Mastodawn

A random question: My place was built with all the plumbing for a central-vac system that I have no intention of using ever. What alternative uses might I have, for this idle series of tubes? Right answers, speculative answers and hilariously wrong answers equally welcome.

C'mon, y'all - "run cat6", what are you doing here in the fedi with an answer like that. The good answers so far include "rapid hamster delivery pneumatics" and "baked beans on tap".

Next set of strong candidates include "the dolby surround-sound of smell-o-vision" and "you could make your whole house into a huge bong."

ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES 1d ago

Gambling parlor. Different rooms different games. You can shunt that money away to a safe room

Gabriele Svelto 1d ago

@mhoye then 800G OSFP Infiniband cables, direct attach copper for the short runs and fiber for the rest

@gabrielesvelto I'll need to figure out how to make money spew out of it first.

Dr David Mills 1d ago

@mhoye Internet. It's a series of tubes after all.

Ben Hardill 1d ago

@dtl @mhoye yeah, blowing string to pull cat5 or fibre

@mhoye bits!

@mhoye A small side project..? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube

Pneumatic tube - Wikipedia

LIΞBΔCH 1d ago

@plwt @mhoye I came here to suggest that.

@plwt @mhoye
yesss: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/wiki/Projects:SeidenStrasse

Seidenstrasse - 30C3_Public_Wiki

@mhoye Hamster Fun House 6(tm)

New internal mail system

Worlds smallest laundry chute

Michael W Lucas

pneumatic laundry delivery system

Marcos Dione 1d ago

@mwl @mhoye for the dirty clothes, the fresh clothes, for drying them, or all of the above?

Michael W Lucas

@mdione this would be a custom-built system, so whatever suits @mhoye

personally, I'd go for reversible, for service coming and going

- centralized air _filtration_ system

- pneumatic tube message delivery

- cable chase

- burrito distribution

- habitrail for a small population of hamsters

@brennen I've already sorted out my centralized air filtration situation, thankfully. Early in the pandemic I put a UV sterilizing light in the ductwork.

@mhoye i should probably add one of those somewhere, though a lot of my primary concerns are more in the way of wildfire smoke and the side effects of being near a major road than they are biological pathogens.

grmpyprogrammer 1d ago

@mhoye Home mesh network

@grmpyprogrammer why do I need tubes for that?

grmpyprogrammer 1d ago

@mhoye For running cables connecting to the switch (you did say “wrong answers”)

@grmpyprogrammer I concede the point.

@mhoye set up an 80 gallon drum of baked beans on the roof and have gravity fed baked beans on demand in every room.

@nobody Best answer so far.

Mike Prior-Jones 1d ago

@mhoye I once genuinely pitched the use of pneumatic tubes to sell icecreams in supermarkets to a major multinational company. We built a prototype and everything.

Tito Swineflu 1d ago

@mhoye Surprise snake farm.

@mhoye
Snake rescue in cold weather?
Drop bouncy balls through and see which comes out first?
Pneumatic tennis ball delivery?

@mhoye distributed popcorn popping system

@paparouleur Rapid emergency popcorn distribution, solid answer.

Leather Daddy but Straight 🏴1d ago

@mhoye hunter-seeker drones to kill the son of a troublesome duke

@Jetengineweasel I love it when there's clearly a reference in play that I don't understand. Weirdly specific, but... what could it mean?

@mhoye @Jetengineweasel TTTE reference perhaps? https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/Duke_(T%26F)

Duke (T&F)

That would never suit His Grace!Duke's catchphraseDuke, named after the Duke of Sodor, is an orange-brown narrow gauge saddle tank-tender engine who lives on the Island of Sodor and works on the Skarloey Railway. He originally worked on the Mid Sodor Railway until it closed down, and is widely respected and considered a hero amongst all the engines[4]. Duke is the oldest and most experienced of all the narrow gauge engines. He lived on the Mid Sodor Railway with several engines including...

Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki

@mhoye GREAT BALL MACHINE

Thomas Sibley 1d ago

@mhoye install acoustic horns on the tube ends and have yourself an intercom system the fam can talk/shout into instead of shouting across the house.

@mhoye
/* never smoked a cigarette or a joint */
- reverse it from air intake to air push,
- add an automated THC vape / e-bong / incense burner as a source,
- add a hookah-style mouthpiece connected to the outlets,
- ???,
- PROFIT: enjoy the smoke of your choice delivery on demand without any hassle of making it.

@gemelen "never smoked a cigarette or a joint", sir.

_Sir._

This is absolutely the sort of plan somebody who had definitely smoked a joint would come up with.

Raymond Neilson 1d ago

@mhoye Whole-house marble run

@delta_vee It's all in the walls, I can't see it or this would be a great idea.

Raymond Neilson 1d ago

@mhoye sadface

barsoomcore 1d ago

@mhoye @delta_vee obv replace walls with sheets of glass

Smell-o-vision synched to any speakers, screens in the house

(Or maybe to router traffic??)

Surprise inflatable tentacles to harass visitors or buglers with?

Giant versions of those snail-rolled paper tooters, for occasions of celebration!

@alienghic @mhoye

@alienghic "Surprise Tentacles" is a very good answer.

Stewart Russell 1d ago

@alienghic them buglers had it coming 🎺

UnlikelyLass 1d ago

@mhoye model trains and/or hotwheel/matchbox car runs?

Fear and Tooting in Las Vegas 1d ago

@mhoye Potato cannon.

@steevmi1 Outstanding.

Fear and Tooting in Las Vegas 1d ago

@mhoye You could also just peer into them when you have company that you don't want, and mutter about where that damn snake's gotten to this time?

Fear and Tooting in Las Vegas 1d ago

@mhoye Maybe hook up a speaker so that every so often you hear "Beep, beep, Ritchie. We all float down here." coming from them.

@steevmi1 "Where is that darn snake" he asked, putting his eyeball directly in front of the socket.

Fear and Tooting in Las Vegas 1d ago

@mhoye The fun you could have with a can of compressed air....

Violet/Multi 1d ago

@mhoye An intelligent bnnuy distribution system (they just go wherever they want to within the duct)

@multisn8 Regrettably the pipes are too small for properly-cute animals larger than a hamster.

Violet/Multi 1d ago

@mhoye Aw. In that case I'd recommend a mini metro transporting empty air

HowToPhil (Phillip R)1d ago

@mhoye @multisn8 You must dress the hamsters in Starfleet uniforms and then those are jefferies tubes

@mhoye one of the best tips I got from an experienced builder and hacker is that extra pipes are a Good Thing. Save them for later, your future self will thank you.

I’m enjoying the wrong answers, but also curious why no central vacuum. It’s always seemed like a nice idea to me but I’ve never known anyone who had one.@mhoye