Maker Faire, 2007

Wow. That was an amazing experience. I was worried that O'Reilly might be setting themselves up for disappointment-- predicting twice the attendance of last year (which was twice the 10,000 expected). I haven't heard the tally yet, but I'm pretty sure this year's faire disappointed no one.

This year, I had a 10'x20' space, near the middle of the largest building (Expo Hall). Here we see the space Saturday morning, before opening.

I rented a small U-Haul trailer to bring all my stuff down (~1.5 hr. drive), and crammed pretty much everything possible into it. The goal was to show both the educational and art side of my work.

There were seven "stations" (clockwise, from above):

Sisyphus I. It's back in the corner. My family really stepped up. Casey is "totally stoked" to be doing last minute signage.

Animanemone is next. This was very popular-- I loved listening to all the theories about how it was interacting. Kids and adults seemed equally delighted.

The ovagraph is next. I decided to try ostrich eggs for the first time. Figured it would never work (either I'd screw up, or the crowd would mess with it). Amazingly-- I successfully completed three eggs, drawing time ~6 hrs. each.

Then comes "Etch:"

(interview with a local cable station)

Then the two Eggbot stations. Thankfully, both my kids came through and brought friends to staff these:

People really got into them:

(yes, I've thought about the current rating)

Including Make's editor-in-chief, Mark Fraunfelder.

Last, around the corner, was the K'Nex plotter, drawing Einstein:

Some other highlights--

Got out for a few minutes:

The Disgusting Spectacle,

and the life size mouse-trap.

Got interviewed by KQED,

and Jimmy Kimmel.

Gave a talk, on the main stage.

Not quite the crowd the Woz had, but, not bad.

Demo'd my old Ribbon Dancer prototype on stage: 5M wmv.

An amazing experience, indeed. I owe a lot to my kids. But I reeally owe my wife, Bev,

who rolled up her sleeves and dove straight in. What a trooper!