I’m at the Metalab in Vienna and the guys here are working with a CNC Router to cut out Invaders! They’re using CamBam, which is an open source program for Windows. – Link
Update: after seeing it work, I’m impressed with the fact that this software takes into account the size of your tool, the only downside is that it’s kinda clunky. If you get it to work, take lots of screenshots to use as notes!
photo credit: aoifejohanna
All I’m waiting for to begin work on my monome, are 64 red LEDs and so I’m thinking ahead about programming languages. I don’t speak a programming language, but I may be looking to get started soon to make music. Everyone seems to love the power of object oriented programming in MAX/MSP, but it’s expensive at $495.
New York’s own Peter Kirn may have the answer for me. He’s got an awesome site, Create Digital Music, where he reports on the best stuff going on in the diy electronic music world. He reports that Pure Data (PD) has had a bit of a facelift and is easier to work with.
Hans-Christoph Steiner has been working for a long time on “Pd-extendedâ€Â, adding a lot of that polish and documentation, and making the whole thing easier to install. There’s a major new, finished release that came out last week. “Easy†might not be the appropriate word  but “easierâ€Â, combined with “powerful†and “freeâ€Â, might get your attention.
I’ll keep you up to date as I start work on my little monome device and start seeking help to make it actually do something! – Link
Tonight, Wednesday October 24th at 7pm, we’ll be meeting at the lemurplex to share projects. Direction Link
There will be chance for you to share your work, a short tutorial on servos, and time to set up partnerships for collaborations!
Shown above is George at a meetup with the Lemurplex’s own Chu Chu. What subtitle can you think of for this photo? Leave them in the comments!
I’m on the lookout for some Victorian era clothes to wear to the steampunk themed Chaos Communications Congress this winter. If you’ve got a source or costume shop to recommend, let me know. While searching for top hats, bow ties, and vests, I stumbled upon some interesting facts about steam in New York City.
Some 30 billion pounds of steam every year flow beneath the streets of Manhattan from the Battery to 96th Street. While it is unknown to most New Yorkers, Con Edison’s subterranean steam system is the biggest steam district in the world, larger than the next four largest U.S. steam systems combined and boasting an annual steam production more than double that of Paris, Europe’s largest system. – Link
And the steam system’s got an 800 pound robot!
The Welding and Inspection Steam Operations Robot (WISOR) was developed for Con Edison of New York as a semi-automated means of maintaining subterranean steam pipes. While tethered to the surface for power and fiber optic visuals, WISOR uses an inch-worming motion for mobility through straight pipes where it mills and welds flanges. It is equipped with five cameras for inspecting damage and repairs, a milling device, and a MIG class welder that can rotate a full 360 degrees. – Link
It’s a giant robotic mig-welding worm that crawls through the steamy underbelly of the city!
Under City Hall lies an abandoned subway stop and while it would be really difficult to heat in the winter, wouldn’t it be awesome to have a hacker space there?- Link
Note: If you ride the 6 train and fall asleep on it, the train circles through this station!
Peter Blasser is a circuit bender who publishes his circuits by drawing them out. This makes a lot of sense and makes it easy to see how everything is laid out. Print them out and put them next to your blank circuit board and use wire wrap or solder stuff together to make these musical instruments. [via] – Link
Circuit bending is where you take old toys and turn them into musical instruments. Casperelectronics is one of my favorite circuit bending blogs and Pete Edwards, the author, just posted about a step sequencer he built out of a 555 and 4017 circuit. This looks really cool! – Link
Ok, this thing even has Arduino Clone stamped right on it and it’s $15. Yep, FIFTEEN BUCKS! True, it doesn’t have a usb connection on it but if you’ve got the tx/rx doohicky then you don’t need that anyway, right? – Link
Lady Ada over at Adafruit has boarduinos in stock. These are arduino-style microcontrollers that are set up to fit on breadboards. This solves one of the pin spacing problems on the digital i/o side of the original arduino board and they’re cheaper because you’ve gotta have your own usb to tx/rx conversion tool.
I got one of those little usb to tx/rx converter doohickies recently at the NYU computer store right near Washington Square park. You also need one of these little tools for the Lily Pad ‘duino, so get yourself set up!
