It's not a question of where it grips it.
November 30, 2012 8:44 AM   Subscribe

 
I _so_ wanted this to be a video of a sparrow struggling to carry a coconut.
posted by gauche at 8:47 AM on November 30, 2012 [22 favorites]


Genius.
posted by brennen at 8:50 AM on November 30, 2012


Potentially useful, too, for those pedestrian-passing situations where the path is plenty wide and you don't want to be all DINGY-DINGY!!!!!! but you would also like the pedestrian not to suddenly lunge to the left.

*remembers that silly thing about Britain*

Er, to the right.
posted by gurple at 8:53 AM on November 30, 2012


How ironic. I was just sitting here trying to figure out how to make my horse sound like a bicycle.
posted by HuronBob at 8:57 AM on November 30, 2012 [1 favorite]


I _so_ wanted this to be a video of a sparrow struggling to carry a coconut.

What do you mean, African or European?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:08 AM on November 30, 2012 [3 favorites]


Gee, can't they make it out of cardboard instead?
posted by orme at 9:09 AM on November 30, 2012


I _so_ wanted this to be a video of a sparrow struggling to carry a coconut.

Swallow.

er... that's a correction, not an imperative
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:12 AM on November 30, 2012 [19 favorites]


Thank God they invented this because it is completely necessary for nothing.
posted by angrycat at 9:12 AM on November 30, 2012


(Due deference to Gurple. I don't understand not wanting to ding-dingy, I guess. Plus, one could just put a playing card in the spokes)
posted by angrycat at 9:15 AM on November 30, 2012


Plus, one could just put a playing card in the spokes.

Now I'm imagining the squires following the Knights of the Round Table going "BRRRRRRRRRRRRT bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttt, BRRRRRRRRRRRRRT" to make them sound like motorcycles. Because apparently that's how my brain works today.
posted by BrashTech at 9:21 AM on November 30, 2012 [3 favorites]


I don't understand not wanting to ding-dingy

Sometimes, pedestrians freak out when you ring a bell. If someone's into their music, or something, and they sorta-kinda hear a bell and suddenly they're like "omigodFIGHTORFLIGHT!" they sometimes lunge exactly the wrong way. Particularly if they were already walking on the incorrect side of the path or if the path is curved.

...

The coconut thing is not actually a good solution for this.
posted by gurple at 9:25 AM on November 30, 2012 [1 favorite]


The other video is way more fun.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:33 AM on November 30, 2012 [14 favorites]


I've been around horses a fair amount and actually was in a play recently in which I had to as accurately as possible sound like a horse using coconuts. So maybe I've over-attuned but I'd definitely be startled thinking that there was some kind of drunken horse missing a leg or two bearing down on me.
posted by cmoj at 9:48 AM on November 30, 2012


Metafilter: some kind of drunken horse missing a leg or two bearing down on me
posted by kcds at 10:06 AM on November 30, 2012 [2 favorites]


The overall effect sounds more like a train than a horse, to me. That's probably a good thing for a bike to sound like, though.
posted by jiawen at 10:17 AM on November 30, 2012


How ironic. I was just sitting here trying to figure out how to imagine fixie hipsters getting kicked in the head by a horse more easily.

But you couldn't, so you settled for an insult by a horse's ass.
posted by jamjam at 11:15 AM on November 30, 2012 [1 favorite]


The other video is way more fun.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll


That one was posted on BoingBoing and it was pointed out ( rightly, IMO ) that you never actually hear the noise it makes, which is ostensibly the selling point.
posted by RobotHero at 11:21 AM on November 30, 2012


FPP's can have more than one link.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 3:10 PM on November 30, 2012


Genius idea, hamstrung in execution due to the fact that the rhythm of the sound is all wrong. It sounds jerky and arrhythmic, sort of a "Clop. Clop-Clop. Clo-Clop Clop. Clop." when it should be a nice crisp "clip-CLOP-clip-CLOP-clip-CLOP-clip-CLOP".
posted by Scientist at 6:38 PM on November 30, 2012


It sounded to me like this thing was making the clop sound in doublets, while the Pythons did it in triplets.
posted by xedrik at 10:34 AM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


FPP's can have more than one link.

But then they can't put "SLYT" on it and you won't know what you're getting.
posted by RobotHero at 11:45 AM on December 1, 2012


Sadly, I think this great idea needs more work. I'd buy one to see if it could be tweaked to actually sound like a horsey, and the second video is great. But, from the FAQ:

Trotify is made of wood, so like any wooden object we wouldn't recommend leaving it out in the rain. A water resistant wood varnish might be a solution if you live in a very rainy place - but note that Trotify doesn't work well if it's dripping wet.

So there may still be some bugs to work out...
posted by sneebler at 5:09 PM on December 1, 2012


Love the idea, if only because IME something that makes an ongoing, low-level noise works better than an intermittent sound. Think a bear bell's *jingle-jingle-jingle* vs. a sudden *BRRRING-BRRRING* as you approach a pedestrian. (This is why I don't care too much that my lock rattles a bit where I've got it locked through my rack — it helps pedestrians hear me coming; they seem to adjust more smoothly when I ding my bell if they've heard me coming first, even subconsciously.)

Don't love the execution.
posted by Lexica at 9:03 PM on December 1, 2012


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