Chez Hack/Hacker Retreat/4-19-2012

SudoRoom visits marin hackerspace Chez Hack

SudoRoom discussions

The first hacker retreat hosted by Chez Hack hacker house! Folks are welcome to stop by or to camp/crash for this weekend.

See event date and time details.

What to Bring

• Yourself
• Tent
• Sleeping bag
• Other camping things (fun!)
• Something to share (food, etc)

Schedule

• Fri 4-19 (starts near 5pm)
  • Official Tour
  • Add to agenda
• Sat 4-20
  • Official Tour
  • ?
  • Ambulance hacking!
  • Meal-time minor hack: solar ovens
  • Add to agenda
• Sun 4-21 (ends near 5pm)
• Official Tour
  • Add to agenda

Meals

• Bring something to share!

Attendees

• J.C. Host
• Matt Emailer
• Morten
• Marina
• Romy Ilano - driving from sf/oakland with space for 4-5 people

Misc

• [to the Island]

Kopimism Dharma Initiative

Postcards From the Future Institute of the Future

Outcomes

Projects

• Simple Plywood Furniture
  • Making simple furniture with simply a standard large piece of plywood.
• Maybe rebuild the dome structure, part of mobile infrastructure??
• Worked on some CSS, but finished it at 3am.
  • Vertical and horizontal fixed position layers for keeping links active, using susy ruby gem (compass and sass).
• Really nice bicycles out around the property, we could repair them
• Continue meta-discussions
• Working on mesh wifi links, etc.
• Just opened up a coleman camping freezer--possible bio freezer by converting it to cryogenic. (Get to -40C).
• Looked into hackerspace infrastucture extended labitrack with a video portal between the spaces.
  • Turns out you can do all this stuff in the web browser, hopefully we can get a portal between the other hackerspaces.
• Took apart boat engine, found manual, read about it
• Kept MAPS conference crew fed, very grateful for that. Crazy to feed people for 4 days, Ray was amazing.
• Sudo Room, future directions, meta-space-collaborations have been great
• Weekend itself was a project!
  • Power and internet worked out great, rest is easier to figure out.
  • This should be broadened to a bigger project, set up some servers, do some cabling.
  • Experience of doing some basic stuff is really enabling and exciting.
• Sudo Zine!!!! Magazine in the form of a box full of things, that will weave all the different disciplines, talents, narrative, objects, etc!
• 3D scanned objects
• Fund-raising through gaming engine on Raspberry Pi.
• Sudo Room bible (working title, another fund-raiser)
  • Romy started drawings, need to scan them still!
• Going to do a geo-fencing project, but qualcomm removed the feature in their proprietary SDK, so Romy wants to use more open source tools.
  • Turn on an app that does different things when you're in a different location.

Next Steps

• Bicycle tools for old bikes
• Finish plywood furniture (one stool done)
• Fix jacuzzi (started cleaning)
• Finish video and item tracking portal between Chez Hack and Sudo room
• Three on-board boat motors need continued work.
• Vastly expand the network infrastructure.
• Hackatorium/Hacker Gallery resource needs some work
• Need to find a spot to set up a drop-off point for future projects.
• Reach out to Hacker Hostel in Nevada, integrated with burner community.
  • They have a general rule--anyone is welcome, "Bring Something"
  • Bring yourself of course, but bring a bag of ice, bring some food, bring something to hack on.
• Infrastucture-wise
  • Ambulance in Castro Valley, participated in events, but wants some more people involved, open the project up.
  • "Hacker Caravan"
  • Has a flatbed trailer, go anywhere for 30 days and be totally self-sufficient.
• Expand to the rest of the bay area hacker community, learn a lot from this event and grow.
• Solar power is cool, want to use it in general, portable units, etc.
• Hack-a-shack camper, needs some more development. If you have some vacant land, this would be a good option to set up a 'stead.
  • Do wood-working, add infrastructure to the camper.
• Chez Nottebahm is great, but something this great could be done with re-cycled materials and kept simpler.
  • Focus on "buying a home" is an unsustainable impediment to their life and freedom!
  • Some land available, http://www.cooperativehomesteads.com/
• Make an "Internet-Free Zone" as a part of the Hacker Sanctuary.

Thorns and Roses

• Matt
  • T: Pollen, appreciating being outside, going outside when it's not so pollinated.
  • R: The beautiful locale
• Morten:
  • T:
  • R
• Marc:
  • R: Getting away from everything! Needs to happen from time to time, every few months.
  • T: Recreate more feel of hacker camps -- a couple of scheduled talks/activities, maybe just talks so people can relax and listen.
• Marina:
  • R: Come to this beautiful place, most time together with a group of people. It hit another level in terms of amount of time talking with each other.
  • T: Wish we could spend more time prioritizing and understanding each other, what we all want to work on. We're all tackling different pieces of the elephant, so we should coordinate.
• Tommy
  • R: Being able to hack in a space we're not always working in--talking about Sudo Room out of context, having time to think--very nice for that.
  • T: I wish I brought more than my laptop--absurd debian install all weekend!!! Didn't expect that
• Jenny
  • T&R: Wish I could have spent the entire weekend here because it was so great! Although, it did create an opportunity. It was a great end goal to get back here. This is and end-goal model for what I want to be doing in the future, not just on weekends. Not sure the city is a long-term option for me. I wish I could have spent more time here and that we do it again in the future.
• JC
  • R: Thinking about it for a while, been involved in a number of large events and other things, where I have a different style, kind of crazy. I usually spend most of the year planning, and most of the weeks executing. This turned out extremely well in being self-organized, instead of being unorganized. It is due to Sudo Room, based on what we've been doing. SR has been able to create a community who has been able to extend here. It's awesome to have a real hackerspace community step out in to a weekend that isn't defined by drama, chaos, and bullshit. Ya'll have been incredibly great. I think this is a great inspiration and model for hackerspaces and communities in general. Couldn't be happier about that.I would have expected to be the thorn--that food and basics could have been issues. I noticed more in european hacking communities that they come together over meals and food.
  • T: I'd like to see the hackerspace be more self-supportive, be more self-sufficient, have our own portable infrastructure. We should be able to be portable, go out further in the woods, etc.
• Jae
  • R: This is exactly what I wanted. It's just so relaxing. I should get out more because this is so nice.
  • T: Don't have any. The pollen isn't even that bad.
• Tim
  • R: All you people! Did some hacking, having a good time. Thinking of the possibilities of transitioning from the traditional infrastructure of a house and trappings to something else, something closer to where we came from.
  • T: The house itself represents a huge expense, and it's not a real viable options even given how big and beautiful it is. I think it's much more beautiful to exist closer to nature, find a way to make what we do portable, etc, so we don't have to have this infrastructure.
• Romy
  • R: I did like the house, so much inspiration, even the magazines! I thought we'd just party all weekend, but we're all such workaholics that we all wanted to get stuff done. Loved the teenagers and Beau's mom! She was so wacky!
  • T: It would have been nice to have other people from sudo room as well as other hackerspace folk, like Praveen, etc. On the other hand, it was just the right size of people. If it was too many it would have been more fractured. This was a constantly flux of people mixing. I would love to see the projects completed! I started working on a project but it was on my own, so I'll share next.