Yesterday I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo. The publishers of Make magazine pulled together a whole bunch of gadgeteers and inventors to show off their projects at the fairgrounds.
There were propane flame cannons booming away, plug-in Prius conversions, and a supercomputer built from recycled PCs.
Yahoo! had a large booth, and the Wondermagnets booth was demonstrating my Gauss Rifle.
I met several people I know there. Marius Milner, author of NetStumbler was there with two kids, and while we were chatting my old friend Brad Templeton astonished my wife by remembering her name (we all worked together in 1980 at the company that became VisiCorp). And I finally got to meet Bill Gurstelle, author of Backyard Ballistics, who reviewed my book Gonzo Gizmos, and is quoted on the back cover. He was demonstrating how to build a spud gun.
There were lots of remote controlled battle bots, showing their scars from competition, lots of computer projects, autonomous robots, and electric cars like the Xebra. There was a big black bus in one of the exhibit halls, and people were encouraged to build little LED lights with magnets on them, and throw them at the bus as an art piece. There was even a band playing, trying to be heard over the roar of propane cannons, the whine of computer controlled routing machines carving wooden artwork, and vegetable-oil fueled generators for the supercomputer built from scrap.
And all throughout the huge fair, kids were building gadgets, or playing with armfulls of helium foam. Definitely an event not to miss.