Went to the Maker Faire on Saturday, it was an entertainingly nerdy experience as last year. In only its third go ’round, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of new stuff I hadn’t seen before.

We totally avoided all traffic by going an semi-obvious “back way,” known from living in San Mateo - basically went south on El Camino and parked on 25th Ave which is a little-travelled shopping area, about two blocks from the back entrance. Therefore, we avoided all the parking lot madness coming off of 101.

Anyhow, one of my favorite exhibits was the “Puzzlemation” - grids of LED lights that draw patterns. What was cool is the grid was subdivided into smaller grids which you could take apart. I guess it’s a moving puzzle which would be fun to put together. The units are programmable with different patterns.

There was also an outdoor area devoted to steampunk stuff, which is a geeky sub-genre I still don’t totally get, but it’s inventively cool to look at. There was a big Victorian house on wheels, a motorcycle, and some crazy Victorian retro guitars.

We also watched robot wars which we totally missed last year. The robots fight in a huge cage and are controlled remotely, and employed lawnmower blades, flat scoops designed to flip the opponent, or purely defensive strategies - one was fashioned from a beer keg and spun around as a deterrent.

I also enjoyed watching a fleet of remote controlled battleships, put out on a shallow pool, which fired BBs at each other. Again, there was a protective screen so no innocent bystanders were hurt.

I can’t even mention other stuff like the huge craft hall, the “dark room,” the giant Tesla coils, or the large supply of fire-shooting contraptions.

The Maker Faire has an underlying theme of electronic empowerment that I really respect - that people can overcome the consume / trash cycle, and at best, learn how to piece together your own stuff. Instead of tossing out your old digital camera, tie it to a kite and take aerial photographs.

With such a broad theme, there is overlap between “old school” nerds who build model battleships and backyard rockets, “knitting nerds” who fashion their own clothes from scraps and yarn, and computer hackers who rally behind open source. It’s repurposing creatively: people not taking a defined use at face value and inventing new ones out of mundane, cheap consumer technology. This “hackreativity” is the core of DIY magazines like ReadyMade, Make, and Craft.

The only down side was a tiny bit of corporate banality creeping in. Microsoft and Google had booths that were somewhat edgy, but the HP booth looked like MacWorld - they even brought carpet for the booth to rest on. It looked rather out of place. I’m certain more corporate stuff will creep in as the Faire’s popularity grows.

The biggest reason to go to Maker Faire is it’s Burning Man without the week long trip to the middle of a desert and fine sand up your wazoo. Yes this is rather wimpy, but I’ll never have enough time or the guts to go to that counter-culture experience, so the Maker Faire is the next best thing. In that light, the $25 entrance fee was a real steal.

The Makers Faire is in a sweet spot right now. It will probably be too popular a few years from now, and the traffic will only get worse, so check it out next year while it’s still cool.

Sorry I didn’t take any pictures. Check out Laughing Squid’s.

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