Welcome 2012 with a Rube Goldberg Nixie Light Hack
Time to read: 3 minutes
January 13, 2012
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The holidays came and went, and luckily we had time to code over the break which made
for amazing entries in this previous challenge. Developers were asked to build a digital Rube Goldberg Machine, mashing multiple APIs to perform a simple task.
Lance Fisher took the prize with his Nixie Light Rube Goldberg Machine but we were so impressed by the entries that we’re showing off the bulk of those awesome hacks all right here. Inspired to get coding? Check out our New Year’s developer contest and enter your app this weekend.
Nixie Light Hack Takes All
The winner of the Rube Goldberg developer challenge definitely pulled out all the stops to created a digital and real-world Rube Goldberg hack. Lance Fisher created a series of triggers that starts with trigger from one (of two) computers and ends with a message from Nixie tubes, with LocalTunnel, Twilio Client, Twilio SMS, Netduino Plus, and an Arduinix board in between. Watch the video for all of the action:
Lance shared all of his code on GitHub here, and also shared his latest open source project Netduino Arduinix Nixie Tube Driver Code here. He also won a new Macbook Air and the most major award, a Leg Lamp inspired from A Christmas Story.
LinkedIn Today SMS Notifyer
Kristen Jones built an awesome integration to LinkedIn that allows users to stay on top
of the hot topics being discussed via Twilio SMS. Using LinkedIn API, Google Link Shortener API and Twitter via the LinkedIn API. Kristen shared her process and a tutorial on her blog Princess Polymath.
Follow Kristen on Twitter @Synedra and read her blog at Princess Polymath. Screenshots below:
Rube Butterfly for True Binary Random Numbers
Youson Chang is the developer behind this Rube Butterfly, an online Goldberg Plinko machine that utilizes random weather patterns to give you a true random number.
It’s an API mash using the Wunderground weather API to provide true random based on temperature gradients along with Twilio SMS API. Go head, give it a try!
SendThoughts to Share Love
Sometimes you want to send a nice message to a friend but just don’t know what to say. That’s why Oscar Sanchez built SendThoughts, an app that let’s you choose to send an automated SMS under multiple categories like “Love” or “Friendly”. You can also send a song or a recorded message if you prefer.
Oscar used Twilio Client to build out his recording functionality and Twilio SMS API to send the messages. Send out your thoughts on Oscar’s site here.
Send App Download Straight to Mobile with AppAggie
When you find a cool app while browsing the web, it can be a pain to find it again on your phone to download. Developer Fabrizio Pilato built an app for the games on AppAggie that allows users to send a download link directly to their mobile device.
Using Twilio Client and SMS API, you can send any game directly to your phone.
Next Time You Take Home the Glory
Want to hack your way to glory? We put together developer contests every month so keep an eye on www.twilio.com/contests for the latest. This time around our winner took home an 11-inch Macbook Air.
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