Tag: milwaukee

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South Shore Frolics Parade

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!

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BarCampMilwaukee… Six!

BarCampMilwaukee5

Remember when you first heard about BarCamp? In case you forgot, the first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California, from August 19–21, 2005. Good old Wikipedia has a BarCamp page we’ve pointed many people to.

Back in 2005 I was pretty heads down and wasn’t really involved in Milwaukee’s technology or web communities. (I really don’t know what communities existed prior to 2006, so I’ll just say I wasn’t involved.)

Hypnotoad

So in 2006 I found myself in need of some networking, and community, and so on, and ended up going to the Milwaukee Web Design Meetup in May and June of 2006, and just after that, I wrote a blog post titled BarCampMilwaukee? Which, unless anyone wants to dispute, may have been the first seed of the tree that grew to be what we now know as the mighty oak that is… BarCampMilwaukee.

Lots of people helped along the way, including Justin Kruger, who ended up finding James Carlson and Bucketworks, which ended up being the venue for the first BarCampMilwaukee.

BarCampMilwaukee Introductions

Bucketworks also hosted the third and fifth BarCampMilwaukee, and for the second and forth, we were unable to use their building (moving, floods, occupancy issues, etc.) they got us venues to use. Bucketworks also acted as the fiscal sponsor for BarCampMilwaukee, allowing us to operate as a non-profit organization. In my opinion, Bucketworks (and their parent organization, The School Factory) have been more than just a venue over the years, they’ve been a great partner and a significant reason why BarCamp happens here in Milwaukee.

Bucketworks has had its share of ups and downs, and they ain’t perfect, and they don’t always get everything right, but for six years now, they’ve been a part of the BarCampMilwaukee experience. With BarCampMilwaukee6 coming up, it’s nice to know we have a solid venue with tables, chairs, an Internet connection, WiFi, a kitchen, lots and lots of space, and the things (and people!) we need to put on a user-generated conference.

BarCampMilwaukee2 Buttons

So, BarCampMilwaukee6? Yup, it’s happening October 1st-2nd, 2011 at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I just renewed barcampmilwaukee.org and at some point the updates will start flowing, and shirts will be made, and meals will be planned, and we’ll do it all again, for the sixth time.

I hope to see you there! :)

Update: I mentioned Justin above, but I also should have mentioned Bob Waldron! Take a look at his blog posts from July 2006 and you’ll see that he and Justin were sort of running parallel to my initiative, and once we found each other and joined forces, things started to happen. Thanks Bob!

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Make: Live – Milwaukee Makerspace

Make: Live

It seems strange that it was just February that the Milwaukee Makerspace was finally settling into their new space and I stopped by to shoot a few photos. About two months after that they had their open house and now just two months after that we worked with Make: Live as part of the Hakerspace Roadshow.

I ended up talking with Matt from Make: Live about my Photo Booth project, and he pitched the idea of including the Milwaukee Makerspace in Make: Live’s Hakerspace Roadshow. The guys were more than happy to be a part of it, so we took it from there.

Make: Live

I did the camerawork, via the Logitech C910 connected to my MacBook and we did a test Skype call with Tim from The DHMN before Make: Live called us. The quality suffers a bit from the whole process, but it is a live show. It was challenging, but I think it turned out well.

Walking around with the MacBook, looking at the screen while the camera pointed outward was not easy. The image was flipped since Skype expects the camera to be facing you, not away from you. I don’t know if there’s some trick/hack for reversing the screen, but it would come in handy.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, check it out. It was also great to see the other spaces, Twin Cities Maker, i3Detroit, and Noisebridge. It was inspiring to see all the other space, and fun to work with Make: Live. I hope we can collaborate again in the future!

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BusyTime!

Whew, it’s been a little crazy these past few weeks… Here’s a quick recap.

I started off May by declaring it Processing Month. I ended up doing well for a while, but things got quiet near the end of May. That’s not to say I wasn’t doing anything, as I was actually working on a Processing application that will be part of my show at Bay View Gallery Night.

Controller (in progress)

That’s all I’ll say about that right now. If you want to see it, come to the Milwaukee Makerspace June 3rd, 2011, otherwise, I’ll post more about it next week.

Speaking of the Milwaukee Makerspace, I may be working with Make:Live on their June 8th, 2011 show to do a live call-in from the space. That should be cool… assuming it all works. As much as the Internet provides a good amount of magic, it’s the kind of magic that doesn’t always work.

Speaking of Make, they had a nice little post about my Photo Booth project. Which, by the way, will also be at the Milwaukee Makerspace for Gallery Night. (Seriously, I may need to get a trailer for the CR-V soon!)

Egg-Bot at Higher Learning Day

Speaking of eggs, I also joined Sean from Milwaukee Makerspace to do a “Higher Learning” day at an elementary school, which included demoing the Egg-Bot all day long. It was fun but exhausting. Kids have a lot of energy, and more than one told me they were “unpatient” whatever that is…

And because that’s not enough going on, we’re also doing the second PhotoCampMilwaukee on June 4th, 2011.

The next few months may have a few more surprises in store, they might not all be good, but I’m sure it’ll be an adventure… Happy motoring!

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Processing: TouchOSC

TouchOSC

Today in Processing we’re trying out OSC (Open Sound Control) with TouchOSC.

Jason (@plural) is one of those smart guys that hangs out at the Milwaukee Makerspace, and he’s mentioned OSC a bit before, and I figured it was time to take a look.

I got TouchOSC installed on my iPad and I tested it out as a control surface for Apple’s Logic, which was pretty cool, but then I wanted to test it with Processing. Luckily, Stefan Goodchild, made this simple with his TouchOSCAccel code on GitHub.

In the image above, the red one on the left represents the tilt of the iPad as it’s sending data to Processing. The yellow one on the right is the iPad when it’s upside down. (The iPad connects to Processing running on my Mac via WiFi. Remote Control!)

I haven’t even tried to tweak the code yet, but figured I’d mention this neat little combo, because, you know, there may be times you want to control something in Processing using something besides a potentiometer connected to an Arduino.

Note: You will need the oscP5 library.