Mon, 18 Feb 2008
Hardware Into Art: TVIC/Geekosystem Crossover
What will this become?
Come to The Valley in Christchurch this week (Tuesday!) and don't just find out, make IT/ART happen!
Here's some of the details, check out the event announcement for more details:
The Valley In Christchurch February dinner and hack events
When: 6:00pm Tuesday 19th February 2008
Where: The China Kitchen, on Hereford St, opposite the Flight Centre
And then join us post-dinner for a special TVIC-exclusive Geekosystem session:
When: ~7:00pm—10:00pm-ish
Where: The Physics Room, Second Floor, 209 Tuam Street, Christchurch
Rumour is that some pizza and beverages will be provided while you work on your hardware hacking masterpiece.
Thanks to Adam and the Physics Room for organising this special after-hours session for us!
The photo above (courtesy of Adam Hyde) shows some of the "raw materials" that will be on hand.
Tending Networks: The 5th Aotearoa Digital Arts Symposium
As it happens, the Geekosystem coincides with the The 5th Aotearoa Digital Arts Symposium produced by The ADA Digital Arts Network.
Self-described as "New Zealand/Aotearoa's only digital artists' network. ADA was born of the observation that although new media artists were often highly networked in terms of both their own practice and their professional relationships, there was no national organization drawing together those with a common interest in digital art."
The symposium is an opportunity for New Zealand's digital/new media artists to meet face to face. Check out the upcoming weekend's programme.
I've actually been invited to present a brief overview of some of my Arduino hacking to the group during their "lightning talk" session on Saturday afternoon. A pleasant parallel to the symposium topic is my most recent project has been an ethernet expansion shield for the Arduino. I must write some more on that.
Foo Fruition
Speaking of needing to write more... My presentation at the ADA Symposium and the TVIC/Geekosystem crossover are a direct result of my attendence earlier this month at Kiwi Foo Camp 2008 (a.k.a. Baa Camp) and some people I met there. I must write some more on that. :-)
Posted at: 06:12 | category: / | | Comments ()
Mon, 19 Nov 2007
TVIC : Six geeks, Seven CD-ROM drives, One Pub—The Movie
Seth's blogged and uploaded the video from this month's The Valley in Christchurch tech dinner and CD-ROM hackfest.
Here's the finale, just in time for the Christmas lights season:
Links to all the videos on YouTube:
- Deconstruction getting started
- Morris risking his cell battery on the tray eject (Not shown: Successful drink delivery mechanism. :-) )
- Tim trying out the cell battery on a handy motor
- Another "bright" idea
- The result! CD-ROM Christmas Lights!
Thanks Seth!
Posted at: 13:50 | category: / | | Comments ()
Thu, 08 Nov 2007
TVIC : Six geeks, Seven CD-ROM drives, One Pub
I've just got back home from this month's The Valley in Christchurch (TVIC) tech dinner. It was goood... Real fun.
After dinner at our now usual haunt we ended up at our (fast becoming usual) follow-up haunt.
Last month—after visiting the recycling oasis Supershed—I had brought along an old CD-ROM drive and dismantled it during the post-dinner conversation. (Hey, why not? ) Apparently inspired by the fun I had had, this month Marek had organised to bring along seven old cd-rom drives supplied by Morris. By this stage we had six people at the table, various beverages and enough screwdrivers that we could all attack the task of drive dissasembly with gusto. And we did.
The highlight of the evening (warning: non-geeks may not understand) was when—following a comment I made—Morris managed to hook up a tray-eject motor to a pair of green and red LEDs (salvaged from a drive), making them flash alternately when he pulled the tray in and out. Seth took some photos and video so hopefully it'll be online soon.
In spite of all this frenzied electrical activity the bar staff never asked us to leave or stop, so I apparently mass cd-rom drive disassembly counts as an acceptable activity at the Bohemian.
Next month: printers!
Update: Check out the CD-ROM hackfest videos.
Posted at: 23:20 | category: / | | Comments ()
Fri, 13 Apr 2007
It's here... OLPC/XO-1 etc
You might have guessed my silence over the past couple of days was either:
- completely normal due to the usual reasons for my erratic posting schedule; or,
- due to the OLPC/XO-1 laptop prototype finally arriving.
XO-1 self-portrait
As to the reports I took a trip to the courier's airport depot just so I didn't have to wait an extra day to receive the laptop... Well, what do you think?!
OLPC at TVIC
I managed to get the laptop upgraded to the latest firmware and system build just in time to take it for a show-and-tell at our monthly The Valley in Christchurch dinner. This display of geek-dom resulted in a small video recording demo starring Marek, Paul and myself (signed model releases not available).
Posted at: 02:05 | category: / | | Comments ()
Tue, 10 Apr 2007
The Valley In Christchurch April dinner, tonight!
A reminder that if you're in Christchurch, New Zealand, you should attend tonight's dinner meeting of The Valley in Christchurch.
OLPC
If it gets delivered in time and I get it set up ok I'll see about bringing the (hopefully) newly arrived OLPC to tonight's dinner...
Posted at: 11:30 | category: / | | Comments ()