Dorkbot
Posted by Joelle
April 28, 2008
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Last week I went along to Dorkbotlondon #54, a geekout love fest full of dorks getting really excited. I felt seriously out-dorked, by the programming jokes I didn’t get, and feeling like the only person who wouldn’t know where to start to solder a circuit board, but still it was great. It was like walking straight into a copy of Make magazine.
The guy in the picture, Eric Raymond, had made these little robots that drew pictures generated from internet data like satellite maps. Dan Storell was beatboxing through a ZX Spectrum he had tinkered with to respond to the timbre of his voice (hot geek alert!).
There was another guy, who had made a brockenspiel – an instrument that played music generated by the magnetic strips on a credit card. Someone asked if it could be rigged up to play barcodes as well, and lo, someone in the audience just happened to have a barcode reader on their person, and during the break they adapted it and played tunes from the barcodes of the bottles of beer we were drinking. It was that kind of place.
It’s so cool that these people are all working on such crazy fun projects, and the atmosphere was really buzzy and supportive. Here’s to DIY creativity in all its forms!
P.S Sorry for the quiet posting week last week. All four corners have been kinda busy, but we’ve all pledged to post some lovely things this week, so do check back. We haven’t forsaken you!
2 comments Categories: adventure, craft, london
April 29th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
We are definitely very busy corners!
June 4th, 2010 at 11:09 am
http://www.uknetweb.com/blog/how-to-survive-a-recession/glossary/glossary/