Hey everyone out there reading this, HackerspaceSG needs your help. We are going into the RED and will not be able to sustain HackerspaceSG very much longer (read 1 month more) if we don’t increase our membership, and get members to pay for their memberships.

Here’s what we need your help with:

1. Spread the world about HackerspaceSG and how awesome we are!
   In 1 sentence, HackerspaceSG is a physical space with unlimited possibilities, absolutely no boundaries, for you to do anything you want – from hosting community meetups to getting your startup going; from Arduino hardware hacking to software development; from organizing hardware hacking courses to software development courses; from dancing and music to drinks, parties and chilling out with the coolest people in Singapore.
2. If you are interested to help out HackerspaceSG, join us as a member!
   All we’re asking is SGD$128 a month, and if we get MORE members, we’ll reduce our memberships for everyone to only SGD$64 a month. We’re not here to make money, just pay the bills. Check out http://hackerspace.sg/readme-txt/membership/ for more information and benefits.
3. If you’re already an existing member, PLEASE PAY YOUR MEMBERSHIP!
   We don’t run for free. We have rent to pay, we have drinks to buy for you guys. So please, pay your membership regularly.
4. Donate or sponsor us to help us survive!
   You can donate or sponsor us as a one time donation to help us keep going. Contact me and I’ll get you hooked up with the right people. You can find more information at http://hackerspace.sg/readme-txt/donations/.

Help HackerspaceSG. Help the Communities. Help the Revolution of Ideas.

HackerspaceSG is once again mentioned in an article! Titled “The making of Southeast Asian silicon valleys: the perspective of the geeks” by Zane Kripe from the International Institute for Asian Studies, it seems BarCamp Singapore (organized by Preetam Rai) and HackerspaceSG are one of the central triggers in igniting the explosion of geekdom in SEA.

It’s a very interesting read. What do you think?

What’s possibly the most calming yet nerve-racking job in the world? Come behind the scenes of the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art to find out!

I’ve always been fascinated by the amount of work and science that goes into conservation of art work. You can learn more about the hard work taking place to keep these works alive and on display at http://www.asia.si.edu/research/dcsr/

A message from Anonymous, the hacker group that rose to fame by bringing down Sony PSN and other major industry players, is being distributed around stating their next target is Facebook, dubbed Operation Facebook. The reason is to fight for choice and informed consent, which Facebook only provides a false sense of privacy and security.

Do you agree with them and their actions?

You can find out more:
https://twitter.com/OP_Facebook
http://piratepad.net/YCPcpwrl09
Irc.Anonops.Li #OpFaceBook

Update: Apparently not the entire collective of Anonymous is behind this operation, based on 2 of the many twitter accounts Anonymous has, GroupAnon and AnonOps. It still remains to be seen if it is a hoax or if it will be an actual attack. Mark November 9th on your calendars, because you should be watching closely.

Autodesk 123D is a free 3D modeling app currently in beta for Windows that’s very similar to Google Sketchup. It’s a stripped down version of Autodesk Inventor bundled with lots of free 3D models and content for you to start your design instead of from a blank sheet. After designing your model, you can export the design and fabricate it with one of Autodesk’s fabrication partners or use your own 3D printer. By the way, we have a makerbot 3D printer at HackerspaceSG. Check it out if you’re interested.

CubeSpawn is an open source hardware project. Its intended purpose is to “open source” a design for a flexible manufacturing system and design its components in such a way as to make the system capable of making most of its own parts. Frames, made from popular and widely available aluminum extrusion, are used to house machines that perform one step of a manufacturing process.

With a bootstrapping (self starting) path to automated production built from open source designs, digital fabrication, and low cost fab-lab style manufacturing, individuals and small organizations can take advantage of contributed designs to rapidly provide commercial grade capabilities at DIY costs.

Designs for laser cutting, coordinate measuring machines, mills, routers and other fabrication equipment are already available open source, a framework to add interchangeability, automation and compatibility should simply accelerate the process of integrating these designs.

Now that you know roughly what CubeSpawn is, they need your votes for the “Create the Future Design” contest by TechBriefs to win the grand prize and get funding to start this off the ground.

Twittamentary looks at how lives connect and intersect within the Twitter community as the real-time web accelerates serendipity. A year ago, Director Tan Siok Siok set out on a whirlwind road trip across America to discover and document the effects of the social media phenomenon, Twitter. She interviewed a wide range of Twitter’ers, from a travel journalist turned “twilebrity” to a homeless woman who uses twitter from the public library, from a stock trader and a prostitute who uses twitter as her personal GPS.

Filmmaker Tan Siok Siok @sioksiok will attend the screening and share her insights on the making of the film.

MyCube is a social networking startup based in Singapore. They were founded in late 2009, have 40 employees, and have received significant investment funding. They will be launching their service to the public in June.

MyCube is launching an ambitious internship program where they will be recruiting 30 young people ages 16-25 from 20 countries to work with them at their Singapore office for 6 weeks, from 4 July to 12 August. The internship will provide the selected members with training in company formation, fundraising, product development, marketing, financial management and more. Interns will attend lectures from internet and business experts, work on real-life case studies and new business ideas, and get significant hands-on work experience.

All interns will receive a $3,000 Singapore dollar stipend, free round-trip airfare to Singapore, and paid housing for the six weeks. The top performing intern will receive a $10,000 Singapore dollar grant to further their studies or start their own company, and four runner-ups will have an all-expense paid trip to Ideas Island in the Philippines for one week of brainstorming and relaxation. After the program, interns will become MyCube “ambassadors” to their home country and may attend lectures, conferences and other events sponsored by MyCube, as well as serve as mentors to future participants of the program.

The application deadline is 5 June and they will be contacting those selected by 10 June.

Find out more at http://internship2011.mycube.com.

Above are videos of 2 of the Open MAKE events – Open MAKE: Cardboard and Open MAKE: Metal & Wire. You can see really cool stuff being tinkered and built. Cool huh?

A collaboration between the Exploratorium, MAKE Magazine, and Pixar Animation Studios, Open MAKE is a monthly program highlighting the tools, techniques, and ingenuity of local Makers. Visitors are invited to participate in tinkering and making activities inside the Tinkering Studio, where Makers from around the Bay Area will share their work.

Here’s a great use for face tracking, by creating a 3D display that follows your head and updates the rendering. It does not use the accelerometers and relies only on the front camera of the iPad. Cool? I think so too.