Developer Interest Group

Title: DIG Meeting!
Location: LASFS HQ – 6012 Tyrone Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91401
Link out: Click here
Description: Hello again Makers! This Wednesday, May 2nd is the next meeting of DIG, the Developer Interest Group, your local Los Angeles area DIY / Maker / Developer group! Be sure to come and show off your projects, artworks, experiments, etc., or just come to gawk and chat.

It is another exciting month for makers of all types! Later this month (May 19th & 20th) is the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo! We’ve still got some stickers and badges from last year’s faire that we’ll be giving out at this Month’s DIG meeting.

For those of you interested in computer security, the LayerOne conference is May 26th and 27th in Anaheim.

Of course, there are the usual monthly maker events. CrashSpace holds their public meeting on the 8th, and the W6TRW swap meet is on the 26th. I don’t know if 23b Shop in Fullerton is holding their potluck this month as it is the same time as Maker Faire.

At this Wednesday’s DIG meeting… well, we never know what is going to be there, do we? I’ve got an interesting homebrew device from Japan that gives a video output (of sorts) to a Nintendo DSi, some lessons learned about glass cutting and window glazing, and of course the latest version of Rhythm Core Alpha! Perhaps you have something super awesome that you’ve just been dying to share with the world? Now is the time… we love to see works in progress!

So, Wednesday night! Be there AND be square!

Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2012-05-02

Title: CrashSpace Public Meeting
Location: CrashSpace
Link out: Click here
Description: Culver City hacker space “Crash Space” has their public night! Most of their events are things you have to pay for, but the monthly public meeting is free! Check their calendar for many more meetups and events!
Start Time: 20:00
Date: 2012-4-10
End Time: 23:00

Title: DIG Meeting
Location: LASFS HQ – 6012 Tyrone Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91401
Link out: Click here
Description: Greetings Makers!

This Wednesday, April 4th is time of another exciting meeting of DIG, the Developer Interest Group, your local DIY meetup for Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley!

Thanks to everybody who came out to last weekend’s LA Science Faire Mini Maker Faire at the Pasadena Convention Center. We were there representing DIG and had a great amount of interest in the group. We had a great time, and it was a wonderful opportunity to connect with a lot of like-minded folk in the local maker community. Fourty makers and groups were featured, from Unicorn Bicycle makers, to the LA 3D Club, the local First Robotics Competition Team, folks from the USCLA Mechanical Engineering Team, and of course it was lovely to be right next to our friends from CrashSpace, whose booth was always packed!

Speaking of CrashSpace, they have had two teams competing on the new Discovery Channel show “Unchained Reaction”, created by the MythBusters, where two teams compete to create the greatest “Rube Goldberg”-style contraption! Their first team, Team CrashSpace was in episode one, where they fought a tight battle and lost. Their second team is Team Fail Fail Fail Win and will be appearing in episode 6! It is an awesome show, everybody should check it out!

The LA Robotics Meetup has had an incredibly large number of events in March that we couldn’t even hope to make all of, and we got to see the NAO robot! 23b Shop had their monthly potluck. CrashSpace had their public meeting and many other tutorials and meetups. See our calendar for more details!

We’re slowly gearing up for our next “Make Room! Make Room!” at Loscon 39 in November! We’ll be putting out a call for makers soon!

Be there AND be square!

Cheers,
Tim
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2012-04-04

Title: W6TRW Swap Meet
Location: Northrop Grumman – Intersection of Aviation and Marine in Redondo Beach
Link out: Click here
Description: This electronics swap-meet / tailgate is a great bonanza of used and sometimes new electronic equipment. Although billed as an amateur radio event, they are mostly computers and general electronics stuff, so everybody can find something useful there! Bring money!
Start Time: 07:00
Date: 2012-03-31

Title: CrashSpace Public Meeting
Location: CrashSpace – 10526 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
Link out: Click here
Description: CrashSpace is a hackerspace in Culver City. They have tools for members, and workshops for donors. Their public meeting is where they talk about their upcoming events and even do a little show-and-tell.
Start Time: 20:00
Date: 2012-03-13

Note: I had the date wrong the first time: it is the 2nd Tuesday of the Month!

Title: Los Angeles County Science Fair Mini Maker Faire
Location: Pasadena Convention Center
Link out: Click here
Description: Mini Maker Faire to be held in collaboration with this years Los Angeles County Science Fair. The event will be on March 30th and 31st at the Pasadena Convention Center from 10:00am to 5:00pm. We are expecting over 1000 participants in this years Science Fair. The Mini Maker Faire will be a great opportunity for everyone to gather new ideas and explore other interesting talents and skills. This will be a free event to the public.

About Maker Faire: Maker Faire is a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning.

Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, artists, science clubs, students, authors, and commercial exhibitors. They are of all ages and backgrounds. Maker Faire’s mission is to entertain, inform, connect and inspire these thousands of Makers and aspiring Makers.

The inaugural Maker Faire was held in San Mateo, CA and in 2011 celebrated its sixth annual Bay Area event with some 100,000 people in attendance. As Maker Faire has grown in popularity and relevance, additional flagship faires were launched in 2010 in Detroit and New York City. Community-driven, independently produced Mini Maker Faire events inspired by Maker Faire are now being produced around the United States and the world, including this very LA County Science Fair Mini Maker Faire.
Start Date: 2012-03-30
End Date: 2012-03-31

Jerry Blackburn from the Aerospace Legacy Foundation has just contacted me about the 2012 Los Angeles Mini Maker Faire, to be held at the Pasadena Convention Center on March 30th-31st. More info and signups, etc. are at http://www.makerfairelascifair.com/.

Title: DIG Meeting
Location: LASFS HQ – 6012 Tyrone Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91401
Link out: Click here
Description: Hey DIY folks, makers, and developers! This Wednesday, February 1st is the time for the first DIG meeting of 2012!

2011 was an amazing year for DIG and for makers everywhere! We had so many awesome people and awesome projects, and we put on one truly amazing event!

Jeni provides this 2011 recap, edited for increased awesomeness:

“Our first meeting was in April of 2011. We started off with a electronic and game music artist Virt (Jake Kaufman) and his projects, a children’s book writer, artists and craftsfolk, and a graphic novel creator. For the second meeting we had a company that makes rehabilitation software for combat veterans, a stone sculptor, a programming students from San Berdnadino, some games on the classic Atari, and Tim’s music software on the Nintendo DSi.

Later meetings had: a soundtrack composer, a retrospective of the San Mateo Makerfaire, several computer game makers, a digital whiteboard using the Wii remote, air rocket launchers, cheesemakers, brewers, and winemakers, folks organizing the Orange County Makerfaire. Lucus’ showed concept art for his RPG game-in-progress, a woman using video game techniques to highlight a professional artist’s portfolio, and a woman interested in turning individual fantasy writer’s books-into-games. We saw apps for cel phones in progress, one for goal tracking, and one for holding plot points in your novel writing, Tim brought in past projects prototypes and went over at what point projects fail.

November was our first “MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM!” exhibition at the Loscon 38 science fiction convention. Approximately two dozen presenters exhibited to a crowd in excess of a thousand. Three press groups came through, and it was the big hit of the convention!”

So bring your projects, or just bring yourself! Be there AND be square!

Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2012-02-01

There will be no January meeting of DIG on account of holiday travel plans. See you in February!
Happy Holidays! Happy Hacking!

DIG’s “Make Room! Make Room!” at Loscon 38 was mentioned in LA Weekly Blog as part of their coverage of Loscon. W00t!