Tag: milwaukee

BarCampMilwaukee… Six!

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-06-24

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.)

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.

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.

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!

Tags barcamp, barcampmilwaukee, barcampmilwaukee6, barcampmke, barcampmke6, bcmke, bcmke6, bucketworks, milwaukee

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Make: Live – Milwaukee Makerspace

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-06-10

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!

Tags hackerspace, make, makelive, makerspace, milwaukee

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BusyTime!

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-06-03

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.

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!)

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!

Tags gallerynight, makeasketch, makerspace, milwaukee, photocamp, photocampmilwaukee, processing

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Processing: TouchOSC

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-05-24

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.

Tags code, ipad, makerspace, milwaukee, processing

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Milwaukee Robotics Club Meeting

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-05-23

I attended the Milwaukee Robotics Club Meeting on May 21st, 2011 at the Milwaukee Makerspace. There were a handful of people in the electronics lab working on various electronics and robotics projects.

David had a quadcopter assembled, and was doing some early testing. He started out with it tied down to a table and after things seemed to be working, he ended up doing a short flight. It looks like getting the hang of flying it may take some time, but it’s a pretty cool looking project.

David also had his “Junkbot” there as well. I think it’s pretty sweet looking, and undeserving of the name “Junkbot” but hey, he can call it what he wants! It sounds like most of David’s robots will eventually have cameras mounted on them. Robot overlord will be watching over us soon…

Jason and his daughter had a LEGO Mindstorms robot that they were controlling with an Android app that they wrote. Also, take note programmers: if you’re thinking of using the word “no” try using the word “false” instead. Great advice from Jason! :)

As for me, I continue to work on Drawbot, mainly the actual programming of it. I got there late and had to leave early, so I didn’t get too much done, but it was fun and inspiring to see what everyone else was working on. Royce also said that he’s willing to help anyone who has a project started, or in mind. He’s sort of the robotics expert around the Makerspace.

I believe meetings will be the third Saturday of each month, from 1pm to 4pm. I’m pretty sure I won’t make it in June since it’s my birthday, but stop by if you can and see what’s happening.

Tags makerspace, milwaukee, robots