Sometimes low-tech is a cooler solution than high-tech.
This sensor device detects if your package was handled roughly during transport: no electronics, just clever engineering.
@socalledunitedstates @polychrome the method a toaster uses to find out whether it's heated up enough, while electronic, is definitely a lot simpler and more interesting than what someone would invent nowadays
@socalledunitedstates @polychrome The entirely mechanical combination locks always amaze me. I genuinely don't know how they work.
@polychrome
Woah this is cool as hell!
@polychrome I've always loved these tracking stickers! The shock ones, absolute temperature, and time-temperature ones are pretty simple tech but refined to a fun degree.
@polychrome okay but serious question i’ve wondered about since first seeing these in college: how do you ship these to the origination point in a way that they’re not pre-ruined?
@r4v5 great now I'm not going to sleep tonight. 
Could email the company and ask!
@r4v5 @polychrome There is a backing on the product that must be removed before the balls can move (the balls probably start stuck to those red dots). Removing the backing also exposes the adhesive used to affix it to a package.
@penguin42 as @r4v5 figured out in the thread, these are "arming pins" that let the sticker arrive in its initial state before you activate it!
@polychrome mechanical solutions are so good.
@polychrome My favorite example of this kind of thing is the flush toilet. I remember when I was a kid the power went out and I was surprised when my parents told me the toilet would still flush. If someone were to invent the toilet today it'd definitely require electricity
Another one is the mechanism that makes the gas pump shut off when your tank is full, which is also non-electric - only because it became necessary before reliable sensors for that kind of thing were invented