Month: April 2015

Proto Hot Sauce

It’s spring again, and that means it’s time for a new set of plants in the garden. I actually planted two weeks ago and never documented it.

As always, my end objective is hot sauce, and to that end I have planted two tomato plants and six hot pepper plants. However, my earlier experiments with sweet bell peppers ended generally in failure so I needed to find something else to do with the second plot. I did consider MOAR PEPPARZ, but I ruled it out because I am still working my way through the sauces I made last summer, and that after giving away more than half of the bottles. Instead, I figured I’d try something completely different. Here’s what I ended up planting:

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Tips for running a 3D Printer at a Maker Faire

I’ve now run my 3D printer at 4 different Maker Faires, and I have learned a lot about how to best engage and educate people about the hobby. If you’re interested in bringing your 3D printer to a Maker Faire or any other type of show and tell event, here are some tips on how to plan it.

Know your audience.

In my experience, there are three separate audiences you’ll be meeting, each with different questions and different methods of engagement.

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3D Printed XCOM stuff; or, How to make 3D models from 2D images

Small Scout UFO model printed in two sizes.

XCOM: Great video game or greatest video game? That is the question. And I’ve spent countless* hours playing it. I usually play games – often XCOM – when running my 3D printer, because it’s typically considered unsafe to leave one unattended; hobbyist 3D printers don’t have a lot of the failsafes that most consumer electronics have, so a bit of caution is warranted.

Anyways. XCOM. I’m a big fan. I squeed my socks off when I got some XCOM shot glasses at Firaxicon. Apparently you can put the XCOM logo on anything and I’ll go nuts. So that’s why I got stupidly excited when my husband designed a small scout UFO model for me.

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