zerotomaker

Maximizing Your ROA (Return on Adventure)

Maximizing Your ROA (Return on Adventure)

I think we need a new measurement for tracking the success of our maker ventures, a new yardstick. I propose “Return on Adventure,” something perhaps intangible, but no less important in factoring into your “ROI.” Here’s a report on my ROA: “Excuse me sir, is this your luggage?” Without fail, the TSA agent walked out […]

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Oru – The Origami Kayak

Oru – The Origami Kayak

Last week, I had the pleasure of testing out Oru Kayak, the world’s first origami kayak. It was wonderful! Anton Willis, the designer, and I met at the Berkeley Marina to put his latest iteration to the test. I had been watching Anton construct the kayak for months at TechShop and had always bugged him […]

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Many (Maker) Hands…

Many (Maker) Hands…

A few weeks ago, Makezine ran a feature on Adam Ellsworth and Bryan Duxbury’s delightful Cube Lamp. The write-up did a wonderful job of exploring how entrepreneurs and makers meet at makerspaces and create businesses. Having myself worked out of TechShop in San Francisco, where a permanent Cube Lamp has hung over the entrance to […]

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Zero to Maker: At Least I’m Not Alone

Zero to Maker: At Least I’m Not Alone

Turns out, a woodshop class isn’t the best place to chat – noisy saws and vents, coupled with a constant vigilance over not losing a thumb. I was glad to see Travis again on Wednesday morning, with a window of relative quiet in the shop, and to hear more about how his journey was going.

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OpenROV to Perform Preliminary Dives

OpenROV to Perform Preliminary Dives

As you may already know, David Lang, our Zero to Maker columnist, is involved in the OpenROV project, an open source camera-equipped R/C submersible, designed to look for water-burired treasure. They’re taking the ROV prototypes up to Hall City Cave in Northern, CA tomorrow for some preliminary dives. How exciting!

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