Autonomous Vehicle Competion

One more picture
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

SparkFun hosted an Autonomous Vehicle Competition around their Boulder, CO office. Make and Boing Boing editor Mark Frauenfelder was there covering the the event. Circuits@Home has some great closeups of many competitors.

Beatbox Workshop - Shodekeh

Beatbox Workshop
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

Professional Beatboxer Shodekeh (autoplaying sounds) leads a workshop in CU's Atlas Black Box Theater.

This was my favorite CWA event this year.
At the start of the workshop the audience (mostly high school aged) clamored into the chairs set up in the theater. Shodekeh approached the single microphone onstage and asked if there were any other beatboxers in the audience. Two brave gentlemen raised their hands and Shodekeh asked them to join him onstage as guest panelists. The two guests had a chance to show off their stuff and then Shodekeh took his turn:



Remember: single microphone on stage. All the beats, record static, record scratches, didgeridoo - everything is coming out of some part of Shodekeh's body.

After the cheers died down Shodekeh pulled everyone onstage and arranged us into a big circle. He assigned us sounds to make and then "conducted" us, wave-style. Shodekeh was clearly having a blast, hearing the sound travel around the room. He then had everyone choose the sound they wanted to make and grouped us together. I was a whistler, naturally. Once again he conducted us, beatboxing over the top of our noises. I get a certain thrill when strangers sing together, but beatboxing together was an entirely different experience - the tapestry of sounds as each person wove their own music into everyone else's, with a pro leading us all.

Jello Journalism

Jello Journalism
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

Probably the most talked about feature of today's Edible Book Show, Earl Noe demonstrates his hectographs - a Jello-based printing system.

A hectograph is made by transferring an image prepared with aniline inks to a pan of gelatin. Copies of this original can then be made by simply pressing a sheet of paper against the gelatin.

Because of the fragile nature of the gelatin, only around 100 copies of the original can be made. Therefore the hectograph lends itself to small print runs - classroom tests, newsletters and science fiction fanzines. Fragility can also be an advantage: the master copies can be completely eliminated. In World War II, Allied officers imprisoned at Colditz Castle near Leipzig melted their gelatin desserts to make a hectograph press to produce escape maps.

As arcane as a hectograph may seem you've probably had one pressed against your skin. Temporary tattoos use ink suspended in gelatin - hectographic technology!