Web developer's charmingly nostalgic homemade Twittertape Machine prints out tweets instead of stock prices. Alexander Graham Bell totally would have tweeted to Watson on this thing. August 26, 2013 5:04 PM PDT (Credit: Adam Vaughan) If you can post to Twitter using Morse Code, you should darn well be able to get tweets via ticker tape. Enter the Twittertape Machine, which eschews annoyingly modern smartphone screens for a printed feed of tweets and mentions delivered in the style of the 19th-century ticker tape machine. "This astounding device will print a permanent copy of all tweets yet requires no ink or computer," reads the site for the standalone contraption, which Web developer Adam Vaughan built from scratch with used parts from clocks and other objects. The steampunk-ey device, created as a one-off curiosity piece, hides a thermal printer and microcontroller in its wooden base. It connects to a computer via Ethernet cable and checks Vaughan's Twitter account for new data every 30 seconds. "I have a keen interest in history and have always been fascinated by ticker-tape machines as a design piece," Vaughan told BBC News. "One day I thought it would be nice to have one sat on your desk and started to think about what information it could produce. Twitter is perfect." But ticker tape could work for other modern modes of information gathering, as well, Vaughan says. Planned improvements for Twittertape Machine 2.0 include Wi-Fi and a control panel that lets users select multiple Web-based data feeds, such as RSS or Facebook. While it certainly takes data longer to arrive via ticker tape than mobile app, there's no denying that paper is far more suited than an iPhone or Galaxy S4 for tweets about Strauss waltzes and President Andrew Johnson. (Credit: Adam Vaughan)
Web developer's charmingly nostalgic homemade Twittertape Machine prints out tweets instead of stock prices. Alexander Graham Bell totally would have tweeted to Watson on this thing.
(Credit: Adam Vaughan)
If you can post to Twitter using Morse Code, you should darn well be able to get tweets via ticker tape.
Enter the Twittertape Machine, which eschews annoyingly modern smartphone screens for a printed feed of tweets and mentions delivered in the style of the 19th-century ticker tape machine.
"This astounding device will print a permanent copy of all tweets yet requires no ink or computer," reads the site for the standalone contraption, which Web developer Adam Vaughan built from scratch with used parts from clocks and other objects.
The steampunk-ey device, created as a one-off curiosity piece, hides a thermal printer and microcontroller in its wooden base. It connects to a computer via Ethernet cable and checks Vaughan's Twitter account for new data every 30 seconds.
"I have a keen interest in history and have always been fascinated by ticker-tape machines as a design piece," Vaughan told BBC News. "One day I thought it would be nice to have one sat on your desk and started to think about what information it could produce. Twitter is perfect."
But ticker tape could work for other modern modes of information gathering, as well, Vaughan says. Planned improvements for Twittertape Machine 2.0 include Wi-Fi and a control panel that lets users select multiple Web-based data feeds, such as RSS or Facebook.
While it certainly takes data longer to arrive via ticker tape than mobile app, there's no denying that paper is far more suited than an iPhone or Galaxy S4 for tweets about Strauss waltzes and President Andrew Johnson.
(Credit: Adam Vaughan)
