Today’s the Day!
Get out there and make something besides HTTP requests and log files…
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The Maker Movement (Audio)
Matt Gauger and I talked about the The Maker Movement at the February 2011 Web414 Meeting. Here’s the audio in case you missed it.
Besides the history of the maker movement, and the modern-day rise of it, we talked about Hackerspaces and Makerspaces, how they may be similar or different, as well as some of the things that go on at a makerspace, and what type of people (and things) you might find at one. We also talked about our own place here in town, the Milwaukee Makerspace.
We really didn’t do a lot of planning for this talk, as we were filling in for someone with another topic who couldn’t make it, but I think that’s fine, and just goes to show that you really don’t need to prepare that much to speak at Web414, as long as you know the subject, and can speak intelligently about it (or fake it like we did) you’re good to go.
You can find the audio at Ourmedia or the Internet Archive, and you can download an MP3 of this talk.
Also, if you want to get all of the audio I publish automagically downloaded podcasting style, subscribe to the feed.
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Laser-Cut Cardboard House
I took the family to Discovery World over the weekend and we checked out the Design It! Lab where we built laser-cut cardboard houses. (Well, the kids and I built houses, Dr. Dana made a snowflake ring.)
I was a little disappointed there wasn’t as much “designing” and “making” as I thought there would be. We were handed a piece of laser-cut cardboard (with no instructions) and were tasked with putting it together by folding it along the score lines, and inserting tabs. I was hoping for a bit more… I wanted to use a laser-cutter, or at least see one in operation. It sounded like if you sign up for classes, you get to do a bit more hands-on things like that. Maybe the kids and I are just so used to making things that this seemed fairly simple to us. For first-time makers, maybe this is a good starting point.
On the bright side, I did drop the names of some people I know who work there, and the Design It! Lab guy brought out the Makerbot for me to see. It’s not quite up and running yet, but should be soon.
(If you’re interested, I’ve written up a review of our Discovery World experience over at Yelp.)
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Misfits: wants vs. needs
Sometimes, when a band acts childish or selfish, you try to reason with them, and show them what is really important in life… you can often do this by asking them to make a list with two columns, one listing the things they want, and another listing the things they need.
In most cases, this wants vs. needs list puts things into perspective. (In most cases…)
(And yes, I was totally inspired by the horror business chart.)
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My first sugru hack
I remember hearing about sugru last year, and looking through some of the ways people have used it, and thought I should get some of this magical substance to play with. What is sugru? Well, it’s a magical material that cures at room temperature, is self-adhesive, waterproof, flexible, and dishwasher-proof. See the blog for more info.
One thing that’s been broken in our house for a while is the electric griddle. I’ve had it for a long time, and it still works, and I’m a fan of repairing rather than replacing things, as it helps save money, as well as the planet. We’ve been using the griddle for years, but have always been annoyed at the cracked edge piece.
I ended up drilling a few small holes and twisting up some wire to bind the broken pieces together. Wire worked great for this. I didn’t want to mess around with trying to fit a small piece of metal, or any sort of screws in place. But the wire isn’t exactly pretty… and it’s got those pointy ends.
sugru to the rescue… I took the black sugru and molded it around the top of the crack, covering the wire. It’s still not the prettiest thing in the world, but it’s a big improvement.
My only complaint about sugru is that it has a shelf life of about 6 months, but then again… once you start using it, you start to see all the little things around the house that sugru could make better, so chances are, I’ll have used it all up 6 months from now anyway. :)