Re: Speculative Hacking
Eric Hunting
some progressive focus in the community. But it may need help in
getting exposure in the larger community. I'm noticing that the
different mailing list forums are tending to represent relatively
small groups and a large portion of the potentially active community
may not be using them at all. This might be more powerful an
initiative if promoted in some way on the web sites that attract the
most Maker community attention at present, perhaps in the form of a
multi-site competition for the best demonstration of Speculative
Hacking, or as I might call it 'Progressive Making', as voted by the
audience of viewers. This would both get people active in more
progressive projects and get the community collectively thinking about
what progressive activity means.
Eric Hunting
erich...@gmail.com
On Feb 7, 2009, at 5:00 AM, openmanufacturing group wrote:
> TOPIC: Fwd: Speculative Hacking (was Re: [Robotgroup] Confusion
> Research
> Center)
> http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/t/58067514c947154d?hl=en
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> Date: Fri, Feb 6 2009 10:48 am
> From: Bryan Bishop
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: David Nunez <da...@davidnunez.com>
> Date: Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 12:36 PM
> Subject: Speculative Hacking (was Re: [Robotgroup] Confusion
> Research Center)
> To: The Robot Group Mailing List <robot...@puremagic.com>
> Cc: kan...@gmail.com
>
>
>> division directly. But anyway, Charmed Labs seems to just sell
>> products, what is it that they are doing?
>
> Rich LeGrand, proprietor of Charmed Labs, was one of the people who
> got dorkbot started in Austin... so there's that.
>
> Also, his company is run from his home and is a really great role
> model for those of us who have in the back of our mind, "Man, I'd like
> to do this off-the-wall hacking thing for a living in my pajamas."
>
> This guy was doing indie garage-manufacturing before Make magazine
> made it seem like you couldn't afford NOT to be cranking out kits by
> the dozens.
>
> I think these guys are heroes, fwiw: http://oomlout.com/start.html
> ====
>
> MY frustration is that there are tons of people being "activated" by
> thinking 5 minutes soldering an LED throwie from a dummy-proof recipe
> is the same thing as innovating and get very lazy in their learning
> and exploring.
>
> Or worse, those that DO go beyond paint-by-numbers and pick up an AVR
> programmer or start hacking away in OpenFrameworks spend lots of time
> on self-indulgence and hobbyist-level work and never make the mental
> leap that, "oh! I know very little right now, but what I do know can
> solve enormous problems in the world. Maybe I can apply these lovely
> hacks to fixing my neighborhood."
>
> That is: given unlimited time and resources, how would the robot group
> address starvation in India or fix potholes on Lamar?
>
> I'm starting to key in on a manifesto that we, as builders and hackers
> and artists, have a moral obligation to apply our rapidly increasing
> skill-sets to help and delight others. That might be artwork or small
> open source tweaks or products that make peoples' lives easier.
> Hacking electronics is more accessible than ever; rapid prototyping of
> physical objects is getting there, too. Shouldn't our ambition match
> pace with the availability of these tools?
>
> The main thing that stops people isn't lack of resources (time and
> money are actually far more plentiful than we've deluded ourselves
> into thinking), but lack of focused energy and engaging problems to
> address.
>
> So here's my dangerous idea: Everyone in the group pick a small
> problem that makes their lives just a little bit more frustrating.
> Ideal problems are those that seem just out of reach for you to solve
> on your own, but if they were solved would likely make you and people
> around you happier. Drop those ideas in a bucket. Pick a weekend and
> gather at somebody's house. At random select a problem out of the
> bucket. Now, as a group imagine a world where this problem is
> resolved. In 48 hours, you are to generate media and tinkerprojects
> that speculate on this positive near-future.
>
> Somebody might produce a website. Another person might do an
> npr-style podcast, interviewing their actor friends as "scientists" in
> the near-future world. However, I suspect that given the population
> of the RG, most of us would pull out our arduinos and solderless
> breadboards or _3d printers_ and _laser cutters_ and start hacking
> together some working prototype or even just a mocked-up, physical
> object that might exist in this world where the problem is fixed.
>
> The point is at the end of the weekend, everyone has finished
> something, no matter how imperfect / impractical / incomplete.
> Suddenly you have a collection of artifacts that act as goalposts and
> milestones for solving a real-world problem. You have a bridge to a
> solution and what seemed just out of reach before is brought just a
> little bit closer... hopefully a stretched-out armslength. Maybe some
> problems get fixed when the solution is made tangible and success
> seems visualized and achievable.
>
> I'm calling this concept "speculative hacking" and the intense work
> sessions "speculative hack-a-thons" and I promise I'll let you know
> more about what real steps I'm taking with this in the next few
> weeks... It's been a while since I've been fired up about something
> so potentially game-changing.
>
> I believe that places like Discovery Hall and fablabs could be ideal
> hubs for these hack-a-thons - filled with rapid prototyping tools.
> More importantly, when the community is regularly convening to solve
> its own problems this way, there is actually a mandate for a fablab to
> exist besides just being a clubhouse for geeks.
>
> THAT's how you get community buy-in and THAT's how you demonstrate
> value. Money comes from that.
Eric Hunting
First thing that comes to my mind is cell phone towers, but that's not
usually done in a subletting arrangement and the deals seem to be very
providential. If the lab is more public and the space small, perhaps
vending machine operators for a snack room would be appropriate. After
that, the most likely is some small business where the owner may be
using the lab tools part time. If you are getting a high-fallutin' net
connection (my term for bandwidth above DSL) to the lab, server bank
space is another possibility that can also defray the net access costs.
OpenProject (the open version of MS Project) might be a good place to
start with management software. Project management packages seem to
vary now between continuous interrupt-driven task and contact
management -which is probably more appropriate to your needs- to the
more traditional Gantt chart based serial project management more
suited to contracting and construction. I tend to favor the Mac for
this category of software because it suits the user interface better
and results in more intuitive programs, though some are overly dumbed-
down.
Lightweight bookkeeping should be sufficient for this, but they have
become overspecialized in their models and can sometimes be tough to
adapt. I can't recommend the most popular one myself; QuickBooks. That
program proved to be a nightmare for me. I've used most every kind of
software there is at one point or another and that was the only
program that ever made me feel lost and stupid every time I ran it,
always leaving me with an end-of-the-year mess and an accountant
shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head despite the fact that my
small business now does every transaction through bank transfers and I
almost never touch money. I have no math skills to speak of, yet even
Mathematica was vastly more intuitive! Thankfully, there has been a
lot of growth in open source forms of this software so you now have a
lot to choose from there.
Bookkeeping systems with inventory management features tend to manage
inventory in a very minimalist way, treating it like an 'account'
associated with specific suppliers. Makes sense for businesses with
few inventory items in small volumes you need only track by name and
where someone wants to look at it more in terms of cash flow analysis.
But it's useless for a complex inventory with more data associated
with each item. A more dedicated inventory management system makes
sense when you need to handle larger numbers of items and track their
physical locations, with more complex information stored on each item
such as multiple suppliers, pictures, tech reference material, catalog
descriptions, etc., where more than one person is interacting with the
inventory, and where you have to plug-into Point-Of-Purchase. PoP/
Inventory are commonly bundled together. Even if you're not actually
selling anything, repurposing PoP to track 'check out' of materials by
patrons might be a smart idea for automating inventory management and
keeping tabs on who is using what and when. Library systems also have
potential like this, but don't understand consumables. In this case
bookkeeping is dealing with inventory only in terms of supplier
invoices under a generalized AP (accounts payable) inventory category
which can be processed independently of inventory management itself.
Eric Hunting
erich...@gmail.com
> TOPIC: Dear lazyweb, thank you for the fablab
> http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/t/1315106a31873050?hl=en
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> Date: Fri, Feb 6 2009 10:37 pm
> From: Bryan Bishop
>
>
> Hey lazyweb,
>
> Thank you for the fablab. I really appreciate it. However, I am now
> wondering what in fact to do with it. I'm considering some
> /dev/checkout system that fenn and I have been dreaming about for
> since practically ever. But then there are other considerations, such
> as accounting, resource management, inventory, programming, system
> administration, CAD/CAM, subletting / renting out some space to
> maintain the space, etc. I was wondering if anyone can offer me some
> preliminary advice, thoughts, etc.
>
> - Bryan
> http://heybryan.org/
> 1 512 203 0507
Bryan Bishop
> Congratulations. How much space do you think you have for subletting?
A little under half of it. Apparently I'm not supposed to be spewing
forth details (actual numbers), since it "doesn't exist" quite yet.
;-)
> providential. If the lab is more public and the space small, perhaps
> vending machine operators for a snack room would be appropriate. After
Yes, I think a few snack machines or other vending machines are
planned. The other day, fenn suggested a vending machine for baggies
of small parts, but that's somewhat another issue.
> that, the most likely is some small business where the owner may be
> using the lab tools part time. If you are getting a high-fallutin' net
> connection (my term for bandwidth above DSL) to the lab, server bank
> space is another possibility that can also defray the net access costs.
Right. I suspect that if if we host websites, some people would be
interested in some virtual servers, dedicated servers, or free shared
web hosting accounts, simply because it's a super awesome initiative
to be supporting, for those not able to physically make it down here
to play around with the (physical) tools.
> OpenProject (the open version of MS Project) might be a good place to
> start with management software. Project management packages seem to
> vary now between continuous interrupt-driven task and contact
> management -which is probably more appropriate to your needs- to the
> more traditional Gantt chart based serial project management more
> suited to contracting and construction. I tend to favor the Mac for
> this category of software because it suits the user interface better
> and results in more intuitive programs, though some are overly dumbed-
> down.
Hm. Okay. I haven't considered it like that- the spectrum of
interrupt-driven task management versus jobs/contracts management.
I've always had a fondness for hierarchical outliners to help manage
my (massive) todo lists, but on the other hand, too much time spent
managing these todo lists can go in the wrong direction very quickly.
So that has to be watched out for. I've been meaning to send out some
notes on a project templating system that would be like 'autotools'
except integrated into the shop's system, such as for ordering parts
when supplies get estimated to be low (or noticed to be low), or for
keeping track of the numbers of used hardware and such, or for
spawning new projects and typical project management tools like
calendars, contacts, todo lists, source files, etc., which might be a
good way to integrate all projects under one roof, though that might
stiffle spur of the moment things that still need to be integrated
despite not being "a really big deal". Hm.
> Lightweight bookkeeping should be sufficient for this, but they have
> become overspecialized in their models and can sometimes be tough to
> adapt. I can't recommend the most popular one myself; QuickBooks. That
Yeah, I'd like to keep bookkeeping fully automated via software, to
the greatest possible extent. I'm sure there's some open source
equivalents of QuickBooks or something else. Worst-case scenario, I
end up finding myself programming a database app, not a big deal
though.
> Bookkeeping systems with inventory management features tend to manage
> inventory in a very minimalist way, treating it like an 'account'
> associated with specific suppliers. Makes sense for businesses with
> few inventory items in small volumes you need only track by name and
> where someone wants to look at it more in terms of cash flow analysis.
> But it's useless for a complex inventory with more data associated
> with each item. A more dedicated inventory management system makes
> sense when you need to handle larger numbers of items and track their
> physical locations, with more complex information stored on each item
> such as multiple suppliers, pictures, tech reference material, catalog
> descriptions, etc., where more than one person is interacting with the
> inventory, and where you have to plug-into Point-Of-Purchase. PoP/
> Inventory are commonly bundled together. Even if you're not actually
> selling anything, repurposing PoP to track 'check out' of materials by
> patrons might be a smart idea for automating inventory management and
> keeping tabs on who is using what and when. Library systems also have
> potential like this, but don't understand consumables. In this case
> bookkeeping is dealing with inventory only in terms of supplier
> invoices under a generalized AP (accounts payable) inventory category
> which can be processed independently of inventory management itself.
Library systems do souond to be about the right model here. Some
OCR/scanning equipment and ability to print labels wouldn't hurt
either. I wonder if anyone on this list, running other fablabs and
such, have any experience with particular management styles? Smari
mentioned a few weeks ago not sweating the small stuff, and making it
up with a 10% markup on the big stuff, are there any other ideas to
look into?