It's Getting Better All The Time

Our fourth year at Maker Faire (Bay Area) has come and gone and I have to say that it was the best one yet. There were even more makers on hand exhibiting their talents, as well as an impressive number of how-to activities available to attendees. It was a whirlwind few days full of friends, whimsy, discovery, absurdity, laughter, learning, and lot of fun.

ArcAttack's Tesla Coils and "The Imperial March"

E's 3-DIY exhibit has grown along with the show. He started out showing off some of his homebrew displays and rigs on his own and then expanded to sharing a small area in a large hall with a couple of friends on either side. This year, he was asked by the Maker Faire producers to curate an entire room of 3-D goodness, which came to be known as the 3-D Village. The dimly lit room contained Do-It-Yourself 3-D Cameras and Displays, 3D Phantogram Imagery, 3D Virtual Reality for the iPhone, Hologlyphics, [I am a Bird], as well as other live 3-D projection, demos, and imagery by at least three other artists. We were swamped the entire weekend. Fortunately, we finally managed to get some friends to come up, help out, and join in the fun.

Even with the extra hands on deck, we seemed to get away even less, perhaps because of the high traffic. I did steal away though to watch the ArcAttack group perform a few times (see video above) and managed to take a stroll with some droids. I also finally got over to the EepyBird Coke Zero and Mentos show, which was tons of fun! One of the guys visited our table and was super nice.

At the end of Sunday, a few of us got to shoot OK Go's supremely absurd (which I mean in a very good way) partially submerged performance in 3-D. Hopefully, some of that footage will be publically available soon. The video above shows "rehearsal" and some of the show.

If you didn't make it to this Maker Faire, hope to see you at one in the not-so-distant future!

In The Merry Month Of May

I know I should update my calendar on the right side there. May has been an amazingly fun and busy, sleepless month though, so I sort of hate to remove things. I'm working on a post that should go up this weekend and perhaps I will update by then. June looks so sad with only one event. I know there are other things I haven't added yet and some that will added along the way.

"...think about new & creative ways to engage young people in science & engineering, like science festivals, robotics competitions, & fairs..."

I know I bitched a lot about Maker Faire on twitter. I spite of that, I did actually have a good time. I mainly complained because it was a non-violent outlet for those moments when I really felt the need to stab people. Most of the folks I met were polite, intelligent, and eager to learn about our array of 3D displays. Then there were the a-holes. We had a lot of electronics at our table, such as projectors, LCD shutter glasses, paired still DSLR cameras, several video cameras. I was amazed that in the first half-hour an ADULT threw a pair of the expensive glasses across the table. I said "Dude!" and he mumbled "Oh, sorry" and walked off. Jerk. I grew weary of telling kids to stop pushing our tables. Most of their parents were present and watched as the kids continued to push the tables 4-5 times. Next year, we will put up a barrier. Oh, and SO many pairs of the plastic glasses we borrowed from the L.A. 3D Club were broken. We've been using them at the club meetings for years without such breakage.

While Comic-Con is a haven for geeks, Maker Faire is all about the nerds. Hardcore nerds. One of my favorite things at the event is the t-shirts. And they're nerdy, not ironic. Since I had my own hectic craft exhibit last year and worked at E's even busier booth this year, I only have a photo (above) from 2007. I made a mental note though of a few of my favorites over the course of this past weekend. I really wish I'd taken snapshots of them.

The cutest was one that luckily E pointed out to me. I would have missed it. The shirt had a schematic of a turbine engine, which contained a hamster wheel. Next to it was a little hamster dressed like an aviator. Unfortunately, it was a Shirt.Woot exclusive.

Seen on a shirt somewhere in San Mateo:

SCIENCE. It works, bitches.

When I was your age, Pluto was a planet.

Every time you call tech support, God kills a kitten.

There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to catch up on life after the blur of the weekend and get moving on the next things, on which I'm already behind. Sometime in the near future, I'll try to post a couple of the five or so 3D photos I took at the faire. I know at least a couple turned out fairly decent and I still have a few to download. In the meantime, grab your red/cyan glasses and check out E's blog where he posted a 3D video of Eepybird's Diet Coke & Mentos fountain.

The risk takers, the doers, the makers of things...

Maker Faire 2009
Bay Area (San Mateo, CA)

Not Yet

I'd hope to report on my Maker Faire experience, but am just too tired. We got in around 1:30 this morning. I hugged the dogs and went to bed as I had to be at work by 7:30 am. I was nearly a zombie by 6pm. Well, I actually didn't even to make it to the end of my workday and left a little after 5. I haven't uploaded photos from before, during, and after Maker Faire. There will be shots of giant metal sculptures, various creative craft hamsters, and elephant seals, among other things. E is also still working on getting his 3D photos online, but you can view a set from Maker Day here with your red/cyan glasses (with red on the left).

Maker Faire '08-Day 1

Before:

During:

After:

I ran out of almost all of my supplies over the course of the day. So, I had to go to Michaels when the show ended.

SuperHam!

Long day of setting up for the start of Maker Faire in...oh crap!...a few hours! I'm excited, but a bit nervous about how it will go. I've made some specialty hamsters recently and really like this one from today:

Live From San Mateo!

I'd hoped to do a proper post tonight, since it's been a few days and I have material. Oh well, it's not happening. We made it to the Bay Area safely, got a little sleep and had a very eventful Maker Day. We've been rendering, printing, and doing other various tasks to get ready for Set Up Day, which starts in less than 7 hours! So, I'll leave you with a crappy camera phone picture of one of the awesome outdoor displays that is already in place at Maker Faire. It's made out of steel cables and is ginormous (check out the humans in the photo for comparison).

More later. Sooner than later, I hope. And for those of you coming to the event, my booth is #290 in Expo Hall (Orange).

Make Me One With Everything

I know there is a lot going on this weekend, but I'm spending my time getting ready for next weekend. I'll be up north in San Mateo for the 2008 Maker Faire. E and I participated in the first one last year, so I speak from experience when I tell you that it's a great time and worth the trip!

This year is a little different in that instead of E having two exhibits, at which I helped, and us having one shared exhibit, we each have our own! E will be displaying various 3D wonders at his booth, as well as a drive-in movie on Saturday night. I will hold workshops on making craft hamsters. I'm hoping they are as popular with the kids as they are with a friend's son.

We are both looking forward to this event, but have a lot to get done in the next few days before leaving for the Bay Area. If you make it to the faire, please come by and say hi and maybe even make a hamster!

Let's Wrap This Up

I've started a final Maker Faire post a couple of times and it seems to be heading in a bad (too long and too boring) direction. Feel free not to read any further (you know who you are). My feelings will not be hurt.

The Arrival (Thursday)
Having decided to get some sleep, rather than drive through the night without any shut-eye, we arrived in San Mateo later than intended. Thursday was "Maker Day," complete with presentations by and for participating makers. We managed to catch some of the nighttime program and pick up our credentials. Luckily, the drive itself was uneventful. Due to the amount of gear we had to haul, and the fact that we'd be leaving E's car in our exhibit, we traveled separately in our own cars. After the programming winded down, we checked in to our hotel and searched the internet for late-night dining. We ended up at Heidi's Pies, which did the trick. The pumpkin pie slice we shared was excellent.

Set Up Day (Friday)
We arrived nice and early for set up. Not too many other exhibitors were in our area yet and tables and chairs were still being delivered. It was a good thing though, as we had to negotiate and figure out our space a bit. We were able to get E's Scion xB in place and work out the rest of the layout. It took most of the day to get the three things we brought set up. Our neighbors started arriving later in the day. We were right near some cool folks from a program at NYU. Our friends from Machine Project were close by too. We shared tools and a few laughs while getting everything in order. E and I made a last minute dash to Radio Shack for some extension cords and PowerSquids®.

After finalizing the exhibits, we hopped on a veggie oil powered bus that took us to a yoga retreat in Half Moon Bay. We had a very healthy dinner, took a walk down to the ocean, and hung out with other makers by fire pits. Even though it was pretty chilly, it was quite a treat.

Maker Faire, Day 1 (Saturday)
It turns out that our live 3D video display was quite popular! Our table stayed quite busy for much of the day. As I mentioned before, E and I didn't get out of the exhibit much to see anything. Somehow, it was still a lot of fun. One of the highlights for me was meeting Madretz in person. She has a great post, complete with photos, describing some of the fun things she saw at the event. You might even see someone you recognize!

In spite of our exhaustion, we headed straight to Berkeley from the show for a MobMov drive-in. It ended up being a much later night than I anticpated as we got stuck in some gnarly traffic as we made our way back to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. We learned a lot about the local drivers and came to the conclusion that many seem to be quite aggressive. I suppose it could have been the traffic. For all of L.A.'s car congestion, I haven't experienced this kind of driving.

Maker Faire, Day 2 (Sunday)
The morning started with me making a trip out to my car and feeling something really uncomfortable in my boot. I definitely wore the wrong shoes on Saturday and had switched. So, I took it off, only to discover several bits of hamster chow in the bottom! Yeah. I tossed the seeds and nuggets to a squirrel who was sitting near the hotel door. He wasn't too interested though, as he'd found a slice of pizza which he proceeded to carry up a tree. And me without my camera. Anyway, back to the show.

We learned a bit about the crowd density at our booth on Saturday, primarily that it was much thinner early on. I think since there were so many things to see outdoors at the faire, including robots and fire, that it took a while for people to wander into the buildings. So, E went off to see what he could first thing. That way, we'd have fewer technical inquiries about the 3D displays that I couldn't answer. There were some hardcore nerds asking really tough, detailed questions! When E returned, I got to look around a bit. I was excited to see the Life Size Mousetrap game in action. I took some photos and spent a lot of time in the Bazaar Bizarre area, hemming and hawing over which tote bag to get. I bought one, but ended up with two. However, that is another story.

Our overall Maker Faire experience was wonderful. The staff of the event were really nice and helpful. They really put an effort into making it as fun for the makers as for the attendees. It was also really inspiring to be around so many smart and creative people. We're planning to go next year, whether or not we are exhibiting anything. Of course, E does have some ideas brewing so we shall see.

I did mention before that I was pretty astounded by the behavior of some members of the general public. I guess that is to be expected. It did inspire me to create a list of rules, which I'm sure none of my readers need, but definitely were not followed by all of our visitors.

Exhibit Hall Rules (For Asshats)

• Do not leave your garbage or snack crumbs on exhibit tables.

• Do not manhandle, drop, or throw down items that are on display.

• Just because it is on display does not mean you can take it.

• Do not knock over items and walk away, pretending you didn't.
  

• Do not walk through the back of our booth, unplugging our equipment and causing computers to crash.
  

• Do not repeatedly swing your full cup of beer (or any other liquid) over our expensive electronic equipment.
  

• Supervise your damn children so they don't do any of the above.

• When the show is over (you and I both know that you heard the announcement)...LEAVE!

I'm slowly posting some of the photos I took. There are also many blogs, photos, and videos about the 2007 Bay Area Maker Faire if you search.

The Departure
It took a few hours to pack up and load out Sunday night. We got some dinner and then watched Lost back in the hotel room. E had burned the week's episode onto a dvd and we projected it on the wall. We slept in on Monday and hit the road in the early afternoon. We took the longer route home (the 101). It added a couple of hours to trip, but had much less uphill than the 5, which we drove in on. Our cars, especially E's, were so loaded down that we wanted to minimize the climbing. On one stretch of the homeward bound drive, I got 42 mpg, which was pretty exciting. I do too much surface street driving to ever get that in L.A.

E has moved on to the next big geek activity as this weekend is the big 30th Anniversary Star Wars Celebration. I'm working tomorrow, but will probably check it out on Monday. If I finish unpacking.

The End Of Maker Faire, But Not The Final Post

Maker Faire 2007 was a great experience and I'm really glad E and I had a chance to participate. If we have the opportunity in the future though we will have fewer exhibits (we had three) and we will hopefully have some help to cover for breaks, etc. After getting a feel for the crowd flow on Saturday, we did each get to take some time today to check out other makers and vendors, as well as do some shopping. I even got to take some photos, which I will get around to uploading eventually.

Due to generalized exhaustion and achiness, I can't think straight enough to do a proper post. I will write up something a bit more detailed about what we did with a photo or two. I'll even include the snarky list of rules I was inspired to create today.

Survived Day One

Maker Faire, Day One is done. I don't have time to say much. I honestly didn't really get to see anything as our tables were so busy. I did get to meet a lovely bloggy friend in person, which was fun! There was also a surprise run-in with a co-worker who I didn't even know was going to be here. I'm thinking I need to try to arrive super-early tomorrow to see what I can before the throngs of people* arrive.

*I am amazed at how many people are rude asshats** and have no respect for property one is displaying. Amazed.

**Lots of folks are nice too.

Set Up Day

We arrived in San Mateo much later yesterday than we intended (I think Brenda can relate to that), but it was worth it to celebrate a friend's birthday Wednesday night and then actually get some sleep. We caught the evening programs at least. We got to the Expo Center nice and early today and don't even have our tables yet to set things up on. At least we can get the MobMov car positioned and the screen up.

Looking forward to tomorrow. Maker Faire seems like a really cool event. I'll hopefully get a change to take some photos. I'm also excited to possibly be meeting a couple of friends from the blogosphere in person!

Come On Down & Meet Your Maker

Eric and I are finalizing things for his Maker Faire exhibits. I'll possibly be doing some 'live blogging' from the event. Until then, my presence around here may be scarce, but don't worry, things are okay.