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Scenes from the Fort Wayne Regional Maker Faire (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the industry-is-what-made-our-country-great dept.

Slashdot visited Fort Wayne, Indiana, during its 2013 Maker Faire. We brought back videos of R2D2 model makers in all their bleeping glory, Mad Sasquatch Rocketry launching rockets, and functioning home-made jet engines, which no Maker Faire should be without. Since Fort Wayne has a strong industrial history, it is not surprising that this Maker Faire had more industrial-scale exhibits than most maker-type events Slashdot has attended. The noise level in much of the event area was industrial scale, too, which is why this video sounds the way it does. But we love large, noisy machinery, not just computers so quiet you can't hear their fans (if, indeed, they *have* fans), so we're happy to enjoy some good Industrial Sound and check out some of Mark Phenicie's steampunk creations now and then.

16 comments

  1. As a hoosier by Karl+Cocknozzle · · Score: 1

    I have to ask: How'd you handle the bleakness of actually being in Fort Wayne? There are as many strip clubs as there are Starbucks. Which brings the "talent" in those strip clubs down to the appearance level of your average 40+ Starbucks barista.

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    Who did what now?
    1. Re:As a hoosier by aitikin · · Score: 1

      As someone who lives in Fort Wayne...Why!? And yes, you're right, there are way too many strip clubs with A squads that look like C squads...

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      "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
    2. Re:As a hoosier by slaker · · Score: 1

      My current roommate just moved from Fort Wayne and is in fact a stripper. There are 11 clubs there and girls - even the ones who know what they're doing, can't possibly make decent money just because of oversupply. I have no idea how that place supports so damned many.
      (And for the record: She's cute and can dance but her teeth are awful. She talks about braces the way other dancers talk about boob jobs)

      I also had no idea that anything even remotely geeky happened in Indiana, let alone in Fort Wayne. This place is a sucking vortex of sister fucking and bible thumping and if some form of nuclear device were detonated over the state I daresay it would make the world a better place.

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      -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
    3. Re:As a hoosier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing geeky in Fort Wayne? What about your mom's face?

    4. Re:As a hoosier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also had no idea that anything even remotely geeky happened in Indiana

      Internet2. GenCon. ComicCon. A StarWars con (once). Purdue. Indianapolis. Bloomington. You live here and you don't know these things?

    5. Re:As a hoosier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Indiana has a generous supply of geeks. We also have Gencon, for what it's worth. The problem is that ordinarily our geeks don't do anything interesting.

      The only reason that southern cultural transplants get so much time in the spotlight here (and it galls me every time I see a Confederate flag in my state - we were not part of the Confederacy, we were not a border state, and the state of Indiana supplied far too many lives to help ensure Confederate defeat to permit that kind of disrespect here) is because they are the only ones talking and organizing in the open. I would say that the thumping of bibles has drowned out all other noise, but there's simply no other noise to drown out - I would say that they're rewriting our culture, erasing it and replacing it with their own, but if you didn't know any better you'd think the slate was blank to start with. By and large, Hoosiers have convinced themselves that this is the heart of flyover country, that there's nothing good here, and Indiana's intelligentsia (yes, it does exist, and it complains of boredom incessantly while doing nothing to remedy it) refuses to promote itself. We also fail as a state to promote the many attractions that we do have, sporting events aside. Most people who have lived in this state their whole lives don't even know that we have a beach. The Dunes are fantastic, by the way, and there's more like it just a ways north into Michigan. Brown County is also looking very nice this time of year, and just recently I went to Spring Mill and the Grissom Memorial situated nearby. (The Molly Brown capsule is on display inside.)

      Get away from the suburbs for a while. If you're bored you're probably not looking hard enough. Nobody is going to entertain you, here or elsewhere.

    6. Re:As a hoosier by slaker · · Score: 1

      My degree is from Purdue and I stand by my assessment. Including the part about the nuke.

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      -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
    7. Re:As a hoosier by slaker · · Score: 1

      I could walk in to the Dunes National Park in something under five minutes from where I'm sitting right now. It's very pretty here. That does not solve the problem of the people who live here, the anti-intellectual regressives who run the state or their steadfast determination to never let anything get any better. College educated people by and large leave and it's for very good reason. This is a terrible place and it is devoid of worth.

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      -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
    8. Re:As a hoosier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      College educated people leave Indiana in search of work. Here lately, and I'd know from my ties to the real estate business, they've also been returning, again due to economics. It has very little to do with the reactionary disease that has been spreading throughout the upper Midwest, the so-called southernization taking place here. It has plenty to do with our industrial decline, which is indeed a problem. Things are far from perfect here, and in particular we've been paying for our over-reliance on the likes of General Motors to supply Hoosiers with work for decades. There again, so has much of the nation.

      However, I have the sneaking suspicion that a person like yourself - and I've known plenty of them - probably won't be satisfied anywhere, particularly if a requirement for you to secure happiness is to be surrounded at all times by people that agree with your politics. But, if you would kindly take your sneering attitude with you to a place that better deserves it, perhaps Missouri or Tennessee, you will have succeeded in improving the state for the rest of us. We have a surplus of boring whiners, and it's your attitude, not this state, that is devoid of worth.

  2. It's not so bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I live in Fort Wayne, and actually like it. Considering the incredibly low cost of living it actually makes for a decent place to live. Rent a decent apartment for $400 a month in a nice part of town and eat out in restaurants and get out the door for $10 per person is hard to beat, especially considering the jobs situation here is incredibly solid (heavy focus on defense, healthcare and education) and pretty resilient to recessions.

  3. Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, party on, excellent! by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you're going to spell "fair" in a twatassical way, at least go the whole hog: "fayre".

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Re:+5 Insightful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who the hell modded this comment insightful?

    The happy gay fairies of course.

  5. Hate on Fort Wayne all you want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just bought a four bedroom, three bath house on a full basement that's less than 15 years old for less than $150k. Its also in the most desirable end of town with the best schools. I can't think of anywhere else in the world I could get a six figure job and get that.