Send me a note if you want one, $2 each and I’ve ordered 15 in total.

“PyStar and the Python MN User Group (PyMNtos) present an evening of coding at the Hack Factory! All programming languages and experience levels are welcome!

* Improve your favorite open source project!

* Start learning a new language or tool you’ve been meaning to learn.

* Work on your own projects or work through tutorials (with help).

* Help someone learn or work through their coder’s-block

Bring your questions, insights, excitement and hack on code (and maybe on the HF ice shanty!) in good, relaxing company. If you are new(ish) to programming and/or Python or JavaScript specifically, there will be folks specifically there to provide some guidance to learners.

This event strives to create a safer space for learning and growing coding skills. Please be respectful of the diverse background and experiences of attendees. We especially welcome PyStar attendees and female self-identified folks to join us.”

Makers making...

That’s it!  Hope everyone has a great holiday and year end!  Without you and the community this space and community would not exist.  A big thank you to everyone who has helped make this happen!

The power wheels racing series has created a Kickstarter project to help fund next years efforts! This was really a great opportunity for a few of the makers in our space to come togher at the 11th hour to create a car! I would love to see stronger and larger team from the Hack Factory next year!

To help support the project, go to the Kickstarter project page.

-David (@_videoman_)

What is our Cabaret you ask? It’s a fun filled night where you get to present on any topic that you choose (EG: Nemoy Sunset Pie, Banzai growing, Air Balloons, etc) for up to five minutes. After those five minutes are up, we may kick you off the stage for the next person.

To sign up, and check out who will be presenting go to our Cabaret page.

So far we have the following topics:

• Why Ham Radio?
• Das RGB blinkenlights
• OpenSource Access Control system, FTW!
• Practicing the Fire Arts
• Swift Linux: The Real Upgrade
• Laser Cooling

We need your help. In an unexpected turn of events, TC Maker has been informed that our landlord (who rents from the management company for the building) is terminating their lease on May 31st. This means that our sublet with Broadband America will terminate as well. What we are planing to do is lease directly from the building management company. This would mean that we’d go from about 4,500 square feet to about 7,800 square feet. This would give us access to the entire space to set up things like a lounge in the front office area, create a dedicated class room, and expand to have way more shop space for working on bigger projects. The TC Maker board has decided to pursue a lease with the building. This is a big gamble for us, but should have huge benefits and rewards for the community and our members.

The Board of Directors called an informal discussion at our weekly open house to solicit feedback on 5/4/2011. After discussion on costs, pros and cons of moving and other considerations, the membership in attendance, as well as the board, were unanimous in their decision to seek a lease in our current location. Unfortunately this decision had to be made quickly so we can make plans for the coming months, as 25 days to find a new space is not something that is reasonable right now.

While we don’t need everything today, we have some significant commitments to make this happen. We need to increase our membership by 25 new members (while retaining current members) through August of this year. This is a very achievable goal however we do still need some capital in order to act on this great opportunity for growth. At the meeting, one member stepped forward and generously offered us a challenge grant. If we raise $1,000 before June 3rd, that will be matched with another $1,000. While that will reinforce our security deposit, we still need to average ten members in growth each month over the next three months.

In the discussion, a number of members pledged to pay double dues for a few months to help keep us on track, but relying on the generosity of members will only get us so far. Our long-term goal is to increase our membership. We’ve been averaging a new member a week for the last few months, but we’re really going to have to step up our game in order to achieve this goal.

A number of marketing and fund-raiser ideas have been brought up, and we will pursue these to benefit the community space. Over the next week we’re going to get some formal information up on the wiki and provide some coordination tools for this, and we ask for your patience while we start this sprint. We also ask that you contribute time, skills, or capital as you are able to help to this unexpected catalyst strengthen our community.

To help us make this challenge grant you can either send money via PayPal, give us cash directly, or donate through GiveMN, but please annotate it as “Challenge” so that we can count it towards the goal. Keep an eye on the forums and on the blog for ways to volunteer, and as always, if you have input or ideas to help, please share them on the forums or via email to the board, and we’ll do what we can to help you facilitate them.

As an aside, we need approximately $1,000 – $1,200 to make up the difference for the security deposit right off the bat.

TC Maker / Hack Factory is excited for this opportunity, and we want to welcome you and your friends to become members, teach classes, or take classes.

Board of Directors, Twin Cities Maker

Email: info@tcmaker.org

Donate via GiveMN.org (tax-deductible):

Use PayPal for a one-time donations & dues payment:

MUSIC starts at 7PM:

• JAZARI – Crazy and super awesome machine music!
• Tim Kaiser – Really cool custom music instruments!

Check out THIS PAGE for more info.  We will be doing clean up and general shop pickup all this week, and will need people Friday afternoon to come in a help us move our tools out of the way… Members feel free to drop by and give us a hand!

Twin Cities Maker

Our president is going to be presenting this time! If you want tickets, signup for the mailing list!

http://ignitempls.org/

Ever wanted to make an ultimate horror show for your friends? Well now you can, just create a submission for The Haunted Basement 2011. Submission deadline is April 1st, 2011.

image 1 of 14

So we decided to make a new Tour of our space..

Hack Factory Tour 2011 from David Bryan on Vimeo.

A tour of the Hack Factory in Minneapolis.

http://tcmaker.org
Music by Imogen Heap.

Get ready for the next Pecha Kucha #6, and this one is perfect for all us Makers, as the topic is “Handmade”.  I suggest any and all folks submit a talk, I would love to see other folks from the Hack Factory presenting!  It’s about 6 minutes, or 20 slides advanced every 20 seconds.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170833792960451

Pre-registration is required!
http://hackfactorywelding-jan2011.eventbrite.com/

On November 16th, GiveMN sponsors a “Give to the Max” fund-raising drive for charities all across Minnesota. On Tuesday, Springboard is reducing fees for donations received through Give MN. As an extra bonus, every hour one random donor to GiveMN will get a bonus $1000 added to the first donation they made that hour. So feel free to donate to us at the top of every hour starting at midnight!

If you’re pondering giving to Twin Cities Maker before the end of the year, Tuesday will get us the most bang out of your tax deductible electronic buck. We can always take non-cash and cash donations, but Give to the Max happens once a year. If you’ve got a maker who’s particularly hard to buy a holiday gift for, a donation in their name might be just what they were hoping for.

Membership dues cover our basic operational costs, and previous generous donations have gotten us so far so fast. Help us keep our gears spinning! Your generosity will help to buy tools, improve the space, and offer even greater services to the maker community in the Twin Cities.

It’s fast approaching, and wow did we get some prizes. Make has generously donated several swanky prizes as have Bill Gurstelle and a few members. We’ve also raided our swag supplies, and as an incentive, the first 15 people to register a racer will get a t-shirt, or a back issue of Make Magazine, (their choice) and the first 6 folks will get a bonus surprise on top of that. Winners in each category will get a prize from the “big box of better prizes” the value of which start off at $25 and go up to almost $100 retail.

Full rules and info can be found on our prior post, several of last years contestants got a working (OK, “mostly” working) racer up in just a few hours of work, so you’ve still got plenty of time to build a racer and register.

Entry fee is $10 per racer, each person can field as many racers as they like, but they only get one registration goodie total, although they might be able to swing prizes in different categories.

If by some fluke everyone’s racer is whisper quiet, or none of them fail impressively the judges may choose to not award one or more of the vanity prizes, but we’d sure like to.

Visit http://tcmaker-clr.eventbrite.com/ to register either as a racer or just a general viewer.

Adam Wolf will be teaching “Bootstrapping your Arduino Abilities” on Thursday, August 26th, 6pm @ HackFactory. If you want to attend, please register via eventbrite http://tcmaker-arduino1.eventbrite.com/. Preregistration is required so we know the number of parts to order. Registration ends on August 18th, and is limited to 8 students.

An Arduino board/chip, and all materials are part of the class fee. We recommend that you have a computer or laptop that you can bring with to program as well.  If not we may have one to share, but it is recommended that you have your own.

http://tcmaker-welding-aug.eventbrite.com/