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I signed us up to participate in this year’s Global Hackerspace Cupcake Challenge.  If you’re asking yourself what is the Global Hackerspace Cupcake Challenge you can find the answer here: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Global_Hackerspace_Cupcake_Challenge_2012

If you don’t feel like visiting that page and reading all about it, all the hackerspaces in the world that want to participate have to build something that will keep a cupcake safe in the mail.  Each hackerspace picked another space to send their cupcakes.  Each space that receives a cupcake must make a video recording of opening the box and judging it based on things like: did the cupcake survive, creativity of the contraption that protected the cupcake, taste, and packaging decoration.  This very blog post even gets us an extra 3 points!  Here are some pictures of the contraption I built.  It fit exactly within the 12″ box limits and the whole thing weighed less than the maximum 2 kg at 1.52 kg.  I can’t wait to see what Alpha One Labs ends up with when they open ours!

 

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Enjoy listening to Mog, Brimstone, Jimshoe, and crashcartpro talk over current news in hackerspaces all over the globe. This fortnight’s podcast covers building hard drive flowers, sells mendel destruction, tweeting ping pong ball launching, cupcake delivery, and much, much more.

Show notes are on the wiki

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I decided to make a flag for the shop.

I started with 2 yards of a 100% cotton piece of fabric. I sewed the sides of the fabric to the size I wanted the flag to be. I also included a part on the left side of the flag for a pole.

I purchased “Jolee’s Easy Image” iron-on transfer sheets.

Iron-On Transfer Sheets

I printed my design on the transfer sheets. I then laid the transfer sheets out on the fabric and figured out how I wanted the words positioned. Once I had the final layout, I began ironing the words on.

Here is a picture of the flag hanging up at the shop:

Hanging up at the shop

I really enjoyed making this flag. Let me know what you think, unless it’s about the hyphen!

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Box of dead hard drives

Tonight during our open house we decided to do a Valentine’s Day themed project.  One of our members, John Kelly (CandleKnight), brought a box of dead hard drives, non-working PC power supplies and a table full of tools.  He showed a few of us and a non-member visitor how to make a flower from the parts found inside these things most everyone has in their homes.

Since John was taking the time to show us how to make the flowers and we had to share some of the tools it took us right around an hour and a half to make one.  Some of us even took a little extra time to bend the stem into something resembling leaves.  Let us know in the comments what you think!

Inside a hard drive
Inside a power supply
Parts and pieces ready
Complete flower with a leaf

Click here for more photos:

https://plus.google.com/photos/116575142518321294189/albums/5709233976085581745?authkey=CNbC1-H_2dvyKw

 

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The two Matts mounting the wigwag lightThe two Matts installed the Wigwag alert light on top of our member storage shelves tonight.  Now when users need our attention in the IRC channel not only do we get the robotic British lady’s voice over the intercom to tell us, we now have a bright, spinning light to grab our attention as well.

Go here to see even more pictures and a video of it in action!

https://plus.google.com/photos/116575142518321294189/albums/5705228437791855137