After being on the road since the beginning of July, 2010, I’m in Toronto, my second stop on my Midwest Tour of Hackerspaces which will last throughout the month of August.  (This trip started with setting up a Hardware Hacking Area at RMLL in Bordeaux, France <http://2010.rmll.info/spip.php?lang=en>, followed by setting up a Hardware Hacking Area at Ninjacon in Vienna, Austria (formerly Plumbercon) <http://plumbercon.org/>.)

My first stop was the Detroit Maker Faire <http://makerfaire.com/detroit/2010/>, where 22,000 people gathered to check out over 300 exhibits, enthusiastically sharing, learning, and teaching through making cool things. I led a panel on hackerspaces both days of the Faire — both with standing room only. Hackerspaces are really popular now! There are way more hackerspaces in the Midwest alone, than time to visit all of them in a month. This is an exciting time to be a geek!

My main thing at the Detroit Maker Faire was to set up a Hardware Hacking Area, which I did with the help of Jimmie Rodgers <http://www.jimmieprodgers.com/> and Dale Grover, of A2 MechShop <http://www.a2mechshop.com/>. Together with 19 other volunteers, we taught 1,500 people to solder! The Makezine blog has a really sweet writeup on it:
<http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/mitch_altman_rocks.html>

From now (4-August) till the end of the month, me and Jimmie and Matt Mets (of Hack PGH <http://www.hackpittsburgh.org/> — who will be joining us for the rest of the tour after Canada) will be giving 14 workshops at that many hackerspaces around the Midwest.

The workshops will give anyone and everyone the opportunity to learn to solder by making any number of kits that me and Jimmie have created to teach people to make cool things with microcontrollers — kits that are designed so that everyone, regardless of age or skill level, can complete successfully and take home with them. It is very similar to what I do when I’m home (and what Miloh does all the other times) at Circuit Hacking Mondays at Noisebridge <https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Circuit_Hacking_Monday>. The workshops also help build publicity for the hackerspaces that host the workshops by attracting people to the space, and showing everyone how cool it is to have a hackerspace in their home town.

I also share any and all experiences with the hackerspaces I visit about how we started and run Noisebridge.

Me and Jimmie and Matt are doing this without charge, and only ask to be reimbursed for any parts used ($10 to $30, depending on the kit).

As we go from city to city, hackers host us, and we meet some of the coolest, intelligent, thoughtful, friendly, creative people in the world — hackerspace people!

While traveling I hope to have time to blog more about our experiences here on this Noisebridge blog. Jimmie will be adding his thoughts to the blog on his website.  And Matt will be blogging about it and posting it to the Makezine website. 

Here is our schedule:

Hacklab.TO – Toronto, ON — visit on 3-August
Site3 — Toronto, ON — workshop on 5-August
Kwartzlab – Kitchener, ON — workshop on 6-August
think|haus – Hamilton, ON — visit on 7-August
OCD — Detroit, MI — workshop on 8-August
Mt. Elliot Makerspace – Detroit, MI — workshop on 9-August
I3 — Detroit, MI — workshop on 10-August
A2 MechShop — Ann Arbor, MI — visit on 11-August
AHA — Ann Arbor, MI — workshop on 12-August
LVL1/Actors Theatre – Louisville, KY – demo on 13-August
LVL1 — Louisville, KY — workshop on 14-August
Hive13 — Cincinnati, OH — presentation on 17-August
Hive13 — Cincinnati, OH — workshop on 18-August
BloomingLabs — Bloomington, IN — workshop on 19-August
Arch Reactor — St. Louis, MO — workshop on 20-August
KC Mini Maker Faire / CCCKC — Kansas City, MO — Hardware Hacking Area at Faire on 22-August
Quad Cities Co-Lab Hackerspace — Quad Cities, IA/IL – workshop on 24-August
PS:1 — Chicago, IL — workshop on 25-August
Madison BarCamp — Madison, WI — talk on hackerspaces on 28-August
Sector67 – Madison, WI — workshop on 29-August

I wish I had more time, since there are many other hackerspaces that we don’t have time to visit on this trip.

According to google maps, we’ll be driving about 2,400 miles in the car we rented for the month. Road trip!

- Mitch.

CHM chugging along,  people learning to solder. Drawdio demonstration:

LASER:  Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Noisebridge Lasers are in!

Data sheet for the Lasers:

simple test circuit for hooking a unit up to Volksduino

Fenn has been working with the Noisebridge Makerbot to build some parts for his Mini Mendel reprap.

The site includes photos of parts and information about Mini Mendel design improvements.

http://fennetic.net/reprap/

One of the first things people who come to Five Minutes of Fame see is our intro video. What started out as a 10-15 minute jingle to distract people from the fact we weren’t ready wound up taking on a life of its own, and turned into something I’m proud to consider an art form.

We’ve been doing the intro video pretty regularly since moving into the new space at 2169, and decided it would be fun to upload our archives to the web so everyone can enjoy them again, or see ones they missed. We have posted them on the 5MoF blog, and many are accompanied by a summary explaining the intended meanings of the videos as well as background on “just what the hell was I thinking?”.

We’re continuing to upload them over the next day or two (they take *forever* to process), so watch for updates, and keep coming to the event for new ones!

Click here to see the intro videos!

-aestetix

Noisebridge is proud to present Anti/Surveillance Fashion Show at the upcoming Maker Faire in San Mateo. Anti/Surveillance is a runway show exploring the uses of wearables for surveillance, and for hiding from surveillance. We are currently accepting submissions for participation in the show. Constantly under the lens of the camera, fashion is a natural form in which to explore the relationship between surveillance and culture. How are we watched? How do we watch? How do we present ourselves to the eyes of the world? At Maker Faire 2010, May 22-23, we will be presenting Anti/Surveillance, a runway show that explores the role of and our relationship with surveillance in our society. We are looking for submissions covering the range from playful to practical. Do you make accessories that blind CCTV cameras with IR LEDs? Have you imagined makeup that will thwart face detection? Ever built an invisibility coat? Or maybe you just like to put QR codes on all your clothing to make it easier for people to track you. If you are interested in showing wearable work that explores the boundaries of surveillance please submit your work to be included in Anti/Surveillance Fashion Show. To submit your project, please send the following information to fashion@synthesize.us as soon as possible: A photo or short video of your project, or a link to a URL with photo(s) or video(s)

A few sentences describing your project and how it relates to surveillance

How the item is worn on the body, and any physical restrictions on the model wearing it

Any special requirements for care or use of the item

For more information, including a time line, please check out the wiki page.

On April 1, 2010, Marcia Hofmann of the EFF gave a talk on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). She covered the basics of what it is, how to file one, and what the legal implications and ramifications of the process are. Her talk was very insightful and cleared up a lot of common misconceptions people have about the process.

Attached are the presentation she gave, as well as a sample FOIA request if you want to file your own. Video of the talk is forthcoming.

Also, feel free to peruse the EFF FAQ on FOIA for more information: http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/journalists/foia

EFF FOIA Presentation

Example FOIA request

10am: the designated meeting time. Noisebridge is empty. Camera battery on table with a plaintive note requesting someone to find a charger. I find the charger in the adjacent box.

10.27am: Chris arrives with a tiny video camera that arrived overnight for the launch. Nils and Ariel have also showed up in the meantime.

10.47am: donut run. Everybody is here. Assembly and final checks begin. Progress hampered by Saturday morning cartoons playing on the projector and PyCon preparations going on around.

11.27am: vox mode on ham radio working; we think both beacons should be visible. Setting up radio end-to-end test. In parallel, payload has been stencilled, trial assembly under way for final weighing. Cast up to 9 people, with at least three more to join on location.

11.47am: my updates are coming with creepy regularity. Still at Noisebridge; assembly of the multipart, multiplane payload is proving more challenging than expected. No APRS beacons have made it out yet, though this may be due to the poor radio permeability of the building.

12.00pm: the PyCon attendees are being very tolerant of our bellowing back and forth across the room while they're trying to run talks. I'm alternating between shushing people and hiding behind the nearest pillar. Final weight comes in at 4 lbs 5 oz; sadly the stabilizing arms can't take the weight without bowing alarmingly. Rapid replanning of support structure ensues. Still haven't tested the radio gear.

12.21pm: packing up for departure. Drift trajectory estimate looks reasonable for our Alpha launch site.

12.56pm: all three cars on the road, connecting inverters and chargers in the car to top up batteries en route.

1.26pm: stuck in traffic near Livermore. So glamorous.

2pm: arrived at the California Qanat Aqueduct site, waiting for traffic-scattered posse. Made a foursquare location.

2.29pm: wind is blowing in an unfortunate direction. Condoms Meteorological

2.45pm: checking skyvector.com confirms that all the local airfields are reporting winds blowing north or north-east. Ozzy uses his pilot contacts to confirm that high-level winds are still blowing towards the east, so we only need to worry about the lowest 15,000 feet of ascent and descent. We decide to get another 10-15 miles east/south-east before launching.

2.59pm: confusion ensues due to phones redirecting to voicemail and partially meshed radio contact between vehicles - cavalcade count now up to 5, and uncertainty if all heads found seats.

3.02pm - interlude: we're running very late, once again, and although none of the reasons are exactly the same as they were last time, the general problem is that too many individual tasks are still being tweaked, refined (or in some cases started) in the few days before launch. We're deadline driven, but not very good at planning back from the deadline.

4pm: we spot an airstrip on our way south, and decide to try our luck. After a long and frustrating wait while attempts to contact the airstrip owner via friends of friends are made, the BATF (Bar of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) point out that since they have permission to shoot automatic weapons at the airstrip, they feel entitled to grant us permission to launch a balloon. It's on.

4.20pm: ...or is it? The helium cylinder turns out to have been less than half-full. Perhaps a leaky valve that vented gas over the past month? We have the balloon at approximately neutral buoyancy. So... if we remove the skirt from the balloon, we might be able to cobble together a light enough payload to lift, by duct-taping together a G1, radio and camera. Drama!

4.48pm: Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, Blake returns from a foraging expedition with a 73 cu ft cylinder of helium, acquired from a local party balloon filling place. The balloon has lift - next we assemble the entire payload string and see how much excess lift we have. If not enough, we'll have to shave the payload down.

5.09pm: And I thought we launched late last time :P Balloon is filled with all the helium we can get. Electronics are all on, text messages with GPS co-ordinates are coming in; both APRS beacons are being received. Last zip-ties being attached now.

5.24pm: Not enough lift. Luckily, the heaviest camera doesn't work with the lithium batteries that we bought anyway, so we can remove that. The balloon skirt is also being removed. In worse news, after the first few SMSes, the Android fell silent.

5.57pm: Heartache and angst as people's favourite projects are ruthlessly culled to reduce weight. Stand-by Android with old SMS code resurrected in the hope that it will send reliably.

6.53pm: not enough lift to clear the trees with even the most minimal payload. We scrub, clean up, and retire to the nearest hotel for food and consolatory champagne.

Friday night before launch, and once again we start from having no working radio beacons. But unlike last time, we have some seriously impressive looking Sputnik-like payload. One of the major worries from the previous launch was the internal temperature, reported at -21C at one point.

This time, we have a solid block of styrofoam with voids carved into it for individual pieces of equipment, some of which are further wrapped in aluminized mylar for additional insulation; some of which have active heating internally in the form of a power resistor across a 9V battery.

We're optimistic.

Similarly exciting, although we're flying the same APRS tracker as last time, we also have new APRS softmodem code for the Android, meaning that it will alternate transmitting position updates from its internal GPS with the known-working tracker.

That's assuming that we can make it work together sensibly by 10am tomorrow, of course.

Other than that, we have extra cameras, including an IR experiment, and random updated bits and pieces. We may even manage to charge the batteries this time.

Heloooooo Noisebridgers!

Thanks to Zedd, Scott and the rest of our awesome build team our kitchen is nearing completion! (applause) A couple of us have been wanting to celebrate this occasion with an epic day of cooking and we just got reminded that Pi day is coming up on Sunday. Seems like the perfect opportunity to show off our newly finished kitchen.

https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Welcome_To_Our_Kitchen

Before we go off and buy the ingredients needed, we need your help. Our plan was to make burgers, fries, pizza, legendary vegan mac & cheese and of course pie so put your name down on the wiki page if you are planning on attending so we can figure out how much stuff to get.

Food prep will start at 3:14 so come by then and place your order.

See you all Sunday…