[Imc-makerspace] IMC-Tech Meetup Fri, 7/27 Notes

[Stewart Dickson]

Hi,

Thanks to everybody who showed up for pizza at the Makerspace last night.

It was pretty well attended -- John Koontz, Barry Todd, Barry 
Isralewitz, Carl(?) from the Bike
Project -- Especially notable were our former members from out out-of-town,
Brian Duggan and Josh King.    http://oti.newamerica.net  The  OTI  Josh 
kept referring to is
Open Technology Institute, which is nearly synonymous with the New 
America Foundation.

Here are my notes:

Davis Roknich was very upset about the performance of his audio 
(transcoding) "renders" on the
machines in the upstairs production facility.   He claimed that there is 
a machine in the Makerspace, which is faster, that he wants to use -- 
E.g., move upstairs, I think...   I don't fully
understand all of the problems.   Barry Todd says that the machine David 
was talking about in
the Makerspace is actually a lot older and theoretically slower than the 
Production machines
upstairs.  Perhaps it relates to performance of a certain piece of 
software, availability of
CD/DVD-ROM burners upstairs or other issues that I didn't catch from 
what David was saying.

Apparently, David was working on something he perceived as urgent 
relating to the GRC, but
he clearly had not planned for sufficiently in advance.   I really 
support David's energy and
dedication to using the IMC as a Production Center for Independent 
Media.   I hope that he
won't give up, but will work to become integrated into the IMC and will 
get the cooperation
he needs to work toward his goals for media production.  
http://www.indyradio.nu

We need to get a quote from an Electrical/HVAC contractor about 
upgrading the electrical
circuit, if not also upgrading the air conditioning in the 
Peep-way/Server Room.   Electrical
circuit upgrade is necessary to putting the servers on uninterruptable 
power supplies, which they
currently are not.

Josh gave us a great brain-dump of the current state of Chambana.net, 
including co-locations
adjacent to the Rathaus (City Hall) in Vienna, Austria, and another 
Chambana.net co-location
site on the West Coast.   Josh promised another brain-dump to the 
IMC-Tech e-mail list.

John Koontz has lots of "lightly used" servers available.   Although, it 
looks like we need to
upgrade the electrical in the server room before we can add machines.   
We have already slated
some machines in the IMC for replacement, and I think that Barry Todd 
has machines in mind
to move in to replace them.  Barry, please let us know what help you 
need in scheduling and
getting this done.  Thanks!

GRC Digital Wireless sessions are this afternoon from 3:00-6:15PM.

We talked about the UC2B connection which is coming in August.   Barry 
Todd has been thinking
about how the conduit will be run from the network box outside, into the 
building and to the
appropriate network connection point.

I will work on connecting up the Illinois EV Club, the Bike Project with 
the Makerspace to
develop ideas on Mutant Bikes, Bike hub generation and lighting 
electrical systems and
bike motor-assist electrical generation systems.   The contact at the 
Illinois EV club is
David Noreen, who has occasionally come to Makerspace meetings and events.

It is awesome that we are having the Sewing Switchcraft Workshop at the 
Makerspace
Summer Make-A-Tion, because we have a fully-equipped Costume Closet, 
right next to our
Space at the IMC.   We should try to get people who are associated with 
the Costume Closet
involved in the Sewing Switchcraft Workshop.

I hope that we will get a chance to reschedule another UpCycle event 
with GreenPurpose,
because the previously scheduled Makerspace workshop had to be canceled 
due to a family
illness.

RFID Door Locks -- Yes.   Arduino RFID readers.   Laminate RFIDs into 
Hackerspace Passports.
OK, Key Cards for the rest of the IMC?

BTW, have you seen this one?

http://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/arduino-resistor-and-barrel-plug-lay-waste-to-millions-of-hotel-locks
Onity hotel door locks pwned beyond all recovery

Long-format continuing classes, such as computer programming.

Brian Duggan talked a little about ArtSpace DC (there are also locations in Elgin, Wheaton, IL,
up North).

Erich Heine met up with Brian in DC, where they talked about the idea of writing a proposal for
funding a part-time MakerSpace staff resident to host open hours, computer help desk, plan and
facilitate workshops.