Alexa 9000 Brings A Space Odyssey To Your Home

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Jonathan was a geek when geek was still a bad term. He earned the moniker stripping phone wire with his teeth when he was 6 years old (and it hurt when a phone call came in!). Before there was a World Wide Web, he was running a wildly popular BBS in NYC in the early 80’s. His Interest in computers came when he bought his first Apple ][ Computer and got hooked on the technology.

Jonathan became a Mac specialist in 1985 and is still one today.

He considers himself to be a inventor and Maker and is always looking for the next best thing. If it doesn’t exist, he’s making it.

Here is Jonathan as Zoltar, (built on his Segway) that won him first prize in the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, NY.

[Photo By Roger Hagadone Used with Permission]

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August 9th, 2018August 8th, 2018

I love my home automation and Amazon echo voice control of my house (see my Alexa Controlled toilet). But like any other geek, I have so many Echos now they are littering my home, and there are just so many places one can place an oversized hokey puck.

I decided to get rid of the Amazon Alexa in my home theater and make that Echo more movie-centric. This shows you how I did it.

I found this kit. It’s made of a solid piece of cast resin, easy to drill thru and dremel.I noticed that his Amazon Echo Dot was the EXACT circumference of the HAL9000. (Coincidence? – We need to contact Jeff Bezos on this!)

Using a hole drill, Idrilled thru the resin and formed an opening for his Echo Dot.

Using a dremel tool I cleaned up the inside, making room for the USB plug that powers the Echo itself, as well as to provide storage for the excess wiring and mounting holes.

I decided this version will not have the iconic HAL eye, but I am thinking of doing a more prop-like version in the future.

Using Photoshop, I re-created the label to appear updated:

There is a Company coming out soon with an Indiegogo campaign with a Hal replica and side module. However, this will be several THOUSAND dollars. I appreciate their work, but like doing things on the ‘cheap-er!