Steampunk Laptop

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Nov 7, 2007

Filed under: Nerd Culture 18 comments

Here is a guy who takes modern laptops (and other gadgets) and rebuilds them to look like steampunk devices. He’s an odd* fellow, but his work is brilliant.

I’d like to see him do his thing to a cellphone. What would that look like?

* By “odd” I mean “unconventional”. I mean this in the nicest possible way.

 


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18 thoughts on “Steampunk Laptop

  1. Adam says:

    Yeah.. Kaja Folio is gaga over this guys stuff. If I ever wanted to get in deap with the Folio House, that laptop would probably make me a blood relative.

    Over all the work this guy is able to perform is out standing. The inventiveness and creativity is just amazing, and his work is pure art.

  2. Joe says:

    I saw this video yesterday and immediately thought of you, Shamus :)

  3. TmO says:

    It instantly reminded me of Fallout, all that extremely powerfull equipment in an early industrial age look! Great stuff!

  4. mark says:

    I love steampunk, if only i could afford the $700-800 for one of those keyboards! Better than that stupid optimus maxiums OLED thing!

  5. Rebecca says:

    That fellow sure is easy on the eyes.

  6. Telas says:

    I'd like to see him do his thing to a cellphone. What would that look like?

    I think you could start with one of these…

    (The guy is Rudy Krollop, the designer of “the brick”.)

  7. Deoxy says:

    I just sent an email link to the Foglio’s about it (Girl Genius rocks)… apparently, they already know. Oh well. :-(

  8. If I could steampunk my whole desktop, printer and scanner and all, I
    would be happy!

    Holy crap!
    I found a scanner!
    http://www.datamancer.net/projects/optitran/optitran.htm hooks up to
    http://www.datamancer.net/projects/engine/engine.htm !!

    Not so sure about this one though: http://www.envador.com/cases/Dialup/
    This one cracks me up though!
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwhilde/sets/72157594363814399/ and be
    sure and check out the YouTube video of the “furnace” and be amused!
    For keyboard: http://www.steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml is a
    great design, but, http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/industrial/industrial.htm and http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/sojourner/sojourner.htm are awesome!
    And for the screen, http://www.steampunkworkshop.com/lcd.shtml ….
    For the mouse, http://jakeofalltrades.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/img_0616-2/
    is a good design, but I wonder if a telegraph sounder would look better?
    http://static.flickr.com/82/273436121_f5c62ef786.jpg laptop is a bit overly clunky for my tastes, though a fabulous concept, and I think that actually is a telegraph sounder for the mouse!
    Pity the link to the original site seems to be not working at the moment…
    And of course, http://steampunkworkshop.com/datamancer/steampunklaptop.shtml

  9. Edhering says:

    want…want…want… :p~

    Can’t afford… :'(

    Build my own? No, my fab skills are not leet enough. Oh well.

  10. Poet says:

    The only way that laptop could possibly be cooler would be to have the gears actually rotating while it was on.
    This sword: http://www.datamancer.net/projects/sword/sword.htm is also quite sweet looking, especially considering the simplicity of the design.

  11. Dana says:

    He is obviously very technically skilled, and the results are very impressive.

    You can tell how heavily influenced by William Gibson he is as well. It looks like he has taken two disparate elements of William Gibson novels (steampunk technology from “The Difference Engine” and the idea of custom computer cases [the Sandbenders from “Idoru”]) and combined them. Even the name “Datamancer” is an obvious reference to “Neuromancer”.

    No point to that, really – I just like tracing the movement of ideas. :)

  12. TalragSmash says:

    I’m glad someone else recognized it, i’m terrible with names for some reason but I knew I had read a book with a similar concept in it. Thanks Dana.

  13. Christian Groff says:

    How about a TV and Playstation 2 remodeled in steampunk? :)

    I’ve gotta show this to my dad, he’s into weird stuff. :D

  14. ArchU says:

    I envision movie or television applications for that kind of service.

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