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Marginally Clever at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2015

2015-06-08 Dan

Best year ever at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire! We broke all our sales records. The surprise hit was our Arduino starter kits, selling way better than anticipated. I had a surprising number of requests to see all our robots. Our two tables have only so much room!

I was delighted to hear some people skipped every booth to see us first, and I was shocked – shocked, I say! – at the number of people who had never played Tetris before.

Unlike the Bay Area Maker Faire we had the Wifi we were promised the entire weekend, media attention, Maker Happiness people checking in on us, and some really exciting opportunities to network. New to me was a menu in the Maker check-in package and a slip to write down an order. That way a Maker Happiness volunteer could go get lunch and the Maker wouldn’t have to abandon their table. So thoughtful!

Next up I have to prepare to attend Geek Picnic in Moscow. It’s like the Russian Maker Faire. Follow us on Instagram to see pics while I’m over there.

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Giant Tetris for Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2015

2015-05-27 Dan

led tetris

I used the Arduino Starter Kit tutorials for building your own game of Tetris and modified them just enough to run the game with WS2811 full color LEDs.

For added authenticity I added wall kicks (turning a piece close to the edge pushes it away from the edge) and increasing difficulty (finish a row, game gets faster).

You can grab the code from the LED8x16tetris github repository I just pushed.

You can try the game live June 6-7 at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire at the PNE fairground in Vancouver, BC, Canada. We’ll have stuff you can build, stuff you can buy, stuff you can play, and smiles for everybody. It should be a beautiful weekend, so come on out and make the most of it.

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An opportunity for Dutch Makelangelo owners

2015-05-25 Dan

Cinekid festival in Holland is looking for a Makelangelo user to show off at this year’s festival in October. Are you available?

I know you’re out there from the map of Makelangelos around the world. That’s why we added a Dutch translation to the software. Hello, Vlaardingen! You have been busy.

So if you’re machine is ready and you’d like to show off for a weekend, ping me. Forums, twitter, Instagram, Facebook, live chat… I’m not hard to find. I’ll hook you up. Maybe it can be the Amsterdam Makelangelo users meetup.

There are so many opportunities now that I can’t take them all. I feel like this guy, only the limes are opportunities.

Why can\