Author: Maker Block

DrawBot Practice Tip: A Watched Pot

Winter Is Coming
Winter Is Coming

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my DrawBot.  In large part that’s because it’s been a while since I’ve even used my DrawBot.

After a little dry spell of making, I’ve been rocking the DrawBot.  Previously I had been drawing things about the size of a sheet of paper.  While this meant the drawings were relatively quick, it also meant I could just print whatever I wanted directly onto a 8.5″x11″ sheet of paper using my traditional black and white laser printer.  This weekend I’ve cranked out a few drawings – but on a much grander scale.  Several months ago I picked up a large roll of white paper at the local office supply store – and I’ve since created about three 3-foot tall drawings.  One is a House Stark direwolf from Game of Thrones, one is an R2D2 commissioned by my daughter, and a third is an R2D2 and C3PO also at the request for my daughter.1

The last one is particularly cool.  I’ll take a picture for you later.  There’s a lot of room for improvement with the gondola.  The current setup is… let’s say… non-optimal.  I’m working on an improved version.

Where was I?  Oh yes!  The watched pot!

I’m using Sandy Noble’s seriously awesome Polargraph software to power my DrawBot.  I’m rocking version 0.182 and noticed that when I’ve got the program on the “Input” tab it draws about 42 points a minute and when it’s on the “Queue” tab it draws about 96 points a minute when working on SVG / vector graphic.  The cool part about drawing with the “Input” tab open is that you can see the drawing in progress.  So, when I’m watching the drawing, it runs slower.

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  1. She likes R2D2. [↩]
  2. He’s continually working on the software and is already out with v.0.19! [↩]

Dear Google, this IS my name

Dear Google,

Your user policies apparently require anyone using Google Plus to provide proof of an established online identity or have my Google Plus account deleted.  I have been using the name “MakerBlock” for two and a half years now.  I probably have as many friends and acquaintances who know me by this, my chosen name, as I have friends and acquaintances who know me by the arbitrary name chosen for me.  In fact, when it comes to an online identity, I’d say 99% of the people who know me don’t even know other names for me.

Here’s part of the problem with your online identify policies.  I’m not trying to be mysterious.  I’ve had online cyber stalkers before and, it is very likely I will again.  It’s actually becoming a more frequent problem for people with professions similar to mine. If this website, my Twitter account, or my Google Plus profile became associated with my given name, I’d probably need to soon abandon one or more of them.

Aside from safety issues, there are other totally legitimate reasons I’d want to use a non-given name for any of these accounts.  I do enjoy a little slice of anonymity and freedom that comes with not having the people I work with or for know about this website or online social networks.  It’s nice to have a place to vent about work, employer, and/or client frustrations.

In any case, why do you even care about my given name?  You know my IP address, which websites I own, you know where I live, probably all of my e-mail addresses.  You are in my phone, have my credit card number, and know where I work.  Why, for heaven’s sake, do you want to take this little piece away from me?

I have friends I would like to connect with through Google Plus, but associating Google Plus with my given name would essentially mean I wouldn’t be able to use Google Plus.  Your policy notice indicated that if I don’t appeal by 7/11/2012 you’ll delete my account.

MakerBlock IS my name and if I can’t use it online for Google Plus then I guess you need to delete my Google Plus data.

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The bad kind of downtime

Twitter Fail WhaleFailin’

Personal downtime?  Good.

Server downtime?  Bad.

My other website (perpetually unlinked to) is sitting on a server which is apparently in Las Vegas, Nevada. 1 They also, apparently, had a power failure and then an air conditioning unit failure and shut it all down.  And, it’s going to be down for at least 4-5 hours.  I only have one website on that server, and it’s the only site I have where uptime really truly matters.

Oh, and about 50% of my e-mail comes through that site.

Ugh.

  1. Photo Credit: Ben Ho via Compfight [↩]

I don’t know why it bothers me, but it just does

Catcopter?!! Where's the back button?!Catcopter?!!  Where’s the back button?!

Make Magazine posted that they would not be linking to the dead cat quadcopter. 1 That’s something I can get behind. 2  The problem is – I struggle to be able to articulate or even rationalize why I feel this way.

I think Make might have the same problem.  However, as one Make commenter points out, they’ve blogged and posted about animal taxidermy, even bizarre taxidermy before.  For some reason, the catcopter is just different – and I’m not sure why.  Is it less dignified for a cat to be spread-eagle/crucified on a quadcopter or for someone to make a snake/turtle or duck/mouse hybrid?  Is it more horrifying to see a hovering cat in an unnatural position or a parakeet wearing an impossibly small suit with feet/claws where the wings should be?

Whatever the reason, I just had a much stronger visceral reaction to the catcopter than to any of the above.  Quite separately from the tweets and blog posts yesterday a coworker forwarded me the link to the original blog post.  (He saw it posted to some website called… Facebook?)  His reaction was to laugh uncontrollably to see a hovering dead cat and he found the look on the cat’s face to be comical, whereas I found it horrifying.  He sent it to me because it involved a quadcopter and he thinks of me as a gadget kinda guy.34

Even if I was a gadget guy, I’m pretty sure I would never be a mount-a-dead-animal-on-a-robot kind of gadget guy.

  1. Photo Credit: Dino Abatzidis via Compfight [↩]
  2. Full disclosure:  I’m a cat person. [↩]
  3. Actually, I don’t think I’m a gadget kinda guy at all.  I don’t own a Blu-Ray player, an HD or flat screen TV, any kind of gaming system, a fancy stereo, watch, or iAnything.  I only got a new phone a few days ago when my last one of 2 years, a Motorola Droid aka Motorola Trusty Brick TM, gave up the ghost.   I might own four or five robots – but I’ve built every one of them. [↩]
  4. Tinkerer, Maker, Hacker – yes.  Gadget guy?  No. [↩]

Mad and Sad about “Girls and Robots”

Früg & MeightRobots, Trains, and Cars, oh my

Andrea Phillips’ recent post “Girls and Robots” made me so very mad and sad for both Andrea’s daughter and my own. 1  Right now my daughter and I play with trains, work on robots, talk about science and try to invent and discover things together.  It almost goes without saying, but she also loves fairies, princesses, pink, purple, and anything fancy or frilly.

I know she’s going to face the same pressures as Maya and I try so hard to inoculate her from them.  I tell my daughter she can do anything, because she really can.  I tell her to persevere and not listen to other people when they say you can’t do something.  And I try to set a good example for her.

A few weeks ago we took my daughter to the Western Train Museum in Solano.  After a fun little train ride we took a tour of some of their trains, walked around a few others, and visited their small gift shop.  Inside there were two Thomas the Tank Engine tables – with a little boy, perhaps 3 years old, who was hogging one of the tables.  When my daughter approached the one side he shambled over and tried to shoulder her out of the way.  I looked over at the child’s mother who wasn’t watching her son at all.  So I told my daughter there was a whole other table she could play with by herself – and she went over to play with it quietly.  In a minute or two the little boy walked over to grab a train from her table and the boy’s mother said, “That’s a girl train, this <indicating another> is a boy train, she can play with the girl train, you play with this one.”

I was so furious.  Who is this ignorant woman who can’t control her own toddler to tell my daughter what she should play with?  If she wants to teach her grabby child to be a pig, so be it – but keep away from my kid.

I stomped over and told my daughter, louder than was strictly necessary, “Honey, you can play with any train you want to.  You don’t have to listen to anyone.”  The woman said nothing and was soon gone.2

I can only hope the incident won’t leave any impression on my daughter – but I’m not optimistic. 3  What really scares me is that a multitude of ignorant people will all make innumerable ignorant remarks and one day, my daughter will tell me that she doesn’t like trains and robots because she wants people to like her.

  1. Photo Credit: Don via Compfight [↩]
  2. Only as an adult to I realize the terrible price a parent must pay for teaching their child to be independent.  Doing so successfully means your child won’t be subservient to anyone.  It also means you’ve sown the seeds of insubordination.  I suppose if that it is the cost of a free-thinker, I am happy to pay it. [↩]
  3. Yesterday, out of the blue, she started humming Darth Vader’s Imperial March.  Then she mentioned something about Darth Vader inspecting a spaceship.  Shocked, I asked her how she knew about that since she’s never seen the movies.  She said I once told her about the beginning of Star Wars.  If I did, and I must have, I would literally have to have been at least 6 months prior. [↩]