The Digg button is a very simple beginner electronics that teaches how to solder and program microcontroller. Once made, this basic electronic project mimics the popular Digg.com website: each time you push the button, the button flashes “Dug” and increments the counter up to 999 “diggs”. The project is completely open source, and documented here including parts list, schematics and code. For those who don’t want to try to chase down the electronic components, we have a full kit ready to go in the Adafruit webshop.

Digg.com is a site that allows people all over the globe to discuss and vote on (”digg”) stories. The most popular and talked about stories rise to the top of the page where millions of viewers will see them. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: Limor Fried :: January 24, 2008; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: North 181 - entrance on Evans Way [map], Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston. [Follow the signs posted on the outside of the Tower Building (black glass) [Green Line "E"].

Limor Fried is a recent graduate of the MIT Media Lab where she earned a Masters of Engineering in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. For her thesis, Limor developed and built subversive electronic devices, including a pair of glasses that darken whenever television is in view and a jamming device that disables people’s annoying cell phone conversations at the press of a button. She releases much of her work in the form of DIY kits or instruction sets, including persistence of vision displays for bikes, a home brew synthesizer, and a minty iPod charger.

Networked_Music_Review Commission: You’re Not My Father, by Paul Slocum, [Requires Quicktime plugin] is composed of a sequence of recreations of a 10 second scene from the television show Full House, overlaid with sound loops from the scene’s original music. The crews who re-shot the scene were recruited through Internet message boards and Craigslist; each was paid $150. Instructions for shooting the scene and delivering the footage were issued to the crews. To-date, the project includes participants from Austin, Cincinnati, Chicago, Dallas, Denton, London, and San Francisco. Continue reading

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies: Submission Deadline: February 29, 2009 :: All research articles are refereed and should be between 7000 - 10000 words in length :: We also welcome submission of debates (1500 - 3000 words) or Feature Reports (3000 - 4000 words). This call invites submissions for a special issue related to Digital Cultures of California. Internationally, California is a phenomenon in terms of its relationship to creating, consuming and reflecting upon the era of digital technologies. From the legendary garage entrepreneurs, to the multi-billion dollar culture of venture capital, to stock back-dating scandals, to the epic exodus of California’s IT teams during the Burning Man Festival, this state plays an important role in the cultures of digital technologies. Continue reading

HARDcoded :: Digital Punk Magicians :: w/ Workshops, Screenings, and Performances by: Alex Ignlizian, Mark Beasley, Sandra Rosas Ridolfi, Jake Elliot, Marisa Plumb, Temporary Services, criticalartware, Paul Hertz, Valerie Brewer, Professor Pangaea, CHHO, Morgan Higby Flowers, I <3 Presets and more… :: December 8, 2007; 1 - 9 pm :: EN3MY, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave 3rd Fl. Chicago, IL + simultaneously streaming @ CentroMultiMedia + BORDER, Mexico City DF, Mexico.

HARDcoded is an ongoing collaboration between newMedia artists in Chicago + Mexico City, that explore the cross-over between digital noise, punk, + magic. Continue reading

Dorkbot SoCal 25 - Dave Bullock, Rama Hoetzlein, Barry Hertz Sr. :: December 1, 2007; 1:00 pm :: Machine Project, 1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA.

Dave Bullock: HDR Photography - Today’s digital cameras have a limited dynamic range compared to film. If you shoot a photo of a landscape with a beautiful cloudy sky, your landscape will be properly exposed, but your clouds will be washed out or vice-versa. High-Dynamic Range photography allows you to circumvent your sensor’s limitations by taking multiple photos with different exposures and combining them on your computer. Continue reading

Video creators, scholars, activists, policy makers, technologists, and entrepreneurs will gather this February at the USC School of Cinematic Arts for 24/7: A DIY Video Summit, the first-of-its-kind international event focused on the fate and future of visual media in the 21st century.

The summit, which takes place from February 8 - 10, at the USC University Park Campus in Los Angeles, will explore the incredible dynamic at play as millions of people flock to online video sharing sites like YouTube, Revver, imeem, Stage6 and Eyespot where they watch and contribute video content around the clock, 24/7. Webcast [Quicktime]; SLURL. More >> Continue reading

Piksel07 — Hello hackability! :: Piksel07 Festival: November 15-18, 2007 :: Piksel07 Exhibition: November 16 - December 16, 2007 :: Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (BEK), Bergen Norway.

Piksel is an international event for artists and developers working with open source audiovisual software, hardware & art. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, by the Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (BEK) and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of FLOSS & art. Continue reading

Next at HTTP: The Furtherfield DIWO Networking Event - Don’t just Do It Yourself (DIY) Do It With Others (DIWO)! :: HTTP Gallery :: October, 7, 2007; 12-6pm.

A networking day all about how artists work collaboratively with each other and audiences in the co-production of artworks or events as a central part of their practice. The event is open to artists, musicians, writers, programmers, activists; thinkers and doers of all kinds. With presentations and performances by Saul Albert, Ele Carpenter, Adnan Hadzi, Emily Druiff and Lottie Childs and 8GG. Continue reading

Users of Metaplace, as it is known, can build 3D online worlds for PCs or even a mobile phone without any knowledge of complex computer languages. The web-based program is the brainchild of Raph Koster, one of the developers of massively multiplayer online games such as Ultima Online. Users make the virtual spaces from simple building blocks. The results, which could be used for gaming, socialising or e-commerce, can be embedded in a webpage, facebook profile or blog. “We are out to democratise virtual worlds and bring them to absolutely anybody,” said Mr Koster, founder of Areae, the company behind Metaplace.” Continue reading Virtual worlds opened up to all by Jonathan Fildes, BBC News, San Francisco. Also see Virtual worlds open up to blind by Geoff Adams-Spink, BBC News.