Regruntled.com

Punched paper tape! Now there’s a blast from the past. And you need music that can be played upside down.

OK, so “hover” is an exaggeration.  It only works on artificially smooth surfaces like gym floors, where you could have almost as much fun skating in your socks.  Less effort, less noise.

Also known as the Petaminx, this puzzle was designed on a computer and the parts were fabbed (printed in 3D), molded, cast and assembled.

The puzzle has 975 individual parts.

Each face has 101 stickers, making a total of 1212 stickers.

20 hours on masters and molds.
12 hours casting parts.
30 hours cleaning up parts and sanding (!!)
7 hours assembling all 975 parts
6 hours stickering.

Cracked.com has a collection of ordinary objects as if designed by M. C. Escher.  This was my favorite.

i-Hacked.com explains how to reprogram a portable road sign:

** HACKER TIPS ** Should it  ask you for a password. Try “DOTS”, the default password.

In all likelihood, the crew will not have changed it. However if they did, never fear. Hold “Control” and “Shift” and while holding, enter “DIPY”. This will reset the sign and reset the password to “DOTS” in the process. You’re in!

Good to know.  Not that anyone would ever actually do this.  That would be wrong.

It does illustrate that  physical access trumps password security.  Almost every password-protected device has a reset button that resets the password to a factory default.  Both the reset procedure and the default password are available in the manual, which is on the manufacturer’s web site.