Highschool teams from around the world converged in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome for the FIRST world championships this weekend. Teams had to grab “moon rocks” and toss them into trailers being towed by competitors. Some of the most effective teams could dump 20 volley-ball sized “rocks” into the 6ft tall trailers in seconds. FIRST runs robotics competitions for kids in high school and younger (Lego league). It’s a great opportunity to mentor for people involved in engineering companies. One challenge of the competition was finding the “moon rocks”, which Walmart stopped selling after the building season was well under way.
Robotic Marimba Player To Debut In Jazz Piece
in Friday’s Listening Machines concert. The robot generates music on the fly, and has a head that can bob with the beat to give cues to other players. The concert will also feature music generated by solving a rubik’s cube, other algorithmically generated accompaniment and a sound pool installation. 
Shoe-thesizer: WSG in a Converse All-Star
The Shoe-thesizer is another addition to the crazy collection of “cases” for Ray Wilson’s WSG (Weird Sound Generator). The circuit is based on 3 simple schmitt trigger oscillators that modulate and gate each other + a low pass filter. Schmitt trigger oscillators work similarly to 555-based oscillators by snapping back and forth as a cap charges and discharges through a resistor. Just three components and you’re oscillating.
Another example (Kipp Wieland): 
Stribe in Blue
MachineCollective.org installed some blue LEDs in a Stribe1, and is also making a custom casing. Check out other pics and videos at his flickr photo stream of the Stribe1 build. He’s another monome / arduinome case maker, and his cases are gorgeous.
VoS / Stribe demos at Dorkbot
Travis and I will be demoing some toys at the next Atlanta Dorkbot, which will be held at WonderRoot (directions). Travis is bringing the Voice of Saturn line and I’ll have some stribes and an arduinome. Also, Beth Milliken will talk about Freeside, a new Atlanta based non-profit Hackerspace – encouraging collaboration and innovation across hardware and software disciplines.