Maker Faire San Mateo

I just got back from the first day of the Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA. It was a blast! If you weren’t there, I suggest you go tomorrow for the second day. Some highlights:

Bruce Shapiro is showing his computer controlled stepper motor egg painters. Very cool. His ribbon dancer is also nice.
Microsoft has a UMPC experience lab on site. Prototypes of the TabletKiosk eo, the Samsung Q1, the ASUS and the Founder are all there, along with really friendly staff.
MAKE and MakingThings are announcing a USB interface device for homebrew projects. It will cost $150 and will be out in a couple months. It’ll be neat to see projects published in Make adopt that platform – project costs will decline! Prototypes are at the conference. I saw a poster for Don Overholt’s inexpensive USB interface, too, but I couldn’t find him. His is $50 and is available now.
Graffiti Research Labs is there. Build LED Throwies for free to toss on their bus or pay $1 a piece to take them home.
Other fun stuff: The Second Life booth, the Parallax Basic Stamp booth, the great presentations, the awesome people!!

April 22, 2006

in Comics
1 Comment

Netflix for Comic Books

I would pay for a Netflix-like service for Comic Books. I’m thinking, say, $20 a month to have 10 comics or 3 trade paperbacks out at a time. To keep the pages in decent shape, I imagine the pages would have to be cut from the binding and laminated, then re-bound. Alternatively, I can imagine paying 50 cents to 1 dollar per comic in some kind of read-online subscription service.

I assume that both of these services would need the backing of the comic companies.

April 21, 2006