Category: Events

Hello readers,

No recap last week because I wasn’t at open house then, but I was back for this week’s. The place was already busy by the time I got there at around 7:30 PM. It was great to see everybody, and to check out what they were doing, as it felt like I hadn’t been there in awhile.  We saw some new faces tonight (new to me at least), and people I hadn’t seen in some time.

Sean McBeth showed off his latest project: a multiplayer tetris clone. As far as I know, it’s the first computer game that was developed at Hive, and also the first Hive 76 themed game.  100% original code, 100% original graphics, and with some interesting planned features. There’s ingenuity for you.

Jack Zylkin showed me a cool 3D model of a narwhal he did in Blender, and Chris Tompson showed me some gears he printed for a major ongoing project. I’m constantly amazed at the stuff Chris and Jordan Miller are printing these days.

I mentioned new faces earlier, and we had a guest come by from our IRC channel. Kate aka “inquiryqueue” stopped in and completed an awesome dual-output device for practicing morse code. She came up with some pretty amazing solutions to some of the problems she faced with the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As with most open houses now, we capped off the night with another great karaoke session. Some highlights were Brendan Schrader doing “Africa” by Toto, Kate doing “Walkin’ After Midnight” by Patsy Cline, PJ Santoro doing “Rainbow Connection” with a spot on (and I kid you not) Kermit the Frog impersonation, me (at least in my opinion) doing “Closer to the Heart” by Rush, Sean McBeth doing “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees, Chris Thompson doing “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, and last but not least, our very own Hive 76 group chorus version of “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie.

We’ll see ya at next week’s open house!

Wednesday, March 23rd @ 8:00 PM

Hey guys,

Another great meeting of the Philadelphia Robotics Group has gone by and it was awesome! I must say that this has been one of our more populated meetings thus far (although not the most by a bit). In addition to regular Philly Robotics members and Hive 76 members, we had a few new people show up for the group, newish people coming back from the previous month, and even a returning member from long ago.

We talked about everything from Lady Ada and her beginner Arduino kits, the work being done on our own Web presence (phillyrobotics.org), to a project concerning a radio controlled Dalek (of Doctor Who fame).

All in all a great 3rd meeting for the year. See you all next month on the 14th!

Hey readers,

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator has it’s own night at Hive 76 now! For all you trekkies out there, Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator is a networked multiplayer game that simulates a spaceship’s bridge; much like what you’d see on Star Trek®. We’ll be doing the event on the second Tuesday of each month, and our next game is… tomorrow (Tuesday, March 8th)! If you can make it, don’t forget to bring your laptop or netbook.

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator Night
Hive 76 (915 Spring Garden)
Tuesday, March 8th @ 7:00 PM.

Engage!

Howdy folks,

Last night’s open house was awesome. Some new people stopped by and that’s always great to see. The highlight of the night (at least for me) was doing karaoke again. Even when you’re screeching out of key, karaoke is always a good time.

See ya next week!

Tonight  was great. The space was busy with so many people working on so many different things. Including a public mini project where we made geometric figures out of paper clips and solder, and various 3D printing projects.

There were some pretty interesting discussions tonight too, ranging from urban exploration to video game development.

Also, and most excitingly, our very own Adam Kaufman showed off a new product that he’s been working on. More details to come.

Hope to see you there next week!

Well another open house has gone by and it sure was a lot of fun. Last night was literally bursting at the seams with activity as we had people doing all manner of things from working on 3D printers, experimenting with electronic music sequencing, and all the way to people working on top secret projects.

Of course we also had our second game of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator last night, which was (I believe) our 3rd gaming night. Again, we had a blast playing quite a few rounds (some being a bit shorter than others) at full crew capacity. We had a few first timers playing with us so that’s always fun. I for one can’t wait until next month’s game!

Toward the end of the night we had another impromptu music session, but this time instead of karaoke we did some jamming with electronic instruments and sequencers. The group consisted of Brendan Schrader and PJ Santoro on sequencing units, and Jack Zylkin and I on keyboard synthesizers/samplers. Could a possible musical project be brewing at Hive? I guess we’ll see!

See you next week!

Hey folks,

This Wednesday at our next open house we’re hosting another game night with Thom Robertson’s excellent Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator. Artemis is a networked computer game that allows players to simulate the operations of a spaceship much like what you’d see on Star Trek™. The setting of the game is the command bridge of the ship, and each player is given a station to operate (such as helm, tactical, science, etc). Another player takes the role of captain, who attempts to conduct the crew and guide the ship on a successful mission. We had a blast last month with the game, and since then Thom has implemented quite a few significant upgrades so we’re bound to have even more fun this time.

Players need only to bring a netbook or laptop (preferably with Windows) to play, and the game software will be provided.

Game Night with Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator
Hive 76 (915 Spring Garden)
Wednesday, February 16th @ 8:00 PM.

Engage!

Well I got there a bit late, as I also attended the second ever PhillySec meeting earlier that night. So when I finally got to Hive there were already a lot of interesting things going on. I noticed Sean McBeth working on a contraption that he revealed to be an Atari Punk Console (which he later finished that night), Jordan Miller printing away on his newly completed RepRap, and Brendan Schrader and PJ Santoro doing some music in the back of the room. Brendan had an Electribe with him (having previously engineered new features in to), and PJ was tinkering with some Linux-based karaoke software.

Yes, thanks to PJ’s karaoke software, Brendan’s audio mixer, and one of Chris Thompson’s (and Brendan’s) BOOMcases we indeed had an impromptu karaoke session. Yours truly sang “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash, and “Maneater” by Hall & Oates; which I must say was my first time doing karaoke. Eventually the night ended after we did a modest set of about 7 or 8 songs. It was a blast, and something that we may well do again in the future.

Next Wednesday we’re hosting another game night. We’ll be bringing back Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator for a second round.

Hope to see you there!