I’ve been trying out a new blog system called Tumblr that I’ll be updating instead of this blog for awhile. If you’re one of the 3 people who reads my blog, go to blindteeth.tumblr.com for some actual updates.
My awesome new tattoo
Originally uploaded by MattGrommes.
Courtesy of Alex Werder at Star Tattoo in Albuquerque and his magic tattoo gun.
It looks somehow more mind-blowing in person. Even though it’s on my arm and I watched him do it, I don’t understand how he does it.
And yes, I’m a big nerd.
We now have 23 people signed up at the website for the Idea Propulsion Lab. This is an awesome number. I was hoping to get 10 or so before starting to plan our first meeting so this is great. I’m planning the first meeting, which is really a “beta” meeting where we’ll be talking and planning the next meetings. I’m going to have it at my work since we have a great big conference room with a projector, chairs, tables, all that stuff. I’m probably going to present a few things so we don’t have to rely on people presenting at the first meeting.
The next thing I’ve been looking at is getting our own actual space to work. It’s a little premature I think right now but I’d love to get an office space with a few rooms to setup benches and let people come work. Like I say it’s a bit far off but something I’d really love to do.
I’m in the process of setting up a club for hardware/electronics hackers and hobbyists in Albuquerque. It’s called the Idea Propulsion Lab. I’ve setup a site for the club at http://www.ideapropulsionlab.org. Check it out.
I’ve always loved the idea of getting smart people together and seeing what new ideas can be created. Everybody always thinks it’s weird but I always use the image of rubbing a bunch of brains together and seeing what sparks fly off, what fires can be created. The thing I really loved about going to New Mexico Tech was having a bunch of smart nerds in one place, building off each other, sharing ideas, challenging everything. So I want that to be a big part of the Idea Propulsion Lab, sharing ideas and teaching/learning about hardware, robots, electronic art, whatever.
We’ll be having regular physical meetings so people can show their projects or teach classes. I’d love to have classes where somebody can teach a bunch of people to solder, or make LED art, stuff like that. I want meetings to be live action Instrucables, if you’re familiar with Instructables.com (and if you’re not, you should be). My primary inspirations are MAKE: magazine and Instructables.com.
The most important thing to me is that I want this club to be for people of all skill levels. I just learned to solder in the last month and have only just started my explorations of all this stuff. I have no interest in just having a bunch of experts sit around and talk expert stuff that’s over the head of everybody else. I want club members to teach, to show people just how easy fooling around with electronics has become.
This is going to be fun.
My first actual circuit built using my new Arduino board. I built it using a Protoshield and tutorial from LadyAda.com. If you’re interested in Arduino or just want to start building little circuits, I’d recommend Lady Ada’s site. She’s got a bunch of cool projects you can build, Arduino stuff, and the tutorials are 100% awesome.
My first Wiimote whiteboard experiment, running on my laptop.
I borrowed my friend Tom’s Wii on Friday and got my cheapo diy Wiimote powered whiteboard working just now. Whoohoo! I hit one small snag when I realized that I built my IR light pen using a normally-closed button instead of a normally-open one (which makes the light always on except when you hit the button, instead of the other way around). Oops. A trip to Radio Snack will solve that one though so no worries. I hooked my laptop up to the big TV and got things to mostly work, which is awesome.
I need to remake the light pen and then I’ll post a video of it working. I may or may not post my first video of the rig working, it’s of me writing I AM COOL on the screen of my laptop, hence the title of this post. :)
Technorati Tags: electronics, wiimote, whiteboard
I’ve wanted to start doing electronics work for some time but never got around to buying a soldering iron and related tools, finding a good project, etc. It’s not like I don’t have anything else taking up my free time though. But this year Kim gave me a really cool book on some electronics projects and told me to buy the tools and parts needed so I’m finally going to start with my new hobby. Whoohoo for me! Coincidentally, a guy at work passed around an awesome video of an electronic whiteboard you can make with a Nintendo Wii remote and an easy-to-make IR-led light pen. During this 4-day weekend I’m going to make up a couple of the light pens and a few of us at work are going to make one of these whiteboards. Another co-worker pointed out a project called Crayon Physics where you draw shapes and make them interact (it’s cooler than I’m making it sound) and once we get our whiteboard going, we’re going to either use it to play with this Crayon Physics or write our own version specifically to use with the whiteboard. Working with a bunch of like-minded geeks is highly recommended. :) I’ll be posting about my projects and about our whiteboard geekery in the coming months. I’m hoping to get an Instructable or two up and some videos as well.
Technorati Tags: electronics, wii, wiimote, whiteboard
Obviously I haven’t posted in awhile so I figure this is as good of a place as any to start again. I decided I needed a change so I shaved off my beard. I’ve had the beard for awhile so I’m still getting used to my new face. I’m not excited about taking up shaving again but I think it’ll help me focus on other changes I need to make.
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