[Noisebridge-discuss] earthquake damage, noise bridge, cnc machine computer

Scotty Allen scotty at scottyallen.com
Wed Mar 14 19:41:39 UTC 2012


So, I know a little bit about the CNC part of this story.  I was in
the dirty shop 1 or 2 weeks ago.  It was my first time doing anything
other than writing code at NB, so I didn't have a total lay of the
land, or who was who (I still don't, but I'm starting to meet more
people and figure out what's where).

Dan (gray sweatshirt, has been mentioned on the 85 page on and off)
was in the dirty shop as well, and when I asked what he was up to, he
said he was on a mission to organize the shop.  Awesome, I thought,
that sounds pretty excellent in a do-ocratic way.

Then things got weird. He then said, "First step is to get this
computer running".  I didn't follow, but who am I to judge.  He seemed
to be having problems with it, and asked me if I knew anything.  I
helped him find the power switch, and we got the machine to start, but
the monitor didn't come on.  We started troubleshooting, and saw that
the monitor only had a vga cable, with no power cord.  I've never seen
such a thing, and eventually suggested he plug the monitor into
another machine, to see if it was the monitor or the computer.  He
went off with the monitor, and that was the last I heard of it, beyond
noticing the monitor was missing last time I was in the shop.

I don't know if he's still hanging around Noisebridge, but it would be
worth asking him what happened.

Knowing more now, I think I'd ask more questions next time around, and
perhaps suggest he wait and talk to someone who knew more about the
shop and computers than he did.

It does raise a larger issue for me, as a relatively new member of
Noisebridge.  I live down in Palo Alto, and only make it up to
Noisebridge a couple times a month at best.  I've been lurking on the
mailing list for a while now, and so I have some sense of the current
issues in the space, and what's excellent and what's not.

I really like Noisebridge, want to see it continue to be awesome, and
wish I could make it up more often.  That being said, it's hard for me
to know who's awesome and knows what's up, and who is worth keeping an
eye on.  Similarly, when coming in the front gate, it's hard for me to
know who is ok to let tailgate, and who isn't (I've been using the
external buzzer url that's in an obfuscated form on the wiki).

Any suggestions?

As a side note, can you really have an lcd screen that runs off only
vga with no power?

-Scotty

On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 3:55 AM, Jake <jake at spaz.org> wrote:
> there is a crack in the wall of the elevator room, new since the
> earthquake.  It definitely wasn't there before, and you can see light
> through it.
>
> http://spaz.org/~jake/pix/12-3/IMG_0059.JPG
> http://spaz.org/~jake/pix/12-3/IMG_0060.JPG
>
> I donated an ACTUAL NOISE BRIDGE to noisebridge.  It's on the welcome
> table next to the donation box, in a cardboard box labeled NOISE BRIDGE.
>
> Caution:  the actual noise bridge is not labeled noise bridge, but it
> really is a noise bridge.
>
> If you don't believe it, i put an ad from 1978 on the post there:
>
> http://spaz.org/~jake/pix/12-3/IMG_0063.JPG
>
> "R-X Noise Bridge
> * Learn the truth about your antenna.
> * Find its resonant frequency.
> * Adjust it to your operating frequency quickly and easily."
>
> and finally, DO NOT fuck up the CNC machine computer.  This is the
> computer that connects to the MaxNC mill in the dirty shop.  I don't know
> why the monitor disappeared a while ago but then someone took the computer
> itself out of the dirty shop and it was on the floor by the public
> computers like someone was about to erase its brain.
>
> HELLO!  do you know how long it took John Foote to set up and configure
> EMC2 under linux to drive our mill?  It's a custom parallel-port
> configuration.  What the fuck was someone thinking?
> (i'm sure the files are not backed up anywhere)
>
> I put it in the server closet with a nice note.  Someone should blow the
> dust out of it and set it back up with a nice monitor, and maybe bolt it
> down this time.
>
> http://spaz.org/~jake/pix/12-3/IMG_0064.JPG
> _______________________________________________
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> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss



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