Checkout the iFixit website for more info on DIY repairs: http://ifixit.com/

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

This Friday, June 18th:

DIYLILCNC

A low-cost, open-source desktop CNC mill – http://www.diylilcnc.org

Chris Reilly and Taylor Hokanson will talk about the history and evolution of the DIYLILCNC project, some general bvackground of CNC technology, some of the shortcomings of the present state of CNC and how those are addressed by open-source hardware projects like the DIYLILCNC. We’ll also go over the specs of the DIYLILCNC, giving details about how it is built and its functions.

Chris Reilly is a Chicago-based artist, writer and teacher. He received his BFA with a focus on New Media from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. Chris is currently employed as manager of SAIC’s Advanced Outptut Center, and a part-time faculty member teaching between SAIC’s Design and Film/Video/New Media departments. Since 2003, Chris has shown work in several solo and group art exhibitions in the US and Europe; he works with modded video games, virtual/augmented reality, scripting/programming and kinetic sculpture.
http://www.chris-reilly.org http://www.rainbowlazer.com

Taylor Hokanson is an artist and educator based in Chicago. His studio practice fuses functional design (as exhibited by the DIYLILCNC project) with artworks of a more conceptual nature (such as his Sledgehammer-operated Keyboard). Until recently Taylor taught digital production/fabrication at DePaul University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
www.taylorhokanson.com

Tuesday, June 22nd:

Unatronics

Making unusual and fun electronic musical instruments and turning it into a business – http://unatronics.com/

Maker and Circuit-bender Michael Una will give a talk about the steps involved in turning a hobby into a business. Topics will include business plan creation, logistics, and marketing. Michael will discuss the creation of his company Unatronics, demonstrate his products and discuss his development process.

These are some great talks that I’m really looking forward to seeing. The doors will open at 7pm, the talks will begin at 8pm. I hope to see you all there!

Ripple is a conference that explores the role of creativity in urban education, as well as other topics related to teaching practice and education policy.

Here is a partial list of the speakers.  And here is where to sign up.

PS:One Members will be providing the following content:

• Opening Panel (Christina Pei)
• Midday Panel 1: What is Education (Christina Pei and Robert E. Lee)
• Rogue Engineering Skills: lockpicking 101 (Christina Pei and Eric Michaud)
• Mine’s Smaller Than Yours: Nanotechnology and Chemistry in a DIY Environment (Sacha De’Angeli)

This will take place on Tuesday, April 27th at 3354 N Elston.  The doors will open at 7pm.  If you want to learn how to protect your ideas while sharing them with the world, come ready to learn!

About Daliah

Daliah Saper is the Principal Attorney at Saper Law and serves as counsel to creative entrepreneurs and innovative business organizations. She is a member of the Illinois Bar and both the General Bar and Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. As a litigator she handles cases involving trademark and copyright infringement, computer fraud and abuse, trade secret misappropriation, online defamation, and commercial disputes. As a transactional lawyer she helps clients choose the right business entity, drafts corporate bylaws and LLC operating agreements, negotiates contracts and software licenses, and provides comprehensive trademark and copyright counseling.

If you’ve ever wanted to talk with a real live quantum mechanic, this is your chance!

April 14 at 8pm (doors open at 7) at Pumping Station: One 3354 N. Elston Ave, free to the Public.

Dr. Ian Spielman, a NIST researcher and UMD adjunct professor will present:

Synthetic electromagnetism: using quantum mechanics to engineer the fields that weren’t

Creating Synthetic Magnetism from JQI Admin on Vimeo.

[details after the jump]

Short abstract: Good times with quantum mechanics.
Long Abstract: Over the past twenty or thirty years a series of technical innovations have allowed experimental physicists to cool clouds of atoms to staggeringly low temperatures.  In my lab, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, we first trap and laser cool about a billion rubidium atoms to a balmy 20 microKelvin.  These atoms are further evaporatively cooled, by slowly removing the most energetic atoms, until the remaining atoms reach “quantum degeneracy” and collect into a single quantum mechanical state — a phase of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate or BEC — at temperatures as low as 1 nanoKelvin.

These atoms are charge neutral, i.e. they are not ions, so they don’t accelerate in electric fields, or feel the Lorentz force in magnetic fields.  Using a combination of lasers and magnetic fields we cause atoms in our BEC to behave like they were charged particles moving in (non-existent) electric and magnetic fields.

It’s time for another Pumping Station: One Guided Tour.  This time, Dustin J. Mitchell, the maintainer of Buildbot is giving an introductory level tutorial on Twisted Python, a popular asynchronous programming library.  Afterward, he will lead a sprint on Buildbot to add some tests and squash some bugs that will give you some practical experience using your new Twisted skills.  The sprint will start on Tuesday night and reconvene during PS:One’s Quiet Riot Hackathon the following Saturday.  The tutorial will be recorded and once the video is complete it will be added to this post.

The tutorial will begin at 8pm on Tuesday, March 23rd.  The doors will be open at 7pm at 3354 N Elston.  Please bring your computer if you plan on participating in the programming.

Coutesy of Ray Kurzweil and Kurzweil Technologies, Inc

I’m pleased to present our first PS:One Guided Tour on this Tuesday February 23.  Our guest is Joel Kuennen, who will lead a discussion about the technological singularity.

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The End of Modernity, the Birth of the Singularity: Cultural Implications of the Technological Singularity

Modernity is defined by philosophers and historians as a stage in human culture which is referential in nature; a state of being which collapses time through its signification of past, present, future. It is fundamentally paradoxical. A contemporary, modern moment consists of a spectrum and gains meaning through the relations of the points on this spectrum. How we think, act, and feel are all bound to this conception of being in time. We are born into a cultural unit with a specific history, a specific ontology that defines our social roles and positions based on recordings of past occurrences. The present is congruent with the past and history assures us of this. We live and someday will die. We surround ourselves with momento mori as to not forget the meaning that can be associated with every breath. Life is short. It is transient, a blip. We will die someday. This is what we in our culture believe.

This view is what determines meaning in our lives but what happens once the threshold of the singularity has been crossed? Once death is no longer a promise but merely a possibility? Once the present is so different from the past as to detach itself from the reflexivity which has so far defined modernity and the meaning of everyday life?

Joel Kuennen is a graduate student in the Masters of Arts Visual and Critical Studies program at The School of the Art Instiute of Chicago. He is a contributing writer for Chicago Art Magazine and FNews Magazine as well as a practicing artist who works primarily with digital video and multimedia installation. His theoretical writings concern cinema studies, new media studies and contemporary subjectivity as inflected by spatial relationships.

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This sounds like an exciting topic, I hope you’re all looking forward to it as much as I am!

image credit: Gaetan Lee

Guest speakers and mother-son duo Nancy Milnes and Dan Simborg come to PS:One to talk about the technology, promise, and pitfalls of neurofeedback training.

Date: 1/23/2009
Time: 6:00 pm, before the evening’s Hackathon activities

Neurofeedback, or biofeedback with an electroencephalogram(EEG), is a potentially revolutionary technology. You can use it to train your brain for increased focus, improved meditation, and to alleviate various medical conditions. Come early to the Hackathon to learn from two experienced practitioners of neurofeedback:

Nancy Milnes is a licensed clinical social worker with over 25 years experience as a psychotherapist.  in 1999, frustrated with the limits of talk therapy, she began her exploration of neurofeedback.  Along the way, she cured herself of narcolepsy and migraine headaches as well as reduced some of her ADD symptoms.  Nancy has used a variety of systems and approaches and currently combines talk therapy with 2 different kinds of neurofeedback therapy.

Dan Simborg is a sociologist, community organiser, and producer of many artistic events throughout the country.  he took an interest in neurofeedback when his mother “turned him on to it.”  over the years he has seen many advances and changes in the technology and has explored NFB as an effective healing modality.  in 2006, dan went to Victoria, BC, to train under the creators of one of the programs being used by the mother son team.  what he found was an opening of a door into the mind and spirit that surpasses many non-traditional areas of thought.