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Using the Pimoroni Badger 2040, a Raspberry Pi RP2040-based wearable e-ink display, I created a lanyard badge that displays Christmas cracker jokes.
You can download the source code, cracker joke file and bitmap here (8k .zip).
It's based on the Pimoroni Badger 2040 e-ink display, powered by the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller that is the same as featured in the Raspberry Pi Pico. Code is written in MicroPython. The battery pack is the Adafruit ADA783 2xCR2032 battery holder with switch which I affixed using glue dots & hot glue.
The Christmas cracker Joke Badge is a labour-saving device. Its purpose is to handle small talk and other ice-breaking tasks that I find exhausting at office Christmas parties.
"The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe." - Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"
For office Christmas parties, I usually wear an electronic gadget of my own design to handle small-talk for me. Pre-pandemic, this was a CodeBug. This year is the first big office Christmas do since the pandemic, so I created a new wearable lanyard badge that displays a series of Christmas cracker-style two-part jokes.
I learned to program aged 5 in 1976. This could be written much better using OO & events, but I'm old and don't think like that. Perfect is the enemy of good; good is the enemy of "done".
Comments, errors and corrections to: andrew@aoakley.com
Public Domain - Andrew Oakley - 2022-12-03
