Excuse Generator Built From 14.4K Modem

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Monday, March 7th, 2011


Not too quick on the draw when it comes to fabricating excuses as to why you missed that meeting? Install this little guy next to your phone and you’ll be fooling The Man with solid gold automatically generated content in no time. Wait a second, “My bike ran out of coolant”? That won’t do.

Ah, here’s a good one. “The CEO tried to drown me.” Much more likely in a fast-paced startup environment.

The project is built out of an old 14.4Kbps modem (remember how fast those were?), with a nice little processor and board inside just begging for repurposing. A couple holes on the front for display and buttons, a natural-speech engine with a dictionary of words, and you’re good to go!

Not the simplest build, actually, and you can get the same excuses from the simulator, but I like the idea of hitting the red button in a panic and just stammering out whatever shows up on the screen. “Sorry, Mr. Biggs, but…”

[via Hack a day]