This past Sunday, I took my younger (14) son down to Austin to check out the Maker Faire. We had a fantastic time. We started off by watching the life-sized mouse trap game. Wandering idly past many craft booths, we got to the fabrication/rapid prototyping/automated machining area. It was mind-boggling! I haven't kept up with developments in this area, and I was blown away by the open-source multi-material rapid prototyping kits, 3D printers, CNC Routers, self-copying 3D printers, and astonishing laser engraving systems. At the laser engraver's booth we got a little Aztec calendar "printed" at 600 dpi in three dimensions from a solid sheet of balsa wood.
Next, we visited several areas where you could get hands-on and make T-shirts, circuit boards, kites, and other neat stuff. We dropped off some clothes at the Swap-O-Rama-Rama, but never came back to make our own customized duds from other peoples' donations. We played with jets of air, watched a "robo-thespian", oohed and aahed at the pyrotechnics of the Ring of Fire, and drooled over the display of Estes rockets. An enthusiastic rep told me all about building my own street-legal car, which my son agreed would be a great project for the next two years if we just had a spare $10,000 lying around. We saw evil robotic pumpkins, including a pumpkin Dalek. We saw mousetrap-powered toy vehicles. We admired dirty car art.
Taking a break from cool technology, we moved on to Cyclecide. This was a fenced-off area with pedal-powered sort-of-carnival-rides and weird, wonderful mutant bikes. We ended up spending over an hour riding around and having an absolute blast - my favorite was the 4-foot tall bike, and my son enjoyed providing taxi service with a bike that had two comfy chairs attached to it. Thoroughly sun- and wind-burned, we finally tore ourselves away to eat and drink.
There were amazing decorated cars, and an arena full of robotics. The Robot Group was out in force. Some of the robots were excruciatingly cute. Frankly, I was somewhat dazed by this point. Finally, we watched the Diet Coke and Mentos fountain demonstration, applauded vigorously, and headed off to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Thanks for the fun game. Would it be possible for players to post comments to other players during the game? Good luck with all your plans and thanks for all the fun.
Susan
As an artist and a geek, this post makes me wish I lived near Austin!
FWIW, in response to the above commenter's request, please let the players have the option of blocking chat. I can't control my hands well enough to click on and off if too many people are talking to me, even if that typing were visible in another part of the screen. It would distract me *because* I'm so visual.
Post a Comment