Stefan Lasiewski

I’m working on a couple projects for Halloween. I like the spooky, ambient effects best, and I’m really not into anything gory — gore is totally overrated and overused during Halloween.

Here are some of my ideas:

Fireflies:

I really like the effect of the Fireflies in Pirates of the Caribbean. They may not seem Halloweeny, but they can add a nice ambient atmosphere. The Fireflies are probably best when viewed at a distance.

I haven’t actually tried this, but I’ve read of similar setups elsewhere. It will require some experimentation.

Partlist:
- 12v worth of batteries & battery holder
- 12v transformer
- Low voltage LEDs (White or Ultraviolet!!!)
- Plastic or paper for the blinders/wings, matte-black
- Thin gauge magnet wire (lightly insulated and painted matte-black)
- Springs
- A board to attach it too
- A fan

Solder the transformer, wire & LEDs together. Arrange the wires in a spring-like shape or attach them to the board with springs.

Put a blinder on the LEDs so the light is blocked from some angles and visible from other angles. This will make the fireflies appear to blink.

Put the setup in front of a fan. The blinders will act as wings and catch the draft provided by the fan. The spring on the wire will make the fireflies appear bob up and down.

Now you have wiggling, bobbing, blinking fireflies!

There are some other instructions here:
www.hiddenmickeys.org/Imagine…g/Imagineering.html
www.geocities.com/oooketchup/POTC_ff.htm

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Ghosts:

This project is pretty simple & low-cost, but it’s not well known. You can do a bunch of different stuff with ths idea.

Partlist:
- Thin fabric like gauze or muslin
- Blacklight
- some spray-on laundry detergent that contains “whiteners” (Phosphorous, etc).

Cut the fabric; spray the laundry detergent onto the fabric. Hold the fabric under the blacklight. The whiteners in the laundry detergent are actually chemicals like phosphorous or zinc sulfide that glow brilliantly under blacklight.

Use springs, string to hang them. A fan can make them bounce. Helium balloons can make them float around very well.

Is that ‘cute’ as in speech or ‘cute’ as in beer?

A Stefan Lasiewski original!!!

This one struck me during a discussion on Slashdot, which I’ve been reading for close to 8 years now (wow!).

The quote is a play on the Free Software analogy by the GNU foundation, where they discuss the odd dual-meanings of the word ‘free’ (’free’ as in free speech vs ‘free’ as in free beer).

I’m studying the Subversion Version Control System and ran across this humorous quote in Chapter 3:

Merging conflicts by hand can be quite intimidating the first time you attempt it, but with a little practice, it can become as easy as falling off a bike.

You would think they actually meant “as easy as riding a bike”, but no … I think they really did mean falling. Merging conflicts in files is tradionally the bane of all version control systems. I’ve seen developers throw their hands up in the air, give up, and run to the bar for a good beer when resolving conflicts in Clearcase & CVS.

We’ll see if SVN is any better at handling conflicts.