Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
So I spent most of the day at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. Sort of one part geek convention, one part Burning Man, one part Renaissance Faire. But it's sort of a cool new movement in the culture, the Do It Yourself (DIY) movement.
What I liked the most about it was the sheer joy the exhibitors had in busting open stuff that you're really not supposed to bust open -- a propane tank, a computer, an iPod, a barbeque grill, a bike -- and "fixing" it, modifying, making it cooler, or better, or just more fun.
The ifixit.com booth was interesting -- their motto: "If you can't open it up, it isn't yours."
Above, a dissected iPhone. I love it when people split something open like this. Is it just me, or does it feel vaguely Tea Party-ish?
And then there's the obligatory Mentos + Coke Zero demonstration:
We've got to get Ricochet contributor John Ratzenberger, my old friend from Cheers, to comment on this. He's a passionate advocate of tinkering and making stuff and building stuff. I've heard him speak really movingly about what's happening to our culture -- and our kids -- now that we don't teach ourselves how to fix and build and fool around with stuff anymore.
When I was a kid, I used to love to shoot up Estes model rockets. They still make them. Here, a guy let a bunch of kids build rockets out of masking tape and paper, and then he fired them up in the air with a (jerry-rigged, of course) air compressor.
What I loved about the Maker Faire was how dangerous it was. Seriously. There was a lot of fire blasting outside, and a lot of duct-tape modifications made to things that probably shouldn't have been modified at all, especially when it's just duct-tape and prayer between you and a flying piece of molten metal. Such a great spirit.
There's a whole new hipster movement, called Steampunk, in which hipsters (and people a little too chubby to be hipsters, if the crowd at Maker Faire was anything to go by) get all dressed up in late 19th century clothes -- I mean, I'm sure there's a lot more to it (well, I'm not sure sure, but I'm trying not to judge) -- but I can't help thinking that this is what happens when a generation grows up without the Boy Scouts, which was, basically, a 19th century movement designed to take soft, pampered boys of the time, who didn't know about Napolean-era privations, or pre-railway travel, or Chinese Gordon holding Khartoum against the Mahdi, and teaching them how to do stuff. How to build a trap. How to tie a taut-line hitch. How to make do. I have to say, pretty much everything useful I ever learned -- how to cook an egg; how to make sure your tent stays dry in the rain; why it's important to wash your dishes in hot water; that sort of thing -- I learned as a Boy Scout. School and college educated me. But they didn't teach me much. If you know what I mean.
And now we're left with this:
"Learn to solder." Because they don't teach you how to solder anywhere, anymore.
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Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Rob, I'm with you and John Ratzenberger. I love tinkering and am doing my best to pass the trait on to my sons. We graduated from model rockets in the back meadow a few years back to shelling my neighbor's unused horse paddock with Yukon Golds. Most excellent.
By the way, Aquanet hairspray is nearly ideal as a combustible potato propellant. I'm not so sure about its hold properties, however.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
The biggest DIYers I've ever met were in Vietnam, c. 1992. After almost two decades of embargo, everything had broken at least once. WIth no ability to get, say, a new toaster from Sears, the only answer was to fix it.
One sign: you saw stacks of Popular Mechanics everywhere. Another: A friend was riding a bus that broke down in the countryside. Most of the guys got out and peered under the hood. Then one of them when to a tree, stripped off some bark, and turned the bark into a gasket to replace the one that just blew.
Not bad.
Feb '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
I love this! As a busy geek myself I have about a half dozen ideas in various stages of dreaming and sometimes lying around. It's fun to tinker around.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Rob, your post has caused me to look upon my life-long lack of technical or "hands on" abilities as a negative for the first time in ages...thanks a lot. I'm sure a lot of writerly types are in the same boat, but I long ago decided that much frustration could be bypassed by adopting the philosophy: "there are people for that", whenever it came to fixing or building something. This, I thought a sign of evolution. But looking at what it has wrought circa 2010, I'm now rethinking that position.
In this post baby-boom world, where so many of us men where raised by women (not to get all Tyler Durden on you), this seems epidemic. My new philosophy on this will be similar to how I view physical labor. That is to say; we are no longer required to work in the fields or with our backs, so we benefit as animals by finding whatever forms of physical recreation we enjoy, and practicing them on a regular basis. While I won't be rebuilding an old hemi anytime soon, I will (at 40+) willfully learn to build something for fun and 'make do' more adeptly in the great outdoors. Man Scouts?
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Manual competence!
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Man Scouts is an idea with huge potential. None of this sitting around and banging a drum stuff. But going out and building a tower made out of rope and logs. Fixing something that's busted. This could be a huge business.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Rob Long:: Man Scouts is an idea with huge potential. None of this sitting around and banging a drum stuff. But going out and building a tower made out of rope and logs. Fixing something that's busted. This could be a huge business. ยท May. 24 at 9:44am
Agreed. The potential of such an endeavor hit me as I typed the words. Although it would definitely need a better moniker. Man Scouts sounds more like a service that a wealthy cougar might use.
I think you see a lot of this cultural void being expressed by the growing popularity of MMA (mixed martial arts) worldwide, as well as a general resurgence in anything that reminds us of our warrior spirit.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
I think James' "Manual Competence" is a better name. And I have already settled on the theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxgbrAvn4SE
Edited on May 24, 2010 at 8:30pmRe: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Wow, Rob, coming right out of the gate with Steampunks! I love it. The best place to see them in action is Bat's Day at Disneyland. They all pilot their motor-coaches there twice a year. Unless you go to Disneyland more than twice a year, you're blowing it by going any other day. My personal favorites are the Thunder Goths, however.
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
I can't take the credit for that phrase, which belongs to Shop Class as Soulcraft author Matt Crawford. And I would be remiss not to link immediately to his appearance on Colbert.
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Resembles a cardiac surgeon I used to work with.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
James, Thanks for that perfect book commendation. Definitely looks interesting, as well as 'tailor made' for the subject at hand.
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Ricochet field trip to Disneyland on Bat's Day? Joe, you in?
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
George, doesn't Aqua Net leave a sticky residue? My husband built our propane-powered potato canon and mounted it on a gun chassis. It does azimuth elevation, so it has repeatable accurate fire and shoots a potato a couple hundred yards. I have a brother-in-law or two who will try to field them with a baseball glove. Now, if I could just get one of my other neighbors to build one, too, we could really be juvenile. :-)
How It's Made, Dirty Jobs and Myth Busters are outstanding shows that, hopefully, are inspiring young minds to be curious. I would have loved to have had TLC, Discovery Channel and National Geographic when I was a kid. So much better than Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Andrea, I feel guilty just interjecting this post into the ongoing discussion of executive authority and the Constitution, but we potato cannon lovers have to keep our thread going too, right?
Propane powered? A gun chassis? The Ryans are stars. You're correct that the sticky residue is the main drawback to Aqua Net. it fouls the electrodes pretty quickly. My son learned a valuable lesson one day when he got a little too cavalier about cleaning the combustion chamber while sparking the igniter. Just a mild case of eyebrow singe, thank goodness.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Being introduced to the DIY movement by anti industrialist, borderline Luddite, enviro-nazis, ("ThreadBanger,") I'm not super impressed. It's not so much what they do, but why that irks me. Threadbanger covers the Make Faire every year. From their perspective, manufacturing is a crime, or should be. Yawn.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Andrea: So much better than Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Course, ol' Bill will at least help you Save The Earth From Climate Change, even if he doesn't know a lot about science.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
This was the fourth Maker Faire we've attended (missed last year) and it just get's bigger and bigger. There seems to be a growing fascination in the air with people who can actually get things done. Really make something, or do something difficult and dangerous like fish or log or drive trucks or build giant building and dams. The cable channels reflect this hunger to see people who can do more than call a meeting.
Hidden behind all the blamecasting on the BP spill is a great engineering story. Some very high-stakes and big-scale engineering is going on and its all being done via robots on the bottom of an ocean. Some day it will all be depicted on cable tv. Do ya think they'll ever make a show about regulatory commission meetings, or a top-rated reality show about bureaucrats reviewing (and delaying) plans? I won't be watching. And that's a "faire" I will find a way to miss.
Some of these "makers" are pretty "crunchy" or perhaps just "goofy," but they're willing to pick up the welder and get their idea built. I find them fun to mix with.
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Excellent point! It really is an engineering story -- and instead of (or maybe in addition to) all of the handwringing, maybe we should be making sure we're encouraging a generation of science and engineering-minded students to figure stuff like this out.
And yes, I think this will all end up as an HBO movie at some point. But I guarantee that the final shot won't be what it should be, a beautiful nuclear plant shimmering in the Nevada dawn. It'll be in some courtroom.
May '10
Re: Mentos, Coke Zero, Rockets, and Steampunks: Maker Faire, 2010
Rob Long
It really is an engineering story -- and instead of (or maybe in addition to) all of the handwringing, maybe we should be making sure we're encouraging a generation of science and engineering-minded students to figure stuff like this out.
A government program, perhaps?