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The prize this week is a loupe magnifier. This contest will run for one week (March 14 - 19, 2009) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Please do not give the answer in the comments. Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with "Name the Thing Contest" as the subject, and the message body consisting of:
The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.
———————————–———- Added March 21, 2009 The item to guess was a Arithmometer Calculator The winner is Almost T. (There were 59 entries) Update - April 4, 2009 Almost There doesn’t need the prize and was nice enough to allow us to give it to someone else. John K. is now the winner of this prize. ————————————–———-
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March 14th, 2009
Sweet Jebus, I haven’t seen one of those in decades. lol
March 14th, 2009
Same here, Pouncer. My grandma had one that her father used. It’s long since been destroyed. Ah, memories!
March 14th, 2009
In my first job I had to use a more modern version of this basic contraption; after hours of repetitious work, one time I slammed the handle down hard to see how fast the thing could work and the Engineer I was working under had an absolute FIT… screaming and yelling at me, and telling me it cost as much as I was going to earn all Summer (hey, I was bored!)
March 14th, 2009
so in a sense you over-clocked it. lol
March 14th, 2009
>so in a sense you over-clocked it. lol
You could put it that way (and you did); in reality, I was just venting frustration. Good thing those things were built with quality parts, or I would have jammed up all the gears and stuff.
March 14th, 2009
its a old *****.
March 14th, 2009
Hi Deepspace,
Please email in your guess.
March 14th, 2009
A *** *** machine, used for ****.
March 14th, 2009
Ed,
Please send in your question via email.
March 14th, 2009
Hey, Alan, I have another thought about reducing the number of answers in the comments. How about pre-filling the comment box with comments along the lines of “Please email your answers.” That way, anyone sending in a comment would have to erase it, and, therefore, would have to read it first. I know it might be a hassle when it comes time for the “Name What It Isn’t” contest, but it might be worth it. Just my thoughts as there seems to be an increase in the amount of people guessing in the comments.
I still think requiring a credit card to enter comments is a good idea though.
March 14th, 2009
Hey Josh,
The credit card idea is still the best. I guess there should be a way to have it determine it the title of the post contains the string “Name the Thing Contest” and insert that text into the comment box. What I was wanting to do originally was to mark all the comments made in a post in the contest category with a requires moderation flag. But that would require lots work to have comments show up in a timely manner…
As I am typing this I just thought of a third method that would not need any custom coding. I could enter all the phrases of the answer in the system moderation work list, I would need to change it every week but it should prevent the answer accidentally getting leaked.
March 15th, 2009
Can you set the comments to be moderated for specific articles? So for instance, either setup “no comments allowed” or comments on this article to be moderated. More work for you, but you would have the option of deleting comments before they’re seen.
I know you can do this with Serendipity. (not sure what blog software you’re using here)
Credit card eh? I’m sure that would actually hurt readership more. But it would certainly solve the comment problem. lol
March 16th, 2009
Alan,
What about making the leaving-a-reply-form as contest entry: Add a radio button with
—
what do you want to do?
o send your answer
o post response
—
(default to send your answer)
In the first case send the answer to you, in the second post the response on this page.
March 16th, 2009
Oh, I like Simon’s idea, too. That’s a bit more interactive.
March 17th, 2009
Hell yeah i have one of these machines at home (just a litle bit newer
)
March 21st, 2009
Winner announced.
March 23rd, 2009
Alan;
Thanks (it feels good to win something once in a rare while), but I’ll pass, I don’t need it. Feel free to chose someone else from the list of correct answers. (I have a Super Magnifier that stripped out of an over-head projector about 30 years ago; it fits my needs.)
Good Luck;
Almost_There
March 28th, 2009
That is mighty nice of you Almost There. The new winner will be announced this weekend.
April 4th, 2009
New winner announced. Sorry for the delay.