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Our friendly journalist Gareth Halfacree recently attended the Manchester MakeFest on our behalf, talking to the thronging crowds find out what's hot in the maker world at the minute. This series of Focus On features takes a look at some of the event's exhibitors, finding out what they're up to and what makes them tick. As one of the first workshops you find as you walk into the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry's MakeFest event, it's little surprise to see Hackspace Manchester - Hacman, as indicated by the use of a Pacman-style character as the group's logo - drawing...

Our friendly journalist Gareth Halfacree recently attended the Manchester MakeFest on our behalf, talking to the thronging crowds find out what's hot in the maker world at the minute. This series of Focus On features takes a look at some of the event's exhibitors, finding out what they're up to and what makes them tick.A headlining feature of the Manchester MakeFest, Amazeballs takes up a stand all by itself - and with good reason. A complex modular marble run, featuring shiny silver ball-bearings constantly whizzing through its varied chambers, Amazeballs is representative of what the maker community can do when...

Our friendly journalist Gareth Halfacree recently attended the Manchester MakeFest on our behalf, talking to the thronging crowds find out what's hot in the maker world at the minute. This series of Focus On features takes a look at some of the event's exhibitors, finding out what they're up to and what makes them tick."Shall we electrocute you while we wait?" It's an unusual question, but the Noisy Toys crew is made up of an unusual bunch. While waiting for organisation founder Steve Summers to arrive, 'Chantelle' and 'Doctor Norbert Umpty' - nomme-de-laboratoires of his companions in sound - are eager...

We're big fans of Wuthering Bytes, the only technology festival to take place in the heart of the Pennines, and this year's promises to be bigger and better than ever before. The brainchild of local makers Andrew Back and Tim Harbour, Wuthering Bytes combines the Open Source Hardware User Group (OSHUG) annual conference and workshops with a more open festival day, and this year comes with four more days added to an already impressive schedule. A conference on starting an open source business, hosted by the British Computer Society (BSC) Open Source Specialist Group, takes place on Monday the 28th...

This past weekend saw Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) host its first MakeFest, an event its organisers explain is only spiritually connected to the Liverpool MakeFest we recently attended. "It was a bit of a happy coincidence, really. We just both come up with MakeFest as a name," explains Susannah Williams, MOSI's contemporary science event manager and one of the team responsible for organising the event, in the bustling entry hall of the museum. "We have got a lot of makers who have been to Liverpool MakeFest as well, you know, they all go around the same sort...