Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show! - Maker Shed

TEDx San Jose Wrapup and Goodbye 2012!

Super-Awesome Sylvia — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 04:41:56 +0000

December was a blast! TEDx San Jose let me meet amazing people, and listen to their amazing talks. Olympic Gold winner Dana Vollmer showed me her medal, and we became best buds!

Susan Fonseca had a really good talk about losing her father, and how 3D printed organs might help lots of people soon because of work done by Singularity University. Maybe with a little luck we'll get to work together on something amazing too.

Afterward, Megan Keely performed some great music for the audience with her band, and even gave me an acorn necklace once we were done! Check out her music, it really is awesome, her dad helps her make it too.

Adam Steltzner (who works at NASA!) was just an awesome guy, and gave an AMAZING TALK about how he and his team helped land the incredible curiosity rover!! (totally jealous)

Jeannie Kahwajy helped me a whole lot with my speech, giving me tips on ways to speak, how to show big points, and a LOTS more. Jeannie’s talk was really good too, she describes ways some people can try to be helpful but sound mean, and how to recognize and help change that.

At lunch, we did a giveaway to a random selection of people by putting vouchers under seats. Super-huge thanks to Sherry at Makezine for coming through at the last minute and getting us the super-awesome books and kits for the giveaway like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi starter kits from the Maker Shed, and the beautifully illustrated Make: Electronics Book and Encyclopedia of Electronic Components

Fans of the show and kids of all ages came up to talk and get autographs. So many cool people there that I could have talked with them for hours. It's probably the best thing you can do at things like this, to talk to interesting people and share ideas, thoughts and inspiration. I had a really good time. :)

2012 was crazy busy for me and my family. Running all the country, over 15,000(!) miles, and lots of local conferences too. We didn’t end up making any more than 2 episodes this year (except this year's holiday gift guide), but we were still busier than ever. Sorry we couldn’t do a bit more, but it’s just me and my family.

In 2013 we will be going to even more Maker Faires, and we’ll be getting back on track with making the new season of Sylvia’s Super-Awesome maker show!! Our next episode will be on Joey Hudy’s SMT LED matrix board for the Arduino, and the next will come soon after. Also, I want to say to all the awesome people who contributed to my New York trip this last September, I am sorry for the wait on getting perks out on time. I promise that by this February, we will have all of those perks out there and sent! Again, I am really sorry.

We’ve got big plans this next year, and with help, I know we can make them happen. See you out there on the road, and remember to get out there and make something!

Maker Faire Bay Area 2012: Day 2

TechNinja — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 14:59:38 +0000

(Continued from Maker Faire: Day 1) The streets strangled by traffic, we arrive a bit late (show up early folks!). Hopping out of our car and hoofing across the south lot, we're totally ready for Adam Savage's talk at 11. First a quick stop off at the magical steampunk village, to see the amazing machines, sculptures, and perchance to write an olde fashioned letter with a fountain pen.

Just as we finish our letters, we got a call from our pal Brooklyn to head over and see our friend Joey Hudy in the Maker Shed, he was sad that Becky wasn't there to walk around and do interviews with Matt for MAKE Live, so he suggested that he and Sylvia fill in! Who would pass up an awesome chance like this? Not us!

Off we ran to the Shed for some preliminary interviews, then Adam Savage himself, then onto the back of a golf cart to tour the sights and sounds of the Faire. Soon seeing such awesome things as Makerbot's robot petting zoo, the giant fire snorting dragon, and Los Angeles Maker Extraordinaire, Tara Tiger Brown (all seen in the video)!

Rounding out a long fun tour of the grounds and sights, they headed over to the Whiskey Drunk Cycles arena, it was time to dunk a MAKE editor! Sylvia was first to pitch, and without breaking a sweat somehow managed to pull out a fast ball and dunked her on the second shot! I guess that single season of softball finally paid off.

After her fun trip with the Make crew and Joey, we set out on our own to inhale the last invigorating breaths of Maker Faire. Into the expo hall we stopped by and said hi to all the booths we could. Handing out stickers, cards, smiles and hugs. Met up with incredible electronics master Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang, he even signed Sylvia's Chumby One!

We saw our nice friends from Parallax showing off their red line follower bots, and Sylvia's favorite Ping))) BOE bot, then over to the fabulous Tinkercad, showing off 3D printed versions of their favorite models, some even in ceramic and metal. Stopping by one of our favorite booths, Sugru showed off their awesome "kid-proof" camera made safe with only their colorful air-curing rubber. Then finally off at the Robotis booth to check out the awesome Ollo bug bot kit, and to even hold one of the incredible DARwIn-OP humanoid bots (too bad his battery was dead).

By the time we finished strolling through the expo hall, it was time for the very last EepyBird Diet Coke and Mentos show! We ran outside and set ourselves up in front before the crowds got too thick, hoping for to get close enough to "experience" the soda fountains, and we were not disappointed! (totally got soaked when the wind picked up)

Not long after, it was time for the awards ceremony for the Fun Bike Unicorn Club Figure 8 races. Due to our constantly popping tires, derailing chain and eventually the front right wheel coming off, we were tied for last place. Though because we kept on trying, and even went to a store to buy replacement tubes to race again the following day, we won "Best Effort", and hold the trophy proudly (Actually, driver and welder TheD holds it)

The fair has now officially ended. Patrons and booth runners alike; pack, clean up, and head out. People gather outside as they leave to marvel at the eclipse, turning simple tree shade into a crowded sea of crescents. We make our way through buildings, slowly meandering our way to the exit. We love to walk through the slowly emptying halls as the excitement, stress and heat of thousands of hurried bodies drains out, leaving only the people who came here some few days ago to put everything up, just to take it all down again. On our way through we spotted a hard at work Sophi hacking away at an cell phone signal detector hat for the big post-Maker Faire hack dinner at Harry's Hofbrau. Sylvia helped her solder a bit, and then we headed out to the dinner ourselves.

It was packed. Almost every patron was from Maker Faire, and an entire section of the restaurant was devoted to the elite hackers showing off their incredible inventions and physical sketches. Everything from Jeri's C-64 Bass, Benheck's briefcase 3D printer, Garret Mace's LED matrix glasses, to a high pressure CO₂ fruit carbonator. After an hour or more of mingling, showing off of cool things, and planing with like minded makers, Sherry and Dale walked in causing every single table to erupt in spontaneous applause. The entire event after the event was incredible, and we ended up staying far beyond our limit, leaving over three hours later than we expected... of course, it was worth it.

Sylvia finished collecting her "photoception" picture-in-a-picture shots as best she could on this last day of Maker Faire. Sunday netted her: Mr. Mythbuster Adam Savage out signing after giving a great talk and getting interviewed by Sylvia herself! (3 years), head of the Maker Shed, Mr. Marc de Vinck (2 Years), MAKE editor in chief and Boing Boing founder Mark Frauenfelder (2 years), Masters of soda fountains, the Eepybird guys, Fritz and Steven (3 Years), and uber-modder and pinball fanatic Ben Heckendorn (2 years).

And thus concludes our tale of Maker Faire Bay area 2012. Made lots of friends, saw lots of amazing things, got so many ideas, only good can come from so much sharing.

Stay tuned for another multi-part tale of our adventures at Maker Faire Kansas City, 2012, then Make Summer Camp 2012, then Constructing Modern Knowledge 2012!!

Sylvia builds Mousey the Junkbot

Dadmin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:48:03 +0000

Mini

Ever wanted a pet but your parents wouldn't let you? Why not try Mousey the Junkbot! Today we'll be highlighting the build for this little light seeking bot, from spare parts and an old computer mouse. Lets go!

Ep. Number

See this post on MakeZine.com

Favorite Comments

TheMorningshadowsTony Stark's daughter.
dummerbubeThe first maker-video in a very long time that I liked
fenixzI thought I was pretty smart... until I stumbled upon this kid's videos.
belisariusorbI notice quite a few comments from parents saying they'd rather buy a toy or a pet than spend time doing this with their kids. Try it! Remember your own childhood? What do you remember most, your favourite toys or the times you spent with your parents doing something fun?
And you might find it's a lot more fun than football games on the TV.
khisanth75Jeri Ellsworth has a rival in the making!
SkidTheSamuraiI am thoroughly amazed. All of the girls at my old high school would avoid the engineering and programming classes like the plague. In fact I can only think of maybe three who were actually interested in engineering from the FIRST team I was on.
sparkybaz77Shes more intelligent then some of the 50 year old engineers i work with, no joke.
niceguypantsContinued thanks to Sylvia and the Ninjas for fun videos, inspiring young makers. Keep up the great work!

Season

Sylvia's Simple Arduino Projects

Dadmin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:25:56 +0000

Full

Ep. Number

Super Awesome Sylvia builds two different super simple Arduino Projects: The "Randomly Influenced Finger Flute", or R.I.F.F., and an Adjustable Strobe! For these easy projects, all you need are a computer, an Arduino, and one or two other common parts. Super simple at it's best.

Don't forget one of the most Super-Awesome places to get all things Arduino on the web:
http://makershed.com/arduino

Project 1: Super Simple Adjustable Strobe
---------------------------------------------
http://sylviashow.com/strobe

Direct code link on github:
http://github.com/techninja/adjustable_strobe-learning/raw/master/adjust...

Nate True's Time Fountain:
http://cre.ations.net/creation/the-time-fountain

Video of the Time Fountain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvY7NGncCgU

Project 2: The R.I.F.F.
--------------------------------------------
http://sylviashow.com/riff

Direct code link on github:
http://github.com/techninja/riff-learning/raw/master/riff.pde

Tinker.it's soft-synth, Auduino:
http://code.google.com/p/tinkerit/wiki/Auduino

Auduino - The Arduino synthesiser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LKmtJHSLF0

Music by The Wavers - Three Minutes to Escape [CC Sharealike v2.5]

Season

Favorite Comments

Bruce Sterling (via Wired's Beyond the beyond)*Holy cow, kid.
Tim Carmody (via Wired's Gadget Lab)...the video’s directorial style is so fine it makes Rushmore-era Wes Anderson look like a hobo. Just sayin’.
alexWiiDSThat was a great video. Not a great video for a kid. Just a great video. I'll be watching your other videos too. I'd love for my daughter to get into this stuff too. She's only 3 right now, so I think I have to wait a bit.
hiyori13ouch. Now I really feel bad about my freeduino/seeduino lying around. Sorry, sorry, I've been meaning to play with it, I have ideas for it, just haven't gotten around to it. Twenty hail buddas and 100 lines of coding.
huertanixEpic video is epic. I wish more kids were using Linux for programming Arduinos.
vxbinacaI'll have to pick up a Ardiuno now

Sylvia Goes to Maker Faire

Dadmin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:23:14 +0000

Full

Ep. Number

Super Awesome Sylvia goes to Maker Faire 2010! it's so epic it takes TWO parts to complete.
In part 1, we visit (in order):

Mauro Ffortisimo, Piano liberator:
http://mauroffortisimo.com

Gogh Bike, the drawing bicycle:
http://sn.im/goghbike

ORB v.2, full color orbital POV display
http://artmagnitude.com

Fish bug, art sculpture:
http://fishbug.net

Project: Making the "Sound Sandwich"
http://lawrencehallofscience.org and http://howtosmile.org

TechShop CNC plasma cutter:
http://techshop.ws

The Theascope (Now as of June 11, called the ForeSight), 3D augmented reality powered by smart phones
http://galaxykate.com

LUNAR Rocket club saucer launch
http://lunar.org

Thermite demo by Jeffery Schwartz
http://amazingrust.com

Super Awesome Sylvia goes to Maker Faire 2010! it's so epic it takes TWO parts to complete.
In part 2, we visit (in order):

The Raygun Gothic Rocket, giant cool silver rocket. 'Nuff said.
http://raygungothicrocket.com

Mondospider, super amazing multilegged electric and steal crawling beasty
http://eatart.org - http://mondospider.com

Land Sharks, EL wire animated ankle-biters
http://sn.im/landsharks

Project: Making something with Scrap
http://scrap-sf.org

Meeting the makers:

Limor Fried
http://ladyada.net - http://adafruit.com (maker of the Drawdio kit!)

EepyBird: Coke + Mentos + Eepybird = Too Much Awesome for one stage
http://eepybird.com

John park, Public TV Make show host
http://jpixl.net - http://blog.makezine.com/archive/author/john_park/

Full episode list, favorite comments, Idea submissions and Sylvia's blog
http://tn42.com/maker-show

Support Sylvia's college goal: M.I.T. by 2019!
http://cafepress.com/SylviasCollegeFund

Songs used during this episode part (all licensed under Creative Commons Share-alike v2.5 license):
-Dhalius - The Road Scene
-The Wavers - The Longest Day, Surfin' Mosquito, Inigo

Season

Favorite Comments

Lawrence Hall of Science (via YouTube)Sylvia, you rock! We are big fans of your show and are so happy to see that you featured the sound sandwich from the Lawrence Hall of Science/SMILE Maker Faire booth. We love the experiments you came up with for the sound sandwich. *High 5!*
UberEgnaro24Sylvia, thanks for making these videos. You are truly inspirational. Can't wait for episode 4!
thrashishanother superawesome show!
doctorzegoSylvia it does my heart good to see that kids are still getting out and making things keep it up!

Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show! - Maker Shed

TEDx San Jose Wrapup and Goodbye 2012!

Tags

Maker Faire Bay Area 2012: Day 2

Tags

Sylvia builds Mousey the Junkbot

Ep. Number

Favorite Comments

Season

Sylvia's Simple Arduino Projects

Ep. Number

Season

Favorite Comments

Sylvia Goes to Maker Faire

Ep. Number

Season

Favorite Comments