[jaybna]

Damn you HN, I went down the rabbit hole on Geochron. No, I don't need this. Yes, I want it, but not the old version - this one: https://www.geochron.com/product/geochron-digital-atlas-2/

Certainly someone has hacked/recreated this with a Raspberry Pi. I must now go waste a weekend...

[RHSeeger]

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the price on this. $500 up front, _plus_ a subscription, and it doesn't even include the display. What are you getting for that cost? It _feels_ like something you could install as software on an RPi or any other computer.

[theamk]

Corporate money - if all you have is software engineers getting $250_000/year , the company likely pays ~$250/hour with all the overhead. So you are not paying "$500", you are paying 2 FTE hours. This is pretty small, corporate-wise: a single 1 hour meeting with 10 people in it is 10 FTE hours, and most managers won't think twice before organizing it.

Even DIY solution might not be more economic: sure, if you are familiar with RPi and have one on hand, and someone already wrote the software, you can do it in under 2 hours. But a single problem, like a defective SD card, and the pre-paid solution is now cheaper. Same goes for subscription: $80/year, or 20 FTE minutes. Yes, you can find those layers for free. Will this take you >20 minutes per year to setup and maintain? Probably not.

I was at my first job when I discovered "corporate money" and this was a real eye-opener... That $2000 tool that can only do one super-specific operation? Pays for itself if you can have two fewer defective assemblies.

[jaybna]

Found a $1.99 app for Apple TV that's pretty good. Now "screen saver" for downstairs television. Will play around with a spare Pi when time permits. There appear to be several options out there. A fun waste of an hour.

[42772827]

I want one, but not with that terrible projection! I’d prefer one inverted at least.