With only five days left in November, we thought we'd bid farewell to National Pomegranate Month and ring in the last month of 2013 with everyone's favorite pasttime: caption contest! You know the rules, but in case you forgot:
Behold, this month's mysterious offering:
So leave your best caption in the comments section below for a chance to win $100 in SparkFun credit. We will be taking bets on the number of "How many SparkFunions does it take to screw in a lightbulb" submissions we will likely get, so make 'em good. Go!
Update: We have a winner! MilesTag is taking home $100 in SparkFun credit for his caption, "How many lightbulbs does it take to screw four engineers out of their lunch break?" Nice job, pal.
How many lightbulbs does it take to screw four engineers out of their lunch break.
$ sudo apt-get install lightbulbs Checking dependency God-20.13 (>= 20.00). Package is recent version. Building packages 'Day' and 'Night'. Installing lightbulbs. And Engineers saw there were 0 errors.
Heck yes linux master race
[sudo] password for God:
The electricity bill grew 3 sizes that day...
New SparkFun boy band: N-Can-Desce
I like it, but I'd go: N-Can-Dance-Sense
Thanks! I was going for the verb to capture the action.
Looks like the Staff is taking things lightly!
SparkFun prepares its Festivus lights in anticipation of the Airing of Grievances. On the right we see an employee training for the Feats of Strength. Unfortunately the Festivus Pole is on back order.
"Sure, we could just flip the switch, but that's not how we roll around these parts."
The ideas keep falling out of the ceiling here at SparkFun.
And using only Sparkfun parts, we are able to visually indicate when anyone at our Monday engineering meetings has an idea by transmitting their brain's electrical impulses, thus lighting up the bulb over their head! Woohoo, pre-victory dance!!
2001: A Space Odyssey. Chapter 1: The Dawn of Man
I'm telling you, once we get these lit, it will be just like Burning Man in here! See? Dude's already dancing!
Will the girls dig our string theory theme for the year-end party? I'm a-frayed not!nerd victory dance
"How many SparkFunions does it take to screw in a lightbulb ?" Answer is: none, the robot they have built to do that is working (it seems they are all very happy about it :) )
Scooby-Doo, where are you? The trap worked ... I caught three monsters with only a few wires and bulbs!
01010011 01110000 01100001 01110010 01101011 01100110 01110101 01101110 00100000 01001001 01110011 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000010 01100101 01110011 01110100 00100001
:)
Really? I have to pull out my Stupid ASCII :)
That moment when the power comes back on and everybody sees your dance moves...
New product: Hipster LED strips.
For the best warm white light, use Sparkfun individually addressable tungsten light strips!
Many hands make light work
AAAAHHH! One goes out and they ALL go out!
Seriously Guys - I said “we need more room on the breakout board for these lights”. Not “we need to breakout on the board room table with these lights”.
"And then he asked me, 'Did you wire these in Parallel?'"
Nathan walks into conference room -- "WHO LET THE ENGINEERS OUT OF THEIR OFFICES AGAIN? I warned you they like dark environments and now they have taken all of the bulbs out of the lamps!"
The dark environment is more IT's shtick, but you're really not far off the mark around here.
Quick! Twerking contest in the 'idea' room!
They already wore the lampshades on their heads at the last office party.
"OH no! Its a conference room troll! Quick! Set up a defense perimeter!"
"Do your light bulbs hang low? Do they wobble to and fro?"
Someone call 911...We have Joule thieves in the building!
"You were right. This is SO much easier than replacing those stupid flourescent bulbs!"
There appears to be an invisible unicycle in use, the light bulbs are irrelevant.
So that is what the fox says...
What do you do when you replace all of your old bulbs with LEDs? Make an easy-bake conference room.
It'll look like we all came up with the same idea at once!
Pictured: a couple of dim bulbs. And a string of lights.
The smokers at SparkFun quickly learned not to ask the Engineering Department if anyone had a light.
Dance! We need more ideas man!
It was in this moment that the team learned the difference between Electrical Engineers and Electricians.
Taking down, counting and cataloging all of the New Ideas after a SparkFun design meeting.
Everything became much more fun after the legalized pot in CO
Obligatory: Question: how many engineers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: at Sparkfun, it takes all of 'em.
There engineers that are working on something irrelevant, all other answers are irrelevant.
Sparkfun engineers are pretty lazy when it comes to Christmas lights...
Is this wire live? You plugged it in right? Someone should lick it...
When the projector bulb went, our team knew precisely what to do...And four incantations later it was up and running again!
Three happy boys were stringing their lights... but they didn't see the ghost of Michel Jackson dancing their way...
Engineers are in the dark about uses for the Arduino Yun. A crack team are still trying to shed some light on the situation.
OR
We do enjoy a good rave, but we still haven't gotten the hang of "black-lighting"
Those engineers can have their Spark-Fun but first, they must pay the electric bill!
10 minutes later... "How did the idea room burn down!!" "We were having fun trying to make sparks. It all went downhill from there."
A new lightbulb for everyday of the week
Look at all the ideas we strung together guys!
Deck the conference room with strings of light bulbs.. Fa lalalalalalalalala 'Tis the season to waste electricity falalalalalalalala don we now our SparkFun apparel falalalalalalalala Exception in thread "main": Java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Humor resources depleted.
Step on it guys! An-a one an-a two....
The people of SparkfunVille, trying to see things in a different light this Holiday Season.
Edison Electric Company Board Room Party reenactment circa 1879, after his first check from J.P. Morgan
What SparkFun's 5 laws of drinking at work look like when broken.
Though Sparkfun's creativity dance failed to light any lightbulbs, a clap of thunder confirmed they could still make it rain...
How many engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Engineers don't screw in light bulbs.
Held up to the ceiling by the tallest meeting member in attendance, functional when only two frayed wire ends were pinched together, and somehow dimmer than a room with no lights on; SparkFun's open-source chandelier is nonetheless close to feature parity with the big players in the lighting industry.
After testing one of our potential new products we've decided not to release it.
James exclaims, "Watt's going on? They are robbing the SparkFun family Joules!"
It takes many engineers to change lightbulbs, but it takes a manager to turn them on.
Caw, ka-caw, ka-caw, ka-caw. C'mon!
I used to be like them, then I took an arrow to the knee
Yeah, sure someone will likely be electrocuted. But it'll look cool in the process!
This is what happens when SparkFun runs out of florescent light bulbs.
"Hey guys, I have this crazy idea: let's take the light bulbs and make the conference room even brighter!"
a stream of ideas flows among those who ignite others
"Bad news, we ordered the wrong light bulbs again. The good news, now we can start decorating for Christmas early!."
How many EEs does it take to screw in 30 light bulbs?
"And to think... we almost hired someone to do the lighting! Think of all the money we saved!"
Our Manager Will Go Mad When He See These High Power Consumption Light Bulbs :D
Just a little glimpse into what happens behind closed doors when a Sparkfun emplyee comes up with another "BRIGHT" ingenius idea!
...the rain dance didn't work... so... it's come to this
SparkFun CEO shakes his head explaining, "I thought if I gave them 10 packs of light bulbs they should eventually have a 'bright idea,' but it turns out their ideas broke the filaments."
This air guitar contest is going to be awesome once we get these lights setup.!!! Dude, did I just drop my pocket protector?
"You're a Hopi Kokopelli!"
After hours of debugging they noticed some one noticed they had forgot to turn on the power point.
looks like someone found the pot in the 10k pots drawer
How many sparks does it take to light the room?
I don't know. It seems kinda dim. :)
While attempting to count how many Sparkfun Engineers it takes to screw in a strand of lightbulbs, it was quickly realized no one knew where the power switch was.
Aaand that's the last time I bring my Ritalin work with me
WE'RE SO HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH!!!
Hurry! We must complete the ritual before the day of turkey is upon us!
"Landing strip for inverted flight!"... "What do you think is going to happen when the guy on the table smacks his head into those wires in the ceiling?"... "At Sparkfun, we even have hecklers that stand on conference tables."... "The Christmas budget isn't what it was last year..."... "Yeah - we get paid to do this."... "75% Productivity at Sparkfun!!"... "It was cold and dark in the conference room..."... "Our new performance chart!"... "Powerpoint just wasn't good enough."... "One way or another, somebody's going to get sued..."...
You had one job.
It's black friday, let's bring the lights back up!
"Dropped Ceilings... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Sparkfun Electronics. Its continuing mission: to build strange new printed circuit boards, to seek out new products, and supply new education, to boldly go where no electronics company gone before."
:) peace out and happy TDAY
So light em up up up light em up up up light em up up up we're on fire!
Just Harvesting Ideas.
Spark-fun:
fun-guy, fun-ny: knee-deep, knee-high: high-volt, high-light:
light-bulb, light-lunch: lunch-time, lunch-break: Break-Dance!
Yeah. Just testing out this new dance, dance, revolution motion sensing lighting module.
Lumen Up!
After 5 minutes and still no ideas, Carl moved on to the voodoo-dance method.
The lights went out so the Sparkfun team decided to party
"Yes Nathan they are hanging the last of them now...what...yea ok I'll tell him. Hey Nick your pants zipper is down."
Yay!! powers out, we get to go home ad day early!!!!!!!!
New at SparkFun, Intelligence game- Assemble this easy project andgather your friends for a fun time of brainstorming answer physics, electronics, and other science related questions. Whoever lights up the most bulbs wins. Kit contains thenewist brain wave telekinesis sensor on the market and can be used for other projects control your friends, take over the world and whatever else you can "think" of. So you have a bright idea pick up this kit today.
As a popular character said "Lightbulb"
And there, strung up for all the other devices to see, was a gruesome reminder of what happened to those who dared make inefficient use of the power so often taken for granted.
Sparkfun's ritual sacrifice of the lightbulbs!
Just follow the light Dimlit!
Maybe with my dance I can turn on the light
**When a Hackspace leaves the supply cabinet unlocked.
Then the electronics gods said, "Let there be light; and there was light."
I can see that they have a birght future ahead of them.
SparkFun Management - When we said we had a bright idea, we didn't mean it quite so literally.
SparkFun Management - When we said we had a bright idea, we didn't mean t quite so literally.
SparkFun was normally on the forefront of technology, but a few employees formed a strange cult devoted to the old incandescent light bulbs.
Us four should be finished in about an hour! Screw it guys, I'm just going to change the florescent lighbang Us three should be finished in about an hour!
In this rare photo we see Nigel perform the traditional rain dance to bring forth lightning while Dr Frankenstein and assistant apply the electrodes. History shows what happens next.
This was a bright idea guys, but I hope you don't take this situation lightly.
I don't know watt you are talking about! This is a great plan, and I find you skepticism revolting. Just socket up and let's get this thing going already! I'm so amped!
The Sparkfun engineering team was bored with the blink sketch and decided to create an addressable string of incandescent bulbs for a bit of steampunk office decor.
This is the ceromonial dance to summon Uncle Fester, you know he can't resist THAT many un-lit bulbs!
"Watts up w/ THAT?!?"... "It's 'Screw Green' day here at Sparkfun!"... "So, four guys walk into a Sparkfun conference room...".... "Watch This...".... "The new Idea room is coming along nicely!"... "No, really, it's safe!"... "We don't screw in light bulbs, we solder them!"... "Don't tell the building inspector..."... "Sooner or later, they're going to realize 18 ga just isn't enough."... "They're playing a game called Pop the Circuit Breaker"... "Ok, so, I'll joke around while you guys do all of the work."... "The projector bulb went out, so we had this idea..."... Do I get disqualified for posting more than 1? :D
Double Posted. :)
Maybe hiring the hipsters we found in the subway to re-wire the office wasnt such a money saver after all...
Sparkfun's New Product: Little Bastards Copper Stealing kit. Basically pays for itself!
No matter how hard they tried, even the SparkFun gurus couldn't make a light powered by ideas.
So whose "bright" idea was this
Prototyping the new bulb is out twitter .
Nearly Christmas !
A spirit called team work and some eLeCtRoPaSsIon! = Sparkfun!
And this is why it took seven hours to replace the bulb in the projector.
After reading datasheets on state of the art light-bulb suspension technologies, writing sophisticated random number algorithms, and adopting a less popular view of causality, Sparkfun employees prep their latest conference room gizmo; the idea maker, which runs on the principal that the random lighting of the overhead light-bulb causes ideas to form in the brain.
Will you adopt me?
Local hipsters set up retro-looking, highly inefficient Christmas lights for ironic "Save the Earth" gala.
As the team of incandescent scientists formed a ring to keep their specimens in view they were treated to a rare occurrence of teamwork by the in the wild specimens they were studying.
Now that the holiday season is hear, its time to decorate... only if we could find where we put those colored lights
EEEEK! Mouse! Mouse!
At the tone, the boss has been gone for twenty three seconds........ beep
Despite the enthusiasm, their ideas failed to turn on any of the bulbs...
Having selected king of all wild things, the wild rumpus begins.
New Sparkfun product: LEN - Light Emitting Nuts.
(Engineer in yellow)
WHO TURN OFF ALL THE LIGHTS?... OH honeyyyyy... I'm just putting up the lights for Christmas.
When they first got into engineering they thought blinking LEDs was fun, that was until they got to play with light bulbs!
In 5 minutes.... "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!"
Robert's "Light of Brilliance" project didn't quite work as expected. Designed to light the bulb over whoever had the best idea, all the lights remained mysteriously dark.
"I'm serious, this is exactly what we built the last time the NRA came to us with a request to "break the internet" when FOX news was holding an online opinion poll about weather middle school kids should be allowed to carry fully automatic assault rifles to school for personal protection in case a deer,cat, dog or bird attacks them. Jim is dancing because when he used the wireless microphone to the speakers from the other room, one of the NRA officials stood up and asked "Is that you god??",,and Jim just said "No,,I am not the one you call God,,,ummm,,I'm his cousin,,the internet" and that seemed to quiet them down. They wanted their $100 back after,,,even on Fox,,,the pollsters were against Machine guns for kids,,but only because there would be less for adults. TRUE STORY LARRY! (then Mark laughs while dancing,,saying) Duuuuude,,this time I'm gonna say I 'am" God on the speakers and ask them to melt their guns into farm tools!!,hehehehe Then Jeff says) DONT YOU DARE MARK!! Thats how wars are started,,or in this case,,8 mph car chases.
They weren't lit yet, but they would be shortly.
The heck with all that going green.
How many Sparkies does it take to.... Oh gosh it's time to shoot the engineers and ship the product!
And they said, "Let there be Light!"
The Engineers reminded me a bit of the opening scene of 2001 with the monolith. Therefore my caption will be "Oh my god - it's full of stars"
It's perhaps a bit meta. But you know, engineers monkeying around and light bulbs are stars...
Behold the beginnings of the Lightbulb Morris Dance. There will be no survivors.
Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding... WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?
If you really want to have both SPARK & FUN, then you should remove glass from the light bulbs. Otherwise, won't work :)
doctors describe the afflicted as "effervescent incandescent adolescents"
The lights are out, but the Spark is ON or The lights are out, but the Spark is FUN
Who says you have to make an adressable light strip with LEDs?
Trust me dudes this will work I saw it on Facebook.
♪♪♪ ...Do the SparkFun Shake... ♪♪♪
'They said I wasn't very bright. They said my future was dim. But today... today I will shine.'
Newsflash: In an apparent show of support for green technology Sparkfun participated in a mass hanging of incandescent lightbulbs today. Green energy activists praised Sparkfun for shedding light on a very important issue.
The funions strung together many bulbs on some ethernet cable, not realising POE really wasn't meant to light up an office!
"If only women were like moths"
The sparkfun incandescence idea machine has runneth over
Edison was either a genius, or is now rolling in his grave...
Heyy,, That's what we do in our engineering meetings....lighting n dancing..........
The difference between an electrician and an electrical engineer.
How many Sparkfun engineers does it take to re-engineer the light bulb? The world may never know, everyone who tried was more interested in lunch.
Proving the theory, the more burnt out bulbs the darker it gets...
What the heck. We replaced each bulb twice, checked for continuity and it's still not lighting up. (Guy on table) Bwah hah hah hah, suckers, I unplugged it an hour ago!
How engineers at Sparkfun prepare for Thanksgiving: "First, we turn the conference room into a giant EZbake oven..."
"Forget high-efficiency LED bulbs--we'll make our footprint one way or another!"
"You know, at first I thought you all would think Bungee-Bulbs was a stupid idea."
Just another productive day at Sparkfun.
(Dude on table)''I hope nobody know I fart.''
Fun is over, i forgot to pay the electric bill....... (crying and sorrow abounding)
It works!! It works!! I can't believe it! The idea machine actually works!!!!
Everything in that picture is what makes me like sparkfun....... oh wait, no its not.
There was a complete misunderstanding of the network running on light...
The team tests their bright idea: Menlo Parkour
Let the wild CLAPus start! (CLAP == Christmas Light Addiction Problem)
Sparkfun engineers trying to light a bulb rather than curse the darkness.
Sparkfun employees hanging the lights on the new stealth Christmas tree.
Sorry guys, that levitating light bulb trick isn't working. I can still see the wires.
The Sparkfun Shuffle rules - When the strobing stops, dance vigorously on the table for 15 seconds without knocking down the VGA adaptor, or the bulbs, or the projector, or the... table.
So this is how Sparkfun engineers gather their thoughts.
Heard at Sparkfun band rehearsal: "We need more cow bell!" "Nah, but we definitely need more bulb!"
Okay Everyone! lets play "the ground is lava!"
Welcome to the Idea Room, where there is no such thing as a bad idea... Alright, maybe there is such a thing.
OK, the rules are simple: Spot the Not-the-Brightest-Bulb in this room. Be aware that there may be more than one right answer and some of the "bulbs" are decoys.
This is what happens when Pete sticks his tongue in an electrical socket... he wanted to be more eccentric!
To paraphrase Springsteen:
You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a sparkfun This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark for fun
Sparkfun staff frantically tries to combat the mysterious luminescent creatures infiltrating the conference room. Due to shutter speed synchronization issues, our brave photographer's camera was unable to capture the creatures blinding, pulsating intensity as they flitted about the room, causing havok and leaving a ruinous trail in their wake. Sadly, this frame was the last valiant attempt he was able to make at capturing the still-unidentified phenomenon. R.I.P.
Deck the halls with bulbs of joules, fa la la la la la la la la;Tis' the season of incandescence. fa la la la la la la la la.
We've got the fun, but the spark went missing.
more lights they say we'll show them more lights
Sparkfun pinatas
Times are tough, so low budget Christmas lights this year.
When you trust an engineer to put up holiday lights... just kidding, they're RGB.
Sparkfun, innovating meetings one idea at a time.
That's 'not' a bright idea!
The new Dance Revolution electric generator still needs some work or maybe he wasn't dancing fast enough.
When life gives you brownouts, make your own solar powered lightbulbs.
Sparkfun employees testing the new lights powered by bad dancing.
I don't think this is what they meant by Festival of Lights.
Results were mixed on the first test of the Sparkfun anti-gravity device.
Years later, this primitive human civilization would finally give up on the idea of producing light from table dancing. Sadly, this long-sought age of table dancing enlightenment would never come to fruition in their lifetime.
Employees bring new meaning to the term SparkFun
Introducing the Dark bulb! Sparkfun's newest product!
Q: How many Sparkfun engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: [The answer is yet to be found out.]
We need more space for our site-wide keg parties...time to take over the conference room just in time to celebrate Cyber Monday!
Alright, who stole the camera flash bulb?
Over at the Sparkfun Educational Department the "Bulbs in Series and Parallel" Tutorial has just begun
Dude, I am SO drunk right now...
Brainstorming in the dark ages ...
While Geppetto slept, the Sparkfun elves updated the RedBoards controlling the puppet factory.
Looks like we are in for a light rain today..
Then, when it strikes midnight, someone will pull this cord. Sparkfun office parties are a smashing good time!
OK the first one to get electrocuted has to wear a stupid hat..
The Mega-Pack of 60W bulbs was a bargain! Sparkfun still has a few dozen left and no new ideas...
See what happens when you leave Engineers in the dark...
Sparkfun has it's share of "Type A-Personalities" - but what's the deal with "Type-A light bulbs"?
With the the new lighting system installed, every idea at a Sparkfun meeting is a bright one.
Let me count the safety violations.... (OSHA?)
I had my doubts about the great light-bulb socket shortage of 2013. At Sparkfun it's now a crisis!
I said "Bud Lite".
SparkFun's new safety moment. How many OSHA violations can you spot?
Four guys, bare electrical wires from the ceiling, a string of light bulbs and dancing on the desk.
Now all we need is either a "Hey hold my beer" or "Hey watch this".
This can't turn out well.
ANALOG PARTY!!!!
the decorating continued - but no one noticed the levitating Michael Myers lurking in the background
Some are still mystified by "LED Candles"... Now this...?
When Nate said "lower the lighting in there" he was just kidding!
Power outage in the building? every sparkfun employee's dream
Sparkfun? The last place you'd expect a Cailis commercial shoot..!!
Some Sparkfun bright Ideas are brighter than others...!
How many times do we have to tell you guys? RTFM...!
Hey everybody! Next Monday is Cyber-Monday, get the emergency lighting ready!
Is this what they mean by 'tripping the light fantastic'?
Hey everybody! Sparkfun is closed for two days this week!
The game of "Freeze" is for kids... At Sparkfun we play "While(1)"
We have to figure out a better way to visualise 4D infometrics.
Despite wiring the robots together, we can't get them to sync their movements, even in the dark while holding the interconnect wire aloft.
Nick, "Do your bulbs hang low? Do the wobble to and fro? Can you measure them in watts? Can you make them glow? ..."
Meanwhile at sparkfun...
When the engineers are cold, if they can't find the thermostat they find a work-around. If they can find the thermostat, they find a work-around anyway.
Dances with Wolves at SparkFun
As a response to Captain Picard's extreme counting skills the Cardassian empire hired Sparkfun to set up a new interrogation room. So, how many lights are there?
Now. How do we get Nick up to 88 MPH?
And it was at this moment the the OSHA rep walked in. Now at Spark Fun we have a New training manual for light bulbs.
The term "Turn out the lights the party is over" does not apply at SparkFun.
Rats! Uncle Fester is never around when we need him!
Engineer: Alright, we need a way to increase creativity in our R&D room, any suggestions? Intern: What if we put lightbulbs over everyones head?
Sparkfun techies hang lights for their off Broadway production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying".
Fire up the tesla coil.
We make sure everyone in the board room has plenty of new ideas.
We'll go for the low hanging ideas first....
The annual stringing of the light bubs ceremony is the only time the Hipsters and the Dreadlocks are able tolerate each other. Tomorrow, the war continues.
The number of staff members it takes to install light bulbs is inversely proportional to the number of light bulbs due to the direct correlation between the number of staff members and work efficiency.
Dude, where's my car ?
Behold the overkill Christmas lights!
Since Sparkfun installed new LED lighting, they felt the need to recycle the old lightbulbs somewhere. Now everyone can see who has a brilliant idea at weekly meetings when their lightbulb lights up!
"In Soviet Russian playground, rope jumps YOU! And then broken lightbulb will make hair stand up at attention. Now we do High Voltage Limbo. Yuri, you go first. Stop crying, Yuri. Yuri blew fuse again."
Here at Sparkfun, we like to have our light bulbs prepared beforehand for our brilliant ideas!
DIY christmas decorations and a crazy dude dancing on a table. SparkFun staff must be hitting the eggnog a little early this year.
No Gregg you can't hang those behind your truck! They will break.
SparkFun employees believe an energy transfer from one system to another can uniquely occur inside their boardroom. Said transfer is characterized by the quantity specified only in joulley (J) energy units.
I'm starting to think we should read the manual before we build anything...
The scene just before the building burnt to the ground....
Testing the "Learn to Solder - Overhead Lighting Kit" Kit Includes: 45 100W Incandescent Light Bulbs, 50g Lead Free Solder, 200' 22AWG Hookup Wire, S.H.O.V.E.L. 110V Outlet Adapter - Coming Soon!
-Hey, come here change the light bulb! -I'm going there, I'm just building a robot to do it. -Why? Come here Now, it'll take you only a minute! -No dumbass! I've managed to build a robot with assembly code and three Raspberry Pies working in parallel that'll change light bulbs way faster than humans! -How faster? -According to my calculations, after 182 bulbs changed, you'll save a minute! -And What's the ETA? -No ETAs! -Whoa, you're not in XDA bro, this is Sparkfun, now Get off this chair and put this S. H. O. V. E. L on the ground!