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One thing I have learned about different hackerspaces, is that although geographically separated, we are frighteningly similar from a cultural perspective. This is the feeling I got as I visited a forming hackerspace in the Quad Cities area.

When taking into account the population as a whole, there are very few robot builders in the world. This directly translates to the non-existence of retail outlets that cater to this niche hobby. Builders of fine robots have always had to make do with the electronics available from online retailers, and if they are lucky, local hobby stores. I am learning that this is the first major hurdle to becoming a robot builder.

I have always been astounded by the lack of women in technology. First off, because the first teachers who introduced me to tech were all women. I had already written my first Apple BASIC programs in grade school by the time I ever saw a grown man write any code. Secondly, it's surprising because women tend to be so great at it.

Here is a short time-lapse video of the most recent CCCKC meeting:

Sorry for the poor aiming of the camera.

When I first started my current job, I remember bragging to a coworker all the cool stuff that you can do while running a Linux operating system. He stopped me, and asked me what professional CAD systems were available on Linux. I sarcastically asked him "what are doing in your spare time, designing cogs?". That much said, this past Tuesday I found myself sitting down in the CCCKC hackerspace...designing cogs in my spare time. What the hell happened?

On a recent episode of FLOSS Weekly (an episode initiated by yours truly), entrepreneur Bre Pettis exclaimed "bits should be free, atoms you should pay for". He was referring to the his open source 3D printer business, Makerbot Industries, but I think this concept applies at a much wider scale.

A quick update to the 3D scanner project I've been working on:

If anyone knows how to fix my problems, drop me a line!

Last weekend, my wife and I had a wedding in Chicago to attend, and we decided that traveling by train would be fun. My wife had taken a train to Iowa recently, and although it was not the ideal experience, I was able to convince her to try it again. This time was great.

Short answer: No.

Long answer:
For a while now, I have concerned that mobile phones have been creating a platform war, much like we have in desktop development. The recent release of MonoTouch by Novell has given me hope that there might be a standard development platform for all popular mobile phones. MonoTouch is the latest bit of brilliance to come out of the Mono Project, and it allows for .NET development on the iPhone.

More of me doing weird things:

1st Test: