Christmas lights hacked to light up according to IM contact status

Who would have thought that enterprising individuals would actually hack Christmas lights into something fun? This time around, we won’t see your home’s Christmas lights turned into a game, but it will be on a much smaller scale instead. A string of GE Color Effects G-35 lights have been specially programmed to work in tandem with hand-crafted drivers and a Microsoft .NET Micro Framework embedded controller, resulting in an Instant Messaging notifier. Basically, the creative use of the Microsoft Lync 2010 Office Communications Server with this hack will assign each of instant messenger contacts to a particular bulb, where said bulb will change color to correspond to that particular person’s status. Overkill? Definitely, but it just goes to show how inventive the human mind can be when one really gives their heart and soul to a cause.