Meeting Notes 2011 05 17

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Agenda[edit]

The 161th Meeting of Noisebridge

Note-taker: MrDomino

Moderator: Shannon

WHY THE HELL ARE WE DAISY-CHAINING SURGE PROTECTORS WHEN THERE'S POWER ALL ALONG THIS BITCH

There are six daisy-chained power strips here.

FUCK IT WE'RE NOT WAITING FOR KELLY


Introduction and Names[edit]

  • What Noisebridge is about: "Noisebridge is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides a space for creation, collaboration, and learning about technology and creative projects. Noisebridge provides space, power tools, and infrastructure to help the public learn new skills and create cool things. Noisebridge continues to exist through and depends entirely on membership fees and donations. Our code of conduct is 'Be excellent to each other'."
  • Round of introductions: What's your name, what do you do, and if you are new, how did you hear about Noisebridge? Start with the moderator and go left.
  • A brief primer on consensus process: We agree and so should you! Only paid-up members can block consensus.

NOISEBRIDGE IS A COMMUNITY OF MISFITS AND WEIRDOS (GERMAN POSTMODERNISM) where you can make pretty much anything. It is also a corporation. This is the meeting of that corporation. He's Shannon. He's leading this meeting.

NAMES[edit]

  • Greg: new to the space
  • Danny: not checking his email
  • Miloh: brought some stickers. Also some 3D stuff
  • [unintelligible]
  • Owen: tech writing, editing, seeing if anyone's carpooling to maker faire, kinda on the edge of the fence, going, not going, so if you're going, let me know. (Lives in San Francisco. North beach.)
  • John: alcoholic in training, going to maker faire (Danny O recommends not going by car)
  • Murph: student from Illinois, visiting for two weeks
  • Carl: oldfag.
  • Stiney: been here before.
  • Mike: do little bits of stuff here and there, of a personal nature, not corporate infrastructure
  • Ryan: wanna be a member, this week might not be the week where that can happen, but soon
  • THIS IS MRDOMINO. HE IS TAKING NOTES.
  • Greg: actually new to the space. Moved here a week ago.
  • Noisebridge: a space
  • Robert: came in a little late, usually not late.

Noisebridge has lots of stuff! At least 3 competing calendars and a list of things that might or might not be happening during the week.

Most interesting: Circuit Hacking Monday. Starts at 7. Continues forever. If you have never held a soldering iron before in your life but you would like to, this is where to start. If you have a tricky problem in quantum thermal coupling, they might help you.

Tonight we will do some primary reduction after the meeting. (Tearing shit apart for its components.)

Other things: this meeting, various meetups for languages both human and computer, Ruby class happening right now, they're gonna work on projects now.

Wednesdays there's SCoW. Sewing, crafting, and workshops.

Code thing that happens on the down-low. ???

If something is on the wiki and doesn't seem to be happening anymore, you can help by removing it or taking it over.

5MoF is happening this Thursday! It is our lightning talk series. We had porn clowns once.

Announcements[edit]

Financial Report[edit]

Dongs in bank: enough.

Kelly: Um so. *ahem* So the first thing is I forgot to file our tax extension thing [DOBrien: and we're all going to jail] This does not in any way endanger our nonprofit status. What this does is it incurs some sort of fine which I will hopefully be able to pay myself.

Miloh: IRS is busy worrying about some churches these days. Oh wait they don't have taxes. They didn't file.

Kelly: I talked to our tax guy. It's fairly straightforward to file so I'm doing that now. But in doing them I pulled up a year-to-date profit and loss from 2010. It's pretty disturbing. We lost money in 2010.

DOBrien: 2010 was our suck year, right?

Kelly: For the year of 2009, our total income was $72000 and hey note-taker? I have a PDF here so you don't have to take all the notes.

Note-taker [silently]: DONE TAKING NOTES BITCHES, AWWWW YEEEEEE

Kelly: way less income, bulk of that is decreased membership dues. Donations also went down, but not by as much. Last year we had some money. This year we lost some money.

DOBrien: This is only retrospectively disturbing. We all know we had to scramble, etc. It's not like 2010 was sucking down the money that we made this year.

Kelly: We need to do something differently this year. We had some winter panic, but then things went back to where they were.

Shannon: Can we permanently agree to refer to it that way, as the winter panic?

John: Shouldn't we wait till after Maker Faire and then reassess what --

Kelly: Pushing the regular donations thing is good, and we should keep doing that, but I think we need to have a maybe 2 or 3 times a year [some: PLEDGE DRIVE!] publicity push. Generally speaking, it seems that the way we earn the most money is in financial panics. "Save noisebridge" works pretty well, but maybe there are some positive things we could say rather than "make sure we don't die".

Jason: We should have a panic. We should have a party. With beer.

Shannon: Problem: Everyone goes to our parties and gets too drunk to remember to give us money.

DObrien: I move that we have an extended discussion of this after the meeting.

Membership Binder[edit]

  • Read off any names from the binder for the past month.
  • Anyone up for join this week should introduce themselves then leave the area in search of gifts (traditionally beer and a lime) for the rest of the group. The rest of the meeting should consense on whether they may join.

How many members are there? 45ish. We get about a third of our income from random donations. (Actually more than that.) SO PAY US MONEY YOU DONGS

You don't need to bring back beer. You can bring back oranges and shit. If you bring back an ostrich that we can ride, that'd be awesome.

One person. Printer soap opera. Hand-wrote a form. Since then Miloh has printed out a shitton.

Ryan Salsbury: didn't put anything under "why?". He was finished writing it as the printer explanation was still going on. He has one tick so far.

How many weeks have you been there? (Say 3.)

I think I did 3 meetings.

This is his third tick. Ba-bam.

And now he has two sponsors.

Boom!

Wait we have someone else. Eric Steinberg. He has not completed the rigamarole. Will the thresher please produce the binder-switching stick? He has three tick marks as well, unless he's been hidden in the other binder for the last several weeks, in which case he has more. Anyway that was the binder.

What's Going On at Noisebridge[edit]

One short sentence about each of the following:

This is the active list of events from the main page:


events are haphazardly cross-posted on Meetup, the Discord, and Google Calender here

Some noisebridger's have also started hosting Events from a calendar at https://noisebridge.today/, and new (additional) associated gCal.


Key: W: Weekly | 1st 2nd 3rd 4th: Certain weeks | -2nd: Except certain weeks | S: Streaming | event: caution maybe dead | event: management of space


Upcoming Events[edit]

Five Minutes of Fame: 10 5 minute talks every third Thursday! Spread this poster around.
Introduce yourself and meet the community at meetings

Mondays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 7:00pm Meetups/Infra Self-hosting, rough consensus, & running code. Find upcoming sessions on Meetup or in #meetup-infra on Discord.
W 7:00pm PyClass A complete introductory Python course. Classes are held regularly. Find upcoming sessions on Meetup or in #python on Discord. (Returned! Mar '24)
W you-o-clock TRASH NIGHT Please take out all three large trash bins!! They are on the patio.
W 7:00pm Circuit Hacking Monday Learn electronics, Arduino, and/or how to solder! We have kits and Arduinos for donations, or bring your own project. Most Mondays at 7PM. More details on Meetup
W 7:00pm 3d Simulation Hack Night Come work on your Unreal engine, 3d Unity projects, Houdini projects, 3d character design projects, or architecture projects! General meetup for working in simulation and 3d. Hosted by delta_ark

Tuesdays![edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W S 7:00pm Noisebridge Weekly Meeting (In person & online via Jitsi) - Introduce new people and events, joining, announcements, discussions, and consensus. Come express what you think about what's going on with your space!
W 7:00pm San Francisco Writers Workshop Free drop-in writers workshop, get feedback and critique! Located on the first floor hackitorium.
W 7:00pm Neurotech Tuesdays Do neuro. Do tech. sfg. Check #🧠│neurotech on discord
2nd 4nd 6:00pm Numerati SF Hacking the Stock Market with AI/ML. Every other Tuesday. Please RSVP on Meetup.

Wednesdays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
3rd 3:30pm - 5:30pm Zinemakers meetup Monthly gathering of zine and book and comic creators, to share ideas and work on projects. Newbies welcome! Confirm with Meetup
1st 7:00pm - 8:30pm Conflict Resolution We do our best to address pressing issues, mitigate conflicts, be excellent to each other.
2nd 4nd 6:00pm - 7:00pm Bike Psych! Time and space to talk about transit related projects Confirm with Meetup
W S 7:00pm - 9:00pm Machine Learning AI and RL Meetup Weekly gathering of AI enthusiasts discussing cool things happening in the field and ongoing projects / learning tracks
1st 8:00pm Woodhacking Wednesday "Have a woodworking project in mind but you don't know where to get started? This is a good time to come ask questions, get some help, and ideas from other woodworkers. Everyone is welcome..." Confirm dates with Meetup


Thursdays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W S 6:00pm - 8:00pm Gamebridge game development mentoring & coworking meetup for gamedev beginners and indies alike.
W S 6:00pm NeurotechX SF hacknights for mind-machine interfacing with EEGs.
2nd 4th 6:00pm - 8:00pm Advanced Geometry SF An event for people who would like to study/teach advanced topics in geometry.
3rd S 8:00pm - 9:00pm Five Minutes of Fame a.k.a. 5MoF Ten 5min talks in an hour, on any topic
4th S 8:00pm - 10:30pm Resident Electronic Music An electronic music open mic! (note: Nov/Dec pushed to Dec 10th, 6pm setup)
4th 9:00pm Queer Game Developers Meetup! "Here you will find other queer game devs, game-making enthusiasts, and be a part of a community that welcomes everyone who is interested in creating games." Please register on Eventbrite. See Meetup for more info.
W you-o-clock TRASH NIGHT Please take out all three large trash bins!! They are on the patio.

Fridays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 2:00pm - 5:00pm Hack on Noisebridge! a good open time for cleaning 'n re-organizing the physical space. See #totally-secret-cabal-of-space-organizers on the Discord
Brewery meetup - brewing & tasting days Come learn to brew mead with Eliot and Andy! Check the Meetup for dates or check in #brewing on Discord.

Saturdays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 9:30am - 1:00am Hack on Noisebridge! cleaning, physical organizing and re-organizing, donuts. See #totally-secret-cabal-of-space-organizers! on discord
W 2:00pm - 6:00pm Free Code Camp with Paul Farley Brandon as host
3rd 2:00pm - 6:00pm Godot Meetup Gamedev workshop & networking for users of the Godot game engine. We have two meetups this March around GDC: March 16th and March 23rd!
4th 1:00pm - 3:00pm Building Guitar Pedals Workshop Come build guitar pedals or other electronic music equipment! Look for the #pedal-building channel under #events in the discord. Check the Meetup for more info and confirmed dates.

Sundays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 2:00pm - 4:00pm Laser Cutter training Get certified to use the laser cutter
2nd 2:00pm - 3:00pm Fabrication 101 2nd Shop Sundays class on safety and basic techniques
W 6:00pm - 7:15pm Noisebridge 15th Anniversary Planning Meeting planning for Noisebridge 15, any/everyone is welcome to come and help with planning.. etc.
W 7:30pm - 10:00pm Self-Driving Flying Car Meetup training class, discussion, and meetup on flying cars
2nd S 2:00pm - 4:00pm BAHA: Bay Area Hackers' Association Security Hacking Meeting 2nd Sundays at 272 and via Jitsi

Other Bay Area Consortium of Hackerspaces Events[edit]



Non-weekly[edit]

a casual monthly event dedicated to working on the space or relevant projects and building community. This is a great time to get feedback or help on any projects you have been considering that center around the space, culture, and infrastructure of Noisebridge. You can also help with existing projects and find out ways to get involved.

Project Updates[edit]

Miloh: We got bins. Pay up or remove your names from the funding.

If you are interested in learning primary reduction from an acknowledged master, and also you want to help out with moving all the crap, then you should be here after the meeting. If members share horizontal space, something something shrine THE SHRINE IS IN CHURCH. (It obviously belongs there. Why do people keep moving it?)

Consensus items[edit]

"That NB pay for the THE HOUNDS OF BEDBUG WAR" (Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)

DObrien: okay so when it was first proposed, we were in the middle of a bedbug panic. We were selling bedbugs, buying bitcoins, that sort of thing. In order to allay fears, I said let's get some dogs in to sniff around, tell us if there are any, and then leave, it being everybody's view that dogs can detect bedbugs. [Apparently they can also detect fleas.] Anyway, we also ordered a bedbug sentry, which turned out to be a pile of yeast and a pile of sugar, which mix to give off CO2 which bedbugs like. At no point were these things described as "yeast" or "sugar". They were described as "enabling agent" and "premix". Surfactant. It's under the couch. Two people who actually have had bedbugs rather than just nightmares of them came in and said "there are no bedbugs here". After the email to the list, someone no one knows was like "NOISEBRIDGE HAS BEDBUGS. AVOID" on twitter. I chatted to Aestetix about his -- not evidence, what was the phrase? His "reports". [Others: his "coincidences". His "synchronicities."] I'm not totally convinced, but I'm not sure how we establish a lack of bedbugs.

Shannon: The thing I always heard is that you take the thing that has bedbugs and you surround it by bedbugs.

DOBrien: The problem is the conclusive evidence that proves there are no bedbugs. I checked out the dogs. I'm not a dog man. The dogs seem to be pretty solidly reliable. There's a NYTimes article asking if dogs test bedbugs. Problem: it's $175 to $250 to do this. I'm not gonna pay $250 to (Jason pledges $20) have dogs tell us there aren't bedbugs when I'm a cat person.

Jason: I come to the space a fair amount. I've never encountered the bedbugs discussion except in the context of this meeting. What?

DOBrien: every 12 months, someone goes "it's almost inevitable that we have bedbugs." And then a bunch of people go "oh my god I had to set fire to my entire country to escape the bedbugs." And then someone else is like "yeah they had to salt the earth" etc. and then you hear people say that other people say that they're not coming to Noisebridge anymore.

Shannon: when bedbugs came up a year ago, "bedbugs" was code for "hippies". People were complaining about the fact that we might have bedbugs because there were a bunch of hippies around.

DObrien: The consensus item is do we spend $250 of noisebridge's precious funds to bring in a bunch of sniffer dogs to tell us we don't have bedbugs? How about rather than getting the couch

Kelly: Dude, who cares? This is our quarterly "people who don't check their facts panic and don't go to noisebridge."

We have consensus that we're not gonna do anything, and DObrien withdraws his proposal so we don't even need to have consensus on it.

Discussion Items[edit]

What's happening with maker faire?

Praveen sent out a Goople Broups document link to sign up.

Is there anything more happening than that?

Have we got a booth?

Yes. And if you want to help out, you might with nonzero probability get a pass.

Is there a plan for what the booth is doing?

It's quite ad-hoc. It's a mini hackerspace away from Noisebridge in among the hackerspaces.

Are we gonna bring stuff?

Just bring the robot.

We should totally bring the robot if we can fit it into a vehicle.

Talk to Jake about the robot. The problem is that if people aren't there to guard it, it just sits there or gets f'ed with. So what do we do about that?

We take it. Or fix it.

Is whoever is taking responsibility for the maker faire presence here tonight?

Miloh will take as much responsibility as he can for that. He'll be at the booth. At the moment, it seems like we might have the makerbots and some payphones.

What else?

Laser cutter. What could possibly go wrong?

Is the NBTV working?

What's NBTV? Noisebridge Television. The big LED sign. That should go there. One of the problems with the sign of life has been that it doesn't get put on a stand that's strong enough to hold it up.

Maybe information materials is the other thing, and stickers and a donation thing.

I presume there is some sort of offline form where this is being planned and discussed. [Sort of.] If there isn't, then there ought to be.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THE MAKER FAIRE YOU SHOULD TALK TO MILOH [OR LOOK AT NOISEBRIDGE-DISCUSS]

NEXT ITEM: bunch of people did volunteering, cleaned up noisebridge. Yay people. In addition, there have been some additions to the laser cutter room. It's now safer. More people can fit in it. Mess cleaned. We'll say 2 to 4 people can fit in there. If you're 2 to 4 people who'd like to laser cut things

NEXT ITEM: Danny has been fabulous, both as a member of our board and a keeper and tracker of things, and he should be our new secretary. Shannon believes that the thing that needs to happen is for it to be consensed on.

Danny is around next week. Non Serviam. But he is willing to co-person -- uh, yes. He'll do it. He does travel a lot. But as long as he gets someone else we're good.

We should have a secretary who is present. Miloh nominates Steve Dee.

Secretaries are supposed to keep track of our documents, interact with corporations for us, and are the closest thing we have to an official voice. Maintain the list of members. Do all the things that Kelly's been doing that she doesn't want to do anymore.

Kelly's take on the secretary thing: This has drawn on for months. We've been sort of making idle chatter about it. Seth has been overdue for replacement for months. What's most important is that there is someone who is accountable. Right now a different person takes notes every week, and that's fine. She thinks that notes for half the meetings would be an improvement, but she's already overloaded as treasurer and wants somebody accountable responsible etc. and Danny is all of those things. Plus he keeps not saying no to the position.

Let's hear it for his lack of unwillingness!

Danny: meh.

If there is serious dissent, that's fine, but we should find someone else that we don't have serious dissent about then.

Danny: no, I mean I travel, I don't travel for like months at a time, but I'm not here all the time. That was my question about it. That seemed to be answered by "well as long as you like deputize somebody when you're not here." And I am internet-able wherever I am.

Shannon: Miloh, have we done anything to allay your concerns here?

Miloh: Yeah, you've done a lot.

John: We should also add a consensus item that Miloh should be secretary.

Shannon: Miloh, do you want to be secretary?

Miloh: Nope.

Kelly: Okay, so it sounds like we're kinda done discussing this.

Mike [loudly]: DOOT DOOT DOOT! DOOT DOOT DOO-DOO-DOO-DOOT!

Ensuing discussion re garbage on monday and thursday night. Touch screens feature prominently.

End of Meeting[edit]

  • PGP Key Signing could happen now, check the list to see who wants in on the action.
  • Put back the membership binder by the Shrine.
  • Save the meeting notes to the wiki.
  • Send a copy of the meeting notes to the discussion list.
  • Copy the Meeting Notes Template for next week's agenda and update the main wiki page's link to it.
  • Enjoy a cocktail with your fellow hacker or robot.