Power tools to the people.

ONE of the interesting things you’re likely to discover if you visit Australia’s first Mini Maker Faire, a free event that will take place at Swinburne University of Technology’s Hawthorn campus on January 14, is that while most of us haven’t been looking, some highly unusual things have been going on in this city’s kitchens, garages and workshops.

At its most obvious, the event is a showcase for the extraordinary phenomenon of high-tech do-it-yourself/do-it-with-others enthusiasm that was tapped, if not triggered, by the launch of O’Reilly Media’s Make magazine (makezine.com) seven years ago.

For a small but growing number of participants in activities such as Melbourne’s ”hacker space”, it has turned the once-exclusively commercial world of manufacturing into an international democratic movement.

Hack Manhattan. xmx writes -

There’s a new hackerspace in the city. We just started, still working on setting up the space etc. May be a bit out of your way though. There’s a meeting open to all every Tuesday at 7:30.

Ten Biggest Positive Africa Stories of 2011 @ The New Yorker via Tim…

African innovation was celebrated for a third year at Maker Faire Africa. Emeka Okafor, a Nigerian, once said that he couldn’t understand why, in the tech realm, so little interesting and creative activity seemed to be coming out of sub-Saharan Africa. Curious about what good ideas from Africa looked like, he helped found Maker Faire Africa, where inventors from across the continent gather to showcase their wares—this October in Cairo, in previous years in Nairobi and Accra. The result has been astounding: mobile apps, seed-planting devices, solar-powered computer kiosks made out of recycled oil drums, paraffin lamps, and other technologies that, importantly, address the immediate needs of Africans.

The maker movement continues to flourish.

ITP Winter Show 2011. If you’re in NYC, be there!

Make Tokyo Meeting 07 @ Dangerous Prototypes. Check out all the photos and posts! Ian writes -

This weekend was Make Tokyo Meeting 07, Tokyo’s Maker Faire. We were guests oftokyohackerspace. Today we’ll post some of our favorite projects from the Make Meeting. The projects were amazing! Later we’ll have a video and pictures of our trip to the Akihibara Electric Town market, and Sjaak’s visit to the weekly Tokyo hackerspace meeting.

28C3: 28th Chaos Communication Congress schedule posted!…

The 28th Chaos Communication Congress (28C3) is a annual four-day conference on technology, society and utopia. The Congress offers lectures and workshops on a multitude of topics including (but not limited to) information technology and generally a critical-creative attitude towards technology and the discussion about the effects of technological advances on society.

For 28 years, the congress is organized by the community and appreciates all kinds of participation. You are encouraged to contribute by volunteering, setting up and attending hands-on events or presenting your own projects to fellow hackers.

2011 STEM Summit Hosted by LEGO Education and National Instruments.

The STEM Summit is a one-day premier event designed to bring together like-minded leaders and partners in the education industry to discuss and learn how hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math education can bring success to every student and shape the next generation of creative problem solvers.

If anyone out there who reads our site is going, drop us a note!

Bay Area Science Festival 2011 | October 29th to November 6th, 2011 | Unleash Your Inner Scientist.

The Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP) at the  University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is pleased to lead the inaugural Bay Area Science Festival. The 10 day festival, scheduled October 29th – November 6th, will provide a wide range of science & technology activities – lectures, debates, exhibitions, concerts, plays, workshops, etc. –at a variety of locations throughout the Bay Area.

Young people will understand that science is fun, exciting and important, encouraging them to pursue careers in science; parents will feel more confident about supporting their kids’ interests in science; teachers will have new resources to get students thinking about science outside of the classroom; and, policy-makers and corporate leaders will understand that the public demand for science-related resources is real…and requires investment and support.

This ambitious collaborative public education initiative brings together our leading academic, scientific, corporate, and non-profit institutions to showcase the region as an international leader in innovation. Based on similar festivals throughout the world, the 50+ festival events are expected to attract over 50,000 active participants, many of whom traditionally do not have access to quality scientific resources.

Women Entrepreneurs Festival 2012.

The goal of ITP’s Women Entrepreneurs Festival v.2 is to sow the seeds for a community of women entrepreneurs in NYC, to expose women who have not yet taken the entrepreneurial leap, the pre-entrepreneurs, to the women who have.

Dan writes in…

Hello Adafruit!

I am the founder of the new hackerspace in central New Jersey called IXR – Institute of Exploratory Research (www.ixrnj.org).  I am excited to report that we are having our Grand Opening celebration this Sunday, 10/16 2-6pm.

One thing we’re doing as part of the party is a contest for the best “geek-chic” fashion item.  So I came to Adafruit to order a prize for the contest.

I just ordered your RGB backlight negative LCD – an item that generated lots of ooohs and ahhhs from our group when it was first announced.  I was also considering the “Midnight Hacker” or an Arduino Uno, but I needed to keep the budget low.

We at IXR all love Adafruit and our members have ordered several items. Hopefully soon we will have enough budget to take advantage of the hackerspace discount and order en-masse.

If there is anyone who might be interested in popping in for the party, it is open to the public, and there’s more details here:
http://ixr.weebly.com/1/post/2011/10/grand-opening-1016-press-release.html

Thank you Adafruit for being awesome!

Amin writes in…

The maker movement and open source hardware are also gaining momentum on continental Europe, and this weekend there will be a makerfaire-like event in Berlin with a few Open hardware workshops: there will be the Milkymist + Arduino workshop you already blogged about, but also a Nanode workshop (that I’m taking organizing) and a Drawdio workshop. Would be great if you could help us promote them and spread the word. I pasted the relevant links at the end.

Thanks a lot!

http://makerplatz.net/
http://makerplatz.eventbrite.com/
http://nanode-berlin.eventbrite.com/
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2227293896/eorg

Interactive visuals workshop with Milkymist One and Arduino.

The Milkymist One is an open hardware live video synthesizer. Connect a camera and a videoprojector, press the power button, and seconds later, everything you film becomes live psychedelic effects of color and light. Point the camera at a dancer on stage, at people attending your party, at toys, use UV-glow paint… there are no limits to creativity! If no camera setup is available, the Milkymist One can produce purely generative effects which react to the ambient sound, making it an ideal option for music bands, clubs and party organizers who want a turnkey solution for simple visual effects. VJ’s will appreciate the possibility to design new visual effects using the Flickernoise Patching (FNP) language, which allows you to create unique and personal shows without requiring extensive experience with computer programming. And if you do program computers, you will certainly like the fact that the complete Milkymist One design is open source.

Sébastien Bourdeauducq is an inventor passionate about science, electronics and open source. After working for several small companies – which included developing the Wi-Fi driver infrastructure for the Nabaztag/tag – he founded Milkymist in the summer of 2007. The project combined his interest for the world of music with the desire to learn about and open up system-on-chip design, and it has now grown into a full-fledged open source project and commercial venture. Since 2011, he is also providing electronics engineering services for the CERN’s open hardware repository. Sébastien holds an engineering degree from Supélec and a MSc in SoC design from KTH. His hobbies include traveling, urbex and hackerspaces.

Fabienne “fbz” Serriere is a hardware person who likes spreading open hardware through hands-on workshops. She has worked on realtime low latency controllers for artists and musicians, massively multichannel audio, hardware reverse engineering, and open source hardware. In the past she has worked on writing hardware how-to’s for popular online publications. She organizes a yearly hands-on event for hardware called hardhack (http://hardhack.org). She documents her work on her personal blog (http://fabienne.us).

The Sketching in Hardware 2011 presentations are now available. This is one of the events were invited to in the past but scheduling never allowed us to go!

The sixth annual summit on the design and use of physical computing toolkits. Attendance by invitation only. Presentations by every attendee. Sketching is a three-day meeting to discuss tools for physical computing prototyping: how to make them, how to make them better, how to use them, and how to teach with them.

The theme for 2011 is Invention and Improvement. Benjamin Franklin clearly saw that the trajectory of technology was not just toward incremental solutions to known problems, but in creating opportunities that had not been imagined. He saw that inventions build on each other, and work together to spawn new ideas. This years’ meeting will look at how invention and improvement play off each other, where they conflict, and how electronics as a creative medium has progressed since last year.

Although there isn’t video for each talk, there are many presentations worth checking out that will still give you a good idea of what the talk(s) were about. The SparkFun “Where transparency ends” is really interesting and so is the one from Bildr – but they’re all worth downloading and reviewing!

Adafruit does not take advertising in any way/shape or form but we will use our banner space above for special things. For about the next 30 days we’re running a banner for our friends at the open source hardware summit. We do not make any money, affiliate fees, etc from this – we are doing this because we love the summit and the folks running it as well as attending. We sponsored the summit and we’re also helping out the best we can with efforts like this. Help spread the word!

Hackerspace CRASHSPACE using ZenCart to sell kits and time on the laser cutter, very cool… you buy them on the site and pick them up at the hackerspace.

Etsy to Host Small-Business Summit…

Online crafts marketplace Etsy Inc. announced Friday that it will host a summit on small business and sustainability this fall.

Called Hello Etsy, the main event will be held in Berlin on Sept. 17 and 18. But similar events will also be held that weekend in the U.S. in Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Brooklyn, N.Y.

The summit will include seminars and workshops on how to come up with a product idea, bring it to life, take it to market and build a sustainable business around it. Participants will also have the opportunity to apply for an investment grant from the Hello Etsy Small Business Fund. The grants will range from $500 to $5,000 and be awarded to up to five applicants. Further, grant recipients will receive support from Profounder Financial, an online crowdfunding platform, in raising more investment capital after the conference ends.

NYC Bloomberg administration requests a new engineering campus…

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday details of a request for “universities near and far” to submit proposals to build or expand a science and engineering campus in the city—a project he called “one of the most promising economic development initiatives in the city’s long history.”

In a speech at the Crain’s Future of New York City conference, the mayor said a 1 million-square-foot applied science campus could spin off some 400 new companies and create more than 7,000 construction jobs and 22,000 permanent jobs in its first 35 years. Some $6 billion in economic activity could be generated, resulting in roughly $1.2 billion in new tax revenues added to city coffers.

“During the 1980s and 90s, Silicon Valley—not New York—became the world capital of technology startups, and that is still true today,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “But if I am right, and we succeed in this mission, it won’t be true forever.”

Double the size of the Columbus Idea Foundry!…

The Columbus Idea Foundry has the opportunity to double our size, establish a “clean” arts and tech wing, and rent enough studio space to continue our self-sustainability, growth, and community-oriented mission.  Help us make this happen by funding and attending our interactive fabrication festival! 

For those who don’t know, we are a community workshop located in Columbus, Ohio (the Indie Arts Capital of the World, as declared by the Columbus City Council…)  We are a 10,000 square foot workshop, educational center, hackerspace superieur, artists’ community and business incubator, and have been teaching classes in and providing community access to all manner of tools (welding, CNC machining, laser cutting, 3D printing, and more) to the general public since 2008.  We also produce goods and develop prototypes for local retailers and innovators, and our products bookend the creative spectrum from handmade wooden toys to experimental electric vehicles and everything in between. 

On August 15th, we will have the opportunity to expand into our neighboring industrial unit (with which we already share several interior doors… an architectural match made in heaven!)   By doing so, we will be able to split our workshop into a “dirty” space (our current location) with welding, woodworking, metal casting, metal fabrication, CNC machining, and other dust- and chip-making processes; and a “clean” space (the new wing) with, among other planned resources, a photographic dark room, a videography stage, a textile/upholstery station, a proper lithography room for etching/engraving circuits, metal, and screenprinting masks, and about a dozen more studio rental spaces for clean arts. 

In order to make our move, we need funds to finance our build-out; to help with moving costs, insurance costs, security costs, and more.  To raise the money, we plan to host an all-day fest to celebrate everything we do – arts, tech, education, maker culture, and community – and we’re asking for your support to make it happen.  Provided that we reach our target goal, we will throw a party on August 20th, 2011, in both the old and the new space.  On that day, will host our annual Power Tool Drag Race (www.ToolRaces.com); perform live, interactive demonstrations of design and fabrication within our current workshop; provide tours of our new wing; and throw an after party with live music, “Burning Man”-style performances and art, and much more.

Ian writes in… FamiLAB Orlando Soldering Class – June 2011 @ FAMiLab

On Saturday, June 25th, FamiLAB held its first soldering class. This class was designed to be a “practice run” before the first public soldering class in July. (Add the link to the new eventbrite event here!)

It was a great time, and led to a really energized FamiLAB business meeting in the afternoon.

Special thanks to Cloudspace for hosting the event, to the GGHC team for the funding used to buy the soldering equipment and member Minty Boosts, adafruit industries for their Hackerspace discount program, Mitch Altman and MightyOhm for the “Soldering is Easy” comic, and to Da3v for his work procuring all the gear.

MORE CLASSES – COMING SOON!
Stay tuned for more class offerings from FamiLAB – we had a great time, and received very positive feedback from a few members of the community that were invited to help us test the concept. If you were one of the community members that came out, please post any additional feedback in the comments! We’d also like to see you in July – we will be setting up another class where you can bring a kit of your choice and FamiLAB members will be there to assist as needed. (Add the link to the eventbrite event here!)

We are also discussing an “Intro to Arduino” class – anyone that is interested, please post in the comments so that we can let you know when it is available.

Read more!

Kid hacker conference “DEFCON Kids”

Children as young as eight years old are invited to Las Vegas this summer to learn that it’s cool to be a hacker — provided they don’t cheat, steal or commit other crimes.

The first-ever Defcon Kids conference in August is a chance for children between eight and 16 to learn the skills of computer hackers, as well as protect themselves against cyber attacks.
It will also be an opportunity for U.S. federal agents to size up tech-savvy youngsters who could form the next generation of digital crime-fighters.

Police, intelligence agents, military officers and the consultants working for them have long attended as well as recruited from Defcon, the world’s biggest gathering of hackers held in Las Vegas every summer.

This year, against a backdrop of high-profile cyber attacks on targets ranging from Google Inc to the International Monetary Fund, Defcon organizers are holding Defcon Kids on August 6 and 7 alongside the main conference.

Defcon kids site here.

Beyond the Joystick: Introduction to Alternative Physical Interfaces @ eyebeam.org…

This workshop led by Eyebeam Fellow Kaho Abe is for artists, designers and hobbyists interested in starting to think about and explore alternative physical interfaces that can be used in games, toys or interactive art projects.

Thinking beyond the traditional screen, keyboard and mouse interface, as well as the traditional gaming controller, we will utilize tools including the Arduino development system, simple low-tech switches and sensors to create custom physical interfaces to enhance the user experience. And later on in the workshop, we will learn about combining Processing with the Arduino for a richer experience.

This Tuesday workshop series will consist of 6 workshop sessions. Students can sign up for whatever workshop is of interest for $40 each, or register for the entire series for $200 ($40 discount). Note: workshops will become increasingly more advanced along the course of the series. Those who have never worked with physical computing are welcome, however please make sure the prerequisite is satisfied before coming to the workshop.

This looks great, the deadline is in less than 24 hours though

Previous BOFs have ranged from presentations followed by Q and A to facilitated brainstorming sessions about a topic of shared interest. In the past, BOFs have brought together women interested in mobile computing, networking, student-led mentoring programs, and academic hiring issues. We particularly encourage students to submit BOF topics!

A BOF proposal should include a title, a brief description of the topic, a description of the expected audience, a description of the format of the BOF, and a summary of the qualifications of the session leader(s). Submissions can be no more than two (2) pages in length (using no less than 10pt type) and they must be submitted electronically. References do not count as part of the 2 page maximum. Your file upload must be in one of the following formats: pdf, postscript, ascii text, or MS Word.

Our dream BOF would be the following:

• Ayah Bdeir – littlebits / Open source hardware conference
• Leah Buechley – MIT / Lilypad Arduino
• Christy Canida – Instructables
• Lenore Edman – Evil Mad Science
• Jeri Ellsworth – Engineer
• Limor Fried – Adafruit Industries
• Alicia Gibb – Buglabs / Open source hardware conference
• MJ – iFixit
• Jillian Northrup – Because we can
• Erin RobotGrrl – RobotGrrl
• Becky Stern – MAKE Magazine / CRAFT Magazine
• Jessica Uelmen – Parallax

All about open source hardware, making things and sharing…

BOTACON December 11th, 2010…

A new day is dawning for robotics. The tools of manufacturing have been democratized and robots have become modular and configurable. It is easier than ever to make your own robots.

This conference will shine a spotlight on this fresh approach to robotics and the roboticists that are building a better tomorrow through automation. The day will be have talks, demonstrations, explanations, and robotic wisdom.

This first inagural Botacon has the theme “Robots for a Better Future.” You are invited to submit your talk about your pet robot project, your innovations in robotic stepper controllers, your sweet software for controlling two robotic arms at once or things you can make with a robot that make the world a better place. If you’ve got a tutorial or some wisdom to share, submit it here as a talk. While the audience will be heavily skewed towards MakerBot Operators, you are invited to submit your talk on anything robot related.

BOTACON December 11th, 2010…

A new day is dawning for robotics. The tools of manufacturing have been democratized and robots have become modular and configurable. It is easier than ever to make your own robots.

This conference will shine a spotlight on this fresh approach to robotics and the roboticists that are building a better tomorrow through automation. The day will be have talks, demonstrations, explanations, and robotic wisdom.

This first inagural Botacon has the theme “Robots for a Better Future.” You are invited to submit your talk about your pet robot project, your innovations in robotic stepper controllers, your sweet software for controlling two robotic arms at once or things you can make with a robot that make the world a better place. If you’ve got a tutorial or some wisdom to share, submit it here as a talk. While the audience will be heavily skewed towards MakerBot Operators, you are invited to submit your talk on anything robot related.

From Albert Einstein in tennis shoes to smoke cannons, future spacecraft to human Rubix Cubes, the USA Science & Engineering Festival celebrated innovation and included something for every future engineer or scientist.

The two-day festival on the National Mall over the Oct. 22 weekend drew tens of thousands of participants, many of them students who were able to get hands-on experience with technologies ranging from alternative energy to aerospace. Elementary, middle and high school students asked and answered questions, participated in applied physics lessons, tore apart gadgets, raced to solve the Rubix Cube in record time and listened to interactive lectures by legendary scientists like Albert Einstein (portrayed by some very convincing impersonators).

USA Science and Engineering Festival this week in DC.

The Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival, hosted by Lockheed Martin, is the country’s first national science festival and descends on the Washington, D.C. area in October 2010. The culmination of the Festival will be a free, two-day Expo on the National Mall and surrounding areas (National Mall 1st-7th streets, Freedom Plaza, Pennsylvania Ave. NW between 12th and 14th streets, Wilson Plaza, Mellon Auditorium and National Museum of Natural History – view map) on October 23 and 24 that will feature over 1500 fun, hands-on science activities and over 75 stage shows and performances on four stages. In addition, several exhibitors will be hosting talks and performances in their exhibit areas. The Festival is a grassroots collaboration of over 500 of the nation’s leading science organizations. The Festival has a bipartisan Honorary Congressional Host Committee with over 100 Members supporting its efforts.

Web 2.0 Expo: O’Reilly Says Have Fun, Invent –

Internet pundit Tim O’Reilly said inventors, including computer scientists, must think big and revel in their endeavors if they’re to achieve major breakthroughs in the future.

….O’Reilly also cited the so-called Makers Movement, where individuals and loosely assembled teams get together on an ad hoc basis to jury-rig new products from found items. “We’re starting to rethink the nature of consumption,” said O’Reilly. “We’re not consuming stuff as much as we’re consuming ideas,” he said.

Pictured above, Tim on a jet.

This is another talk from the Center Stage @ MakerFaire New York 2010. I loved this presentation because it was clear that the guys are really passionate about their project, and because I think it’s great when technology can help improve someone’s quality of life. From the project page:

Steven lives in NYC and has duchenne muscular dystrophy. I met him through a friend and colleague in New York. Steven can move his index finger to trigger a switch that controls driving his wheelchair and other assistive technology devices. For computer access he has a reflective sticker on his baseball cap that is tracked by a infrared capturing webcam and moves the mouse cursor around the screen, his index finger ‘clicks’ the cursor. He asked Holly if there were any options for him to play the PS3 again, unfortunately at the time there were hacks but nothing for a single switch access.

In the Designing for One class Steven participated as a client, his project extended over the semester and was finished late in Spring 2009.

A shaky video (my bad) but a solid presentation. Great work John & Steven!

Grace Hopper Celebration 2010…

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industrial, academic and government communities. Leading researchers present their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today’s technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research and engineering.

You can read more about Grace here.

There are the official Open Source Hardware Summit 2010 photos by Bill Ward. I have to give extra-special props to Bill for taking all these amazing photos and being the go-to IT guy at the same time. Nice work, Bill!

And once again congrats and thanks to Alicia, Ayah, and all the fantastic volunteers that made this such a memorable event. You guys rock!

Also, I’m pleased to announce that there is an #openhwsummit flickr pool. If you took any photos at the Summit and want to share them, you can add them here!

Here are the photos I took this past weekend at World MakerFaire 2010 in Queens, New York. Enjoy!

Under the shadow of the Cold War-era Titan II and Atlas rockets set up outside the New York Hall of Science, this weekend’s World Maker Faire extravaganza was, more than anything, a tribute to the more colorful fringes of hands-on innovation, science, and engineering. And the “makers” who populated its tents and booths wanted nothing more than to get the thousands of children in attendance interested in physics, engineering, biology, and even metalwork.

Scott Beale (Laughing Squid) has some excellent as always photos from Maker Faire NYC! Photos & Video: World Maker Faire New York 2010…

And check out these great photos from John!

Figured I’d post up a tip for my fellow B&T (bridge&tunnel) peeps coming in to Penn Station by rail (NJ Transit, MetroNorth, Amtrak). Check it out! Open-source directions!

The MAKE directions tell you to get on the 7-train (local) and ride it all the way to 111th st. in Queens. Arriving in NYC at Penn Station, however, there is no direct access to the 7. Sounds simple enough, but the NYC subway can be very confusing to folks who are unfamiliar with it. Don’t feel bad — the MTA is a mystery to New Yorkers too, they just don’t admit it!

Luckily, you have a couple of options to get yourself on the right track to the Faire!

1. On the east side of Penn Station (7th Ave), you can take the 1, 2 or 3 trains out of Penn and ride them one stop uptown to Times Square/42nd Street. Once there, you can transfer to the Queens-bound 7-train. If you came in on NJ Transit, it’s a good bet you’re on this side of the station.

2. On the west side (8th Ave), you can take the E-train (only the E-train, please do not get on the A or C, which are the same blue color, but which run uptown to the Bronx) and ride it into Queens, where you’ll get off at the Roosevelt Ave/84th Street station. Here you can transfer to the 7. When you’re in the station, you’ll see ads for NYSCI, so you know you’re on the right track. If you came in on MetroNorth, you’re probably on this side. Amtrak is in the middle.

Both of these routes take about 40-50 minutes to get to NYSCI from Penn Station. In my opinion, the E-train is a bit quicker, but I can’t discount the surety of being on the 7-train all the way from Manhattan.

NOTE: Please remember to stick to the local 7-train. This has a circle around the number (as opposed to a diamond indicating the express line). If you end up on the express 7-train, get off as soon as possible and wait for the local. The express runs past 111th st without stopping!

See you at the Faire!

At World Maker Faire, Engineering Meets Burning Man @ NYTimes.com…

At World Maker Faire, you might see a robot solving a Rubik’s Cube. Or you might watch visitors making full 360-degree circles in a swing while, in another pavilion, people dressed as mice tap dance around a life-size version of the game “Mouse Trap.”

The event, which started five years ago in San Mateo, Calif., captures the intersection of high-tech engineering, arts and crafts, and the carnival culture of the Burning Man festival. By blending the futuristic with the anachronistic, it provides a common ground for digital media gurus, forensic scientists, backyard hobbyists and people who make all kinds of things.

Dale (founder of MAKE) has a great write up about Maker Faire and an overview from yesterday’s Open Hardware Summit!

Yesterday, the Open Source Hardware Summit took place at the NY Hall of Science. More than 300 attendees came together for the event, many of them meeting face-to-face for the first time. It is one sign of the growth and health of this core community that is a major re-thinking and re-working of the design and development of hardware. (Congratulations to organizers Alicia Gibb, Ayah Bedir and Peter Semmelhack.)

What I think we’re seeing is the emergence of independent hardware developers. Increasingly, engineers have the opportunity to work for themselves — developing products and processes by themselves or in small teams. They can get access to good facilities and expertise without being part of a large company. They get to do what they love doing, and take on the risk of succeeding or failing. Most importantly, they’re able to keep fueling the fire that made them decide to become an engineer in the first place.

Come meet them at Maker Faire — as President Obama called them “the doers, the risk-takers, the makers of things.”

Props to Ayah (Bdeir) and Alicia (Gibb) for throwing a kickass OSHW party! What an amazing, informative, and inspiring experience!

*round of applause*

photoset.

Please feel free to tag yourself or people you know in these photos!

We’ll be at the Open Hardware summit today! See you there! We’ll try to record some sessions as well!

Check out Core77‘s Ars Electronica 2010 Gallery!

With over 300 people already attending (!) and less than 30 tickets left, the Open Hardware Summit is rapidly approaching that natural limit known as maximum occupancy. If you’re going to be in NYC on Thursday, September 23rd (two days before MakerFaire), and you want to check it out, you should get your ticket(s) soon!

update: tickets have sold out! see you there!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted my photos from MakerFaire Rhode Island. This weekend, Brian Jepson, the organizer of MakerFaireRI organized a MakerFaire RI Redux following the Business Innovation Factory conference in Providence, RI. Sadly, I couldn’t make it. But Brian took some neat photos of the event. Check ‘em out!

Ars Electronica 2010 begins today in Linz, Austria.

They hit the ground running with an intriguing and enthusiastic manifesto:

There’s no time left for warnings. We’re in it up to our necks right now—in the climate crisis, Surveillance Society, the bankruptcy of the financial sector … We’ve passed the points of no return. The dramatic consequences are looming on the horizon today. And there’s no excuse for our lethargy since we already possess ideas, tools and techniques to initiate a change of course. We just have to take action! Roll up our sleeves and get to work on a job that can no longer be avoided. We have to mend our ways and get things moving in the right direction.

In search of ways out of this mess we’ve gotten into, the 2010 Festival for Art, Technology and Society turns to the pioneers of our age. Not the adventurers who’ve sailed forth because they wanted to find out what awaits them on the other side, but rather the visionaries who are bringing expertise as well as a great deal of creativity and idealism to bear in their work on an alternative future. repair is the title of a festival designed to pursue the paths opened up by these trailblazers and to show why it’s imperative for us to follow their lead …

Open Hardware Summit schedule posted!

Battery Class, this Wed 8/18 7-9pm, free and open to the public @ NYC Resistor.

Join us for Dan Steingart’s class on batteries. He’s a battery researcher at City College and is giving a free class about batteries at NYC Resistor this Wednesday, 8/18 7-9pm. Here’s how he describes it:

You’d like to sever that USB cable and let your device into the wild, but how will it survive? On batteries, of course! But before you let your little one go, spend a little time at Resistor and learn exactly what is going on inside the battery and how to make the best of it.

You’ll learn:

- What voltage really represents
- Why batteries are not getting much lighter
- How to maximize cycle life
- When to use primary vs. secondary cells
- Why batteries heat up
- Why batteries stop retaining charge
- How to mate batteries with energy harvesting devices
- What a battery looks like on the inside
Please bring questions!

Ask a Hacker!

Every Thursday night at 8pm EST join redcell, psytek and osiris for our weekly live video & “chatroom” “Ask a Hacker“. Bookmark this page to view the “live” video and chatroom – or visit our USTREAM page. You can ask anything about hacking, hackerspaces or just stop in to meet other hackers who are hacking things. At the end of the chat we give away an Alpha One Labs t-shirt to the winner of our trivia question. If you would like to connect to our chat via IRC here are two how-tos. We are #alphaonelabs on IRC server irc.freenode.net

Alpha One Labs hackerspace was founded in the summer of July 2009. Boasting radical inclusivity, Alpha One Labs superb design aims to provide a safe, clean space for users of all ages and interests to work on projects together. Contact us to set up a visit and learn more about our new membership specials.