Archive for the 'People I've Met' Category

Make Podcast: Lee Krasnow at the Maker Faire

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on 5/4/2006
in I Make Things, People I've Met and Video Podcasts
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Make Lee3

Lee Krasnow is a puzzle maker who makes puzzles that make the mind boggle. His passion for puzzle making runs strong and in this video he shares some of his puzzles and construction tips.

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This binary puzzle takes 64 moves to get the first piece out and then 32 for the next peice, and I’m going to guess that, unless you take his shortcuts, the next pieces come out in 16, 8, 4, and 2 moves.

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Lee’s clutch box is a tricky box. If someone gave me the clutch box without telling me how to open it, I feel pretty confident that I could lose weeks of my life to trying to figure it out. The way that he makes his puzzles are all on a table saw that has been modded with “disposable fingers.” Lee is living a maker who lives his life dedicated to the pursuit of puzzlemaking.

Watch the video (MP4) or subscribe to get it automatically!

Big thanks goes out to Jay Fienberg, the musician, and ringtone maker and intro/outro maestro who made the new intro/outro music for this podcast.

Tips and Tricks: Build Your Warbot For Destruction

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on 4/6/2006
in I Make Things, People I've Met, Video Podcasts and robots
. 4 Comments

While at Seattle’s Dorkbot last night, I had the chance to get some advice about building a warbot from Rich. There’s a warbot competition this Sunday, April 9th at the Seattle Centerhouse! Get your fighting robot ninja together and come on down to the Western Allied Robotics Competition for the action! (Or just come and watch!)


Robot Vs. Cellphone - Weapons Testing with 3ric and Pablos

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on 4/6/2006
in Artwork, Cell Phone, I Make Things, Inventors, People I've Met, Teaching, Video Podcasts and robots
. 2 Comments

When Pablos and 3ric Johanson called me up and invited me to see their robot, I had no idea what they were on about or that this visit would be the demise of a slim cellphone. Working together like mad scientists, these guys are developing a warbot to destroy all other warbots at the Western Allied Robotics Seattle Bot Battles IV. This mechanized showdown is set to begin at high noon at Seattle Center in the shadow of Seattle’s own space needle.

Inspired by their ingenuity and robotic daring, I’m putting together my own “Reporter Warbot” to enter the ring and document the shards and shrapnel of robots struggling for dominance! I’ll be flying a white flag and I’ve got the mobility part sorted out with a little xmods remote control car that I plan on putting some armor on. I need to figure out a mobile video recording solution so I can bring video back from the robot battlefield. If you have ideas for a good mobile video recording unit, drop me a note in the comments. Look forward to a video next week from the robot battlefield!

Musical Instrument Innovation and High Voltage Electricity

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bre pettis
on 3/22/2006
in I Make Things, Inventors, Learning, People I've Met and Video Podcasts
. 1 Comment

While in Austin for a weekend of SXSW adventures, I had the chance to hang out with Seven, who’s a maker interested in exploring a wide variety of innovative projects. Recently he’s been making musical instrument hybrids. While hanging out, Seven showed me a musical instrument he’s made called “The Boar.” The Boar is a bass guitar made out of a boat oar. Seven’s also made another cool hybrid instrument a cool called “The Stump.”

Besides making instruments, Seven also has had a healthy obsession with high voltage electricity lately and recently he made a jacob’s ladder in his kitchen!

I Make Things Interview: Sanjay Khanna, Innovation Consultant

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on 3/5/2006
in I Make Things, People I've Met and Video Podcasts
. 3 Comments

I met Sanjay at Northern Voice, the Canadian blogger’s conference. Sanjay is an innovation consultant, writer, and researcher and has his own consultation company for helping folks navigate the innovation of tomorrow. Sanjay and I hit it off right away.

Sanjay understands that peace of mind and sanctuary are critical factors for innovation and positive progress. Watch the video to learn more!

Pablos of Komposite Part 2: Shapelock and Magnets That Defy Gravity.

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on 2/28/2006
in I Make Things, People I've Met and Video Podcasts
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In this video Pablos shows me two new materials that makers really need to be aware of. The first is shapelock, a material for making anything. The second material is neodymium, which is a rare earth magnet that defies gravity.

While talking with Pablos, I had a flashback to when I worked as an assistant at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. A mech named Flimsy and I would go troll the hardware stores looking for materials that we could apply to the animatronic gorillas we were making for the movie. One day, Flimsy turned to me in Home Depot and said, “There aren’t many new things in the world. You’ve got to make new things by combining old things.” I told this story to Pablos and he added, “And you always have to be on the lookout for new materials.” A big thank you to Pablos for sharing his passion for innovation!

Photocamp 06

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on 2/10/2006
in I Make Things, Networking, People I've Met and Photography
. 2 Comments

I’m in a room with a bunch of bloggers talking about photography. Kris Krug is moderating and this is an awesome forum and group about photography. Some of the following is stuff some other people said and some is what I think as I’m listening. There is a great website for vancouver photographers called vandigicam. I want a Seattle photo camp!!!

Topic: Cross-processing. Kris King has been shooting slide film (E6 Fujia Provia 400 is Kris’s favorite) and developing it as negitive film (C41). The result is that they use the wrong chemicals for the film and you get some crazy colors, bleeds, graininess and saturation. (Try out tungsten film too which will make colors crazy too because it’s used for indoor lighting, which is used for yellow indoor light.)

Anastasia brought up the subject that sometimes film is more appropriate than digital and vice-versa and she likes shooting poloaroid when she wants to give away pics.

Polaroid film is cool. I heart polaroid film. Type 655 and 55 film makes both a positive and a negative.

Roland has 17,000 photos on flickr. A lot of his photos are shot with his 2 megapixel cell phone. Roland also gave a cool lesson on making a one minute movie with photos.

Depth of field is a tricky thing to explain. I get it, but I’d need to really think about how to explain it. Basicly in order to get shallow depth of field, you need to open up your apererature.

Also, in the middle of the range of the f stops, you’ll get sharper pictures.

The difference between film camera lenses and the digital cameras is 2/3 the size or 1.6x the digital to get to the film.

Canon EF-S lenses are for digital cameras and will

Jess asked about raw format which doesn’t white balance and is often big Jpeg does some processing in camera before outputing it. If you’re ok with that, don’t worry about it.

Ken Rockwell has some cool tutorials.

Derek of said that no matter what camera you are using, it’s worth learning about how cameras work and take the effort to learn how to run a manual film camera.

Will said to pick one thing to figure it out. For example, figure out framing.

Play around with the rule of thirds.

Go out and look at street photographers work.

Play with bracketing and set it at autobracketing.

Go with pro photographers and watch them.

Shoot at sunset and sunrise.

Change your point of view.

Robert gave an idea to turn around from the action and see other things.

Vlogging gets personal at Zip Zap Zop

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on 2/8/2006
in I Make Things and People I've Met
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Clark Ov Saturn interviews his mom
Some vloggers put on a persona in front of the camera, but Clark ov Saturn is putting his personal life out in the world for others to see like few others. Clark is gem of a person as well as a professional actor and video blogger out of nyc. Today he had his biological mother on his video show, “Zip Zap Zop.” Among other personal topics, they talked about why she put him up for adoption. Clark is one of the bravest vloggers I know. He’s not afraid to share his life and family with the world. I’m watching his feed with desperate anticipation and looking forward to seeing more of Clark’s family and friends on his show.

If you aren’t a vlogger, I’m curious about what you would share with the world on your imaginary future video blog. If you are a vlogger, I’d like to hear about what your level of intimacy is with the camera and the audience. How much do you share of your life on camera?