Mitch Altman, Make Magazine writer and creator of the TV-B-GONE will be visiting Kansas City at at the Kansas City Mini makerfaire.

Mini-Makerfaire site.

The date is August 22nd, and the place will be English Landing partk in Parkville, MO, just outside of Kansas City. The event will be part of the existing Parkville Days celebration, and will have booths from members of both organizations.

Inquire on our mailing list for details about how to get a booth, and spread the word that Kansas City has joined the Makers Faire community!

Above is a Rube Goldberg device constructed by ulysses and cinus. The device is fairly simple as there are only 5 events involved in switching on the coffee maker.
A weight slides from atop the string, triggers a mouse trap, which then tugs another string allowing a battery to fall downwards into another mouse trap, closing a circuit.
The coffee makers momentary switch was removed from the PCB and instead replaced with two wires connected to the mouse trap. Once the mouse trap is triggered, the switch closes and turns on the coffee maker.

As part of the general meeting, we usually offer talks and demonstrations on Thursdays. Last night, dj goku continued the Cyber Security series by setting up a group lab demonstration and hosting an open discussion on using SSH to tunnel and encrypt your insecure traffic on hostile networks. I actually learned that OpenSSH has its own SOCKS listener! All this time, I’ve been using a significantly more complicated setup with OpenSSH and Squid Proxy. In most cases, the -D [port] option to ssh will work just as well and is much easier to set up. I’ll see if dj goku has some slides and links that I can point you to, as I really enjoyed learning something new about a tool I’ve used for years!

After the Cyber Security discussion, Jim Emery used one of the ballasts in the workshop and bent up some metal strapping to build an impromptu Jacob’s Ladder. These are simple to make if you have the right power supply. They’re always a big hit, though!

ax0n (that’s me) worked on getting a 2-cycle engine working properly and attempted to get the drive mechanism fitted to it. The engine starts on the first pull now and runs great, but we don’t have the proper tools at the space to get my drive sprocket attached to the clutch output.

I ended up taking the engine partially apart and discussing with a smaller group how two-stroke gasoline engines work including magneto ignition, centrifugal clutches and flywheel vane air-cooling. Two-stroke engines aren’t terribly efficient, but there is something sublime about their mechanical simplicity. I will post more on this project as it progresses.

Who should attend? All current and prospective affiliates of CCCKC

What’s affiliation all about? One of our primary goals as an organization is to support the local user group community. We can do this through cross promotion and the provision of space to work on projects and hold meetings in our 700 square foot classroom space. Affiliates also will have a member placed on the CCCKC Board of Directors so that everyone who utilizes the space has a say in its management.

Why should affiliates come out on this night over the others? This will be a great time to see the facility without all of the other activities which will be going on during the rest of the grand opening. Of course everyone is invited to participate in all of the week’s activities.

If you would like to attend, we recommend that you contact cinus at cowtowncomputercongress dot org in order to ensure that we will have a packet of materials for you to take back to your group.