Or would that be the 125 contest? Maybe the 22B contest or the 1053 contest. Ah — the 555Contest. That has a ring to it. Come one, come all who want to have fun with the venerable 555 timer chip. I mentioned this contest a little while ago, but it’s even cooler now. They’ve announced the contest prizes. Check them out! Go. Check it out. It’s cool. I might enter myself. Maybe.
Jeri (twitter.com/jeriellsworth) suggested a design contest centered around the old stalwart 555 timer. Chris (twitter.com/Chris_Gammell) caught on to the idea and they put together this entire contest through Twitter. It was an amazing demonstration of one of the capabilities Twitter has that I had no idea of.
The entry deadline is March 1, 2011. Entries will be accepted beginning Feb. 21. Go for it. Have fun and maybe win fabulous prizes. I’m not in any way affiliated with the contest, so I can enter myself and I can order you to enter it. I insist.
On a more serious note, there are lessons to be learned in this event. First, while a lot of us may not yet understand Twitter, thinking it mostly a vehicle for passing on messages such as: “I 8 a apple.” This contest came from an idea and a couple of creative folks. They Tweeted about it. Other people picked it up and retweeted, and it went from there. They have a website, sponsors, prizes and judges all in the spanse of about two weeks.
One of the other lessons may have to wait until either you get out your 555 or the contest is over. We may just find some new life in an old chip that is thought more of as a hobby and low-end device chip. WHo knows. Maybe there will be a few legitimate new uses for the part that we collectively hadn’t thought about before.
Duane Benson
Dead bug is okay, I presume, if the dead bug isn’t dead