[Noisebridge-discuss] Kite Hacking!, 8pm on Thursday @ 83c

[Michael C. Toren]

Thanks to everyone who came out to Kite Hacking on Thursday!  Altogether,
10 people showed up (mct, Mark, Miloh, Laura, Andy, John, Joe, Mike, Brad,
and Oliver), ranging in experience from people who have never flown a kite
before to kite surfers.  A lot of neat ideas came out of the brainstorming
session.  The ones the group had the most interest in were:

	- Accelerometers + RGB LEDs + Stunt Kites
	- Aerial photography
	- War Flying (wifi "war driving" with an aerial antenna)
	- Many individually addressable pretty lights on a single kite
	- Making our own kites

Because it's such a big list, and because everyone had their own favorite,
we decided to adopt a "sensebridge-style" model for now: the group as a
whole will not pick a single common project to work on, but instead
smaller groups of us will hack on the ideas we're most passionate about.
We'll meet on Thursdays at 8pm to share how things are progressing, which
hopefully will generate more motivation and idea generation for getting
additional projects off the ground.  Thursdays may also be a good time for
us to get work done on specific projects.

We'll also get together periodically outside of 83c to fly kites.  The
first group flying session will be next Saturday, August 15th at Ocean
Beach, Stairwell #25.  I added a Google Maps link to the wiki page at
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Kites, and I'll send out more specific
directions before Saturday.  7pm sounds like a good time to meet, to give
us a chance to do both some daytime flying, and some night flying after
sunset.

If I have enough time before next Thursday, I hope to have a prototyped
accelerometer circuit to show off.  I'm hoping I'll be able to fly it on
Saturday, but we'll see how that goes.   

Does anyone have a relatively cheap digital camera they'd be willing to
use for aerial photography, with the understanding that it may be
destroyed in the process? :-)  If so, bring it with you on Thursday, and
we'll brainstorm about the best way to mount it.  If no one has one, I'm
thinking I may buy a used Canon Elph from Craigslist or eBay.

Thanks,
-mct