SoOnCon is soon!

Void That Warrantee

SoOnCon 2011: Southern Ontario Hackerspaces & Makers Conference

A new generation of hackers and makers is out to to it themselves, and teach you to do it, too. We’re tired of pitching it rather than fixing it and buying it rather than making it. SoOnCon is where hackers meet makers and crafters meet technology.

Inspired by cheap electronics, open source software, futuristic equipment, and a renaissance in home engineering, “hackerspaces” have appeared all over the world. Here in Southern Ontario we have six major spaces. This is our party.

Please join us at TIFF Bell Lightbox on October 1, 2011, as Site 3 coLaboratoy hosts SoOnCon 2011: Southern Ontario Hackerspaces Conference. The entry badge is a functioning microcontroller board to be assembled by participants at a soldering skill-sharing station: everyone from children to adults can learn to solder in about 15 minutes! SoOnCon has two tracks, one for talks, one in our working space for demonstration and collaboration. (more…)

SoonCon 2011 is at TIFF Bell Lightbox

SoOnCon is the Southern Ontario Hackerspaces & Makers Mini-Conference. Previously hosted by Kwartzlab of Kitchener-Waterloo and ThinkHaus of Hamilton, this year it’s coming to Site 3 Toronto and TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Find out more here:
SoonCon Wiki

This here is the Call For Proposals. We would like to hear from you! (more…)

New toy at Site 3 – an enormous 3-axis CNC Mill

What’s big, weighs nearly *TWO* tonnes, and new at Site 3 coLaboratory? It’s a 3-axis CNC milling machine!! Check it out.

This machine was originally sold to Mars, Inc. in 1979 in Hayward, CA where it was used to make chocolate molds!

Time to update the Site 3 equipment page to show off all our awesome toys.

SUPER STREET FIRE at Firefly

Great news from the SUPER STREET FIRE team! the test run at Firefly was a success!

SUPER STREET FIRE - at Firefly in the woods in Vermont

“We ran for varying amounts of time for three afternoons and nights. reactions ranged from “uhh… wow” to “that was FUCKING AWESOME how can i give you money to support this project?” It was awesome enough to enlist our neighboring camps to spend hours carting water up the hill just so we could get running sooner. ” — Seth Hardy (project leader/genius artist)
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Automatypewriter

Preview videos of Jonathan Guberman’s Automatypewriter have swept the web (Boing Boing, Slashdot, Design Boom). From Jonathan’s own description at his site, Up Not North:

Introducing the Automatypewriter, a new way to experience interactive fiction! A typewriter that can type on its own, as well as detect what you type on it. By reading what it types to you and responding, it can be used interactively to play a game or participate in a story (in this case, Zork).

This very cool device was created here at the Site 3 Colaboratory. Combined the solid physical mechanisms and digital conventions and content creates an experience that’s great fun to experience.

There’s much more planned both in hardware and software/content. Jonathan’s currently working on a second typewriter. Incorporating the lessons of the initial build and upgrading to a beautiful old Oliver typewriter that’s engineered like a military hardware.

The hardware is designed as a platform for a new text adventure game being created by Toronto novelist Jim Munroe. So 2011 promises much with the exciting unveiling of the complete Automatypewriter experience.