Archive for September, 2009

Freecycle

September 11th, 2009

I was writing a long post about Freecycle and where it is going in the UK at the moment, but then realised the guardian had already written what I was going to say.

All I want to add is that I have always like the concept of Freecycle and am on the whole pleased it exists, but have always been disappointed by the heavy handed approach dictated by the central organisation. I find the way they threaten legal action against people using the word Freecycle for exchanges not moderated by them disgraceful. Lets hope that the now independent truly community driven versions are a success.

Update: The UK Freecycle groups that have left Freecycle, that to me looks like most of them, have now got together and branded themselves Freegle.

I would also like to give my support to Ema Wright who Freecycle have threatened legal action against on there web site. I believe such comments were a knee-jerk reaction, but still shockingly unprofeciaonal.

1 comment »

Posted in Rant

Dorkbot Newcastle

September 9th, 2009

Our fist monthly Dorkbot Newcastle is launching on the 5th October 2009 at the Centre for Life.

A Dorkbot is an event where a group of people interested in making things get together to talk about their projects and share ideas with each other.

To start the event we have three guest speakers. Evan Raskob who is a visiting Dorkbot regular London, Aaron Nielsen who will be talking about developing with the Arduino, and, errr, me who will be trying to inspire fellow creators by showing off a percussion machine that can be built in a few hours.

So please come along meet other like minded and creative people, see what others are building, and perhaps show off that you are playing with.

No comments »

Posted in (Uncategorized)

Photosynthing BarCampBrighton4

September 7th, 2009

Two years ago I boggled about Microsoft Photosynth but have not had opportunity to play with generating a synth before now.

This weekend I decided to give it a go at the more unusual BarCampBrighton4 venue. I followed the Photosynth tutorial with a few alterations to cope with dividers. The resulting synths are…

They may not be perfect, and I have learned a few things from the exercise, but I remain impressed with the technology. Please let me know what you think and think about having a go yourself.

Thank you to Martin for lending me his machines to do the uploads at the venue as the Photosynth software will not run on my Netbook.

1 comment »

Posted in Tech

css.php