Makers Local 256

Scavenger Huntsville!

korc — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:34:24 +0000

Get to know your town a little better – join us for our Scavenger Hunt! This is the first trial of a community-wide scavenger hunt game brought to you by some members of Makers Local 256.

The Tasks: Find an object from our hints, take a picture of it, and post the picture in a twitter Direct Message to @HSVsh, like so: d HSVsh [some words maybe?] [twitpic URL]

The Objects: Objects in and around Huntsville. Different every week, for four weeks.

The Hints: Every Friday, a hard one. Every Monday, an easier one. Every Wednesday, an even easier one. Posted at 12 pm noon from the @HSVsh twitter account.

The Points: Until the 2nd clue is posted = 5 points. Until the 3rd clue is posted = 3 points. After the 3rd clue until the next object = 1 point.

The Goal: Highest score after 4 rounds (weeks) gets a $50 gift card. In the case of a tie, a tie breaker round will be held. First to tweet the right answer, wins.

The Tools: A twitter account and camera or camera phone. Follow @HSVsh .

The game starts Friday March 5, 2010!

Pig Roast: Pictures

Jeff Cotton — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:36:19 +0000

We couldn’t have asked for better weather this past Saturday at Makers Local. Round about 6AM makers came together to impale Harry Plopper onto his spit, preparing him for the slow cooking he would endure throughout the day.

Preaux goes Lord of the Flies on the pig.

More pictures of the event can be found here:

Omegix’ Pig Roast Pictures

Project complete: Forge

gregabyte — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:12:00 +0000

Wednesday Night All-Members Meeting

nykodemus — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:54:50 +0000

We’d like to try to get people more involved and interested in shop activities. So every Wednesday night at 7pm, we’d like to invite all members to gather at the shop to discuss projects, show and tell, brainstorm, and meet-n-greet. Open to all members and guests, as always.

Pig Roast Flier

Jeff Cotton — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:04:29 +0000

Makers Local 256 will be hosting a Pig Roast on Saturday, Feb 20th at 1PM. Plates of pork will be $10 each, or $15 for two. The pig itself will be slow roasted on a custom welded automatic rotisserie, over a member constructed fire pit. Along side a pot of jambalaya, members will be bringing potlock and picnic noms. During the Pig Roast there will also be a Silent Auction, and an Open House where members of the community are encouraged to come check out the make shop, see our past and current projects, and find out more about getting involved in the collaborative DIY community. To volunteer for this event, or for more details, visit: The Pig Roast Wiki Page

Robotics Meetup at Makers Local 256

Jeff Cotton — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:14:53 +0000

(Letter is From Don, who is now heading the Robotics Meetup!)

Announcing a new Meetup for The Mid-South Area Robotics Society!

What: First Meeting of the year

When: Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:00 AM

Where:
Makers Local 256
203 Brown St.
Huntsville, AL 35805
256-513-4667

Welcome Everyone to the kick-off meeting for Mid South Area Robotics Society.

We will be defining our plans for the rest of the year. If you have a contest or project, this is the time to see if we can fit it in. I know this group hasn’t been meeting but get ready for a change. If you a have robots bring it. All projects are welcome.

Hope to see everyone there.

I want to thank the Makers Local 256 for letting us host in there building.

Location:
11:00 am
Makers Local 256
203 Brown St.
Huntsville, AL 35805
http://256.makerslocal.org/

Learn more here:
http://robotics.meetup.com/67/calendar/12427139/

GIMP/Inkscape Class Thursday 28th

MrWorld — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:08:35 +0000

Next Thursday, January 28 at Makers Local I’ll be teaching a class on the basics of GIMP. It’s a very powerful tool for editing imagery and it’s free, which makes it ideal for enhancing photos or graphics work. For a one night class, I’m going to cover the most basic tools, and the most obvious applications for first-time users, like touching up photos or creating a simple graphic or text editing. Benalene is going to help by going over the basics of InkScape, another freeware application which that has good vector graphics tools.

If you’ve got photos you want to touch up with common issues (weird lighting, red-eye, etc) we’ll show easy ways to fix them. Also, if you want some quick ways to add a little polish to imagery for a website, business card, or other personal project, we’ll talk about the most common techniques.

You’ll probably want to bring your laptop or netbook with GIMP and InkScape already installed so you can play with the tools we’re talking about as we go.

The date is set for Thursday, January 28 2010 at 7pm.

DnD 101 Event Recap

Jeff Cotton — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:48:18 +0000

On Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010, Makers Local 256 hosted a “DnD 101″ class. The class gave the attendees exposure to what goes into creating a game, the tools available for creating characters, and an overview on what’s involved in making an environment that is fun for creative minds.

Succeeding in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign requires a collaborative approach from the players, a key mentality used in both game play and group projects.

Meditation Class

nykodemus — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:44:41 +0000

I’m scheduling a meditation class Wednesday February 3rd at 7pm.

Unless I get a ton of responses saying this is a bad day/time, this is when it will be.

I plan to talk about and teach mindfulness meditation, but we can talk about/do whatever the group would like.

NeonJade

Jeff Cotton — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:23:54 +0000

NeonJade writes an article on Makers Local 256:

Did we fit in? It certainly felt like it to me. I even took a couple of membership applications to fill out. The energy was contagious. It makes me believe I could finish that mosaic project I have been meaning to do, maybe learn how to use a welder and try my hand at sculpture. Everything feels more possible in a supportive environment…

If you’re interested in checking out Makers Local 256, members are typically present at the space by 6:00PM weekdays, and 1:00PM on Saturdays. The Makers Local IRC channel is a great resource for finding out if people are currently at the space, as well as our webcam: https://256.makerslocal.org/camera

We look forward to meeting you!