I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo this weekend. I had no idea these things are so popular–so much so that I gave up the first time and returned in the early evening when there was more parking and a shorter ticket line. Think: Macworld Expo meets Burning Man meets MythBusters meets Woodstock. Here are a mere fifty pictures to show you what you missed. One thing is for sure, the Faire could keep Stuff White People Like busy for a month or two.
There was lots of bikes made up of various other vehicle parts. For example, this is a lawnmower bike.
A skateboard/bike hybrid.
And a steering-behind-your-back bike.
A tiger bike.
This is the Unwheeldy tandem bike. The wheels are nine feet in diameter.
Yes, these are cupcake vehicles.
Perhaps venture capital firms can use this to replace their Mercedes, Porsches, and Ferraris.
My favorite vehicle was the motorized Barcalounger.
This is your basic 1956 Ford 100 converted to run on bio-diesel. The fuel tank is a 150-gallon drum.
Our buddies from TechShop were there in full force.
This is VW amphibious “car.” That’s Jim Newton from TechShop standing to the right of it–a safe distance from the propeller.
This is a van with metal wings.
Everyone should have one Lego Jeep for when you need to express yourself.
This is the “Lift Ass It.” It helps people get off the toilet–kind of a vertical market if you ask me.
This is an algae machine from theshipyard.org.
This is the dinosaur-theme mini golf course.
Geeks love to make huge statues of women–at least I think they were women. There’s some deep psychological meaning in this.
This was some kind of robotic razor-looking ball called a Swarm.
This is the “Robotic Warship Combat Arena.”
Miniature boats do battle with each other by shooting BBs.
The Loch Ness monster made an appearance too.
This is the Savonius wind-power home generator.
This is a table covered with sand on which a boll rolls and makes pretty designs.
Ball in action using high-speed photography.
And of course what’s a weekend without Powertool drag racing?
These things were used to destroy mannequins.
There is a large fascination with fire. This is the setup to create a bunch of large flames.
This apparatus created hydrogen bubbles.
Then people with electric prods exploded the bubbles.
This is someone photographing the exploding hydrogen bubble exhibit from behind protection.
No geek faire is complete without a Diet Coke and Mentos kit.
This is the BlubberBot Blimp kit.
Now this is an intriguing book title.
If you want more coverage of gadgets, check out this Alltop site
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