I got up around 8 and took a quick run then headed back to the venue.. Many of the hackers had stayed up all night.. thye were making good progress I think . 

we had to do a little teaching on soldering safety after soemone melted through the solderign irons cord with their iron 

the venue was split in half, the other half was a gamign bar.. really a cool place 

Around lunctime.. my dear friend Rafe came by.. It was so great to see him.. it was fun showing him what I did for fun. Rafe is a mathematician (was the head of the math dep at stanford for many years) We had a good time comparing the ways that  math and engineering rech out to younger students. I think there’s much we can learn from the concept of ‘math circles’ that the math community has used for almost 100 years.. its an idea that came out of the soviet unioon for identifying early talent.. 

It was great hanging out with rafe.. we took a walk and got bon-mih and caught up.. he really is one of my oldest and dearest friends. 

then I was back in the grind at the hardware table. the thing I learned most was that I in handing out hardware, I got to hand out hardware advice.. I learned abotu each teams projects from start to finsh. I was so impressed with how much electronics many of these kids knew 

Late night I got out my musical tesla coil and hookediy up to the Vermein project that my freind  Va nan d I created several years ago (http://ibm.biz/veremin) /. that was good fun

at midnight we had a surprise birthday part for one of the kids who was turnign 18.. I played happy birthday on the tesla coil.. we had cake !

I stayed till about 2AM .. and when back to the hotel for sleep
so far so good !

 

nite all. nite sam
-me

Went for a quick hacking run this morning.. taking in soem of downtown san jose’s art.. it was completely empty.. which was strange for a friday morning !

there was a winter carnival and christmas market that was nice to check out 

 

I got to the hackathon venue around 10 and helped the team get set up . my job was to lead the hardware table.. thatr meant giving out hardware. but it was more about giving out electronics help !  Hackers started tricling in throigh out the afternoon.. there were 68 pf them from all over the US. Thias hackathon is being generaously supported by AMD…. hye also supplied the laptops and robots that will be used in the hackathon we so appreciate their support..!!!! 

I really enjoyed meetign the AMD folks.. they were so smart and so helpful !

Aroudn midnight, I put on a santa suit that the guys had bruaght and handed out ice cream !

I stuck aorudn till about 2:30 AM .. then went back to the hotel for about 4 hurs of sleep..

so far, so good !

more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam
_me

Diane and I both took off from BTV this morning. She’s on her way out to Portland, and I’m headding to San Jose for a hackathon and will join her, Gabe. Max and Becky in Portland on sunday. It was streanfe leaving at nearly the same time on differnt planes.. 

I miss her already !

I enjoyed the trip out and got lots done.. it was fun walkign around IAD with soem spare time.. they had soem great exhibits.. I was wearign my blinky santa hat so made lots of freinds as I traveled through the airports -)

Got to san jose in time to meet soem of the hack clubbers for dinner.. I’m really looking forward to this weekend’s hacking !

More from the hackathon !

nite all, nite sam
-me

Today was about cleanign up soem loose ends at work.. and preparing to work remotely for about 2 weeks.. 

as I was walkign aroud, I cane across this book by my freind Bill H on a shelf at BETA. 

Nite all, nite sam
-me