Make: Online: Announcements Archives

Archive: Announcements

July 3, 2009

Apply for an Awesome Grant!

That's not an adjective in the title, "Awesome Grant" is the actual name of the grant, from the Awesome Foundation, of Cambridge, MA. Each month, they give away $1,000 to someone who wants to do something... well awesome. Here's how they define what they're looking for:

Awesomeness is often overlooked by mainstream culture, which tends to rehash the same broadly appealing but mediocre creations. Thankfully, there is the web.

Awesomeness is more the product of a creator's passion than the prospect of audience or profit. Awesome creations are novel and non-obvious, evoking surprise and delight. Invariably, something about them perfectly reflects the essence of the medium, moment, or method of creation. Awesomeness challenges and inspires.

You enter the proposals on their site and they only need to be 500 words. If you get accepted, you even get access to workspace to realize your project (if you live in the Boston area).

If any of our readers submit a proposal that gets accepted, please let us know. We're sure there are plenty of awesome ideas bouncing around the noggins of Make: Online readers.

The Awesome Foundation

June 29, 2009

MAKE classifieds deadline fast approaching

Interested in placing a Classified ad in Make: Volume 19? Email classifieds@makezine.com for more information. Time is running out, and your ad must be placed by 11:59pm PDT on Wednesday, July 1st. One lucky reader will win a 4-line classified ad in Make: Volume 19 ($160 value) by emailing classifieds@makezine and inquiring about advertising in our Classified section. The winner will be notified Thursday morning, and if the winner already paid for an ad, he/she will be credited.

Got something cool you want to sell, have a service to offer fellow readers, looking for some precious widget that only another maker might have stashed away in the garage? The Make: MINImarketplace offers a place for you to reach the maker community for a very reasonable price.

MINImarketplace Classified Ad Specs:
Ads are $40 per line
40 characters per line
Minimum 4 lines, Maximum 16 lines

Eurekafest @ MIT

Make: television had a blast shooting this past week at Eurekafest, the Lemelson-MIT Program's celebration of invention. We were there to capture the spirit behind inventing and talk to high school and college students about their experiences as inventors. Groups from all over the country came to participate in a four-day-long series of design challenges, invention presentations, and more.

We wanted to try something a little different from the look of Make: television so we dug up our teleprompter and borrowed a page out of Errol Morris' playbook and did all of the interviews with an interrotron. This is a simple, yet effective way of having the interview subjects communicate directly to the camera, while allowing them to interact with the interviewer and not just a dark lens.

Later this summer, Make: will be releasing a series of short videos that aim to inspire new generations of inventors as a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program. Stay tuned to Make: Online for more information.

June 27, 2009

ARRL Field Day 2009

Today is Field Day, the annual event where thousands of hams across the nation publicly demonstrate their emergency communication abilities. You can find hams constructing emergency stations in parks, schools, backyards and shopping malls operating using only emergency power supplies. If you are interested in getting started with ham radio but don't have a license, today is a great day to do so. Field Day is one of the few opportunities when you can operate without a license at the GOTA (get on the air) stations (which are supervised by licensed hams).

You can find your local field day station on the ARRL Web station locator.

June 26, 2009

Next Dorkbot DC, Tuesday July 7, 2009

Dorkbot DC has been on a hiatus for the past few months, but we're back, baby! July will be the first of a series of some events co-presented with our pals at HacDC. If you're in town, we hope you can make it.

Schedule for next meeting (Co-presented with HacDC)

7 July, 2009
7 PM - 8 PM (ET)
ALWAYS FREE!

Location:
HacDC (Room TBA)
1525 Newton St NW
Washington DC 20010

Keith Sinzinger with the tubular bells he made.

Keith Sinzinger : Tubular Bells: Construction and Processing

Photo by Keith Sinzinger.

Fresh from having performed in the Baltimore Electronic Music Festival Keith will talk about how he conceived of, researched and constructed a set of tubular bells from scrap galvanized pipe. He'll also touch on some other ongoing musical construction projects. Following a Q&A session, he'll demonstrate the bells as he generally use them in performance, processed through a variety of electronic effects.

About Fast Forty
Keith calls this genre Intense Ambient: found sounds, altered electronics, scrap metal and other devices, blended to soothe and stimulate. His musical roots were developed in an industrial city (Cleveland), where he grew up in the virtual shadow of a Ford plant. He's also lived most of his years within a few blocks of railroads. His musical experiments tend to reflect these environmental influences.

DorkbotDC would like to thank HacDC, DC's hacker space, for arranging this talk and inviting us to co-present with them.

More info here.

June 25, 2009

MAKE Out Session event, July 5, 2009

If you're in Austin on July 5th, be sure to check out Art Seen Alliances' MAKE Out Sessions event at the USAA at Spider House.

Meet. Mix. Make.

Come share your crafty concepts with other makers while enjoying drinks, food, and music.

Free MAKE magazine swag! BYOS (bring your own supplies) For more information, visit Art Seen Alliance.

June 24, 2009

Core 77 + Nidecker Snowboard Design Competition

Everyone who knows me knows I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about snowboarding, yes, even in June. Designers, artists, crafters, makers: here's a competition after my own heart. Core 77 design mag and Nidecker snowboard company are challenging designers to create the next generation of snowboard graphics. Designers can submit designs of any style or content, and participants have the entire topsheet of the board as their canvas. The top 5 designs will be applied to Nidecker snowboards and displayed at international tradeshow, along with profiles of the winning designers. The grand prize winner will receive a $2500 cash award, and their design will be included in the 2010/11 Nidecker line. The 4 runners up will each be produced in a limited edition run. All top 5 finalists will receive a Nidecker snowboard produced with their design, and the designer's name will be featured on the side of their board. Get more details and download the template here.

June 18, 2009

MSI Chicago hosts World's Fair simulation this weekend

If you're in Chicago this weekend, you might want to check out the Museum of Science and Industry's World's Fair simulation. From the site:

Unless you're a Chicago history buff, you may not know that the Columbian Exposition — also referred to as "The White City" or the World's Fair of 1893 — was a source of inspiration for Daniel Burnham's audacious 1909 Plan for Chicago, which provided a vision of what a well-ordered and attractive city of the future could be. The Plan for Chicago has inspired generations of Chicagoans and city lovers worldwide. This year, the Burnham Plan Centennial is a regional event celebrating the Plan's legacy and looking forward to the bold, new plans for the region. In coordination with this special anniversary year, the Museum will be offering guests another chance to "stroll" through the White City.

Dr. Lisa Snyder, associate director of outreach and operations for UCLA's Experimental Technologies Center and the UCLA Urban Simulation team, will be presenting the recreation of the White City using real-time video simulation technology. Tim Samuelson, cultural historian for the City of Chicago, will provide expert commentary and insight.

Notably, MSI is housed in the only remaining building from the Exposition: the Palace of Fine Arts. The simulation will be offered on June 19th and 20th at 1 p.m. Check the site for more info.

June 17, 2009

Make: television Father's Day marathon

Checkout Create TV this Saturday, June 20 for an all-day marathon of Make: episodes. Starting at 6am and going until midnight you can see every episode of Make: in HD. We don't actually recommend watching that much TV, hopefully you head out of the living room and into the garage and to build something you saw. Remember, all of the Maker Workshop projects have detailed PDFs on makezine.tv. It's still a great time to build your own DTV Antenna!

June 15, 2009

MakerBot raffle results fixed announced

Providence's AS220 Labs just released the results of their recent MakerBot raffle. The lucky winner is our very own inimitable and irreplaceable Becky Stern. Grats, Becky!

More:

June 8, 2009

Paper Yachts contest last call

Just a reminder about our Paper Yachts book contest, closing tomorrow at midnight PDT. Please add your comments below, or in the original post, if you want to be considered for the drawing.

More:
Paper Yachts book contest

Dorkbot SF celebrates db's 7th anniversary

Dorkbot SF is celebrating the org's seventh anniversary with a party at The Boiler Bar (2600 Magnolia @ 26th West Oakland, CA), 8:00pm - 2:00am, Saturday June 20, 2009.

Featuring:

Twin 15 Foot Tesla Coils just to light a lightbulb!
Golden Mean, Marriage Wrecker and Muffin Art Cars!
Tasty Food by Nick & Kiva
Beer by Lagunitas
Spark Bar hosted by Amy and Brian
Boiler Bar! Fire Gardens! LIVE ELECTROCUTIONS by the 1928 Hogan Device!

Complete information and presenter bios on host Jon Sarriugarte's 7 Year Dorkbot Anniversary Party blog post here.

June 4, 2009

Last week in Tweets

Book-A-Day in May
Last week was the last in our Book-A-Day in May, where we gave away Maker's Notebooks to 20 Twitter followers and four Arduino MEGAs.

Last week's winners of Maker's Notebooks were @j0nny5 @Arroxane @1stPageofGoogle @philomathickat @johalloran

The winner of last week's Arduino MEGA microcontroller was @eemaguire

If you haven't direct-messaged us on Twitter, please do it now so we can get the books out to you.

Twittering Maker Faire
Thanks to everyone who Twittered about Maker Faire and who sent us in tips for @FaireTraffic. We had a fabulous Faire and the traffic and parking situations were relatively painless/smooth, given the tens of thousands of people moving in and out of the area. We heard few complaints about significant bottlenecks.

Make: Tips
Don't forget to subscribe to @make_tips, if you don't already, and to send us tips. Here are a few recent ones:

# Silver binder clips as emergency cufflinks: http://bit.ly/mBvqU

# For a nice finish with spray paint, sand before you prime, and prime before you paint. Follow up with several thin clear coats.

# A jewelers wooden ring clamp is awesome for holding small parts: http://bit.ly/10UAZm (via @wackyvorlon)

# Embroidery floss organizers work great for storing components when traveling. Get them at the craft store.

June GO Tech (Ann Arbor, MI), Tuesday, June 9, 7PM

The June GO-Tech (Ann Arbor, MI) meeting is this Tuesday, June 9, at 7pm. Everyone is welcome.

Rick Chownyk will be demonstrating aluminum casting and Gene David (Portland, MI) will be showing off his steam-powered motorcycle in progress. Plus, there will be the usual assortment of 5-minute presentations -- bring cool demos. Topics in the past have ranged from metal casting to PCB design to web-based home automation and everything in-between.

Door prizes! Circuit Cellar Ink sent GO Tech a box of goodies - magazines plus some development systems.

The meeting is at 7 pm at A2 MechShop, a shared technical office/shop space located at 240 Parkland Plaza, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 on the west side of Ann Arbor, MI, off of Jackson between Zeeb and Wagner.

They have a video projector (VGA, composite), wireless internet, copier, etc. If you have an idea for a talk longer than five minutes, let them know.

GO Tech (formerly NotBAGO) is a meeting for Ann Arbor area readers of MAKE Magazine, Circuit Cellar, Home Shop Machinist, Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools, Slashdot, etc. That is, people who are interested in and make things using technology, whether that's a metal cutting lathe or a Python script. A kind of generalized mixture of CerealBar, Dorkbot, Oxford Geek night, and Portland Machinist Guild. GO Tech includes machinists, electrical engineers, software folks, industrial control types, and so on. They share projects, information about tools and ideas, and connect with like-minded people.

Meetings are generally the second Tuesday of the month at 7PM.

More info here.

May 29, 2009

California DIY on KQED

Manhattan-based radio reporter and podcast producer Jon Kalish has a story about DIY'ers in northern California airing on The California Report, tomorrow on KQED. (It will also be broadcast on many public radio stations around the state). On KQED, the show can be heard at 4:30pm, 6:30pm, and 11:00pm. And, I assume it can also be heard via their website (though I'm not certain).

The California Report

May 28, 2009

Make: television at Maker Faire

In addition to the hundreds of talented makers at this weekend's Maker Faire, Make: television will be live, featuring...

The Make: television Stage
Meet the makers who appear on the first season, as well as presentations and discussions from MAKE authors and bloggers. All day, Saturday and Sunday, in Expo Hall.

Projects built during the first season
We'll have our Burrito Blaster with plenty of shootables, the VCR Cat Feeder topped off with cat food and a Cigar Box Guitar and Amp ready for rocking.

Bring your USB Drives
Jared Boone of ShareBrained Technology and designer James Provost have made an awesome Make: television Media Vending Machine. Bring a USB drive that's between 512mb and 12GB and load up with HD or media player-friendly versions. The back is completely open so you can how it's made, and Jared will be on hand. Here it is in the testing phase.

Connect with Geek Squad
We're proud to host Geek Squad at this year's Maker Faire. They'll have Geek Squad Agents on hand to answer any of your tech questions as well as a live Twitter stream rolling throughout the weekend.

Tell us what you make!
We're building the momentum for a second season and we want to hear from makers of all sorts. Last year, we found a huge amount of unique makers at Maker Faire and we're hoping to do the same thing this year. Don't be shy, we love show and tell!

May 26, 2009

Helping to support Maker Faire Africa

As we've mentioned here before, Maker Faire Africa is an unofficial Maker Faire (that we've given our blessing to). It's taking place on August 13-15 at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in Accra, Ghana. Our pals over at Afrigadget and Afromusing are trying to get people to spread the word on the event and they're looking for donations to help make it happen. Check it out and support however you can.

Support Maker Faire Africa

Week in tweets

We've entered the last week of our "Book-a-Day in May" contest to give away five free Maker's Notebooks and an Arduino MEGA to people who sign up on @make to follow us. This past week's Notebook winners were:

@jakekooser @davidparmet @MpressMarcy @paperbullet @lilredv1

Winner of the Arduino MEGA is:

@informative

Congrats to the winners. Direct message us your mailing address (if you haven't already) to claim your booty.

Tweets at the Faire
Remember, if you want to track what's going on at Maker Faire, sign up for the @makerfaire Twitter channel. If you're going to the Faire and want to stay abreast of traffic and parking conditions to and from the fairgrounds, sign up for @FaireTraffic before you head out. And please feed us intel as you make your way to and from the Faire -- if you see traffic snags, accidents, experience parking problems, etc.

The "official" hash tag for the Faire is #mf09. If you tweet about the Faire, please add this tag to your post so that others can scoop up your musings.

May 23, 2009

Casting call! Female inventors

Milojo Productions (brainchild of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos) is now casting women with fabulous ideas and great personalities from across America for a new series. The show, set to air on TLC, takes a selected female inventor through the journey of realizing their dream. It's an opportunity to get your product developed, manufactured, marketed, and finally sold on The Home Shopping Network.
The show's casting directors will be accepting submissions through GotCast until the last week of June.

Here's what the video app needs to be:

30-Second Verbal Pitch - Briefly introduce yourself and your product with an intriguing couple of sentences that lets us know what your invention does without having to physically demonstrate it.

Component II: 2-minute Demonstration - Show us your product invention anyway you like, but it must include the demonstration of a working prototype, and it must be done in two minutes or less!

Component III: Bio - give us a little bit about you and perhaps the history of your invention! This is a chance to really let your personality shine through.

Who would you nominate? What would you like to see invented?

May 22, 2009

Open developers conference

Registration is now open for CommunityOne West, June 1-3, 2009, San Francisco.

Get up to speed on dozens of free and open-source projects driving innovation in cloud computing, Web application development, social and collaborative technologies, and more.
The main conference on Monday, June 1, is free, but space is limited. Deep Dive tutorials on Tuesday, June 2, and Wednesday, June 3, require a fee.

Registration information is here.