My wife and daughter gave me a great Christmas gift this year. They gave me some Rit fabric dye (along with some color fixative).
I had some old jeans that were still good (no rips or fryaing) – but they were really faded in some spots. I guess this was to be expected after 5 years!! This dye – quite literally – made these jeans look brand new!
I had never done this before but Youtube provided several how-to videos that were easy to follow. Here is one.
The whole process took under three hours and I was very pleased with the results ..
We were wondering how we could dip our toes into the profitable world of cryptocurrency mining. After all, the crypto scene is exploding and fortunes are being made.
Our group created a Bitcoin miner back in 2011 – but it all ended badly when we couldn’t decide how to divvy up the profits (not that we got any).
In any case, wanting to take a positive step forward in 2022, we looked around for what we could use for a mining rig. It was no accident that we found a few extra Raspberry Pis hanging around – so we decided to put them to work.
With Bitcoin threatening another run at another All Time High, we decided to try for another crypto that most of the miners wouldn’t target … and we settled on Monero.
We found some instructions on how to implement a Monero miner here – and were were surprised to learn that we were able to get going after entering just 7 commands in Terminal!!!!
We didn’t have big expectations on the rewards we could earn with the limited computing power of our Pis (compared to ASIC miners used by the pros). Having said that, we were surprised to see how easily it was to start earning some Monero. This was just one RasPi working after a couple of days.
At the end of the month, I will compare my returns against the extra electricity I am using to power my Pi but I’m looking foward to see how much I can mine. I’ll share what I find.
When purchasing gifts for your loved ones this Holiday season, remember to buy American!
Buying from American producers and manufacturers supports families and communities right here in American soil. Spending money on products mace in China supports the leadership of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), a group that does things like enslave thousands of Muslim ethnic minorities.
There are plenty of American manufacturers that supply products that you will most likely purchase. For ideas, visit sites like this, this and this.
I recently was looking to buy a new pair of jeans – but didn’t want to buy Levi’s or other brands, because they have longed shipped manufacturing of their products overseas. The All American Clothing company has a wide range of quality jeans on sale for prices at or below what is offered by the foreign-made brands!
We here at Rippowam Labs have always referred to William “Bill” Saturno as the Godfather of all Makerspaces here in Connecticut. He was a big proponent of this movement and ran the finest makerspace in the state.
It was no easy task to establish our own space. No one ever gave us free rent and it was a lot of work just locating a space where we could do some welding, soldering, woodworking and metalworking (Stamford has turned their old industrial spaces into high-priced condos). I remember one day throwing my hands up and thinking that it would never happen.
But it was at these low points that Bill would usually appear. With his boundless optimism, he’d provide some key advice that ultimately helped us to open up shop.
We really appreciated when he made appearances at our events. His presence lent credibility to our cause and his friendship meant a whole lot to us.
The DIY scene is filled with so many phony people. But Bill is one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met. And this is why he had so much support among the makerspace community. You could always trust him and this earned my loyalty forever.
He made my life better. He made the lives of our members better. And he made the lives of our students better. I hope he is looking down at us from his perch in Heaven, feeling immense pride that he lived his life well.
We’ve been having fun with our PiSloth robot lately. This is a bi-ped robot that uses 4 servo motors, a Raspberry Pi and some Python code to literally dance, sing and navigate obstacles.
We spent a recent glorious weekend day creating a catapult out of an old bed frame we got at Vulcan Scrap Metal in Stamford.
It’s been a long time since we broke out the stick welder but, once we got it going, I remembered how absolutely essential it can be to help create something useful out of someone else’s junk.
Before we dive in, I’ll provide a little background. Dylan got an assignment at school to build a catapult and we followed the directions of design we found on the web. Those plans called for using wood but when we actually used it and applied some pressure, the base cracked. It became plainly obvious we needed some stronger materials.
That’s when we broke out the stick welder and angle grinder. Like I said, it had been a while, but we soon were able to draw some decent beads. I was really impressed with Dylan. He had done some MIG welding in the past – but never stick – and he was able to produce some decent work.
Of course, before we could start any welding, we had to start cut and clean the metal. Here is Dylan in action ..
But things started to come together quickly …
We were running out daylight but we getting closed to the finished product …
We already have a couple of design tweaks in mind, so stay tuned for updates.
Join the Rippowam Labs community at Mill River Park on Saturday night to take part in NASA’s International Observe the Moon Night 2020 event.
This is the lates in a series of Sidwalk Astronomy events put on by Zane Landers, a Stamford resident who is considered the face of America’s next generation of astronomers. He and other astronomers in Southwestern CT show up and set up their telescopes and let members of the general public take a look at the planets and stars.
At the last event, one person brought a scope worth ~$45,000 and the rings of Saturn were in perfect view. But Zane will bring at least one of his telescopes that he built himself (~$350) and stargazers using that scope said they could see Saturn’s rings just as well!
All in all, these events are friendly, wholesome and educational – a great relief from the politically charged times we live in. We hope you join us!!!
We’ll be gathering near small parking lot along Washington Blvd. (next to the dog exercise area) at around 6:45 pm!
The man who taught students to build their own telescope at our makerspace a couple of years ago is now working to ignite a passion for astronomy in Stamford.
Stamford resident Zane Landers is starting a regular series of Sidewalk Astronomy events at Mill River Park in Stamford (near dog park). Interested people need only show up and Zane will have an array of telescopes for them to use.
The latest event, held over Labor Day weekend, attracted a crowd of about 50 people. I was part of this group and I was really amazed at the things that I saw that night. When I first arrived, Zane pointed one of his telescopes at Saturn (he knew exactly where it was in the sky) and I literally shouted “AWESOME” when I looked through the eyepiece. You could clearly see the planet’s rings!
We didn’t have a camera adapter for the scope but it looked something like this.
There was an array of scopes there … some Zane had built himself (and taught others to build) for just a few hundred dollars – and others that cost ~ $45,000. The thing that surprised me the most was that the image of Saturn didn’t seem that much better on the more-expensive scope! Zane’s DIY scopes could see the rings just as clearly!
Zane’s DIY scope in action.
We also looked at jupiter and I could see the big storm (looks like a big red eye) on the planet’s surface! My mind was blown!
The great news is that Zane is planning an upcoming class, where people will be able to build a scope just like this. Feel free to send him an email if you’re interested. But stay tuned to this site for more info.
More Sidewalk Astronomy sites will be held soon. We’ll keep you updated!
Zane is a really smart young man that has been written up in publications like Time magazine, among others, and has authored articles on sites such as CloudyNights. He is rapidly becoming the face of the new generation of astronomers – and he wants to share his enthusiasm with the people of Stamford.
Over the last several months, many members of our community have been asking whether we will be offering Web-based robotics and coding classes.
This question – and the pandemic, for that matter – caught us off guard. While we had great success with classes at our makerspace, we never optimized our tutoring to be an exclusively online experience.
All that has changed …
Over the last several months, our members have been working furiously behind the scenes to deteremine how best to offer our classes – and we came up with something big. We’ve been taking classes with the International Society for Technology in Education and we’ve created a lesson plan that will help your son or daughter take a giant leap forward in their coding and robotics skills.
The folks at ISTE are TOPS when it comes to harnessing the power of technology to: transform teaching and learning; accelerate innovation; and solve tough problems in education. And we’ve adopted our approach to match theirs.
You should also know that, unless things change, we still offer in-person tutoring services at your home. As part of this, we observe all social distancing practices that will make the experience safe.
The people at Rippowam Labs have taught more people to build robots in Fairfield County than anyone else. We’ve been teaching classes in the Stamford/Norwalk area since 2010!
Rippowam Labs has been hard at work educating the youth of Stamford. In early October, we set up the city’s first Raspberry Pi Coder Dojo!
The Coder Dojo program is a volunteer-based global initiative to teach young people how to code and create with technology. There are more than 1900 active Dojos in 93 countries – and now there’s one in Stamford.
Just learned to solder wires to his robot motors!!!
We’ve been meeting weekly on Thursday afternoons and our group is about 15 members strong at this point. They started with learning HTML and CSS coding … and now they will be learning Python, to control the robots they are building.
The Stamford YMCA has been a bastion of good will in the Stamford community for over a century. No matter who you are and what background you have, EVERYONE is accepted and encouraged to be their very best at the Y. It only made sense that we chose to create the Dojo there.
The most exciting part of this class is that students are realizing how fun it is to be creators of technology, rather than just passive consumers of it. We put away our cellphones at the beginning of our meetings and start coding on our Chromebooks. It’s been crazy to witness how quickly some of these kids take to coding. It seems effortless to them and I know their futures will be bright.
We’ll share our accomplishments on this web site as our adventure continues.
