Alex Brooke

Brain Machine Workshop A Success

According to Karamoon, the Brain Machine workshop at the Tokyo Hacker Space was a success. Check out  some amazing pictures here. You can also see some pictures of Brain Machine workshop I went to at the make fair earlier this year here. The Tokyo Hacker Space run courses for anyone interested in tech, software, hardware and just about anything else they can think of. I’ll be going down there to check out what’s going on and perhaps make a video about it for Learn Japanese Pod.

Learn Japanese Pod

We’ve been getting back into the Learn Japanese Pod saddle after a long summer break. I was getting a few emails asking me what the hell was going on. Fear not, Waka sensei is back to teach you some new and useful Japanese phrases. We just put Fun Friday up and lesson #96 is almost ready to go up.

I’ve also installed moodle onto the Learn Japanese Pod server with a view to developing some Japanese language learning courses. Apparently it is quite a powerful system although I still need to study the documentation into how to use it. I started a thread on this topic for people to discuss and contribute to this project.

Tokyo Guitar Guild

The Tokyo Guitar Guild was a group I set up for guitarists in Tokyo to network, play together and teach each other a few tricks with their axes. The good news is I have managed to find a space in 青山一丁目 Aoyamaichoume where we could meet. If you are interested in coming, please send me an email @ mail(at)alexbrooke(dot)com or contact me here. The location is fantastic and I am thinking of using it on Saturdays.

I’m also thinking of doing some guitar tutorial videos. If you have any suggestions or requests please contact me.

Poster Competition

If you want to get your hands on a cool “Do it at home” poster from Japan Rail go to Japandra to find out more details. A big thanks to Sandra who appeared on last week’s Fun Friday.]

That’s all for now folks.

This is a great video about Tokyo Hackerspace by Joseph Tame from Pokya fame. This explains what they are doing and some of the cool projects they are involved in. Don’t forget the up coming workshop for the Brain Machine, a device that Karamoon demonstrates in the video. All very interesting stuff and a well made video. Enjoy.

WHAT: Learn to build a Brain Machine

WHEN: Sunday 11th October 2009

WHERE: Tokyo Hacker Space, Shiroganedai

HOW MUCH: 2500 yen for members / 5000 yen for non members. (Includes all material and tuition costs)

RESERVE A PLACE: Places are very limited so please send an email to daac2000(at)yahoo(dot)com to reserve your place

Interested in building a brain machine? The cool cats at the Tokyo Hacker Space are running a workshop on how to make them. Also called Trip Glasses, these spectacles have flashing LEDs and headphones emitting sounds programmed at various changing frequencies to induce meditative brain states. They also cause mild hallucinations as your visual cortex tries to make sense of what is going on.

These are seriously good fun to make and use. Check out this video I made at 4nchor5 La6 (Anchors Lab ).

The workshop includes all materials and full instruction and assistance.

I made my own Brain Machine at the Make fair in Tokyo in May this year. The inventor Mitch Altman did a workshop and showed us basic soldering skills and how to put the device together. It was great fun to make it myself and as an added bonus, the damn thing actually worked.

So check out the workshop in October, it’ll be a fun and different way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

 

As a small contribution to keep the ball rolling and exchange of ideas I am compiling a list of blog entries on Tokyo Barcamp 2009. So here is a list in no particular order. If you have a blog and want to be included on this please contact me at mail [at] alexbrooke dot com

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Blog: Shak in Japan

What: This is a nice review of the event. David talks about the highlights, his talk on "The Transient Web" and the good and bad points of the event. Nice points questioning the use of Twitter and the short 15 min time slots.

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Blog: Lhuga’s Blog

What: This is Lhuga’s review of Tokyo Barcamp. Points mentions include the venue, food, sponsors, gifts and more

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Blog: cscoutjapan

What: Great review of Tokyo Barcamp including the talk on using Excel spreadsheets to do animation. Other points mentioned are Fumi Yamazaki’s talk on geek culture, Niconico Douga, and the Make Tokyo Meeting and Mitch Altman’s trip glasses.

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Blog: Edwards Tech notes

What: A short review and some nice pictures of Tokyo Barcamp

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Blog: Karamoon

What: A call to arms to other creative people in Tokyo to focus on creating events, happenings and generally "doing more stuff" as opposed to analysing the previous Tokyo Barcamp too much

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Blog: Fighting Liberals

What: Short review talking about Fumi Yamazaki’s talk on Japanese geek culture

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Blog: Mitcho

What: Mitcho talks about his presentations including "Ubiquity". He includes some awesome slides of his presentations on this blog post, well worth checking out. He also mentions Yokohama’s International School’s live streaming meetings, Mitch Altmans talk on Hacker Spaces and Karamoons talk on security. He also mentions jisho.org

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Blog: Reiko Sato’s blog

What: Reiko talks about Tokyo Barcamp and her presentation on translation on the web. Other points mentioned include the Community Translation Interface at Sun.

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There were some articles in Japanese mentioning Tokyo Barcamp on Livedoor and Yahoo Japan news. If there are any other Japanese blogs, please let me know. Tokyo Barcampについてのブログや記事があれば是非 mail [ at ] alexbrooke dot com まで連絡してください。

Modesty almost prevents me (but not quite) so here’s a shameless plug for my own short blog entry on Tokyo Barcamp.

Again, this is not a comprehensive list so please help me to include new blogs as they come out.

 

Trip Glasses from Alex Brooke on Vimeo.

In this video you can see members of the Tokyo Hacker Space 4nchor5 La6 (Anchors Lab ) try on Mitch Altman’s Trip Glasses, formerly know as the Brain Machine. The glasses have flashing LEDs and headphones with synced audio at various frequencies to induce ceratin brain states. Although they are just flashing LEDs, your visual cortex is stimulated into creating various visual hallucinations such as swirling dots, shapes and lines. No one sees the same thing as each person’s brain creates different patterns.

Mitch said he got the idea to make the Trip Glasses when meditating. They are definitely very trippy and I will be buying a pair soon. Mitch will be demonstrating how to make them at the Make Faire in Hachioji this weekend.

Incidentally, our visit to 4nchor5 La6 was inspired by attendees of Tokyo Barcamp 2009 who wanted to get together and make a new Hacker Space. Here’s a video of some of them talking about it.

LINKS

Mitch Altman

Trip Glasses

4nchor5 La6 (Anchors Lab)

Tokyo Hacker Space

What is a Hacker Space?

Video on getting a new hacker space together in Tokyo