[Noisebridge-discuss] more free junk!

Sat Oct 3 22:19:22 UTC 2009

+1, and thanks.

All of us hackers, not just NB, face exactly the same issues: we all 
have to be willing to accept more than we need, knowing that sometimes 
we get a gem, and often, we have to cart a bunch of useless junk to an 
ewaste facility. We just hope we don't bump in to the person who donated 
the junk on the way out.

Thinking we might need something later is only a small part of the 
reason we hoard. We hoard because we know these items have intrinsic 
value, and that somewhere in the world, possibly on our very own block, 
some geek is working on a project and at 2am will suddenly be blocked 
because he or she lacks the very 0.02 femto floobifier that we have been 
tempted to throw out. And so we keep that floobifier, hoping that we 
will meet this geek, and our pleasure in seeing the floobifier put to 
good use will be rivaled only by the geeks joy in having their project 
continue.

And we hope that geek also has a box of junk, and that some day, at 2am, 
they will have exactly the bizarre item we need, and will share with us.

I know that stepper motors are so common they are almost valueless. I 
know that everyone has a box full of unneeded stepper motors. But 
somehow it seems wrong, immoral really, to throw away something that 
took time and energy and raw materials to create.

It's very much like that old expression "Finish your vegetables. There 
are children starving in China". It's not that your finishing your 
vegetables will make the starving child feel any better, but that it is 
somehow immoral to throw out something that someone else could use.

I can't store my unfinished vegetables until I meet a starving child in 
China*, but I can pretty easily store the stepper motors until one of my 
students needs one.

Until I run out of space. And then the best thing to do is to keep 
passing around those stepper motors, hopefully making it more likely 
that a motor and a person who needs a motor will somehow find out about 
each other.

I heard a wonderful story on the radio the other day. The author read 
from a short story on farming, in which he described how every farm has 
a junk pile. At the end of his reading, an older farmer approached him 
and said "We don't call that a junk pile, we call that _inventory_".

Here's to shared inventory!

Michael

---

* Yes, I know I can give my unfinished vegetables to a homeless person 
on the street, and I do that, but that's not the point. Don't interrupt 
a good rant.

jim wrote:
>    i'm for you and everyone else bringing things that 
> they think have value. 
>    most stuff i assume will be for hacking, and much 
> of the stuff will be unused. 
>    i'm up for helping regularly to take hackable stuff 
> that's been sitting around to the e-waste area near 
> the elevator and even off premises to some kind of 
> dump. i know there are others similarly willing. 
>    to discourage people from bringing stuff to NB is 
> to discourage opportunities for somebody's idea of 
> treasure. i'd rather welcome opportunities and pay 
> the price of weeding out stuff, and i'll put out to 
> help out. 
>    thanks for the stuff. ignore negative assumptions. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, 2009-10-03 at 12:12 -0700, Michael Shiloh wrote:
>> Thanks to the kind help of Peter and other anonymous assistants, all 
>> this stuff is unloaded and safely in NB.
>>
>> I did hear an unpleasant comment on the way: One of the haulers said 
>> "It's all going to end up as junk, so why don't we just throw it out".
>>
>> I resent that.
>>
>> 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 take the time and energy to store all the stuff until there is a big 
>> enough pile, and then load it in my car and bring it over.
>>
>> If this is not wanted, I'll stop doing this. But if anyone finds this 
>> useful, I would appreciate an apology from anyone who thinks this isn't 
>> the case.
>>
>> I don't have the funds to support NB with money, but I have brought over 
>> some pretty useful material donations, I think.
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> Michael Shiloh wrote:
>>> just in time for the ewaste pickup on thursday and the party today, i 
>>> finally loaded up my car with all the stuff i've had collected for you 
>>> at the crucible.
>>>
>>> i'll bring it by saturday late morning, after the party. since this is 
>>> the day after the party, i would like to make sure someone will be 
>>> there. please let me know.
>>>
>>> included are various items that i've corresponded with people about:
>>>
>>> * old tower computers for someone who was more interested in the cases. 
>>> motherboards with parallel ports might be useful for alarm and mill 
>>> projects.
>>>
>>> * old laptops for embedded development
>>>
>>> * bunch of pic and other programmable boards, including i think some 
>>> cheap radio modems
>>>
>>> * motorized mirror disco thing
>>>
>>> * a monitor, if nye wants (let me know today, i could dump it on someone 
>>> else)
>>>
>>> as usual, if none of it is desired, i will pick up the junk and dispose 
>>> of properly
>>>
>>> ok?
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> 