Red Bull Stratos

Best of luck to the Stratos team hoping to break the freefall skydiving record today

Pat Falvey - Motivational Speaker addresses Students of Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology

Today, I ditches class rep training (would have been my 4th time doing it) and class to attend a talk with Pat Falvey, self made Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker, Leader, Adventurer, Explorer, Team trainer, Environmentalist, Author, Photographer and Film producer. Before you read (and listen) on, I apologise for the sub-standard sound, I recorded this using a Dictaphone app on my Galaxy S1. The lecture halls speakers caused the echo and it is a little glitchy at times

Large meteor over Ireland

21.09.2012 - reports from dublin to galway of a large fireball crossing the sky. The first pictures of a meteor breaking up at 42 kilometers per second  in the atmosphere, trailing debris over Ireland emerged on twitter.

I wonder if anyone will find a meteorite ($¥€£)

First day on the new job

For fuck sake!!

Irish EVE ONLINE fan run Fanfest Event

Who: Calling all Irish EVE ONLINE and DUST514 Players!!!

What: Eve meet up in Galway, Fleet, pizza, taxi and club (for those who want it) and then DrunkFleet! Hopefully have some PS3's on the side for some DUST514

Where: 091 Labs Hackerspace in Galway will have moved into its new larger venue by October, so with bigger space, more power and hopefully good bandwidth (you know... the size of the hole in which the internet comes through to allow your internet machine to internet?)

When: Soon™

Why: not?

I will be approaching CCP, HP, DELL, SONY and a bunch of others for support, sponsorship and prizes

Useful links:
Discussions on this event
091 Labs

091 Labs @ Makerfaire Dublin

Dublin’s first (of hopefully many) Mini-Makerfaire was held last month on July the 14th in conjunction with the “Hack the City” event hosted by the Science Gallery. 091 Labs made an appearance alongside other Irish and UK Hackerspaces, TOG and Build Brighton.

Eight of us made the trip from Galway late Friday evening after some hastily “hacking” together travel and accommodation plans so we would be strategically poised for an early start on Saturday morning and not travel-lagged.

We were blessed with a great day that didn’t deter the enthusiastic and energetic crowd from converging on the Faire and the Science Gallery. I believe the final figure of attendees was in the region of 5,500 peeps!

091 Labs showed off some of our current projects including Alana’s custom made Model Train control unit, a cider homebrew, my Aeroquad QuadRotor (which I got permission to fly from the Irish Aviation Authority at the event but no thanks to Customs and Revenue, didn’t have a battery for it – http://tinyurl.com/d7sbsc6), Padraic and Carles’ “Labs-On, Labs-Off” status system [and Android app - P.], Oisin’s photoresistor-based theremin and others.

Among the projects on display at Makerfaire there was an impressive amount of hacking. There were 3D Printers, laser cutters, homemade submarines as well as etching and soldering classes.

The highlight of my day was meeting an 80 odd year old lady who was learning about coding and circuit construction using the Arduino Uno! Never too late eh?

Big thanks from all of us in 091 Labs to the organisers for Dublin Makerfaire. They did a great job and we had a brilliant time up at it.

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, dies

US astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, has died at the age of 82.

His family says he died from complications from heart surgery he had earlier this month.

He walked on the Moon on 20 July 1969, famously describing the event as "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind".

Last November Armstrong received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian award.

He was the commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft. He and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon.

'Reluctant hero'

Armstrong, who was raised in Ohio, took his first flight aged six with his father and formed a lifelong passion for flying.

He flew Navy fighter jets during the Korean War in the 1950s, and joined the US space programme in 1962.

Correspondents say Armstrong remained modest and never allowed himself to be caught up in the glamour of space exploration.

"I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer," he said in February 2000, in a rare public appearance.

In a statement, his family praised him as a "reluctant American hero"who had "served his nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut".

Source