Robot Romance Open House

On Febrary 11th, we had our first Open House of 2012 called Robot Romance in reference to Valentine’s Day. We were able to show off the Laser cutter, 3D printers, eggbot, cotton candy machine and a robotic armchair (courtesy of our new members Mike & Jim). Facebook photo album can be found here.

First Workshop Down, Many More to Come

Our first workshop took place last week thanks to one of our new members, Tim Williams. We filled all 10 spots in this Introduction to PCB Design workshop and have requests for a series of follow up workshops. Our next workshop will be taking place Wednesday, February 29th for members & Friends of Protospace.

3D Printers

The 3D printer tweaks are coming along, especially with the Ultimaker (now that it’s no longer shaking itself to pieces). Jamie & Travis have been doing the majority of fixes including tightening every screw, laser cutting custom parts and tweaking the software that runs the machine. We still have to install the heated beds, but that should be done in the next week or two. I think we may even make a go at printing parts for a Prusa SAE soon…

Maker Faire Prep

We’re continuing preparations for the Calgary 2012 Mini Maker Faire. Our choice venue is still the river front in East Village beside the Simmons Building, but we’ve changed the date to early September. This date change is to be better aligned with Beakerhead in 2013 and we will have less overlaps with other festivals that happen during the summer season. Our proposal for the event has been submitted to East Village, and once approved we can complete a few grant applications, including one for Calgary2012.

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And here’s a few events happening soon:

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Geodesic Yurts – Feb 21 (Happening Today!)

We’re hosting some civil engineering students from SAIT at Protospace this week for a Geodesic Yurt project. Tracy Marie, a Burning Man participant and theme camp founder (Space Gnomes) and civil engineering student at SAIT, along with several others in the Burning Man community have been building yurts for the last couple of years. They have decided to turn it up a notch, by trying out a geodesic structure for the first time, but using the using the same high-density foamboard insulation as is used to construct the yurts. This project is planned to be undertaken by Tracy and a group of civil engineering students from SAIT as a class project. The intent is to fabricate design, and assess it’s capabilities (load bearing, endurance, construction techniques, efficacy, etc).

Stop By Protospace tonight at 7PM to meet Tracy Marie, Andrew & Ying and see the Yurt!

Presentation By Dj Sures – Feb 28

DJ Sures has been hard at work on his EZ-Robot platform these past weeks and is always modding cool toys with his epic platform. Last night, I was able to witness him configure and fly his AR Drone with a set of augmented reality glasses; here’s a video of his virgin flight. Seeing the world through the eyes of his infamous Wall-E robot was also a treat – the robot’s head would turn with my head as I looked around the room!

On Tuesday, February 28th DJ Sures will be making a special presentation at Protospace, so be sure to join us for our next Meet&Geek!

Science Road Show At Fish Creek Library – March 10

Once a year, The Calgary Public Library partners with The Calgary Science Network to put on the Awesome Science Road Show in the Fish Creek Library. Last year the volunteer scientists set up four stations for the 600 or so attendees of the event, inspiring the kids through scientific and technical presentations. This year the Fish Creek Library has invited Protospace & The WCRS to team up and inspire the children with our own presentation.

The Event takes place from 11AM to 3PM, more details can be found on the CSN’s website.

~ Albert Einstein

The human mind is a fascinating device, allowing us to store a near limitless supply of information while processing countless stimuli every minute of every day. Though the processing power alone is staggering, the underlying attribute that will always drive us forward as individuals and as a society is our minds’ creative capacity.

The world is waking up to this creative potential – emerging from a dream-like existence where our imagination was brushed under the rug. We were never meant to become drones in the endless assembly line that manufactures happiness for $1.49, or to abandon our creative pursuits in exchange for the shackles of an economically viable yet unrewarding career.

We are creators, builders, collaborators, makers, tinkerers and dreamers – we have been since the beginning of time and will continue to be until the end of the universe as we know it.

You are creative. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.

You are neither left brained nor right brained. You do not have to listen to the naysayers that speak so loudly in your ear, instead pay attention to that voice inside that inspires you to become more than you are. Harnessing your creative and imaginative potential will bring you more satisfaction than the pursuit of knowledge, and when you pair the two together you will never encounter boredom.

Protospace manifested through the creative drive of a few imaginative Calgarians who wanted more than just an existence in this city. Since our inspired beginnings, we have evolved into a community workshop that exists to facilitate member projects and ideas. Ideas are always improved upon when more minds are introduced, which is why we always encourage collaboration and the openness of information at Protospace. Though Calgary’s only hacker / maker space, we’re only one node in the vast network of the creative community. In Calgary alone there are hundreds of groups and collectives that range from permaculture to musical theatre, all of which came into existence because we recognize the importance of community and culture. Through a bit of Googling, you will find that your local community is full of culture and like minded individuals  - and if you don’t find a group that fits you, make one.

Though our creative and imaginative pursuits are valuable, a lack of resources often stops us from making our ideas into reality. Since alchemy and transmutation are not yet available to the general public, we must use currency to fund our projects and initiatives. Fortunately for us, there have been many creative and enterprising individuals that have established foundations or funding opportunities that help us bridge the resource gap. Below I’ve listed a few of the examples that I’ve had exposure to, but these aren’t the only options available to you.

Awesome Foundation Calgary

These guys are just plain awesome. The Foundation exists to kick-start initiatives and projects in the community through $1000 grants every month, all you have to do is pitch your idea and convince them that your project is deserving. Last summer, Protospace was involved with Collaborative Projects YYC where the winners wanted to bring creative lighting to dark places through a community LED project where Protopians taught soldering under a bridge in the middle of the night. Your idea might become the next winner, but you’ll never know until you give it a shot!

Calgary 2012

Do you think our city needs more culture? If so, you’re not alone. Calgary has been named the Cultural Capital of Canada for the year of 2012, which means that the whole city is mobilizing to facilitate cultural and creative initiatives and events. Through the city and the federal government, we have access to grant opportunities that range from $2,000 to $20,000 to fund cultural projects and events throughout the year. The final deadline is March 12, 2012, so get your ideas developed before it’s too late!

Startup Calgary

I’ve had a few business ideas on the back burner for years now, but I’ve yet to execute on them. For those that want to take the leap, Startup Calgary is an ideal community for learning what it means to set your own destiny. I’ve gone to a few events put on by Startup Calgary and have always left inspired. The startup crowd has recently acquired a space in Inglewood which has been appropriately named AcceleratorYYC. Office and meeting space can be rented in this collaborative environment and events and workshops are great opportunities to be inspired or hash out a business plan or two.

Backyard Inventors

Not everyone wants to be on TV, especially the majority of us nerdy types. Be brave, Backyard Inventors is a Canadian TV show backed by Doug Hall (Eureka Ranch) showcasing creators and tinkerers that have produced something original and innovative. If you have ever made something with your hands to solve a problem where there was no solution, you should be on this show. I was contacted by one of the producers of the show who let me know that they are filming right now and need more inventors (especially women inventors). The application for the show is found here, so apply now!

We were going to write up a big post that summarized a big project we did last week, but it looks like one of our own members already made an awesome blog post detailing the entire build process! Check out the link below for the full story!

>> Faby & Kirk’s Tesseract Project <<

The project was created for East Village, who asked us to add something nerdy for their huge Christmas tree. I was afraid that the project wasn’t going to get done as I had a lot less time to commit to the project then I originally intended, but Faby & Kirk took point and got ‘er done! They picked up the materials, designed the structure and spent countless hours meticulously piecing the work of art together. Their sleepless nights paid off – The folks at East Village loved it, and it should stay up near the Simmons Building by the River Walk for at least another week or two!

In addition, this weekend marked the first annual Holiday Gift Market in East Village. This was hosted by the CMLC in the Simmons Building, comprised of a few dozen tables for makers, crafters, artists and designers to peddle their wares. Protospace was invited because we are working with the CMLC to put on Calgary’s First Annual Maker Faire in June 2011 in East Village, and the Tesseract was an additional accomplishment that we are extremely proud of. It was advertised that Protospace would be bringing robots to the event, so we brought our Brian’s Eggbot & Rapman and our near-complete Drinkbot. Because our toys were so different from the rest of the vendors, we had swarms of people around our table all day! Our only snag was that we ran out of business cards in the first hour, so we only had stickers to give to prospective members

A big thanks to everyone else who volunteered their time during the Holiday Gift Market! We also thank Erin Darroch who did a fantastic job in organizing the whole event! I can’t wait until June when we get to host the First Annual Maker Faire in the hippest neighbourhood of Calgary!

Faby, who is also our resident photographer, took all these great pictures for us. You can see more on our flickr stream.

Over the holidays, we’ve had a couple of really successful projects that have pulled together our members, so keep up the great work!

Oh, and we just got 5000 shiny new business cards!

And we’ve done some cool stuff with some cool people. We just finished a 100% hacked, interactive LED arduino driven tree sculpture for Holipalooza’s silent auction. We’ve collaborated with the very fun Choose yer Own event organizers, hosted Dorkbot for a great open house and evening of lectures, we’ve worked with Endeavor Arts, Light Up The World and Victoria Park BRZ for Make:Art events where people learned how to make their own LED decorations. We had a great Hack Halloween event where people joined us for a night of electronic music and a chance to add electronics to their costumes. And our annual Butterman celebration was, well, simply EPIC!

Our move has been a huge success, with one small hitch. Under the “build it and they will come” mentality, we’ve created a space, and are thrilled to see our membership grow as a result. The trick is, or membership growth hasn’t yet caught up to our burn rate as we use up our savings covering monthly costs and our growing need for materials. It’s crunch time, we’re going to need an infusion of cash to carry through into 2012 while we chase down some grants and get our membership up to sustainable numbers.

You Can Help!

If you don’t feel the need to be a full member for space access, or to be an official “friend” of Protospace to be a part of our online community, but still think we do something valuable for Calgary and want to see us succeed, please donate! There’s a paypal button at the bottom of the membership page, or even better come down on a Tuesday night to join in the fun, and leave a donation with one of our directors. Every little bit helps; if everybody following us on twitter gave us $10 we’d be set well into the new year.

If you’ve been thinking about becoming a member or a friend, but haven’t got around to it yet, now’s the time! Your commitment to the organization adds not just cash, but the ideas, enthusiasm, and experience we need to continue to take on these amazing projects. If you’re already a friend, think about becoming a member; you’ve seen all the cool stuff we’ve been talking about online, you know you wanna come down to the space and actually help build it …’cmon, I know you do!

If you’re already a member/friend consider paying your dues in advance (it gets you a discount!) and gives us the cash infusion we need now to carry us through ’til our membership numbers can fully support us. Or, you could make a one time, top-up donation just ’cause you love us. We’re getting bolder and taking on increasingly more complex/creative/crazy projects, and those cost money, you cash helps manifest those dreams.

If your company is looking for somewhere to spend those community engagement dollars by the end of the year – think of us! We’re a registered non-profit, and sure need the help right now. Or, if you’re dreading Christmas shopping, how about making a donation to Protospace in lieu of gifts this year? Give your loved ones some hacker cred and karma points all in one donation. A gift that gives twice, well three times if you count it as: cred, karma, and cash.

As we’re also applying for grants, demonstrating our value to the community, our unique contribution of tech literacy and the geeky way we support the arts, is really important for us. So filling the comment field below with testimonials on why Protospace matters to you would be as good as gold (and nearly as good as that cashy-money we be needin’).

There are lots of ways you can help, so pick one …and pass it on! Tweet us, facebook us, post us to your lists. Tell everybody how amazing you think Protospace is, and how much you want to see us continue to provide the sorts of innovative, tech minded, community driven projects and events only a hackerspace/makerspace can.

And thank you all so much for everything you’ve done to get us this far. Your support then, and now, make you a huge part of Protospace – in a totally metaphorical, and not even remotely soylent green sort of way!

We’ve had lots of fun sharing geek haiku on our discussion threads, thought it was time to start a public thread where everyone can join in. So lets hear your hacker haiku people! Seventeen syllables on all things geek.

To get you started, here’s mine:
(last week I did my first install on Ubuntu. Hacker kindergarten, I know, but a huge milestone for me.)

O great Ubuntu
I have learned your “man” command
As “root” I am God

Lo and behold, we now have all three devices in our possession! A Makerbot Cupcake CNC 3D printer, a small MAXNC10 CNC mill and a 100W Laser! The Makerbot was brought in yesterday by a fine gentleman named Zac, who built the machine a year or so ago but doesn’t use it often these days. It needs a few tweaks to get it operational, but will work once we get some plastic for it. The MAXNC10 mill was brought in a few weeks ago by Brian and was configured by Colin, but we’ve since re-imaged the host computer and haven’t had time to reconfigure the device. The Laser cutter is huge – 4′ x 3′ cutting area with a 100W tube! This guy is able to cut wood, plastic, granite, paper, cardboard – pretty much everything except metal (because it disperses heat too fast). Unfortunately, this machine was subjected to a nasty internal fire that fried some of the belts and control circuitry, so we can’t use it yet. Brian is loaning Protospace this sexy beast for at least six months on the condition that we help him fix it, and fix it we will!

So bottom line is – we have achieved our trifecta of awesome makerspace tools, but they all need a little TLC before we see them in operation.

So come down to Protospace to get your fix on!

We all have skills, we all have choices, what we do with those skills is up to us. Not all hackers are committing crimes, just as not all locksmiths are burglars. Every time I tell people I’ve become a director of the local hackerspace here in Calgary I have to follow by explaining it’s not the same as becoming a mafia don. I didn’t have to kill a rival to get this position (though I did have to learn how to solder and start using IRC). We are not some evil cyber crime think tank; we are a group of people who are deeply curious, very playful, take great joy in taking something apart to see how it works and how we can make it better or do something else with it. We live and breathe on the internet, it is our work, our entertainment, our social connections, the tool we use to leverage our lives.

We are not criminals, the majority of us are innovative social thinkers as well as tech geeks. We want to make the word a better place (all that talk of world domination is for good, not evil – we swear!). Hackers move fluidly in a realm that touches all our lives, a realm most people don’t really understand. I can program a VCR, but don’t ask me how it works. It’s the same with computers, we all use them, we’re all connected by them, they are integral to our lives (as you’ll notice any time yours crashes). When we get a virus or our email is hacked, it has a huge impact on us and we don’t understand what happened we just know it’s upsetting and scary. So we blame “hackers” because they know all about that stuff, so one of them probably did it.

And that’s a crass generalization. We’re working hard in the hacker community to differentiate “hackers” and “crackers.” Those white-hatters  who are using their skills for good or benign activities and crackers – those black-hatters those cyber-criminals who are stealing private data, committing fraud, and generally being Decidedly Not Nice. Most hackers are advocates for the public, the first line of defence when things on the internet threatening our rights or our privacy. Hackers do know about “that stuff” and most of the time they are more concerned with the risks of crime associated with it than you are.

The media gives us a bad rap, not when they report about someone being hacked, but when they start using the noun “hacker” to refer to the person who did it. We need to get a new entry into the Associated Press Style Book clarifying: hack, hacked, hacker, cracker, and outright cyber criminal. The words are absolutely not interchangeable. Journalists are literary and literal people, they know their words, we’ve just got to help them get these words right.

Our weekend was kicked off friday morning when Shannon and I took part in the WestJet Fall Fair. Protospace and Endeavor shared a table that we used to promote both of our awesome local businesses to the rest of the Calgary public. We had business cards, kits, demos and lots of conversation that we provided to curious passer-bys. Nearing the end of the fair, we were visited by Andrew Schrock – a researcher at the University of Southern California. Andrew is a part of a research team that are interested in the Maker Movement and the emergence of creative communities around the world. A few months ago, I casually invited Andrew over Twitter to utilize Protospace as a case study for his research, and next thing I knew he booked a hotel and jumped on a plane from LAX to YYC! Andrew spent most of his weekend interviewing Protospacers (both past and present) to learn about our community and our vision for our future. Videos, audio interviews and other components of Andrew’s research will be used to create a eBook coedited by himself and Anne Balsamo of USC Annenberg. I’m really looking forward to their completed product, and not just because Protospace might be in it!

During his stay, we had the pleasure of introducing Andrew to the Calgary’s new science center that opened this weekend – TELUS Spark! Spark is innovative, interactive and non-traditional – there is an entire workshop upstairs that strongly resembles a hackerspace atmosphere, complete with soldering irons and electronic projects! I have been looking forward for the grand opening of Spark for months as one of our members (Dana Schloss) is a director of content there. Dana is a professional tinkerer as her job entails her designing, prototyping and creating new exhibits for Spark almost every week (I’m very jealous of this) so seeing all of her accomplishments yesterday was a mind-blowing experience. In addition, Andrew and I were even able to do a behind-the-scenes video interview with the developers of the electronics platform found in every exhibit. The designers have created a set of modular, daisy-chainable, Arduino compatible devices that allow every exhibit to have an interactive component that can be easily swapped out or upgraded as the requirements change. The video of our interview might be included in Andrew’s “Postcards from the Maker Movement” initiative that might compliment the book release. I’m purchasing a Gold Membership to Spark this Thursday when I go back for another visit – hours and address are found on their Contact Page.

Our next hang out session that’s open to the public is Tuesday (tomorrow) at 7pm, address details are available in our About section. More importantly, we have some Solarbotics merchandise available for sale! Kits are available at our merchandise table, are meant for all age levels and range from $5 – $40. These make great Christmas presents and stocking stuffers, so be sure to bring some cash to either start your holiday shopping early or to make an interactive kit with your own two hands!

I also spent a bunch of time over the weekend working on my Peggy2 ultimate project, where I take a Peggy2, 625 LEDs, a 4×4 sheet of plywood and tonnes of glue, solder & CAT5 to make an epic outdoor sign! I’ll continue to work on the Peggy2 Ultimate tomorrow and our drink bot will be getting some love, the door system will be in it’s final stages and we’ll be discussing preparations for this weekend’s workshop.

On a final note, this upcoming weekend we are sponsoring a workshop called Make:Art for the Light Up The Neighbourhood initiative. Protospace will be operating as the technical sponsor for this event in partnership with Light Up The World, Endeavor Arts, and Victoria Park BRZ to facilitate the creation of creative holiday decorations that include LEDs, micro controllers and solar cells. For more details, check out our pages for our Make:Art Workshop and LUTN!

The biggest advantage LFTR offers, is that of increased efficiency. More of the nuclear fuel is converted to energy. Less of the fuel is left over as nuclear waste. And construction is much simpler because the fluoride salts can transfer heat much better at atmospheric pressure than water can even under the tremendous pressure found in today’s nuclear reactors.

A simplified test reactor demonstrated the practicality of this between 1965 – 1969. However, thorium molten salt research was cancelled as politics took precedence over engineering. (The Integral Fast Reactor had political allies, and remains the “favored” future reactor design.)

The video THORIUM REMIX 2011 is our attempt to “get the word out” about LFTR. It is Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-SA) licensed. That means you can copy it, remix it and even sell it. (If your own hackerspace wants DVDs at cost, get in touch.)

To-date, 4 remixes already exist. One that might be of particular interest to fellow hackers is “Thorium, Heavy Rare Earths, China & the Loss of Hi-Tech Manufacturing Jobs”. There are many reasons today’s consumer electronics are manufactured in China. Some of them (very much related to thorium) may surprise you:

We hope you find this subject as interesting as we do. And if you want to help propagate this message on your own YouTube account, check out YouTube’s [Remix this video!] button. You can extract your favorite portion and host it (under your complete control) on your own YouTube account. It is a pretty cool feature, and worth trying just for its own sake.

Our primary goal was to provide people with the tools and resources to add electronics to their Halloween costumes. I did a last minute shop at Solarbotics on Friday to grab LEDs, Ardweenys, conductive thread, and some LilyPad components, which we sold during the event. We still have a lot of these parts for sale at the space, so come down on tuesday and start something new.

As usual, I spent most of the night meeting people and making sure everyone felt welcome. It was so busy that I didn’t have time to hack my own costume (which I still haven’t started). Fortunately, there were a few guests that hacked away at their costumes with Lilypad components and EL-wire, which included some interesting Minecraft mods.

Food and drink was plentiful, but with a twist! Shannon brought his vaccum syphon coffee pot, Donna made marshmallows from scratch and Brian made cotton candy.

On top of the halloween hacking, Colin & Brian were able to get our CNC software working with our MAXNC 10 machine. It’s a bit slow because it’s an older mill, but it’s a capable machine that will work until we get ourselves a Sherline. We’re also getting pretty close to finishing our Evil Mad Scientist Drinkbot machine; only the electronics and test tube calibration is left! Other projects throughout the night included more BrutusBot construction, work on the RFID access system and a sign hack to help people find us.

Later in the evening, the event evolved into a bit of a party when our invited DJs arrived. Adam Tindale, an instructor at ACAD, brought down his laptop and a few friends / students to perform some epic beats that they mixed live for our listening pleasure!

• Adam Tindale – Ambient
• Greg Debicki (aka Woulg) – Experimental Dubstep
• Jesse Altura – Glitch Techno
• James Carigan (aka Glyph) - Tech House

Protophotos from the event!