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Voyage to the ATX Hackerspace in Austin, Texas (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the your-friendly-neighborhood-24-hour-a-day-hackerspace dept.

The place is big. It has lots of bats. And the people there not only make things, but play games and just plain hang out. Some are making a TARDIS they hope to take to Burning Man. Others are college student roboteers, working on their entry in a regional IEEE robotics contest. They're cutting, shaping, drilling, soldering, programming, talking, and generally having a great time. Timothy says they're Texas-friendly, too, so go ahead and stop on by if you're in the neighborhood. They're open 24/7, too, so whenever you have an urge to make something, ATX Hackerspace is ready to help you satisfy that urge.

47 comments

  1. Thanks by gargeug · · Score: 1

    I just moved to Austin and am wanting to start hobbyist robotics, so this post was extremely useful. Thanks.

    1. Re:Thanks by fliptout · · Score: 1

      You might drop by the UT EE building and see what's going on there.

      --
      A witty saying proves you are wittier than the next guy.
  2. Slightly misleading by OverlordQ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Timothy says they're Texas-friendly, too, so go ahead and stop on by if you're in the neighborhood. They're open 24/7, too, so whenever you have an urge to make something, ATX Hackerspace is ready to help you satisfy that urge.

    If you're a member, or it's an Open House. It's a $50/mo fee.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    1. Re:Slightly misleading by DontLickJesus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Texas friendly implies you may stop by for a visit and say "Hi", get a tour, that sort of thing. I find it doubtful they'd charge you just to check the place out.

      --
      Where genius and insanity become confused true wisdom is found
    2. Re:Slightly misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm an Austin native and I've never heard the term "Texas-friendly" before.

      Must be something the filthy refugees from silicon valley coined.

    3. Re:Slightly misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's when they shoot at you with .22 shorts instead of center-fire rounds.

    4. Re:Slightly misleading by WillgasM · · Score: 1

      Umm...it's kinda the state motto.

    5. Re:Slightly misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Keeping Austin Weird means hating on Si valley refugees...a weirder crowd you couldn't find on this side of the planet.

    6. Re:Slightly misleading by misterpib · · Score: 3, Informative

      I find it doubtful they'd charge you just to check the place out.

      Definitely not! The place is open to visitors most every evening. Any of the events on the calendar are open-house events: http://atxhackerspace.org/wiki/Calendar

    7. Re:Slightly misleading by element-o.p. · · Score: 1

      I thought the state motto was "Don't Mess With Texas!" Looked like it at least, as often as I saw that printed upon everything in sight, last time I was down there...

      --
      MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
    8. Re:Slightly misleading by WillgasM · · Score: 1

      The state motto is simply "friendship" "teyshas" is the caddo word for "friends"

    9. Re:Slightly misleading by shbazjinkens · · Score: 1

      Austin != the rest of Texas.. Their motto is "keep Austin weird" and it's a mix between hipsters, republicans and tech savvy professionals. A very dramatically different place than any other Texas city.

    10. Re:Slightly misleading by XXeR · · Score: 1

      Austin != the rest of Texas.. Their motto is "keep Austin weird" and it's a mix between hipsters, republicans and tech savvy professionals. A very dramatically different place than any other Texas city.

      s/republicans/democrats/, with a generous helping of libertarians as well.

    11. Re:Slightly misleading by g1zmo · · Score: 1

      It's a trademarked slogan of the Texas Department of Transportation, created for an anti-littering campaign in the 1980s.

      --
      I have found there are just two ways to go.
      It all comes down to livin' fast or dyin' slow.       -REK, Jr.
    12. Re:Slightly misleading by element-o.p. · · Score: 1

      I was in Austin a few years ago, and heard the comment, "Austin isn't so much a *PART* of Texas as it is *SURROUNDED* by Texas." I thought it was kind of funny, not least of all because the quote was equally applicable to my own hometown of Anchorage, substituting "Alaska" for "Texas," of course :)

      Slightly off-topic: while in Austin, I heard an awesome band called "Flyjack" play at a club called (IIRC) Antone's. Whatever else you have to say about the place, it's got a killer music scene!

      --
      MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
    13. Re:Slightly misleading by element-o.p. · · Score: 1

      I was shooting for a laugh, but apparently I missed the mark, lol.

      --
      MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
    14. Re:Slightly misleading by dbIII · · Score: 1

      It's good to hear something positive about Texas immediately after hearing some weirdo that convinced people to make him a Judge scream about civil war and the UN invading Texas. People have forgotten that Texas was the centre of the world's electronics industry before silicon valley and it still has a lot fo high tech industry. That oil isn't found with a bent stick and praying.

    15. Re:Slightly misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Don't Mess With Texas!" actually comes from an anti-littering campaign.

  3. Re:The term is "roboticist" by ByOhTek · · Score: 1

    Im' a programeer, I always program with my pinky sticking out, like any upper society programmer should!

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  4. advice for a better video by SethJohnson · · Score: 2

    This could have been a much better video. Roblimo doesn't understand how to gather compelling content. Ughhh!

    He talked to the robotics engineer asking him all kinds of questions about stuff nobody is excited to learn about - "How many people are on your team at UT?" "Why doesn't the school let you use their laser cutter?" A better direction would have been to ask the guy how the laser cutter works and how the pieces it was processing would fit into the robot project. That was completely missing.

    Also, half the video was about some card game. Less than 1% of this video is about 'hacking' anything and 99.9% is about the social aspects of the ATX Hackerspace. This is a missed opportunity for Slashdot to create relevant content.

    If you are going to ask visitors to spend 11 minutes of their lives looking at your video, you better make it worth it. This isn't.

    Seth

    --
    $5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
    1. Re:advice for a better video by Antipater · · Score: 2

      That's like complaining that a McDonald's commercial didn't show you how to grill a hamburger. It was a video about the hackerspace. If you want to learn about hacking, watch a video about hacking. Not about a place.

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    2. Re:advice for a better video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last I was at the UT EE department (late '90s), the lab equipment was space-age era, the few LabView setups were on 386sx PCs (and Austin is NI country), the student machine shop was underequipped and what was there was in terrible shape, and the department made you check out discretes from the lab supplies one by one (and expect they're returned in good shape). This from a state university charging private tuition rates for in-state students.

      So yeah, I doubt they have a laser cutter for undergrads.

  5. Back in the day it was called a bakery by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1
    What is this "hackerspace"? It sounds so pseudo-hippie, it is like this bakery that calls itself "Bread Smith."

    Or this software company that calls itself Sound Foundry selling a digital audio editor product called Sound Forge. Talk about mixing metaphors. A foundry involves a casting process where you pour liquid metal. A forge is a kind of machining process where you take in some cases cold metal or in other cases metal heated to lower its yield strength, and you pound on it with hammers or with a machine. So foundry, forge, which is it?

    Hackerspace. Didn't that used to be called a "machine shop"? This name is so "Whole Foods", which is a kind of hippie-chic deal for people with tons of money imitation of a coop store.

    1. Re:Back in the day it was called a bakery by hackertourist · · Score: 2

      It's a machine shop that offers machining, electronics and computing services, it caters to hobbyists and focuses on sharing knowledge. "Machine shop" doesn't quite cover that.

    2. Re:Back in the day it was called a bakery by kelemvor4 · · Score: 1

      What is this "hackerspace"?

      "Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects. " http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Hackerspaces

      I think a bit different in that they let random people show up and use the gear for the most part. Also commonly referred to as a "maker space".

    3. Re:Back in the day it was called a bakery by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      I produce artisan code.

    4. Re:Back in the day it was called a bakery by misterpib · · Score: 1

      Hacker... space. It's a "space"... where people "hack" on their projects. Seems pretty straightforward. The only part that throws people off is the definition of the term "hack," though these days surely we're beyond thinking that's just people who break into computers?

      Hackerspaces generally have machine shops, but that's not all they are. They also have lounges, computer labs, biotech labs, kitchens, and whatever else their respective members are interested in.

  6. welding and texas friendly by bob+zee · · Score: 0

    ...They're cutting, shaping, drilling, soldering, programming, talking, and generally having a great time...

    no welding? i love welding. welding is awesome. the 'texas friendly' seems a little weird to me. i lived in texas for 5 years and never heard the term. (terrible comment? mod me down more? my karma can't get any worse.)

    1. Re:welding and texas friendly by misterpib · · Score: 1

      No, there is definitely welding, as well as dozens of other things that were not mentioned in the video.

  7. Too bad... by Ryanrule · · Score: 0

    ...texas.

    1. Re:Too bad... by Megane · · Score: 1

      Then go find your own. I've been meaning to find out more about them (had reasons why I couldn't so far) and this got me to click the link and look at their map. And now I know that they're very near where I work. I was expecting them to be on the south side of town or something like that. (going between north and south Austin can take a while even with good traffic, and Austin traffic usually sucks)

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    2. Re:Too bad... by dierdorf · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      ...texas

      You obviously don't understand. Except for geography, Austin is not part of Texas. Austin is exceedingly liberal, gay-friendly, pro-abortion, supports evolution, etc. etc. Hell, one of the local public parks has a clothing-optional beach. Most residents vehemently hate the idiot governor and legislature, which retaliates by jerrymandering to try to keep Austin from having ANY representation in Congress. (The current redistricting shows something like six pseudopods stretching for hundreds of miles from all directions to ensure that each sixth of Austin gets diluted by 5/6 of fundamentalist tea-party types.) To my knowledge, Travis County (Austin) hasn't voted for a Republican at any level in the last twenty years.

      The net result is that if you don't leave Travis County, you can ignore the stupidity of the rest of Texas and pretend you are in your own state.

      --
      -- John Dierdorf, Austin TX
    3. Re:Too bad... by Ryanrule · · Score: 0

      Oh I get what austin is, but you all are helping texas be texas by moving down there. You are raising the education rate, the employment rate, the iq level, ect.

      You need to take your ideas and money and leave. Let texas kill itself.

  8. Time travelling at Burning Man does happen... by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 1

    People just use certain chemicals instead of a Tardis.

    Or maybe that is the idea - use certain chemicals inside the Tardis?

    1. Re:Time travelling at Burning Man does happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is this a hackerspace or a hipsterspace?

    2. Re:Time travelling at Burning Man does happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hipsterspace? Are you trying to say burners aren't hackers, but hipsters? Maybe there's some new definition of hipster than I'm not aware of, yet.

  9. Great Place by Prien715 · · Score: 2

    There's also an TX/RX Hackerspace in Houston. They've got a bunch of fab equipment, an electron microscope, and a bunch of electrical engineering gear.

    Both these places have open houses (go in and say "Howdy;)"), and grats to the folks from there bringing their freaky deaky time machine home.

    (Pedantic: You can either say ATX Hackerspace, Hackerspace in Austin TX, or ATX (Austin TX) Hackerspace)

    --
    -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
  10. Re:mmmmh HTML5? by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

    Fortunately it crashed the Flash plugin in my browser, so no flash

    --
    I've got better things to do tonight than die.
  11. How is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't want to hear about these 'hacker' spaces. They are nothing but a ploy by O'Reilly to sell more books and tickets to their boring conferences (i.e Maker Fair) by setting up these creatively void shitholes to shill their wares to pretend-smart idiots who have no idea what a real hacker or nerd is or does.

  12. Re:Bleh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to go ahead and second this motion.

    If you are from Austin, you are probably not as cool as you think you are -and if you are then... its in spite of the place.

  13. Movie ref by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Japanese movie that the TARDIS guy mentions is Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005). It's worth tracking down, IMO.