Are you a hackerspace member with an event you’d like to publicize? Send it to johnb@makezine.com or tweet me at @johnbaichtal and I’ll post it. Also feel free to subscribe to my hackerspaces Twitter list. Hackerspace Happenings runs weekly(ish) Tuesday(i)s(h).
Adafruit Visits Tokyo Hackerspace
A few weeks ago, Adafruit swung by Tokyo for a much needed vacation. We ended up meeting up with them and taking them around Akihabara and Tokyo. It was interesting because Bunnie Huang from Chumby was also in town so it was like a mini OSHW summit. We brought LadyAda and Phil Torrone to Tokyo Hackerspace where they also gave an improvised talk on open source hardware.
Holiday Make-a-Thon at Milwaukee’s Bucketworks
We’d love it if you joined us at the 2011 Holiday Make-A-Thon happening Friday, November 25th, 2011 at Bucketworks.
This is a family-friendly event where the focus is on making things for the holidays. It can be gifts for others, of gifts for yourself! Members of Milwaukee Makerspace will be on-hand teaching people how to solder, so if you’re expecting an electronics kit this year, you’ll be ready!
We’re also working on a variety of ornaments that you’ll be able to paint or otherwise decorate. Keep them yourself or give them as a gift.
If you’re into knitting, care to try your hand a painting at gourd, or just want to wrap the gifts you already bought… join us and celebrate the spirit of making!
More information on Facebook.
Board Game Development Night at Vancouver Hack Space
We are going to be developing our own card and board-games. These are going to be quick and dirty prototypes that we can use to test game mechanics and see what works and what doesn’t. We can do it in groups or as individuals. I will see if I can find some prizes for the best game, most complete game, most enjoyable, etc.
The session will be held on December 6th at 7:30 p.m.
Game Console Repair Session at Cincinnati’s Hive13
Hive13 recently grabbed a PS3 YLOD (Yellow Light of Death) Repair kit from ifixit.com and went to work on 3 broken PS3s. The teardown was a lot of fun and we were greatly excited when we were able to recover all three PlayStations! After some G+ postings we realized the need to do this kind of event for Xbox users and any PlayStation 3 owners out there that have YLOD. So we will be hosting a FREE event on December 11th from Noon – 3pm.
If you want to participate, fill out this form.
Hacker Con Calendar
Curbob from CarolinaCon has set up a calendar at HackerCons.org to keep track of all the hacker conventions:
As many of you know, but for those who don’t, I’m one of the people that put on CarolinaCon (a hacker convention). Each year we run into the problem of not knowing what other conventions maybe going on around the same time as ours, only to find out after signing a contract with a hotel. This happened to us again for this coming year and has happened to many others in the past, So Deviant Ollam and myself have started HackerCons.org, While we can’t stop all scheduling conflicts, I think this can help. it’s nothing pretty to look at but it’s got what we need, a basic calendar to keep track of hackercons, maker faires and other computer/security conventions around the world. Check out the site and if you know of any conventions/events that should be posted on the site, please contact us or have the event owners send us the needed information.
You can also follow their Twitter feed at @hackercons.
Maker Space Opening in Burlington, NC
Ben Harris wrote in with details of a new hackerspace he’s helping found:
After exhibiting at Maker Faire CA this year I came back to my home town (Burlington NC, half way between Raleigh/Chapel Hill and Greensboro NC) with a desire to open a maker space in this area. To that end I’ve formed a maker club and we are working together with the short term goals of making more people in the area aware of what we are doing, determining if there is a critical mass of makers here to make a physical space worthwhile, and working together to exhibit our projects (both individually and as a group) at next year’s Maker Faire NC (I’m also a planner for Maker Faire NC). We have a temporary adoptive home for meetings at a new local coop “The Company Shops Market” a community owned grocery store that only provides locally raised food. We’ve also started to have regular monthly meetings that include lightning talks and planning for Maker Faire. (our meetings fall on the second Thursday of each month.)
Follow them on Facebook or Twitter.
And Another New Hackerspace Opening in Kalamazoo, MI
Xipherspace (zy-fer-space) is a physical location for collaborative learning located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. We understand that many artists, makers and hackers lack the space, equipment or knowledge to tinker and play as they would like to. Xipherspace seeks to change that.
Our goals are to provide a unique social and educational atmosphere for individuals of all interests to come together and play with science, art and technology safely, and to learn by actual hands on experiences alongside people that are willing to share their knowledge freely.
Hackerspaces in IEEE Spectrum
Hackerspaces have attracted the attention of IEEE Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers:
It’s a Tuesday night in Philadelphia—hacker time. A small group of do-it-yourself engineers and hipster geeks gather in a cluttered space downtown. One holds a Kinect, the motion-sensing controller for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 system. But he’s not playing a video game. He’s about to take the Kinect apart to see if he can get it to work with a shoot-’em-up space game for which it wasn’t intended.
It’s a typical challenge at the Hacktory, a freewheeling engineering clubhouse and just one of the many self-described “hackerspaces” popping up in cities around the world.
Read more in the article, Sultans of Solder. [Via Adafruit]
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