so in 10 years at the age of 24 he can be at the top of a career in EE. It's not the skill level that is impressive it's the passion.

The article has one picture of the device (obtained from the police), one of Ahmed being led away in handcuffs (probably from someone's phone), and two that look like they were taken after this became a media sensation. Are there others?

You don't think a 14-year-old or their parents would know better than to talk to the police without a lawyer, especially after what's happened so far? Or that they haven't been contacted by dozens of lawyers wanting to represent them?

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