A few weeks ago, we held a contest offering a free Storage Pod chassis as a prize to people who came up with creative ways to use/reuse a Backblaze Storage Pod chassis. The response was outstanding! We reviewed all the submissions and selected 20 we thought the most deserving—it was hard work. Here are some of the winning entries with all the winners listed at the end.
Storage Pods in Education
Over the years, students have built Storage Pods to store data for research projects and similar data-intensive activities. Here are a couple of submissions where the students most likely will not be using the Storage Pods to store data—and that’s just fine with us.
I have three kids ages 9, 7 and 5. What would we do with these? They would immediately be incorporated into their ongoing quasi-engineering to build various things out of parts of all kinds, both indoors and outdoors, as they continue to develop their imagination, creativity and engineering ability.
We are building a Makerspace and Tinkering lab at our SF school and are trying to use as much up-cycled and repurposed material as possible. Our students would love to think of creative and innovative uses for the pods in their new spaces.
A Second Career for the Storage Pods
The Storage Pods being retired have worked 24/7 for the last six years. That’s equivalent to working 40 hours a week for 26 years. While these Storage Pod chassis are technically in retirement, some of them want to continue to work. Several of the contest winners suggested excellent second careers.
Magician’s Assistant:
I am a magician. The storage pods would be easily convertible into a mini sword box, where I could put something inside and stick swords though the item, then open it up and see the item is still in one piece with no holes.
Roadie:
I would use it for storage for all my musical equipment and I will be able to route cables and ports through the holes so that way I can make it a one stop shop for all my outboard gear for recording.
Senior Roadie:
A sturdy box to put cables and other material for guitar gigs and then place the box under my 2×12 guitar cabinet to elevate it. A metal box is sturdy as well as has a good connection to the ground as it’s important that the cab rests on a sturdy environment so the cab won’t move around and has a good connection so the low-end guitar sound is propagated through the floor.
Skydiving Assistant:
I would make it in to a skydiving gear box including a monitor to playback the action after each jump. So many skydivers are geeky enough that they would immediately recognize and be envious of this unique and awesome piece of history.
A Leisurely Storage Pod Life
A full time second career may not be what every retiring Storage Pod wants. Here are some suggestions from our contest winners that would let Storage Pods leisurely pass the time.
Popcorn Dispenser: Design a Storage Pod to “distribute popcorn to 3 cups at once.”
Boombox:
A sweet boombox to turn my famous server room parties up to 11.
Bookshelf:
Repurpose the Storage Pod into a little free library in front of my historic New Orleans home. Use solar power to charge batteries to illuminate it at night.
Fish and Zombies
Of course there are some Storage Pods looking for something a little different in their retirement. Here are a couple of suggestions that have an interesting twist…
A wagon: Construct a wagon from a Storage Pod so “I can take my pet fish, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, out for walks. She always complains we never take her anywhere.”
A doll house: Build a doll house out of a Storage Pod so it can be used as safe place for dolls during a zombie apocalypse. Playful, yet practical.
What’s Next?
Over the next few days, we’ll match each Storage Pod chassis to their appropriate retirement opportunity. Each Pod is different, so this could take a while. Then, we’ll ship out the Storage Pods to their new owners. That will be a happy yet, sad day here at Backblaze.
The Winners
The people below have been contacted and we will be shipping out their Storage Pods shortly:
Wayne, Kent, Frank, Nicholas, Tristan, Bret, Nathan, Paul, Jorge, Yon, Franz, Angel, Kirk, and Alan.
The following people are winners, but we’ve been unable to reach them. If your name is below and you’re interested in receiving a Storage Pod chassis, contact us and let us know. If we don’t hear from you by July 15th, we’ll select another winner.
Nepal, Don, Samantha, Michael, Alan, Gaëtan, and Marius.
No Losers
If you didn’t win a Storage Pod this time, don’t fret. There will be more Storage Pod chassis coming available over the next few months. We’ll post updates to our Facebook page as they become available and let you know how you can scoop one up!
Thanks to everyone that sent in a submission; we appreciate each of your very creative and entertaining ideas.
