Planet SeattleWireless

Metrix Create:Space: If you are a foursquare user, you may have noticed that the...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:35:26 +0000

If you are a foursquare user, you may have noticed that the Mayor of Metrix Create:Space gets half-off 3D Printing, and we occasionally give things away for people with fun numbers.

Thanks to a few of our friends, it’s never been easier to get that Mayorship. Stumble.to is a service provided by Eric and Ian that automatically checks you in when you walk in and have your WiFi device with you (laptop, phone, itouch, anything with a MAC address really).

Now, Casey has just announced the addition of Nike+ support. Now all you need is the shoes that cover your feet (provided they’re electronically chatty) or a Nike+ sport sensor in your pocket.

We’re the first venue to deploy this, so let us know what you think!

Casey Halverson: Introducing Nike+ Foursquare Check-in and Stumble.to

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:22:21 +0000

There has been a lot of recent talk about a blog post I made earlier this year, so after working a few late nights with Eric Butler at Metrix Create:Space, we now have a public friendly version of the Nike+ foursquare check in system! Not only do I have a much nicer collection of hardware and software, but anyone can now add their Nike+ shoes to http://stumble.to/ so they can check in too! Eric has put a lot of work into polishing the stumble.to service to allow functionality for the masses, which not only supports my Nike+ auto check-ins, but WiFi automatic check-ins! Not only can your shoes check in to foursquare, but so can your laptop, PDA or smart phone when it enters in range of a stumble.to enabled WiFi access point.

Only one flagship venue is enabled with this system (Metrix Create:Space), located in Seattle, Washington, but I hope to add more venues soon with this capability. If you own a venue interested in supporting automatic Nike+ and WiFi check-ins, be sure to contact me privately for more details. (casey_nikefoursquare @ mobilesquared.com)

I also hope to release some code and hardware instructions shortly. Eric Butler will also be publishing some information on how to use the stumble.to API’s to interface all sorts of interesting presence-detecting technology that people will eventually dream up.

I plan to write a more technical post soon, but this should be more than enough to get people going. Others have done quite a bit with Nike+ hardware, so these are some good reads if you want to learn more before then.

Special thanks to Eric, filer, and chronomex for helping to make this all come together, as well as Metrix Create:Space for hosting the first deployment!

UPDATE 9/2/2010: As promised, here is a link to the nike shoe stumble.to software so you can get started running your own! All you need to do is obtain an API key (sign up for stumble.to), install Python and PySerial, and buy yourself a SparkFun iPod to USB adapter. Make sure to remember to edit the script and change your API key, as well as specify the serial port that your USB adapter appears as.

Metrix Create:Space: The winner of our leet Foursqare Check-In Challenge is Matt...

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:23:00 +0000

The winner of our leet Foursqare Check-In Challenge is Matt Towers! Matt, stop by so you can redeem your sheet’s worth of free lasertime!

Metrix Create:Space: Here’s an oxymoron in action, a fail whale that works. ...

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:09:42 +0000

Here’s an oxymoron in action, a fail whale that works. Our member Haven Skys has been playing with the idea of laser etched acrylic circuits, and has built his first prototype. Silver conductive ink for the traces and a deep etch gives not only a circuit, but a working schematic styled resistor. Add in a CR2032 battery and a couple of surface mount LEDs and you’ve got a working LED flashlight that shows off the win that is fail.

Matthew Wilson: Happy Homeowners

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:02:15 +0000

We're done. It's all ours. Now begins the fun stuff like tearing out the shag carpet and laying hardwood. Whee!

Bryan McLellan: Joining Opscode

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:09:00 +0000

After a brief respite over the next few weeks, I’ll be joining Opscode in September. Not only am I excited about working with such a great group of people, but also for the incredible opportunity of getting to work on problems whose solutions are already beginning to permanently change how we build systems.

After all, we should be solving life’s more difficult problems, not passing our days as a cog in a machine of repetitious activity. When skilled and respected humans become mere automatons of deployment tasks; we’ve slipped into a dismal place. There is boundless room out there for innovation, but we need a dependable platform on which to build.

I’m joining Opscode to help craft this reality. I want to help you find meaning in these tools; how they will make your life easier. Don’t confuse this end as simply being able to work faster, it’s about working better.

Metrix Create:Space: (Still) Upcoming Workshops for August and September

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:56:00 +0000

This is just a reminder even though we’re halfway through this sunniest of Seattle months, we still have plenty of workshops left to take in August in addition to the workshops that have already been scheduled for September. You can see what we’ve got lined up below:

Inkscape for Laser Cutting
Saturday, August 21 2-4:30pm
Cost: $50 for non-members

This workshop is an introduction to Inkscape, focusing on the tools needed for laser cutting. It is appropriate for those who have never used or have limited experience with Inkscape. The last half hour of the class is supervised design time where you can create your own 3”x5” design and have it cut it out in 3mm thick birch using the laser cutter.
This workshop requires a laptop with the latest version of Inkscape installed and a mouse with a scroll wheel.

Intro to the Arduino
Saturday, August 28 2-4pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop will cover the basics of the Arduino. We’ll go over what it is, what it can do, and why you’d want to use it. We’ll also go over a couple of basic programs. This course is great for people who’ve never programmed before and have no microcontroller experience. We’ll give you an Arduino, a breadboard, and some simple components.
This workshop requires a laptop.

Arduino Programming
Sunday, August 29 2-4pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
Now that you’ve gotten some familiarity with the Arduino, it’s time to learn how to program the thing. We’ll cover programming basics like functions, loops, and conditionals. We’ll also talk about how to use classes, though we won’t be writing any.
This class requires an arduino and breadboard.

Introduction to Electronics
Tuesday, August 31 7-9:30pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop covers everything you need to know to get started in electronics. We’ll start from the basics of electricity and work our way up to using integrated circuits. Fading, blinking, and dimming LEDs help demonstrate key electronics concepts. You’ll leave this workshop with a kit of everything you need to build the circuits we cover.

…And in September…

Advanced I/O for the Arduino
Sunday, September 12 2-4pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
The importance of the Arduino is mostly in how you can interface it with the rest of the analog world. We’ll talk about using analog inputs to sense light and sound. We’ll also go over using PWM to control the brightness of LEDs. Lastly, we’ll cover how to use servo motors. This class comes with several sensors and other components.
You’ll need a breadboard and Arduino.

Arduino Robots
Sunday, September 19 2-5pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This last Arduino workshop will wrap everything from the other workshops together into an interesting project. We’ll spend the class integrating sensors, motors, and various programming techniques into a line following robot car.
We’ll give you most of the supplies, but you’ll also need everything from the other three workshops (which you can buy separately if you only want to take this class).

Metrix Create:Space: Metrix Gives You Wings!

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:02:00 +0000

And behold, the latest project by Alec Wadzita:

These were cut on the laser from several different sheets of veneer, glued together and clamped while it dried, and then finished with a two-part resin. They are destined to be made into a pair of matching barrettes. And yes, we usually have birch veneer around for lasercutting if you decide you want to make something like this yourself :)

Metrix Create:Space: Thingiverse is Awesome!

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:30:00 +0000

When Ry came in with his daughters to do some lasercutting the other day, they reminded me that Thingiverse is awesome. They cut this pretty little table, some tiny keys, and this cute little standing elephant, all from files off of Thingiverse. There are tons of neat plans and files like this on the site made for the MakerBot or the lasercutter.

Thingiverse is more than just a place to find fun lasercutting projects; it’s made to promote sharing. If you have a cool design on file, you can upload it to Thingiverse and share it with the world. We here at Metrix like sharing so much that we’ll give you a 20% discount for anything made on the MakerBots or the lasercutter from a Thingiverse download. Share and save!

Metrix Create:Space: Metrix: Create Space in Seattle Weekly's Best of Seattle 2010

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:56:12 +0000

The title of the article is “Matt Westervelt: Best Anarchist Criminal Parasite”. But don’t worry, it’s a great writeup - Margaret Friedman from The Weekly did a really good job describing what we do and why we’re awesome :)

Metrix Create:Space: Kraft Nite Special - Super Free Fabric Funtime!

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:52:11 +0000

Due to a gift from the furniture store gods, we’ve got lots and lots of lovely upholstery fabric samples here in the shop. And this coming Tuesday night at Kraft Nite, we’re going to give them away for absolutely free. If you come down on Tuesday (8/10) between 6pm and midnight to work on crafty things, and you too can take your pick of shiny pretty fabric squares.

Andrew Filer: Can your own web pages at home!

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:49:11 +0000

pickles, originally uploaded by valkyrieh116.

Want to bundle a web page into a single file, without a _files directory, or using the not-supported-everywhere .mht (IE, Opera) or .webarchive (Safari) formats? Use pagecan! I developed pagecan so I can return converted documents on doc.mar.cx as a single file.

pagecan will take an URL of an HTML document, grab all resources referenced by “src”, and bundle the page and encoded resources into a single file, through the use of the data URI scheme. pagecan is written in Ruby and uses the Nokogiri parser (you can install the gem with gem install nokogiri, or the Debian package with sudo apt-get install libnokogiri-ruby).

Usage: pagecan url [file | -]

If ‘-’ or no file is given, output is sent to stdout. pagecan has been tested only with HTTP URLs, but as it uses Ruby open-uri, other URIs and local files may work.

pagecan on github

Metrix Create:Space: August Workshops - with a sneak peak into September

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:59:00 +0000

We have our standard workshop offerings in August and we will be bringing you a few more exotic ones in September. Here is the lineup for August and a taste of what will be available in September. If you would like to sign up for one, please come by the shop. If you have already been by, you are welcome to sign up over the phone as well. If you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you!See you here soon!

Inkscape for Laser Cutting
Thursday, August 12 7-9:30pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop is an introduction to Inkscape, focusing on the tools needed for laser cutting. It is appropriate for those who have never used or have limited experience with Inkscape. The last half hour of the class is supervised design time where you can create your own 3”x5” design and have it cut it out in 3mm thick Birch using the laser cutter.
This workshop requires a laptop with the latest version of Inkscape installed and a mouse with a scroll wheel.

Inkscape for Laser Cutting will also be held on:
Saturday, August 21 2-4:30pm
Cost: $50 for non-members

…And in September…

Andrew Filer: Sandstorm, Namibia

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:03:52 +0000

Sandstorm, originally uploaded by asco.

Namibia looks like the sort of place I’d like to photograph. My mom will be going there for a few weeks next year, so maybe she’ll be able to give me some tips.

Metrix Create:Space: Dave Cole's Amazing Wooden DC Motor

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:33:00 +0000

For those who haven’t been following our blog religiously, Dave Cole is one of our PBDH regulars and a bit of a lasercutter addict. His newest project is a fully functional DC motor made entirely from Metrix Create: Space lasercut wood and a handful of parts from the hardware store.

Dave says he plans on making the kits available at his Etsy store once he gets the design all shiny and vintage science-y looking for mass-production. I wonder if we can find a way to get some in our vending machine…

Bryan McLellan: Dependant Paradigms

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:33:10 +0000

The Systems Administrator is likely the closet technological trade to skilled manual labor. They troubleshoot complex systems that others take for granted, until they fail, with a deceptive ease. Explaining to another how they had a hunch to look at a certain part of the system is either a retrospective tale of why it made sense, or a sarcastic nod to magic. This tale attempts to work out how one could have deduced the solution, but even if someone assembled a collection of symptoms and solutions into a step-by-step guide, they would not be able to replace the role of a Systems Administrator. Like an automotive mechanic can detect a blown head gasket from the smell of the oil, a Systems Administrator can sense infrastructure issues from how systems are behaving. And like a fondness for a make of automobile, we grow attached to Linux distributions that have treated us well and editors whose dark secrets we can manipulate skillfully.

I once had a student who didn’t understand why we couldn’t repair board-level hardware issues ourselves as easily as replacing a stick of memory, as their uncle was capable of repairing any engine problems by opening up the hood and quite literally “jiggling some wires.” A mystic knowledge exists in both worlds that is challenging to articulate to the layman. It can be difficult enough to explain a single component, but when a part of a system falls over and causes cascading failures in other parts of a system, outsiders are tempted to believe that they’ve just learned a truth about the solution. That is, that when certain symptoms occur, it is always caused by the failure of a particular part and that this part should be restarted to ’solve’ the problem. Yet, the experienced know that this only resolves the symptoms and the still problem lurks, now with fewer hints as to its origin.

The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed. — William Gibson

The trouble with paradigm shifts is that they aren’t necessarily direct improvements on existing technology with a clear lineage. Critics ask why the new ways are better than that which they replace, and we struggle to draw the path that led us to this new place of understanding. The struggle is because instead of making a choice at a clear intersection of a path, we stepped through the bushes to another path not as obviously traveled. This alternate path may lead us to the same end, but its course has an entirely different shape.

To further exacerbate the problem, new innovations stand on the shoulders of giants. Some people have been convinced of the merits of leveraging cloud computing on a strictly financial basis, and have missed the tenants of Undifferentiated Heavy Lifting (UHL), where running servers and building networks may not be ones core business and ultimately a distraction. Some have yet to grasp the concept of treating systems, even built on internal hardware, as disposable, still accustomed to legacy processes of maintaining a system for the lifetime of the hardware.

It is essential to realize that these new technologies are not minor improvements to business as usual. Like the birth of globalization changing business around the world, nursed by the multi-modal shipping container’s head fake as just another way of moving cargo, todays innovations will surely reshape the face of operations permanently, in substantial and non-incremental ways.

Matthew Wilson: All mine

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:09:10 +0000

The Rockster is officially mine now. This is the first large (i.e. titled, licensed) piece of real property that I think I've ever fully owned. Does this make me a grown up now?

Metrix Create:Space: July Workshops!

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:12:19 +0000

And now the post you’ve all been waiting for… our July workshops!

This month we have four exciting opportunities for you to get your feet wet creating 2D designs you could then cut out on the laser etcher, using electronics, and learning how to use the Arduino prototyping board— all getting you well on your way to making something really awesome!

Inkscape for Laser Cutting
Saturday, July 17 2-4pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop is an introduction to Inkscape, focusing on the tools needed for laser cutting. It is appropriate for those who have never used or have limited experience with Inkscape. During the course, you will create your own 3”x5” design and have it cut it out in 3mm thick Birch using the laser cutter. This workshop requires a laptop with the latest version of Inkscape installed and a mouse with a scroll wheel.

Inkscape for Laser Cutting will also be held on:
Thursday, July 22 7-9pm
Cost: $50 for non-members

Introduction to Electronics
Saturday, July 24 2-4:30pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop covers everything you need to know to get started in electronics. We’ll start from the basics of electricity and work our way up to using integrated circuits. Fading, blinking, and dimming LEDs help demonstrate key electronics concepts. You’ll leave this workshop with a kit of everything you need to build the circuits we cover.

Intro to the Arduino
Thursday, July 29 7-9pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop will cover the basics of the Arduino. We’ll go over what it is, what it can do, and why you’d want to use it. We’ll also go over a couple of basic programs. This course is great for people who’ve never programmed before and have no microcontroller experience. We’ll give you an Arduino, a breadboard, and some simple components. This workshop requires a laptop.

CJ Collier: Putting new radios up in Everett

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:41:15 +0000

NS2 device and a cat5

I’m happy to note that we’re putting up new radios in Everett. The plan is to provide free but limited Internet access to neighbors and sell service to those who need a “fatter pipe” as the kids say. We’ve been running a repeater for over a year now. It doesn’t provide access to the Internet, but allows anyone who can see the repeater to exchange IP packets. We plan to install two new “NanoStation 2” devices this weekend on Walnut Street. It will be fun.

NS2 NIC & Antenna port

I’ll flesh this post out after the event. In the meantime, here are some pics of the hardware.

Metrix Create:Space: A Furry Neighbor Takes His Leave

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:42:47 +0000

On Tuesday, the furry neighborhood attraction made his exit…

One limb at a time.

And then there were none.

What will go here now?

Metrix Create:Space: One of the questions we get about the laser is “What do...

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 05:31:06 +0000

One of the questions we get about the laser is “What do you make with it?”. Recently, I’ve been showing off our card motors as a thing that we’ve designed, but it really isn’t about what we make, it’s about what you make.

Whether you’re into electronics or earrings, games or gizmos, the laser can help you make your thing. It’s fun to watch too, so we’ve added a laser camera to the shop. Now you can watch your job cut from the comfort and silence of the workspace.

If you have an idea, but haven’t been able to figure out Inkscape, we’re offering an Introduction to Inkscape for Laser workshop next Saturday. You’ll learn about vector graphics, what the laser expects to see, and how you can get your design to come out awesome.

Matt Westervelt: Ada's grand opening!

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:56:21 +0000

Ada's grand opening, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

In case you haven't heard already, Ada's Technical books has opened up in the Loveless Building at the corner of Roy and Broadway. Tonight was the grand opening party, with snacks, discounts and a raffle. One of the prizes was the BLDC Business Card we made the other night at Metrix Create:Space (located conveniently across the street).

I dropped by to grab a few pictures, eat some strawberries and head off to work.

Ada's is awesome, they have a bit of everything technical, from flash programming to mechanical engineering texts to puzzles. An excellent addition to the neighborhood.

Metrix Create:Space: It works! Thanks to Gabe for his awesome breadboarding!...

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 07:00:40 +0000

It works!

Thanks to Gabe for his awesome breadboarding!

Remember kids, too many amps make smoke!

Metrix Create:Space: Procrastination can lead you down a pretty funny path sometimes....

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:34:00 +0000

Procrastination can lead you down a pretty funny path sometimes. A lot of you have asked us about flyers, business cards, brochures, and we’ve mostly just shrugged and pointed at the website. Those things are important in a business, and it’s not like I don’t know that, but they’re fairly low on the stack of important things to do, and as I’ve said many times, I’m interrupt driven.

Last night, business cards jumped to the top of the stack because we’ve been doing some work for the Seattle Central Creative Academy Portfolio Show and around 6PM or so, we figured out we didn’t have anything to hand out at the show. We have some nice veneer and a laser, so the most straightforward thing in the world for us to do is engrave and cut a business card. Right?

So since this is one of those ‘straightforward’ things, and we have a big sign that says MAKE SOMETHING AWESOME on the wall, we started bouncing around ideas of what would make an awesome business card. Would it be rounded corners? Or maybe a cool die cut gear or something? Should it fold up and become something else? The hours started to tick away. How about making something useful? What can you make useful in a 2”x3.5” rectangle anyway?

I started to wander down the path of a DC motor. A simple fold here, a bit of wire, a magnet. This could maybe work. Duncan and I pulled out the notepad. To make a DC motor, we’d need to wind a rotor, stick some magnets on the side, and have brushes. Kind of complicated. Brushless DC might be simpler; more awesome. 11:30PM, time for Inkscape. With Duncan driving and an evolving idea, we start figuring out what we have at the shop, and whether or not we can do this in the time we have left. Magnet wire? Yes, we have 5lbs of it. Magnets? hm. only a couple, but good enough for a prototype. Time for calipers, some wacky design and more caffeine. By 3:00AM, we have a design. Cut, assembled and Photographed.

Tonight we’ll see if we can drive it with an Arduino. Maybe add our actual information to the card. In the meantime, I’ve started in on a simple veneer card. a 3mm plywood press-fit brushless DC motor business card might not fit in everyone’s wallet.

Metrix Create:Space: Another Workshop in June!

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:55:16 +0000

For those of you who would love to learn to create files that can be used by the laser, this workshop is for you!

Inkscape for Laser Cutting
Saturday, June 26 2:00 - 4:00pm
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop is an introduction to Inkscape, focusing on the tools needed for laser cutting. It is appropriate for those who have never used or have limited experience with Inkscape. During the course, you will create your own 3”x5” design and have it cut it out in 3mm thick Birch using the laser cutter. This workshop requires a laptop with the latest version of Inkscape installed and a mouse with a scroll wheel.

For the workshops available this month, scroll down to the entry “June Workshops.”

See you here!

Metrix Create:Space: Bespoke Jewelry by Dave Cole

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:05:00 +0000

And now for another pretty project by Dave Cole of the Phinney-Bischoff crowd. Dave gets his paper patterns cut here at Metrix and he takes them home to his rolling mill to make rings and pendants. He’s just started an Etsy store offering his bespoke jewelry at remarkably reasonable prices.

The freshly lasered paper patterns

Ready to go to press, or rather, the mill

A whole lot of finished (almost) finished product :)

Finally, shiny pretty things.

Metrix Create:Space: Karst, a site specific performance work (in progress) by Meghan Trainorra

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:54:00 +0000

Meghan has been hanging out at Metrix for the last couple of weeks working on set of exoskeleton arm extensions for use in Karst, her installation performance art piece. She’ll put them on and use them to set off sensors along a hallway, which in turn will cut sound elements. I can’t wait until it’s done and we can see some footage of the exoskeleton in action!

Metrix Create:Space: The Vegan Alternative to Hunting Lodge Decor

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:33:00 +0000

Say you have a handsome lodge or clubhouse with empty walls that are just begging to be decorated, but you feel uncomfortable hanging out with the heads of dead animals. What’s a person to do? Why, obtain a deer trophy fabricated from of rustic and animal-friendly birch, of course!

One of our regulars, Alec Wadzita, put together the design. He’s offering the smaller birch deer trophy (~22x16x17cm) for $100 and the larger birch deer trophy (~26x37x29cm) for $150. If you want to get your hands on one of these beauties, get ahold of Alec at vegantrophies(at)gmail.com.

Metrix Create:Space: June Workshops

Mon, 31 May 2010 02:27:00 +0000

Summer is a great time to start learning how to make things. With the extra daylight (and time, for those of you on summer break) you can learn to make some amazing things. We’re here to help you out with that. June will have our standard electronics workshops and Arduino workshops.

Intro to the Arduino
Saturday, June 12 from 2:00 to 4:00
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop will cover the basics of the Arduino. We’ll go over what it is, what it can do, and why you’d want to use it. We’ll also go over a couple of basic programs. This course is great for people who’ve never programmed before and have no microcontroller experience. We’ll give you an Arduino, a breadboard, and some simple components. This workshop requires a laptop.

Programming for the Arduino
Sunday, June 13 from 2:00 to 4:00
Cost: $50 for non-members
If you can make your way around the Arduino IDE but you get lost when it comes to programming it, this workshop’s for you. We’ll cover programming basics like functions, loops, and branches. We’ll use these programming tools to make an interactive LED light show. This class requires an arduino and breadboard. This workshop requires a laptop.

Introduction to Electronics
Sunday, June 27 from 2 to 4:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop covers everything you need to know to get started in electronics. We’ll start from the basics of electricity and work our way up to using integrated circuits. Fading, blinking, and dimming LEDs help demonstrate key electronics concepts. You’ll leave this workshop with a kit of everything you need to build the circuits we
cover.

Andrew Filer: Unicode weather forecasts

Fri, 28 May 2010 07:23:29 +0000

Want your weather forecast in one or two unicode characters? Go to weather.mar.cx (for location detection by IP) or add the city name to the end, like http://weather.mar.cx/Paris,_TX or http://weather.mar.cx/Paris,_France.

Andrew Filer: Hello, m’am, I’m from the Phone Company

Wed, 26 May 2010 23:53:51 +0000

_DSC2454.JPG, originally uploaded by metrixcreate.

Duncan and I made tshirts with the “phone company” logo on them (no actual phone company has this logo, but it looks a lot like the logo of some random independent phone company in the 1970s.

They were screen printed, but with a plastic stencil instead of a photo-process “stencil”. I bought a book of polypropylene sheets from Dick Blick (“suitable for water color”, the cover says), and got the stencil cut on the laser cutter at Metrix. They can’t cut vinyl or other chlorine-containing compounds, as deadly chlorine gas will be produced (though in quantities that would probably be more damaging to the laser than to humans), but polypropylene works great.

Metrix Create:Space: Homebrew Sidewalk Chalk - Results and Errata

Wed, 26 May 2010 03:26:21 +0000

Sidewalk Chalk, huge success. The 2 parts plaster of paris, 1 part water recipe was right on - the chalk was set and ready to go within 24 hrs and it writes just like the store-bought kind. Using little waxed paper cups as molds worked out very well - the cups came off the chalk just fine and cups are meant to be held just as much as writing utensils, so the ergonomics are good for the cup chalk.

Making the chalk itself was fun and easy, even more so when we got some of our Kraft Nite regulars involved. Everyone enjoyed the safe but messy mixing and chemical reaction process, especially the bit when you add food color to already mixed plaster and you get cool surface fractal patterns. I’ll be sticking around to do a repeat mini-workshop if anyone’s interested in playing around with making sidewalk chalk tonight too.

A couple of important tips that I learned in the sidewalk chalk creation process:

Don’t use unwaxed cardboard as a mold. It’s impossible to remove without the use of sharp objects to scrape off the cardboard that is now bonded to the chalk. If you really like the shape of cardboard TP and paper towel tubes, make sure to line them with waxed paper.
A whole lot of food coloring doesn’t go a long way. If you want to make a lot of vibrantly colored chalk, I recommend investing in quarts or gallons of coloring (which you can find online or in restaurant supply stores).
Mixing colors doesn’t always turn out how you’d expect. More often than not, red and blue made brown. Since green came with the food coloring set I got, that was no problem at all. I had more success with mixing cool colors, and warm colors together worked out once I added way more food coloring than I thought I’d need to. I think that with a metric ass-ton of food coloring, I could have create pretty purple chalk.
You’ll need to protect your furniture more than you need to protect yourself. Gloves were nice to have to keep my hands from getting crusty, but in the end I needed the cardboard I put down to protect the table more. The face mask was totally extraneous. If you’re working with rambunctious children, an apron is in order, but as long as no one starts a plaster fight, unprotected everyday or work clothes do just fine.

Metrix Create:Space: Feels like summer... Break out the sidewalk chalk!

Wed, 19 May 2010 03:49:00 +0000

And when we say break out, we mean let’s get some plaster of paris and food coloring and make ourselves some sidewalk chalk. It’s really easy, at least according to all the children’s craft/parenting websites that came up when I searched for the recipe: 1 part water, 2 parts plaster, a splash of food coloring, mix until the consistency of thick frosting. Also, put in the food coloring with the water and then add plaster for evenness of pigment.

You might notice that I’m wearing gloves and a respirator mask for this project. The plaster of paris is messy and will stick and set if it gets wet (which is why I put down some cardboard on the table, too). The mask might just be me being paranoid, but plaster of paris is pretty fine and I am mixing this right in front of my face.

I’m using little paper cups for molds, but you can use almost anything flexible or rippable, as long as you can free the chalk from the mold after it sets. After the prototype batches I think I’ll do a bigger batch and try using TP tubes for molds.

It looks like it’s setting pretty fast, and the internets say that is should be cured and ready to go by tomorrow afternoon about this time. I’ll tell you how it goes.

Andrew Filer: Instant document conversions

Mon, 17 May 2010 05:43:37 +0000

Want to squeeze a text file out of a Word document you found online, or need a CSV from an Excel file? Use doc.mar.cx! For example,

http://doc.mar.cx/http://www.ieee.org/documents/IEEECopyrightForm.doc

This will give you an HTML version. If you’d like a different output type, insert that type’s extension in front of the URL. For a plain-text version instead, for example,

http://doc.mar.cx/txt/http://www.ieee.org/documents/IEEECopyrightForm.doc.

PDF, HTML, text, CSV, XLS, and DOC output formats are supported on the relevant data types. I’ll soon be adding ImageMagick support to convert from zillions of image formats, and conversions to/from .SHP shapefiles, KML files and other geodata should also be supported soon.

Want to know what input document types are supported? Just try the link. If it works, then that document type is supported. If it doesn’t work, then that document type isn’t supported.

Andrew Filer: More finger features

Wed, 12 May 2010 08:25:19 +0000

My finger gateway now supports much more of the Internet. It supports some sites specifically, like Facebook (try finger cdc@facebook.com@finger.afiler.com), but it also supports sites that have per-user RSS feeds linked to from the page at sitename.com/username (e.g. finger afiler@flickr.com@finger.afiler.com). It also supports queries on sites that have RSS feeds linked from their main page (e.g. finger afiler.com@finger.afiler.com).

More finger feature suggestions are welcome!

Andrew Filer: man pages in Windows

Wed, 12 May 2010 07:34:03 +0000

At work, I’ve found myself SSHing into this Windows web server (thanks to Cygwin) often enough that I start to just think of it as another Linux server. And while Cygwin allows you to run Windows commands from a bash prompt, Windows commands don’t come with man pages (just /?). Microsoft has an A-Z List of Windows commands online, but sometimes I’d just prefer to stick to the command prompt. Conveniently, the documentation renders well in a text-based browser. To make these show up as man pages, you just need to have a text-based web browser installed, and have the html files named as the commands in a particular “chapter” of the manual. I picked chapter 9, as that’s not generally assigned.

apt-cyg install wget links # You probably don't have apt-cyg installed, # so grab that or just use Cygwin's setup.exe instead # to ensure wget and links are installed ln -s /usr/bin/links /usr/bin/lynx # Man expects lynx for html pages mkdir -p /usr/local/share/man/html9 cd /usr/local/share/man/html9 wget -O- 'http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772390(WS.10).aspx' |\ grep -Po 'ctl00_MTCS_main_ctl.+href="\K([^"]+)(:.+>)([^>]+)(?=

)' index.html |\
sed -r 's/^([^"]+).+>([^>]+)$/\1 \2/' | \
while read url name
do name=`echo ${name// /-} | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`
wget -O "$name.9.html" "$url"
done

That will get you man pages for all the commands in that A-Z list. For man pages on subcommands like “net computer”, type “man net-computer”. If you look at that list you’ll notice “net computer” but no “net use” or any of the other usual commands — of course, many of the net commands are well-documented through “net help”. If you really want to be unixy, you can dump those net help pages out to the manual too. Since they’re not formatted, you’ll want to put them in the cat9 directory instead of the html9 directory, and drop the .html extensions.
mkdir -p /usr/local/share/man/cat9 cd /usr/local/share/man/cat9 for cmd in `net 2>&1 | grep '|' | sed 's/^NET//;s/[^A-Z]/ /g' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'` ; do net help $cmd > net-$cmd.9 ; done

I don’t know of any comprehensive list of commands besides the A-Z list and the net commands list. But to create individual man pages, you can do something like:

wget -O sqlcmd.9.html 'http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162773(d=printer).aspx'

This will give you a man page for sqlcmd, the command-line client for SQL Server. If you wanted to grab all the man pages for the net subcommands (instead of using the results from “net help”), do

for x in accounts computer continue file group help helpmsg localgroup name pause print sendshare session start statistics stop time use user view ; do wget -O net-$x.9.html "http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/net_$x.mspx" ; done wget -O net-config.9.html 'http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/net_config_server.mspx'

If you’re looking for a little more Ubuntu/Debianism in Windows, try Richard’s apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade for Wndows. Got any more urls for man pages? Please post a comment and share!

Metrix Create:Space: We’re filling May with workshops to make your Spring a...

Wed, 05 May 2010 20:24:21 +0000

We’re filling May with workshops to make your Spring a creative one. We’ve got our classic Intro to Electronics workshop for those of you who want to start working the projects you’ve seen in Make and Hack-a-Day. We’re also going to be having several of our Arduino workshops again. The Intro to Arduino workshop is a great way to learn about this useful little tool and get started using it. The Arduino Programming workshop will teach those of you who’ve never programmed before how to create interactive projects with the Arduino.

Intro to the Arduino
Sunday, May 16 from 2:00 to 4:00
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop will cover the basics of the Arduino. We’ll go over what it is, what it can do, and why you’d want to use it. We’ll also go over a couple of basic programs. This course is great for people who’ve never programmed before and have no microcontroller experience. We’ll give you an Arduino, a breadboard, and some simple components.

Introduction to Electronics
Saturday, May 29 from 2 to 4:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop covers everything you need to know to get started in electronics. We’ll start from the basics of electricity and work our way up to using integrated circuits. Fading, blinking, and dimming LEDs help demonstrate key electronics concepts. You’ll leave this workshop with a kit of everything you need to build the circuits we cover.

Programming for the Arduino
Sunday, May 30 from 2:00 to 4:00
Cost: $50 for non-members
If you can make your way around the Arduino IDE but you get lost when it comes to programming it, this workshop’s for you. We’ll cover programming basics like functions, loops, and branches. We’ll use these programming tools to make an interactive LED light show. This class requires an arduino and breadboard.

Metrix Create:Space: Here’s another one of the Phinney/Bischoff projects that I...

Sat, 01 May 2010 00:42:51 +0000

Here’s another one of the Phinney/Bischoff projects that I just never got a chance to post about it. Dave Cole, one of the PBDH regulars, was the one who put together the design. Along with being pretty, the reason behind the box is cool, too: idea-sharing and collaboration. How does one attract attention to the project you left in the office meeting room for everyone to comment upon? Switch on the the shiny red ‘critique’ light.

Metrix Create:Space: The nice thing about having Phinney/Bischoff Design House as a...

Sat, 01 May 2010 00:02:00 +0000

The nice thing about having Phinney/Bischoff Design House as a neighbor is that it means we get design professionals as regulars. Turns out that a lunch hour is just long enough to get a bite to eat and drop off the latest laser-cutting project that’s been bouncing around in your head. The project shown above are a set of name tags for a company event - simple, elegant, & way nicer than stickers.

Metrix Create:Space: Adventures in Sugar and Gingerbread

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:54:00 +0000

A gentleman in the pastry business came in today to check out our friendly neighborhood workshop/tool library. One of the things he asked about piqued my interest - he wondered if we could cut sugar sheets on the laser for use in sugar sculpture. After some discussion about materials (and of course pending future experimentation with said materials), I think we could do it. I mean, we couldn’t do stuff like this with just a laser cutter:

But we might just be able to cut the geometric shapes that make up the piece. I think that the laser would be even more useful with something like this:

Straight lines and intricate geometric designs are the laser cutter’s forte. Based on the creme brulee experiment we performed earlier this year, I believe that we could also use the laser to lightly carmelize designs into the surface of the sugar sheets. This is where the laser would really, pardon the pun, shine, especially with intricate and geometric patterns.

I should briefly mention another conclusion we came to during the creme brulee experiment: any food items you put through the laser cutter will taste terrible afterwards. Not to mention we’re not really in the food handling business, either. So, all projects I’m suggesting here are purely decorative. But that still leaves plenty of nifty (and only technically edible) possibilities like sugar sculpture and….

Gingerbread houses. Can you imagine the structures you could pull of if you had the precision and ease of use of a lasercutter? And we could definitely do “gingerbread wallpaper” - see the wheat thins experiment below:

Now I can hardly wait for the holiday season. I just hope we can get the attention of some adventurous culinary sculptors in the meantime. This could be awesome.

(pictures courtesy of fortunae2002’s photostream, the Virginia College website, the Yoga Gumbo blog and our very own flickr stream)

Metrix Create:Space: You may have seen this little lightbox on our counter, the...

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:57:00 +0000

You may have seen this little lightbox on our counter, the newest addition to our counter collection. Lucky for you, it’s not just for show - we’re working with Jon Mitten, the lightbox creator, to put some of these together in kits that can be sold out of our vending machine of wonder. Easy to assemble, made exceedingly locally, pretty and kid-safe - the kit will include an LED light element so you can avoid those pesky accidental-fire-by-candle moments.

Metrix Create:Space: A case of the Mondays (and Thursdays and Sundays)

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:11:00 +0000

Monday can be a quiet night on Capitol Hill. Folks are still recovering from the weekend and so there aren’t many events especially on Monday nights. The thing is it’s still nice to have something to do if you feel like it. Maybe you have to work weekends and Monday is your first day off or maybe you’re just up for something to do.

Because this is the Metrix Blog and I work here, my first suggestion would be to come on down to Metrix. But we too are without a special event on Monday nights. I say we change that. We’ve got Kraft Nite (Tues), Hack Night (Wed), Music Night (Fri) and MakerBot Madness (Sat.). What else should we add to the roster? Can you think of something that absolutely belongs on a Monday night? Or a Thursday or Sunday night for that matter? Give us your suggestions! (In person is best, but you can click the contact link to the left and get ahold of us that way too) Between all of us we’re bound to think up something awesome.

Metrix Create:Space: Reminder: We have Awesome Workshops

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:50:00 +0000

Since it’s been awhile since the last post about workshops, I just wanted to remind everyone that there are still some great workshops left to take this month/beginning of next month. There are spaces available in all of these classes, so you still have time to sign up.

Advanced Arduino Input and Output
Tuesday, April 27 from 6:30 to 8:30
Cost: $50 for non-members

The importance of the Arduino is mostly in how you can interface it with the rest of the analog world. We’ll talk about using analog inputs to sense light and sound. We’ll also go over using PWM to control the brightness of LEDs. Lastly, we’ll cover how to use servo motors.
This class comes with several sensors and other components. You’ll need a breadboard and Arduino.

Processing with Arduino
May 1st 2:00-4:30 PM
Cost: $50 for non-members

Processing+Arduino. The Arduino (http://arduino.cc) development environment looks exactly the same as Processing, as it happens to be based off of it. The two toolkits work in tandem beautifully, particularly with the Firmata libraries. Firmata (http://firmata.org) is an Arduino firmware that creates a standard protocol to a variety of languages. The library for Processing is a natural transition in particular.

In this workshop an Arduino will be used to create a custom hardware controller and then connected to an application created in Processing to control live visuals. Laptop and Arduino Required. Materials for the controller will be provided. Familiarity with both Processing and Arduino suggested.

Arduino Robots
Tuesday, May 4 from 6:30 to 8:30
Cost: $50 for non-members

This last Arduino workshop will wrap everything from the other workshops together into an interesting project. We’ll spend the class integrating sensors, motors, and various programming techniques into a line following robot car. We’ll give you most of the supplies, but you’ll also need everything from the other three workshops (which you can buy separately if you only want to take this class).

Metrix Create:Space: What can Metrix do for you?

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:00:00 +0000

A few days ago I was reading Josh Mahar’s post on CHS Blog about how Seattle First Covenant Church is looking for community input on what to do with the old University Honda Space. Among the possible uses for the space that Josh suggested was a tool library. This gave me pause because that sounds kind of like how I described Metrix in a writeup on I did for CHS Blog and just like how I described Metrix in a post here earlier this week. Mind you, we don’t have every tool under the sun (no shovels here, sorry), and it’s definitely a tool reference library (please don’t run off with our tools), but we certainly have tools for people to rent out. Things like soldering rooms and lasers that are too big or expensive for most of us to have in our home. So why wasn’t there at least an aside in Josh’s article about our friendly neighborhood basement workshop?

I suspect this is because Metrix-Create Space’s resource-sharing business model is a new enough concept that people are still figuring what it is and what it can do well. Resource-sharing (material/ideas/etc.) is as old as the existence of social animals, but the rise of the resource-sharing business model still looks new and different. I suspect that Zipcar and Office Nomads had the same discovery and adjustment period that we’re having now.

I’m not entirely sure why resource-sharing is such a new and revolutionary concept. Libraries are still a common and important feature of community life in the US. But a lot of other collaborative/community/sharing activities aren’t so common anymore, like quilting bees and barn-raisings. I actually don’t know of any urban or suburban equivalents of these rural examples.

Perhaps these new resource-sharing businesses are the urban/21st century equivalent of barn-raisings - 21st century because of the needs served, and urban because a business is be easier to start than a tight-knit community in an urban center where the population is large and mobile. That said, just because a resource-sharing model is set up as a business doesn’t mean that it won’t end up as a community. I know that’s what we’re working on here at Metrix.

Andrew Filer: finger-twitter gateway

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:33:37 +0000

A new service from afiler.com! Just finger “<twitteruser>@twitter.com@finger.afiler.com”. More services possibly coming soon.

$ finger fakeapstylebook@twitter.com@finger.afiler.com [finger.afiler.com] Login: FakeAPStylebook Name: Fake AP Stylebook Bio: Style tips for proper writing. contact: fakeapstylebook at gmail dot com. No submissions, please. All material copyright The Bureau Chiefs, LLC. Location: Web: http://www.thebureauchiefs.com Apr 22 16:00: For an international audience, spell the pop star's name as "KeUSDha." Apr 22 11:30: Do not reference The Oxford English Dictionary. We speak American. ... Apr 16 07:00: It's "for all intents and purposes." "Intensive Purposes" is the hot new medical drama from CBS. Apr 15 16:00: Be sure not to confuse "aural" and "oral." The former is very uncomfortable. Apr 15 14:17: Bureau Chiefs Poll: Who would you choose to perform at your son?@Ys bar mitzvah? http://bit.ly/ds489i

Metrix Create:Space: Music Collaboration Night: House Friday with DJ Zhenia

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Speaking of collaboration nights, we’ve got a fourth: House Friday with DJ Zhenia. That’s the working title, anyway. If you’re got a better name, we’re open to suggestions.

DJ Zhenia sez, “I enjoy playing music somewhere other than my house and I think that other people would enjoy playing around with midis. Since Metrix has a lot of microcontrollers I’d like to work with people to create midi instruments. I want Friday nights to be about collaborating on computer-produced music, like unofficial studio time with an open-source feel.”

If you’re interested in helping to run Metrix’s new digital music collaboration night, get ahold of DJ Zhenia at darksidednb(at)gmail(dot)com. You can find a sample set of his music here

Metrix Create:Space: Collaboration nights: Kraft Nite, Hack Night and MakerBot Madness

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:15:00 +0000

To continue the theme of how our middle name is collaboration, I now turn to our weekly collaboration nights.

Kraft Nite is every Tuesday evening and the focus is on things you make with you hands. Usually we get a lot of knitting, sewing and gluing, but I take Kraft Nite to include everything from soldering to crochet to paper-making.
Wednesday nights are Hack Night; then it’s all about fooling around with code and using your computer to talk to phone systems in Palau (yes, someone has done that here-not for any particular reason, just to do it).
MakerBot Madness is on Saturday evenings and involves us bringing out all our 3D printers out to play with everyone else’s 3D printers.

If we’re about collaboration and making neat stuff all the time, why have certain nights focus on certain activities? Simply because you can work on just about anything here. It’s a roll of the dice who will be here working on what at any given moment. With focused collaboration nights, you’re guaranteed a concentration of certain makers and projects, i.e. a little community thinktank focused on one general topic.

If you have no idea why you’re MakerBot won’t work, come on Saturday, if you want to learn obscure facts about phone systems, you come on Wednesday, etc. At Metrix, we’re not just building a pool of shared resources; we’re working on a pool of shared knowledge as well.

We don’t need to stop at three community/collaboration nights. If you’re into mapmaking or steampunk modding or whatever, and think it’ll draw a crowd, come talk to us about setting up a night. The more communities we make, the merrier.

Metrix Create:Space: Collaboration is our middle name

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:07:00 +0000

It’s just that we don’t put it in our signage because “Metrix:Create Collaboration Space” would be a mouthful. But who knows, maybe we should. Because one of the things that’s easy to overlook about Metrix is that the real point of running a shared workshop is so that people can work/create/chat/etc. together.

It’s all well and good to come down to Metrix and just work alone on your project of the day, but besides the change in scenery, you could be doing that at home alone in your apartment. The real difference is that at Metrix, you are guaranteed to be around people you can bounce ideas off of. And since this is not your living room, you might actually meet new people, thus discovering new ideas and new ways of looking at things. In my experience, when cool ideas in one person’s head collide with the cool ideas in another person’s head, events and inventions occurs that are exponentially cooler than if the ideas just existed isolated and lonely in their separate brain homes.

Another difference between Metrix and your apartment (besides the part where you have to be fully clothed) is that Metrix also has a metric ass-ton of tools that most people in this city don’t have the money to buy or the space to store. This metric ass-ton of tools is a direct consequence of the whole collaborative/shared space/share resources thing.

The benefit of Metrix’s product-sharing/use-focused business model is that by renting time on a shared resource instead of buying it, the customer doesn’t have to deal with the expense or hassle of ownership, storage or maintenance of the said resource. All they have to do is rent it out when they need it. It’s also a much more efficient and sustainable model than ownership because one MakerBot or lasercutter can serve the needs of dozens or hundreds of people instead of just a few.

So come down here and start collaborating. It’s way more fun/productive/green/full of win than working by yourself at your apartment. Also, all the cool kids are doing it.

Metrix Create:Space: This weekend’s Makerbot Madness was amazing. We not only...

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:49:00 +0000

This weekend’s Makerbot Madness was amazing. We not only had the usual flood of Makerbots, but we took a look at two new Mendels in progress. At one point, we had 8 3D printers in the shop, which I think is a new record.

First up is the Open3DP Mendel. It was born from a commercial FDM printer, and the build quality is excellent. It should be running smoothly for next weekend’s Discovery Days Open House at the UW. I highly recommend going to this event.

It’s running the TechZone reprap electronics and a Wade’s Stepper Extruder. We spent a bit of time debugging the electronics, and although we didn’t have it printing by the end of the night, it’s definitely on track to be replicating soon.

Second is Sharon Morrison’s Wood Mendel. She has been building this repstrap with a scroll saw and a drill press. She’s gotten pretty far in the past couple of weeks, and I’m going to guess it will be printing soon.

Sharon has been coming on Saturdays for a while now, and tested the 3D printing waters by designing and printing an awesome banana slug for Thingiverse.

You may also notice a new addition to the shop. Jon Chandler dropped off an awesome servo clock, which conveniently covers our hours of operation. If you hang out until midnight, you can watch it snap back to 0 right before we lock up. Don’t look away though, it happens fast.

Andrew Filer: I made a monitor stand

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:32:46 +0000

I made a monitor stand out of black gas pipe and fittings, compression tees, and an adapter bracket.

The compression tees (as in pipe fittings, not clothing) were an awesome find. They have rubber gaskets inside that made a surprisingly tight connection once the end caps are screwed down.

The galvanized metal fitting is a bracket made for using metal pipes for things like mounting rails and chin-up bars. The holes are 38mm apart, as opposed to 100mm on the standard VESA mount, so I made an adapter bracket. I made the adapter out of 6mm birch on the laser cutter at Metrix Create:Space though it would be easy enough to make at home — but lasering’s just so easy! I even countersunk screw holes using the laser.

I’m really impressed with the stability of the stand. I had been worried I’d need to add clamps under the compression tees to make sure they wouldn’t slip, but it turns out they’re far more solid than expected.

If I ever go completely insane and decide I need more monitors, I’m thinking I could make an X-Y setup, with two vertical bars, on which horizontal bars could be mounted. Each row could still have its height adjusted, plus this would allow an up/down tilt on each monitor.

Total cost for this was about $70, $8 of which was for the (very optional) laser cutting.

Metrix Create:Space: Earthworms eat their garbage: Worm Bin Making by Sustainable Capitol Hill

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:33:00 +0000

Sustainable Capitol Hill took their meeting on the road tonight and came down to Metrix:Create Space to make worm composting bins. It looked like they had a great deal of fun with giant plastic bins, cordless drills and tearing up a great deal of newspaper. Cheap, easy assembly, and you just need two plastic bins (one for worms and worm food, the other to catch the drips), a power drill, a boxcutter and two teeny vents. And let’s not forget the earthworms and their worm food (damp newspaper and food scraps).

The bins they made were a great deal like ones described in this guide, but SCH got fancy and bought little tiny vent covers to insert in the top of the bins (see picture number three). This only requires a trip to the hardware store, an outlay of a few more dollars, and a couple more minutes work with a boxcutter. If you really want to make sure your earthworm buddies get enough air, it seems like it’s worth the effort.

This worm bin can be kept indoors or outdoors. The double bin construction prevents leaks and if you maintain your new worm friends well, the contents of the bin will just smell like good rich soil. The SCH folks did mention the possibility of fly problems, but they said that if the bin is never outdoors (and I assume, flies don’t get in your house a lot), flies won’t have the chance to invade, lay eggs and be a nuisance.

Metrix Create:Space: Saturdays are Makerbot Madness. If you want to see the future...

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Saturdays are Makerbot Madness. If you want to see the future of 3D printing, it’s a good time to come down.

This week, Nick Burrows brought by his bot and his Sarrus Linkage, It was the first time I’ve seen a real one, and although we have a ton of shop projects already, I really want one now. Smooth linear motion with no guide rods. Pure awesome.

The LearnMakeCupcake crew and the RHS TEC club also showed up to work on their makerbots. LMC is learning to build, tune and use their machine, and Ben is working furiously to build a mendel for as cheap as humanly possible.

Ben’s CupcakeStrap is making some good progress, and he showed off his new extruder mod, based on a paxtruder, but with a gigantic stepper from a printer. It’s amazing what you can scrap together with a little ingenuity and time. This 3D printer has cost somewhere around $300 so far, witth most of the money sunk into electronics. Once it is up and running, they’re going to build up a Mendel and scavenge the strap for the parts. It doesn’t have to be pretty (although I think it’s awesome since it’s made of so much scrap), it just has to work well enough to get them to the next step.

One thing they (or anyone looking to print cheaply) might take a look at is Polypropylene(PE). Mark Ganter from Open3DP stopped by with a -massive- roll. He just picked up 50lbs for $1.50/lb (shipped!). We decided to take a closer look at it on the Shop Mendel because our Wade Extruder will extrude pretty much anything and if it jams, it’s simple to fix. (Thanks Wade!)

PP prints best on Polyethylene (we used an Ikea cutting board). Our first two prints were too hot and fast to produce a good result. The filament bubbled and separated and had a finish like cottage cheese. It didn’t stop us though, and by the third print, we were getting a clean but warped part. (this is a mendel circuit-board-spacer-m4_2off for those of you wondering).

All were solid enough to use, and dimensionally correct in hole and spacing. Other than the warp, which we can likely eliminate with heat, the last one didn’t even look bad. This stuff is strong, printable and dirt cheap. We were wondering what it was originally produced for to make it so cheap, and I now think I know the magic google words.

11 gauge monofilament horse fencing

Be careful with those words though, there’s a lot of horse and deer fencing out there that’s polyamide 6. That means nylon, and as far as I know, that’s untested grounds. Definitely worth some experimentation at those prices, but a 1000ft spool of fail could also be a result.

Bryan McLellan: Amazon ELB requires CRLF for HTTP Requests

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:13:48 +0000

Here’s an interesting bit I stumbled upon while playing with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): HTTP requests must have their lines terminated with CRLF and not just a line feed. When using netcat to test a web server by speaking HTTP, it only sends LFs by default (\n). While RFC 2616 specifies:

… a bare CR or LF MUST NOT be substituted for CRLF within any of the HTTP control structures …

Using netcat to connect to a web server typically works just fine. I’m inputting the HTTP requests by hand and [ENTER] is where I hit the enter key.

$ nc www.google.com 80
GET / HTTP/1.0[ENTER]
[ENTER]
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:07:25 GMT
Expires: -1
[snip]

This works against Apache. However when connecting to an Apache server through ELB, one must run netcat with the -C option to send a CRLF instead of a lone LF upon return.

$ nc -C elb.example.org 80
GET / HTTP/1.0[ENTER]
[ENTER]
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:09:39 GMT
Location: http://elb.example.org/404/
Server: Apache
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Length: 290
Connection: Close

Sans the -C option, the connection simply hangs. Which asks the question, what is Amazon doing with your HTTP traffic in between?

Bryan McLellan: an evening with Munin graph aggregation

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:44:01 +0000

Trending?

I’m often a bit surprised by the lack of substance about trending that leaks out on the Internet. I mean, everybody is doing it. Right? Munin is a great introduction to trending due to its simplicity in getting started and the wealth of plugins.

I’m a believer of collecting as much data as possible and sorting it out later. Without data, you can only speculate wildly at what it might have said. So will others, so it’s nice having a response; often they won’t. I don’t need to be looking at the disk latency or available entropy for dozens of servers every day, but the time saved by being able to look at these graphs when something occurs and make correlations between trends is revolutionary to how you will spend your day. When having too much data can feel overwhelming, it’s time to post-process it into something more bite-size.

Still, I run operations for a web product and there is data I do want to see every day, both to monitor the health of the product and plan capacity for upcoming growth. Aggregating data for multiple systems and creating a sort of executive trending console helps accomplish this.

Getting Started

The best way to get familiar with munin is to install it on a debian or ubuntu workstation. Installing the ‘munin’ (server) and ‘munin-node’ (client) packages will be enough to generate some graphs about your local machine. Go ahead and run:

sudo su munin -s /bin/bash -c 'time /usr/bin/munin-cron'

Then point your browser at file:///var/cache/munin/www/index.html.

Aggregates

Aggregate graphs are created by munin-graph from existing data in the RRDs collected by munin-update. There are two types of aggregates: sum and stack. Sum will show you the total of multiple data sets. The Munin wiki uses the aggregate current between two UPS’s as an example. Sum is most useful when the data sets are relatively meaningless individually. For instance if you wanted to know the total current CPU usage in a 50-node cluster, each node is not particularly interesting alone, but the sum would be. Stack provides the data sets visually stacked on a single graph. The Munin wiki uses the total entropy between two systems as their example, which isn’t particularly interesting. I’ll use some similarly uninteresting examples, but later I’ll show one that produces a stack comparing data in multiple datacenters.

Lets look at a simple example /etc/munin/munin.conf file with an aggregate graph similar to what is in the munin.conf man page:

[localhost.localdomain]
address 127.0.0.1
use_node_name yes

[localdomain;Totals]
update no

load.graph_title 2xload
load.double.stack one=localhost.localdomain:load.load two=localhost.localdomain:load.load

This will create a graph that shows the local systems load twice in a graph by stacking the same value.

Munin separates hosts by domain in more ways than just the html index that munin-html puts out. By default hosts are put into a “group” by their domain name. If an aggregate graph attempts to reference data values from a host in another group, munin may not find it and fail to clearly notify as to why. You can manually place a node in a group as we do above where we put the virtual host “Totals” in the “localdomain” group by entitling the section “[localdomain;Totals]” on line 5. Your groups can be called anything, they don’t have to be a domain name.

The “update no” directive on line 6 tells munin-update to skip this section, or hos since these graphs are created entirely from data collected from other hosts. Please note that you typically still need to run munin-update before munin-graph to get configuration changes to aggregate graphs to appear in the graph. Munin appears to bailout on drawing a graph if it sees no new data for that graph pretty early in the process.

Typically failures in this area of configuration result in a new graph not being created but munin-graph appearing to run successfully otherwise. Note that graph_title is required. If you see an error that looks like:

2010/04/08 18:43:46 [RRD ERROR] Unable to graph /var/cache/munin/www/localdomain/Totals/load-year.png : opening '': No such file or directory

This is because munin was unable to find a data set, or specifically the RRD file, based on the value you specified. Both of the following lines cause this error and the graph to not be drawn:

load.double.stack one=localhost.localdomain:load.load two=localhost.localdomainX:load.load
load.double.stack one=localhost.localdomain:load.load two=localhost.localdomain:load.loadX

This syntax evaluates to:
graph.value.stack line=host.domain:plugin.value

Line, also called alias, ends up being the label for that line. Often dashes are inconsistently converted to underscores in Munin. I have a working plugin called ‘foo_js-3_0′, which I have to specify as ‘foo_js_3_0′ in the above syntax.

[localhost.localdomain]
    address 127.0.0.1
    use_node_name yes

[localdomain;Totals]
  update no

  load.graph_title 2xload
  load.double.sum localhost.localdomain:load.load localhost.localdomain:load.load
  load.double.label Double the load

Here is the same example but displayed as a sum. Note that we’ve added ‘load.double.label’, and this is required. This replaces the ‘alias’ or ‘line’ value we were just discussing in stacked graphs, which you will notice is no longer in the configuration line for ‘fieldname.sum’ on line 9.

Making it useful

Here is a proof of concept configuration that I made that counts some javascript calls in different datacenters

# Aggregrates
[example.org;OTS]
  update no
  contacts no

  js-3_0.update no
  js-3_0.graph_category example
  js-3_0.graph_title CAPI3 OTS Calls
  js-3_0.graph_total Total calls per minute
  js-3_0.graph_scale no
  js-3_0.graph_period minute
  js-3_0.graph_args --base 1000 -l 0
  js-3_0.graph_order iad irl las
  js-3_0.total.graph no
    js-3_0.iad.label IAD calls per minute
    js-3_0.iad.sum \
      iadots02.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls \
      iadots01.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls   

    js-3_0.irl.label IRL calls per minute
    js-3_0.irl.sum \
      irlots02.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls \
      irlots01.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls   

    js-3_0.las.label LAS calls per minute
    js-3_0.las.sum \
      lasots02.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls \
      lasots03.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls \
      lasots06.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls \
      lasots04.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls \
      lasots05.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls \
      lasots01.example.org:example_js_3_0.calls

This creates the below graph. The jagged lines at the left edge are from missing data values while I was working out some of the issues I describe in this post. There are a couple new directives in this configuration. The ‘contacts’ directive on line 4 specifies that if we had munin configured for monitoring (as opposed to trending) we don’t want it to provide any notification based on the graph values for this virtual host. This is the job of munin-limits. The ‘graph_category’ directive allows us to put this graph in a category that we specify, otherwise Munin puts it in ‘other’. This is particularly useful if you have different types of aggregate graphs data such as CPU and Apache related data on the same virtual host. The ‘graph_total’ directive on line 9 isn’t that well documented but provides a simple way to add the black total line you see in the graph and is therefore quite useful. Lines 10-12 control how the graph is drawn and are outside the scope of this post. The ‘graph_order‘ directive seems to give us the ability to control the order in which the fields are drawn on the graph, but is documented as a method to control the order in which the graphs are drawn to specify complex data dependencies.

Configuration Management!

For fun, here is the Chef template that created this, which allows additional nodes be added automatically, but is still ultimately incomplete.

[example.org;OTS]
  update no
  contacts no

  <% wop_datacenters = [ "iad", "irl", "las" ] -%>

  js-3_0.update no
  js-3_0.graph_category example
  js-3_0.graph_title CAPI3 OTS Calls
  js-3_0.graph_total Total calls per minute
  js-3_0.graph_scale no
  js-3_0.graph_period minute
  js-3_0.graph_args --base 1000 -l 0
  js-3_0.graph_order <%= wop_datacenters.join(" ") %>
  js-3_0.total.graph no
  <% wop_datacenters.each do |dc| -%>
    js-3_0.<%= dc %>.label <%= dc.upcase %> calls per minute
    js-3_0.<%= dc %>.sum \
    <% dc_servers = @ots_servers.select { |host| host['hostname'] =~ Regexp.new(dc) }.select { |host| host['hostname'] !~ /pp/ } -%>
    <% dc_servers.each_with_index do |host, index| -%>
      <%= host['fqdn'] %>:example_js_3_0.calls <%= '\\' unless dc_servers.length - 1 == index %>
    <% end -%>

  <% end -%>

When it does not work

Debugging munin can be really tough. I keep stopping myself from breaking into explanation of munin’s process, but something as innocent as as an omitted ‘graph_title’ can cause munin to all but silently fail at producing a graph for you. Normally munin runs every give minutes via cron, usually via the ‘munin-cron’ wrapper, but you can run the parts individually to look for issues. These tools create a lockfile when they run so they won’t interfere with the regular process if it is started by cron.

user@localhost:~$ sudo su - munin -s /bin/bashmunin@localhost:~$ /usr/share/munin/munin-update --debug --noforkmunin@localhost:~$ /usr/share/munin/munin-graph --debug --nofork --nolazymunin@localhost:~$ /usr/share/munin/munin-html --debug

In larger infrastructures, you can limit munin-update and munin-graph to specific host and service combinations while testing. Be wary that these sometimes will appear more successful than they are:

munin@localhost:~$ /usr/share/munin/munin-update --debug --nofork --host nonexistent --service nonexistent 2010/04/08 17:13:23 [DEBUG] Creating new lock file /tmp/munin-update.lock 2010/04/08 17:13:23 [DEBUG] Creating lock : /tmp/munin-update.lock succeeded 2010/04/08 17:13:23 [INFO]: Starting munin-update 2010/04/08 17:13:23 [DEBUG] Creating new lock file /tmp/munin-datafile.lock 2010/04/08 17:13:23 [DEBUG] Creating lock : /tmp/munin-datafile.lock succeeded 2010/04/08 17:13:23 [INFO]: Munin-update finished (0.00 sec)

Metrix Create:Space: You’ve been asking for new workshops, and last week we...

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:52:23 +0000

You’ve been asking for new workshops, and last week we announced our electronics lineup.

This week we introduce 3 new Processing Workshops at Metrix Create:Space. Our instructor is Joseph Gray, a visual artist and designer who has taught workshops on Processing and Pure Data at Media 911, Cornish School of Arts and Frayed Wire.

Introduction to Processing
April 17th 2:00-4:30 PM
Cost: $50 for non-members

An introduction to Processing (http://processing.org), a coding language designed for artistic applications. Processing is quick to learn for beginning coders, particularly those with a visual background. The language is simple yet capable of scaling to projects of almost any complexity. It is easy to learn for non-programmers yet powerful enough for seasoned programmers to rapidly develop concepts. Processing has the added benefit of being a free and open source tool that is used by a large and very active community of creative minds internationally.

This workshop will guide participants through the creation of a basic drawing tool to introduce the fundamental concepts of Processing. The finished project will be a unique drawing application that can be tweaked and modified to create individual artworks. These images can then be saved in a printable format to show how the language can rapidly turn ideas into tangible results. Laptop Required.

Real-Time Animation with Processing
April 24th 2:00-4:30 PM
Cost: $50 for non-members

This workshop is designed for coders already familiar with dot syntax and focuses on generative animation. 3rd party libraries for Processing will be utilized to create an OpenGL application for creating visuals in real-time. This stand-alone fullscreen application will create intricate and complex animations that can be controlled with a mouse and keyboard. The visual output of the app can then either be recorded to a video file or projected for live performances. Laptop Required.

Processing with Arduino
May 1st 2:00-4:30 PM
Cost: $50 for non-members

Metrix Create:Space: April Workshops

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:40:27 +0000

We know you like workshops, and we like teaching them to you. We’re hard at work making new workshops, but it’s difficult making workshops that are cost effective. We want to provide you with good supplies, pay our teachers well enough to make them do it again, and make enough money to pay for the space. That all adds up, especially with hardware intensive workshops.

In order to maintain the high quality workshops we’ve been hosting, we’re going to increase the price of workshops to $50 per workshop. If you’re a basic member, your workshop price will stay at $40, so you won’t even notice this. Full members actually make out on the deal, since we’ll be charging them $35 per workshop.

The new workshop prices will take effect for all workshops starting in April. We’ll also be debuting two new workshops next month, so stay tuned for those.

Introduction to Electronics
We’ll be having two of these throughout April. These are one day workshops, so don’t register for more than one.
Sunday, April 11 from 2 to 4:30
Sunday, April 25 from 2 to 4:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop covers everything you need to know to get started in electronics. We’ll start from the basics of electricity and work our way up to using integrated circuits. You’ll leave the class with some simple components and the knowledge to use them.

Intro to Soldering
Sunday, April 18 from 2 to 4:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop will go over soldering through hole components. We’ll give you an electronics kit and walk you through putting it together, giving you all the tips and soldering techniques you need to make it work. We’ll also give you a soldering station along with the class.

Arduino

This is actually a series of individual workshops, rather than a single workshop. Each workshop will build on the material in the workshop before it. Feel free to come to only the ones you want.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to bring a laptop with USB for all of these workshops. We have one laptop available for rental for each class if you need it, but be sure to tell us that you need it when you sign up.

Intro to the Arduino
Tuesday, April 13 from 6:30 to 8:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
This workshop will cover the basics of the Arduino. We’ll go over what it is, what it can do, and why you’d want to use it. We’ll also go over a couple of basic programs. This course is great for people who’ve never programmed before and have no microcontroller experience. We’ll give you an Arduino, a breadboard, and some simple components.

Programming for the Arduino
Tuesday , April 20 from 6:30 to 8:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
Now that you’ve gotten some familiarity with the Arduino, it’s time to learn how to program the thing. We’ll cover programming basics like functions, loops, and conditionals. We’ll also talk about how to use classes, though we won’t be writing any.
This class requires an arduino and breadboard.

Advanced Input and Output
Tuesday, April 27 from 6:30 to 8:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
The importance of the Arduino is mostly in how you can interface it with the rest of the analog world. We’ll talk about using analog inputs to sense light and sound. We’ll also go over using PWM to control the brightness of LEDs. Lastly, we’ll cover how to use servo motors.
This class comes with several sensors and other components. You’ll need a breadboard and Arduino.

Arduino Robots
Tuesday, May 4 from 6:30 to 8:30
Cost: $50 for non-members
This last Arduino workshop will wrap everything from the other workshops together into an interesting project. We’ll spend the class integrating sensors, motors, and various programming techniques into a line following robot car. We’ll give you most of the supplies, but you’ll also need everything from the other three workshops (which you can buy separately if you only want to take this class).

Metrix Create:Space: Piano Monster, and the start of Thursday music night

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 23:21:12 +0000

Friday April 2nd, Chapel will be having a performance by pianist Tiffany Lin of a new evening length composition scored for retuned piano and a new mechanical extension called the Piano Monster built by NYC artist Ranjit Bhatnagar that uses 16 MIDI triggered voltage controlled motors with attached objects that resonate piano strings.

On Thursday (April 1st) at 7PM, we will be peeking behind the scenes, and Ranjit, Tiffany and Zach will let us know what it took to put this project together, do some final electronics tweaking, and show off some of their other projects.

For the past month or so, we’ve been trying to kick off a weekly music hacking night, and this is the type of catalyst that we need. If you’ve been interested in making an instrument, or just hacking electronic tunes, bring down your projects and lets see if we can make some pre-weekend noise!

Metrix Create:Space: The hipster fun pack, or, black acrylic is the new black....

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:51:51 +0000

The hipster fun pack, or, black acrylic is the new black. Impress your friends with the most outrageous, ironic, and absolutely custom-made jewelry you can find on the Hill. You have the pattern on file, we’ll cut it for you with lasers.

Matthew Wilson: I made a Thing

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:21:09 +0000

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2040

Time from perceived need to assembled object: less than 24 hours.

Metrix Create:Space: Bring out your dead

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:02:03 +0000

Ever since I started getting into electronics, I’ve been tearing apart any old toys I can get my hands on. Sometimes I do this so I can grab some parts out of them. Sometimes I do this just to see how they work. It’s always fun though. Well, it’s fun right up until I have to clean up.

The problem with tearing apart electronics, and with electronics design in general, is that it generates a lot of toxic waste. PCBs, LCDs, and dead batteries are not safe things to throw away. I kind of like the environment, so I feel bad about just tossing this stuff. By this point, I’ve amassed a big collection of PCBs that I eventually plan to recycle safely.

Luckily, I work at Metrix. Before, I’d always put off taking my electronic waste to the recycling center because it was so far away. This week, the Create:Space is starting up an electronics recycling program. I’m going to be making heavy use of it myself, and I hope you will too. It beats throwing all that toxic waste in the dump.

We’ll recycle old phones, batteries, mother boards, and basically any kind of electronic waste you’ve got. There are some exceptions though. We don’t take anything that’s wet, or contains some form of fluid. We also can’t take monitors with broken screens, and whole monitors cost $15 each.

With that in mind, here are our prices:
Full members can recycle any amount of anything for free.

Basic members can recycle three things a day for free. Any more than that is $1 per item.

The general public can recycle anything for $1 per item.