Teensy

recently, i bought some Arduino clones known as the Teensy 2.0 from PJRC. the device is thumbnail size at 1.2 in. by 0.7 in., a ATMEGA32, and boasts 25 I/O, 7PWM, and 12 analog pins. there are many small clones available on the market, but most of the designs require you to use a FTDI breakout board. i was really sold because the Teensy includes a USB jack and all for $16 to $19 for the model with pins already attached. the ++ version offers 46 I/0, 130MB and is only a few dollars more.

i have purchased these as part of a wearable i am designing and hopefully i will be telling you all about very soon.

MESS Hall

i have been asked to participate on the Board for a new startup with the mission to found a Science and Engineering Museum to Pensacola. the initiative is headed up the researchers Dr. Megan Pratt and Dr. Jerry Pratt from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) and they reached out to our nascent makers club ECCM to see if we want to do something with this summer's programming atMESS Hall. MESS Hall has an innovative plan to mix up the usually button pushing exhibits with real hands on project based learning modules. called a MESS kit, they are mostly designed to be low cost kits which includes a booklet with a challenge and then a step-by-step guide if you get stuck. Jerry cam to our Makers Group this past Saturday and the members of the ECCM are busily plotting a program for one session this summer.

Mineways woot!

as part of the V2V project (Valley to Valley), I have started using Mineways to extract data from Minecraft. my charge is to direct an installation build in CA and Russia for the September. Colleagues will be modeling the Silicon Valley(CA) and the Titanium Valley(RU) for the project in an effort to seek out the heart of these places. Mineways is a stellar app that I have been using to extract STL's of the project server (code named) Orwell. to date i have printed about 8 models and Mr. Bickford in SJ has printed a few too.

today i needed to distract myself from some idiocy on campus, so i printed a maquette of the momnument I am building for the V2V project. this is a dual print pieced together. i am not happy with the monument yet but holding it helps me make some choices in my redesign.

no less than 2!

two of my students from the PhysiComp class were featured on Instructables this past week! it was the first time i required the students to participate on the community forum and it paid off! they recieved free pro memberships and some other prizes. I am feeling like the proud Patron.

Wireless nunchuk controlled animatronic doll
Beheaded Doll Night Light

pbs gets hip

i am seriously impressed by the campaign that pbs seems to be on top of for the arts/culture programming. in the past 12 months, they have been producing witty, inspired, short format. you might have already been introduced to PBS PBS off book and the relatively new PBS IDEA Channel that have been burning up the YouTubez, both of which seem to be very interwebs/technology/theory oriented... go figure!

here are two episodes if you haven't been introduced:

it is not confined to the interwebs,the other night i caught a 3minute short on the local PBS OTA broadcast featuring a comedian riffing on  contemporary life. unfortunately, i didn't log his name and i need to get back to my real work so mebbe i can do a follow up.

what i like about this type of programming is the fresh way that some seriously interesting theory is being introduced, what they lack in depth they make up for perhaps waking up my 20-somethings that some seriously deep shit may be behind the fascination with things such as immersive worlds, consumerism, open source, and pop culture. as i start to develop my theory course for the Spring semester, i think i will need to consider these closely as media for the students.

ok ok. i will get back to work.