90 Days of Making

To celebrate Y&R's 90th birthday, Matt and Dave embarked on an overly ambitious quest to complete a creative project every day for 90 days. This blog recorded their journey.

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DAY 90: RESULTS (PART 2)

Here's the second lamp we made. Overall, we're pretty happy with the minimal, utilitarian look of it. 

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DAY 90: RESULTS (PART 1)

Let there be light...over the kitchen table. Here's the first lamp we finished. We're happy with the way it looks, and it cost less than $20.

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DAY 90: UPDATE 1

"Progress" on our two new lamps that we're making out of: two clamp lights, two CFL bulbs, two extension cords, two inline switches, one wooden closet hanger bar, and one small T-shaped galvanized steel plate. #dangerous

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We've reached the mountaintop...sort of. The end of 90 Days of Making is upon us, but we're still having trouble with the effing 3D design files. Basically, the problem can be reduced to this: the 3D scanning software we used was great, but it needed to be touched up a little bit. After countless hours wasted,* we were never able to edit the file with any of the programs available to us. We'll keep trying to make it work, but in the meantime, we must finish 90 Days of Making.

At the end of a long journey like ours, one would expect travelers to have obtained some kind of wisdom, some form of enlightenment. And while we failed to make the 3D printing work (mostly due to lack of access to software), we have definitely learned many valuable lessons over the last three months. One of the things we learned is that computers and digital electronics can be much harder than traditional, analog electronics.

With that in mind, we've decided to make actual lamps to represent that light of knowledge and wisdom that we have acquired on our journey. (Plus, my house could use a few lamps.) Electricity? Check. Metal tools? Check. Almost no prior electrical knowledge? Check. What could possibly go wrong?

*Notes: We have and know how to use SketchUp, a once Google-owned CAD (computer-aided design) program, but SketchUp can't handle the files generated by the 3D-scanning software without a plugin. Unfortunately, the plugin doesn't work in the free, older, Google-built version of the software. So, then we tried some other free programs, Blender and MeshLab. MeshLab opened fine, but was quirky about the file and wouldn't allow editing. Blender wouldn't open on our older MacBook Pro, but we could get it open on our newer iMac. From there, the program still couldn't open the file from the 3D scanner. We also tried a trial download of Rhino for OSX Beta, which is a great program, but it wouldn't open on either computer because it requires the most up-to-date OSX. Also, Autodesk's AutoCAD software is $4,195.

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DAY 89: RESULTS

Editing our Gene Roddenberry image on some open-source 3D modeling software. Almost ready to send to the printer. The right side of the bust is still the problem area. Working on it.

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DAY 89: UPDATE 1

This is the 3D Gene Roddenberry that 123D Catch has stitched together from 2D photos of the bust. We still need to clean up the right side of the image, side of the head and shoulder, but we're getting there.

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It's our second to last day of making, and we have to finish this 3D bust of Gene Roddenberry. To speed things up, we've asked a couple super-talented engineers at Evermind to help us turn our plasticine bust into a 3D-replicator version of itself.

First step, we need to scan the plasticine bust. Before we can 3D print Mr. Gene Roddenberry, we need to make a digital file that our 3D printer can understand. Don Stratton, CTO at Evermind and former Griffin engineer, suggests we use an iPhone app called 123D Catch. The app asks you to take 40 pictures of your object from different angles. From these 2D pictures, it creates a 3D image that you can edit and send to the printer.

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DAY 88: RESULTS

You can give a man a fish, and he has fish for a day, or you can teach a man Photoshop, and he can Photoshop pictures of himself with as many fish as he likes, which can help him find a romantic companion or a job, which is arguably more valuable than a fish.

Today, we realized why there are so many problems with education: we haven't been teaching. It may sound silly, but if you want something done right (err...correctly), do it yourself. We have so much knowledge to give, and yet we've been selfish with it, no wonder things have gotten so bad. It's true that the state of education is mess for a host of reasons, but we believe that the biggest among them is simply that we've been busy with other things...until now. 

Starting on September 14, Dave will be passing on some of his computery-design knowledge to the next generation, and some of his own generation, and maybe even some of the generation that came before us...basically, anyone who has $100 and wants to learn Photoshop.

We've begun to build a website for the class, and we are setting up PayPal for collecting payments. We also just made the first flyer for the first class at the new school (Moonbase U). Next step: add "Dr." prefix to name. 

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There's no doubt that education has been revolutionized by technology. From the proliferation of laptops for children in rural Africa, to the rise of for-profit online universities like the University of Phoenix (the Harvard of the internet), and from professionals going back to school to learn tech skills, to MIT and Harvard (the actual Harvard of the internet) putting classes online for free, every aspect of education has been influenced by technology in recent years. Today, we're going to research some of the education problems being caused or solved by technology, and we're going to see if we can apply those lessons to find a way to improve education. 

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DAY 87: RESULTS

Finished MintDuino, with 14 separate wires. It needs an FTDI connection to be programmed, but we can purchase that piece at any local Radioshack. (In other news, thank you Radioshack for carrying all these arduino products. You're not so bad after all.)

If I can sneak the MintDuino onto the plane (it looks suspect with all the wires), I'll bring it back to Y&R. Could be useful for a project or two.

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DAY 87: UPDATE 5

Battery test successful. Nearly finished.

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DAY 87: UPDATE 4

First few pieces going into place. 5V power regulator, capacitor, black and red wires. 

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DAY 87: UPDATE 3

This is what the MintDuino looks like right out of the box. Lots of wires and lights and capacitors.

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DAY 87: UPDATE 2

If you didn't follow DAY 85 and don't know what arduinos are all about, here's a good intro tutorial from the co-founder of Arduino, Massimo Banzi (yep, he's Italian).

And here's a Maker Shed tutorial specifically about the MintDuino.

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DAY 87: UPDATE 1

We're not building any old arduino, we're building a MintDuino (which requires less soldering and is named after the Altoids-style mint tin in which it's served/packaged). It is built on a breadboard, rather than a circuit board, and comes with an array of parts: a voltage regulator, two LEDS, two resistors, four capacitors, some wire, a battery and various other odds and ends.

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After the wild success that was DAY 85, we've decided to do another arduino project. But this time, instead of making something with an arduino, we're going to make an arduino. As in, from scratch. With our hands.

You want to make one of these by yourself? Good luck.

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DAY 86: RESULTS

Future of Home Living, consider yourself imagined. Here are a few of our ideas about how Jawbone UP, a bio-data-tracking app and bracelet, could be used to improve "Home Living" with a few relatively simple modifications.