I think the purpose is just to “make rhythmic beeps and boops”. Little kids like noisy toys and they are not that fussy about what the noise is.

arduino does get a bad name around here. I’ve been following this blog for some time now, and it’s true, there has been an explosion in the amount of arduino-related hacks on the site.

However, I don’t think it’s evidence of the site “going south” but rather proof of what has been happening with Arduino, hacking, and many peoples’ relationship with technology in general.

Sure, many of the arduino ‘hacks’ may not be nearly as sophisticated as some, but I think more importantly, there has been an enormous increase in the number of people getting started, gaining the ability to dig beneath the surface of devices… They may not all be electrical engineers, but IMO that in itself is a fantastic thing.

We need a culture of people who aren’t afraid of building their own, of nulling their warranties, &tc. And I’m glad that this site continues to showcase what’s out there rather than simply catering to the elite.

Hacking shouldn’t be the act of trying to outdo one another with our technical capacity in a giant ego battle. I look forward to a people who don’t need technology spoon-fed to them, and to a people who don’t lord their capacities over one another, but that try to help bring everyone else along, if they so desire. Arduino’s open-source hardware/software ethos, coupled with an attempt to simplify microcontroller coding (sure, by concealing some complexities) is a step in the right direction.

@smrl

I totally agree with you, but I also understand the people in the comments. For example: The matchbox as a switch article was just to laugh your ass off! If hackaday would have put more effort in finding out what it was for, I think the reactions would have been much different.

@smrl
but the problem that those lame hacks get here. for example on some music blog you will not see links to “Dog valse” or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. So why in electronic community such “dog valses” should be acceptable ?

Noise box. Useless unless you are a child :)

I wish hackaday had a voting system so that I could give negative feedback without sounding like an ass.

@rd
great idea. Add voting !

and way to edit message will be appreciated too

It’s not the Arduino getting a bad name here, because it’s a well designed platform that deserves its success, but how every other platform is being often ignored to make room for projects using it. What can be done with an Arduino board can be done with a generic ATMega MCU board, a PIC one or a handful of other architectures.