Hi All. I am working on a new work of art that is titled IT IS BETTER TO BURN OUT THEN FADE AWAY. It consists of a new computer with a program that will visually count down from 27 days (Based on the 27 Club...those famous people that have died at 27...and the planned obsolescence of technology) and then overheat the unit causing it to "burn up" or at least shut down. I have yet to purchase the computer, so I can get any operating system needed. Is this possible? How difficult would it be? Can anyone write it for me? At what cost?The 27 day count down until the computer shuts down is your safest option although not as impressive to onlookers as a computer that burns up. It would basically use a shutdown -f -s to force the computer into a shutdown. Any real triggered burn up event would be flagged as bad by homeland security as potential computer based bomb making plans.

I could create a program that displays the count down and shuts the system down in 27 days, but I am not good at graphics programming and you wont want normal text counting down at 12 font, but likely big NUMBERS on the display showing the count down. And while I am ok at console programming, programming for windows is my weakness and that is what you really need is someone to program it with a count down that is done up nice and professional and this program triggers a shutdown -f -s to shut the system down at 0 time left.or, just use
Code: [Select]shutdown -f -s -t 2332800

As to the OP I find the actual purpose a bit... odd... in the end all you've done is destroy an otherwise perfectly working machine. Nonetheless, the BEST thing I can think of would be to have barely adequate cooling and then have a task scheduled or set to run after 27 days that will peg the CPU or appropriate peripheral components to cause an overheat. Though systems aren't designed for the purpose of being destroyed for specious dramatic purposes, so it would probably just shut-down. I think you can disable thermal protections somehow.

Or, you could just have a large anvil or other comically large weight suspended dangerously above it, with a ROPE that under normal tension grinds against a SHARP corner. With appropriate calculations you can get it to fall on the 27th day. If people use the machine, though, you should get them to sign a waiver.

Thanks for answering!

The computer in question would be purchased with the express purpose of destroying it. Nobody would use it. The first time it is booted would be in a gallery with it on a pedestal. I would be there (part out of necessity, part out of theatrics) when it does "burn up" with a fire extinguisher. The best option for me as an artist would be to have it actually overheat. This would mean shutting the fan down and "spamming" the processor? As a second option, a simple countdown with a shut down (seemingly permanent) would work. I am a professional artist...See my art here: noprogram.orgDoes your kind of Art require you to really destroy a computer?
Why not first study some footage of Personal Computers that have really caught on fire. n Then prepare a mock computer using wax or a similar materiel as the external case. The wax model should be hollow and have some lamps, a heater element and a small device inside that will countdown and display the count on a video screen. At the end of the count, the lamps and a heating element star to melt the wax. After a bit, the speaker will emit a destructive sound and go silent while the wax case forms a puddle in basin.
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It would be a symbolic demise. The controller will likely SURVIVE the hot wax treatment. You may be able to use it again.

Just a thought.
A you tube e PC collection. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd266kl0rs0
Even MACs can burn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iethJvyYOu8