The wording and image above are not mine. This is a screenshot from a Make Magazine article covering the 2013 Maker Faire in Providence, RI. In this article, the “pleasant bing-bing sounds” of my machine were used to set the ambience of the piece, as the author described some truly amazing displays and creations put on by my fellow “makers” at the show last Saturday. There were scores of very cool 3D printers, electronics gizmos, and gadgets galore. Fellow weirdos, as promised, and a feast for the eyes and brains at every turn.

The article went on to describe many of the displays, and included many pictures, including one where a face-painted teen takes on my Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out pinball game. After that photo, that included me creepily in the background, came the wording as reproduced above-the author’s favorite “stumble upon” at the Faire- followed by the only video in the entire article- of a simple LED effect under the faux turntable in my creation.

With all the cutting edge technology in play here, with all the robotics, 3D scans, prints, and Arduino infested creations- the author was most affected by essentially a parlor trick that would have been possible decades ago. Such is “art” when combined with science. Such is the old- if treated correctly- that can be made to seem new again.

The author’s name is Nick Normal, and the link is here: Reporting Back from the RI Maker Faire

Thank you to Nick for the kind words. My web traffic has increased exponentially since this article. However, 1 to the second power is still 1.

While that was my favorite validation of the past week, I had three others that were noteworthy:

1. First, “Erika and Bear”- coauthors of the I (heart) Rhody magazine/blog- interviewed me about my custom pinball/art business after visiting my booth at the Faire. This interview focused on the artistic merit of my creations, and I was happy to oblige.

2. Secondly, after submitting photos and descriptions of my work to the www.pinballowners.com website- the premiere site for pinball enthusiasts world-wide, I was accepted as a “manufacturer” and my works are now included in the database, galleries and descriptions.

3. Finally, I have submitted my idea for a controlled-fog back glass unit to the Roger Williams University Engineering school for consideration as a Senior Design Project. Dr. Riley and the other staff there were very supportive of the idea, and it has been approved. I will now have the benefit of having a team of student engineers mulling over the technical challenges of creating a closed fog control system- all simply to be able to create a cool foggy cemetery scene for my “Night of the Living Dead” machine design.

Along with this additional validation, I now have several expressions of interest, and a few tentative orders. I would urge those of you on the fence about this to consider the advantage of being “first”- in terms of getting your machine before everyone else, and paying the minimal amount for the early models.

As a reminder, pricing can be seen here, and available donor machines are listed and described here.

Thinks are looking up- so I need to get back to designing and building.

Toodles,

Dave