I think there are two things we should do to augment our safe space logistics
1) We should adopt a code of conduct for Sudoroom and all events that
we sponsor. I think we should look at the Geek Feminism CoC:
http://geekfeminism.org/about/code-of-conduct/ Please read it through
if you have the time.
2) We should agree to honor all bans on people by other groups and
spaces at the Omni, AND by the Omni itself. The Omni hasn't yet
required this of groups, and doesn't yet have its own structures in
place for banning people from the common areas, but we can still be
proactive until that happens, and I think doing so would show good
faith to our Omni community and help convince everyone this is a Good
Thing.
thanks,
Remote Yar
My crony Gerald & I picked up about 15 'puters from Youth Radio
<https://youthradio.org/> today, and brought them to the sudoroom. We
also grabbed about 7 monitors and a bag full of cables. These boxen
look pretty sweet, dual core, Windows 8, 4 GB of RAM. I was planning on
installing some version of Trusty Tahr (*buntu 14.04) or maybe Debian
testing and then using a live disc (redobackup <http://redobackup.org/>)
to blow the image on the rest of the machines after testing the memory
and hard drives. Brian, the IT bloke at YR is replacing the machines
with NUC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Unit_of_Computing>s. It
looks like there are another 30 or so of these Dells available to us
when they get readied. If we can spare the table space maybe we can set
up a few machines for visitor browsing in a quiet corner somewhere. And
we should have some nice boxes for the Oakland kids' computer center.
The four boxes I have ready to go are mostly pretty funky, missing
panels, or very loud, etc. I'm sure we can find them a home, though. I
also have a few more expendable desktop Linux machines at home. Finding
rodents, power cords, monitors & keyboards may prove a bit of a
challenge, though I have a few extra keyboards and power cables.
I'm planning on going camping in August, but in September I'd like to
start hosting a weekly Linux install fest/trouble shooting session on
Friday afternoons at 4 PM. Folks can bring their Linux problems in for
troubleshooting, and I can bring pizza back from a pickup I make at 8PM
from a local collective. Maybe if nothing else is going on we can cap
the evening with a tech/polit-related flick to go with the pizza,
perhaps even a round of frosty malted beverages. As I mentioned before,
maybe we could use some always-on machine to act as a proxy for deb
files, so we could update machines at 11MB a second instead of pounding
our limited internet bandwidth. I'm familiar with approx and
apt-cacher, though there are others. I'll bring up the idea during one
of our weekly Wednesday meetings soon.
Einstein & campaign staff
tl;dr can we put this giant robot arm at sudoroom?
http://spaz.org/~jake/pix/giantrobot
this is a six-axis robot with controller. It is actually a MIG welding robot, but we can use it for whatever we want, like a giant 3d printer. It is intended to be secured in position to the floor, or a platform of some kind, and weld metal pieces according to a program you teach it.
if Sudoroom can offer the space for this item, i think it will be a valuable tool and learning platform for robotics, electronics and mechanics, and an opportunity to develop new uses for tools like this.
After restoring the robot to functional status (by volunteers including me) we can play with it in various ways, like use it to play chess (including flipping the table over if it's about to lose)
Later i think we should attach a plastic melter/auger so that the arm can dispense melted ground-up #2 milk jugs or #1 PET soda bottles, and become a large-volume 3d printer. we could put a camera and/or primesense on the end of its hand and make it a 3d scanner or computer vision platform…
If sufficient ventilation is provided to its area, it can actually be used as a MIG welding robot if people want.
here are a couple Motoman robots in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e904eHn8MDIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQQlbx2S-j4
loading ikea shelves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duub_dO_TwU
Q: What's the catch?
A: Sudoroom must devote about 16 square feet for the control boxes and about 16 square feet for the robot itself.
Q: How much will it cost?
A: The price is $200 total, but we will have to find a pickup truck to transport it to sudoroom from berkeley. The sellers will load it onto the truck with their forklift, and we may need a forklift to get it down.
Q: But we don't have three-phase power! Isn't 8 KW a lot of power?
A: We can modify it to run on regular 2-phase power, and ideally we will significantly reduce the size of the power source at some point anyway. And 8 KW is the maximum rating, moving continuously at full speed AND welding the whole time. Powering it will not be a problem.
Q: Who is paying for this?
A: I (jake) have $20 on it and at least a couple of other people also are interested. Will you also contribute money or time to this project?
Q: What's the worst thing that could happen?
A: We end up scrapping it because nobody cares about a giant robot :(
here are the strings found inscribed on its surfaces:
Motoman
TYPE: YRFL-NNA10GB
LIFTING CAPACITY: 10kg
WEIGHT OF MACHINE PROPER: 300kg
SERIAL NO.: RH9972-0064-13
ORDER NO.: 304438-1-1
DATE: 1990
YASKAWA ELECTRIC
KITAKYUSHU JAPAN
YASNAC ERC
TYPE: ENCM-RP6124
POWER SUPPLY: 200/220V 50/60Hz 3 PHASE 8 KVA
SERIAL NO.: RPN789-051A-4
DATE: 5-1990 P/N.: 774
YASKAWA Electric Mfg. Co. Ltd.
JAPAN
WARNING: DO NOT SUPPLY POWER TO THE 'YASNAC' BEFORE FIXING THE ROBOT BASE. OTHERWISE THE ROBOT MAY FALL DOWN.
WARNING: DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR EXCEPT FOR MAINTENANCE OF 'YASNAC'
DO NOT CONNECT OR DISCONNECT ANY WIRING, CONNECTORS AND RELAYS WHILE POWER IS ON.
WARNING: DO NOT ENTER THE ROBOT'S WORKING AREA / WHEN THE POWER IS ON.
WARNING: USE TWO EQUALLY LENGTHENED WIREROPES AND HOOK THE ROBOT UP WITH TWO EYEBOLTS. REMOVE THE CLAMPS (A) AND (B) BEFORE TURNING POWER ON.
I've been working on the door access system all night. Everything was
working fine, but now close works, but open does not, the motor just stops
half way. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I have to stop working on
this and come back tomorrow.
Until then I have disabled the mag swipe to prevent any damage to the
system.
Thanks,
Andrew
--
-------
Andrew Lowe
Cell: 831-332-2507
http://roshambomedia.com
This is perhaps the greatest news I've read on Sudo Discuss EVER. It has
always been my dream that Sudo Room provide public computer terminals for
folks without access to the hardware, for classes such as basic computer
literacy, and for events that require computers such as Oakland Wiki
editathons.
Ed, how can I help?
Hey folks!
Not enough people came to the meeting tonight to hold a true meeting and
have quorum for approving our three new member requests. I heard that last
week's meeting was also sparsely attended. Given that we're in a transition
stage, should we consider postponing meetings until, say, August? (And just
to get all meta/catch-22 on you, can we even make this decision without
holding a meeting? The twilight zone...). Anyway, here are some pseudo
notes taken by Julio:
People pseudo-present at Sudo Room meeting:
+Vicky
+Julio
+Timothy
+Elizabeth
+Whitney
TO-DO:
+Vicky will scrub the wordpress to make sure it's clear that we are now at
the new place (someone may have already done this)
+Vicky will update the Google Place for Sudo Room
+Julio will upload photos for how to access the new Sudo.
+Julio will scrub Sudo Room Wiki and Oakland Wiki to make sure it's clear
that Sudo Room is now at a new location.
NEW MEMBERS
+Three prospective members (Timothy, Elizabeth, and Whitney) were waiting
for a meeting that didn't happen due to lack of quorum (10 Sudo members)
pursuant to the current process for becoming a member:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association#Section_2.1.0_Process_for…
+They will try again next week though Timothy suggested that we may
consider having an acceptable process that does not require a quorum at a
physical meeting. He had other ideas about making decisions collectively
online, when necessary, using reddit or reddit-like tools (including one he
recently coded, but is in beta). Timothy will address the Sudo Room
community via email with suggestions.
+In the absence of an alternative process, it was suggested the prospective
members ping the lists/IRC/etc to see if a meeting is actually happening in
case that's their sole reason for coming to Sudo Room on any specific
Wednesday.
DONATIONS + 501C*
+Whitney came representing a network hardware group after following a
suggestion from Daniel that Sudo should be able to solicit and accept
donations like old networking equipment from school districts when they
acquire new equipment. The group has to be able to accept donations that
are tax-deductible, and this is only possible if Sudo has federal
non-profit status [501(c)(*)], and the Sudo wiki states that process as
pending. It is not clear that a decision has been made. Whitney will
message sudo-discuss and sudo-board about his request for information.
