sudo-discuss September 2014

sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org

67 participants
157 discussions

Media Alliance event on Oct 19 in the basement? Need point person

by Danny Spitzberg

Hey all, the Omni ballroom working group got a request for a 6–8pm meeting by the Media Alliance on Sunday, Oct 19. That's the same evening as the Naomi Klein event, but because they are merely meeting to talk and maybe watch a short video with an estimated 35-50 people in attendance, I think they might be able to fit in the basement comfortably. Here's everything submitted: Timestamp: 9/20/2014 22:40:59 Contact: Tracy Rosenberg, Media Alliance tracy(a)media-alliance.org 510-684-6853 Name of Event: Bay Area Civil Liberties Coalition Open Meeting Description: BACLC is a coalition of organizations and individuals that works on local and regional responses to mass blanket surveillance by government and law enforcement. This is an open meeting to launch projects and we will screen a 30 minute documentary film. Estimated attendance: 35-50 Start/end time: 10/19/2014 18:00:00–10/19/2014 20:00:00 Public event, free, currently not sponsored by an Omni member group I sent Tracy a very brief email saying "We're reviewing this request and will respond to you this week." Might Sudo be open to sponsoring this event? If so, can someone volunteer to liaise with Tracy to make it happen... noting the ballroom is unavailable, so most likely, in the basement? thanks, warmly, Danny

11 years, 1 month

Re: [sudo-discuss] [omnilogistics] Community Print Studio - Two Announcements

by David Keenan

Here are my thoughts, TIL always said it wanted a printing resource center for the community. It was pitched consistently as a cross between the IPRC in portland and Occucopy, that would provide affordable print and art-making tools to the community - essentially a service bureau on steroids, for everyone, which sounded awesome. I realize this printing collective is still in a state of becoming, but $100/pp/mo is e.g. a lot more than the $55/pp/year the IPRC charges, and seems like a pretty high bar to any kind of community involvement. One worry I have about this project in its current state is, from the description it sounds like six(?) independent, unnamed 'presses' (businesses?) like TIL who it seems banded together to have a place to print their own stuff, and perhaps less so really to provide resources to the larger community. That's not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but I would like some clarity on this point, since I have no idea who these other 5 businesses besides TIL even are, or how big these businesses are, how many people are involved with them, etc. And then I have a hard time understanding how offering one day a week of being open for actual community use and the rest for private business use, enough to qualify the project as fundamentally community-oriented. I had also hoped accompanying the amazing machines, that there would be a companion area of more pedestrian equipment like a couple pre-press workstations, tabloid printers, letter laser printers and copy machines could be made available to those who simply need to make flyers for social justice events etc quickly and cheaply that would maybe, not cost them $100/mo? You know, kind of like Occucopy provided.. But maybe that's coming - I'm not saying they're not moving fast enough. I just wonder where the space and planning *is* for those machines, that will probably get a lot more use from the community at large than a C&P? It seems like that's not part of the plan anymores.. is that true? Basically there are several still-unanswered aspects about the structure and application of this print collective that have little to do with how awesome printing machines are, how awesome the idea is, how awesome the people involved are, and everything to do with simply being fair to *other* collectives, with respect to distribution of space, rent and expenses that all of the collectives in the building must negotiate. IE this application must be looked at in context of what other collectives are paying and how they are using shared space too, not just on the merits of the printing collective alone and what it offers in isolation. I also think there is a lot of pressure built into this proposal, possibly unintended but still there, to agree to everything it says and STFU, because this brand-new collective has already moved all their machines down there prior to making themselves known, so it doesn't feel like the Omni collective has much room to have a say about it. It is certainly not the normal procedure of like, actually deciding on whether a group should move in and what they should contribute BEFORE they move in. Not after, as if its just some kind of formality.. If any of these 5 other businesses that have collectivized together to use their machines in the basement are incorporated, they may have to have individual legal agreements (leases of some sort) with OOC directly. I'm not sure actually, but I suspect that may be in order for OOC decisions made at meetings to trump innate tenant rights laws, and in order that insurance liability be binding, etc. With respect to TIL subletting its upstairs office that was mentioned at the meeting, that could totally break our collective structure and is not OK in my view. Subletting is so ripe with problems that undermine collectivity I can't even begin to count them all. Rather the expectation should be, if TIL needs less space in that office, then they can rent a desk or 2 in there from the OOC, and those other individuals / businesses they share that office with will be their full equals in there, also as tenants, with the same rights and responsibilities, subject to the same acceptance process and legally binding agreements as every other tenant in the OOC. In the OOC, there is equality amongst tenants, that seems fundamental to me. New tenants, groups or businesses in the OOC should be a group decision, not one person's or a single group's. Right? Also with respect to TIL curating shared spaces in the omni, i would say, please, be sure to let everyone in the omni co-curate all the shared spaces with you, if that is cool. Friendly amendments: I propose this proposal be split into two proposals - one with regards to TIL and its rent reduction, including its desire to sublet its upstairs office one with regards to the print collective & its space, rent, structure, etc. I see no reason why one proposal should depend on the other. Questions: 0. Would the collective be willing to turn on the machines and use them during the Thursday delegates meeting so we can hear how loud (or not) they are? 1. What are the intended operating hours of this collective? 2. What is the collective structure of this group. How are decisions made? 3. Does this group have open membership - can anyone join and use all the machines, provided they are adequately trained? 4. Aside from TIL, what are the names of the six other presses/businesses that appear to largely comprise this group, and who is involved in them? 5. What business or person legally owns which machines in the basement? 6. Is this collective intended to be run as a business (be it a nonprofit or for-profit), or is this a collective that seeks to make access to their machines as affordable and available as possible to our community? IE, if your membership grows and gross revenue rises: - will your member dues go down from $100/pp/mo? - or will you simply buy more machines and continue to expand into the basement? - will someone profit? If so, who? - Do you have any thoughts about paying more rent to Omni if your membership increases? Going with the sliding-scale rental formula of the omni, based on affordability and ability to pay. 6. Given you can only afford $600 and you apparently have over ten members paying $100/ea, how did you come up with the $600 figure? 7. It was mentioned at the meeting that running a print studio was 'incredibly expensive'. Given that the print collective will not be paying more in utilities than say BAPS, who has, increasingly worryingly, no dedicated space (and no huge power-slurping machines), I am wondering what these incredible expenses are. Are you putting consumables like paper and ink that will get made into things that will be presumably sold, in the same category as e.g. power or water as an operating expense, when consumables might also be called the raw materials for a commodity? Are you counting the purchase of the machines, or the one-time moving costs of the machines into the basement, as an ongoing expense? What are these ongoing, super high expenses, ie how much exactly do they cost? What's the actual budget? 8. Would the collective and its component participating businesses be willing to disclose financial statements on a regular basis to assess rent affordability? 9. Excepting TIL & Laura D., who from the printing collective has done any work on the Omni, or participates in any working groups or work on the omni, aside from organizing and moving their own printing gear? (I do realize that was a hell of a lot of work, but I'd like to know, since generally I never see any of em in the building nor the machines used.) 10. Does the printing collective know how much rent we are collecting, vs what we will owe in total, come Oct 1? IE does the collective have any sense at all of the Omni's total financial responsibility? 11. If the machines are too loud for a class to take place simultaneously, does the collective intend to ask BAPS and other collectives not to use the basement during their work time? 12. Does it seem a fair distribution of the rent burden that for example a collective we just met last week who has done no work on the Omni, receive 1/3 of the basement for a little more than half the rent BAPS pays, who comparatively has no dedicated space? Is it fair that Rise Above, with more expenses per person, pay $1000 for less space? 13. Does the printing collective believe in a financial model in which member rosters soar and more people use the omni, but rental income stays exactly the same, in a period in which we are not actually making rent? Sorry if I come off as a hardass about this but I am mostly repeating things I heard all week David On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 9:15 PM, yar <yardenack(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 8:52 PM, ▽ ∞ ✳︎ > <forever(a)timelessinfinitelight.com> wrote: > > *We will bring forth a revised Community Print Studio proposal to Omni > > soon, which we would like to make a decision on during the October 2nd > > delegate meeting*. This proposal will address concerns regarding space, > > noise, and communality that were brought up during the last meeting. > > I just want to say that I'm at the CPS meeting right now and they've > all been really generous and helpful and I believe that we will figure > out something. It's really just a tough space logistics problem about > how to orient the machines in the least intrusive way and maximize > common/shared space. The machines need to somehow be ventilated, > eventually soundproofed, and have a radius of empty space to work > around. We will need more time just to solve this geometry problem, > and that's mainly what's holding up the proposal right now. > > In the meantime Kate & I started a wiki page to document all the > existing and forthcoming machines, their dimensions, what their needs > are: http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Print_Studio >

11 years, 1 month

Biohackers Discuss: Ebola! this evening at 7pm.

by Patrik D'haeseleer

Does the Ebola epidemic in Africa have you freaked out yet? Ebola is all over the press with pictures reminiscent of a true pandemic. We've been following the news and have been sifting out facts from fears. Join us this evening at 7pm in CCL, and we'll help you separate the hype from the science, and the fearmongering from the human tragedy. Bring your questions as we talk about how scientists and epidemiologists examine outbreaks. We will show you how you can help with the relief effort in the countries hit by Ebola - and maybe even in studying the virus! *Biohackers Discuss: Ebola! <http://www.meetup.com/Counter-Culture-Labs/events/207834272/>* Patrik

11 years, 1 month

Re: [sudo-discuss] robot hacking - help crack the code!

by Jake

last night I plugged a second serial port into the 3d printing computer and connected it to the robot's floppy drive - and then wrote a program to man-in-the-middle the conversation between the two. read 123.JBI from disk: http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/read123.log delete 123.JBI: http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/delete123.log save 124.JBI: (a copy of 123.JBI) http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/save124.log read 124.JBI from disk: http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/read124.log if you do a diff of read123.log and read124.log you will see the slight differences in the packets. Note that the file creation times are different, not just the filenames, in packets mentioning that info. the most succinct examples are these: disk: \x02\x13\x00LST0001123.JBI \x00\xfc disk: \x02\x13\x00LST0001124.JBI \xff\xfb yasnac: \x02\x0f\x00FRD123.JBI \xdc\xfc yasnac: \x02\x0f\x00FRD124.JBI \xdb\xfc the escape codes (starting with \x) are two-character hexadecimal codes for unprintable characters. This is how python does it, which means you can copy these strings directly into python, for example, to test a theory on how they are checksummed. Like this: print sum([ord(c) for c in '\x02\x13\x00LST0001123.JBI \x00\xfc']) that will give you the 8-bit checksum, but that's not what it's using. perhaps it's a 16-bit checksum? if we figure this out, we can write programs for the robot with our own computers and upload them to it, by pretending that we are its disk drive. i looked through this doc but did not find the info we need at this point: http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/479236-17-Communications.pdf poc||gtfo: https://github.com/jerkey/yasnac/blob/master/src/mitm.py -jake

11 years, 1 month

Server racks need to be temporarily covered TODAY

by David Keenan

The roofer did not do the last skylight b/c the server rack was exposed. He is coming back tomorrow at 8am to do it, so the servers need to be covered. My reccomendation is to take a piece of plywood or one of the spare hollow core doors under the stage, and cover it with that. (It is ok to use the new, clean piece of plywood if it is not cut and we can put it back where it lives tomorrow afternoon.) The roofer also left some tarps for us in case we wanted to use those, which are left on the railing of the server platform. Please - DO NOT RELOCATE these tarps? As they must be returned to the roofer tomorrow. They can be used to cover the servers if need be - they shouldn't really go down the floor though as the servers will then overheat. I guess they can go down a bit over the cool side, but not the hot side. :) David

11 years, 1 month

Proposal for temporary tenant in one basement office

by D. Scott Nanos

Dear fam, please take a moment to consider this proposal, I really think it will be great for everyone! I'm going to add the top portion to the riseup pad later tonight. Love, Scott _____________________________________________ Proposal: To provisionally rent out the small office (closest to shattuck) located inside the basement reading room to the forthcoming music/recording collective (temporarily titled "Omni Music Project", or "OMP"), for 400$/month, which, once the collective has finished soundproofing the space, will be a common room again. During the first *3* months of tenancy (this proposal is only for a tenancy, and specific # of months can be decided before approval,) the OMP will be working, solely, on soundproofing the ballroom at no cost to the OOC, provided that the OOC pay for the materials (for the ballroom only), and that the OOC allows the OMP, at no cost, to throw a large fund-raiser concert in the ballroom upon completion, in order to help get the collective off the ground. This particular labor will be organized as the "ballroom soundproofing wg" or something similar, and will be open to any/all OOC members. The OMP also requests, as a condition to this provis. proposal for tenancy, that the OOC not rent out the rest of the office spaces, since the OMP eventually plans to use one as a control room (that can still be used for small meetings etc. by OOC members), and keep the rest as completely free common spaces (ex: classrooms for BAPS, meeting rooms, quiet rooms). It should be noted that, while keeping these spaces common, the two other offices could still generate revenue for the omni (ex: a physical therapist or acupuncturist could rent out one of the office spaces for 5 hours, one day a week. Once soundproofed, these rooms will be really conducive for prospective tenants like those mentioned above.) [end of proposal] ________________________________________________ More Information about the OMP: During these first *3* months, the OMP will have a weekly meeting devoted to figuring out the details of our internal organization, and begin planning for acoustically treating and soundproofing the basement reading room. Some things are already set in stone (to the extent that any open collective can set anything in stone): Organization: 1. this collective will be completely open. Anyone can join by *paying* monthly dues of $100 and coming to the weekly organizing meeting. In order to accommodate as many folks as possible, dues can be paid not only in cash, but in labor hours. a sliding scale of monthly dues would look something like this: (the exact numbers are TBD) 1. $100/mo and weekly meeting attendance 2. $50/mo " " + 2 hrs labor/week 3. $25/mo " " + 4 hrs labor/week 4. $0/mo " " + 8 hours labor/week labor hours that will go towards monthly dues must be evenly distributed between work for the music collective and work for the OOC at large (ex: a tier 2 member would contribute 1 hr work/week for omni and 1 hr work/week for music collective). furthermore, the OMP will have a financial aid process, so as to make the collective conducive to anyone who wants to be a part of it. Ex: if someone wanted to be part of OMP who works 40 hrs a week at a low-paying job, takes care of a child, and couldn't afford to pay any money, we would not ask them to work 8 hours a week in order to be a part of the collective. 2. In addition to paying dues, members will need to take free (and/or donation based,) classes (or test out,) in order to have access to instruments, live sound equip, and recording equip. This access structure will be split up into two groups, and members are free to be part of both groups. The first *access group* will be really easy and accessible, requiring perhaps only one free/donation class on how to wrap mic cables, properly handle amps, etc. Upon completion, members of this group will have unrestricted access to the Omni's communal instruments as well as the OMP's live sound cables, amplifiers, live mics, and can use the basement reading room as a rehearsal space (provided there are no BAPS classes, etc. that need to use room). The basement reading room will also be hardwired with two room mics, connected to an easy to use 2- or 4-track recorder, which will allow any member of the collective to make live demo recordings, on-the-fly, inside the basement reading room. This small-scale recording system will also be public access, allowing for OOC members (who aren't part of OMP) to make recordings of classes, reading groups, important meetings etc. The second group would involve access to the above but also include unrestricted access to the control room soundboard and the higher end recording equipment. This would require *5* more free/donation classes (or test outs), that would train members on recording software, hardware, and proper care of control room equipment. While anyone in the OOC who needs it (ex: for a small meeting) can have access to the control room, only people who have gone through this training will have unrestricted access to the control room equipment. The need for this differentiation in access is to ensure that expensive equipment doesn't get unnecesarrily damaged, and to allow folks who aren't interested in recording to quickly utilize everything else the OMP will offer. 3. The OMP, through BAPS, will provide *1-2* free classes that will support the development of the OMP but also be fun for everyone. One example of this will be "instrument and music/sound equipment repair" class, in which folks attending can bring in their own broken equipment to repair, or help repair lots of broken donated equipment that the OMP will need to fix in order to become fully operational. 4. The OMP plans to share all work tasks/roles between all collective members on a consistent, rotating basis. Ex: a member of OMP would be responsible for cleaning and organizing the space, then switch to bookkeeping a *week* later, then be assigned to scheduling after that. This will help to avoid organizational hierarchies and promote transparency inside the collective. 5. All profits will be shared equally amongst every active member of OMP. In addition to fundraising, the OMP will generate capital by providing recording (and possibly mastering, production,) services to bands, musicians, etc. OMP will employ a "three thirds" model for dispersing money generated from the sales of each recording: 1/3 to recording artist(s) 1/3 to a specific community service, advocacy group, non-profit, etc. 1/3 to OMP Use of Space: The OMP plans on soundproofing and beautifying the entire basement reading room and all three office spaces, which will all be common spaces, and none of these modifications will change the current functions. However, one office space, which will serve as the studio's control room, will undoubtedly be less useful to the OOC at large, due to the size of the soundboard, speakers, computers and other equipment etc, but it will have a comfy couch and be really great for small meetings, phone meetings, quiet reading, etc. The work that will be done by OMP to the basement reading room will actually improve the current functions of the space, allowing for multiple BAPS classes to occur at once (ex: one in an office, one in the reading room,) and provide more quiet and intimacy for folks wanting to use the space for meetings, reading, and working. The OMP will also build two modular bookshelves on wheels that will live inside the basement reading room. This will benefit everyone! The basement reading room will house more books, the room will be even quiter, and the OMP can use these bookshelves as go-bos (go-betweens) to use for live recording during available hours. Plus they will look super cool. A few additional bookshelves along the walls may also be added or built into the reading room, at no cost to the OOC. As far as scheduling, the OMP is confident that there will be some limited daytime hours available for recording, but, even if this can't be achieved, the basement reading room will be so thoroughly soundproofed that all recording and live music could easilly take place between the hours of 10pm-10am. The OMP will also provide the OOC with another upright piano, which will be accessible to anyone and live somewhere in the basement reading room. This will help greatly in ensuring space for OOC members to have meetings and work in the ballroom, since anyone playing unscheduled music in the ballroom can easilly relocate to the basement. In order to ensure modularity and common space in the basement reading room, the OMP will very likely need to secure a small, lockable closet in the basement. If space permits, this closet could also be used for other items, non-OMP related. Ballroom Recordings: The OMP also plans to hardwire the Ballroom for live recording at no cost to the OOC. This will be used for: 1. recording live events and concerts in the ballroom 2. renting the ballroom out for live recording purposes (non-event related) since this will be provided by both the OOC and the OMP (ballroom space and recording equip.), the OMP would like to split the money earned from these services with the OOC, at a percentage to be determined at a later date. These services will help to provide additional money for both the OOC and OMP, since, once completed, the OOC can offer to provide a HQ recording of every ballroom event, at a reasonable cost to the renter determined on a case-by-case basis (ex: cheap/free for sponsored events, more expensive for high-profile lectures and concerts). The OMP would also like to store copies of all recordings in order to start a public "Omni Sound Archive", or to provide copies of all recordings to someone(s) in the OOC interested in undertaking such a project. What the OOC gets: -Free Soundproofing of the Ballroom and Basement Reading Rooms (+ offices) [OOC pays for cost of materials for ballroom only] -additional cash-flow for OOC by offering to make HQ recordings of rental events in the ballroom -beautification and improvement of functionality of the basement reading room -2 modular bookshelves for the basement reading room -another piano for the basement reading room -free classes thru BAPS -an omni sound archive -a sheet music, music theory, and music lit. library -possibility for a radio/podcast set-up (which could still be a sudo project but take place in OMP control room) -a ready-to-use, public access recording setup in basement reading room for meetings, reading groups, classes -a new music/recording collective that ANYONE can join, complete with a fully functional professional recording studio/rehearsal space, -$400 a month starting ASAP, which will increase when the OMP eventually proposes to become a voting member of the OOC

11 years, 1 month

Please donate to Ada Initiative to support hacker and makerspace women!

by Liz Henry

Hello sudo-ers! I'm writing to ask you to donate to Ada Initiative as part of my campaign to make hacker and maker spaces a more welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for all women! Here is my post about how Ada Initiative was a catalyst for Double Union: http://bookmaniac.org/make-hackerspaces-better-support-ada-initiative/ I respect your work at sudo room in making it a safer space for women and other under-represented people in our community. I wonder if you would like to have a look at Ada Initiative's resources? Please donate! Here is the direct donation link: https://supportada.org/?campaign=hackerspaces I am shooting for a goal of $4096 and will match the first $1028 if the goal is reached! HACKERSPACE POWER! Best, Liz p.s. Tomorrow, Wed. afternoon from 4-6pm, I am hosting a Hackability meetup at Double Union. You are welcome to come by! We are going to test drive a prototype WHILL powerchair, talk about our wheelchair and mobility/accessibility hacks and modifications, and make plans for future hack days to work on our accessibility and mobility related projects. http://doubleunion.tumblr.com/post/97665817909/sept-24-4pm-hackability-meet… -- Liz Henry lizhenry(a)gmail.com "Electric ladies will you sleep or will you preach?" -- Janelle Monae "Without models, it's hard to work; without a context, difficult to evaluate; without peers, nearly impossible to speak." -- Joanna Russ

11 years, 1 month

DK's phone = perma-dead

by David Keenan

very cool looking obliteration, but in case anyone needed to get ahold of me I wanted everyone to know that my phone is no more. Extremely smashed-o. I'll letcha know when I have a new one. I'll be at omni tomorrow afternoon on through the evening. Love, love love d

11 years, 1 month

skylights in Bocce ball court

by Patrik D'haeseleer

Surprise, surprise - the skylights in CCL are already done! So much for making sure everything got safely moved to the side... Patrik

11 years, 1 month

Proposal: quiet time reading group (free of internet)

by Romy Ilano

Hi, I read an article in the newspaper about the popularity of reading groups. Their focus is on reading a book/pdf/print for a focused 30 minutes. No internet surfing, no computer monitors if possible (unless you're reading an ebook). I'd like to do something similar at SudoRoom. Is anyone interested? It could be for 30 minutes this Thursday evening from 6:00-6:30pm. ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

11 years, 1 month

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sudo-discuss September 2014