RasterWeb!

Google+ Puppet Hangout

Recently while doing a Google+ Hangout, I put one of my puppets in front of my camera for a while and thought nothing of it. But then… inspiration struck! A hangout consisting of nothing but puppets!

I thought this was the perfect excuse for people who had excuses about being uncomfortable on camera. I mean, to some degree we are all hiding behind our keyboards when we post online, but with video… bam! It’s your face, right there, nothing to hide behind. That makes some people uncomfortable… send in the puppets!

So thus was born the first Google+ Puppet Hangout.

I’d love it if others did this as well… Here’s my suggestion. Post the following along with the hangout:

By joining this hangout you consent to letting me take a screen shot of it and post it on the internets… Puppet Hangout FTW!!!

I’d hope no one has an issue with a photo of their puppet being posted. And yes, I want to see the pictures! Share them please. :)

One weird thing was, when we got up to five people, I started to forget who was who, which was really interesting. Oh, I know there’s been great debate over store-bought vs. hand-made puppets, but I say anything goes. And as for silly voices? Encouraged!

Go forth now people, and let a thousand Puppet Hangouts bloom!

Tags googleplus, hangout, puppets, video

Uncategorized

South Shore Frolics Parade

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-07-12

South Shore Frolics Parade

Here ye, here ye! Which I think means the same thing as “Yo!” I just wanted to remind you about the South Shore Frolics Parade happening on Saturday, July 16th, 2011, because this year, besides being (as always) totally awesome, it will be even more awesomer due to the fact that the Milwaukee Makerspace will be involved in it.

There’s one of those fancy Facebook pages with more info, and this old fashioned retro web site at southshorefrolics.com. (It’s OK that the site is retro, as it brings you back to your childhood, and memories of attending the frolics when you were just a wee lad.)

But seriously folks, this is Milwaukee’s best parade. The Video Villain will tell you so himself.

And as for what the Milwaukee Makers have in store for it? Well, let’s just say it’s top secret, but all will be revealed at the parade. We hope to see you there!

Tags frolics, makerspace, milwaukee, parade

Uncategorized

Hacking Space

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-07-11

SpaceHack

Back when I was a kid (which I’ll just say was 30+ years ago) I was fascinated by space travel, I mean real space travel, the kind NASA was doing. The Space Shuttle program launched Enterprise when I was in grade school, and I remember doing a school project on it, and I even wrote a letter to NASA offering to be the first kid on a shuttle flight.

So while I’ve been ignoring space travel for many years, with the final flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, I was interested in what the future would hold. Over on Google+ I asked about the privatization of space exploration, and got some good info. My thinking was that perhaps the time is right for commercialization of such things. (Yeah, I’m seriously not up on the subject, but it’s interesting enough to look into.)

Mashable actually had a recent post: How the Private Space Race Has Taken Off which is a good summary of the current situation.

On top of all that, I remembered reading about what Ariel Waldman was up to a while back, and this interview with her talking about Spacehack is worth a read. (There’s another interview in Soho House Magazine, which is much harder to read.)

SpaceHack.org looks pretty cool. It’s a way for anyone to get involved in space exploration. Of course, “space exploration” is not the same as “space flight” but hey, with any luck the “flight” part may still become a reality while I’m alive.

Meanwhile, I’m still watching Star Trek, Firefly, and Doctor Who, and taking notes…

Tags hacks, nasa, space

Uncategorized

A DSLR you can bank on!

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-07-06

DSLR Bank

From our pals at Photojojo comes this awesome DSLR Bank. And why is it awesome? Well, first of all, it looks like a real DSLR camera. In fact, it looks so real, you could use it as a prop, and that’s cool. Heck, maybe someone will get one of these and mount a real camera inside of it! (Personally, I’m waiting for the Nikon version.) Oh, and it’s also amusing that you’d hide your money in something that (if it were real) would probably cost 500 times the amount of money you have hidden in the thing. I mean, if I were a thief, I’d grab a DSLR because they’re expensive, and then HA! the joke is on them because they’re only getting $8 in change instead of a nice camera they can sell for some quick cash.