Pumping Station: One

We have a new equipment labeling and tracking system!

Here’s how it works – every major piece of equipment has a wiki page and a label.

The label has 5 pieces of critical info:

1. Name of the Tool
2. QR code and URL (of the wiki page)
3. Owner – (PS:One or individual)
4. Certification Required (RTFM) or No Certification Required
5. Do Not Hack (DNH) or Hacking is OK

The Wiki page is a place where you can learn more about the tool, whether it is functioning, safety documentation, person to contact, certification information, etc.

Feel free to go into the equipment pages and add detailed usage information.

Thanks to the generous folks at LVL1 and Labitat for sharing wiki code and labeling schemes with me – I stole a bit from both systems to come up with the PS:One system.  Thanks to Dan Meyer, Shawn Blazak, and Tim Saylor for putting in a few hours of hard work Sunday afternoon to get the system up and running. Thanks also to Nathan Witt and Jim Burke for smoothing out bumps in the wiki template and creating video, respectively.

Today, January 18, 2011, is the last day of my tenure as President of Pumping Station: One, and I’d like to take this opportunity to say to the PS:One 2010 Board of Directors, PS:One members new and old, our community, our friends, and our neighbors:
Thank you.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve your community for the past year as president of the City of Chicago’s hackerspace.  Thank you for the hard work, enthusiasm, and ideas; the good, the bad, and even the crazy ones you contributed to keep us alive this past year.  In 2010 we experienced near-catastrophes, but we also experienced many more triumphs.   Read the rest of this entry →

On Tuesday night, the Board of Directors voted 6-0-1 (Aye, Nay, Present) in favor of the following changes to the Membership Rates:

• Starving Hacker: $40/month (from $30)
• Full Member: $70/month (from $50)
• Annual Full Member: $700 (from $500)
• Pay what you will membership: completely new

These rates take effect immediately.  There is a grandfather clause: any current members who choose to remain at their current rates are free to do so indefinitely. However, if that member misses payments, changes membership class, or makes any other changes to their membership status, they will be obliged to pay the new rates.  Additionally, the grandfather clause does not apply to annual rates – all members paying the annual rate will make their next payment at the new membership rate.

The pay what you will membership is intended for persons who either wish to pay more to support our organization or simply cannot afford to pay our full rates.  Note: access to the mailing lists, space, and tools is still determined by membership rates as published on the Becoming a Member page – we aren’t offering full access for discounts via this option.

Explanations of why we made this difficult decision after the break. Read the rest of this entry →

2010 is fast ending, which means that it’s my duty to announce both PS:One′s holiday schedule and the elections for the 2011 Board of Directors.

Holiday Schedule:

There will be no official meeting on December 21 or 28, 2010.

There will most likely be people at the space hanging out on both days, so feel free to stop by.

On the 21st, we will hold an edge lighting workshop in lieu of our regularly scheduled meeting.  If you just want to come and hang out, that’s fine too.

Meetings will resume their normal Tuesday schedule on January 4, 2011.

Election Schedule:

We will open the floor to nominations to the Board of Directors on Tuesday, December 14, 2010, nominations will close on Tuesday, January 11, 2011.

On the evening of Tuesday, January 11, all nominees are invited to give a speech during the 300 seconds of fame event immediately following the meeting.

There are eight available positions:

• President
• Vice President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Chief Technical Officer
• Public and Press Relations Director
• 2x Director-at-Large

Elections will be held during our Annual Members’ Meeting on January 18, 2011 at 8pm.

With the kind assistance of our members Patrick, Tim, and Jim, I’ve built HolidayBot.

Here’s a quick intro video:

For more details, go here (this link will be updated as more details on HolidayBot goes live).

Here’s an interview conducted over the summer that helps explain what Pumping Station:One and hackerspaces are all about:
Rough 5 Minute Cut of PS:1 audio documentary by Inverse Music Box

A fifth Tuesday is upon us once again, which means another potluck!

This month’s theme: anything but Thanksgiving.  No turkey and no leftovers.

November 30th – as always, doors open at 7, the members’ meeting starts at 8pm, the potluck starts immediately after the meeting (8:30).

We have a special event on Tuesday immediately following the normal membership meeting: a book signing. Here’s a note from the author:

Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food…On Tour!

Hi! I’m Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks (O’Reilly Media, 2010), and I’m doing a “D.I.Y. Book Tour” to talk about my just-released book. I’ll talk about the food science behind what makes things yummy, giving you a quick primer on how to go into the kitchen and have a fun time turning out a good meal.

Depending upon the space, I’ll also bring along some equipment or food that we can experiment with, and give you a chance to play with stuff and pester me with questions.

If you have a copy of the book, bring it! I’ll happily sign it. If you don’t have a copy, buy one of the “Attendee (includes one book)” tickets, and we’ll have a copy for you.

Look forward to seeing you!

Jeff Potter, www.cookingforgeeks.com

Eventbrite link (to purchase a book): http://cookingforgeekschi.eventbrite.com/

ChiOpenSci

ChiOpenSci‘s first meeting will be this Sunday, September 12 at 4pm!

Come and learn how you can be a part of open research and be a citizen scientist.

We’ll be discussing projects, open science tools, and defining goals for ChiOpenSci.

Where: Pumping Station: One 3354 N. Elston Ave

Cost: Free and open to the public

Who: Citizen scientists, professional scientists, enthusiasts, hobbyists, experimentalists, computationalists, theorists – interested in studying natural phenomena and studying problems via the scientific method and sharing their results.

A quick note: my open source Scanning Tunneling Electron Microscope project has been mentioned in the MAKE blog.