This saturday, I’ll be running 2 workshops for 10 people each wherein we build a mintyboost kit. The event is the EYEBEAM 2006 Hackshop Sign up today & bring a gum tin to put your charger in!

Shown above, a HOPE attendee builds her mintyboost mere minutes after purchase.

Fanboys and stalkers: rejoice!
I’m speaking twice at HOPE this weekend, Saturday and Sunday morning. So don’t drink too much the night before…

More info about HOPE is at the website, it’s already started so I have to pick up my badge now.

Citizen Engineer - Consumer Electronics Hacking and Open Source Hardware

Phillip Torrone
Ladyada

This is a hands-on session on all the things you’re not supposed to do (but want to) with the gadgets that fill our drawers and shelves: transform an old VCR into an automatic cat feeder, use open interfaces to control Roomba robotic vacuums. Projects like these (and others, such as WRT54G hacking, iPod Linux, car-computer hacking, etc.) are part of a growing trend where consumers are going back and hacking what they buy. Just as computer hacking is closely tied to the Open Source software movement, so can such embedded gadget-hacking lead to an Open Source hardware movement.

Saturday 1200
Area A

The Geeky, Personal, and Social Impact Sides of Creating Defensive Technology

Mitch Altman
Ladyada

Ever wish you had the power to turn off a TV in a restaurant or disable an intrusive cell phone? Social defensive technologies are “reality hacking” devices that give us the sort of sociopathic control we’ve come to enjoy on the Internet alone. Three years ago, Mitch decided he’d had enough of televisions and designed the TV-B-Gone, a universal “off” keychain remote. Around the same time, Ladyada designed a personal RF jammer. Together they will discuss these projects in the context of reclaiming personal space, culture-jamming, and how we can design technologies that do what we really want. Don’t expect good WiFi/cell reception.

Sunday 1000
Area A

I had an excellent time at SXSW, culminating in the first ever real-life frogger game.

Basically, as I see it, we are becoming so technologically advanced, that we will be seeing more examples of crossovers between the ‘real world’ and the ‘virtual world’

ps. 6th street is a ‘main drag’: at 1am, cars are driving pretty slowly to avoid all the drunk people on the street. Still, don’t try this at home.

1. In one week (or so) I’ll be speaking @ SXSW-i as part of a panel on consumers, contributors and DIY culture w/fabulous Phillip T. & Natalie Z.
2. In two weeks I’ll be holding 1/2 of a workshop on Hardware and Software Tools for Interactive Installations and Performance @ EYEBEAM with exceptionally talented Mark Coniglia (not to be confused with Caligula) of Troika Ranch. You can sign up starting on the 7th. We’ll be building MIDIsense boards and integrating them with Isadora. Wow! I expect it will sell out quickly so delay-not.

If you have the opportunity to see their current show on tour, [R]Evolutions, I highly suggest it: sort of like an abstract ‘qatsi but less Glass and more minimal/industrial.