The technology in the video has gotten better and way cheaper now but the concepts are the same.

via MAKE

No, it’s because I think SXSW has outgrown Austin. Just look at this lineup for badge pickup (it’s hard to tell but it’s actually a double looped line that snakes around the entire convention centre):

Every year, more of my friends attend the conference…and they tell two friends and so on. The estimate I heard for just the interactive portion this year was 24,000+ attendees. That doesn’t include the Film folks and the Music people that start arriving towards the end. I don’t know if any city can support a conference like this, while still having the charm of Austin.

The other thing that I’ve noticed the last few years is that the people that I met early on are no longer attending. It’s for various reasons but many just don’t make it a priority anymore like they once did. I was chatting with Erica OGrady (whom I met at SXSW a few years ago) about this topic at the Bing/Cheezburger party (which was a blast – see the photo above) and she’s also questioning her future attendance for the same reasons I am. It’s just gotten too big. It used to be lineups for the hot parties. But now it’s lineups for everything.

I wanted to check out Anthony Bourdain’s panel about how his No Reservations tv crew use social media. I figured I would show up 1/2 an hour early and get a good spot to take some photos. I ended up walking past a giant line about 45 minutes early (on my way to the trade show to kill some time) and it was the line up for Bourdain. It now seems that in order to even get into an A-list panel, you pretty much have to skip the previous timeslot’s panel just to wait in a line. I couldn’t even get into a few other panels because the doors were locked and it was full…despite me being early for them. Frustrating? Hell yes!

While I did make it into the panel, I almost didn’t bother because on the way back from lunch, we actually bumped into Mr. Bourdain as he arrived for the panel and he was gracious enough to let a bunch of geeks and fans get their photo with him.

This lineup craziness also extends to the parties and other night time events. So much so that you usually need to RSVP to them weeks or months before you even get to Austin.

This year, the Bing/Cheezburger party took it a step further. You had to RSVP via Eventbrite and then you needed to pickup a wristband a few days before the party from the Bing compound if you wanted to skip the party lineup. The key difference is that their wristband actually had an RFID chip inside that would give you quick access to the party as well as when a roving photographer took your picture, you could literally swipe your wristband across a receiver that the photographer had and it would post the photo they just took to your Facebook wall. Pretty amazing…if not a little creepy. It did make for a quick entry though.

Now, I’m the first to admit that the last few years, I’ve attended fewer and fewer panels due to the fact there is so many other great events and activities happening outside the convention centre. Some friends have even gone ‘badgeless’ because you really don’t need a badge to have a great experience during SXSW (although many events do require a badge unless you have VIP status).

This year was no different.

Google previously had a huge presence on the trade show floor but this year, they opted to rent out an ENTIRE neighbourhood within walking distance of the convention centre and setup shop as the “Google Village”.

Each house was decked out in Google colors and brands along with giant map pins out front. There was the Android house, the Developer house, the Maps house, complete with a Streetview car out front and many more.

One of the coolest things I found was in the Discovery house which featured a live web cam view of a Coca-Cola machine in New York City and a terminal that you could use to send a video message (and a free coke) to whomever walked up to the machine in NYC. They could then thank you for the coke via video (and you’d get an email link). A really clever campaign that will be spreading to 20 cities around the world and you can send a free coke from your laptop anywhere.

Another fantastic event held outside the convention centre was the GE Garage. This was a complete tent city of awesome technology that people like me love: tools and toys. They had basically brought one of everything that you’d find in an epic workshop or hackerspace and set it up and let you play with it.

They had a laser cutter/engraver where you could etch any design on your iPhone:

They also had a CNC machine where they cut out molds for the injection molding machine they also had on hand where they made iPhone cases with a built in pocket on the back for a Square reader.

If you ever wanted to learn how to weld, you could do that too. They were letting anyone help weld bike racks that would be donated to the City of Austin when SXSW was over.

They also had something close to my heart, a 3D printer table complete with the new MakerBot Replicator which hadn’t actually been released yet (they just started shipping to those that pre-ordered them). They were printing SXSW themed guitar picks for anyone that wanted one:

It was very cool to get to see one up close and I was also able to chat with Matt and Keith from MakerBot.

This also lead to a MakerBot meetup later in the week…where even the MakerBots got to ride in the famous Austin pedicabs.

As usual, there was no shortage of live music at night. At the Cheezburger party, the band FUN performed:

and at one of my favorite spots to see live music in Austin, the Belmont, hosted locals Ghostland Observatory with a fantastic show at the HP Cloud party:

and for the second year in a row, Neiliyo killed it at the ServerBeach party which the whole Eh Team crew come out for:

So, as you can see, there are still lots of great reasons to attend SXSW…and I barely spoke about the panels I attended. I’ve said the last couple of years that in order for me to attend SXSWi, it needs to be a different experience. So a few years ago, I spoke on a panel, last year I drove to Austin and this year wasn’t that different other than the size of the event. Next year may have to be something special for me to attend again…maybe I’ll submit a panel idea.

I’ll likely wait until the summer when tickets go on sale to make my final decision on attending in 2013. I may even just book a badge and hotel room as a placeholder which I can always transfer to someone else if I decide not to go…something I’ve been telling people for years if they want to attend – book in late July/early August if you actually want a hotel that is walking distance from everything…otherwise you’ll be stuck with a $20-30 cab ride each way to your hotel in the boonies.

Special thanks to my friends at Roam Mobility that loaned me and the Eh Team crew some of their Liberty hotspots which were fantastic for keeping us all online when many others either couldn’t get online or incurred huge roaming charges because they didn’t plan ahead. I’m pretty sure I’m going to buy one to keep myself. They also gave us some SIM cards to give away in Austin which helped out a bunch of Canadian folks. A full review of their service will follow in a separate post now that I’ve had a chance to throughly test it.

While in Austin, I met up with the folks from the Toronto, Ontario based Jugnoo to try out their new beta service that launched just prior to SXSW. It’s a one stop social dashboard to creating, monitoring & publishing content and campaigns for social media.

I used their tool to create these short video slideshows (5 in total, which I packaged in this YouTube playlist) using my own photos which are individual daily recaps while at SXSW:

It’s a pretty slick tool with lots of options and I only really played with the video creation component which was surprisingly deep. Using my photos as the raw material, I was able to either directly upload or use links to my Flickr stream (or URL) to pull them into the tool, arrange them in sequence, add titles and choose a visual template. I was then able to add a soundtrack from their large library of music. It reminded me a lot of using iMovie except it was completely browser based. Once the video was created, you can then publish to your choice of social networks. They also have integrated analytics and monitoring for anything you produce with the tool.

My only issue with the video creation tool was that it isn’t currently possible to edit the video after you render it out (the rendered video is saved, just not in a further editable format if you want to make changes to text, layout, etc.). But as this is a beta, I provided this feedback to them and they are hoping to make this happen very soon. It’s still a very impressive tool considering it’s all done in a browser.

[Disclosure: I was chosen from a number of entrants to work with Jugnoo at SXSW and was paid a small sum to cover expenses in Austin as part of the contest.]

You can view my full set of photos on Flickr or watch this slideshow:

PS. I brought home a lot less swag this year…not because it wasn’t offered, I was just choosier. My favorite items were the HootSuite Scarf and the Magic Cheezburger 8 ball:

It’s no where near calibrated nor perfect but it’s working reliably now that I have the J-Head hotend installed along with Greg’s ‘Guidler’ extruder along with the motor strain relief bracket.

I had to fix a number of alignment issues with my belts, adjust a pulley, reseat and level the print bed to get to this point.

This is a quick printing wire clip which turned out really well considering I haven’t really calibrated anything yet beyond levelling the print bed:

The one on the left is literally the first thing I tried printing (before I fixed a number of issues) and the one on the right is pretty close to what it was supposed to be. It’s a little smooshed as I grabbed it while it was still warm.

Printing in PLA is quite different than the ABS I’m used to…it’s very oozy. I’m going to need to install a fan to cool the print faster.

It’s SOOOO much quieter than my MakerBot!

I’m excited to finally have things up and running. Now I just need to start calibrating the printer.

UPDATE: Received a fresh roll of transparent green PLA and added a temporary light to the extruder. I’d originally tried printing on glass with a cold bed, then a heated bed and then settled on cold blue painters tape.

The first few layers always seem to have issues sticking. Perhaps my Z height needs to be lower (squishier) or it’s a temperature thing. The green PLA seems to be more cotton candy like with stringy micro filaments that get caught under the nozzle and wreak havoc.

The cube on the left was literally the first thing I printed when I installed the new spool of green PLA and turned out nearly perfect. Glassy bottom, not too smooshed 1st layer and the top is nice and smooth. The middle one was a combination of things including a filament feed issue (spool not rolling freely) and the last one was the last thing I printed yesterday on blue painter’s tape. It’s decent but not quite as nice as the 1st cube.

I was tired of printing cubes so I thought I’d try something relatively fast to print, and was a trickier item to print due to the shape of the text. I’ve printed tons of these geeks on my MakerBot so I know how they are supposed to turn out (in ABS at least):

Unfortunately it didn’t finish printing. Just as well too since there were problems with it due to the errant blobs of PLA causing the hotend to skip and the alignment was off on the text layers as it went higher.

It stopped printing because my laptop keeps cutting out (like it’s completely powered off with no warning, kernal panic, just off) randomly while printing (after 7-10 minutes of printing), killing the print. I’m guessing it’s a USB communication error (tried both ports & my USB cable already has ferrite cores on each end of it) or line noise from the wiring. It was much worse when I tried to tidy my wires up by bundling them together but once I undid that, it got better (longer prints) but it still happened with this print. My desktop doesn’t seem to have the same problem though but that’s not nearly as convenient to use as a controller for the printer.

Maybe it’s time to get the SD Ramps board installed so I can print without needing it connected beyond starting the print.

Lastly, I found these RepRap coins which are a nice alternative to the calibration cubes. They print fast, are a little tricky and print well:

UPDATE #2: Last night I finally soldered the pins to the SD Ramps board I had ordered with my electronics originally and the headers to the RAMPS (along with the important D1 diode under the X/Y drivers to allow for computerless operation) in the hopes that this would solve my issues (or make it moot) with my laptop not staying connected:

Julian’s post was very helpful in navigating my exact configuration. This involved disconnecting everything and removing the RAMPS 1.4 board to solder onto it which gave me the opportunity to detangle some of the wires which may have been causing my line noise issues. I also labeled each wire before removing it to make it easier to reconnect.

I had originally planned on wiring the SD Ramps instead of the normal header way but ended up going with the headers as it was easier and a more robust connection that I had originally thought. To my great surprise, upon plugging the SD Ramps into the arduino mega, it worked! I then reconnected the RAMPS and all the wiring and reflashed the arduino with Sprinter with added SD support (by uncommenting one line of the configuration code) and hoped for the best. Booted everything up and again, to my great surprise, Pronterface recognized there was a SD card connected and allowed me to load up some of the gcoded files I already had on it. The hot end heated up and away it went printing. I then disconnected the printer in Pronterface and unplugged the USB cord and the printer kept going. A few minutes later I had my first untethered calibration cube printed…and it was nearly the best one yet! Yay!

I got a little cocky and then reconnected everything again and tried to print the geek keychain. It works flawlessly until about 5 minutes into the print and then some blobby PLA caused it to skip again and I ended up reconnecting to the printer to stop it – unfortunately there is no other way to stop the printer when it’s going by itself other than to kill the power.

Stay tuned as I attempt to solve this problem…my guess is that my extruder calculations in the Sprinter firmware needs to be recalibrated. Brad’s also suggested that I switch to Marlin which I may also do in the coming days.

UPDATE #3: Once again, simply showing a photo of a failed print to my pals in the reprap group helped troubleshoot my printing issues. My set screw on my x-axis needed to be tightened and bumping up the temperture to 190C for the green PLA I was using seemed to have fixed things:

Still not 100% but pretty damn close to the happy place I was hoping to get to!

I’d never been inside a monster truck before and had a chance to climb around inside one.

Once again, my GoPro’s came in very handy. In this photo, I’m mounting the GoPro to one of the rollbars inside. You enter these trucks by walking under the outer shell and then climb up via some cutouts in the chasis:

which made this video possible:

(no GoPros were harmed during this video)

I love how the inside of BC Place looks like a hot air balloon:

One method I’ve used is 2D extrusion which how I made the page keeper gadget for a coworker.

Another method is called solid modelling. There is a relatively new website, called Tinkercad, that gives you the tools to create 3D objects right in your browser, for free. It is built on the WebGL platform so requires a modern browser (and in some cases, modern graphics cards) to run it…I used Chrome as Safari doesn’t currently support WebGL.

Using a number of different shapes you can add or subtract the shapes to build up your design.

You choose the height and the size of the shape using direct numeric entry or a slider.

Choosing the workplane allows you change the level or angle you’re working on.

The measure tool allows you to create a positionable ruler to assist with measurements of your design.

The top left menu item, “Print 3D”, is how you export your model. You can either export it to an *.STL file (which is compatible with other 3d software packages as well as the software I use to print with my 3d printer) or you can send it to a 3d printing service like Shapeways.com if you don’t own a 3d printer. They’ll print it for you, in a number of different material options and ship it to your door.

Here’s their quick start tutorial that should give you a better idea of how it works:

I wanted to design a mount that would allow me to attach my GoPro camera to a remote control quadcopter. I couldn’t find a design on Thingiverse so I toyed with modifying some other GoPro mounts on there for the purpose but nothing looked like it would work any better than simply duct taping the camera down.

I also didn’t want to modify the quadcopter at all so opted to use the same mount point for the battery which already has velcro to hold it in place. I did find a mount online that someone designed and printed with a 3d printer who was selling it but there wasn’t any good detail photos of it so I had to come up with my own version and used my calipers to measure everything.

It took a few iterations before I found a design that worked:

The final version (I had to print two of them):

Here’s the results of this mount attached to the quadcopter with GoPro camera installed:

Turned out pretty good! Now to design one that fits underneath the quadcopter for an unencumbered view.

Another cool thing about Tinkercad is that you are given a permalink to your design that you can share. Then others can make a copy of it and make other things with it. I did this with something I found on Thingiverse, a tool holder for my 3d printer, that was a cleverly designed mount for tools that are commonly used when operating the 3d printer. I thought the same object, minus the tool parts, would be great for mounting my webcam onto the printer. The creator of the tool holder had used Tinkercad to create it so it was easy to duplicate it and then erase the unneeded bits to make this:

So I made a couple versions, a big and small one depending on what you wanted to attach to the platform.

So far, I’ve been really impressed with Tinkercad. I’ve found it the easiest way to get designing something, without all the usual technical stuff. It did take a little getting used to and it was a little tricky to figure out the workplane stuff, but once I spent a little time with it, it got much easier. I also now have two different designs that I have successfully printed and are working great.

There’s also a newer beta version you can try out at labs.tinkercad.com.

via The Future is 3D

A few nights before halloween, I figured it was time to carve up a pumpkin down at my local indoor shooting range:

and practice for the upcoming zombie apocalypse with a 9mm and shotgun.

Of course, this was all preparation for me to shoot real zombies, however instead of with a 9mm handgun, I used my DSLR to cover the annual Thrill the World Vancouver event. They set a new record for the number of zombies simultaneously dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller – 434! They also raised over $4400 for the food bank.

This year’s event was at night which presented some photographic challenges but that’s what giant LED light boxes are for.

You can view my full set of photos from the event on Flickr.

At the end of September I visited Fairmont Hot Springs, BC. and did a couple of guest blog posts over at Miss604.com. Easily the highlight for me was the hidden natural hot springs waterfall:

and I used my GoPro to capture the salmon run that was happening underneath my kayak while on a sightseeing tour:

I also got up close and personal with a bear cub on the resort grounds:

I had actually just finished in the spa and was following the bear cub around in my robe and flip flops. The momma bear wasn’t in the area…we saw her the next day and she was as big as a VW beetle.

Speaking of furry animals, I also got a new kitten recently. A female orange tabby that I’ve named Pixel:

She’s adorable…and is growing up quickly. She’s a Mac fan too!

And lastly, this year I’ve decided to throw my face into the ring (?) and participate in Movember. I’m actually going to grow my facial hair, even though I can just print a mustache on my 3D printer:

I’ve lost a number of people I care about recently to cancer and figured it was time to endure a month of awkward looks with a creepy janitor-esque mustache. Although I may try and do a fu man chu if my follicles play along. If you’d like to donate, please visit my Movember page. I thank you in advance for your support.

Bre’s passion for this technology was a huge reason for me buying my own Thing-o-Matic 3D printer and getting into 3D printing in the first place. I think the video captures this quite well along with perfectly explaining the reasons why I think 3D printers are a huge disruptive technology that is in people’s hands right now, thanks to people like Bre.

Here’s some of my favorite photos from the two day festival of outdoor concerts.

Day One

Emily Haines and James Shaw of Metric did an acoustic set:

a view from the busy photo pit:

then Vancouver’s own Hey Ocean did a great set on the main stage:

I don’t think anyone in the photo pit liked the camera crane:

The John Butler Trio was up next:

many of the instruments had GoPro cameras rigged up to give an interesting view of the musicians which I really liked

The highlight for me was definitely Girl Talk who closed the evening:

Day Two
Sunday had an earlier start and seemingly more bands. First up was Vancouver’s The Zolas:

Metric’s full set followed:

Weezer:

and then Major Lazer closed out the festival. Diplo and crew put on an amazing finale:

Unfortunately, the onboard mic on my DSLR couldn’t quite keep up with the wall of bass hitting it but here’s a little clip:

It was a pretty epic weekend of music, friends and lots of sunshine. Here’s a slideshow of all the photos I posted to Flickr from the weekend:

Also be sure to check out Rebecca’s coverage of the festival which I contributed to.

Easily the highest resolution model I’ve printed so far on my MakerBot coming in at a whopping 147mb (versus 1-5mb for a complex model on average). It took forever to render the toolpath in Replicator G but was worth it!

It took just under 3 hours to print this hollow (0% infill with 1 extra shell for those that care):

Note the clean white lighting inside the MakerBot – another upgrade performed this weekend to go with the green LED lighting which I can switch between or use both for a softer green light effect.

Aside from a few dropped loops that cleaned up easily, it printed really well. A dropped loop happened in his mouth that makes it look like he’s sticking his 900 year old tongue out.

I think I’ll scale this model down a bit (there is already a lower res model derivative on Thingaverse) and make a small army of them for friends.

Waiting for the Lucasfilm take down notice in 3…2…1…