Hack A Day On Fact Or Fiction With [Veronical Belmont]

Enjoy a fun episode of “Fact or Fiction” with [Veronica Belmont], with guest [me] from Hackaday.  The show “Fact or Fiction” generally takes some popular topic and talks to experts who can shed some light on the topic. They’ve had all kinds of intelligent people on, and also me.  If you watch a few episodes you’ll see that she tends to let people talk about the science for a bit, but inevitably veers over into “can we actually make this?”, which tends to elicit an awkward and somewhat humorous response from the person being interviewed, because most of the things they’re talking about are pretty outlandish, like portal guns.  I enjoyed the one about life on mars, especially when she asks the gentleman how accurate portrayal of martians in movies are, right after he explained that we’re looking microscopic things.

On a completely unrelated note, it is a very very small world. I ran in to [Veronica] at CES a few years ago and we found that both her and her husband both worked in the same office as [Phil Torrone] when Hackaday was just beginning.

Adventures In 3d Printing: Our First Week With The LulzBot AO-100

Lulzbot-3D-printer-RT

Recently, we acquired a LulzBot AO-100. It was given to us, free of charge.  After having it for about a week, I’ve figured out enough that I feel I can finally share my thoughts, impressions, and experiences.  I will be completely honest about the machine. It was given to us, which is insanely awesome, but hey, I have to share the real information with the readers.

When we first started looking for a printer, we decided we didn’t want to build one from scratch. While that might seem initially to be the opposite of Hack a Day, there is a reason. I simply can’t build every tool I use from scratch.  I have projects in mind that could benefit from a 3d printer, and I want to work on those.  This meant that I was looking for a pre-assembled unit. Many people asked for an article on getting a reprap going, so we started to consider reprap based kits as well.

When LulzBot contacted us, I was initially skeptical. I mean, the name is lulzBot. Is this an internet troll? Is this somehow connected to Lulzsec, the hacking group? Did they seriously name their printer LulzBot? Well, as it turns out, they are legitimate. Not only that, we’ve seen them before, they are also AlephObjects, who sent in the video of the wall o’ printers working. Why did they name it LulzBot? The answer was basically, for the lulz. It is worth noting that [Jeff] has been a strong proponent for free software for a long time and that Lulzbot is built from the ground up to be completely open and shareable. You can go to the website right now and download the list of parts as well as all source code and configurations.

As you read further, please remember that the model they sent me was not their newest. They don’t even sell this model any more. Technically speaking, it is roughly 2 generations behind.

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Introducing The Deconstruction: A Collaborative Experiment

deconstruction

The goal of The Deconstruction is to bring people together (physically and digitally) to share ideas, collaborate, create, problem solve, and have a good time.   The event is open to anyone, anywhere, of any age and skill level.

If you enjoy a bit of good competition and feel like taking on a little bit of a challenge, you should definitely check out The Deconstruction. This event pits a bunch of teams from all over the place against each other in a timed hack-a-thon.  The whole time they are building their project, they’re broadcasting live using their webcams too.

If this brings to mind the Red Bull Creation contest, it is because the root idea is from the same guy [Jason Naumoff], but this is NOT a RedBull thing. When I met with him last year in New York, he clued me in that he was working on something much more open ended and inclusive.  The Deconstruction is that thing. He explained that they’re really hoping to reach out to families, clubs, and high school groups as well as the usual hackerspaces.

Join up, make something cool, have fun.

Help Hackaday Buy Our Own 3D Printer UPDATED!

beggars

UPDATE: We’re getting a LulzBot thanks to [Jeff Moe].

ALL DONATIONS ARE BEING REFUNDED. YOU WILL STILL RECEIVE YOUR STICKERS.

We’ve held out for far too long. Hackaday now needs a 3D printer.   We get emails all the time asking why we don’t have a donate button. Well, we’re kind of stubborn and would rather just do with what we have. Unfortunately this hasn’t gotten us very far in the 3d printer department.

We have a few projects in mind that could really utilize a 3d printer, namely building custom game controllers for children with special physical needs.

If you have any interest in helping us get a 3D printer for Hackaday, read on. Otherwise, carry on with your day.

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Announcing: Hackaday Videos And Behind The Scenes Mailing List

hadfilm2

We’re starting a few new things at hackaday. As always, our goal is to share awesome hacks from as diverse a crowd as possible. We’ve played with video a bit before, but now we’re really going to start having some fun with it.

Our first exploration into this area was the hacked portal gun. People enjoyed looking at it, and those seeking more in depth technical knowledge came to the site to get it. Instead of focusing the video on the technology or the build itself, we used it as an interesting way to get the attention of people with relevant interests. This video proved to us that our idea was solid.

We have now stepped up our production in terms of quality and quantity.  We will be releasing videos that may be humorous, like a fake commercial or skit, or may be serious in the style of a documentary. They will all have some kind of hack at their core and that hack will be broken down in an article here.

I would also like to extend the opportunity for you to help. There are two ways you can do so:

  1. Sign up for our email list(it is in the right column). I’ll be sharing behind the scenes info and previews about upcoming video projects and asking for ideas on how to improve them.  The list will be very informal, and only deal with behind the scenes kind of stuff it will not be a mailing of the daily posts.
  2. Submit a project or idea that you think would make a cool video. You can email that directly to caleb@. Of course, we would prefer projects that haven’t been released yet, but that isn’t necessary. We’re looking for things that are visually stunning, or could possibly have highly cinematic potential. Not necessarily the most technically difficult thing.

We hope to start releasing videos next week, so keep your eyes peeled. We filmed all week, and my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.

This Day In Hack A Day History: January 1st 2005

TIMEHAX

A new feature that we’re playing with is an occasional look back at this day in Hack a Day history. While we’re still hotly disputing exactly what, when, and how to show, we thought today would be a great day to introduce the idea.

So, in on this day in Hack a Day history we’re reaching back to our very first January 1, which was 2005.  There are some interesting things to consider when reading this post. At this point in time, we were still sort of  a growth off the side of engadget like [Kuato] from the 1990 version of Total Recall.  We were less than a year old and still hadn’t completely developed our style, we didn’t really share much information about the project, and yep, the very first comment is “not a hack”.

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