All very relevant and exciting. I'm still fighting this ridiculous hacking
cough so I'll sadly stay away one more time.

For the record, on the topic of the first "who, what?" section of the
Adafruit link, I define my core interest as "carbon hacking", with a
concentration (if that's the right word!) on soils, ocean energy and
transportation. Where a hackerspace could at some time become indispensable
to me would most likely be in the area of low-voltage hardened inspection
and emergency controls for wave harvesters, where informal fellowship with
people having your sorts of expertise might well open doors for stuff I
would never find in my normal solitary modes. And conceivably hackers'
traditional irreverence would be the sole source of encouragement for
promoting my more radical transportation project (Anthony hold your nose...)

What I can contribute, from a generation before Robert's much more current
and technical experience, is a lifetime mostly spent in various sorts of
maintenance and  fabrication. Shipbuilding, marine engineering (diesel, not
much steam), public works/construction, trucking, building a log home, fish
plants. Most of it was what my fellow-apprentices in aerospace used
disparagingly to call "hammer and chisel engineering" although I did get to
do some electrical work later in the game.

The reason I hope this might be useful is that the publications of the Make
community typically have what I perceive as a bit of a gap in the expertise
level around electronics (way above my pay grade) on the one hand, and
mundane old-style DIY larger-item competence such as one would take for
granted in the worlds of agriculture or automobile tinkering on the other.

I have no gift for organization, have learned not to volunteer for office.
I will be very fortunate if I get to complete most of the stuff I've
already started. So I feel my obligation is just to be supportive in as
many minor ways as possible.

martin

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 8:45 PM, Paul de Armond <paulfs...@gmail.com> wrote: