Reddit IAMA, probably a good chance to ask questions/maybe get some more people interested

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  • Definitely glad I had it done!
  • Hey :) Welcome to Biohack.me, and thanks for taking the time to drop by :)

    There's a group of about 16 who will shortly be recieving magnets, purchased and shipped by me. We chose to go with industrially produced bioproof neodymium magnets as we felt that more trustworthy than some cheap ones from amazon coated in a wad of sugru (as used by Lepht). It also means that the final implant is much smaller.

    I checked out a place in London which uses Steve's implants, but they're silicon coated, cost £200 a pop and as you mentioned in the IAma, there were incidents a few years ago where the silicon split open. We're hoping that the "all in one" construction of these turns out to be more effective.

    Lastly, I have a couple of recurring questions from friends I've talked about this with:

    How do you find typing on aluminium keyboards like the Apple keyboards?

    Can you handle hard disk drives and the like without corrupting data on them?

    Feel free to look around and join in the conversation. We're glad to have you here :)


    Thanks a lot :)

     -- MrWizrd
  • technical detail. aluminum is not magnetic. and harddiscs work with very strong magnetic fields. a neodym magnet outside the discs case does no harm.
  • @IAmDann:  I noticed on the comment thread that you weren't aware of Lepht Anonym's more recent project; the Southpaw.  This forum was actually inspired partially by L's example, and there's even a Southpaw topic for discussion related to it.  If you want to hear L's talk at the 27 c3, you can check out my video series.
  • Sorry it took me so long to respond here!

    I believe the magnet that I have originated from Haworth. The first batch had some duds, but I believe they've been pretty good since then. I know a few people who do and have these magnets, and I've heard of no horror stories like those when they were first done.

    In terms of laptops, let me answer by going even broader (since, as ThomasEgi mentioned, aluminum is not magnetic). If there is a metal surface and I put my finger to it, I feel nothing. If the surface is a magnet, i will. Unless it's a weak magnet. For example, those thin magnets that stick on refrigerators...don't really feel a thing.

    Now, the cool thing with laptops is that you CAN feel the fan turning. The one that cools down the laptop. THAT you can feel.
  • you don't feel metal, or plastic or whatever.  what you do feel is the movement, or force the magnet in your finger applies to the surrounding tissue. movement (vibrations) are detected very good. forces not so much.
    since your laptop fan uses alternating magnetic fields produced by the coils and current in the motor. you can pick them up rather well as they cause the magnet to vibrate.
    for static fields you need more. as you mentioned, a fridge magnet has only a weak magnetic field. for metallic objects, your magnet needs to induce a magnetism in the metal first in order to interact with your magnet. that usually means a very weak magnetic field.
  • I couldn't help but notice that @MrWizrd linked to my upload of the 27c^3 talk in that thread...so thanks for choosing that one in particular :-)

    ~Ian
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