[Noisebridge-discuss] more free junk!

[Michael Shiloh]

I appreciate all these kind words. I'm happy if my approach to 
responsible donation might be used as a model for others.

I too have to manage my space responsibly, and it's awfully difficult to 
balance our need for raw materials ("To be an inventor, you need 
creativity and a big box of junk") and our need for work space. I can 
certainly understand an initial suspicion when faced with yet more 
"donations".

I fully understand your feelings at the time, and accept your apology 
and I do accept and "understand that it wasn't with any ill intent or hate".

That said, I don't think it was your comment that I heard!

But this outpouring of kind words has more than made up for it. As I 
mentioned to someone in a private conversation, sometimes being heard is 
  more important than the apology itself. I certainly feel heard, and 
appreciated, and all is good. Group hug, and I will continue responsibly 
offering treasures to Noisebridge, as I run across them.

I should explain this explicitly, as perhaps some of you might not be 
aware of this: I am head of the Kinetics and Electronics department at 
The Crucible. We get many donations that are fascinating, but unsuitable 
for our needs. This is my primary source that I offer to Noisebridge.

On the other hand, my classes, and especially my youth classes, have an 
unending appetite for electromechanical devices to take apart, to 
salvage motors, mechanisms, sensors, plastic or metal bits, circuit 
boards, and other parts, and simply to delight in the act of taking 
apart. For this, I am happy to accept donations of all unneeded or 
broken electrical or electronic devices, except for CRT monitors or TVs, 
and microwave ovens. I prefer not to waste gas or time driving around 
town picking up an item here and there, but if suitable timing and 
location objectives can be met, I'm happy to pick stuff up. Of course 
donations delivered to The Crucible, my home (in SF) or my workshop (The 
Shipyard in Berkeley) are great.

Enough! Back to hacking, everyone!

M



Rubin Abdi wrote:
> Hi Michael.
> 
> After the last truck load of e-waste was picked through and hauled off 
> last night, I was pretty happy to think that what was left over was more 
> or less the cream of the crop (though it was a very small percentage 
> left over) and that I wouldn't have to spend more time picking through 
> piles and piles of junk at Noisebridge then actually hacking on some 
> sort of hardware I found.
> 
> Sorting through dozens of broken optical drives to locate 1 functional 
> DVD burner is very counter productive and sometimes so intimidating that 
> giving up and buying my needed supplies seems simpler. My thoughts were 
> that now we've (mostly) reset the hack pile and have gotten an 
> understand of the difference between "oh this stuff is totally hackable 
> someone will eventually hack on it" and "no one will most likely waste 
> their time on fixing this" members and guests will be a little bit more 
> cautious about what things may or may not be useful to the group. And I 
> feel now that we've got an "exit plan" for anything we don't want 
> through e-waste pickup, it'll be easier for folks to look at something, 
> decide that it possibly shouldn't have come into the space in the first 
> place and toss it into the e-waste pile to be picked up in a month or 
> taken to someone's home.
> 
> Michael Shiloh wrote, On 2009/10/03 12:12:
>> I've been carefully sorting out the tons of stuff that pass through my
>> hands, selecting items that I'm pretty sure will be useful, and in all
>> cases, asking via email first if anyone wants these items.
>>
>> In addition, I always state in my email that if there is anything left
>> over after everyone has picked over the collection, I will take
>> responsibility for  recycling and/or disposing of these items. I fully
>> understand how a place like NB could easily become a dumping ground for
>> everyone's unwanted items, and I have no intention of using NB as such.
> 
> I just want to thank you for having the attitude that you have towards 
> donating items and that it means a lot to me that you feel it's your 
> responsibility to make sure what you do donate gets used in some sort of 
> way and doesn't eventually turn into cruft. I hope more and more members 
> adopt this way of thinking when they plan to donate things to the space.
> 
> I also wanted to apologize to you for the comment I did make to Zedd 
> when I saw him place more pc towers in the e-waste pile that's sitting 
> in the elevator room. After picking through, sorting out, and moving 
> donated items that we've had in the space for almost a year and finally 
> having it get hauled off, being completely drained from the past two 
> months of build out, getting to be extremely flustered with the 
> unexcellent attitued folks have been sharing on and off this list, and 
> the fact that I had just allow myself to drink for the night, I let some 
> pretty nasty words fly for a minute. I'm sorry if you found that all 
> offensive and I hope you can understand that it wasn't with any ill 
> intent or hate.
> 
> Again thank you for your donations and sorry for being a dick head at 
> that moment in time. I think you're quite an awesome person for thinking 
> through your donations.
>