Maker Faire 2010

This photo is from the Bay Area Maker Faire Held at the San Mateo Expo Center (a few miles south of San Francisco, CA for those unfamiliar). What a great place it is, over 600 displays of interesting people and stuff they make or things they do.

This was our third year attending, one of my Geek Recharge destinations (theres a topic for later).

Some tips if you plan to go to the Maker Faire:

Go for two days, there is just soo much stuff to see, the first day you will be doing a lot of gawking, and on the second you will have time to revisit the stuff you want to check out more.
Hydration is an issue, keep that in mind, there are no water fountains, so you have to buy expensive bottled water or drinks inside, the expo owners (not the Make people) restrict folks from bringing in thier own food and drink.
If you are coming in from a distance I suggest looking for a motel on El Camino Real (aka Hwy 82), there are some decent ones and the rates aren't all that bad, and you can catch a bus very easily…
And to get to the fair use the bus, this year each way was $2 each but no parking hassles to deal with.

Me with fellow Commodore fanatic, Jeri Ellsworth. I'm sporting a very pocketed safari vest to hold gadgets and stuff looks a little silly, but it's comfortably secure.

Bring a backpack or safari vest to carry stuff.
Don't forget to take pictures to show off all the cool stuff to your friends - this time I took video clips, but really needed to take longer ones than I did.
It is noisy, dont expect your companions to hear thir phones ringing.
The bathrooms at the two ends of the event site are never as busy as the ones in the middle.
Remember to sit and relax now and again, the food isnt bad, just expensive (and the west side has great shade/seating for eating and breaks.

Some Goodies from the Faire

Was looking for something I could possibly make a component case with, and I found Shape Lock which is a low melting point plastic. When you out it in water up to about 160 degrees F, it turns clear and you can shape it. Under 140 it turns into a opaque solid. Not sure it it will do what I need but it was worth the money for a sample, I'm sure I'll find some project or repair use for it.
A couple help you fix stuff resources - iFixit and WikiHow both offer a do it yourself resurce to fixing your own stuff.
The egg plotter by Egg-Bot which enables you to have precision drawings on cylindrical or spherical surfaces, plus it works with Linux and uses Inkscape drawings as a sourcefile, can't be much more cooler then that!
Posable stick figures by Posables, something I think kids young and old would get a kick messing with.

Theres so much more, check out the MakerFaire site for more examples and links.

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