[Noisebridge-discuss] glass blowing / nocturnal hacking

[Tony Longshanks LeTigre]

*Item #1*

I have a new friend who is, among other things, a glassblower — makes glass
art & such. He's showing me how to do it. Apparently it's not too
difficult, he does it in his basement w/out much in the way of setup. I
told him he should come to NB b/c I don't know of anyone in the
Noiseenclave who works in the medium of glass yet, & perhaps folks would be
interested in learning? Or would this lead to the same partykilling safety
concerns re: fire hazards & such that plagued the welding workshop? He has
been doing it a while & has yet to burn the house down, evidently.

*Item #2* (complete nonsequitur)

The Jargon has a neologism *gweep*, a verb for nighttime hacking. Full
entry:

*gweep*: /gweep/

1. v. To *hack* <http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hack.html>, usually at
night. At WPI, from 1975 onwards, one who gweeped could often be found at
the College Computing Center punching cards or crashing the
*PDP-10*<http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/P/PDP-10.html>
 or, later, the DEC-20. A correspondent who was there at the time opines
that the term was originally onomatopoetic, describing the keyclick sound
of the Datapoint terminals long connected to the PDP-10; others allege that
‘gweep’ was the sound of the Datapoint's bell (compare
*feep*<http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/feep.html>).
The term has survived the demise of those technologies, however, and was
still alive in early 1999. “I'm going to go gweep for a while. See you in
the morning.” “I gweep from 8 PM till 3 AM during the week.”

2. n. One who habitually gweeps in sense 1; a
*hacker*<http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html>.
“He's a hard-core gweep, mumbles code in his sleep.” Around 1979 this was
considered derogatory and not used in self-reference; it has since been
proudly claimed in much the same way as
*geek*<http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/G/geek.html>
.
I don't like *gweep* so much—it's a good word, but it should mean something
else. I propose *nack* (verb)—simple contraction of night + hack—for
latenight hacking. Or *nhack*, where the h is silent. When I first
discovered NB last year, it was the fact it was always open that thrilled
me most—lifelong night owl/moon tiger/star dragon/quasivampire that I am.
I'm very glad that threats of limited hours made on this list in dark days
past never took hold: I for one have nights when a 2am hack is just what
the soul needs.

Nhackers Unite! Someone a while back suggested a mailing list for the
latenighters, I think....here's a little image to go with it, if that idea
comes to fruition.
http://zine.noisebridge.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/art_nbatnight.jpg

K gotta run...comin' up on midnight...time for lunch!


--Løng$h at nk$
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