- sudo-discuss - sudoroom.org

by Hol Gaskill

Hi Folks, Almost done w/ PCB design. That's an ATMega328p processor and a ULN2003 for power output up to 3.5 amps out of the box. Still need to add some connectors for I2C and 12V, 5V. I usually use SAE connectors http://www.vetco.net/catalog/images/G-QD-10-2.jpg for my 12V loads but we could solder on a barrel jack, or just ship it with holes for DIY soldering of connectors. Suggestions? Cheers, Hol

12 years, 3 months

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sudoroom 3D printer back online!

by Jake

last night I replaced the hotend on the sudoroom type-a-machine 3d printer. after that i spent a bit of time attempting to print and kept running into problems, which i'll list. it seems that some of the PLA we have that came from type A machines is clearly labeled to be printed at 190-220 degrees! I have always used 185, but i guess this is a new formula. When i set it to 205 it still seemed too cold, so i ended up using 220. You should set the temperature in the slic3r before you export your gcode. There are other ways to do it, but if you know them you don't need me to tell you. the other issue is that our spools of filament are dusty! it's gross. And all that dust goes into the extruder and jams it up. The nozzle is only 0.35mm diameter! so clean the filament spool first (DO NOT GET PLA WET) and keep a dust-catcher on the filament before it goes into the machine. I put one on there last night. something like this would be fine, if we had the right foam, but for now i just cut some acrylic fabric and wrapped it around the filament with some copper wire to hold it on there. It should work but check it once in a while, or when changing spools. someone had put tape over the old tape on the platform in a very chaotic and haphazard way. Also there were a few melted spots on the platform where a hot extruder had been rammed into the platform and created a little vulcano. I carved the raised spots off the platform with a flat-edged blade, leveling them off, and then i re-arranged the tape properly so there is NO OVERLAPPING OF TAPE and only one layer of tape. It is necessary to maintain the platform any time you're trying to print if it is not already good to go. I didn't re-level the platform so if someone else wants to do that go ahead. It seemed a bit higher on the left than on the right. I like to get a perfectly cylindrical object and adjust the z-height so it just barely rolls under the extruder tip, and then try in four corners of the platform to compare the height. now join the sudo-prints mailing list! http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-prints -jake

12 years, 3 months

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sudoroom mailinglist just for printers!

by Jake

Sudoroom has so many printers, it's hard to keep track! 2D printers, 3D printers, label printers, and even screenprinters! there's some sort of weird flyer-duplicating machine that makes only green ink but is really cheap to use, there's that new fancy COLOR laser printer... so here is a new list, sudo-prints(a)lists.sudoroom.org if you know how to use one of the printers at sudoroom, including the CNC machine (hey it can print in wood) please subscribe to this list! then we can put labels on all the sudo printers that say "have questions about using this machine? noticed something you think others should know? do you know how to use it and want to help others? write to sudo-prints(a)lists.sudoroom.org !!!" your present for joining this list is that you get to hear about the sudoroom 3d printer, latest news, a post that i will write right now. -jake

12 years, 3 months

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Re: [sudo-discuss] Sudouino328 PCB Design

by Jake

Hi Hol, I have lots of opinions and advice about this design, but i would like more info about the state of the project first. For example i am curious whether this thing will have a USB port or use the 6-pin serial header like a Boarduino. I have a bunch of Atmega32U4 chips that you can use for this project. True that they are surfacemount but it's not harder to do than through-hole, in fact it can be much easier even for newbies. I have syringes of solder paste, although it can be done with regular solder easily. here's a video of someone doing it with hot air (note: they fool around with the narrow stream of hot air, but you can just do it in a blast with a regular hotair gun in much less time) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2Z7nCAxS2Rg#t=548 the nice thing about the atmega32U4 chips (besides the fact that I will donate them to the project for free) is that they have native USB, which means your boards can plug straight into a computer like an arduino leonardo. Also they will be able to pretend to be other devices, like a keyboard, mouse, printer, disk, or whatever you want. specifically about the SAE connectors, I am against them. I think the board should just have 1/8" holes for wires to be soldered into. -jake Hol wrote: Almost done w/ PCB design. That's an ATMega328p processor and a ULN2003 for power output up to 3.5 amps out of the box. Still need to add some connectors for I2C and 12V, 5V. I usually use SAE connectors http://www.vetco.net/catalog/images/G-QD-10-2.jpg for my 12V loads but we could solder on a barrel jack, or just ship it with holes for DIY soldering of connectors. Suggestions?

12 years, 3 months

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Fwd: hackerspace burn-out

by Chris Bee

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Chris Bee <hotelcompany(a)gmail.com> Date: Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 12:03 AM Subject: Re: [sudo-discuss] hackerspace burn-out To: Romy Snowyla <romy(a)snowyla.com> I agree with everything on that list, and speaking for myself I think I deal with those issues well enough...I'm pretty good at compartmentalization, and can recognize when the issue lies within me and not assign blame or heat where it's neither needed nor warranted. But... I'd like to add "failure to grasp or acknowledge the DIY aspect of hackerspaces." This is directed towards people (NOT sudoers) who seem to regard sudo as a go-to for broken shit that they have no intention of fixing themselves...I don't mind helping people as long as a) they want to be involved with the process of getting their gear working again and b) don't expect me to put whatever I'm doing at the moment on hold to give them my undivided attention. This has probably happened to all of us at one point or another...I'm getting better at setting boundaries but sometimes I feel like I have to be short with people who I really don't want to alienate but who simply aren't going to get the message any other way. One thing I've started doing is wearing a large pair of headphones, which is a cue I picked up from juul....if that doesn't send a clear signal that "I'm here temporally but somewhere else psychically" then I figure it's okay for me to let whoever is trying to drag me into their project what's really going on. -chrisbee On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 5:30 PM, Romy Snowyla <romy(a)snowyla.com> wrote: > Unrealistic expectations > One bad evening improperly distorting perception of hackerspace as a whole > Lack of sleep > Unrealistic understanding of basic human social dynamics > Personal conflicts > > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Dec 17, 2013, at 2:23 PM, Craig Rouskey <craigrouskey(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > What are the causes of burnout? > > > On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 2:08 PM, Romy Ilano <romy(a)snowyla.com> wrote: > >> we all go through cycles of hackerspace burn out. >> >> would it be nice to have a 2 minute therapy session on dealing with it? >> my hackerspace burn out cycles follow my life. It's easy to be cynical and >> burned out if you overdo things, or if you don't communicate - i think i'm >> back on the up and up though! >> >> >> ============================= >> >> Romy Ilano >> romy(a)snowyla.com >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> sudo-discuss mailing list >> sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org >> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > sudo-discuss mailing list > sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org > http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss > >

12 years, 3 months

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New sudoroom t shirt test (color from on demand start up zazzle)

by Romy Snowyla

Hi I got the new test sudoroom zazzle shirt. It was about $24 Advantages Looks nice People can choose the exact color fit and style - huge problem for small people like me since most shirts are too big Fast! I got this up and printed in a week with minimal time and effort I didn't have to put any up front costs and I'm broke so that's nice We don't have to deal with shipping or inventory Disadvantages Very small profit for sudoroom : we'd make $2-3 a shirt Tied to a commercial service T shirts are all new and cost $20-30 So we can't use used clothes stencils or mass producs on cheap $2 a pop hanes shirts It's not silkscreen Sent from my iPhone

12 years, 3 months

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the bike situation @ sudo

by Chris Bee

Hey sudologists- It seems that we have become a locus of sorts for bikes in various states of disrepair, and they're starting to pile up in sudo. Until we (or I) can get on top of the situation, can we keep the bike population where it's at by holding off on donations/projects for the time being? Or, can we come up with a better storage solution for the less likely candidates for immediate rehabilitation? We're currently at seven bikes in sudo proper, which is awesome on one hand but slightly overwhelming on the other. (side note to Jenny- this does not apply to you, I agreed to help you with your fuzzy blue Grover bike and that's still on...I'm currently waiting on the tools to get 'er done. Inshallah.) -chrisbee

12 years, 3 months

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datashield power strip is shite

by Jake

I plugged my laptop into this weird power strip thingy, a Datashield Model 85, that is from the Beige era of computing. i noticed a while later that it was not powered - so i hit the reset button on the power strip, and it clicked and came back on. after the third time i figured it was no good, and needed to be repaired and not used until then, so i was going to unplug it. But i saw something else was plugged into it, from far away via an extension cord. The new color laser printer! Oh Noes!! the poor printer was getting turned on and off repeatedly due to this bullshit powerstrip thing. So if the laser printer is upset now, it may be because of repeated on and off, which they don't like. I recommend it be plugged into a reliable power socket, so it can be on or off, and if left on it can go to sleep without being suddenly off and on again all the time. -jake

12 years, 3 months

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A College Kid Couldn't Afford a 3D Printer, So He Built One Himself

by Eden In Oakland

http://mashable.com/2013/12/20/deltaprintr-3d-printer/?utm_cid=mash-com-g+-… A College Kid Couldn't Afford a 3D Printer, So He Built One Himself Deltaprintr Makes 3D Printing Affordable Show As List By Samantha Murphy Kelly1 day ago When college student Shai Schechter didn't have access to an affordable 3D printer on his SUNY Purchase campus in New York, he set out to build his own model — one that would still crank out 3D-printed objects, but at a much lower cost. "We have a laser- and powder-based 3D printer at school, but it costs about $500 for a bucket of powder and that only lasts for about one or two prints," Schechter said. "It's never used because it is so expensive and classes weren’t offered that much in the curriculum." He approached his sculpture professor about building a new 3D printer that uses plastic instead, and sought the help of three good friends. Schecter and his business partners launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring their low-cost design to the masses; the project nearly sold out of preorders in the first week alone. While a new MakerBot 3D printer costs $2,000, the Deltraprintr is significantly less: $475 unassembled or $685 assembled. It's available in two sizes, either 2 feet high (large) or 2.5 feet (extra large). "We are targeting educational institutions first, so people can learn how to assemble them," Schecter said. "When you buy a MakerBot, and you read a manual about how to use it, you don't learn a lot about how the printer and technology works. This is why we are offering the assembly manual on Kickstarter, too — we want people to really get their hands on it." The Deltaprintr uses three stepper motors, located under the acrylic platform where the objects are printed. Motors control the carriages that move the hot end and ultimately create the 3D-printed objects. Since a Deltaprintr design doesn't rqeuire as many parts as other 3D printers, the savings are passed on to consumers. "MakerBot uses belts to move the print head, but ours uses a fishing line," Schechter said. "With the fishing line, you can expand it to make it taller if you want by changing the aluminum rods. It allows it to go faster than the MakerBot and is more accurate. It allows it to go faster than the MakerBot and is more accurate." Although the Deltaprintr team is focusing on getting the product off the ground as an educational tool, it's eying the mass market, too. "We want it to have a place in education, but it's still for the everyday user," Schechter said. "We have a lot of ideas that we plan to execute in the next year to make the Deltaprintr even better and lower the cost even more." Image: Mashable, Christina Ascani Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. BONUS: I 3D Printed a Gun Topics: 3D, 3d printer, 3D printing, Apps and Software, Gadgets, kickstarter, Tech

12 years, 3 months

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A College Kid Couldn't Afford a 3D Printer, So He Built One Himself

by Eden In Oakland

http://mashable.com/2013/12/20/deltaprintr-3d-printer/?utm_cid=mash-com-g+-… A College Kid Couldn't Afford a 3D Printer, So He Built One Himself Deltaprintr Makes 3D Printing Affordable Show As List By Samantha Murphy Kelly1 day ago When college student Shai Schechter didn't have access to an affordable 3D printer on his SUNY Purchase campus in New York, he set out to build his own model — one that would still crank out 3D-printed objects, but at a much lower cost. "We have a laser- and powder-based 3D printer at school, but it costs about $500 for a bucket of powder and that only lasts for about one or two prints," Schechter said. "It's never used because it is so expensive and classes weren’t offered that much in the curriculum." He approached his sculpture professor about building a new 3D printer that uses plastic instead, and sought the help of three good friends. Schecter and his business partners launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring their low-cost design to the masses; the project nearly sold out of preorders in the first week alone. While a new MakerBot 3D printer costs $2,000, the Deltraprintr is significantly less: $475 unassembled or $685 assembled. It's available in two sizes, either 2 feet high (large) or 2.5 feet (extra large). "We are targeting educational institutions first, so people can learn how to assemble them," Schecter said. "When you buy a MakerBot, and you read a manual about how to use it, you don't learn a lot about how the printer and technology works. This is why we are offering the assembly manual on Kickstarter, too — we want people to really get their hands on it." The Deltaprintr uses three stepper motors, located under the acrylic platform where the objects are printed. Motors control the carriages that move the hot end and ultimately create the 3D-printed objects. Since a Deltaprintr design doesn't rqeuire as many parts as other 3D printers, the savings are passed on to consumers. "MakerBot uses belts to move the print head, but ours uses a fishing line," Schechter said. "With the fishing line, you can expand it to make it taller if you want by changing the aluminum rods. It allows it to go faster than the MakerBot and is more accurate. It allows it to go faster than the MakerBot and is more accurate." Although the Deltaprintr team is focusing on getting the product off the ground as an educational tool, it's eying the mass market, too. "We want it to have a place in education, but it's still for the everyday user," Schechter said. "We have a lot of ideas that we plan to execute in the next year to make the Deltaprintr even better and lower the cost even more." Image: Mashable, Christina Ascani Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. BONUS: I 3D Printed a Gun Topics: 3D, 3d printer, 3D printing, Apps and Software, Gadgets, kickstarter, Tech

12 years, 3 months

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Peer Production Project

by Eddan Katz

Hi Sudo folk. Happy Holidays. Hope everyone's getting some quality time with friends and family. and Happy New Year to those of you already heading off somewhere for vacation. 2141 Broadway Looking ahead to 2014, this email is about buying and rental possibilities for the current building 2135-2143 Broadway with actual numbers. If you'd like to get in touch with the landlords directly, you can email Laurie Cooperman Rosen at lscoop(a)comcast.net; or call George Rosen at 510-504-4259. I wanted to update everyone on a meeting Matt & I had with the landlord earlier this month about the possibilities regarding renting/selling/co-op equity of the building where Sudo Room and the Bay Area Public School are currently located. Matt - please correct any of the information that I may have missed or gotten wrong in the inset text below. Since the Bay Area Public School and Sudo Room may (or may not) imminently be moving to the Omni or other location, a new list has been created to further discussion and coalition-building that will continue to take place in the current space at http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/hall. This proposal, to be very clear, does not and will not interfere with any of those plans to move nor with plans to stay at the current location decided by the collective of collectives. Below are the notes regarding how much the southern section of the 2143-2145 Broadway have been rented for in the past, how much they're willing to rent each room individually, the whole floor as a whole, and a graduated occupancy/rate proposal that gives time to attract other potential collaborators visiting the space, and getting a reduced price for the rental of that whole section of $6,500/month for 3 months. Otherwise, according to the proposal discussed, rental of the floor will go up to the market rental price of $8,500 at the end of that 3 months. The other option that has been discussed is putting together a co-op sale where groups and individuals can buy equity in that section of the building, either as a real estate transaction, or as crowd-funding equity shares. Group and individual ownership will participate in any profits and in the governance of the building. Peer Production / Sudo Hall The resulting community will be provisionally called Peer Production. In order to honor the pivotal role that Sudo Room and the other people that first moved into this building have accomplished for the community, the proposed discussion list will be called Sudo Hall. It will also be a priority of the Peer Production project to reach out to the innovative and inspiring stories of the other tenants that are already in the building - including Sound Room, Uptown Kitchen, Yummmeee, and the Pan Theater, among others. In terms of values, integrating with the community we're in and remaining inclusive to attract a broad spectrum of types of people will take priority over political posturing and ideological orthodoxy. The community invitation to join is intended to be welcoming to for-profit, non-profit, small partnership, crowd-fund equity start-up, cooperative corporation, and any other structure under which people best think they can get done what they want to achieve. The objective of Peer Production {Sudo Hall} still aspires to the core of Sudo Room's early description: Doing stuff together to make our community more openly accessible. Peer Production, I believe, is the common thread of the innovative and socially conscious projects that have emerged. If you'd like to talk about this further or just find out what's going on - you can join the Sudo Hall mailing list at http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/hall. We'll take it offline from the sudo-discuss list, but I just wanted to let folks know that this discussion just got started. First order of business is getting more photos and more data about the place. Sudo Room has started a good page at https://sudoroom.org/wiki/2141_Broadway and hopefully there can be more valuable and useful information that will be available through Peer Production and Sudo Hall. > 2135-2143 Broadway > Dec. 6, 2013. 5pm. > > George Rosen. > Matt Senate. > Eddan Katz. > > ---- > Sudo-Hall > > University used to pay $14,000 for the whole floor. > EBMC paid $6,500. 8% annual increase. > > Sudo Room. $1500 > Robert. $1,000 > Dance Studio. $1,100 > Public School. $950. > Room next to it. $950. > Yellow Room $2,500. > Corner Room. $2,200. (access to roof). > > total now at $8,500. > willing to do $6,500. > > > ---- > extra notes > building $5.3 million. > 1.2 million fees. > > Buy - income stream. $4 million for whole building. > > losing $65,000 per year by them being empty. > > $1 million selling price for Sudo Hall wing. > > > Need to do pictures of rooms. & sq. ft. > send photos. > Non-profit rental. > > $6,500 x 3 mos. > whole floor - to start with - $13,000. >

12 years, 3 months

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Happy t shirts and decentralized sudoroom processes

by Romy Ilano

I'm happy that the t shirt idea is spawning all sorts of creative designs! It's like a github source code. Everyone is tweaking the idea I'm excited to see what weird creative things happen next Thanks sudoroom. ! Sent from my iPhone

12 years, 3 months

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Tmrw (12/21): Today We Learned: Weekly open, chill co-learning at Sudo Room from 2-5PM

by Marina Kukso

Hi everyone, Tomorrow (and every Sat.) from 2-5PM at Sudo Room <http://sudoroom.org>we'll be doing "Today We Learned <https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Today_We_Learned>," weekly, open, super chill co-learning. What is co-learning? It means that you bring something you're working on or something you want to learn more about, maybe some other folks are interested in it as well and want to collaborate, or maybe you see what someone else is working on and want to help with that. Well what can you bring to learn about? Anything! One time when we were doing a similar event at LOL space <http://oaklandmakerspace.wordpress.com>, someone brought a broken clock and we tried to figure out how to fix it. Many times folks work on programming stuff. Sometimes we follow rabbit trails and try to explain and understand things like "well how do computers really work." If it's a thing to learn, we can learn it. We also have a projector set up if anyone wants to demo anything - anything - so you should feel free to bring something that you'd like to share. See you tomorrow! Marina

12 years, 3 months

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Re: [sudo-discuss] 2nd OMNI trip: Thursday 3:30pm TOMORROW

by David Keenan

Newly-updated list of attendees tomorrow: *Sudo Room*: Max Klein, Matt Senate, Jordan Cohen *SALTA*: Sarah Pritchard *Bay Area Public School*: Alana Siegel, Lara Durback, and I Margit Galanter (dancer) Liz Leger (visual artist) Ali Tonak (activist) Katherine Harr (tenants' rights activist) Best, David

12 years, 3 months

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Proposal to Galvanize

by Matthew Senate

Hey all, I have a proposal I'd like some feedback on and to discuss at the next meeting at the public school this Thursday (7pm right?) *Proposal: * Out of the attendees of these meetings (including folks on the list below), to find some number of interested collectives, individuals, organizations, small businesses, etc to rent the $900-$950 / mo. office adjacent to the Bay Area Public School (BAPS), sharing the common space with BAPS and the Sudo Room at 2141 Broadway in Oakland. For instance, at ~18 equal parties, this room can be rented for $50 / mo. I am personally interested in coordinating several folks to use part of the space as "sudo coworking" with a few small desks for individual work. The intention of this rental is multiple-fold: * To no longer delay in solidifying collaboration between various groups--i.e. for other folks to join BAPS and the Sudo Room by sharing space now. * To commit to investing (minimally) financially in a venture that requires communication, collaboration, and sharing. * To engage in a learning experience about our ability to co-operate and grow. * To provide an opportunity to groups that currently do not have a space to galvanize their community. * To be able to fruitfully engage in a comparison between various group rental options including The Omni, 8th and Alice, and even 2141 Broadway. https://sudoroom.org/wiki/The_Omni https://sudoroom.org/wiki/8th_and_Alice https://sudoroom.org/wiki/2141_Broadway https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Spaces *List (in no particular order):* - * Timeless infinite light<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#Timeless_infinite_li…> - * sudo mesh<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#sudo_mesh> - * Prelinger Library<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#Prelinger_Library> - * Local Flavor<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#Local_Flavor> - * Planting Justice<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#Planting_Justice> - * Spokeland<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#Spokeland> - * Fix-It Clinic<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#Fix-It_Clinic> - * CorpWatch<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#CorpWatch> - * Sudo Co-Working<http://space.sudoscience.org/index.php/Possible_Groups#Sudo_Co-Working>

12 years, 3 months

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Fwd: [Double-Union] DU partnership with Lesbians Who Tech (and the people who love them)

by Marina Kukso

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lillie Chilen <lillie.chilen(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 9:07 PM Subject: [Double-Union] DU partnership with Lesbians Who Tech (and the people who love them) To: doubleunion(a)lists.doubleunion.org Double Union is partnering with an awesome organization, Lesbians Who Tech, to get the word out for their first summit<http://lesbianswhotech.org/summit/>, this February 28th in San Francisco. They're offering Double Union members and friends a 25% discount for tickets with the code LWTDU. The event is open to queer women and the people who love them, so feel free to share the discount code with other technically-inclined people who you think could benefit! More details + registration: http://lesbianswhotech.org/summit/ All the best, Lillie -- Lillie Chilen @lilliealbert ('li-lee shuh-'leen) _______________________________________________ Doubleunion mailing list Doubleunion(a)lists.doubleunion.org http://lists.doubleunion.org/listinfo.cgi/doubleunion-doubleunion.org

12 years, 3 months

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Is anyone else on Diaspora (social network)? I am romyilano

by Romy Ilano

https://joindiaspora.com/u/romyilano Is anyone else on the social network Diaspora? As we recall, this was developed at Noisebridge and was indirectly involved in another unfortunate suicide =( I'd like to get going on this social network again. If you are interested in connection, please get in touch.

12 years, 3 months

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meeting inside the actual sudoroom last night + the new guy's points

by Romy Ilano

hi, i actually enjoyed the meeting last night that was inside the physical SudoRoom. It was nice! it was a lot warmer, more intimate, and it was cool to just be around SudoRoom "stuff". I think the new guy, he was in the neighborhood, and he made some good points about trying to show people the value of actually going to SudoRoom. I think we have to somehow redo some of the page, make the benefits more graphical and tangible. Instead of mentioning an RFID key in dense wiki text, we need to show someone using it and then entering the building, someone in a situation where they are bored on a Sunday morning and "just happen to be in the neighborhood" with tons of plywood! =D I'll get to work on it later this week. ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

12 years, 3 months

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Why Is Processed Food So Bad for You?

by Romy Snowyla

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3747105/ Why Is Processed Food So Bad for You? The Blog Michael HobbesAug 13, 2013 I make a mean marinara sauce. I sauté onions, garlic and bacon (yes, bacon) for 10 minutes until they sweeten and become crisp, then add a big glass of red wine, a can of chopped tomatoes and generous pinches of salt, basil, oregano and rosemary. Then I leave the room. When I come back two hours later, the sauce is thick, sweet and almost purple. I throw in a handful of fresh basil leaves -- done. I've been thinking a lot about my marinara this week because I've been reading Michael Moss's Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Tricked Us. Company after company, product after product, Moss shows how Big Food formulates products for maximum addictiveness and overeatability. Oreos, Cheetos, Lunchables, Wonder Bread, they're all the same Iowa corn and Brazilian sugarcane, just liquefied, dyed and processed into different shapes and colors. The same week I read Moss's book cataloguing how Big Food is trying to kill us, I read David H. Freedman's Atlantic cover story about how it's also going to save us all. According to Freedman, big food companies -- the same ones Moss accuses of nutritional euthanasia -- are actually de-fatting, de-sugaring and de-salting their products one by one. McDonald's is using whole-wheat buns, Cargill is selling a fullness-inducing tapioca starch, Stevia is everywhere. It's a great article, and Freedman's butchering of sacred foodie cows (Michael Pollan! Farmer's markets! Granola!) is both essential and effective. But when it comes to his core argument, that America's obesity problem is going to be solved by better processed food and bigger corporations, I'm not convinced. That's not because I think it's impossible to make a healthier Oreo or Pepsi or Lunchable -- it wouldn't actually be all that hard. Nope, corporations won't make us healthier because capitalism makes it impossible for them to do so. Bear with me, I'll explain. 1. Scale, Speed And Shelf Life Let's say I want to start selling my marinara, and I want to turn it into an industrial food megabrand -- another Ragu, Hot Pockets, Lean Cuisine. The first thing I have to do is make it in huge batches and make each of those batches taste the same. No more willy-nilly tossing of spices, no more adding whatever veggies are in the fridge. I need to standardize every single element, from the weight of the onions to the heat under the pot. To keep costs down, maybe I cut the simmering time in half, use salt instead of hours to make the flavors come out. Moss notes that herbs are up to 10 times more expensive than salt in industrial cooking, so that's the first no-brainer modification. The next problem is shelf life. Those Lunchables might look all crisp and fresh when you grab them out of the refrigerated aisle, but they sat around at room temperature for at least two months before they got there. Warehouses, wholesalers, truck beds, stockrooms, my marinara is going to need a lot of help not to go bad in all that time. That means preservatives (most of which, according to Moss, are derivatives and modifications of salt), chemicals, coloring agents to save my marinara's magenta as it trundles across the country. So now my sauce has been made in huge batches, jarred, shipped and shelved. It's in the supermarket aisle. I win! But wait. Thanks to all the preservatives and additives, my marinara tastes like an old sock. I go back to my simmering pot, add a glob of vegetable oil, a dash -- OK, a deluge -- of high fructose corn syrup, some thickeners and emulsifiers so it has that pasta sauce-y texture, and it's ready for the store again. Before I grew up and started cooking, I thought the pasta sauce I bought at the store was the same as the one I could make on the stove. I was just paying a bit extra so a factory worker somewhere did the chopping, seasoning and simmering for me. This is how our economy is supposed to work, right? I don't knit my own clothes, I don't build my own house, I don't weld my bike together from parts. Why should food be any different? There's a scene in Moss's book where he goes to a Cargill facility and they make him a slice of industrial-scale bread without any salt. The texture, the taste, the color, everything is wrong, Moss says. It tastes like a piece of tin foil. This scene confused me. When I make bread at home, I use about half a teaspoon of salt for an entire loaf. If you cut the salt out of my homemade bread, yeah, it's bland and a bit puffier (Alton Brown teaches us that salt counteracts the effectiveness of yeast), but it's still bread, not some horrifying replicant. But my bread, the one I spend the better part of a day kneading and proofing, is stale before I can eat about half of it. Wonder Bread, with 27 ingredients, half a teaspoon of sugar and 7 percent of your daily allowance of salt in every slice, lasts on the shelf for two weeks. Processed food isn't bad for you because the products -- pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese, white bread -- are inherently sweet and salty. It is bad for you because it is inherently industrial. Supermarket supply chains are long, slow and and unforgiving, which means everything you buy at one has to be made in massive batches, perfectly standardized, capable of sitting at room temperature in a glass jar or plastic bag for months on end. If you took that kind of abuse, you'd need chemical assistance too. 2. It's the Capitalism, Stupid My marinara sauce is now mass-produced, shelf-stable and OK-tasting. Sure, it's got some extra salt and sugar, but it's still one of the healthier brands on the shelves. The only problem is, no one is buying it. Every other brand of pasta sauce at the supermarket has way more sugar and fat than my sauce, and they taste way better. To get people to switch to my sauce, I'm going to have to add even more sweeteners (sugar) and flavor enhancers (salt). One of the most tragic sequences in Moss's book is the story of Kraft in the early 2000s. The company, reeling with power from its huge market share in cereal (Raisin Bran), cookies (Oreos) and packaged pastas (the eponymous mac and cheese), started taking health and nutrition much more seriously. It added extra labels (alongside the minuscule USDA-mandated serving sizes, it listed nutrition facts for the whole package) and stealthily reduced the salt, sugar and fat in its most popular products. It even cut the calories in Oreos and started selling them in 100-calorie packs. And then Hershey's invaded. Starting in 2003, the chocolate company launched a line of S'mores cookies that were fatter and sweeter than Kraft's newly trimmed-down Oreos. Kraft started to lose market share. It had no choice but to retaliate. And that's how we got Banana Split Cream Oreos, Dairy Queen Blizzard Creme Oreos and Triple Double Oreos. They tasted better than normal Oreos, they had more sugar and fat and, not coincidentally, they sold better. Does Hershey's even make cookies anymore? The story of Kraft is one of the reasons I find Freedman's "How Junk Food Can End Obesity" article so unconvincing. All of the major food companies -- from Pepsi and General Mills right down the line to Monsanto -- are publicly traded. They're big, they're multinational, they're corporations. This means the only thing that matters to them is profits. This isn't a normative description or a moral judgment, it's just a factual description of their corporate form. In a dilemma between earning more profit and protecting public health, profit will win. In a dilemma between earning more profit and anything, profit will win. Again, not a judgment, just a description. Freedman profiles the Carl's Jr. Charbroiled Atlantic Cod Fish Sandwich, a not-fried, not-sugared, not-terrible-for-you sandwich sharing menu space with fries and sodas. With the right marketing, the right "Would you like to try" push from employees, America might just start eating it. And, Freedman argues, just might get a little slimmer, a little healthier. That's a nice scenario, and it might even happen, and yay if it does. But Freedman doesn't walk us through the scenario where Wendy's or Burger King launches a similar fish burger, one that's fried, salted and sugared, that has triple the tartar sauce, that because of these modifications tastes better. What can Carl's Jr. do except retaliate in kind? Two years ago, the New Yorker ran a feature detailing how Pepsi (and its subsidiary, Frito-Lay) were launching a "we're healthy now" makeover. Less sugar and salt, more vitamins and whole grains. They even hired a guy from the World Health Organization to implement his own science-backed health standards right through the soda-and-potato-chips family. And then, like Kraft before it, Pepsi buckled. The minute U.S. sales fell to third place (after Coke and -- the horror -- Diet Coke), Pepsi launched an all-hands-on-deck marketing campaign to go back to selling its old sugar water staple. Two years after the healthy makeover, Pepsi's CEO told shareholders, "We refocused our efforts on our key global brands and categories in our most important developed markets to drive profitable growth." This is annual report-ese for, "we marketed the hell out of our unhealthiest products." Pepsi traded the guy from the WHO for Beyoncé. The stock soared. And that's how it goes. Processed food companies are like drug addicts, promising "next time it'll be different, watch!" when they're euphoric on market share and rising stock prices. As soon as they crash back down, they're right back to their old habits: cheap sugar, loud marketing, bogus health claims. This is why Moss's book and, in a different way, Freedman's article are so depressing. Companies aren't evil, they're not greedy, they're not pernicious. They're just companies. As Moss points out, they're as addicted to crappy food as we are. Freedman's right that just because a food is "processed" doesn't necessarily mean its bad for you. And just because something is organic or local or homemade or "natural" doesn't mean its good for you. But I can't help but notice that a Starbucks muffin has 500 calories and that the one I make at home has 140. Ragu, the No. 1 pasta sauce in America, has almost nine teaspoons of sugar, more than a day's recommended amount of salt and as much fat as a milkshake in each jar. Freedman would probably point out that my marinara sauce is not particularly healthy (wine and bacon, after all, are just foodie forms of salt, sugar and fat) and, serving for serving, must be more expensive than $2-per-jar Ragu. He might argue that in a few years, Ragu or General Foods or Kraft will offer a pasta sauce that's nutritionally identical to mine, and that I'd be a snob not to buy it. And he might be right. But for now, neither of us can escape the reality that food, like everything else we buy, is designed to be cheap to make, to last forever and to taste better than the next product down the shelf. And also like everything else, after you buy it, you're on your own. For more by Michael Hobbes, click here. For more on diet and nutrition, click here. Sent from my iPhone

12 years, 3 months

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Sudo Room Flyers

by Matthew Senate

Hey all, Created a Flyers page on the wiki, let me know if there is already a page of similar content that you know of! https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Flyers I listed a flyer I made that I've printed and taped up around sudo room to remind folks of the room's purpose and values. // Matt

12 years, 3 months

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lost notebook and david graber's "the democracy project"

by Matthew Senate

Hey all, Lost these two together, any one find them by chance? Thanks, Matt

12 years, 3 months

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Where Are The Commons? A short blog post about liberating space..

by Andrew

Hey Sudoers, I wrote a short blog post about that talks about my thoughts on liberating space and why places like Sudo Room are so important.. http://hackerspa.com/where-are-the-commons/ Full text: I recently came across this article<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/opinion/what-tech-hasnt-learned-from-urba…>. The basic argument is that the tech industry, while increasingly using the terms like “commons” “town hall” and “community center”, is in practice creating more spaces cut off from the public for employee use only. The disappearing commons is not a problem caused by the tech industry. The tech industry is just following along with the city’s already poor urban planing. There are very few places that are even available at all for public use in the Bay Area. In Oakland, you’ve got the library (where funding is being cut left and right). You’ve got “public parks”, but we all know what happens <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CcJeDBIixA> if you try to stay past curfew in a public park. There are some Recreation Centers<http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/opr/s/facility/>but these are mostly for sports and rentals. Where are the commons? Where are the places I can go to have a meeting with friends and collaborators without having to pay $3 for a cup of coffee? Or places where I can go to stay warm and chat with neighbors when the house is cold and lonely. It is not just the tech industry that thinks in terms of acquiring space instead of liberating it. Even in Berkeley, where there are loud echos of the cultural revolutions of 60′s and 70′s, people have large homes and small or non existent commons. We need to liberate more space. In Oakland, as the steel industry left, spaces that were once industrial centers became repurposed. In the past decade there has been a migration of artists coming to Oakland specifically because of the variety of space that’s available. What is also happening (mainly through the work of post-occupy activists) is that space is being repurposed for the commons. Organizations such as Sudo Room<https://sudoroom.org/>and The Bay Area Public School <http://bayareapublicschool.tumblr.com/> are leading the way in this movement. But things are just getting started. One day I would love to see a true community center in every neighborhood. Where people can go to talk, create, plan, and most importantly share resources. Sure the tech industry has created walled off cities for Goolers, Mozillians, and Twits (?), but what’s the alternative for them? Large fancy strip malls with $15 burritos? Just as they have used the collective wealth off their companies to provide for the needs of their employees, we must use the collective wealth of our communities to provide for the needs of our friends, neighbors, and comrades. -- ------- Andrew Lowe

12 years, 3 months

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Those who be going to the omni tomorrow.

by David Keenan

(original message to sudo-discuss bounced due to too many recipients) I arranged with John Givens a second trip to the Omni tomorrow, Thursday 12/19, at *3:30pm*. If folks need rides and things let me know I might very well be able to pick you up or drop you off somewhere - Newly-updated list of attendees tomorrow: *Sudo Room*: Max Klein, Matt Senate, Jordan Cohen *SALTA*: Sarah Pritchard *Bay Area Public School*: Alana Siegel, Lara Durback, and I Margit Galanter (dancer) Liz Leger (visual artist) Ali Tonak (activist) Katherine Harr (tenants' rights activist) Again, the address: 4799 Shattuck @ 48th in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, about 9 blocks north of MacArthur bart. Meet in front of the door right at the corner. As before, if you're planning on coming, please do RSVP with me first - as this is not an open house, but a relatively small group - and, please don't publish online any photos or video you take, but only share them privately. Best, David / 415-430-8362

12 years, 3 months

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Are you ready to rumble for tonight's meeting sudoroom ?

by Romy Snowyla

I'm geared up with my new Sudo room t shirt Sent from my iPhone

12 years, 3 months

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Re: [sudo-discuss] [BAPS-Organizing] 2nd OMNI trip: Thursday 3:30pm TOMORROW

by Alana Siegel

I can come tomorrow too. On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 2:39 PM, David Keenan <dkeenan44(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Updated list of attendees tomorrow: > Sudo Room: Max Klein, Matt Senate, Jordan Cohen > SALTA: Sarah Pritchard > Margit Galanter (dancer) > Liz Leger (visual artist) > Bay Area Public School: Alana Siegel, Lara Durback, and me. > >

12 years, 3 months

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