[Noisebridge-discuss] second draft of Signal to Noise

Danny O'Brien danny at spesh.com
Sat Jan 8 04:29:23 UTC 2011


Doh! It always helps to INCLUDE THE ATTACHMENT


Subject: Signal To Noise 2011-01-07 #1

   .-'`-.     Signal To Noise V11.01(Beta)-rc7
   z    !/|
   z    !\|   the international journal
   `-'`-      of the noisebridge hackerspace

In this issue:
> NOISEBRIDGE SAVED FROM REPO BOTS
> THEY CAME FOR OUR TEA ROOM
> HEART SPARKS AND TRON GUYS
> SHOW US YOUR NEURALS
> HUMAN OF NOISEBRIDGE OF FORTNIGHT:
> Meredith Scheff-King is ALL SCARF, ALL THE TIME

sub/unsub:      http://nburl.net/nbannounce
send your news: just hit "reply"

>>> NEWS: NB NO LONGER DIVIDING BY ZERO

This February, Noisebridge will not disappear in a white hole of
debt, anguish and sheet rock dust. You all stepped up, and in a few
weeks we went from having little cartoon flies buzzing out of the
cartoon wallet to blowing past our canonical hackerspace float of
three months costs in advance ($15K). In December, we took $4,360 in
dues, and $5,675.60 in extra donations. Compare that to say, September,
when we only recorded $365 in extra donations.

Noisebridge has historically paid its bills with about 2/3rds from
our relatively stable membership dues, and the rest from casual
donations. We're mostly fixed the overdue dues problem thanks to
Kelly's excellent financial forensics, but Noisebridge is still prone
to economic boom-bust on the rand()*(donations) front.

A lot of you drop a few bucks in the box when you come by, and thank
you, you're awesome. But just as you don't have to a member of
Noisebridge to use the space for whatever, you don't have to be a
full member to make a pre-programmed regular donation. Turn those few
bucks into a monthly electronic payment of just $10 or $20, and
you'll always have a Gentlemen And Ladies Space Within Which To Hack.
Plus less of this irregular NPR-style pledge-drive spazzing. Go on!
Do it! IT'S JUST MONEY. YOU'D ONLY WASTE IT ON OIL:
http://nburl.net/autopay

Mfb broke into our PayPal account and wrote a script at it:
http://cha-ching.noisebridge.net/

$10 dude! You pay more than that in dropbox or Ritual or watercress or
something:
http://nburl.net/tendollars

Thanks uptown guys, living on your uptown pies:
http://uptownalmanac.com/2011/01/update-noisebridge-raises-hella-cash-staying-open

>>> HACKING

ULTRASTRUCTURE

         Noisebridge's Scanning Electron Microscope is getting better
         every day: Mike and Andy got it working up to 20,000x.
         Schematics and pics uploaded to:
         http://nburl.net/microscope

         THE TEA ROOM is no more! Zed and Shannon went on a
         stairs-constructing rampage and constructed a space you can
         walk up to, on your legs. It still works for tea drinking.

         OMG Nick bought a VENDING MACHINE. The compressor is
         putting the "noise" back into Noisebridge, but we are
         working on that. Service manual, baud rates at:
         http://nburl.net/vend

         That BUILD-OUT MESS by the touch-panel was magicked away
         into the Even Darker Room (aka the Scott Memorial Storage
         Room). The ADA BATHROOM got grab-bars c/o Miloh.
         http://nburl.net/map

ELLIPTICALLY ORBITING PROJECTS

         Eric and Chung-Hay of Sensebridge launched their HEART SPARK
         heatbeat-sensitive necklace to universal Internets acclaim!
         Eric's in Toronto now, hanging out with our hacklab.to
         sisters, but C-H is still about, and working on new
         projects, including a heartbeat scarf. Scarfs are cool.
         http://sensebridge.net/projects/heart-spark/
         http://bunnymeetsbean.blogspot.com/

         MC Hawking, the wheelchair robot, now has an embedded PC for
         a brain, and is possibly conspiring with our IRC noisebot.
         He is unmetaphorically deadly so do not stand too close.
         Jake "No, the One With Dreadlocks" is the keeper.
         https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noise-Bot

         Sean made a Tron suit out of 190 proper LEDs and not boring
         EL wire like you thought. He's like Tron Guy : Legacy!
         http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-lit-Tron-v20-suit/
         (From the Cyborg list: http://nburl.net/cyborg-l )

   <<< Want to let us know what you do and what you want from Noisebridge?
   <<< Take the 5 minute Noisepoll now! http://j.mp/noisepoll

>>> INCOMING

All the usual suspects at https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Category:Eventsplus:

> Show and Tell!
Every Tuesday, 7.30PM

We're all like blah-blah-blah-I-have-a-great-idea-for-an-electrocution-hat -
but sometimes its hard to motivate oneself to take that cool idea
and turn it into a real thing. Show and Tell is our new event, where you
show what you're working on, no matter how early and hackish.
The only rule is that you've got to demo something *real*.
Okay, maybe there are other rules. Just don't turn it into "Might Club":
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Show_and_Tell

> Members Annual Meeting, Board Elections
Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Due to a fencepost error in our bylaws interpreter, the 2010 Annual members
meeting will take place on January 18, 2011. We'll vote on the new board
using
the most unfathomably fair proportional voting system we can muster
(probably
condorcet), then unceremoniously strip them of all power in a bloodless
coup.
Members in good standing can vote as hard as they like, but it still won't
do
anything. Frob the vote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error

> Neural Net Workshop!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Mike Schachter says: the Machine Learning group at Noisebridge wants
to teach you! We're holding a workshop on constructing and using
neural networks, to raise Neural Network Awareness (NNA) and money
for Noisebridge. Bring laptops and small bills:
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Neural_Network_Workshop

> Noisebridge Book Club!

Miah implies without explicitly stating: "I'm starting a NB book club
on Goodreads. We can be virtual or have actual meetings":
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/41745.Noisebridge_Book_Club

>>> HUMAN OF NOISEBRIDGE OF THE FORTNIGHT

MEREDITH SCHEFF-KING won the Awesome Foundation's monthly $1000 award
for her proposal to make 30 scarves in January. Signal to Noise
caught her attacking her third scarf in the space, and plagued her
with dumb questions:

> So is this three scarfs of the day or one you're making right now?

It's one; the scarf of today is reconfigurable with one or two or three
free-floating sections.

> Are you planning out the whole month beforehand, or are you taking
  it one scarf at a time?

Well, I went into it with more than thirty scarf ideas, but
ultimately I'm making them one at a time. I don't want to plan too
far ahead. I work better spontaneously.

> How much your time are you setting aside for this?

All of it. I'm not doing much else but making scarves this month. At some
point I'm going to have to get groceries, I guess.

> Okay, I have to ask. Why scarves?

I love warm, fuzzy things. I'm sort of a chilly person. I grew up in
the Central Valley, where it's over 100 degrees a lot of the time, so
it's always cold by comparison. And I like making art that I wear.
With a lot of my work, like the cartooning or the construction you
don't know if anyone sees the end result. It might be that noone sees
it.

> But if you're wearing, you get to see the reaction?

Yes! Also, people know what they're seeing. It's not like an artwork
where you have to explain to the audience what they're seeing first.
They already know it's a scarf. They know what it's supposed to do.

> I saw that you were agonising on your Twitter stream about keeping two
craft
  centers, one at your home and one at Noisebridge. Where do you think
you're
  going to spend most of your time this month?

Well, this is scarf three, and the first one I'm making at NB. It
gets lonely making stuff at home. I'm very distractable, but it's
easier to avoid that here, strangely. Like, I can choose not to bring
my computer here, but I can't *not* have it at my apartment.

> Does it help you finish a project when you have a clear goal like this?

A bit. Mainly, though, it's the publicity that encourages you to keep
going. When the Awesome Foundation mailed me I'd won the award for
January, I'd actually almost forgotten I'd applied.  And then they
told me all the blogs and people that they'd already told. I was like
"uh-oh, I guess I'd better actually do this". Then of course, the
economics of taking a month off for $1K doesn't work out, so I
started a Kickstarter project to get the rest of the money, and I
thought "Whoa, now I really *really* have to do this."

I guess it sounds kind of bad, but I do like it when my projects do
the rounds on the Internet. Like the Northskirt -- that was such a
lot of work, and so is this. It makes me happy to know people see it.

> Do you know where you're going to show all the scarves yet?

Actually, no -- I haven't had a moment of time away from scarves to
call around galleries.

(Miloh shouts from the kitchen that Meredith's rice is boiling.
Finally distracted, she runs off to grab five precious minutes of
non-scarf scarfing.)

Info on the scarf-of-the-month from eponymous Awesome Foundation:
http://nburl.net/scarfaday

Help support Meredith:
http://nburl.net/scarfdonate

She blogs!
http://ladycartoonist.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Noisebridge is San Francisco's non-profit hackerspace, open to anyone
wishing to explore the creative uses of technology. Join us at:

            2169 Mission St, San Francisco, California

Our One Minute Preamble: http://nburl.net/preamble
Our Vision:              http://nburl.net/vision

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  #1 // 2001-01-07 // cc-by-sa // (un)sub http://nburl.net/nbannounce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ObThanks: nb-discuss; lee and dave for letting me steal that template back
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