@8, No, the linux car would be an older model sports car or muscle car. Poster 5 is right on about the tinkering. It feels much the same to work on either, and stuff is always breaking (often due to the constant tinkering) but when you do get it working, well, it's marvelous... And in both cases you *could* get it working extremely reliably, but that might take some of the fun away.

#2 Gabrielm
It's traditional for orrerys to only include the naked-eye planets plus the Earth and Moon (which is often not geareed in a six planet orrery). I suspect that the tradition started because the first orrery was built before the discovery of Uranus/Neptune/Pluto... (The other traditional orrery is just the Earth/Moon and the sun. In this case the moon is usually geared.)

Sounds to me like the cops in Boston just need training on what DIY electronics projects look like. Perhaps a local maker or DIY club should contact the police and offer their expertise for a training course.