I find this USB stick distasteful. It's not mechanical, all the gears do nothing. The designer took parts that had a precise function and rearranged them into something useless for appearance's sake.

This is probably a weird reaction, but maybe other hackers felt the same way.

I agree entirely! I see a lot of 'steampunk' thinks like this pop up on the MAKE Magazine blog (and similar) and have always found it somewhat onanistic, despite the face-value beauty of some of the pieces.

In the end, I feel that form should follow function. Making something like this look like it should be functioning in ways that it never will perhaps just serves to outline its mundanity.

(Ooh err, I've probably gone and thought about it too much again.)

I feel much worse about it when car companies or furniture makers try to make one material look like another. Faux wood, faux leather, ect. I consider the steam punk aesthetic to be purely ornamental. That the ornaments may appear at first glance to have some practical purpose doesn't detract from the overall aesthetic for me.

I agree, and this is actually the problem I have with most steampunk sculpture.

Your reaction makes sense to me. I did cringe a little bit when I read that he took some of the parts from watches that were over 100 years old.

It still looked pretty cool, though. I'm curious to see what else could be done along these lines. The laptop patio11 posted looks incredible.

He probably meant "I had some watch parts almost 100 years old", not like a perfectly cared-for and functioning watch was dismantled for a USB stick.

It still looks better than most USB sticks out there, regardless of function.

No, it's not just you. Mrs Browl and I felt similar disappointment...as she said, he only had to get one wheel to move and then connect others. Which would still have been aesthetic rather than functional, but would have served the function of showing you it was alive.

Perhaps in version #4.

I felt the same way. Quick antidote here: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/6278166_YCdn5

I agree. I think this cat and mouse armor is much more pleasing: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=649020

If you liked that, you'd probably enjoy the steampunk laptop.

http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.ht...

Personally I prefer functionally tactile artifacts to imitation tactile artifacts, but both of them do look pretty cool. (Imagine the difference between a mechanical wristwatch and an electronic wristwatch which has an internal speaker emit a ticking sound. The electronic wristwatch keeps better time, but if you're going for extravagantly wasteful obsolete technology, then go for the freaking gold.)

Very impressive! Thanks. Most mods don't hold my attention for very long, but that just looks incredible.

Misleading title. This is just a standard USB memory key decorated with some parts from a mechanical watch. Nice craftmanship though.

Sorry, I just took the title from the page.

And HN policy says this is right, doesn't it? But perhaps we should allow editorializing titles when they are misleading or sensationalist.

You did the right thing. The title on the page you linked to was the misleading one, not much you can do about that.

When did a 12 hour project become "an age"? Real watchmakers like John Harrison spent /years/ on a single piece.

Did he sell it for only $10??

No, but it does look that way at first. $10 was just the shipping cost. The key sold for $165.

The idea of selling that for $10 seems almost criminal! Actually, even $165 sounds low, considering the time and parts he put into it.

No, that's shipping.

What a gorgeous piece of craftsmanship. I would love a gift certificate to etsy.