06.08
Allright.
We’ve been on a BarretTime hiaitus the last three weeks, but I’m back with a couple of activities to keep you busy until the next Geek Gathering rolls around.
If you find yourself too caught up in the digital world and are in need some time to get back in touch with your softer side, you can head over to TxRx Labs this Sunday, June 12th, to take their two hour intro to painting class. The class explores the fundamentals of the materials and techniques of painting. Multiple mediums and styles will be discussed, along with proper storage procedures.
Also taking place this Sunday from 3:30 to 6:30 PM at TxRx Labs is an electronics workshop.
This lab provides electronics enthusiasts access to TX/RX Lab’s professional electrical engineers to assist in completing and trouble shooting their projects. Participants can use TX/RX’s fully outfitted electronics workshop to work on their project while being able to obtain guidance and aid from experts with decades of expertise in electronics design and construction. Participants may also use this time to get instruction on advanced techniques in soldering, troubleshooting, and the use of electronics test equipment.
Both classes require a small tuition fee that can be taken care of online at www.txrxlabs.org/classes/
Swinging back to the free side of things:
If you’re an existing Android developer or are interested in taking the first few steps down that path, you’re in luck. Houston’s first Android Developers Meetup is taking place on the evening of Tuesday, June 28th, at the Zebec Center near Westheimer and Fountainview.
The Houston Android Developers Meetup (or HADM, as I will refer to it for the remainder of the segement) will hold their inaugural meetup to delve into the new Arduino offerings that allow Android Developers to tap into the physical world when writing applications for their Android smartphones. I’ve got a board on order from Seeed Studios, so regardless of whether or not we GETM before HADM does, we’ll hopefully HAVM out at the July Geek Gathering.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Arduino platform, but want to remedy that before HADM meets, you may want to stop by Apollocon the weekend of June 24th for a crash course workshop on the subject. David Brummel and I will be hosting a panel on the Maker Movement and then following that up with a two hour workshop workshop focused on building things with the Arduino platform. Participants are asked to bring their own Arduino, USB cable and laptop to the workshop, where they’ll spend two hours working through nine mini-projects that David and I designed.
Seating space for the Arduino Workshop is limited, so you’ll want to reserve your spot early by surfing to www.apollocon.org. Apollocon, Houston’s own Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Convention, is actually offering a Geek Track in addition to its more traditional fare catering to writers and readers of sci-fi and fantasy. Hit www.apollocon.org for registration info as well as a listing of the con’s other events.
Also taking place on June 24th from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the American Society for Training and Development, Houston. The conference, while aimed primarily at individuals involved with training in their organization, includes topics of wide appeal, such as Cloud Computing, Second Life, Serious Gaming, Shooting video for training, and much more. They Keynote is titled, “Mobile Learning and the Mobile OS Wars: How to Avoid Getting Caught in the Crossfire”, which shows the slant the day’s events. For registration info, hit www.astdhouston.org and for the Houston Android Developers Meetup, surf to www.meetup.com or hit the geekradio website post-show for a full list of links.
That’s it for your summer session sylabus and that’s that for BarretTime.
