The sales team in [Chuck’s] office is a pretty competitive bunch as you might expect, and they decided that they wanted a system which would allow them to challenge one another during their weekly meetings. The competition involves answering questions posed by their manager, but hand raising only works for so long – they needed a definitive way to tell who “buzzed in” to answer a question first.

Since [Chuck] only had a short bit of time and a tiny budget to work on, he opted to find the easiest solution to the problem, which was an Arduino-based game show buzzer system. The game display is built from an Arduino, some LEDs and an Altoids tin, while the buzzer pushbuttons were salvaged from an old radio broadcast console.

Now, when a question is posed, the salesman can buzz in to answer, knowing that only the quickest person’s button click will be registered. When it’s time for another question, the host simply clicks his buzzer to reset the console.

While it’s not quite as fancy as this game buzzer system we featured a while back, [Chuck] says it does the job perfectly and was cheap to boot.

Continue reading to see a short video of the office game buzzer system in action.

Unsuspecting office workers beware. You may already be in the cross-hairs of a ping-pong ball launching robot. This covert robot hangs out on the other side of a suspended ceiling, waiting for its operator to unleash the fury. When put into action a hatch in a ceiling tile is raised and balls are launched at a cowering cube-dweller.

It looks like the balls are launched at a reasonable speed and won’t hurt anyone. The next generation of this bot should do a better job of integrating the trap door and be quieter. This would be a lot more fun if the victim couldn’t figure out where the heck that ball just came from.

[via BotJunkie]

a Ruler, rubber band, and a pen make a bow and arrow? How about tape, a ping pong ball, and a lighter coming together to make a ‘Zooka. We didn’t think such destructive weapons could possibly be made from office supplies, but the famous [John Austin] is here to prove us wrong. He’s been miniaturizing toys and their munitions including Transformers, Star Wars, Jurassic Park for years. With the resent release of his new book, he’s left us the grace of a few teasers.

[Thanks Chris]

Cable management seems to be a constant struggle for many of us, do we have too many electronics? Probably, but how can one effectively manage the cable clutter? [Van Mardian] came up with a nice solution that only required about $30 in parts from a local hardware store. Using a pegboard mounted under the desk itself he was able to hide most of his wires and even some peripherals. The comments have a lot of other examples.

For those who live in a closet or perhaps a New York apartment, available space can sometimes be an issue. Thankfully a Romanian design company called MTI Impex has created the cube PC desk. Unfortunately we couldn’t find additional information such as plans, but it doesn’t look like it would be too hard to construct.

Similar to the previous example this normal looking trunk converts into a mini cubicle on wheels. From Japan, this melamine resin trunk comes complete with a fold out desk and several pre-drilled holes for cables. Ordering is available on the official site, but will set you back $2000US.

Lastly, we have the desk that inspired this post as it made its way around the net today. This beauty is like a mullet, all business up front with a party in the back. From a 1947 edition of Popular Mechanics this “dream desk” is just aces with all the features a modern executive needs. Yes, it has a 6 tube radio, dictating equipment, and even an electrical convenience outlet. More importantly, the backside (or play side) is equipped to turn any office into party central with its fridge and other spirit related fineries. Toss in a safe and we can only imagine this desk weighed more than its short lifespan was worth.

If you have come across an interesting desk hack, or have created one yourself, please let us know in the comments.