Jeremy Mayer makes these really fantastic evocative sculptures from old typewriters. I'm amazed by what he uses for each body part, and how he could have imagined to put things together the way he does. Via BoingBoing.
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Tomorrow night, Thursday, July 24, as part of its week-long grand opening celebrations, HacDC is holding a town hall meeting to discuss hackerspace, the open source community, and the future of hacker/maker orgs in the metro area. I will be a member of the panel, representing MAKE, Alberto Gaitan will be representing Dorkbot DC, and Nick Farr will hold the fort for HacDC. I hope to see you there if you can make it.
Other Grand Opening events:
Friday, July 25: HacDC invades The Brickskeller! Come by and enjoy great beer with your favorite group of hacker space members! (The Brickskeller, 1523 22nd St NW, 8:30 PM - 2:00 AM)
Saturday, July 26: Paying homage to Grace Hopper. Come join us for Lunch in Columbia Heights and an afternoon outing to Arlington National Cemetry to pay tribute to "Amazing Grace". (Meet at HacDC at Noon). Then join us back at HacDC as we prepare for our Sunday opening!
Sunday, July 27: OUR OFFICIAL GRAND OPENING CEREMONY! Join us for our official grand opening ceremony! At 8:00, join us as our members receive their Black Lab Coats. Our "commencement" address will be given by Jens Ohlig, one of the key figures behind the Global Hackerspace Movement. Lots of projects and other things shall be on display throughout the day. (HacDC opens at 3:00 PM, Ceremony at 8:00 PM with reception to follow)
The first Ignite NYC is going to happen 7/29 at M1-5. We are going to feature 16 speakers. Each speaker will get 20 slides that auto-advance after 15 seconds for a total of five-minutes. Ignite is free and open to the public -- you're on your own for drinks. We're also going to be joined by Ignite co-creator, Bre Pettis. Bre is going to lead us in a creative soldering contest. RSVP at Upcoming or Facebook to let us know you are coming. The night will begin with:
7:00PM - Doors Open
7:30PM - NYC Soldering Championship:
With solder irons blazing, and the power of molten metal at their finger tips, New York City's electricity enthusiasts and hardware hackers will connect components to complete circuits for the glory of being the fastest soldering gun in NYC.
On stage and under hot lights, contestants will complete an electronics kit in the shortest time possible while still maintaining the integrity of the circuit. Who will be New York City's soldering champion? You'll need to be there to find out!
To solder you'll have to pre-register, but anyone can come enjoy the opening contest. After the contest, there will be:
8:00PM - Ignite Talks
Tom Igoe - Physical Computing's Greatest Hits (or Misses)
Tony Bacigalupo - NYC's Startup Scene: Where are the geeks?
Jessica Bruder - How to be an Undercover Hooker (reprising her talk on taking an NYPD course)
Karen McGrane - From Typing to Swiping: Interaction Design has come a long way!
Rose White - Weird and wonderful knitting -- graffiti and science and art combined!
Audacia Ray - Porn as a front runner in technology innovations
Charlie O'Donnell - Shaving your head: When to start, how to maintain, and to BIC or not to BIC?
Charles Forman - How to date celebrichauns with founder fetish
Natalie Jeremijenko - A bomb shelter for the climate crisis
Pat Allan - So you're a kick-arse coder...
Joel Johnson - Indie Games: At Least They're Free!
Seen @ Santa Monica's Glow arts event - EX-SE-08 by artist Shih Chieh Huang combines video, lights, fans and plastics to create the undulating life-like robotic sculpture seen above. - Shih Chieh Huang [via NOTCOT]
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Here's an interesting device that makes use of an oft neglected part of the guitar playing interface, the pick -
1- The pick itself is a passive circuit that has apercussive attack at the output. This signalcan be routed to any pedal or effect forinteresting results. This signal can alsotrigger MIDI notes through devices with CV input
2- The Synth is a light sensitive oscillator circuit thatis controlled by the pick with a photo-cell and contactto the guitar. It has a switchable range capableof "low creaks" sweeping to "high screams".It runs on a 9volt battery and has abuilt in speaker.
The unit is seated near the tail of the guitarbehind the bridge. The guitar contact hookupwire is connected to the bridge.The pick's natural plucking produces the attackat the pick output. The synth voice is "cut" when astring is struck and the photo-cell varies thepitch at the synth output.
Utilizing the 'clicks' for rhythm seems interesting on its own. [via Synthtopia] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!
Today at Techcrunch we announced that we are building our own web tablet hardware device. This all stems back from a conversation a few weeks ago when we were discussing the ultimate web browsing/cloud computing client hardware. The iPhone is nice but too small, and most laptops are over-powered for the task. With applications on the web most of us just need a web browser most of the time, so the ideal device would be a light-weight small tablet running nothing more than Firefox on a decent screen and with a WiFi connection.
In an effort to help get them going or at least kick off some conversations, I think they should look at Chumby. The open source Wi-Fi "bean bag computer".... It doesn't fit all the "specs" Techcrunch proposed, but it's a good start. The $179 Chumby is linux based, can support a larger screen, is open source and a prototype could be developed. The team can get the source, schematics and part of Bunnie's brain immediately.
I think the Nokia n810 internet tablet is also pretty close to what Techcrunch described (linux based, Skype, can run Firefox) - hardware is hard, good luck guys. If this were a MAKE project I'd suggest modding an EEPC and going from there...
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The next Dorkbot SoCal is this coming Saturday, July 26, 2008, at Machine Project (1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA).
Presenters:
Steven Gentner Steven Gentner will be speaking about a robot project built using RoboRealm, a powerful free computer vision based application for use in machine vision, image analysis, and image processing systems.
Gil Kuno Through careful social conditioning, the mind is guided to think within certain patterns. Gil Kuno tries to redirect the flow of the mind outside of the set patterns we are taught by society to construct. Most of his works displace natural activity from its context, revealing an otherwise hidden level of metaphorical absurdity within the ordinary patterns present before our eyes. Much of his work revolves around the experience of sound. Gil Kuno is based in Tokyo and Los Angeles.
Brett Doar Brett Doar is a "paratechnologist" who creates "idiosyncratic electro-mechanical creatures out of inappropriate materials."
In each volume of MAKE we have "major projects" these project pages are meaty step-by-step articles with start-to-finish photos, precise instructions and how-to learning that can range from making a VCR cat feeder to ariel kite photography. In MAKE volume 07 the projects are:
Two BEAMbots: Trimet and Solarroller by Gareth Branwyn. Solder together one simple circuit and use it to control two very different solar-powered robo-critters: a little satellite that scoots and bumps around, and a mini cart that just keeps a-rolling until the sun goes down.Page 76
Soccer-Playing Robot by Matthew Russell. Make an autonomous robot that can chase a ping-pong ball, push it into a goal, and take other programmable actions. When you're finished, you'll have a few more wrinkles in your brain and no more fears of robot attacks. Page 88
Building Tensegrity Models by William Gurstelle. Make a "needle tower" sculpture from dowels and elastic cord that seems to defy the laws of physics. Page 100
The MAKE Controller by Liam Staskawicz and David Williams. Announcing a just-maybe-revolutionary microcontroller for all things DIY. Page 164
You can subscribe to MAKE to get in on this project action (use code CMAKE for $5 off) and you'll also get access to the MAKE digital edition, it's exactly like our print magazine, but online (no DRM), shareable, printable and can be accessed from just about any computer. Back issues of MAKE are also available in our Maker store.
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Interesting, here's a book called LEGO for adults, it shows how to make crossbows, pistols and more -- there are only about 1,000 copies because (according to the author) "After 1050 copies were printed, the LEGO Group® forbid the further use of their trademark in connections with guns, so this is the first and only edition called "LEGO for ADULTS"!" via Boingboing gadgets.
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Phuaalvin happened to be visiting the Taipei 101 on May 12, when the Great Sichuan Earthquake occurred. It must have been terrifying to see that damper moving like that; according to Wikipedia, the damper weighs 660 metric tons, and is suspended from the 92nd to the 88th floor. A tuned mass damper is designed to sway and offset movement in the building.
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The "Rug-Bug BEAM Photovore" by Ken Hill is an environmentally aware photovore robotic bug that rolls, creates chirping sounds in response to light levels, and can be charged with solar cells. The bot runs from a pair of 74ACT139 ICs to control two Hankscraft gear motors from pulsed signals and a dual 556 timer IC. The design is based off of Craig Maynard's Cybug 555.
Artbus by Ed Bennett at the Art Institute of Chicago, is a hardware and communications protocol for low speed control of discreet sensors and actuators. Since it is distributed it can be placed around a space where centralized control is not as important as spatial integration. Check out the link for lots of details including where to get your hands on one of these.
This skeleton of melted audio cassette tapes was created by artist Brian Dettmer. Titled "Skull #11", we wouldv'e also accepted "Phantom of a Hot Summer's Dashboard" - Casette Tape Skeleton on Flickr
This robot was built using the PICAXE controller and has a homebrew line sensor that uses light dependent resistors (LDRs) to find its way. The custom PICAXE board included an L293 driver chip and ran from battery power. Check out the link for details on the board and integration into the LEGO Mindstorms setup.
The Recycled Recumbent has been updated for 2008. It looks like a few other people have had success following the free plans. I really like how the plans have little notes to help you build a really nice Recycled Recumbent Bicycle.
Now you can have your own Batmobile! OK, so you can't ride it around town, but you can assemble it and put it on your desk. I wonder how long this takes to build?
I have to try this out! Apparently all you need is an Arduino, a few resistors, some aluminum foil, and you can build a simple 3D interface. I really hope this works as well as it appears in the video.
The basic goal here was to make a 3D position sensing system that most people can build, while still preserving some semblance of functionality. To get an idea of possible applications, check out the demo video. If you think you can build one that is simpler and equally accurate, or slightly more complex and more accurate, share in the comments!
This is a good idea for those giant speakers when they (eventually) break beyond repair, or found in the trash -- turn them in to a nice media cabinet!
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Leah Buechley, everybody's favorite e-textile expert, created this machine-embroidered LED matrix, alternating the top and bottom threads with conductive thread in order to use the fabric as a barrier between the two electrical traces. Very cool wearable display! Via Hackaday.
