HOWTO make earrings out of old floppy discs

Here's a simple Instructable for recycling old floppy-disc rings into a pair of smart earrings:

Open the two round jump rings and attach one to each v-ring. Before closing them up, attach the earring wire to each. Close both jump rings securely with pliers.
Note: when attaching the earring wires, make sure that the part that goes into your ear faces the "back" of the earring-- I consider the "front" of the floppy centers the side where the middle concaves out a bit from the edge.

Link (via Make)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Gadgets • maker • Old school

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Rich Gibson

Cory wrote ‘old floppy discs’ but those are the rings from the most current floppies made. I wanted to see some good old 5 1/4″ floppy earring action.

(I won’t be absurd and call for 8″ floppies, besides, I never used 8″ floppies, but I have boxes of 5 1/4″s still)
Takuan

earrings for MEN!
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/2d/200px-Write_protect_ring.agr.jpg
eustace

Grrrrrrrrowr. Xena chaser.
Antinous

Personally, I’m more of a Joxer person.
preakhan

Tkn – Ys. rd th trms f srvc. Rmblng dtrb thgh t ws, t pprntly t lft t th bt tht sd “f y xprss n pnn, y wll b dsmvwlld”.

Thr’s mdrtn nd thr’s nsnty – wht f wr n f yr dvrtsrs? thnk ‘d b jst lttl nnyd tht BB rglrly gvs rdrs cs t byctt thr prdcts. t’s tr tht “t’s r wbst nd w cn d wht w wnt”, bt t’s ls tr tht f y’r bng pd t dvrts stff y shld wrk lttl hrdr nt t lnt yr rdrs.

h hv rqst : Wll y b ddng smthng bt dftng BngBng’s cnsrshp plcs t yr “Dft Cnsrwr!” lnk?

t’s stll cnsrshp, vn f y cll t “mdrtn”.

sy gn : “THS RRNGS SCK”.
anthropomorphictoast

They’d look a lot more chic with some bright metallic enamel and maybe swarovski crystals set in the negative sections…they’re a little plain as-is.
Drapeau06

[...] defeating BoingBoing’s censorship policies [...]

It’s pretty obvious, really: just don’t use any vowels in your rude comments. Tht’ll lrn thm!
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Kyyyyyyyyle, has some kind of bug gotten up your nose?

Perla, if you can, do. Send us a photo. If you’ll do that, I’ll make earrings out of the separator rings from an old multi-platter hard drive.

Back when I worked at Valiant Comics, I disturbed the other employees by wearing earrings that were quite recognizably made out of fancy foiled and embossed special-issue Valiant comics covers. I never told them I made them out of trashed partial copies of those issues.
Takuan

ah! conspicuous earring consumption
Takuan

and yes phreakhan, we heard the first time. Did you hear us?
eustace

I prefer small circuit boards as recycled tech jewelry. Blinky is good.
Agent 86

You might have to say it a couple of times, apparently It can not comprehend what It reads.
Point in case:

Q. It’s obvious that you won’t tolerate anything but supportive comments from brown-nosers and yes-men–right?

A. I’ll venture a guess that you responded to a new entry on Boing Boing by announcing that it was hopelessly lame and boring, and then came back later to discover that your comment had disappeared.

Q. Yes! Why did you remove it?

A. This is another one of those questions that has multiple answers.

First: you didn’t explain why it bored you. Without an explanation, announcing that you’re bored is neither useful or entertaining. Also, it’s a real bringdown for readers who lack confidence in their own opinions.

Second: because frequently the “I’m so bored” thing is just attitudinizing. There’s a whole big internet out there, and it’s full of people who, if they don’t like what they’re currently reading, move on and read something else. They don’t post about how bored they are just to have something to say.

Third: maybe that entry just isn’t your thing. It could be someone else’s. Why drag down their conversation?

Q. So we’re not allowed to say something’s boring?

A. Of course you’re allowed. You just have to explain why.

I would throw in the part about advertisers, but I am way over my vertical-space limit, and I’m positive that It is either a troll or a liar (honestly, if It read the moderation pollicy like It stated, It would already know the answers to Its questions)

PS:Some of Its vitriol still contains vowels.
danegeld

It looks a bit too simplistic to be jewlery – maybe that’s my taste – it’d make a good key-fob though
eustace

…or a zipper pull, once the factory one falls off.
preakhan

gnt 86 : nd rfrrng t smn s “t” s nt nsltng r bsv?

knw ths s nt th plc fr t, bt ‘m rlly pplld tht BngBng cntn wth ths pstr. hv wrkd n dvrtsng fr yrs, nd cn sy wth 100% crtnty tht f ny f my clnts wr yr clnts, yr cntrct wld gt plld n scnd.

Pr-cnsrd fr yr plsr.

“thing is just attitudinizing. There’s a whole big internet out there, and it’s full of people who, if they don’t like what they’re currently reading, move on and read something else”

Ths s tr, bt ‘m sr yr dvrtsrs wld wnt t nsr tht whl y wll hv ttrtn y dn’t ctlly DRV ppl wy. knw t lst fftn ppl wh’v stppd rdng ths wbst prmrly vr ts mdrtn plcs. ‘m nt xggrtng.

n ntshll : y wll vntlly ls dvrtsrs vr ths, fr sr. Hp yr mrl sprrty s wrth t.

Gd lck.

P.S. – f mst : Thy r trrbl bcs thy r gly nd lk lk smthng md whn ws tw. Ds tht rlly hlp?
Agent 86

Helps a lot, though I’m sure you can funnel that into constructive criticism with a bit of work [and encouragement]. You could even link to something of similar style – done much more eloquently – to emphasize your point while furthering everyone’s enjoyment. If that does nothing for you, you could be creative and write a [dear god not free-verse] poem dedicated to how much these old bits of metal defy the laws of art and ascetics (they do frown upon excessive cursing, so 90% of the possible limericks are out of the question as well). Yet another option involved drinking most of a bottle of rum, and posting the first thing that comes to your mind (hit or miss, but this does define a few of our successful regulars’ style).

Yes, my tone was/is aggressive (I called you a liar for saying you read the moderation guideline, which answers most of your points, including the part where advertisers do not and will not change how the Boingers operate, post, or generally think), but ‘It’ is perfectly acceptable until you declare yourself a male, female, or shemale (or an It, as Takuan seems to be).
preakhan

Constructive? Ok I can do constructive. :)

“My, you seem to have mastered the use of needlenose pliers. How lovely for you.” ?

No no.. This is better :

“Gee, those will go wonderfully with my 2×4 planks and bricks bookshelf. Right next to the candles in wine bottles. I LOVE ‘hobo-punk’.”

See link to “Penis-Punk” earrings

Better?

P.S. – Why is my gender important? More to the point, why is it even remotely relevant?
Antinous

Being older and trashier, I make my earrings out of LPs.
danegeld

casette tape spools?
mojo_jojo

oooo i get it! if you say what you really think, the freedom-of-speech-forever and down-with-censorship hypocrites at boing boing will disemvowel or delete you post!

…insert insincere positive comment here…

(wanders off to click the sponsor links on websites where the moderators do not labor under the delusion that they are above criticism, or that they are the sole arbiters of cool…)
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Mojo Jojo: Hey, that was just like a joke, only different at the end.
preakhan

Ths tm gn, wth lnk :
< hrf="http://www.cntrftchc.cm/mgs/Vvnn%20Wstwd%20sl%20pns%20rrngs.jpg" rl="nfllw"> Pns Pnk rrngs
zuzu

(I won’t be absurd and call for 8″ floppies, besides, I never used 8″ floppies, but I have boxes of 5 1/4″s still)

Old 5.25″ floppies make for the best DVD-R / CD-R cases.

(Or, at least tied for best with VarioPac ejectors.)
jungletek

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t those bits of metal in floppies fairly sharp?

It’s been ages since I’ve destroyed one…
Antinous

Without risk, there can be no fashion.
eustace

…just ask Edward Scissorhands!
RJ

@Mojo Jojo

Put your shirt back on, Hammer. It’s just the internet.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

A lot of Boing Boing’s policies are fuzzily descriptive. This one isn’t: we don’t tailor our content to suit our advertisers. Sometimes they’ll sponsor something — for instance, HP sponsored the re-launch of comments on Boing Boing, and later sponsored some audio posting — but they don’t get to say what appears in those posts, or in the comment threads, or in any other editorial content.

Mind you, even if that weren’t Boing Boing’s policy, I can’t imagine the advertisers solemnly conferring about the implications of our reactions to Mr. Preakhan.
Takuan

oooh! VarioPacs, nice!
ark

“a pair of smart earrings”

It’s a thine line between being creative and being delusional.
Kyle Armbruster

@#1:

No, it’s not. Cory just doesn’t know where it is.
Agent 86

Very good, noticeable sarcastic tone while maintaining hilarity. That’s the kind of subversion we like us around here.

…are penis-punk earrings real? I’m a bit afraid to search for them at the moment.

Gender is important in that if I use the wrong form when addressing you, it creates an easy opening for dismissing you. Other options besides ‘It’ include repeating your handle endlessly [clunky], using (s)he and him/her [clunky], or using a different gender every sentence [fun, but sometimes unnoticed]. Also, how often do you get to legitimately refer to another human being as ‘It’?

Welcome to the BoingBoing community, btw.
Anonyman

Bawwwwww, nobody wants to read my inflammatory troll comment. Obviously it’s them and not me.

I’ve seen users like this on every moderated community on the internet. Boing Boing and Slashdot I think are the only ones who don’t ban them outright.

[/offtopic]

These earrings certainly aren’t anything I would wear, but to each his own.
scuba

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder…

Steve
CountSmackula

I’m pretty sure beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

I’ll admit, I’d like them better with a few old chips or capacitors on them as ornamentation. Alternately, I could wirebrush them so they catch the light more interestingly.
saint_al

’90s Retrogeek!

There’s gotta be thumb drive earrings out there…
preakhan

Ths r bsltly trrbl. Rlly.
Takuan

really? and this is your debut?
Antinous

My baptism of fire. Let me sho u it.
neurolux

I’d rather see earrings made from plastic record single adapters. Or a silver version.
eustace

…and speaking of blinky earrings (as I was many hours ago)…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37084468@N00/1801563069/
darsal

Kids today…

Disc = hard plastic optical.
Disk = magnetic, mostly film/oxide.
Perla

Smart earrings?? I could whip up something cuter with paperclips and some string.
Antinous

I’d rather see earrings made from plastic record single adapters.

That looks more like a nipple shield to me. If, you know, Big Bird had body piercings.
Takuan

http://www.hightowercrafts.com/xenakit.JPG
Tenn

I made some of these when I was a kid. I also had a RAM necklace.
soupisgoodfood

Why?
Takuan

THAT’S what I call a nipple shield
Takuan

and does any here know the tale behind that particular pair of floppies? A tiger’s tooth on a string is just a bit of enamel- except to the one that got it.