Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Eggbot and sparking the inner geek in kids.

For the past few years, my wife has taken on the task of organizing our local "spring party", usually themed around eggs, and targeted at preschool and younger elementary school-aged children in the neighborhood. This year we were vacationing in beautiful Costa Rica over the Easter break from school so we held the traditional party a little late - this past weekend. It worked out great because we got a lot of eggs at fire-sale prices!

My wife has an engineering background, and she's getting ready to go back to school for a Masters degree in education, so she can't help but mix the two passions. This year's party was about science, engineering, and of course, eggs:

That's my gal, droppin science!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

TechShop

I learned today that TechShop RDU is closing.

I live in Cary, North Carolina, part of the "Research Triangle" known for the prevalence of Tech and Biotech companies. It's part of why I decided to relocate here almost 8 years ago, from the Virginia suburbs of Washington.

I'm saddened by this turn of events, even though I never did anything to help TechShop stick around. I liked the fact that it was here, even if the pricing of it was a little higher than I could justify spending on a hobby.

I should resolve to try harder to be involved in local hacker efforts. It's not been a matter of desire, but of free time.

--P