Hong Kong nannies, mostly from the Philippines, have Sunday off. Thousands of nannies gather and setup camp along Central Hong Kong island. Its absolutely one of the coolest things to see on a Sunday afternoon, and a great chance to practice my 4 Pinyo vocabulary words – salamat, oo, hindi, and seget (spelled phonetically).
Category Archives: Global Geek
Out of Shenzhen: Central mid level escalators
In my humble opinion the kilometer long central mid level escalators are the top attraction in Hong Kong. On the way out of Shenzhen we always check in and drop bags at Hong Kong city checking and then head up about half way to Taco Loco for some if the best carnitas tacos anywhere in […]
Shipping goodies from Shenzhen
Checked prices from shippers right in the market yesterday. You can buy stuff and haul it over there piece by piece if you can’t carry it all. You could probably hire someone to cart it too, but hauling treasure through the market is a point of pride. Best rates for FedEx air freight (6 to […]
220 dollar IR reflow oven
Picked up this infrared reflow oven for 1400 rmb, about 200 bucks, in Shenzhen. It isn’t the at923 (or whatever) that shows up on eBay for $300, and lacks the viewing window. Comes highly recommended by Dimitri at SmARtMAKER, and seemed better built than the other one which was available at the stand next door. […]
Test rig pickup
Picked up a generic test rig in Shenzhen to refine and standardize project production testing. Cost was 500 rmb or about 80 bucks. Build to our custom specs and ready overnight.
WORKSHOP VIDEO: Tokyo Hackerspace new Shibuya location tour
Tayken, from the forum and the Akihabara video, takes us on a tour of Tokyo Hackerspace’s new location. The shop was in a frenzy preparing for the Tokyo Maker Faire during our filming.
WORKSHOP VIDEO: Interview with Dimitri from Smartduino
Last week we met with Dimitri, designer of the Smartduino, in Shenzhen, China. Dimitri is a 6 year veteran of the Huaqiangbei electronics wholesale market. He first arrived 6 years ago, and quickly opened his own stand because it seemed like the best way to make deals in the market is to become part of […]
Geek Tour Best FACEFRAME! pictures
Being cultural ambassadors, we always try to spread the best the internet has to offer. On this trip the .:Oomlout:. team brought a ghastly 80s formal photography pose as an alternative to the more traditional peace sign. Yes, it’s FACEFRAME! Here’s but a few of the FACEFRAME! poses we collected on this trip. More FACEFRAME! […]
Shenzhen Hua Qiang Bei market visit report
Our mission to Shenzhen, China was two fold. We wanted to walk and map the huge Huaqiangbei electronics wholesale market. For a more in-depth review of the market check out our previous Global Geek Tour of Shenzhen, China. All our projects are built with parts from this market, understanding it better helps us reduce cost […]
At Tokyu Hands shop in Tokyo
Ian takes a tour of the Tokyu Hands shop during his Tokyo Maker Faire visit. Pictured above are some basic electronic kits and LEDs. More pics below the fold.
Akihabara’s best picks
As promised, here are the pictures of stuff we found cool at Akihabara shops. Even though the prices are a little higher then eBay or TaoBao, Akihabara offers you to touch and feel components you couldn’t online. Similar to Shenzhen’s electronic markets, with the advantage that you don’t have to bargain for everything you buy. […]
Stroll down Akihabara Electric Town
Ian’s visiting Tokyo for this weekend’s Maker Faire. He stopped by Akihabara electric town to check out some goodies. Armed with a Japanese data SIM he was able to tweet live pictures of the stroll. More pictures below the fold.
Global Geek Tour: Visit Tokyo Hackerspace
Visiting Tokyo Hackerspace for a presentation on incorporating in Japan. More pics below the fold.
Shenzhen day 3: The North East quadrant
Today we mapped the most expansive part of Hua Qiang Bei parts market, the quadrant with the famous SEG market building. SEG is the best known, but there are a dozen other buildings too. Most buildings have some combination of cell phones and accessories, but there’s some good parts shops too. Check the pics below […]
Shenzhen day 2: Other stuff
We also mapped the South West quadrant (empty, consumer electronics only), and the North West quadrant (a dozen buildings with 6-7 floors each, including the 6 floor international LED building). Here’s some of our highlights, including: Some sort of passive component pick and place Multiple stores selling only one type of component like zener diodes, […]
Shenzhen day 2: Other stuff
One of our goals on this trip is to map out the main component buildings of Hua Qiang Bei market. Today we explored the South-East quadrant we’ve never noticed before. This part was full of cell phone replacement parts and repair stands. It was much like Manish market in Mumbai India, but Shenzhen-sized. There’s replacement […]
Shenzhen day 2: Meeting with shippers
Today we started off by meeting with Susan at Vita International Freight Company. They gave a great price on air freighting 100kg of stuff back to the workshop (about $3 per KG all in).
Shenzhen day 1: Hua Qiang Bei market
Today we also made our inaugural trip to the big electronics parts markets in Shenzhen. We met up with Mitch from Hackvana who showed us his favorite stands. We’ll shoot an interview with Mitch in a few days. We only had a few hours today, but we’ll be back here all week to source parts for our projects. […]
WORKSHOP VIDEO: rhydoLABZ open hardware tour in Kochi
Our Global Geek Tour of India ends in Kochi where we visit India’s largest open hardware manufacturer rhydoLABZ. Thushar takes us on a tour of the company’s offices and production lines. rhydoLABZ started as distributors for SparkFun and Arduino, but now produce mostly their own custom open hardware designs. They’re currently India’s largest open hardware […]
GEEK TOUR INDIA: Bangalore’s SP Road market, Tenet Technetronics, protoCentral and Cerebra Tech visits
Bangalore was the big event on our Global Geek Tour of India. We check out the SP Road parts market, visit open hardware shops, and drop by a PCB assembly house. We start out at the Jaaga co-work center in central Bangalore, and meet up with 20 readers and forum members. Start-up companies and the […]