Brian Jepson’s Weblog

Read all about it and RSVP right here.

When you read an article like this one, and when you’re part of a community that has an answer to the question, it’s hard to stay quiet. Joey deVilla gave Toronto a shout-out in his blog (and he has an awesome graphic to go along with it).

Although Providence wasn’t mentioned in the 37signals post like Toronto was, I think Providence is one of those cities where some similar stuff is happening/can happen. And even looking beyond our borders, some of the folks who’ve spoken at Providence Geeks manage teams that are spread out all over the world, so I think it’s not just a question of whether the city is good for building a team, but sometimes it’s whether the city is a fun and livable headquarters/underground lair for the benevolent dictator/evil genius running the company. But the really key point is you can start a company anywhere. I keep hearing about interesting, successful Rhode Island companies that are located well outside of Providence, down in my neck of the woods. Just check out the map on RI Nexus.

I’ve got a lot of interesting stuff queued up, but I lack the time to play around with it. But I promise to get to them soon and blog/twitter/flickr/blip.tv all about them:

Chemistry set

I’ve been helping out with the editorial work on Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, so I picked up a basic glassware/lab gear set from Home Science Tools.

Hydra

Andre Lamothe, creator of the Hydra, sent me a Hydra SD Max for review and evaluation. The back story behind this is that I tried, and failed miserably to build one of these after he gave me the prototype Hydra SD to help me demo the Hydra at Maker Faire. I did get enough XP in soldering to level up, but not before ruining my Hydra prototyping card.

Mach 64 Programmable Logic Starter Kit

This is also something Andre sent to me, to evaluate and review for Make. This is the sort of thing I’d fall into for 3 days.

Sun SPOT development kit

Sun sent one of these along to me for evaluation and review. They make Cylon eyes at you when you turn them on. They are full of all sorts of good stuff: Zigbee wireless (can I get it to talk to an XBee?), accelerometer, battery, temp/light sensor. The price may seem steep, but you get two sensor boards and a base station. It’s pretty much ready to roll.

XBee breakout board for the Make Controller

Everything in my house will be talking to everything else very soon now.

There’s much more than that, though: I’ve got so many unbuilt kits, I haven’t hacked the XO in weeks, etc. I’m going to have to hold an open house soon and invite Providence area geeks to help me hack this stuff!

This geek dinner is going to be a lot of fun. It’s got mobile technology, a company who uses my favorite phone in their demo videos, what more could you ask for? Oh yeah, geeks, beer, and tacos. Come out and see Gypsii talk about their mobile social networking/location based services. As always, more details and RSVP over at the Providence Geeks Blog. See you there!

MSNBC reports:

“They had fins in various places, they had funny dangly bits around their mouths,” Riddle told reporters. “They were all bottom dwellers so they were all evolved in different ways to live down on the sea bed in the dark. So many of them had very large eyes — very strange looking fish.”

Previously on planet Earth:

“Five slightly longer reddish tubes start from inner angles of starfish-shaped head and end in saclike swellings of same color which, upon pressure, open to bell-shaped orifices two inches maximum diameter and lined with sharp, white tooth like projections - probably mouths. All these tubes, cilia, and points of starfish head, found folded tightly down; tubes and points clinging to bulbous neck and torso. Flexibility surprising despite vast toughness.”

Photo Credit: Bret Ancowitz, M.D.

There’s another Providence Geek dinner coming up this week; don’t miss it!:

Andrew Schiller, founder of Woonsocket-based Location Inc./NeighborhoodScout.com, a nationwide neighborhood search engine for home buyers and movers with 1.8 million unique visitors last year, will be talking about their patented search technology that answers the first question most home buyers have: “where should I focus my house hunt?”. The audience will try the algorithm by ‘building their ideal neighborhood’ on the site, and finding the local neighborhood that best matches the ideal imaginary one. A sneak peek at NeighborhoodScout v2 will reveal flash-based maps, data mining that has produced new levels of granularity for neighborhood crime, appreciation rate, and school ratings, and ’smart search’ taken to a new level. Andrew will be joined by Andy Couture, VP of Business Development for the company.

Be sure to check out Andrew’s blog post at RI Nexus about their forthcoming new site - Building a 250,000 page website.

I hope you’re coming to this dinner–please RSVP at the Providence Geeks site so we can get an idea of who all is coming!

Former GSG editor-in-chief Shawn Wallace is scanning old issues for your viewing pleasure. The first one is up, more to follow soon. Update: I’ve created a Google Group as a place to put more scans and post your comments. Link

I’ve been playing around with my XO laptop (you can read all about it over at hackszine) and it’s an extremely cool, super-hackable device. You should order one. The price is right: for $400, you:

• Donate a laptop to a child
• Get one of your own
• Get a $200 tax deduction
• Get one free year of T-Mobile Hotspot

Also, Tom Hoffman and I are organizing an XO Laptop meetup in RI. Check out the thread here and reply if you’re interested. We may wait a few weeks, since it could take a while for people to get their orders.

Cross-posted from the Providence Geeks blog

One of the questions I get at Geek Dinners is to explain what AS220 is all about. Here’s a little background on AS220, how it crisscrosses with Providence Geeks, and how you can help AS220 grow (disclaimer: I’m the secretary of AS220’s board). AS220 is a non-profit arts center, founded in 1985, that provides an uncensored and unjuried venue for Rhode Island artists: gallery space, performance space, live/work space, and more. AS220 owns two buildings in downtown Providence: AS220 (the Empire Street building where we meet) and the AS220 Dreyfus Hotel. AS220 also runs the Broad Street Studio, a transitional arts program for youth who have been in foster homes, group homes, or the state’s juvenile detention facility.

AS220 has always been a little bit geeky. Its web site, as220.org, has grown into a server hosting not only AS220, but local area artists and arts organizations. For years,there was a public access Linux terminal in AS220 (unfortunately gone due to space constraints). Currently, an electronics lab is being developed on the second floor, and the plan is to use that as a workshop not only for the Broad Street Studio youth, but for the public and for groups like Providence Geeks and DC401. Additionally, AS220, Providence Geeks, and the Steel Yard had a summit on fabrication technology (3d printing, laser cutters, etc.) some time back, and one goal is to provide access to this technology using a model similar to AS220’s darkroom. (For more on the fabrication topic, be sure to check out the upcoming RI-Nexus event on next-generation working environments and fab labs).

Now, here’s how you can help. AS220 recently revamped its membership program. Instead of the original tiered membership, there’s a flat yearly membership contribution of $50 (note that you don’t have to be a member to visit, exhibit at, or enjoy AS220–it is open to all). To get into NPR mode here for a moment, you get some cool stuff (pictured above) with that: a limited edition print, a bumper sticker, a subscription to the monthly calendar/newsletter, and a member card offering discounts or special offers at local merchants, including the AS220 galleries, the RISD Store, Jerry’s Artarama, Abar, Eastern Art and Frame, Adler’s Hardware, Picture This, Perishable Theatre, Books on the Square, and Myopic Books. And like any good geek, AS220 lets you join online.

Don’t miss this month’s Providence Geek Dinner (this Wednesday!); In the spirit of the holiday season and giving back to the community, Providence Geeks is a proud sponsor of Rhode Island’s 2008 FIRST FTC Robotics Challenge. The program provides high school students the opportunity to build working robots and test their creations in head-to-head competition. At Wednesday’s Geek Dinner, Tech Collective President Tim Hebert and other RI FIRST FTC team members will give an overview of the program, the kids, & the robots, and explain how Providence Geeks members can serve as volunteer mentors and referees. Details and RSVP here.