Maker Faire, or Burning man how-to

With a little love of French I look at the word Faire and think “to do” or “to make”, so it’s a great pun for a get together focused on making (brought to San Mateo by Make Magazine)

I talked to a ton of great people and got some great ideas. I’m certainly excited to move to SF. What a great introduction to the tinkerers in the area (and beyond).

I’m going to be on the road for a while without an upload point, so there may not be any new pics for a while.

Below is a list of some of the people I talked to and stuff that I saw, mainly for me to remeber, but definitely worth checking out. If you got a card and aren’t on this list, remind me because I probably lost the tiny piece of paper.

In no special order (the order the pieces came out of my pocket):

The Crucible: Have you ever seen a two-wheeled motorcycle with a car engine and a motorcycle drive? How about a BMW one? Now, how about a bio-diesel Bonneville-ready BMW-powered behemoth? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

At the Talk to a Hacker booth Google Maps Hacks I talked with Rich the author about mapping specifically about handling large amounts of data. I want to learn more about the XML processing built into Google Maps. If only I had had this when I started my maps page.

Schedule a Tour of the Stanford Linear Accelerator

Instructables: I didn’t talk to Dan, but I found his card. I think he’s the one who made the led bike and slider controlled LEDs.

Tech Shop: I think this is a dream come true. They have tons of tools and specialty equipment that members can use to make stuff. Now I don’t need to buy that CAD laser cutter, I can borrow one instead… Just think, way cooler stencils.

ReadyMade:I asked Alex about visiting the office to see the magic (if it’s anything like Rolling Stone it’ll probably look like an office with well dressed people and computers).

Lulu Book printing: Way more options than the unsatifactory Qoop. When I get back from all this motorcycle madness, get ready for a custom book…

Blinky Bugs: LEDs are so cool, Jen this one’s for you.

Fossil Fool / Down Low Glow: Bike stereos and lights

Derek from UCSD, I didn’t get your contact info, so once I hear from you I send you info on my party timelapse.

San Francisco Center for the Book: They had a plate printing demo. I thought the photo-reactive sheet was really cool.

Google Sketch-up: I talked to a guy named Brian who works with the 3D Warehouse in the Boulder office. He said the best way to find an internship would be through a professor.

Disc golf in South Lake Tahoe

After an interesting chemistry lecture on entropy and the three laws of thermodynamics, Sara, Justin, and I went across the street from the community college to the 27-hole disc golf course. Even though Justin contends he’s never played before, his amazing accuracy and knowledge of the course were cause for suspicion.

Lake Tahoe

I just spent a couple of days in South Lake Tahoe with my old friend Sara. I rode the 75 mile loop road that goes on both the California and the Nevada sides. The water is amazingly clear. If you’ve seen the “Keep Tahoe Blue” stickers, they are to raise money and awareness for the lake that’s slowly losing its clarity.

Yosemite National Park

On my way from Lake Tahoe back to San Francisco, I stopped for the night in Yosemite National Park.

The drive in from Lake Tahoe through the seasonally closed 10,000 foot pass entrance was a great way to wind into the park. I stopped for a snack at the best gas station restaurant I’ve ever been to, better than the roadside buffets in France. Thanks for the recommendation from the guy at breakfast. It’s just a Mobil station, but it has chefs with white jackets. I think the persistent Yosemite-bound traffic keeps this place going. From there the drive was at least 40 miles down to about 4,000 feet. I passed through several climates from above the tree-line with snow to the redwood, oak, and pine groves in the valley.

I spent the night in the Housekeeping Campground in a canvas sided structure pictured below. The granite peaks and domes that surround the Yosemite Valley are amazing. From the valley below they are several thousand feet tall on all sides. Unlike the claustrophobic feeling that can arise in a city with tall buildings, the distance away gives a feeling of safety and protection. I took a walk for a couple of hours around the valley crossing several streams and stopping at Mirror Lake.

On the way out I stopped in the Mariposa Groove for my first experience with the Giant Sequoias. As the biggest trees in the world by volume, these are real giants. This grove of trees numbers in the hundreds and yet is very isolated. The tour, on an open-air trailer, was a great way to experience these giants without having to navigate (or climb uphill). The tour was proud to point out that the idea for a National Park System comes from this grove of trees and an important naturalist whose name escapes me.

This is definitely a place I will return on a long weekend next year.

A visit to Stanford University

I visited Stanford the other day for the first time. It really is a beautiful campus. There are trees everywhere and the buildings are all beautiful. It didn’t hurt that it was a perfect 72 degrees either. The 1 hour walking tour I took only scratched the surface of this big university. (Click here for more details).

I forgot my camera (if you know me, you know this doesn’t happen, so I was surprised too). So, here are a few pictures I found on Flickr.
Hallway
Hoover Tower and palm trees
The view down the main road of the Stanford Oval

To see more check this out:
Stanford [Flickr Cluster]

Another 1,000 miles down

I reached the 8,000 mile mark in Half Moon Bay, CA just on the other side of the San Francisco peninsula from Stanford. The last thousand miles were all covered in the state of California, mainly riding from the southern border up towards San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway, one of the best road in the states.

You can see my route by clicking here.

The Pacific Coast Highway

Matt and I enjoyed the ride up the PCH from LA to San Francisco. There sure are a lot of pretty views over the Pacific. The big parachutes are from a beach where about 20 people were kite boarding.

Another 1,000 miles down

(So I forgot to write about breaking the 7,000 mile marker)

I reached the 7,000 mile mark on the way to Coachella riding through the desert of southern California. This section of my trip took me from the middle of Utah, through several absolutely astounding national and state parks, a visit with Josh’s family in St George, a stop in Las Vegas for a new rear tire, and all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Matt and I visited one of the best aquariums I’ve ever visited. It was great to return 3 years after my first visit. Although there are no Amazon-basin freshwater fish, my favorites, this aquarium makes up the difference by having an amazing collection of Pacific fish (most of whom move to fast for good photos), invertebrates, and plants.