Cemetech is participating in its third World Maker Faire this weekend in New York City. Five Cemetech staff members and users will be showing off graphing calculators as programming tools, DIY electronics platforms, and pocket computers that can be made to run a staggering array of applications. In previous years, we have spoken with teachers interested in teaching calculator programming in the classroom, students who learned to program playing with TI-BASIC on their calculators, and old-school hackers impressed with the versatility of z80- and ARM-based TI calculators. We hope to bring you excellent stories and many more excited programmers by the end of the weekend.

World Maker Faire 2014 is being held at the Hall of Science in Flushing Meadow Park, Queens, New York. It is open this Saturday and Sunday from 10am. You can find us in the middle of the Faire, near the Disney tent and the rockets. Come say hello if you visit the Faire!

I wish I could go Sad But looks like you'll be having a great time! It'll be awesome to see so many new programmers joining Cemetech! I thank you for spreading the news Smile
So, guys, who is going to be giving us the scoop on what kind of activity is making its way around your alls table?
We had many visitors today, including a few community members. Pyrotechnic, Balrog (from #ti), and PatrickD all showed up. PatrickD was quite taken with the Maple TI-82, and made a point to set the high score in ZTetris.
APotato wrote:
I wish I could go Sad But looks like you'll be having a great time! It'll be awesome to see so many new programmers joining Cemetech! I thank you for spreading the news Smile
Indeed, we're hoping to directly get students excited about calculator programming, and indirectly also motivate their parents and teachers about what a great and valuable pursuit it is.

tifreak8x wrote:
So, guys, who is going to be giving us the scoop on what kind of activity is making its way around your alls table?
Here's the first installment!

We had an extremely busy day today, talked to probably thousands of individuals, families, and groups that stopped by, handed out hundreds of Cemetech bookmarks, and honed our explanation of why graphing calculators are the perfect platform on which to learn programming. It goes something like this:
Quote:
The five of us here started learning programming by exploring our graphing calculators in school, and we have become CS PhDs, professional software developers, and hobbyist programmers. We want more students to get involved with programming from an early age, so we're here showing off why graphing calculators are the perfect platform to learn programming with.
We talked to people including:
- A teacher who works with at-risk teens in the Washington, DC area who has no money for computers, has calculators, and wants her students to explore programming and robotics.
- A science teacher in the NYC area who has CBL devices and wants to show her students programming, including interfacing with the CBL.
- A familiar friendly face from TI.
- The legendary Patrick Davidson, author of "Phoenix" among others.
- A professional programmer who didn't get started coding with graphing calculators, but who "honed his ability to translate an idea into a program" with his calculator.
- A professional programmer who writes Objective C and Swift now, but started programming with his trusty TI-83 Plus.
- Experienced programmers reminiscing about learning to program on z80-based devices in the 1980s.
- Students who have been writing TI-BASIC programs on their own in school, and who were excited to learn that there is an online community of enthusiasts to learn from and work with.
- Younger students excited by the prospect of what they will be able to do once they get graphing calculators for school.

Some photos from the day (full set of photos here!):

Our displays (click any photo for the full size). From left: the east side of the tent, with networking, internet-connected calculators, and books; calculators networked together; internet-connected calculators; interactive calculators with math and science programs and games; calculators playing music with speakers and a floppy drive.



"Hacking" (n) Making a device work to its full potential


Thomas oversees the next generation of STEM students


Tim explaining graphing calculator networking
So far so good. Aside from some less than sane prices on the food and drinks there, the day could not have gone better. Hung out with the cement guys, played some Tetris music, and then had wild cemetech after party with strobe light (or at least I assume this is what happened after I left for the LIRR)

anyhow, can't wait for more fun tomorrow!
That's awesome! Hopefully you were able to get shots with our colleagues from irc. Smile

Also, why does Tim look clueless talking about the networking? lol (sorry Tim, just your pose with you holding the hat makes you look like they asked a question you don't have an answer for :p )

Looking forward to seeing more!
Ah look at all those people! And the kids! And the calculators! Very Happy Whoo I hope for some more pictures, its looking great!
tifreak8x wrote:
That's awesome! Hopefully you were able to get shots with our colleagues from irc. Smile
A few here and there; I will make sure we get time for a group photo some time today. I also have a lighthearted video of our booth to share.

Quote:
Also, why does Tim look clueless talking about the networking?
I think it's just because he is doffing his hat, as he occasionally does.

APotato wrote:
Ah look at all those people! And the kids! And the calculators! Very Happy Whoo I hope for some more pictures, its looking great!
Thanks! It has, as always, been hectic and a blast so far.
It is looking like a lot of fun!
Too bad that NYC is a tad far away for me Razz
Looks like a load of fun! Maybe I'll come next year. Very Happy
Very nice to see that the casio prizm was on display. I am wondering what the purpose of the wires to the link port is and does it say it has 4Mb of rom do you mean to say it has 32mb of flash? Anyways it seems you guys at cemetech have a nice display going.
Edit 32 not 16.
Art_of_camelot wrote:
Looks like a load of fun! Maybe I'll come next year. Very Happy
Maybe when I finally don't look like I'm 7 years old.
Are there dates for next years NYC Maker Faire? I couldn't find anything on the website.
Is Eeems still alive? Shock (he was with Geekboy the other day)
No, I died Sad

I'll be getting my images/videos up on Facebook sometime tomorrow probably. I'll probably make it a public album and link everybody to it here after. Got a nice behind the scenes look at the Kerm Cave that everybody might be interested in :p

Edit: I just noticed that in was in the last picture in the album, but I remained unmentioned Sad
ProgrammerNerd wrote:
Very nice to see that the casio prizm was on display. I am wondering what the purpose of the wires to the link port is and does it say it has 4Mb of rom do you mean to say it has 32mb of flash? Anyways it seems you guys at cemetech have a nice display going.
Edit 32 not 16.
I think you mis-read which description goes with which calculator. The wires are going to the battery compartment so we didn't have to spend $40 on AAA batteries for the weekend.

DJ_O wrote:
Is Eeems still alive? Shock (he was with Geekboy the other day)
Why wouldn't he be alive? He's in a number of the photos I posted on Saturday. Smile

Art_of_camelot wrote:
Looks like a load of fun! Maybe I'll come next year. Very Happy
You totally should! It's a very fun weekend, if a bit exhausting.

comicIDIOT wrote:
Are there dates for next years NYC Maker Faire? I couldn't find anything on the website.
It seems to always be the third or fourth weekend in September, but to my knowledge they haven't posted the 2015 dates yet.
KermMartian wrote:
The wires are going to the battery compartment so we didn't have to spend $40 on AAA batteries for the weekend.


The Prizm can be powered over USB... you still need to keep batteries in (to keep the voltage meter happy), but they won't discharge* if USB is plugged in. And of course the USB power won't charge the batteries either. A cleaner solution than putting wires through the battery compartment, IMO.

* or if they do, I could never notice it.
gbl08ma wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
The wires are going to the battery compartment so we didn't have to spend $40 on AAA batteries for the weekend.


The Prizm can be powered over USB... you still need to keep batteries in (to keep the voltage meter happy), but they won't discharge* if USB is plugged in.
Indeed, I was aware of that, but since we were running 5.7V over both the tables to power our TI calculators, I figured I'd just use that for the Prizm as well. Smile I've used that system for the last three years, and as long as no one trips over the cords, it works well.
  
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