Last Year's Gadgets Get New Life As... Jewelry

Will Sherman writes "Liz McLean Knight, a Chicago native, has applied her interest in electronics, computers, and music to a line of jewelry created under the name, Zelle. The catch? She almost exclusively uses spare computer and electronics parts in her work. Many of her pieces would be a perfect gift for your LAN admin, that cute girl in the IT department, or your favorite DJ. Among other things, she sells a belt made from IDE cable, necklaces made from capacitors, and a cuff bracelet made of midi cables. But can she turn my broken iPod into something wearable?"

Not all that new

[lordkuri]

I've had a keychain of a 4MB DIMM stick for years, and my wife has 8088 earrings =)

Re:Not all that new

[Anonymous Coward]

my wife has 8088 earrings

Wow! I thought my wife had a lot of earrings!

Re:Not all that new

[RickPartin]

Wow it just goes to show how truly geeky we really are. I saw a processor until this guy pointed out the joke.

Re:Not all that new

[lordkuri]

It also speaks to my geekiness that I didn't even think about his joke until I read it...

sigh

Re:Not all that new

[bhtooefr]

4MB? You b@(#$)*#d! I've only got 1MB! (I've got a 128MB DDR SODIMM lying around, but that is actually USABLE, so I'd rather not reappropriate it ;-))

I tried to turn my old 486 into a keychain, FWIW, but that didn't work at all...

8088 earrings, though? Wow... (Besides - why not 6502 earrings?)

Re:Not all that new

[lordkuri]

Couldn't find one =)

Re:Not all that new

[obeythefist]

Duh, the heatsinks would break her neck!

Re:Not all that new

[warpSpeed]

8088 earrings, though? Wow... (Besides - why not 6502 earrings?)

The interface on her ears were port mapped, not momory mapped

ba ding ching...

Re:Not all that new

[Alex P Keaton in da]

Please let this get popular....
please let this get popular....
Dude, if I could get away with giving my wife an old commodore 64 part on a rope to wear as a neclace instead of some gold crap, I would be soooo happy.
Remember those clocks rappers wore around their necks in the early 90's? Maybe the next fashion will be CRT's haning around the neck....
I am sure there is some way I could fashion an old dot matrix printer into a sex toy... just give me time

Actually

[mindaktiviti]

With CRT's that would just bring on neck injury lawsuits.

LCDs however, imagine getting a 15" LCD with a wallpaper of Flavor Flav wearing his clock, all of that hanging from your neck!

Can you tell me what time it is? YEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHH BOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIII!

Re:Not all that new

[/ASCII]

Where have you been? Having a TV on your belly is all the rage with the kids these days [teletubbies.com].

Re:Not all that new

[spauldo]

Yeah, I've got a celeron on my keychain. In my spare time I pulled the pins out of it. I used to wear a 78-pin SIMM on my dog tags, but that got too scratchy. My old business partner had a 30-pin SIMM on his.

It's not just computer stuff. A good friend of mine wants to drill a hole in a d100 (a 100-sided "die" used in rpg's) to put on his keychain. I know several people that have d20's.

Of course, my keychain is frikkin' huge, but it has to be or I'd lose it :) It's a pity the yen coins I had fell off of it.

Anyone ever notice how hard the ceramic-like material that makes up a 1st generation pentium is? That's stuff's hard to drill through.

Re:Not all that new

[bhtooefr]

The same material is used in a 486, as well. I never got through mine, even trying diamond-impregnated bits (not on a drill press, though).

As for large keychains, I actually know a girl with about 20 or 30 keychains on her keychain (as in, to avoid damaging her car's ignition, she has to have removable keys), with an ultimate goal of getting it as tall as she is (5'1")... It's already about 1.5-2' tall (and that was when I last saw her - about a month ago...) Crazy, isn't it? My keychain holds: a 30-pin SI

Re:Not all that new

[spauldo]

I've got a couple of 386's with that material too. A drill press might do it, but I'd be worried about it breaking - while I've never drilled through one successfully, I have broken one.

On the keychain note, the largest I've had mine was long enough to reach the floor of the car (maybe two and a half feet?) and incorporated a ring from a towel rack (about 8" in diameter). Now it's just a bunch of useless junk on the old ball-chain my dog tags were on.

Re:Not all that new

[Gordonjcp]

I broke an 80186 in a square ceramic package with gold traces radiating out from the die when I was trying to drill it. I had better luck using a diamond glass grinder in a pillar drill, but it was slow progress.

Re:Not all that new

[FLEB]

It's not just computer stuff. A good friend of mine wants to drill a hole in a d100 (a 100-sided "die" used in rpg's) to put on his keychain. I know several people that have d20's.

Somewhat OT, but I made up a giant fuzzy d10 (Mage style) from wire and felt fabric for a friend of mine once. He wanted a 20, but a d10 was hard enough to put together. It ended up looking... well... decent?, although it was a little bit large to go from the rearview.

Re:Not all that new

[Wayne247]

my wife has 8088

These chips weren't small and light... I hope your wife doesn't wear them for a too long period of time otherwise she'll get her ears stretched to her elbows!

And that's the kind of overclocking you don't want.

Re:Not all that new

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had a keychain of a 4MB DIMM stick for years

I had one made out of a 1MB SIMM, but after airport security spent 10 minutes checking it out one day, I decided to go back to something more conventional.

(The stupid thing is that they let my wife through with her keys no problem, and she has a car fob on it. Gee, live electronics, with buttons. What could that be used for? Obviously the stick of RAM missing a couple of chips and no obvious power source was more threatening...)

Re:Not all that new

[404notfound]

Yup. I remember way, way back in middle school I tied a stick of RAM to my backpack. The only difference now is that somebody is trying to make it fashionable.

Re:Not all that new

[bhtooefr]

Hmm... my 30-pin SIMM keychain had been working as RAM from 1993 (module date code is 9308, which places the manufacturing in February 1993) until September 2003. In October '03, IIRC, it was reapportioned as a keychain. The gold is wearing off the connectors, and the edges of the ICs are worn down, but they're most definitely still there.

Cute girl in the IT department?

[Anonymous Coward]

Which IT department is that?

Re:Cute girl in the IT department?

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

That's what I told them. "I'll take the job, but all my techs must be super models (or at least HOT transvestite porn stars) in tight leather hot pants.

Re:Cute girl in the IT department?

[ryanov]

We actually get some hot girls in our IT department occasionally. And apparently, you can find them online. Look at this promotion I got in my e-mail:

Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 06:39:35 -0700
From: Chlorinated B. Due
To: Ryanov
Subject: Do IT with woman 8-)

www.urfnyvu0g5u2yvc.defeasemc.com

Same one as the...

[katharsis83]

one with the gay black Republican.

Re:Cute girl in the IT department?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

> Which IT department is that?

The one with a secretary.

wonderful

[Lord Ender]

This gets better every time it is posted.

But seriously, anyone who would actually wear this stuff has enough old parts lying around to make his own SCSI cable, RAM-encrusted thong.

Re:wonderful

[st0rmshad0w]

SCSI thong ....eeeeeewwwwwwww

Re:wonderful

[Laxitive]

SCSI thong?

I was thinking more along the lines of granny underwear. SCSI Ultra Wide.

-Laxitive

Re:wonderful

[st0rmshad0w]

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Re:wonderful

[Solder Fumes]

If it's a girl geek, this is one case where Serial ATA might actually be better....

More Stuff?

[Quirk]

Laptop, Cell phone, PDA, iPod... now you're telling me I need jewlery scavanged from old hardware? I don't think so ;)

Another link

[modifried]

I ran across a link involving the same jewelry not long ago. In case (read: when) the main site gets slashdotted, or if one just wants to see all products without pagination, you can view them all here:
http://www.zellestyle.com/catalog/index.htm [zellestyle.com]

I'd be in the doghouse

[WebHostingGuy]

if I gave my wife that stuff. I don't know about others, but it really doesn't look that good to me.

I guess if it were functional I could see using the IDE belt. You could hook a couple hard drives in holsters off the belt and hot plug the cable into your computer.

nothing new here move along

[st0rmshad0w]

aside from being a dupe, this is nothing new as there have been dozens of others doing this stuff for quite a few years now. but thanks for the advert.

Re:nothing new here move along

[hjf]

true. a few years ago the new telco replaced all the lines in my country. there was a LOT and i mean a FUCKING LOT of CAT3 of all sorts of colors, and all kids were wearing them!

hmm

[hotgirlgamer]

I really don't see this stuff catching on, diodes aren't a girls best friend.

Re:hmm

[Panaflex]

I'd have to disagree...

Men are like transistors.. they turn on easily, and when they're done they turn off. Problem is, they can't handle much current or they overheat and blow out.

Women are like diodes.. they turn on, but only when things are going their way. Better yet, they can take the current and they run forever.

-Pan

Re:hmm

[simcop2387]

<i>Women are like diodes.. they turn on, but only when things are going their way. Better yet, they can take the current and they run forever.</i>

and they can only take so much of a difference in potential before the blow up and leave.

Re:hmm

[Everleet]

But only transistors can perform complex logic.

thinkgeek...

[Anonymous Coward]

had cat5 bracelets before, not sure if they still do. Bought one, had a zelle style label in it (it was packaged in a petre dish). Oddly I bought my gf both the necklace and the bracelet you mention. They are of good quality and 'zelle' is fantastically kind, she responds to emails personally. I would highly recomend any of this for a geek! (some of it is relatively gender neutral).
dc

Strangely targetted?

[Sv-Manowar]

I'm not quite sure who this line of goods is targetting, I mean anyone geeky enough to wear a necklace of capacitors is probably going to have the materials and the interest to build/have built one already and be enjoying its uniquity, rather than being off-the-peg 'geek fashion'. Still, its an option for those who wish to carry their array of spare cables and components with them at all times.

Re:Strangely targetted?

[st0rmshad0w]

Wired subscribers?

Re:Strangely targetted?

[Lemmy Caution]

I think the idea is that women, as well as men, can now wear items so geeky that it would actual restore their virginity.

286/386 Key Ring

[G4from128k]

Intel has been doing for years (probably other chip makers too). Back in the late 80s, Intel produced a marketing tidbit key ring that had a 286 die on one side and a 386 die on the other embedded in a flat hexagon of resin. The dies were mounted on something printed with some bubbly marketing speak about power for today/ power for tomorrow yada yada yada...

Re:286/386 Key Ring

[snuf23]

I had a Pentium Pro key ring made by Intel which was pretty cool. It was metal with the Intel Inside logo on one side and the Pentium Pro's dies on the other side. The Pentium Pro had a seperate die for the cache and cpus which made it neater to look at than than the regular Pentium keychain.

Re:286/386 Key Ring

[bhtooefr]

You can still get these on eBay - there's a place selling a bundle of a PPro keychain, a Pentium keychain, and a "Silicon Valley" keychain (looks like a 386 or 486 to me...) for $16...

Another fathers day gift gone horribly wrong

[SimplyBen]

thank god i don't have any kids

More practical stuff...

[bhtooefr]

Keychain made out of old RAM - easy to do, just get a key ring and any old SIMM, DIMM, or SODIMM (I advise against a SODIMM, though. The EDO SODIMMs are worth their weight in gold due to inflation, the SDR SODIMMs are still kinda useful, and the DDR SODIMMs are really useful. If it's dead, OTOH...)

Keychain made out of an old/dead CPU - if it's ceramic, don't bother. If it's organic (like a P3, some socketed K7s, P4, P-M, or K8) or plastic (like some Pentiums (Classic and MMX), socketed Mendocino Celerons), it's fairly easy.

Now, I just want to meet the girl that would wear the capacitor necklace... I've got dibs on her ;-)

Re:More practical stuff...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen the girl who would wear the capacitor necklace.

You can have her.

OT

[Lehk228]

user moderation/metamoderation is fundamentally incompatable with post editing.

Re:OT

[bhtooefr]

Didn't think of that...

However, a revision system could be put in place. There's still SOME potential for abuse, though...

Quantazelle

[stephenisu]

Old news... I first learned about her by downloading some of her tracks off of music.download.com

You should listen to "late Blazing Kinch Theme"

Crazy talented this girl is.

Re:Quantazelle

[AsnFkr]

Here is her myspace page, its got a stream of said song.

http://www.myspace.com/quantazelle [myspace.com]

Hmmm...

[fizban]

I wonder what kind of jewelry she'll make from her newly smoking webserver...

Two words: tinned leads

[bremstrong]

Discrete components often have leads that have been tinned with lead-based solder. I'd be very cautious about wearing anything next to my skin long-term that was coated in lead.

On the other hand, the stuff looks really cool and a lot the items don't have that problem.

Re:Two words: tinned leads

[koekepeer]

solid lead doesn't impose a great health risk... i'd be more worried about allergic reactions to tin.

How is this remotely new or interesting?

[RapmasterT]

I managed a software store almost 10 years ago, and we sold earring, keyrings, tie bars, etc all made out of PC parts.

Hell, I'm holding in my hand a keyring made out of a pentium cpu die sealed in plastic. It's so old it's not even cool to carry around any more.

so I'm asking, what exactly does it take to make a front page story on Slashdot? I submitted a report on Dotster.com compromising customer PII data and trying to cover it up, but that didn't even warrant a "go F*ck yourself".

I'll bet if I skid marked my underwear and it looked like Steve Jobs hugging Larry Ellison it'd be the story of the day.

Re:How is this remotely new or interesting?

[Solder Fumes]

A note for the future, it'll really help smooth the rest of your life out: no one cares what you think is important.

Re:How is this remotely new or interesting?

[RapmasterT]

I'm sorry, I obviously offended your fashion sensibilities by suggesting you wouldn't be excited about jewelery made of pc parts.

I stand corrected. I'm sure you'll look very pretty.

Dupe!

[slapout]

Oh wait, it isn't. Sorry, I just got so used to it :-)

Re:Dupe!

[CyborgWarrior]

Hey, just warming up. After all, today's story is tomorrow's dupe!

Slashdotters looking to woo

[saskboy]

...would do better than to give the gift of floppies.

"that cute girl in the IT department," is not going to want IT jewelry that isn't functional. Women don't want to have obsolete technology turned into ear or neck decoration unless it doesn't have sharp edges, looks very cool, or is made by their kid.

Try giving a 256MB USB 2.0 keychain drive instead on a necklace if you want to be popular. Keep the 286s in a box at home to show your grandkids. /a little dating advice.

Re:Slashdotters looking to woo

[bhtooefr]

I've actually used the 256MB UFD trick. Almost worked, too... (OK, OK, OK, I wasn't trying to buy her with the UFD ;-))

That actually applies for ANY girl that doesn't have one, and moves files around much at all. It's a gift that they'll use every day, and it's ever so slightly geeky that it'll remind them of you. The girl that I gave one to isn't in to computers, but she's not an idiot. Also, she's kinda geeky herself (as in, if I had to describe whose personality she most resembled of anyone I know, I'd

Cute girls in the IT departments?

[mi]

Are there any after all?

Re:Cute girls in the IT departments?

[drsquare]

Yes. My IT department has at least 300GB of them.

BTDT

[MsWillow]

I used to make jewelry from chips. Had earrings made from EPROMs, split open, and necklacess made from 286s which had the cap un-soldered, and the cavity filled with water-clear epoxy.

Nobody bought them then, either. They were too common, too easy for any geek to make.

These days, my jewelry is less geeky, and far more salesworthy. I learned.

"Ohms been thinking about you..."

[citking]

Many of her pieces would be a perfect gift for...that cute girl in the IT department....

Somehow I think that giving a cute girl (whether she works in an IT department or not) a capacitor necklace would make for a pretty awkward moment. Especially if they weren't totally discharged....

Re:"Ohms been thinking about you..."

[panaceaa]

As a geek guy, I have enough problems with things discharging when I talk to women. I'm not about to get another!!

heavy metals + jewlery != good idea

[SuperBanana]

Somehow I think that giving a cute girl (whether she works in an IT department or not) a capacitor necklace would make for a pretty awkward moment.

Yep, when she gets sick from the heavy metals in capacitors.

Seriously- someone needs to tell this woman that a fair bit of the stuff in electronic components is TOXIC, and very much so.

Re:"Ohms been thinking about you..."

[PianoMan8]

Somehow I think that giving a cute girl (whether she works in an IT department or not) a capacitor necklace would make for a pretty awkward moment. Especially if they weren't totally discharged....

Awww, cut the guy a little slack... he's just trying to make sparks fly.

Earrings..?

[__aaclcg7560]

You mean there's still life for my old Commodore VIC-20?!

Slashdotted

[__aaitqo8496]

This might help:

http://www.elsewares.com.nyud.net:8090/commerce/in dex.php?cPath=2_191 [nyud.net]
http://mirrordot.org/stories/0f913e82ea69e3b260d16 eaf71c4cd3b/index.html [mirrordot.org]

Don't forget...

[citking]

Don't forget the perfect pick-up lines when giving your "cute IT girl" her jewelry:

"I want to give you a RAM."

"Can I discharge on you...with my big capacitor?"

"IDE like to get into that belt. Get it? IDE?"

"I'll help you flux that capacitor."

"Here's some RAM so you can always remember me. Yup, all 2 megs of it."

"Hey baby, wanna create some ESD and ruin a few chips? (wink wink)"

"I like it when you talk SCSI."

"I wanna C my P on U."

Ok, I'll stop....

Wow...

[DarkHelmet]

With lines like that, no wonder it's so hard for nerds to procreate.

I'd like to see...

[bnitsua]

what they're going to make out of their server, after it overheated from being slashdotted.

Two words

[Dracos]

Cufflinks... CueCats

Other art from computer parts?

[photozz]

Seriously, I can't be the only one who does this: http://www.deviantart.com/view/18247115/ [deviantart.com]

Re:Other art from computer parts?

[koekepeer]

that's awesome, man... really creative!

This has been around a lot longer...

[foxtrot]

...than most of you thought... Indeed, even longer than a few of y'all have been alive.

In 1982, Khan wore a pretty cool necklace. [livejournal.com] [0]

Definitely in the same vein as capacitors and IDE cables...

-F

[0] Geez, I need to get decent picture hosting...

Boston's Computer Museum

[bitrex]

Back in the early 90s I remember the Computer Museum in Boston having a bunch of stuff like this for sale in their gift shop. I still have a 3 ring binder that was constructed out of discarded PCBs(chips removed).
Unfortunately Boston's Computer Museum closed in 1999, but apparently the computing artifacts it contained are now at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. If it's anything as nice as Boston's old Computer Museum, it's definately worth a trip for anyone in that area. I thought

Coaxial Ethernet T-Connectors

[xTown]

True story:

About a decade ago, I worked for a midwestern school district. We went around doing general IT work ("everything but pulling cable through the walls") in the schools. Every so often, we'd need to put in Ethernet hubs, and we'd need to hook them together with coax cable.

We all carried a small supply of those little T-connectors and terminators. I chained some together and clipped them to my jacket. It made a nice little dangly. The "fashion" caught on.

One day, my boss called me into her office at the end of the day, laughing. She told me I'd have to stop wearing the connectors on my jacket, because she'd gotten a complaint from the high school that I was walking around...wait for it...with a CRACK PIPE dangling from my chest.

OLD

[elmegil]

This crap was old when my GF was buying it in 1988.

Earrings...

[Forbman]

I want to see a pair made from a couple of old 1 Farad electrolytic capacitors.

Wow... Look at THOSE big cans!

But can she turn my broken iPod...

[Lars T.]

But can she turn my broken iPod into something wearable?

Isn't that what Apple's recycling program [slashdot.org] is there for?

Jacob Nielsen's cartoon says this best.

[Animats]

Jacob Nielson's cartoon [useit.com] says this best.

I mean, who doesn't?

[Zaak]

Girls don't even like that kind of stuff, man.
They want RAM.

Samurai armor

[st0rmshad0w]

I always wanted to see someone go way overboard and make a suit of samurai armor out of 30-pin simms.

Ethernet jewellery

[Bazman]

I made some ethernet jewellery [flickr.com] for some geek friends who got married (yes, it happens) recently. I put them in a nice box labelled 'to my favourite twisted pair'.

Re:Great idea

[Lord Ender]

It is slashdotted, but I think we can assume the caps are in series or not connected to eachother. A large series of caps isn't going to be dangerous. Neither are individual ones.

A large number of caps in parallel might be bad if someone intentionally charged them, but I can't see how that could happen accidentally.

Re:Great idea

[dancpsu]

Actually, the capacitor necklace is like one of those costume jewelry necklaces with a black (plastic?) hoop to go around your neck, and semicircular rings hanging from the front with other semicircular rings hanging from them. This is sort of like a short netting with the capacitors hanging down. So it appears that some of the capacitors would be in parallel, but I don't think they are actually attached electrically. Also there are only six of them, and they are probably in the 50-100uF range, so they wouldn't pack much of a punch.

Re:Great idea

[iamdrscience]

A large number of caps in parallel might be bad if someone intentionally charged them, but I can't see how that could happen accidentally.

Sabotage! Beware of someone who gives you a capicator necklace, they may well want to see you dead!

Re:Great idea

[natron 2.0]

Do jedi's build their own lightsabers?

Please hand over your geek card and exit the room...

Re:Great idea

[NotQuiteReal]

There is no jedi, there is no spoon, er lightsaber, wait... Can I have a do-over?

Re:Great idea

[Anonymous Coward]

The way the capacitors are arranged in the picture would seem to indicate that all the leads are shorted together, and thus the danger of things getting zapped from accumulated charge is nil.

Re:Great idea

[bhtooefr]

I think the magnet is actually a joke (as in, it's supposed to work, but they chose a magnet BECAUSE it was a bunch of floppy disks). The disks aren't usable, after all.

Re:already been doing this......

[spectre_240sx]

What did you use to contain the vapor?

Re:Cheap and ugly.

[Synbiosis]

Depends on the girl.

Personally, I see the audioplug necklace [fractalspin.com] as something pretty much anyone would see as cool. Especially if she's into DJing or just live music in general.

But the Cat5 bracelet [fractalspin.com]? It just looks like a bunch of 10 cent wire strands attached to a clasp. I wouldn't recommend that unless you wanted to be both ripped of and have your girlfriend break up with you.

Re:Subversive

[RickPartin]

*Hands you a small yellow happy face sticker*

Re:Subversive

[bhtooefr]

Hey - I've given a girl a 2048Mb (remember, memory chips are measured in megabits, not megabytes, so 256MB) chunk of flash memory with a built-in USB to flash controller and a USB plug ;-)

Re:Get new life?

[Koiu Lpoi]

One man's -1, Troll is another's +1, Funny. I wasn't being a bigot.