Pumping Station: One

A small group from Geeks Without Borders will be visiting us on Friday, September 17th!

Who are Geeks Without Borders? From their wiki:

Geeks Without Borders (GWOB.org) is an international coalition of passionate problem solvers working together to assist people whose survival is threatened by lack of access to technology or communications due to violence, neglect, or catastrophe.

How do we do this? There are three main components:

Digital Mountaintop (DMT)

The Digital Mountaintop is a free, open communications hub, accessible via voice, text (SMS), plain old telephone (POTS), Skype (SIP), Google Voice, Twitter, Facebook, Email, Instant Messaging (IM)…and as many other networks we can connect to. In crisis situations, neighbors can ask for help simply by sending sending a message to the DMT, as long as they (or someone they know) can connect via any of the messaging or real-time communication methods it supports.

Cloud Collective (CC)

Geeks are naturally passionate problem solvers. The Cloud Collective is crowd-sourced problem solving in the cloud. Geeks and other technology-friendly people actively listen to the DMT via existing social networks like Twitter and Facebook. This is already happening, as we’ve learned through amazing stories about Geeks all over the world donating time, expertise, project management skills and resources during 9-11 in 2001, the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hatian earthquake in 2010. The CC is not meant to replace first-responders or boots on the ground, rather, it’s designed to empower them. It’s neighbors helping neighbors.

Water in the Well (WW)

In situations where human lives are threatened, there is no way to accurately predict the needs of a community in distress. A solution could be something as simple as being able to receive a wireless text message that indicates whether or not a well 5 miles away has water in it. WW allows for the easy creation and deployment of applications that sit on top of the DMT; applications custom built by members of the CC and rapidly deployed in response to requests shouted from the DMT.

A small group from Geeks Without Borders is currently traveling across the continent, speaking at hackerspaces and makerspaces to spread awareness of their missions and goals.

The official launch of Geeks Without Borders will take place on 10.10.10 (42 in binary!), so come see the talk on Friday, September 17th and learn how you can use your inner geek to save the world!

For more information on Geeks Without Borders, their hackerspace/makerspace tour, and their mission, visit their website!

The neighborly Travis Goodspeed will be giving a workshop this Friday, September 3rd, at 7pm on building and using his GoodFET JTAG adapter.

Travis Goodspeed speaking at NeighorCon Chicago 2010 (photo by Anne Petersen)

More than just a programmer & debugger, the GoodFET is a hardware hacking swiss army knife similar to the Bus Pirate.  The workshop will cover the surface mount assembly of the GoodFET31 and how to use the GoodFET firmware.

GoodFET31 PCBs

Cost: $20 cash at workshop (same for member or non-member; includes GoodFET PCB & all components)

Equipment: soldering equipment will be provided, but feel free to bring any tools you prefer; strongly recommend bringing a laptop if you want to interact with the GoodFET firmware after assembly.

NOTE: Only 10 GoodFET31 kits are available.  Please RSVP to reserve at kit: drew@pumpingstationone.org.   This workshop is open to the public.

This Tuesday, instead of our usual 5th Tuesday potluck, we’ll be running a food-type fundraiser:

Capitalist Pig Roast* and Ice Cream Socialist
This Tuesday night!

$7 gets you:

Italian sausages
pork chops
veggie kabobs
and ice cream

Plus any generous food donations that folks want to bring to share.
(Not required: depends if you lean capitalist or socialist.)

Hang out, nom on noms and contribute to PS:One! Hope to see you there.

*no actual pigs will be roasted, just their parts. batteries not included. products provided exclusive of warranty and in an as-is condition. some assembly may be required. cash gladly accepted.

(photo by Anne Petersen)

Come get your electrons & solder on at Pumping Station: One’s Circuit Hacking Wednesday (2nd & 4th of the month)!

Mitch Altman presents 'Hacking Cool Things with Microcontrollers' at Maker Faire Detroit 2010

Mitch Altman (co-founder Noisebridge & TV-B-Gone inventor) and Jimmie P. Rodgers (creator of the OpenHeart & LoL Shield) will be our special guest stars on Wednesday, August-25, 7pm-10pm.

Jimmie P. Rodgers instructing makers of all ages in the Learn to Solder tent at Maker Faire Detroit 2010

Inspired by Noisebridge’s Circuit Hacking Monday, any experience level is welcome. Beginners can learn to solder and make cool stuff in a couple hours.  DIY electronics kits from Adafruit Industries, Cornfield Electronics (Mitch Altman), Jimmie P. Rodgers will be available for sale.

And remember: Soldering is Easy!

Many members of Pumping Station: One will be attending and helping to produce BARcamp Chicago.  Press release follows.

On August 21-22, Chicago will host its 5th annual BARcamp Conference.  Come to BARcamp Chicago 2010 to learn from and mingle with Chicago’s most talented and innovative computer and technology enthusiasts in an impromptu, informal setting.  BARcamp Chicago is an un-conference, meaning event participants are the people who run the event, give the presentations and host the various activities throughout the weekend.
Here is what they have lined up for you:

• Many talks and demos concerning a wide range of technology topics
• Socialize with Chicago’s top technology enthusiasts
• A drunken panel discussion
• Geeky/technology related movies that run all night
• Free food and drink
• BARcompany – Start a business over the weekend
• Random other activities

Guests from a multitude of backgrounds will be in attendance, including programmers, developers, engineers, tech students, open-source advocates, entrepreneurs and business professionals.  Participants are encouraged to share, learn and break off into smaller focus groups, brainstorm and collaborate on any project or idea.  Professional networking is highly recommended.

Words really cannot describe this event! Take a look at the videos and pictures linked from their website:  http://barcampchicago.com/

BARcompany

Returning to BARcamp this year is BARcompany, which challenges small groups of participants to come up with an idea and create a company around it in about a day’s time. The resulting companies and ideas are presented at the end of the weekend to the conference attendees and to a panel of judges made up of local, influential people in the technology community. The team who organizes the best company has a chance to win prizes which may include server hosting for the developed web application, co-working space and possibly even some start up capital.

More Information

The event is expected to draw several hundred attendees and is free and open to the public.  The majority of talks and activities will be between the hours of 10 AM and 7 PM each day. Complimentary food and beverages will be provided as well as activities on Saturday night through Sunday morning.

This month (tonight!) our guided tour speaker is Erin Robinson of Ivy Games.  If you’re a fan of adventure games and the game industry moves away from your favorite genre, what are you to do?  Erin decided to start making her own.  After a making a few award winning games and giving them away for free, she decided to make games her career and create Puzzle Bots, which was recently named one of the Pax 10.   Puzzle bots was produced through a small studio, which means it was made with a lot less money and a lot more hacker ethic.  Erin will be talking about what inspired her to take this difficult path, the process of making her idea into an actual product, and the awesome along the way.

The doors will open at 7pm, the talk will begin at 8pm. I hope to see you all there!

A quick note: my open source Scanning Tunneling Electron Microscope project has been mentioned in the MAKE blog.

Photo courtesey cliff1066™

If it’s been a while since you last laid your eyes on the nav bar of our humble website, now would be a good time to reacquaint yourself with it.  We’ve added a Media tab up top that contains all of PS:One’s official video (and soon to be audio as well).

We’ve been quietly recording talks and events over the last year and here is just a small selection of those recordings.  There are additional Guided Tours along with the rest of your favorite PS:One talks still in queue to be edited.

Many people have invested a lot of time and work to bring this content to a broader audience extending our reach into the greater community.   Carl Karsten was integral in showing me a less-cumbersome workflow for shooting and recording audio.  Also, Tim Saylor has scheduled so many great speakers for Guided Tours and made such a great help with production (and even taking over once as of this writing).

Now give your strained eyes a rest from this 20th century concept of “reading” and sit back to enjoy some syndicated PS:One goodness.

You! Over there bangin’ yer pots and pans, glitching toy circuits, playing that weird looking pipe thing! No, don’t stop! We want you to join us this Saturday, July 23rd for an open jam session. It’ll be at Nothin’ Less Cafe, located at 2642 N. Milwaukee Avenue (right next to the Logan Theatre), from 11 am to 7 pm. We’ll have some instruments set up, but feel free to bring your own mutant trombones or circuit-bent toys (or that thing from the picture above). If you want to bring a traditional instrument, that’s okay too. You don’t have to be a “musician,” just be ready to make noise. It’s free and open to the public, so come out and invite your friends. It’s part of the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival going on all weekend, so there’ll be plenty of things to see and do in the area.

(Picture licensed Creative Commons BY-NC-SA, by SWARM Sounds on Flickr.)

Photo by Anne Petersen.

Adults who missed the thrill of Power Wheels or Little Tikes cars as a child now can go one better: by modifying the battery-powered child-size vehicles and competing at Maker Faire Detroit. Teams of DIY mechanic enthusiasts have been upgrading the small-scale cars far beyond stock performance levels to win prizes and bragging rights.

Among many other activities at Make magazine’s Maker Faire at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, July 31–August 1, the DieHard-sponsored Power Racing Series (PPPRS) will premiere. In its inaugural year the event was internal to PS: One, but this year brings teams together from far beyond the Midwest.

Jim Burke, a Pumping Station: One Director-at-Large and the Director of the PPPRS, said “I want Makers to meet face to face with a common project. Modifying and racing these toys is fun, creative, and challenging.”

This year, with DieHard Platinum batteries and chargers powering the series, nine teams from six different hackerspaces and makerspaces will compete in the three events of PPPRS: a drag race, a road race, and an endurance race. The PPPRS will be a main event at Maker Faire: Detroit, and families are encouraged to attend. We hope to see you there!