Tag: makerfaire

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MFMKE MMPIS Countdown

Countdown

So the President (of Milwaukee Makerspace) emails me and says “MMPIS countdown days to Maker Faire… can you make it happen?” Luckily, I can decipher this to mean he’d like to see a countdown screen on the MMPIS. Oh, the MMPIS is the Milwaukee Makerspace Pi-powered Informational System, and whipping up a new screen to do something simple is, well, simple. So I did.

It’s one image, about 20 lines of CSS, 20 lines of HTML, and a few lines of PHP. I hacked together some code, uploaded it, and sent Brant the instructions to load it into the kiosk via Screenly.

So the next time you’re at Milwaukee Makerspace, take a look at the countdown, and then freak out about how little time we have until Maker Faire Milwaukee!

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Power Racing Series – Detroit 2014

lotusrear2

In June we hit up Kansas City, but everyone knows that July means Maker Faire Detroit, and the craziest Power Racing Series event of the year, pulling teams from the Midwest and East Coast (and even NIMBY from the West Coast joined us this time!)

It was definitely crazy, with eighteen cars we ended up splitting one of the races into two heats, one for “fast” cars and one for “slower” cars. (And hey, Audrey drove Lotusaurus Wrecks to victory for Milwaukee Makerspace in the slow race!)

Once again I did a lot of filming during the event, and this time had three GoPro cameras in place. Here’s the official #PPPRS video:

But wait! There’s more! There’s a YouTube playlist titled Power Racing Series – Detroit 2014 with nearly 40 videos of the action. I’ve still got a lot of uploading to do, including more Moxie skits, but it should keep you busy for a while.

As usual, there’s so much going on at Maker Faire, it’s hard to see it all. While in town we also got to visit OmniCorpDetroit and i3Detroit, both awesome makerspaces in the Motor City.

There are still a few more races this season, including Fort Wayne, Indiana, New York City, and even something in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! I’ll be at that last one, as it’s five miles from my house, though I’m not sure about the other two… If anyone wants to sponsor me to attend a Maker Faire, let me know!

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Power Racing Series – Kansas City 2014

Cartastrophe

Last year we did a little Power Racing Series event in Fort Wayne, and at the last minute I was asked to do the filming. Fort Wayne was fairly laid back as compared to some of the other bigger events, but it was a ton of fun. I handed all the footage to Jim at PPPRS and the video turned out good (check it out!)

This year my services were requested again, and I had a bit more time to prepare. Once again, Jim kicked this out pretty quickly, especially considering I handed him about 50GB of footage. (I had a total of five cameras running during some of the races.)

Chances are good I’ll be shooting again in Detroit at the end of the month, and there’s a chance I’ll be shooting in New York in September. If you see a guy laying on the tires with a camera, that’s probably me. (And yeah, I’ll get around to doing my own edit at some point!)

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Maker Faire Milwaukee

Milwaukee Maker Faire

The news is out! We’re throwing a Maker Faire right here in Milwaukee! The fine folks at Milwaukee Makerspace in collaboration with the file folks at the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum have been planning for months (and months!) and can now officially announce our own Maker Faire. (And yes, it’s a full-scale event, not just a Mini Maker Faire. This is going to be big!)

Maker Faire Milwaukee is happening Saturday and Sunday September 27th & 28th, 2014 at Wisconsin State Fair Park. (For the record, this Maker Faire is within 5 miles of my house. Exciting!)

And best of all, this Maker Faire is totally FREE to attend, thanks to the sponsorship of many fine Milwaukee organizations.

So yeah, plan to attend, and check out makerfairemilwaukee.com in the coming weeks as we add more information. If you do the social things, follow @mkemakerfaire, like makerfairemke, and +1 all the posts.

If you’re interested in being involved or helping to run things, get in touch with me and I’ll point you in the right direction.

(And hey, I’ve got plenty of time to prepare my talk…)

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Power Racing Series – Detroit 2013

I posted a nice recap of Power Racing Series adventures at Maker Faire Detroit, but I also compiled this video showing part of the fun.

For those unfamiliar, we take a kid’s Power Wheels vehicle, and refurb it with a stronger frame, bigger motors, better batteries, and then race them. It’s sort of hilarious, but there’s also serious engineering involved.

There’s also a nice pile of photos from the race over on Flickr, so check those out as well.

PPPRS Detroit 2013