Contact Festival at BC Place Photos: Deadmau5, Nero, Lazy Rich, Alesso, Chris Lake

Comments 1 by Rebecca Bollwitt

12,000 people packed the floor of BC Place last night for CONTACT Festival — the largest electronic dance concert to hit Western Canada. With DJs Chris Lake and Alesso, Lazy Rich, Nero, and Deadmau5 Unhooked (sans his signature mau5 head). John Biehler was there to snap photos of all the multi-coloured glowstick action for Miss604.

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012 Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012 Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012 Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012 Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

Contact Winter Music Festival 2012

View more of John Biehler‘s photos in his set on Flickr.

What is 3D Printing?

Comments 2 by John Biehler

Guest contributor John Biehler shares some insights about 3d printing — one of the biggest technology stories to develop over the last year — and the local 3d604 group.

You’ve probably heard about 3d printing recently in the news. Every week there seems to be another story or segment about it. But what actually is 3d printing?

Basalt Pencil Holder

Also known as additive manufacturing, 3d printing is the technique of creating physical objects from digital models.

Yoda

Think of it as a hot glue gun that moves. Replace the glue with a plastic material and you have the basic premise. It moves via a system of motors and gears that typically move along rails or rods up, down, left or right.

Printed filament spool holder installed on the Thing-O-MaticThe object is made by ‘drawing’ with the melting plastic, one layer at a time. Once a complete layer has been ‘drawn’, the platform moves down and then the next layer is drawn on top of the previous one, building something out of nothing. Each layer can be as small as 100 microns (0.1 of a millimeter) – sometimes even smaller.

Hobbyist 3d printers use a plastic filament, not unlike (although quite different than) what you see on the bottom of a weed whacker. It is either ABS or PLA plastic. ABS is the same type of plastic used for LEGOs. PLA is a corn starch based plastic that is biodegradable. Industrial machines are capable of using metals, resins, ceramics and even organic material to print with.

I first got into 3d printing a couple of years ago after hearing about what MakerBot was developing and eventually bought my first kit. You had to assemble the printer yourself and it took me about 20 hours of soldering, wiring and a ton of nuts and bolts to do so.

Thing-O-Matic mechanical build nearly complete

Since then, I’ve added to my collection of 3d printers (I’m now up to 3) including my recent purchase of a MakerBot Replicator 2 which now comes fully assembled.

Big <3 gear

I’ve made everything from toys and gifts to custom camera mounts for helicopters and electronics enclosures with my 3d printers. I’ve even printed the parts for other 3d printers on my 3d printer – you can make about 60-70% of a 3d printer from plastic parts. You still need to add motors, bolts, screws, electronics, etc.

Companion Cube box

My Christmas tree for the last couple of years has had almost entirely 3d printed ornaments on it.

My Christmas tree wins #starwars

We can also use an Xbox Kinect as a 3d scanner to scan people and 3d print them.

When I first started out, I didn’t know anyone else locally that was doing 3d printing. I eventually found some people who were building their own printers and we eventually formed a 3d printing club (called 3D604.org) that has grown to over 50 members locally. We typically meet twice a month to talk about our printers, show off our latest projects and occasionally have build days where we work on getting someone’s printer up and running. We also regularly bring our printers out to special events to showcase the technology. We had 17 printers going at this year’s MakerFaire at the PNE in the summer.

If you’d like to know more about 3d printing, check out our Google Group which has our upcoming meeting dates and times. We typically meet at a restaurant in Langley as we have members from Chilliwack to North Vancouver and it’s reasonably central and transit accessible (a few even carpool to the meetings). We welcome new members and you don’t have to have a printer to be a member…we’ll answer any questions you have about choosing a printer for yourself or can arrange to print your 3d objects if you’d like. I also have an extensive set of posts about my adventures in 3d printing over at my blog as well.

Vancouver Polar Bear Swim 2013

Comments 2 by Rebecca Bollwitt

The Vancouver Polar Bear Swim will have its 93rd run on New Year’s Day, Tuesday, January 1, 2013. This free event is open to the entire community and all those brave enough to splash in the waters of English Bay on the first day of the year.


Peter Pantages & Miss E Robinson in English Bay Dec 1927 – Archives Item #CVA 99-1787

Around the 1950s, the participation was approximately 250 to 300 swimmers, and six lifeguards and one supervisor were used for safety supervision. Today, anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 swimmers participate (record to-date 2,246 in 2011) and 5,000 to 10,000 spectators making it necessary for the Park Board to construct a fenced enclosure for the swimmers. – Vancouver Polar Bear Club

2012 Vancouver Polar Bear Swim-05.jpg
Photo credit 2012: wukevinc on Flickr

Arrive by 12:30pm to register as a Vancouver Polar Bear Swim Club member and receive your badge — and the chance to win prizes. You may also register by clipping out the coupon in The Province and presenting it at the registration desk. The swim will then begin at 2:30pm, setting out from the beach in front of the bath house at English Bay.

Polar Bear Swim, 2010
Photo credit: popejon2

Wear a costumes and compete in the Peter Pantages Memorial 100 yard swim race or just come out to watch and enjoy the fun. Donations of non-perishable food or cash are accepted by the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.

Virgin Mobile Canada RE*Generation Phone Giveaway

Comments 222 by Rebecca Bollwitt

This holiday season Virgin Mobile Canada’s RE*Generation is doing some good as they raise $200,000 for at-risk and homeless youth programs in Canada. For a limited time you can purchase a special Virgin Mobile Canada RE*Generation Samsung Galaxy Ace II x and $15 from the sale of the phone will go directly to the Virgin Unite RE*Generation movement.

In Vancouver, the RE*Generation movement has already shown its commitment with helping the Broadway Youth Resource Centre and also Project Limelight, including backing from serious star power: Sir Richard Branson, Vancouver actor and Glee star Cory Monteith, and Bedouin Soundclash.

To promote the movement and this fantastic phone deal that supports local causes, Virgin Mobile Canada has offered up a Samsung Galaxy Ace II x for one lucky Miss604 reader (value $199 CAD). This Android (4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) smart phone has a 4.0″ WVGA full touchscreen, 5 MP camera, Samsung TouchWiz for Android, and the added bonus of $15 going to RE*Generation supporting at-risk youth programs — right here in BC.

Here’s how you can enter to win:

  • Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
  • Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
RT to enter to win a Samsung smartphone supporting @VirginUnite RE*Generation from @VirginMobileCan & @Miss604 http://ow.ly/gjqop

For more information, follow Virgin Mobile and Virgin Unite on Twitter. I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Friday, December 28, 2012.

Update The winner is @kateelizasloan!

Archives Photos of the Day: Snow

Comments 2 by Rebecca Bollwitt

Snow has been the topic of conversation across the continent over the last few days and heading from Vancouver to the Midwest in the middle of a blizzard makes me appreciate our rainy weather just a little bit more. Despite the traffic snarls and transit interruptions, the snow can in fact be a whole lot of fun — especially during the holidays. I found a few flake-filled photos from the Vancouver Public Library archives that demonstrate just that.


1889 – East side of the 100 block Carrall Street.
VPL Accession Number: 13232. Photographer / Studio: Bailey Bros.


1904 – City hall and Carnegie Library (Hastings at Main).
VPL Accession Number: 3432. Photographer / Studio: Philip Timms.


1909 – Streetcars in the snow (Granville looking south from Dunsmuir).
VPL Accession Number: 7136. Photographer / Studio: Philip Timms.


1908 – West Hastings from Granville.
VPL Accession Number: 7205. Photographer / Studio: Philip Timms.


1900s – Georgia Street in the snow.
VPL Accession Number: 2452. Photographer / Studio: Philip Timms.


1910s – 900 block of Granville in the snow.
VPL Accession Number: 18488. Photographer / Studio: Harold Smith.


1916 – Granville Street covered in snow.
VPL Accession Number: 8303. Photographer / Studio: Philip Timms.


1954 – BC Electric buses at Pender and Seymour in the snow.
VPL Accession Number: 82437. Photographer / Studio: Artray.


1950 – Stanley Park, snow being swept from frozen Lost Lagoon.
VPL Accession Number: 81138. Photographer / Studio: Artray


1971 – Snow storm Downtown.
VPL Accession Number: 9600E. Photographer / Studio: W Roozeboom.


1971 – Snow storm Downtown.
VPL Accession Number: 9600O. Photographer / Studio: W Roozeboom.