OMG, Penguicon! Open-source/sci-fi/DIY conference this weekend…

Penguicon has been sneaking up and is now right around the corner! This weekend, something like a thousand geeks of sundry stripes will filter into the Troy Marriott, to engage in a surfeit of geekly pursuits, including but not limited to:

• Making ice cream with liquid nitrogen
• Improv comedy
• Robot building and competition
• Sysadmin tools workshop
• Webcomic and humor writing workshops
• Screenprinting

You get the idea. Penguicon features appearances by various authors and web celebrities, a bevy of talks on topics too numerous to mention, workshops and DIY activities aplenty, and of course, some i3Detroit involvement.  The emergence of a hackerspace in metro Detroit has  earned us Hack of Honor status at the con this year, and members will be presenting on topics from Arduino arcade games, to flashlight building, to the infamous cupcake car.

The party gets started Friday afternoon and runs until sometime Sunday. Admission at the door is $50. Further details are at Penguicon.org

Barbecue this Sunday, everyone’s invited — this means YOU.

It’s been a year since i3Detroit’s first meeting, and what better way to celebrate than by scorching some food?  This Sunday, april 25th, starting around 1pm, we’ll have a grill and a fridge full of pop. Probably other stuff, too, but bringing something to grill and something to pass is encouraged. 1481 Wordsworth, Ferndale.  Rain or shine…

Everyone is welcome at this and all i3Detroit events, so bring your friends!  Think of anyone who’s been looking for an excuse to check out the space. Think back to everyone you hit up for Kickstarter donations.  Think about the teacher, the tinkerer, the doer in your phonebook who’s not in ours.  This applies to anonymous shy people who read our blog and never come around, too.  Just get here, we don’t bite…(or do we?)

There’s so much stuff happening soon, from Pengiucon and Hamvention to Maker Faire Detroit and beyond, we’ll be doing a lot of planning and maybe even some working.  If you’re not involved with any of that stuff yet, this is the perfect time to learn more.

Hello from Notacon!

Year 7 of the Midwest’s premier art/tech conference is under way in Cleveland! Talks are under way, Blockparty (the longest-running North American demoparty) is really gonna happen, the ham radio repeater has been on the air since last night, the network is up (20Mbps uplink!), and the hotel is crawling with a who’s-who of hacker history, digital art, open source, bioengineering,  electronics…

It’s 10am on Friday, and I’m learning about an open-sourced library for graph visualization. Unlike GraphViz, this one runs in realtime, and is designed for analyzing network flows and malware propagation. Beats the hell out of working today!

If you’re not in at Notacon already, jump in the car and get here! There’s plenty going on all weekend…

Call for Makers: Have you submitted?

Maker Faire Detroit is coming up fast, don’t wait for the last minute to submit your project! Even projects exhibited under i3Detroit’s umbrella need to apply separately, so the organizers know what to expect (and promote).

Please pass the word to everyone you know who might have something to share. The Call for Makers page has a good list of topics that might jog your memory of someone to approach. A project need not be revolutionary or polished to be at the Faire — remember, the point is that ordinary folks can and do make things!

Make: Music

It’s that time of the month again. The time where we bang, blow, and scratch on weird instruments, perfectly boring and normal instruments, and explore new sounds. Or we could just do a normal jam session. Its all up in the air at this moment.
Lets all just make some funky noises.  The non-musically-inclined are welcome too!  All you need is creativity.

The noise starts tonight (April 9) at 7PM, and continues into the night.

(Regrettably, we do not have the pictured instrument at this moment.)