Newcastle Maker Faire 2010 27
krou writes "The BBC covered the most recent Newcastle Maker Faire, an event which Slashdot first covered last year. From racing power tools, to making music using electric sparks, or a robot that solves the Rubik's Cube in 20 seconds, makers, crafters and hackers were out in force. YouTube has a selection of videos available, and there are some pics on Flickr. And, while it may not be a hover board, there was a self-balancing skateboard."
Two wheels are redundant (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
As a (mostly ex-)skateboarder I feel compelled to point out that skateboards have four wheels, and this is a useless toy which would only have novelty appeal to somebody who never took the time to actually ride a board in the first place.
The appeal of skating is not about having the board be in control of your movement, and there is nothing safe about any of it. You will fall and you will hurt. Mastering that is what makes you enjoy yourself.
Re:Two wheels are redundant (Score:4, Insightful)
this is a useless toy
Yes, and that's why we love it!
Cue Dilbert (Score:2)
this is a useless toy
Yes, and that's why we love it!
Dilbert: I want to be productive, but the internet is calling to me.
Internet: Hey, buddy. I've got pictures of gadgets.
Dilbert: Cool ones?
Internet: Sure, let's pretend that matters.
So sweet (Score:1)
So many interesting things there.
By the way, is this War's horse?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/makerfaire_uk/4438050834/in/pool-makerfaire_uk [flickr.com]
Re: (Score:2)
RuBot II (Score:4, Informative)
There's more information (videos, interview with creator) about the Rubik's Cube solving robot, here:
http://www.mechatrons.com/rubot.html [mechatrons.com]
Insert joke about Cylons and Rubik's Cubes...
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, engineers. You have the brainpower to build a Rubik's Cube solving robot, but you skip the processing which concludes that dark green on dark blue makes for an illegible web site.
(I know that sounds like a troll, but I'm interested to understand why some people with stellar abilities will nevertheless end up doing something apparently trivial like not checking that their work is legible.)
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention the red on blue. The goggles! They do nothing!
They can't quite make the connection that good design is part of usability.
I don't see anything wrong with that website.
But then I'm colorblind (70% colour deficient according to the optometrist)
Re: (Score:2)
Simple.
Ability is a finite resource.
To put it in gaming terms, you only have so many XP to invest in your various stats and you can't buy everything up where you like it.
Re: (Score:1)
Well, not all of us engineers are like that, but I certainly agree that a great many websites are illegible, either because of the colors or some background pattern.
Personally, I think it's just being completely self-centered and not even registering that other people exist. At least not actual real people outside their own imagination. It is the complete absence of a "user-centered" viewpoint.
If a person took the user's perspective for a couple of seconds, such problems would be obvious. (unless of course
News 2 Me (Score:1)
CubeStormer (Score:4, Interesting)
CubeStormer [youtube.com], Rubik's Cube solver made in LEGO bricks with Mindstorms kits.
Okay, so it doesn't look like a "robot" and has four "hands", but it's still much faster than the one from Maker Faire 2010.
Re: (Score:2)
And from what I'm able to see, it uses only classical human algorithms, since it does a lot of rotations.
And it doesn't seem better than humans, who are able to solve it within 10 seconds (average time !).
In the author's site (http://www.mechatrons.com/rubot.html), the author says that he used Kociemba's algorithm (http://kociemba.org/cube.htm 22 moves in average), but his robot is a lot slower than the one you mentioned.
Geordie to English Translator (Score:2, Insightful)
Definitely required in some parts of Newcastle ;)
you haven't missed your chance (Score:5, Informative)
If you're any kind of geek, you should try to attend one of these. Make Faires happen in various spots around the world multiple times each year. There are more Faires planned in the Bay Area, Detroit, and New York this year. Check out their site [makerfaire.com] for info.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
self-balancing (Score:2, Interesting)
skateboard [wikimedia.org]?