Archive for May 2010

The Incredible San Fancisco Artists’ Soapbox Derby, 1975

(via Jon Sarriugarte)

This movie is an inspiration for art and community. Simply wonderful. I watched it all the way through on Vimeo.

local version:

Under the Second “n” in Confidence

That’s me under the second “n” in “Confidence”. This was taken during last summer’s youth program. I’ll be teaching again this year :-)

The Northskirt: Soft Circuits are Gonna Be Big

An acquaintance from Noisebridge built this and first showed it off at Maker Faire last weekend. It is a fantastic example of the evolution (as in evolved just last week!) of soft circuits. I believe soft circuits are going to be BIG.

Find out more at http://steampunkworkshop.com/north-skirt

local version:

Electronic Controlled Flame Effects

Here are photos from the last night of the Electronic Controlled Flame Effects class I taught at the Crucible this past Thursday night. (by David Nichols, Tim Alexander and Lee Sonko)

Nice class, eh?

And here’s some videos. The last one is the most flame-tastic!

setting up for firing

Cuckoo flaming

Cupcake Poofer

more pressure poofs

local version:


local version:
local version:
local version:

How to Avoid Paypal Fees

If you are sending money to someone via Paypal, you can now avoid paying their 3% + $0.30 fee.

It used to be that you had to receive the money at a “Personal” Paypal account to avoid paying fees. I wrote about this in 2008.

Now it’s easier. When you are sending money to your friend or whoever, just be sure to select that you are sending the money as a “Personal” charge and not a “Purchase”. See the image.

As long as you aren’t funding your account with a credit card, there are no fees :-). That’s right, no fees to send and no fees to receive. This is how Paypal was when it first started.

Aggressive Maneuvers for Autonomous Quadrotor Flight

Lets Trade Backup Space

I pay for the Crashplan backup service and I’m quite happy with it. There is an option where you can backup to your friend’s computer for free. I’d like to trade backup space with a friend (you?) “just in case”. My backup is about 250 gig. I would happily trade about 250 gig on my computer with 250 gig on yours. What do you think?

The app runs with very low overhead. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Don’t worry, without the secret password I can’t view your data and you can’t view mine (assuming you trust the Crashplan software, which I do)

Email me. Lee at Lee dat org.

Black Jack Justice is AWESOME

Decoder Ring Theatre has absolutely the best radio programs. I just caught

Black Jack Justice episode 36 “Journeys End” and it was riveting! Great storytelling! Listen to this half-hour radio play and you will become a fan as well!

Black Jack Justice episode 36 “Journeys End” Local copy

Listen to more programs on Decoder Ring Theatre!

The Internet is a Fire Hose

I listen to podcasts in my car. I download the podcast with Juice, burn the mp3 files to a CD-RW and play it on my car stereo. It works quite well.

I just found this huge podcast directory. http://www.publicradiofan.com/podcasts.html. Check it out.

First Poofs

My Electronic Controlled Flame Effects class did their first poofing last night, testing with compressed air. I got very nervous when I heard the accumulator come up to pressure the first time. All those untested components under all that pressure!

It went fine. I’ll tell you this much, there are no cobwebs on the ceiling of the Kinetics lab any more! A few blasts from a 1/2″ solenoid valve connected to a 5 gallon accumulator solved that problem!

Next week there promises to be fire.