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I understand Maker Faire Austin is done and gone, but I’m still thinking about how much fun it was. Over the next week or 2, I’ll continue to share some highlights from the most make-tastic event Austin’s ever seen.

Thanks to Austin Underground for this great video highlighting some of the more interesting vehicular creations at Maker Faire:

They’ve also made a highlight reel of the instruments on display:

More will be coming check out their channel over the next few weeks to see more great footage!

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Original post by Luke Iseman

I understand Maker Faire Austin is done and gone, but I’m still thinking about how much fun it was. Over the next week or 2, I’ll continue to share some highlights from the most make-tastic event Austin’s ever seen.

Sparkfun Electronics raised a pretty penny for some Austin nonprofits:

The soldering workshop was a huge hit! We accepted donations for the soldering kits we gave away to students of the workshop. We were able to raise $884 for Austin non-profits Angelheart Children’s Shelter and The Robot Group! Thanks goes to everyone who came and checked out our booth and our soldering workshops.

Factor in things Faire-goers purchased from the many independent artisans / Makers at the Faire, and Maker Faire Austin seems to have had a nicely positive impact. Add on the encouragement current and future Makers received, and that’s an even better story:)

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Original post by Luke Iseman

I understand Maker Faire Austin is done and gone, but I’m still thinking about how much fun it was. Over the next week or 2, I’ll continue to share some highlights from the most make-tastic event Austin’s ever seen.

Here’s a nice photostream from Aaron, one of many Maker Faire visitors who sported penchant for photography:

And, if you’ve got your own, tag them ‘makerfaireaustin2008′ and they’ll show up with several thousand others here:

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Original post by Luke Iseman

I understand Maker Faire Austin is done and gone, but I′m still thinking about how much fun it was. Over the next week or 2, I′ll continue to share some highlights from the most make-tastic event Austin’s ever seen.

Thanks to our friends at South by Southwest, and especially filmmaker Jonathan Zmikly, for this excellent Maker Faire Austin video:

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Original post by Luke Iseman

Make an LED scanning Battlestar Galactica Cylon Jack O’ Lantern!

Thanks go to Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories for the original article in Make: Halloween
To download Cylon Jack O’ Lantern MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.

Pick up your copy of the Make Special Edition: Halloween at the Maker Shed.
Over 40 projects for the holiday that’s made for makers. From the craftiest costumes to amazing animated props and the latest in computer-controlled haunted house effects.

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Original post by KipKay

UnknowingFool writes “Farley Katz, who draws for New Yorker magazine, ran into xkcd.com’s Randall Munroe in a grocery store. He challenged Munroe to a cartoon-off — each cartoonist to produce drawings about the Internet as envisioned by the elderly, String Theory, 1999, and one’s favorite animal eating one’s favorite food. In the ensuing short interview, Munroe describes XKCD as ‘a webcomic about stick figures who do math, play with staple guns, mess around on the Internet, and have lots of sex. It’s about three-fourths autobiographical.’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

Science_afficionado writes “In the southeastern US, fisherman have an unusual way to collect earthworms for bait. The practice is called worm grunting, fiddling, snoring, or charming. It involves pounding a wooden stake into the ground and rubbing the top of the stake with a long piece of steel to produce a grunting sound that causes earthworms to come to the surface where they can be easily collected for bait. A study published today in the open access journal PLoS ONE shows that the technique works because the worm grunters are unknowingly imitating the sounds created by burrowing moles. Full text of the paper is available at PLoS ONE.”

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Original post by kdawson

netbuzz writes “Comic creator Randall Monroe suggested in a recent xkcd strip that YouTube comments would be better &mdash or, more precisely, less idiotic &mdash if only those posting them were forced to hear their words read aloud first. Well, YouTube has gone and made this “audio preview” a reality, albeit an optional one. And, it’s not the first time that xkcd has contributed to the betterment of the Internet, as those who are familiar with last year’s “Internet census” and its use of a Hilbert curve may remember.”

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Original post by CmdrTaco

netbuzz writes “Comic creator Randall Monroe suggested in a recent xkcd strip that YouTube comments would be better — or, more precisely, less idiotic — if only those posting them were forced to hear their words read aloud first. Well, YouTube has gone and made this “audio preview″ a reality, albeit an optional one. And, it’s not the first time that xkcd has contributed to the betterment of the Internet, as those who are familiar with last year’s “Internet census” and its use of a Hilbert curve may remember.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

netbuzz writes “Comic creator Randall Monroe suggested in a recent xkcd strip that YouTube comments would be better — or, more precisely, less idiotic — if only those posting them were forced to hear their words read aloud first. Well, YouTube has gone and made this “audio preview” a reality, albeit an optional one. And, it’s not the first time that xkcd has contributed to the betterment of the Internet, as those who are familiar with last year’s “Internet census” and its use of a Hilbert curve may remember.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

netbuzz writes “Comic creator Randall Monroe suggested in a recent xkcd strip that YouTube comments would be better — or, more precisely, less idiotic — if only those posting them were forced to hear their words read aloud first. Well, YouTube has gone and made this “audio preview” a reality, albeit an optional one. And, it’s not the first time that xkcd has contributed to the betterment of the Internet, as those who are familiar with last year’s “Internet census” and its use of a Hilbert curve may remember.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

netbuzz writes “Comic creator Randall Monroe suggested in a recent xkcd strip that YouTube comments would be better — or, more precisely, less idiotic — if only those posting them were forced to hear their words read aloud first. Well, YouTube has gone and made this “audio preview” a reality, albeit an optional one. And, it’s not the first time that xkcd has contributed to the betterment of the Internet, as those who are familiar with last year’s “Internet census” and its use of a Hilbert curve may remember.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

From our robotics friends in Dallas:

Would you be interested in being a judge for a middle school robotics competition?
The FIRST Lego League (FLL) Championship will be in Dallas, January 31st.
For more information about (FLL), check out our web site.
It’s a one-day event, and we are currently looking for 24 judges.

Judging areas include:

• Technical judging (need - score teams on how well robot is programmed
• Project judging (need - listen to and judge team research presentations/skits
• Teamwork judging (need - judge a team on how well they work together to complete a task
• Referees (need 6) - track points scored when teams robots compete to complete a challenge

We are trying to confirm our judges and referees as soon as possible. There will be a 1 day training before the event.
A technical background is preferred, but not required.
It’s a fun, lighthearted event and you would be inspiring middle school students across North Texas.

If interested, please email Janet Butler, North Texas Assistant Regional Director, at jbutler@usfirst.org ..

Here’s a video of Elite Engineers’ winning entry in First Lego League Scandinavia:

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Original post by Luke Iseman

Another impressive LEGO build, nice illuminated accents -

Real working (electronic) V8 engine made from Lego Technic. This is not a Lego set, but I completely designed and build it myself. It took me about 4/5 months. Enjoy!

More pics of the build avaible on Brickshelf Gallery. [via Hacked Gadgets]

More:

1440 rpms v8 LEGO engine

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Original post by Collin Cunningham

Upcoming camera set to be the world’s smallest High Definition system camera.

Original post by Mike Slocombe