Maker Faire

The DIY trend is well and truly re-established in America. And by DIY I don't mean all of us who go down to Lowe's or Home Depot every weekend in an attempt to save money on home projects (that end up costing us more half the time anyway). I mean the art/skill of building, hacking or re-constructing things - anything - your self.

Its an art that started with shade tree mechanics and in fact most people who owned a car in the 1950's. In fact, the ethos of self-reliance, responsibility (for keeping one's own things working well) and invention are core American values (think how far lewis and Cark would have gotten without them). Now, with the help of media like MAKE and Howcast they are being pushed into technology and art - but in a way that is more accessible than at any other time.

As a man with two self confessed left hands one of the things I enjoyed about the Faire was that they were projects Aidan and I could feasibly do. OK, maybe the robot ones were a bit far fetched but the 100 bottles of Diet Coke and 600 Mentos were well within our reach. But that, after all, is the promise of the web - open learning, knowledge sharing and the ability to mess with stuff. Which means if there is a maker Faire near you - you have to check it out.



Playcrafter is a website where you can build your own gmes, level by level. Best of all, it's free (or at least the basic level is). They provide the tools - you sequence the action and build the challenges.







Orbiting Eden make handbags with digital photo frames embedded in them. Perfect for mums who like to show off their offspring (or pets) at a moment's notice.



Moto Development Group displayed a huge flat, touch screen sensor table. They had set it up for Blackjack and it worked fairly well (after you got used to how hard to press it. Everyone was wnet nuts when Microsoft showed a prototype of somethign similar - this was just ok. Has te iPhone just made us used to touch screens?

Apart from this were some fantastic sculptures and of course, 2 guys, 102 botles of Diet Coke, and 600 mentos!!


















This was a fully working giraffe robot - very cool piece of work but crap photo by me.