Fabrication

SAN MATEO, Calif.--"They're putting Josh in the cage!"

It was early this afternoon, and a group of school kids were excitedly screaming those words over and over. And it was true. A kid called Josh was being put inside a cage that was part of a performance by a group called Arc Attack. Soon, the cage would be bombarded with electricity from two of Arc Attack's signing Tesla coils. No Joshes would be harmed in this experiment. But an awful lot of grinning would be done.

This is Maker Faire. Well, almost. The famous DIY festival begins in earnest tomorrow morning, and over the course of the weekend, in excess of 100,000 people may well get themselves to the San Mateo County Event Center here to see countless examples of do-it-yourself robotics; 3D printing; steampunk kinetic sculptures; and much, much more.

But today was setup day, the day the thousands of so-called "makers" arrive, drop their gear, and start building the projects they'll show the tens of thousands of visitors over the next two days. Being at Maker Faire on setup day is both a treat--it's always great to see the process behind something as cool as Maker Faire, and it's nice not to have to compete with 50,000 people to see something--and a curse: Only about half the projects are finished.

One thing that's definitely cool about being on hand for setup day is that each and every time you return to a specific spot, there's more there than there was the last time you went by. Even if that was just 30 minutes ago. A steady stream of trucks, vans, cars, and other conveyances arrive, and with them, the festival comes to life.

Maker Faire started here in 2006, and is now a worldwide phenomenon. From 20,000 visitors that first year to 80,000-plus last year, attendance figures are now expected to hit six figures. At the same time, the festival has planted its flag in other cities, such as Austin and New York. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Starting this Memorial Day, drivers heading east across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will encounter a detour that radically changes patterns developed over many years. But now they have an iPad or iPhone app with which they can practice the new route.

At a briefing today held at the Autodesk Gallery here, the institutions running the construction of the new eastern span of one of the busiest bridges in the world--CalTrans, the Bay Area Toll Authority, and the California Transportation Authority--unveiled Bay Bridge Explorer, an iOS app that lets people "drive" the detour as a way of … Read more

SAUSALITO, Calif.--Here in Marin, a county forward-thinking enough that it commissioned a world-class civic center by Frank Lloyd Wright, it should come as no surprise that many homes are truly stunning and would be envied the world over.

And the envy will probably be especially strong for those who fork over $150 to visit 10 multimillion dollar masterpieces throughout Marin, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, on April 30 and May 1. Dwell magazine, in conjunction with Marin magazine, is hosting the Home Tours. But as part of my Road Trip at Home series, I got a chance to visit four of the residences before the tours take place.

The four homes I toured provided a terrific cross-section of the best Marin has to offer: a Tiburon hilltop cacophony of windows featuring world-beating views of Marin, the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and Berkeley and Oakland; a spare but impressive floating home in the middle of one of Sausalito's best houseboat communities; a "Bridge House" that imaginatively spans a small valley and a river below; and a home at the top of a hill in a tree-studded and quiet neighborhood that emphasizes the beauty and grandeur of the outdoors throughout its modern interior.

As the home tour's official brochure puts it, these houses are "pushing residential architecture forward in Marin County... Discover the houses that are bringing the outdoors in, realizing dreams, and defining what modern design means."

Gate 5 House For years, one of my favorite things to do in Sausalito has been to go walking on the houseboat docks. And while there are several of them clustered together in a small area on the north end of town, I've long favored one specific dock for its quiet, the lush plants that residents grow outside, the many cats that wander peacefully along the wooden planks, and the whimsical art found up and down the dock.

So I was very happy when I discovered that the one houseboat included in the home tour is not only on my favorite dock, but is located right at my favorite part of the dock.

This is owner-architect David Spurgeon's Gate 5 House. Unassuming from the outside, inside it's a study in maximizing minimal space. After all, this is a house with two wide-open floors and no other rooms, save for a couple of bathrooms and a closet-cum-bunk-bed. Yet it features a fantastic gourmet kitchen, views to die for of Southern Marin's Richardson Bay, a boat of its own that allows Spurgeon to set sail for just about anywhere he wants to go, and much more.

Spurgeon, who works in Sausalito as an architect, started out by buying the aging tugboat that previously filled his slip and turning it over to the local fire department, which in turn moved it nearby and used it to set test fires. Once the slip was empty, Spurgeon began building his new home by hand in 2002, completing it three years later. "I built everything you see," he told me proudly.

The house is designed to be comfortable in all seasons. When it's warm, Spurgeon can open the wide doors that lead from the main upstairs space to a deck that looks out over the water. When it's cold, he keeps the doors closed, trapping heat inside. Spurgeon touts the house's green credentials: it has radiant heat in the floors, and bamboo flooring, low-E glass, steel siding, and manufactured lumber from new-growth wood.

The house also uses space wisely. In the lower level, Spurgeon installed closets that open both into his bedroom area and into the bunk bed room. The bunk is built on top of the closet, which is located at floor level. I thought using the closet would require stooping down, but that wasn't the case.

In the bathroom, Spurgeon displays more creative use of materials. For his fixtures here, he employed food service equipment, including a kettle caddy for the main plumbing. It feels industrial, but looks just right.

I asked Spurgeon something I've always wanted to know about the houseboats: Don't they suffer from mold, since they're smack dab in the middle of an extremely wet environment? The only corrosive he worries about, he said, is the salt from the bay water that can attack the wood and metal of the boat.

But it doesn't look like he has much trouble with that, and when I asked him if he likes living here, he glowed. "Basically, you never really lose the connection to the outside," Spurgeon said, touting the seals that show up outside from time to time and the "pelicans that come in like marauding bombers" about 6 inches off the surface of the water. "It's an absolute cacophony of stuff with all the doors open... I love it here. I always feel like I'm camping out."

And if camping means cooking in a gourmet kitchen, sign me up. … Read more

If you're walking the streets of Houston this week and happen upon a group of very strange, oddly-shaped vehicles, there's a good chance you'll have wandered into the future of efficient cars.

From April 14 to 17, Shell is hosting the Eco-Marathon, a competition that tasks high school and college students with designing, building, and testing highly energy-efficient vehicles.

And the goal that every team that entered the Eco-Marathon is out to achieve this year? To beat last year's winning team, from Laval University in Quebec, Canada, which built a car that gets 2,487.5 … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Every day around 10 a.m., the five employees of YourVersion show up for work. Since hackers tend not to be early risers, their favorite workspace is usually still available.

As a former TechCrunch 50 People's Choice winner, you'd think that the company would be well ensconced in plush Silicon Valley offices. But YourVersion, a personalized content aggregation service, is into "extreme bootstrapping," said its CEO Dan Olsen. So rather than blow thousands of dollars each month on rent, he and his team gather here each morning in a funky industrial building with … Read more

OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT--As a big fan of airplanes, and plane travel, I'm excited to be sitting in the terminal here, waiting for my flight to Seattle. That's because starting tomorrow, I'll be covering three days of Boeing events, highlighted by the unveiling of the aviation giant's long-awaited 747-8 Intercontinental.

The next-generation of Boeing's iconic jumbo jet--probably the most famous airplane in history--is said to be highly efficient.

As Boeing puts it on its Web site:

The 747-8 Intercontinental is the only jetliner in the 400- to 500-seat market, stretched [18.3 ft] from the 747-400 … Read more

commentary It's been eight years in the making so far, and has gone through any number of delays and problems, but Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is still one of the most-anticipated commercial airplanes in history. And with the plane's testing program under way for almost exactly a year, it is edging closer and closer to carrying its first passengers.

Now, fans of the innovative plane--it is made from 50 percent composite material and is expected to offer carriers up to 20 percent savings on fuel--can get a fix unlike any offered before. With Edgar Turner's new book, &… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Since the famous "Fail Whale" is known for signifying that Twitter is down, it might surprise you to know that there are a lot of people out there who appreciate seeing it.

"People are actually looking forward to [Twitter] downtime," said Yiying Lu, the artist who created what came to be known as the Fail Whale. "I'm [always getting] tweets from people telling me it makes them happy" to see the whimsical image of a whale being hauled out of the water by a group of small birds.

Lu may be best … Read more

GRATON, Calif.--As most people know, a major reason for the current housing meltdown was millions of people buying homes far bigger than they needed, let alone could afford. To Jay Shafer, the answer is tiny.

Shafer is the creator of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, a company based in this, yes, tiny town about an hour north of San Francisco, that designs and sells very, very small homes.

How small? Tiny Houses' most petite model, the XS-House, is just 65 square feet. Yet, while you might expect to find little more than a rabbit warren inside, what you actually experience when … Read more