Giant net-enabled Etch A Sketch

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By Gareth Branwyn
Posted 2009/05/13 @ 1:45 pm
Category Fun & Games, Kids & Family, Makers

Does this hacker ever sleep? The prolific Jeri Ellsworth is at it again. Here, she builds a 52″ Etch a Sketch with the screen from a rear-projection TV, some tent poles, screen door pulleys, some cheap Harbor Freight drill motors, a golf tee (for the stylus), and some aluminum powder. They also designed a web interface for their USTREAM live chatroom and are working on hooking up the device so that people in chat can operate the Etch a Sketch. Let me guess how many naughty grade-school squiggles and “bad words” are going to show up on that screen?

Fat Man and Circuit Girl

BY Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn is a freelancer writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture, including the first book about the web (Mosaic Quick Tour) and the Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots. He is currently working on a best-of collection of his writing, called Borg Like Me.

In the Maker Shed

4 Responses to Giant net-enabled Etch A Sketch

Kieran on May 13th, 2009 at 5:46 pm said:

Yet again, another potentially interesting video ruined by shitty editing and the annoying fatman, way to go Jerri.

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- DU on May 13th, 2009 at 5:57 pm said:
  
  Why is that “fatman” guy on there? He never even asks intelligent questions, let alone contributes anything. He just takes up more than half the screen and is a huge distraction.
  
  Jeri rules. (Although her half of the show would be vastly improved by her not having to look off camera constantly to see if she’s in the shot.)
  
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Gareth Branwyn on May 13th, 2009 at 7:47 pm said:

Folks here need to understand what you’re looking at. Fatman and Circuit Girl is a live, USTREAM show of which this is just a segment. It’s live, improvised, low-budget. There is little editing. It’s two groups of geeks (mainly Jeri and George) hanging out at two different locations talking to each other, exchanging ideas, interacting with folks in their chatroom. These vids we post are segments that Jeri slices off and puts up on YouTube and Facebook to show off her hacks. George isn’t doing much of anything ’cause it’s Jeri’s bit, she’s showing him her project. George Sanger is a brilliant guy, an electronic music composer responsible for the soundtracks to lots of video games. Anyway, if the production values are more important to you than something as cool as this Etch A Sketch, or any of the other projects Jeri has shown, then by all means, skip ‘em. Move along, nothing for you to see here.

Oh, and as always, feel free to send us what you’re doing. What projects are you working on? Where are your how-to videos? What have you made that’s worth posting? As the Jeri t-shirt says: “Did you bring a hack?”

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PH on May 14th, 2009 at 8:03 am said:

These guys are thinking outside the box, without a doubt.

regarding Kieran’s and DU’s comments, I thought that Makers were constructive?

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