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Science

Suggestions for Functional Jewelry? 211

Posted by Cliff from the more-than-just-pretty-facets dept.
szyzyg asks: "I'm getting married and my girlfriend and I have been looking around at rings and not really getting anywhere. I have all sorts of high concepts about what this should represent and I keep coming back to the thought 'nothing which is useless can be truly beautiful'. So I've been fighting with the idea of how to make a ring which has some use beyond simple symbolism... concepts like using magnetic minerals to turn it into a compass, or engraving some sort of measuring mechanism into it. So here's the challenge I'm putting to the Slashdot bright idea machine: How do I make a simple piece of jewelry useful? Someone out there must have better ideas."
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Suggestions for Functional Jewelry? More

Suggestions for Functional Jewelry?

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  • Put a Q twist on it. (Score:4, Funny)

    by HaloZero ( 610207 ) <protodeka@@@gmail...com> on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:11AM (#5510880) Homepage
    Add a little James-Bond-Esque laser to it. Just make sure she takes it off with the rest of her stuff before you tie her up. ;-)

  • No Date! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:14AM (#5510911)
    What ever you get, do *not* engrave a date inside - too often it turns out to be a "best before" date.

  • Wedding Rings are usefull (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Merlin42 ( 148225 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:16AM (#5510927)
    For those who are not socially inept the wedding ring serves as a very simple communication device. It informs people as to who is 'off the market'. This same type of communication has been acheived by other cultures in different forms, eg a red dot on the forehead or a basil plant in the window.

  • Secret compartment? (Score:4, Funny)

    by skaffen42 ( 579313 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:16AM (#5510929)
    How about a secret compartment in which you can keep a cyanide pill?

    This is cool in a James Bond kind of way AND you will have a quick way out of the marriage if the mother in law gets too much.

    :)

  • You should get her a heat-sensitive gold band (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mordant ( 138460 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:22AM (#5510980)
    that when put into the hearth, shows funny-looking script characters on the inside, resizes itself to fit the wearer's finger, and answers to the name of "Precious."

  • "I'm getting married" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dukebytes ( 525932 ) <dukebytes@ya[ ].com ['hoo' in gap]> on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:24AM (#5511005) Homepage
    Can you say diamond? Seriously - even if shes a g33ky g1rl - I would take a look at a diamond. ALL of her family and friends will be checking out her wedding ring - ALL of them...

    You dont want your future mother-in-law saying "Well that Billy is a nice boy - but geesh did you see that ring he bought her? I thought those computer people made good money?" know what I mean? :)

    If you want to make her one - go for it - but get a expensive one to put on her finger in front of the preach...

    Duke

    • Diamonds (Score:5, Informative)

      by Zack ( 44 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:45AM (#5511212) Journal
      A lot of people really detest the diamond industry. I for one hate DeBeers, even more than I dislike Microsoft. At least Microsoft doesn't use slave labour, murder people, and abuse their workers. It's hard to justify a shiny peice of carbon with an artifically high price on it when you look at all the human rights violations the companies that mine them cause.

      I know there's sociatal pressures that say you need to have a diamond. And why? Because DeBeers invented it!

      http://www.africanfront.com/diamondboycott.php [africanfront.com]

      There's one link, I'm sure you can find more with a quick google.

      • Re:Diamonds (Score:3, Insightful)

        by .milfox ( 75510 )
        There's always synthetics. :P Same molecular arrangement, better quality, lot less exploitation. :P

      • Re:Diamonds (Score:2, Troll)

        by unitron ( 5733 )
        "At least Microsoft doesn't use slave labour, murder people, and abuse their workers."

        Are you sure that the jury isn't still out on that? We are talking about Microsoft here.

    • which is fine until you travel to some parts of the world where such an advertisement will ensure you'll be mugged.

      remember that you'll be wearing this for the rest of your lives if all goes well... as such whilst thoughts on a use are cool, there is a lot to be said for a simple gold band.

    • Re:"I'm getting married" (Score:5, Informative)

      by zulux ( 112259 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:59AM (#5511337) Homepage Journal

      Real women don't want a diamind:

      A real woman will know that a diamond is just an expensive way to dazzle the easily dazzled.

      She will also know it's just carbon.

      She will aslo know that it's a common stone, kept uncommon by a diamond cartel.

      She will aslo know that many diamons are mined by children in conditions akin to slavery.

      She would also rather have flying lessons, a trip on the Concorde to Paris, or a Harley.

      I suguest, that any woman that has a social structure that makes getting a diamond more important than getting a hang-glider and lessons, is a woman to be dumped to the curb.

      • Re:"I'm getting married" (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Wolfier ( 94144 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @01:00PM (#5512440)
        I think you're talking about "Smart women" instead of "Real women".

        Not all real women are smart, but we're safe to assume the converse that all smart women are real.
      • The diamond ring is the human male's antlers. It's there to complete the mating ritual and keep the mate interested. It's easily recognizable, it demonstrates the necessary ability on the part of the male to provide for the young and defend territory, it's completely useless, it requires a vast investment of resources to purchase, and it is harmful to other members of the species. Many of those features happen to be implemented by the diamond cartel, but that makes little difference to its purpose. And,

    • Re:"I'm getting married" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hafree ( 307412 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @11:48AM (#5511728) Homepage
      Yeah I have to agree here, this is one of the gayest "ask slashdot" questions I've heard in a long time. Get her a rock, not a secret decoder ring.
    • A wedding ring does not neccessarily have to be expansive. IMHO, that's just shallow.

      I actually was able to get in agreement with my wife that a diamond ring is just a waste of money. We ended up getting a pair of plain silver rings (> $20cdn each) and a Playstation 2. Atleast we got more fun out of the money.

    • There are many legitimate comments here regarding Diamonds and human rights.

      If you are not interested in getting a diamond from DeBeers or some terrorist organization, start asking family members.

      Especially grandparents who got screwed by banks during the depression, or who "ran a business" during the prohibition.

      I know several different couples who each got engaged, got the engagement ring, had lunch with the family, grandparents, godparents, etc. and came back with several old pieces of jewlery and som
      • A few months ago there was an Ask Slashdot covering alternatives to diamonds, asked by someone knowledgeable about the problems that diamonds have. (De Beers monopoly, slavery, etc.)

        There were a lot of interesting suggestions. Jewelry-wise, if you want functionality, a diamond is the way to go (If you don't like DeBeers, go synthetic.) Hardest substance on earth, could come in handy... I can't think of much that's as durable and lasting as a diamond and small enough to be jewelry.

        Others suggested goin

    • How does the song go? Something like
      "Daddie never gave mommey a diamond ring,
      but mommie never had to worrk about anything
      Cause what he gave her came from the heart
      In a prommise that was never torn apart"

      Alan Jackson if I remember right. I'm not nessicarly sure you would like the song, but it contains some useful advice: there is something more important than the ring, the promise. Some people demand the ring, and I don't have a problem with it (so long as you get one of the few diamonds that DeBe

  • Ugly but functional (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bjpirt ( 251795 )
    it's pretty ugly visually, but if you're more turned on by functionality then this peasant sundial ring [sonnenuhren-shop.de] might be the ring for you.

    It's cheap too :-)

  • Wedding ring (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:27AM (#5511026)
    I resisted enriching DeBeers with my wife's wedding ring, and overall my suggestion would be "don't". People are very irrational when it comes to closely held beliefs**.


    Eventually after lots of pain she came to appreciate her original ring more than the regular engagement ring, but it took many months and quite a few girlfriends to say "wow that is a nice stone".


    Now about the use of the ring, it sends a message to her: I love you so much that I'm happy to waste a few grand on you.


    Lastly, sometimes the most beautiful objects are those with no use at all. The caves of Lascaux painted 15,000 years ago are one of the most beautiful sights you could ever see.



    ** Try to argue that M$ is other than absolute evil or that Linux could be improved here, and you'll see what I mean :-)

    • The caves .... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jotaeleemeese ( 303437 )
      .... have an use, 15000 years ago, the paintings also.

      Arts in any era fullfill many very important social functions.

      Diamonds do, but the horrifying background of how that trade works should put off all but the most indecent people.

    • > Lastly, sometimes the most beautiful objects are those with no use at all.

      True, however, all male geeks need to be aware that this is one of those sentences for which no interpretation exists that allows for the continued attachment of their testicles to their body.

    • I agree are amazing, but the chances that you'll ever get to see them are pretty slim. (Unless you're an academic.)

      The caves are closed to the public to prevent humidity and bacteria from destroying the fragile paintings. However, Lascaux II, a milimetre-accurate replica, is open nearby. And it's every bit as awesome.

      While the main theme is animal (and the Bulls' Chamber is incredible), there's also an astronomy element which might appeal more to geeks. This link [bbc.co.uk] is a BBC site explaining how maps of var

  • If you were really energetic... I suspect one could assume the existance of a straight edge and a string. With the right markings on the ring, I think you could turn it into a make-shift sextant. Hang the ring from a string, use the straight edge to line up points in the sky, etc. The small diameter of the ring would probably make it almost useless, but it would be a neat story. If you added a magnet, it could serve as a neat multi-purpose device.

    Granted, I do not know too much about sextants.

    Plus, y

  • Twist Tie (Score:3, Funny)

    by _iris ( 92554 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:28AM (#5511039) Homepage
    Just go with the twist tie. They have plenty of uses; closing food containers, picking your teeth, manually opening CD-ROM drives, etc.

  • Diamonds (Score:2, Funny)

    by tsa ( 15680 )
    > 'nothing which is useless can be truly beautiful'.

    Give her a diamond. They are very beautiful and you can make pick-up needles from them.

  • Computer chip in your ring (Score:4, Interesting)

    by iamsure ( 66666 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:32AM (#5511079) Homepage
    http://www.ibutton.com/

    It allows you to store cryptographic keys, and more.

    Design a ring that uses that as the facet, and you're all set. Very functional, very useful.

  • A word to the wise.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Asprin ( 545477 ) <(moc.oohay) (ta) (dlonrasg)> on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:33AM (#5511086) Homepage Journal

    I really do wish you luck, but did you run this past her?

    Are you **ABSOLUTELY** **CERTAIN** she's OK with the idea of jewelry that "does stuff"?

    Don't get me wrong - I'd love the idea of having a ring that could double as a compass or has a laser or maybe has a web server in it. But I'm not a chick for a reason. My wife would have killed me if I got her a ring that did anything except sit there and depreciate - that's why I let her pick it out. If nothing else, tell her that its super-power is that it also cuts glass.

    Seriously, man -- stop the bleeding before it starts. THIS COULD BE A TEST! Chicks *love* doing kind of thing to us.

    • Um, the rings don't have to match you know -- get what you want, and she gets what she wants.

  • On engraving... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by waytoomuchcoffee ( 263275 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:34AM (#5511093)
    My wedding ring is pretty geeky -- it's titanium with engraving -- dots and vertical lines representing 0's and 1's, which spell out my wife's initials in binary (in 5-bit letters). I got it here [rennlist.com]; the guy that runs the place is very open into making custom-made designs.

    I had thought about actually using it for something, like an encryption key -- for example if I started at a certain place on the ring, went a certain direction and counted up 7 or 8 bit ascii words, I could get a passphrase after a while, a pretty strong one. At this point all I would need to memorize for a theoretically very long passphrase would be the starting location, direction, and number of letters.

    Even if the men in black kidnapped me and found my ring, they would still have a hard time figuring it out ;-) Now only if I could find a titanium hat -- the tin ones are so 20th century.
    • Actually I meant to say inlay rather than engraving... silver inlay on a titanium ring is really beautiful. I like reactive inlays (like silver) myself, rather than gold, as it changes color slightly week by week.

    • Re:On engraving... (Score:3, Informative)

      by cybermace5 ( 446439 )
      On titanium rings:

      They're not practical for any purpose other than being a wedding ring, and do you honestly need any more purpose? If I ever have need of one, I'm definitely going with the sine wave [rennlist.com] style.

      Dan Statman (of the site you linked) is a member of the TurboCNC community, CNC software that runs on an old 486 with step rates up to 20,000Hz. TurboCNC is being actively developed by Dave Kowalczyk [dakeng.com]. It's 100% free to use, $20 for the Pascal source. This is for something that can cost hundreds or thous
    • dots and vertical lines representing 0's and 1's, which spell out my wife's initials in binary (in 5-bit letters).

      Dude - you turned your wife into a bar code! My fiancee would kill me if I ever tried that!

      must... refrain from making jokes... mark of the beast...

      (sorry. I was almost successful)
    • I replaced my original (white gold) wedding band with a Ti one; It is very functional; It will save my hand if I ever get a door/etc slammed on it.
      I know that this is so because it worked in the Abyss :) Maybe you could make the ring out of a very powerful magnet; then you could erase floppies with a wave of your hand ;)
      or have it contain many many loops of copper wire, with 2 exposed "terminals"; just hook it up to a power source, and you have an electromagnet!

      On a serious note, this discussion has
      • oops, should have previewed it, then I would have known I needed another <\b> in there ...
      • In the Abyss, I also saw an underwater city of non-human intelligent life. We should get a probe down there- that must be real too!

        How would you discard the PGP key in your ring? toss it in the garbage? It'd be pretty hard to actually destroy if it were made out of Ti with the kind of resources you have at your place.
        • sarcasm [wordreference.com]

          How to discard it?
          Well, I would just throw it away, after erasing my key.
          How would I erase my key, you ask?
          Microwave it.
          Give it 120 VAC.

          I envision the ring as having a band with a "U"-like cross section, with the key stored in memory, like SDRAM, FLASH, or an EEPROM type of arrangement; the guts of which would live in the channel of the "U" ... exposed, but slightly recessed, it would be a highlight or accent or whatever ...
          Then you could easily insulate the contacts you would need to ta

  • Just make sure it does it's primary jobs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by swillden ( 191260 ) <shawn-ds@willden.org> on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:36AM (#5511121) Journal

    Whatever else you might try to make it do, first ensure that your choice accomplishes the basics. It must:

    1. Please her. Hopefully, the idea of the ring pleases her, but she should like the ring itself as well. If she thinks it's ugly, or gaudy, or plain, or... anything other than beautiful, you've failed. Also important (sometimes more important, depending on the woman) is what her family, friends, etc., will think of it. I hate to say it, but "traditional" may be be best bet. It's certainly the safest.
    2. Look like a wedding ring. The main day-to-day function of a wedding ring is to let everyone around her know that she's married and, hence, unavailable. It's of no use if no one recognizes it as what it is.
    3. Be reasonably comfortable. The idea is that she's going to wear this nearly 24x7 for the rest of her life, right? Don't saddle her with some monstrosity that's always getting in the way.

    Oh, and one more suggestion, something I learned the hard way: make sure that it doesn't have any sharp points sticking up. My wife's first ring (the diamond fell out at the beach one day, so she got a new one) had these fairly sharp points on the tips of the prongs around the solitaire. Every time she'd roll over to cuddle up in bed, I'd end up bleeding.

    • May not be an issue for yours, but mine rides horses, so anything that wasn't completely streamlined runs the risk of getting stuck in a rein, under a saddleblanket, etc.

      Go custom, based around some personal story of hers, preferably about a ring she never got. I got my wife a horseshoe nail ring denied to her by her Mom when she was 12.

      If it works for her, it'll be just fine for you . Total cost, including small diamond ~= $400, IIRC.
  • DalSemi used to make a ring with a Java iButton attached to it, but they don't seem to make it anymore.

    However, you can still buy a Java iButton and embed it into your own ring.

    See here for details:

    http://www.ibutton.com/ibuttons/java.html

    Anyone remember the Java rings that were at JavaOne a few years back? Those were the DalSemi units...

    -psy

  • Utilitarianism (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Michael.Forman ( 169981 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:50AM (#5511252) Homepage Journal
    The concept that everything must have a function is indicative that you live in a capitalist society, which assigns value to objects which provide utility. That, which does not provide a function, is valued less than that, which does. I proffer, that a ring can be art for the sake of art without function and still have worth.

    I assume you gravitate towards a utilitarian theme, as you are trying to avoid another vice of the capitalist middle class -- a flagrant display of wealth through the donning of ever-growing mass-produced gold rings with diamonds [fguide.org].

    In an attempt to avoid both, my wife and I purchased our nontraditional rings at a modern-art museum. Thus finding something that didn't require the context of society to be of worth for its utilitarian appeal or it's perceived monetary value.

    Good luck.
    • The concept that everything must have a function is indicative that you live in a capitalist society, which assigns value to objects which provide utility.

      Or it could be indicative of the fact that he is a geek, who are famous (or, more likely, infamous) for favoring function over form. Since we're on Slashdot, I'm guessing he's a geek.

  • ringing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by obtuse ( 79208 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @10:52AM (#5511275) Journal
    I find sundial rings appealing. You should find several at these sites:

    http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/SUNDIALS2.HTM
    o r a larger picture of the design is here
    http://www.uniquecanes.com/AstroKey1721.html

    Since this is something you'll be spending your life with, you might have one made by a jeweler. In that case, it could be designed for your latitude.

    A cipher key phrase or a circular slide rule of some sort could be put into a ring also. Any slide rule should translate into a circular slide rule, but on the scale of a ring, it would be quite small, and so not terribly easy to use.

    Not to be too much of a sanctimonious PITA, but how does your fiancee feel about this? This is an object that symbolizes your commitment to each other. While I wear a wedding ring that I made, I certainly discussed it with my wife, because this ring is about us.

    You might try to find a phrase worthy of inscribing on the ring, if a plain band seems useless to you. That could increase the personal meaning. You might think of other designs you care about, or something you find unique and beautiful. Don't underestimate the importance of beauty and personal meaning.

    OK, I spent enough time writing this that other people have made the same points. I'll risk redundancy, and say my piece anyway.
  • A ring like this [dragonfare.com]

    Check out the creative use of rings on this page. Pictures of the ring in use near the bottom of the page.
  • Ever thought of becoming a Green Lantern? That has a ring that's both functional AND pretty!

    Anyway, yeah. I agree with a previous poster; with most women, the best "functionality" a ring can probably have is that it cuts glass. Face it; while you may be thinking logically, and want something that costs x thousands of dollars to actually *do* something, love and lust never respect logic. Just get something pretty.

    Oh, wait, there's one more functionality - Whenever she sees it, she thinks of you. And t
  • Jewelry is very functional: it advertises disposable wealth and social status. In that sense it serves as a piece of a larger key to open doors in circles you may not otherwise have access to... Even things you may not expect like recieving bank loans are easier if you have properly announced status. However, if your ring is too otherwise functional, it ceases to advertise either wealth or location in social heirarchy.

    Jewelry also serves as a store of value... if anything happens she can sell the ring a

    • IT has no value. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Unknown Poltroon ( 31628 ) <unknown_poltroon1sp@myahoo.com> on Friday March 14, 2003 @11:48AM (#5511724)
      Youll be lucky to get 1/10 of what you paid for it. GOld jewelery alwasy sells at a little bit above melt value, and noone buys diamonds for anywhere close to what they sell them for. This has been repeately documented, but hasnt sunk into the brains of the populaion yet. Want resale value? Buy gold, silver bars and coins.

      • Re:IT has no value. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by shylock0 ( 561559 )
        noone buys diamonds for anywhere close to what they sell them for. This has been repeately documented, but hasnt sunk into the brains of the populaion yet.

        This part of the parent post is entirely false. As a matter of fact, it highlights the most common misconception about diamonds.

        Within the United States, you can buy a diamond for exactly what you can sell it for, no more, no less (otherwise, you couldn't buy and sell diamonds on eBay, for being able to buy something on eBay is defined as being able to


    • if anything happens she can sell the ring and live for a month

      Very wrong unfortunately.
      Diamonds have absoulutely no resale value worth speeking of. Have a look at this slashdot story [slashdot.org]
      Yes a diamond could be used as a bribe, but you certainly can't live for a month on one.

      Gold might be slightly better. Most jewlers will readily give money for 'scrap gold'. Althouh most survivalists will tell you how useless gold Kruger rands /soverigns etc are. Most banks wont accept them and jewlers will often just giv

  • Not many suggestions so far... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by biglig2 ( 89374 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @11:11AM (#5511441) Homepage Journal
    ... in fact I'm afraid that if I put forward a practical idea I might be modded down as on topic.

    Still, I have no idea if this is possible, but would it be possible to make two rings that can sense when they are near each other and change in some way? Let see now, transmitter, reciever, power source (tiny solar cell?) indicator (led? heating element? not a noice or a vibration otherwise it'll drive you mad being together) - it might be just do-able. The japanese are fond of those badges that do this.

    Problem will be size of course, so perhaps this idea is not practicable, unless you both have big hands. ;-)

    OK, then, perhaps you need something mechanical. Hmm. Perhaps something that you get when you fit both rings together? A key, perhaps?

    Best suggestion so far is the guy with his SO's name engraved on one of those cool titanium rings. Sequence her DNA and write that on it!
    • And don't forget the most important requirement for this little toy...

      Must continue to work for as long as you want the marriage to last.

      This argues strongly for something where the utility is what it is, rather than what it does.

      A "does" will wear out, mechanical failure, chemical breakdown, too many cosmic ray strikes, whatever. A "is" will last as long as the ring is in one piece.
  • A wedding ring IS functionally useful. It lets people know you are married. This is socially useful in many ways. First, people don't come on to you. They may flirt, but most people recognize the boundaries. Second, especially if you're a geek, people will see that you can "get a woman", and people will know that you are "experienced".

    It's also great for getting it caught on things and tearing your finger off! :)

  • Install a microchip radio transmitter into a ring with a large key in it, or maybe just a bit of disk space, or a msg or something to that effect.

    Then you can use it as a key for anything digital, or a micro storage device.

    Personally I think that would really be cool to get, but then I am just a geek.

  • When I got married... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MrIcee ( 550834 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @11:31AM (#5511590) Homepage
    ...my wife and I wanted our rings to be something different and special. We were just out of college and pretty poor so we didn't have a lot of money to spend.

    We found a local jewler and asked if he could fashion two gold rings in the shape of a mobius strip [pbskids.org] (a one sided one edged object). We showed him, out of paper, what a mobius strip was and what it could do. A month later, and for a total cost of $90 (in the 80's) we had two rings with a half twist. To make the rings comfortable and keep the twist in a certain place he had slightly flattened the underside of the ring so that it wouldn't ride around on our fingers. (for those interested, to make a one sided one edged solid gold object he created the twist in a mold and then poured the gold into the mold.)

    I always liked the mobius strip rings... there is certainly symbolism in them (no 2 sides, but 1 side... 2 people working together as 1, etc...). Nobody else had anything like them and they were quite attractive.

    Aloha Nui Loa for your upcoming wedding - hope to see you honeymoon here on the active volcano in Hawaii.

  • Upgrading? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jbarr ( 2233 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @11:33AM (#5511603) Homepage
    Don't forget that any technology that you put into the ring will probably become obsolete within a few years, so unless you are specifically planning on either upgrading the ring or upgrading your wife, I recommend going the traditional route.

    What may seem novel or cool today will probably not seem so novel or cool 20 years from now. Remember that the ring is a symbol of your marriage. What ring you select should reflect what you value in your marriage and your spouse.

  • Scribe tool (Score:5, Funny)

    by qengho ( 54305 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @11:48AM (#5511731)

    A diamond ring has the inherent functionality of being able to score glass. With a little practice, she can become adept at permanent warchalking on the windows of businesses with poor wi-fi security.

  • A ring is useful, it tells other guys to bug off or the guy who gave her the ring will come a calling.

    Don't you look at a ladies hand, before you start hitting on her?
  • have some soft wax for her to carry around, stick a dab on whatever she needs to sign, stick her signet ring in it, leaves an impression of her initials, and poof, you have a legally binding contract. romans did this for nearly a thousand years, maybe more.

  • I hope you got a real geeky one (Score:3, Funny)

    by anthony_dipierro ( 543308 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @12:09PM (#5511924) Journal

    I have all sorts of high concepts about what this should represent and I keep coming back to the thought 'nothing which is useless can be truly beautiful'.

    Just don't tell you fiance this when you have her in bed. She might start asking what her "use" is.

  • have your PGP sigs laser-engraved into it. When you give her the ring, include a jeweler's loupe on a matching necklace.
  • Brass Knuckles: Beautiful and Functional yet Inexpensive
    Four times the rings, five times the impact
  • How about a secret decoder ring? if you make the band in two parts--outer and inner, or something like that--which are movable relative to each other, so the ring can twist or something like that, with notches representing letters or some such, you've got your very own (or her very own, anyway) Lil' Orphan Annie secret decoder!

    you could also use the engagement ring as one half of the decoder and the band as the other.
  • But surely the wedding ring is to show love for each other and not just another gadget. Why not just enjoy something that is beautiful but not necessarily useful

    Rus
  • For her: Diamond. End of discussion. Wrap it with some nice contrasting stones (I liked amethyst).

    Now for you, the Java Ring [google.com] might be just what you're after. Sold by MRI [maxim-ic.com], you can get ones that store, encrypt or compute. It's FIPS-140-1 certified, 134K of SRAM, zeroizes on tampering. Here is the fact sheet [ibutton.com].

    Of course, you can get a nice plain wedding band, and ask her to get you the Java Ring for the other hand. Your call.


  • The Java Powered iButton ring of course!

    http://www.iowatelecom.net/~njohnsn/thejava1.htm

    (I was going to say that a regular ring is useful, it's the chain that your wife uses to enslave you, but my wife hit me when I said that... :-)

  • Holographic Ring (Score:2, Interesting)

    by monopole ( 44023 )
    Embossed Holograms (the type that appear in credit cards) are produced by making a nickel shim from the original hologram (in photoresist) via electroplating Gold is sputtered on the resist and nickel is electroplated. If gold is built up instead a shim with the relief structure could be generated and incorporated into a gold ring. With a thin layer of protective material (perhaps a diamond CVD film) the ring could be extremely durable. A 3d image could be generated or a pattern that would be projected by
  • I'm going to buck the trend of bitching about your request, and instead offer some ideas for what to actually incorporate in the ring.

    How about...

    1. A flat part with a minute spirit level
    2. A rad-counter (would have to contain a replaceable detector material)
    3. A diamond - use to scratch glass, cars etc ;)
    4. A coil of dental floss
    5. An engraved protractor
    6. A Cap'n Crunch decoder ring (the ring as 2+ moving parts)
    7. (Tricky) make the ring resonate at an interesting frequency
    8. (Old school) a signet ring
    9. (Simple) mark

  • A friend of mine has a necklace marked as a Golomb ruler. This is not really "useful" (except in the sense that if you were stuck somewhere and really needed a ruler, this is the optimally short piece of equipment to use), but it is a neat mathematical curiosity.

    http://www.distributed.net/ogr/

  • If you want something cool, look at getting her a puzzle engagement ring [puzzlering.net]. Those things are cool AND fun.

  • Other posters have already suggested that the piece of jewelry be used to store keys for cryptographic purposes. But I have to ask, why use a cumbersome piece of jewelry for that?

    I've often thought that mechanical locks and keys have some intrinsic beauty, and they are functional, not requiring electricity, etc.

    So why not commission a locksmith to make your and yours a special houselock with exceptionally beautiful keys? Or, if you prefer, car keys?

    BTW, about this "must be functional" fetish. Take a pie

  • Make it a decoder ring! (Of course.) Some fine machining and a wallet sized reference card and you could do DES! So really you just need an excellent short term memory and use the ring as a sort of DES slide rule, with the S-boxes and permutations on seperate, interlocked rotating rings. Should only weight about a half pound. You'll probably even retain the use of two of the knuckles on your ring finger.
  • ...like an mp3 player in your wedding band. You'll be forever joined at the ears.
  • Mine fits perfectly on a woman's finger.

    sob
  • When we got married, we wanted something different and neither of us like gold - any jewelery we have is silver. So, we went to a jeweler and picked up a pair of silver wedding bands. The funky bit was that each ring had a raised piece in the "middle" that, thanks to the "flat bit" in the design always stayed on the top.

    The idea was that the raised bit represented the wedding, then each year there after we would get a groove cut into the ring to represent the anniversary. We managed five of them before we
  • I like the ruler idea, but I have something a bit more subtle in mind.

    Make it a biometric identifcation device that functions by gauging the size of her ring finger. That way you can tell if someone is trying to impersonate your wife, as while you could use cosmetic surgery to make someone look like your wife, I doubt they'd think about changing her finger size. Sort of like Cinderella's slipper, it will only fit her. After all, she is your princess now, isn't she?
  • you know - the RFID tag that can be detected and is very small and tiny - put it near a RF emitter and it sends out an ID code.

    Rig that up to your computer room entrance. Then when she walks near it - it will automatically lock the door or unlock it depending on the mode that you've got it in: PORN or NO-PORN.

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