doing strange things with electricity
Dorkbot 16 – Aug 21 @Cafe Mundi
Aug 15th
Last minute event planned for next Thursday 8pm at Cafe Mundi. Confirmed projects:
- Adam Iseman: ard-e, his sub-$100 robotics platform ( http://www.instructables.com/id/Ard-e-The-robot-with-an-Arduino-as-a-brain/)
- Jason Delaney: steampunk (literally) in a homebrew still that can be used to make alcohol, herbal oils, purify water, etc.
Dorkbot 15 – Closer-to-final lineup
Jun 16th
Just an update on the lineup for next thursday’s (June 19th) dorkbot. Hope to see you there!
- DIY Modular Battery Backup system (Uniterruptible Power Supply) for powering computer systems or other electronics or electrical equipment that needs to have a reliable battery backup in the event of a grid power failure – Chase Hammock
- How To End Bike Theft: The Honeybike Project – protect your bike or other vehicle with a high voltage alarm system – Luke Iseman
- Hacking $5 analog gauges - Jason Pepas
- Tesla coil kits – Edwin Wise
- Balloon Lights Project – A combined work of Gray Mack for electronics and programming and Dave McGriffy for balloon/helium research
- Ambient Electronic Music – John P. Funk
- ArcAttack! will be making an appearance with their singing tesla coils
- Open Dork – bring your unfinished projects for showing off/brainstorming
Dorkbot 15 – June 19th @Cafe Mundi
Jun 12th
Hello Dorkbot Austin! We are once again doing strange things with electricity!
Our next dorkbot is scheduled for June 19th, 2008 at Café Mundi @ 7pm
Currently we have 4 presentations, but we need 1 or 2 more to fill the boot. If you have a new project you are working on, we would love to see it and give you the chance to be the center of attention while you explain how it works. We should have a projector for you to use so you can show any video or powerpoint presentations that would go along with your project. If you would like to be a presenter, drop us an email at dorkbotaustin@dorkbot.org If you need help setting up or unloading/loading your stuff please speak up and we will be glad to help you get it done.
The presentations we have listed so far are:
- Luke Iseman’s DIY Bike Alarm Project How To End Bike Theft: The Honeybike Project – protect your bike or other vehicle with a high voltage alarm system that can’t be beat!
- DIY Modular Battery Backup system (Uniterruptible Power Supply) for powering computer systems or other electronics or electrical equipment that needs to have a reliable battery backup in the event of a grid power failure
- Jason Pepas on Hacking $5 analog gauges - more info on his wiki http://jason.pepas.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
- Edwin Wise’s dual-resonant solid-state tesla coil “minibrute” – According to Edwin “I’m getting two-foot sparks on this thing before I blow the fuse on my variac, so that’s kinda cool.” more info at http://easternvoltageresearch.com/index.htm
- (INSERT YOUR PRESENTATION HERE – YES THIS COULD BE YOU!)
dorkbot14: Electric Gongs, Theremin Guitars, Robot Percussion, Thummers, and More!
Apr 7th
Electric Gongs, Theremin Guitars, Robot Percussion, Thummers, and More!
dorkbot-austin @ Austin Childrens Museum
April 10, 630-9PM (Presentations @ 7:00)
201 Colorado Street
after-dork party @ Jo’s – 242 W. 2nd
FREE event for kids of all ages
Featuring Strange Presentations by:
- Phil MacNutt – Modular Synthesizer
- Blake Sandberg – Theremin Guitar
- John-Mike Reed (http://www.bleeplabs.com) – Bit Blob toys and new Thingamagoop kit
- Seven Sexton – The Planck Stringed Instrument
- Eric Archer / David Nunez (http://delamaquina.com) – Electric Gongs and DIY Multitouch screen podium
- Craig Newswanger – Home Built MIDI controlled Instruments
- Jim Plamondon (http://thumtronics.com) – Thummer
Additional Music by ALIENS!, ArcAttack
Dorkbot13 at SxSW Coverage
Mar 12th
This year’s SxSW Dorkbot was a roaring success, I hope you were all able to make it – most of you must have because according to the SXSW folks at the door, we had somewhere in the ballpark of 1,300 people pass through our gate.
I want to extend a huge thank you to our sponsors:
- Amaze entertainment http://www.amazeent.com/
- IGDA http://www.igda.org/
- SXSW Interactive http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/
- and most of all Make Magazine http://www.makezine.com/
THANK YOU! Without our sponsors, the event on Saturday wouldn’t have been in any way possible.
A little bit of press is starting to trickle in
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/sxsw-playing-wi.html
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/technology/2008/03/jeff_bezos_at_dorkbot_at_sxsw.html
It sounds like everyone had a good time! If you have come across any news articles please forward them on to us at dorkbotaustin@dorkbot.org or post them to the blabber list and we’ll put them up on our recap page when we finish it
If you have pictures (or video – we haven’t been able to dig any up yet) please, post them to the blabber list, we’d love to see them!
If you have any feedback or suggestions about what we could have done better, please let us know! Some of the presenters have already mentioned a few things and we appreciate the feedback.
Lastly, we still have some shirts available.
http://www.dorkbotaustin.org/shirts
Rather than hold onto them, we’re going to try to pass them on to some of other Dorkbot groups in the US, so they might not last. If you’re interested in one, let us know and we can save one for you, shirts are $17 ($15 if you can pick them at an austin dorkbot event)
Thanks everyone!
Oh, I almost forgot – Dorkbot 14 is scheduled for April 10th, mark your calenders!
NPR does Dorkbot
Feb 7th
NPR program “The Bryant Park Project” aired a story on Dorkbot NYC. Hear the story here.
The Bryant Park Project, February 7, 2008 · Where do you go when, let’s face it, you’re smarter than everyone else? Easy. You go to Dorkbot. It’s a monthly gathering of scientists, artists and designers doing, in their words, “strange things with electricity.” Started by Douglas Repetto in New York City in 2000, Dorkbot meetings are now held all over the world.
Repetto, an artist and director of research at Columbia University, dreamed up Dorkbot when he moved to New York City and needed a way to make friends. Dorkbot filled another need, too: it created a real-world forum for people to discuss and encounter the things they were talking about online. “I do think that one thing that Dorbot has been really good at is heightening the idea that to be in a physical space with other people is a different thing than sharing something online.”
Clearly, gadget-love and the DIY aesthetic have moved out of the province of nerds and into the mainstream in recent years, often reflecting technologies and ideas already expressed at Dorkbot. As regular attendee Joel Schlosberg says, “I’m not sure who said this, but ‘the future is here already, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.’”
Geek Austin / Dorkbot Happy Hour – February 12
Feb 4th
There is no regular dorkbot meeting in February, after all.
Instead
Dorkbot-austin is proud to be co-hosting the February Geek Austin Happy Hour
This is also the launch party for the upcoming update of the dorkbotaustin.org website!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
J Black’s Feel Good Lounge
710 W 6th St Ste B
ambient, interactive art and lots of like-minded geeks and dorks
RSVP and more info @ http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/418904
Be sure to visit our friends at geekaustin.org as a central source for all things nerdy in Austin
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