[Noisebridge-discuss] projects in motion

[Tony Longshanks LeTigre]

I updated the welcome board today to reflect the following:

1) *The laser cutter is working!* Thanks to Ken's patient assistance last
night, we got it up & running. You should've seen how happy Jay was. I
think he laser cut all night long. Now Tony & I (the other Tony, with whom
I have made peace) are just trying to figure out how to make it work for
Mac. The software suggested on the wiki is VisiCut. I've downloaded that,
haven't made it work yet, but I'm sure we will. Advice/knowledge
appreciated of course.

2) Last night we borrowed the projector from Turing & used it to make an
image of San Francisco on a large square board. Right now it's just an
outline, but we will fill in features soon. I hope it will become an
interactive map on which people will add the hikes, special spots & other
favorite places they know & love in the City. (Some secrets, of course, are
best left secret, so use discretion.) I am titling it the *Midnight Tourist
Map of San Francisco. *I also led the first of a series of *Midnight
Hikes*last night, despite faint rain, up into the hills above Dolores
Park—one of
my favorite parts of the City. Our goal was nothing more than great views,
seeing what's going on up there above it all + a little clandestine
reconnaissance. If you're interested in future hikes, seek me out. I've
spent the last few years getting to know the City quite well on foot. As
long as you can handle legging it & won't complain about uphill treks, &
aren't affiliated with any agency that is hostile to our intentions (trust
me: I know, or I will know), you'll be welcome. The goal of the hike will
change depending on who is coming, how large a group, etc.

3) Liz showed me & Chris how to use the *book scanner* today & we're in the
process of scanning new books into the NB library catalog. I love
taxonomies, classification systems & catalogs. I found a batch of cool
old-school art zines this morning, probably brought in for the fundraiser,
which I'm going to catalog as well. We have a zine section of the library
now, it's on the shelves w/ the Tshirts beside the donation box. Those
shelves, btw, have been turned into a library annex full of literature, all
the non-hacker books we've acquired. The main library continues to be
mainly tech/hacker/programmer-oriented, as should be. The Tshirts for
sale/donation are displayed on a table near the shelves.

4) I'm working on *converting a large Excel spreadsheet bursting with data
into a database.* This is an ongoing project. Several people are helping
me, but I welcome more help. Many people are busy, & I don't travel well,
so Noisebridge is the ideal location. I'm going to be @ NB working on this
(& probably doing some laser cutting) probably 10pm til late tonight.

5) The *vinyl cutter* is said to be great for creating stencils for screen
printing. This is something I've been meaning to explore, & I've finally
cleared enough off my plate to do so beginning this week. If you're into
that as well, let's work on it together.

6) Several new *zinesters & self-publishing types* have been making
overtures in the direction of Noisebridge lately. This makes me think it
could be time for ZFOS (Zines From Outer Space) & other zine-related
projects to burgeon into the limelight at NB, something I've hoped for for
quite a while. Among them is Cristina, editor of Synchronized
Chaos<http://synchchaos.com/>,
an awesome webzine which tabled at the recent fundraiser. More interest in
these areas is welcome. Help us reach critical mass & set a meeting to
pursue the options! ALSO: Cristina of the aforementioned webzine is iso a
Wordpress wizard for some specific reasons. Inquire within. (This post is
CC'd to Cristina).

7) I forgot what number 7 was. Anyone?

8) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a great novel about empathy,
compassion & connections between people who seem to have nothing to do with
each other. It's also a beautiful experimental prose poem in the form of a
novel. If you've heard negative things about Woolf, disregard them & delve
in for yourself. If you don't go in for old-fashioned literature, you
should: you might be surprised by how experimental some of these
"modernists" are/were. If you don't read at all (except code), you really
should. Writers, I surmise, are a certain type of person that cuts across
all lines: it doesn't matter whether you write prose, poetry, or code:
writers are writers, & writers also usually make the best readers. This
could connect to the embryonic *NB Book Club(/Diamond/Hammer/whatev)* that
is also on the cusp of becoming reality.

+11+
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