Month: April 2015

Sense Your City…

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from April 28th, 2015:

Here’s the usual set of links & videos from the show:

The Data Canvas project takes environmental sensor data from across cities and makes it available for use by innovative applications.

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Imagine a cheerful weather history of Geneva

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Or a real time 3D view of each city:

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The winning projects are all available online.

One of my favourites is the Sonic Particles 2.0 application, which turns the real time sensor data into music, so you can hear what the weather is like right now…

You can immerse yourself into this world of data at L’Abri, Place de la Madelaine in the Centre of Geneva on the 28th, 29th of April and the 5th and 6th of May. Everything is in English.

See you next week !

Paul Leave a comment

Fly me to the moon

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from April 21st, 2015:

Here’s the usual set of links & videos from the show:

The Parrot Rolling Spider Drone is great for indoors and out. I love it because it charges from USB, the same as your phone, and with the wheels (included) it is a lot less likely to be damaged or to damage your home! It’s super stable. I have the blue one – it’s called Max.

You can buy this online or from shops like 1000 Ordi and Prodimex in Geneva.

The ELF Nanocopter is a Virtual Reality nanodrone live on Indiegogo right now.

This one hits all my buttons. It’s 3D printed, it’s open source hardware and software, and it uses Google Cardboard for the virtual reality piloting (you see what the drone sees). And only $69. Works with both iOS and Android.

And I save the best until last.

Who hasn’t wanted to terrorise people with a remote control Pterodactyl?

This one’s on Kickstarter and is nearly funded at the time of the show with 11 days still to go. Just take a look and tell me you can’t imagine this in the mountains around Geneva…

See you next week!

Paul Leave a comment

Local makerspaces !

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from April 14th, 2015:

Here’s the usual set of links & videos from the show:

Post Tenebras Lab calls itself a hackerspace, but according to this diagram is really a makerspace. fablab-makerspace-hackerspace Post Tenebras Lab is very much a community effort, designed for all sorts of technology enthusiasts to get together, share and learn. Come along to Carouge any Tuesday evening to find out if its for you! Don’t forget, PTL is kind of a secret underground lair – we don’t have a volcano yet but we’re working on it. There’s no doorbell – you have to know the secret phone number (on the home page of the website) to ring up and get the door opened.

Pangloss Labs is different. Pangloss Labs is a fablab but designed to inspire business creation. We don’t yet have a physical location but we’re in active discussions in Geneva and the Pays de Gex (for now). We have various events, including the monthly speed-networking where you can get to know the community and explain your project (if you have one) or your dreams.

Paul Leave a comment

3D Printing in Geneva

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from April 7th, 2015:

Here’s the usual set of links & videos from the show:

For more information about 3D printing, MAKE magazine is a great place to start:

To try 3D printing in Geneva, you can go to Post Tenebras Lab, the Geneva Hackerspace on any Tuesday night. It’s open to the public from 19h00 and they even have a communal meal. You might even see me there. We’ve just completed a major upgrade to our 3D printing capabilities and have 3 new printers including a Lulzbot TAZ 4 (a really big one!).

There’s the new Replik3D shop in Acacias. You’ll find their website here. Give them a call before you go to visit them as they are very new and sorting out their opening hours. Their website is in French but both Matthieu and Giovanni speak great English. They sell 3D printers, supplies and do printing services and more. You can even get a 3D scanned bobble head made of yourself in full colour!

You’ve also got Romain at Les Voisins coworking, and Sebastien at Onl’fait who both offer workshops and 3D printing services but you will need to speak French for these two.

Paul Leave a comment