31–38 of 38 posts
Dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282731 , http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=309195
Worse than dupe: dead org. Zed hasn't posted to the mailing list since 11/26 last year, meetups kind of fell through.
Unfortunately, not everyone likes to lead or to actually, you know, do things.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Where do you get your parts?" is a lot more like "What editor do you use?" than "How do you declare a variable?". It's cool as hell to find a parts shop you never knew existed, or to find a useful component that Radio Shack sells, or to find a website which sells a drop-in solution for what you need.
Not in the context that Zed is asking in. He's asking because he has no idea what is in the devices, not because he wants to find a new store.
I’ve actually built a huge number of circuits, read tons of books and learned how to program a PIC basic stamp. I fucking love this shit.
Then:
I had to do my own research and found that, no, these guys get some of their shit from the NYU Computer Store on 242 Greene St near Washington Square Park. It’s obvious since everyone in NYC uses Arduinos and this store has most of the parts I’ve seen them use. That store has an entire section that’s dedicated to hardware hacking gear, including parts, kits, tons of Arduino components, full stamps, everything.
There is much more context and information in the original article. Zed recognized the parts, really did just want to know where the parts came from, and was interested to learn of the parts shop.
"I’m finding that every geek gathering is full of asshole MBAs, groupies, and their wannabes." Someone please explain to me how MBAs show up at geek meetups of any description. I would think stuff would be way too oriented away from money for them to show up. Maybe I'm just crassly stereotyping too much.
You're both over-stereotyping and under-stereotyping.
In both cases, they're showing up because "geek gatherings" are a place to find geeks. The over/under concerns why they want to find geeks.
And, geeks can be, and often are, extremely money-grubbing. The snotty addendum is that they're just not very good at it and/or are too concerned about whether someone else will make a buck to make one themselves.
"One thing I found through doing all this hardware hacking is that people who wield a soldering iron in NYC are kind of secretive. I mean, they’re nice enough, but they really hold their secrets close to their chest. Take sourcing parts as an example. I would go to meetings where people showed off cool projects they made, and ask them where they get their parts. They would just evade the question, or tell me “digikey…
In NYC the guys doing physical computing are all "new media artists" from Pratt or Parsons. They are doing their projects with the hopes of getting a gallery show or maybe some contract work making a blinky display for a Macy's holiday window. The levels of desperation and competitiveness surrounding this activity are much higher in NYC than places where Arduino hacking is just considered an obscure hobby.
In contrast, in SF/Silicon Valley the people doing physical computing hacks are all well-paid engineers or programmers during the day and the arduino-artsy stuff is just a hobby. Nobody makes any money off of it and they are happy to share tips. Also, everyone in Silicon Valley already knows that you just buy everything from Digikey. ;)
http://blog.raamdev.com/2008/08/27/boston-fu-retractable-ear...
I love the idea behind FU and wish there were more open hacking groups around where people could attend, even if only to watch and listen to others. I don't necessarily have a ton of time for hacking stuff, but if I could spend an hour or two every week looking over someone's shoulder while they make something, or listen to someone explain their crazy ideas and then have open discussions as a group, I think it would help everyone explore new ideas and opinions.
If not for my ridiculous schedule (working at a start-up), I'd be more inclined to get such a group going myself.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe it'll startup again with new found interest. I'm moving to NYC and would love to start going to some of these meetupy type events.
There was a news.yc NYC meetup, which I couldn't make it to, but I imagine was neat :) If you want it to be serious, I think the trick is to get people to sign up to show cool stuff ahead of time, and advertise what people will be presenting. If you'd like, I can help you organize (not that I have experience with that kind of things). I'd imagine we can find a place, issue a call for presentations, see how many respo…