OMG it’s the most exciting Open Call ever ( #MakerFaire #MFNY )

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Originally I wanted to try and describe how the Open Call I will mention below as being like opening cultural floodgates unto the boroughs of New York City. But I’m just so excited, so anxious and almost nervous with enthusiasm that I realized I didn’t actually know how to describe my levels of excitement, anxiety and enthusiasm! So let’s just spit it out already:

Maker Faire New York 2010 Open Call is now… Open!

This has been in the works for a long time now, and I’m really happy – beyond words – to say that I’m a part of it!

If you know me you know I love culture. I love events. I love people and artists and crowds and activities and mobs and spectacles and life. Loving is the easy part though.

The best culture is D.I.Y. culture, and that means for it to happen, we have to make it happen.

WORLD Maker Faire NY is taking place later this year at the New York Hall of Science, and will provide one of the most exciting, dynamic and fruitful make it happen environments that New York City has ever seen – at least in my opinion, and during my near-6 years here.

If you Make something, I want you involved.

If you teach how-to something, I want you involved.

If you instruct-a-thon, I want you involved.

This IS the WORLD’S Largest D.I.Y Festival!!

IF YOU ARE A MAKER THEN NOW IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE!

Do you DIY:

3d printers
circuit bending
wind power
dorkbot
marching band
compost
arduino boards
origami
steampunk
LEDs
beer/wine
mycology
game-makers
telescopes
chocolate
permaculture
rube golberg
MIDI
scrap booking
book-making
silkscreens
photography
kinetic arts
circus
ceramics
beekeeping
radio transmission
CNC milling
model railroads
non-profit arts
hydro power
breadmaking
catapults
solar anything!

If YES to any of the above, then I WANT YOU INVOLVED!

How to submit a proposal? CLICK THIS LINK – It’s a VERY SIMPLE form, not complex or convoluted. It will require you to make an O’Reilly account, that’s just so we can keep track of your data and contact you through our backend if necessary.

Please please submit your proposal sooner than later. The Open Call will stay open for approximately 7-8 weeks but we are tight on resources and will start allocating them as soon as the proposals arrive.

I want to be accessible throughout the success of this project, so if you have any questions, comments, concerns, ideas or general thoughts please feel free to contact me. I’ll publish my details below, or you can access me through various social networks that I’m involved with.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading and I really want you to be involved!

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO MAKER FAIRE NY 2010

CONTACT:
email: nick [at] geekathon [dot] net
Twitter: @nicknormal
my Facebook profile
my Flickr account

…

Do you want to help spread the word about Maker Faire NY? Great!

Blog about it! Tweet about it! Or send people to this blog to talk with me or use this shortlink to send makers straight to the proposal form:

http://bit.ly/mfny2010

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to see more of what MAKE culture is all about, visit

MAKEzine
Craftzine

or to see Maker Faire in other cities, including San Francisco and Detroit visit the main

MAKER FAIRE website

for a marvelous victory

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

What I always liked about Howard Zinn was I never really thought of him as an Anarchist, but he simply was one. He rarely needed to use the word, instead he framed thoughts in an anarchistic manner, with particular attention to our comprehension and understanding of history via power structures – not your typical anarchist dogma-fare either.

read an interview here where Zinn uses the a-word probably more than all his other texts combined

Google tracking Swine

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

give it 15 seconds to load entirely.

modern real-time map-tracking, Incredible.

maps tag for more maps, terrains, topographies and graphic terrestrial representations.

fire and forget gun speak

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

The recent skirmish at sea that resulted in three synchronized deaths of Somali pirates at the trigger-fingers of US Navy SEAL snipers has lead to an increase of awareness in current gun development, including a recent article at TIME which features this nifty bit of lingo. They’re describing the nature of a gun whose bullets the sniper can essentially “fire and forget”:

fin-stabilized projectiles, spin-stabilized projectiles, internal and/or external aero-actuation control methods, projectile guidance technologies, tamper proofing, small stable power supplies, and advanced sighting, optical resolution and clarity technologies.

They immediately follow saying the bullet,

once fired at a specific target, fly themselves into it by changing shape.

Wowee!

netflix in operation

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Netflix told in pictures at the Boston Globe. I’m a little uncertain of their reporting that Netflix workers sort an average of 500-700 DVDs per hour. At the low end that’s one DVD every 12 seconds; at the high end in less than 10! It also says workers have to inspect the DVDs for scratches and notes left by customers. In 12 seconds? Maybe that’s why the average job only lasts two years.

full slideshow here

FF3 on the up and up

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

IE still maintains over 50% market share but in Europe Firefox 3 has moved past IE 7 by one percentage point to claim the throne of most-used browser:

full usage statistics here