aftermath technologies

two great tastes? BOINCOIN

2011-06-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

I had an idea, might be stupid, might not. Anyway here it is.

A modest proposal for a merger of bitcoin and boinc technologies for the generation of a self funding and motivating research platform.

Summary: The question is asked whether the two technologies (or their inevitable descendants) could be merged as a viable business model for funding and assisting in computationally intensive tasks. I will also offer some very limited descriptions of how the idea might work.

Basic descriptions of the two technologies:

bitcoin: .www.bitcoin.org . Is a p2p distributed cryptographic currency that has recently gained notoriety/popularity due to its potentially subversive/revolutionary avoidance of standard transactional systems and perceived anonymity of its users.

BOINC http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ Is a distributed computational platform that designed to distribute tasks over the internet and run them using volunteered computation on multiple platforms.

Similarities:

Both derive value from the use of the “work” of enormous numbers of offsite computers

.: Both require encryption of the work packets.

Both have a very strong “cool technology” self promotional character. In the case of boinc you have projects like SETI and bitcoin has the additional motivation from the potential of making bitcoins which can be exchanged for other currencies or directly for goods and services.

Differences: Boinc requires a central control point for project compilation, while one of bitcoins major points is the lack of any central authority.

At first glance these would seem to be mutually exclusive, But let me point out that both require that two pieces of data are exchanged in both systems.

The source of the work: In bitcoin this is the “bitcoin address” in the case of BOINC this is collected in the registration process and can be correlated with IP address.

The validity of the work. In both cases one could argue that this is the whole point of the exercise as in both cases false data would render the product valueless.

The only fundamental difference is the “work” in the case of bitcoin it is strongly encrypted and verifiable packets of random numbers, In the case of boinc it is a segment of data from the chosen task.

From this limited perspectives one observes that these are two different solutions to the same problem and that the differences are not central to this discussion as BOINC potentially interact with a bitcoin like “boinc address” as the primary concern is the validity of the work, not where it comes from. Conversely, while bitcoin loses its point with a centralized control, centralized digital currency systems exist. Although I do not know of any that have the potential to create value in the manner of bitcoin.

So with that grossly simple comparisonm may I “coin” the the term “boincoin” representing an encrypted and verifiable packet of the chosen task?.

Funding: I see three funding mechanisms at this point.

The bitcoin method, a pay for work method and an ownership method.

The bitcoin method.

To be honest I do not understand the bitcoin valuation system as it appears to be something along the lines of do a bunch of computational work, at some point it randomly becomes a bitcoin, the more work you do the more chances you have. This strikes me as a magic number lottery but if one acknowledges that perceived value can equal real value as is demonstrated by major national currencies, means that this may not actually be a problem and as such this must be included.

The pay for work method.

This is fairly self explanatory. A client contracts to run a job on the network. Payment is in the form of increased chances of generating boincoins based on the amount of work done by the address.

The ownership method.

A client may contract a percentage of the intellectual property inherent in the data generated.

Note that the second and third options require a centralized authority to contract with the client and to originate payment, but I see no reason why the distribution of funds and the validation of the work could not use the existing bitcoin methodology and retain the advantages of bitcoin.
.
The second and third methods also provide for a real world valuation on boincoins as in both cases there would be real assets with real valuations with would be reflected in the valuation of boincoins with some variation of the formula (real assets / number of boincoins = value of boincoin)

Thats all I have right now, please feel free to comment, critique and advise.

James Burgett, aftermath technologies, June 15, 2011.

CC: Creative commons, non-commercial with attribution.

2011-05-21T16:53:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with the idea of casting aluminum With a smelter made our of old bricks and steel cans and making my own charcoal.

so far I've had some proof of concept success in making coffee grounds into charcoal burning scrap twigs from the yard and was going to try my first melt, but I decided that I needed to up my safety routines instead, as melting metal in a 100+ year old wood building that has been drying in the desert for its entire lifespan seemed a might iffy.

In moving the smelter I found I had a lot of very fine wood ash and decided that I would try to make "lyewater" like the stuff they made old school soap out of.

This is done by filtering water through the ash to extract potassium hydroxide. (note both potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide are known as "lye")

I poked a small hole in the bottom of a large plastic salsa jug, filled it with ash and put a jar under it and poured water into it. Got a jar filled with uh.... TEA! colored liquid.

So I have a jar of noxious liquid, no ph testing gear but I know that aluminum in a water-sodium hydroxide solution will produce hydrogen and aluminum oxide.

So I dropped a small piece of aluminum in the goo and got bubbles, I think I have hydrogen.

problems with e-waste policies

2011-04-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

This is a work in progress and subject to change as I collect more data expect the addition of links to various examples to be added and probably some remedial editing.

Basic points.

First we must understand that the United States is no longer an industrial nation and as such we do not have the ability to produce or dispose of the devices we use.

Modern industrial and marketing practices are fundamentally counter environmental as they promote shorter and shorter product cycles. As there is no way to produce anything without a waste product More production inevitably leads to more waste.

Electronic “takeback” programs can exacerbate this problem by promoting a “Design to grind” model that does not actually reduce the amount of waste but moves it into other areas of the environmental spectrum.

For example. Current environmental law requires that a fee be charged to handle the disposal of electronic items in California. These funds are used to dispose of material by use of grinding of the items and refining of the raw material, This is laudable in intent but counterproductive in action.

To demonstrate; An electronic device is almost always constructed in an area where wages are low and environmental laws are non-existent or still under development. Examples of this would be China,India, Vietnam,Malaysia,Thailand,etc. Weak environmental practices combined with the fact that most of these are coal fired economies lead to predictable and demonstrable levels of environmental degradation and as pollution does not respect borders is an issue that affects us all, add to this the corporate motivation to sell a new item as often as possible and you find that this leads to the observation that the most environmentally friendly item is probably the one you buy least often.

The environmental issue are compounded when one adds transport to the problem. Maritime transport is among the most toxic aspects of our current production scenario as it is largely unregulated and consumes prodigious amounts of high sulfur fuel. The simple fact is that the more you ship the more waste is produced.

This is only the production end, the disposal end has additional problems and they are as bad if not worse than production and are also potentially made more problematic by current “takeback” methods.

As we are no longer an industrial nation the best that can be reasonably hoped for is some pre-proccessing before the material gets shipped back to coal fired, low wage industrial economies using highly polluting transport.

This is actually an optimistic view as can be demonstrated by the existence of massive toxic waste dumps in Asia, Africa and eastern Europe.

Reclamation/disposal when done correctly is expensive and has small profit margins. This is unfortunately not the case when done incorrectly by the unscrupulous. Massive profits can be made by cutting corners.

In addition our need to buy new materials is actually promoting violence,Child slave labor and the extinction of specie by funding those who would use these methods to generate income. An example would be the horrific sources for the coltan used in some of our most popular devices.

All of these problems could be reduced by reducing consumption through extending product lifespan.

I am not trying to say that we cannot have new devices, only pointing out that we could provide an incentive to the consumer and the manufacturer to make better choices through the existing electronic disposal system.

This could be done by modifying the system to promote lifespan.

First we start with simple things.

Modern video displays/televisions have three primary points of failure. The lighting system, the physical display/screen and the power supply.

Computers/tablets, First the observations listed above apply to notebooks/laptops with the addition of motherboards/memory and storage. Again nothing here is difficult and nothing should require the use of anything more than a simple screwdriver. Desktop computers could be even easier.

Phones, Seemingly obvious things like user replaceable batteries and standard fastenings would be a good place to start.

None of these should ever require more than a screwdriver and simple instructions to replace allowing for repair by the consumer. If we lower the mandated disposal fee for the item we can encourage both the manufacturer and consumer to choose a product that will last longer, costs less in the long run and limit the amount of transport. This reduces the cost to the consumer and the planet as a whole.

As a negative example a major manufacturer of smart phones recently went so far as to replace the screws on its phones with proprietary ones when brought in for repair or replacement of a battery. Thereby holding the consumer hostage to the manufacturer. This is an example of what we should be discouraging with the current system and reflects a predatory design flaw reflected throughout the entire product line. Practices like this should be charged more under the system to reflect the increased environmental costs.

In addition user replaceable components could allow for upgrades to existing hardware allowing for increased lifespan and improving capabilities.

Examples of this might be, replacing florescent lighting in your tv with a bar of Light emitting diodes,replacing the batteries in you cell phone when better technologies become available, etc.

We could also tie the system in with the Maker/Hacker movement through something as a simple as a “User serviceable parts inside!” Sticker on the back. I could be wrong but I think that is a ready to roll add campaign.

Thank you for your consideration.

ice tower.

2011-01-09T23:06:00.001-08:00

leaking water tower in Wendel CA

heat from rot.

2010-12-28T00:03:00.000-08:00

Observations on the jean pain method of composting:

for background info on this process see this

http://

1, it appears to be an anaerobic composting process.

2.It uses material that would normally be considered poor compost material.
3.It uses large amounts of water.
4.It produces significant and salvageable amounts of heat and can be used for home heating purposes.
5.The heat can also be used as a heat source for producing bio gas.

Jean pains method used large amounts of material and consisted of piling up large amounts of finely ground underbrush. on and around a central coil of piping and wetting it thoroughly. In more advanced systems a central tank is filled with a slurry of finely ground organic material and water.

Operation.

As the organic material in the pile decays it puts off heat. This heat can be salvaged by running water through the coils and heating as a sort of reversed radiator. The heat can also be used to provide heat to the central tank and used to promote methane production through anaerobic fermentation.

This will potentially provide heat and cooking gas to an off grid cabin.

Problems with applying the Jean Pain method to my circumstances.

1.sub freezing temperatures (high sierra's)
2.lack of water and very low humidity (high desert)

Potential solution: put it in a hole..

This would reduce evaporation and provide insulation allowing for better temperature regulation.

When no longer producing heat and gas you could pull out the coil and tank and plant a fruit tree in the hole.

With proper planning you might be able to provide heat and cooking gas/power by digging a hole and filling it with the product from land clearing/cutting a fire break. Do this every fall and every spring plant another tree and you eventually have an orchard.

On a side note: when I was much younger and thinner I was a seasonal firefighter. One of the fires I fought was at a golf club in the hills above Fairfax CA. I no longer remember the official name of the fire but We called it the “horseshit mountain fire” The golf course was very old and had used horses extensively for years and dumped the waste products out the back of the barn and into a canyon.

Much later in the late 80's or early 90's the drug dealer who serviced the staff of the golf club decided that the pile of ancient horseshit would be a perfect place to hide his profits. So he buried a coffee can full of money in the pile.

This oxygenated the pile and caused it to catch fire that evening.

So I know that decaying material can produce heat.

earthbag construction

2010-06-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

notes for earthbag construction of a 10 by 12 structure as a prototype for a larger structure.

If you are wondering what I'm talking about google "earthbag construction"

Earthbag home prototype.

Dimensions internal: 10'*12*12 Before roof.
Dimensions external 11'* 13'*12 “ “ “ “

an 11 ft length is 5 bags and a 13 is 6 so each layer uses 22 bags.

Facts and assumptions: bags are 14”*26” with an assumed thickness when filled of 3” or
1092 cu in or .63 cu ft.

Walls will require 1056 bags and 4608 ft of barbed wire.

Basement is 13'*11'*-6' (6' deep hole) will provide 858 cu ft of fill material. Or enough for 858/.63 or 1350+ bags. Enough for the walls.

Sloping the roof. Based on my readings it is not recommended to exceed an overhang of more than ¼ of the width of the bag or with these bags no more than 3.5 inches per layer. I'm nervous and live in an earthquake prone area so I'll go for 2' per layer for the roof. The roof will require 54 layers and will be approx 13.5 feet tall for an above ground height of 20 ft. losing a bag per side for every 13 layers or,

6*5 for the first 13 layers (286 bags) , 5*4 for the next(234), 4*3 (182), 3*2(130), 2*1 (78) At this point I'll change orientation of the bags by turning the next layer by 90% and capping it off.

Takes 910 .bags.

Totals

Bags :1966. Note: no windows or doors in this calculation so the actual number will be smaller.
2000 bags cost $580 delivered
Barbed wire 6 rolls. $630 delivered. Roll is 1320'

1250 cu ft of clean fill..

Still figuring out how much stucco/cement/papercrete to skin it and the cost of application

approx internal space:

Basement 10'*12'*6 or 120 sq ft or 720 cu ft
main floor 10'*12'*8' 120sq' or 960 cu' (note: walls begin to slope at 6' so this calc is over.)
loft approx 7'*9".
assuming floors at 6" high loft peak is 20-9=11 ft

I said some time ago that I'd piss on you grave.

2010-03-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

But the penguin takes precedence.

Sco lost its last chance court case. Its fucking toast. Jury said no, Not yours.

I've had worse days. http://www.groklaw.net/ for details

fucking with stalkers

2009-09-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

I got an email day before yesterday. see below.

Hi James,

Just fyi... someone was trying to post this comment on my blog. I will not approve it of course... it's written as slander.

But I did want you to see that someone is out there pretending to be from ACCRC posting this kind of shit.

Hope all is well,

Michael

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: WordPress <wordpress@tinyfreehouse.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 8:20 AM
Subject: [Tiny Free House] Please moderate: "Making Connections - James Burgett"
To: janzenms@gmail.com

A new comment on the post #211 "Making Connections - James Burgett" is waiting for your approval
http://www.tinyfreehouse.com/2008/10/03/making-connections-james-burgett/

Author : James (IP: 64.81.52.25 , tigerme.asani.com)
E-mail : info@accrc.org
URL : http://accrc.org
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=64.81.52.25
Comment:
James is not a 'great guy'. Shortly after you talked to James he physically attacked his wife. He choked her so hard that he left bruises on her neck. I do not care how many computers he recycles, Great Guys do not physically abuse women.

As to the comments content I'd rather deal with people not hidden cowards so first we expose them.

googling the ip address we find this

The first hit has a "vonguard" as posting from that ip address. Now I know who "vonguard" is but the audience will need to be shown so we google "vonguard"

and get this

Well what do we find? a twitter account,a facebook account, a blog and when we look into them we find that its Alex Handy . Clueless boy blogger for the SDtimes or maybe his wife Veronica.

We also see that they posted as James@accrc and gave response information of info@accrc and the website info as www.accrc.org This is impersonating accrc (and me) and consists of identity theft.

so making unsubstantiated claims while hiding and being so clueless that I found out who they were in about 3 minutes.

idiot genius

2009-07-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

As part of my ongoing medical issues I've been collecting and reviewing old medical records.

A wais-r test from before I started accrc/mcrc and that I had largely forgotten is probably the best example of a hidden handicap and proof of my genius all at once.

The scores:

The wais-r consists of 11 sub categories combined to provide two aggregate scores.

The sub tests.

test scaled score percentile.
information 12 76
digit span 8 24
vocabulary 13 84
arithmetic 9 37
comprehension 12 76
similarities 18 99
picture completion 9 37
picture arrangement 15 95
block design 12 76
object assembly 7 16
digit symbol 6 9

Verbal IQ 114
Performance IQ 96
avg percentile 57 (may have no meaning)

Based on my own research these results are consistent with one of more head injuries and show that most of my damage is located in the right hemisphere.

It also appears that computing technology makes a very good coping tool for right hemisphere issues. (at least for me)

I apologise to the (probably fictional) audience for yet another self referential post.

wildland biohazards

2009-07-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

ticks,rattlesnakes,and coyotes seen so far. The ticks are the only ones to draw blood. 10 day old tick bite.

post singularity politics

2009-06-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

As I understand it The concept of the singularity is that technology will make it impossible to predict where power will concentrate or to predict the concentrations effect on the social,political or technological landscape.

A worldwide bunch of porn swapping message board denizens have decided that they don't like iran's current government.

I think the government was fucked before and doomed now.

Go Anon. Dictator spanking and lols at the same time, that's fucking glorious.

(title links to subject of this post)

rural entropy

2009-05-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

dead cabin series

slave collars

2009-04-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Why I hate closed source software: A recent reminder.

I gave a working tested notebook with ubuntu 8.o4 to my neighbour to assist some associate. Said associate did not want ubuntu so the neighbor loaded a (probably pirated) copy of windows on the damn thing.

As this guy is dead broke and wants to do comic books art I can only assume that he's gonna pirate the fuck out of his toolset. This will result in a thief with encumbered work. "nice photoshop work, Where is your license?" Is the death of cheap graphic entrepreneurship.

Poor people cannot use closed commercial products unless they wish to stay poor or be criminalised. At best you allow others to control your work at worst they own it.

I will never support the distribution of a proprietary OS and I think that those who do for charity are judas goats, Leading those they would help to servitude.

I could rant on but I'm supposed to remain calm and try not to get so worked up over the deeply stupid and those that prey on them.

Stopping point.

2008-10-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

We have beaten all major problems over the last few years.

Bankruptcy: nailed it through re-organisation and we are out the other side even with a greedy, self serving, buffoon as the opposing council. (hint for Mr. pepler, When the judge uses the word "disgorge" to describe your future negative earning potential, you are a failure).

Fought past the DTSC's judgement which would have required that we destroy placeable material,valuable museum equipment, and research materials. We now can have a museum and our research into re-use is no longer threatened by the dtsc. My opinion of the agency as a whole is restored and even improved but my opinions as to one particular agent stand. (people who mindlessly follow the rules are better suited to the polyester clad food service sector, not protecting the environment.) As to the trolls who rose up from orange stained basement lairs during this fiasco. I imagine poo flinging monkeys loaded on mountain dew and cheetos, I give them cute names like Dim load and the -hat to remind me of the wit and wisdom displayed by those fine practioners of the ancient art of sitting in a bathtub, farting and trying to bite the bubbles.

As to those who defended us and helped us. You are conquering heroes and with your assistance we still stand. (oh and don't piss off Christian he seems to have digg in his pocket.)

Funding: We have a plan in place that will generate a profit, We are currently profitable and we seem to have survived the %20 cut in state funding for the disposal of crt's. and it seems that our competetors are getting desperate and in some cases dying out. ( Just for my own petty ego gratification, I have been on the record from day one pointing out the fact that the state funding mechanism was flawed and so the cut in funding was not a surprise It may come as a bit of a shock to a numbnut knowitall at SVLUG though) I also dont think that cuts are done yet. A collapsing economy will limit new purchases that fund the system while entropy is inevitable and disposal will continue. The conversion to HD next year will compound the problem as people will buy conversion boxes instead of new tvs and conversion boxes bring no funding into the system.

We functioned before the state got involved and can survive the (hopefull) demise of the state system. Its the wounded flailing around on consumer funded life support that concerns me.

Thieves: yup we had 'em and yup we pressed/are pressing charges. Its demoralising to find that people you are trying to help are stealing material intended for those needier than themselves. People with roofs over their heads stealing from homeless programs, people with food stealing from programs that feed the hungry, and people who squandered their chances at an education stealing from schools. As these are where our machines go that is what they did. they where/ are useless piles of slowly rotting meat too stupid not to piss upwind .) Now that we have gotten rid of them I seem have to enough notebooks to consider placing them.

My own personal stuff.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in january of this year. I was put on a drug that increased insulin levels through increased pancreatic output of insulin and went on a restricted diet and increased execise and got my blood sugar levels from 279 (this was the diagnostic measurement after 12 hours of fasting) to 97 three months later ( same test) . ( I was actually eating ice cream and jelly beans at night to get my blood sugar up to reasonable levels I would hit lows in the high 50's if i did not) I had energy to burn, ate like a horse and lost weight. Brief moment of pancreatic cancer related hypocondria. ( I knew 3 people who died of pancreatic cancer) This is a remarkable achievement, yes? no. I was on the wrong meds. The good news is that I was on the right kind of meds but stronger and in too high a dose. I was clueless and thought that I was the king of diabetics and that this was a breeze, This diabetes stuff is easy!

It all came apart when my pills were not green. My refill showed up and I put it on the table and finished my first bottle before opening the new one. When the day came I openend it up and saw neat little white pills, this concerned me as the previous ones had been green. I emailed my doctor and asked something along the lines of shouldn't these be green? Should I take these? I got back some confusion involving generic medications and variations in apearance and was told to take the pills. The next day was bad I had low blood sugar all day and was constantly eating sugar to maintain a reasonable level. I e-mailed back "I am less than thrilled with these pills and am having real trouble not going below safe blood sugar levels" eventuially it turned out that I had been given the wrong meds and that I had been taking them for the last six months.

I am not a big fan of medication and having proof that I had been on the wrong meds didn't make me more co-operative so I got them to let me try to deal with my diabetes thru diet and exercise. on this regimen I now test out on average in the 120's by my own meter. (123 7 day average,125 14day,128 for the month)

So it seems to work and my diabetes is reasonably controlled but I am allways tired and my normally irratible nature has become much worse. I also find that when I am at healthy sugar levels I feel like crap and act like mr hyde.

So We have won our wars and can walk off the field before the next horde comes over the horizon. I for one am tired, As is Ilma. Who quite frankly deserves more credit than I for all of our achievements, but who is far to self effacing to claim her just due. none of it would have happened with out her.

The load is heavy and we are tired and wounded. I think its time to set it aside.

linuxworld recap:

2008-08-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

summary:

installfest: went well did 750 machines 600 at linux world and 150 at accrc/mcrc.

Caveats: 1. dont use machines for installfest to test installfest hardware. We have a significant number of machines with incomplete/old software installs. This is due to people turning on machines and seeing what looks like a complete install then putting it into the "done pile"

Good news: doesn't actually add to the workload as we expected to do a final load to cover any last minute modifications to the software before placement.

Bad news : the number of installs on the server do not match the number of machines in the done pile. this caused no small amount of stress amoung those who are tracking our progress.

I have 10 pallets at approx 75 machines each labelled done and due to installfest. Accrc will give away 750 machines. All other details are indeed details.

Collection event: was abyssmal. amounts of material are measured in pounds not tons and probably did not exceed 3 digits. Accrc is very much out of pocket due to linux world.
(A recycled computer grosses about $40 in raw materials and poorly thought out state funding 750*40= $30,000 so installfest will eventually cost accrc 30k before labor costs) .

since refurbishment and placement are why I'm here this is just cost of doing what I want to do, but it does piss me off that the for-profit grinders are paid to destroy while I have to pay to preserve.

installfest 2.0

2008-07-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

We will be doing the next installfest at linuxworld in august. This is a joint project with Untangle and with the gracious support of linux world.

We have been working on getting the servers updated and can now load ubuntu 8.04,xubuntu,edubuntu and gnewsense.

The ubuntu will be for conventional machines,xubuntu for low resource machines, edubuntu, for classrooms and gnewsense because we can and should promote the four basic freedoms whenever possible.

Observations on the above so far:

ubuntu 8.04 just works as claimed and the other ubuntu variants use the same repositories so we can load all of the 'buntu's from one set of local mirrors,

xubuntu seems to be viable and we will be trying to get it loaded on a bunch of old (p1 75mhz) toughbooks that we got from various police departments and should allow us to make some use of older hardware and demonstrate that our motto (obsolescence is just a lack of imagination) . Plus we get to play with bad ass millspec notebooks (will your notebook stop a bullet?)

Edunbuntu. very cool, lots of apps. I have an issue with client- server based systems. (single and potentially expensive point of failure in the server, lack of flexibility and poor performance unless you can afford a high end network)

Gnewsense. As far as I know this distro is fully compliant with the fsf's four basic freedoms and I applaud the developers and the fsf for developing and promoting it.
It is also much more functional and polished than I would have thought possible.

It does still have issues but these have nothing to do with the code. These come from an unwillingness of some vendors (hardware and software) to provide drivers or release specifications. This "dog in the manger" attitude is slowly dieing off (good riddance) but at this time our biggest problem with gnewsense is multimedia (there are open source flash players out there but last time I tried one, the steps required to get the video to play far exceed the skills of our average client.) we've also had some issues with drivers for various network and video cards. (just to beat this horse further, this is not a failing with Gnewsense or the FSF, it is a failure on the part of the manufacturer).

The FSF is correct in that software should be free (freedom and beer) and gnewsense demonstrates that it can be.

We expect to have approx 1000 machines ready for install fest but I doubt that we will have room,time or power at linuxworld to do that many installs so we will be running installs at linuxworld and our berkeley and marin facilities during the event.

I've been told I need to document more of what we do.

2008-06-20T03:05:00.000-07:00

smart kid, old digital camera, glorified junkyard, internet,weirdos= new accrc blog.

Aftermath is ongoing but constant content junkies should look here.

victims.

2008-06-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

Testing. testing. testing. new blogger training session.

picture is last known image of our electric bike in its natural state.

You could of told us

2008-05-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

there is a new video about us on current tv.

It comes as a bit of a surprise.

Thank you Graham.

2008-04-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

We got a whole bunch of fiber optic stuff today and more on moday. The picture above is one end of a 250 ft length. One end is in sunlight the other is in the darkest spot I could find in the warehouse.

bizarre anniversary

2008-03-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

Ok I know that you are not gonna believe this but remake is on the 39th anniversary of what is probably the most bizarre car accident you will hear about today and is quite possibly one of the moments that helped define my life as an attractor of random chaos.

On march 30th 1969 at 385 geary in SF a man named Jeffery Young was having a very bad day. We can not at this point go into what or why he was less than up but his actions can safely lead us to the conclusion that he was somewhat depressed.

Mr young jumped off a building. falling over 130 ft toward his intended target, the ground.

He missed.

Our car, sensing his distress, Gave The final sacrifice and leapt under him.

He landed on us, My whole family plus my grandmother on my fathers side.

Five of us (suddenly almost six) in an Alpha Romeo coupe.

I took a whack to the head, as did my grandmother, (died nuts, I'm only strange, She got hit harder.)

One can probably assume that Mr. Young wanted this event to be an escape or at least an end to all his worries. Our car denied him this.

He lived. For all I know he's still alive as he was only nineteen at the time.

Verification can be found in the archives of the oakland tribune via newspaperarchive.com (and yes they will want ducats)

send foil hats to Sebastapol

2008-03-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Just read that Sebastapol Voided its contract to provide free wireless to its citizens.

I have a particular hatred of people who embrace stupidity and fear. (there are those who would state that those that fear wireless networks are merely ignorant, but as the information debunking fearful positions is readily available any attachment to an unsupportable conclusion is choosing to remain in ignorance and is therefore stupid.)

I have had similar experiences. We got many pallets of wireless gear from 3com a couple of years back and offered to set up wireless access points all along University (a major street in berkeley not the educational institution in Berkeley.)for free to any business along telegraph that wanted it, We lined up an upstream internet provider and had clients lined up.

project died because one of the players involved thought that it would cause a "radiation problem"

I was told this over a cell phone.

Back to Sebastapol, I say recall the politicians involved as they demonstrate either fear of things they do not understand and an unwillingness to avoid their fear through simple education, or they fear the power of ignorant cowards. A more cynical option would be that they are making a play based on a true knowledge of the electorate and that pandering to ignorance keeps them in office.
I submit that recent presidents demonstrate this but it is interesting that it can be so readily demonstrated on both sides of the political spectrum and what does it say about the people of sebasatpol? Or the rest of us? The case against wireless is has as little merit as those proposed by various hick school boards in kansas. As they are elected officials the method of correction should be obvious.

What makes this even more amusing is that they could quite possibly use wireless to lower the net load of "radiation" as they could Possibly move some (most,all?) of the existing cell phone traffic to voip over wireless and hell, Might even end up with free local calling as a happy consequence all on a fraction of the power used by the thin, chrome, microwaves they currently glue to their ear.

One of the best definitions of humanity I have ever encountered was that human beings process information better than anything else we have yet met. Better than any other animal. Better than any machine. It has also been said by many that are considered wise that knowledge is the only way to defeat fear. In a small town in Sonoma the fearful and the ignorant rule.

I submit that we need to send aluminum foil hats to the city council of Sebastapol and to any citizens therein who might have concerns about such issues. I suspect that some sort of poll was taken and that everyone involved was properly numbered and listed, so helping them out with a little anti-radiation home millinery should be fun, easy and you help the handicapped. (stupidity is a handicap) from 21st century cooties!! if you use your sandwich wrap, its recycling!

Sorry got A little silly there. But let try this instead: While I think in the long run it probably just makes me more neurotic, I have been lauded more than once and on some major stages (for verification see the freaking sidebar) for what I have done for the environment and for my fellow human beings and I say that this serves neither. I'd even go so far as to say it harms both.

Can an entire town win a darwin award?

getting ready for chaos.

2008-03-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

Makefaire 3 is around the corner and we plan to be better prepared for it this time.

Remake:

First the collection event: We have this nailed. Nothings too old nothings too weird. Bring it on. 10-5 sat the 29th. We want Computers,monitors,robots,blenders,microwaves,sexbots.toaster ovens, stable man made isotopes,pu-38 initiators,mysterious things that go boop!!,tv's vcr's, turntables,reel to reel equipment,special request for hand held audio recording equipment (hi mark got a box for ya.) notebooks,lifters,mysterious objects that don't go boop!,power tools,unpowered tools,animatronic ape heads, Weed wackers,Weird stuff you found in your uncles basement(No sweaty explosives please),alien artifacts,powered unmentionables etc.

Remake proper.
12-5 the 30th By invitation.
this year should be a little less chaotic. as i understand we will not be opening this to the public, but to makers who might need salvaged equipment for various projects and hopefully to inspire new projects.
In addition we have a couple of projects that we would like to showcase and see if we cant find some people with skill sets we lack.

We will provide in varying amounts and conditions. Monitors,flat panels,big led displays,a bart display,a cop light bar,boxes of walkie talkies in various states of repair,notebooks (parts machines, don't ask for working) motors from very small to forklift scale, ac and dc, fans.tripods,big freaking speakers,5 pallets of new music cd's,43 dissasembled electric scooters,wheel chairs,batteries,radio control equipment,electronic doodads,etc (we covet the powered unmentionables.)

MUSIC PROVIDED BY A 9FT TOXIC SKULL

ACCRC/untangle installfest beta.

2008-02-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

we tested the new install servers over the weekend and it appears that we can load 24+ machines an hour from our main server.

We hope to get 4 locations live on the first and hope to load over 400 machines in a single day.

System specs. hp netserver donated by the marin civic center. 5 32 gig scsi3 drives in raid 0.
Gig-e out to a very pretty trend switch donated by untangle.

Switch has two gig-e ins and 24 100baseT out.

Test data: Not big on broadcom gig-e cards. Like intel.

Loading ubuntu 7.10 on all machines. Machine spec is p3-750+ 512 mb mem and at least a 20gig hdd.

We will also probably use system as the burn in cluster and render povray animations on it.

new developments.

2008-01-30T00:24:00.000-08:00

Got diagnosed with diabetes last week. Went in with numbness in hands and feet, Blood sugar was 3 times the "YOU HAVE DIABETES" level and I strongly suspect that the numbness is peripheral neuropathy.

So head injuries,bipolar disorder,no education,ptsd from childhood trauma,brittle bones due to calcium deficiency thanks to moms Munchhausen's bi proxy, (thanks mom! I do not now nor did I ever have a milk allergy) and now my hands don't work all that well and I have to live to a clock and don't dare lose my medical insurance.

This self pitying crap is probably just some blood sugar fluctuation, But right now it seems a mite too deep and dark to handle without at least bitching and whining

Also very disappointed in those who are supposed to be helping me. Made a simple request to multiple people and none delivered. I will complete my commitments but will not make any new ones to any of these people and will from this point expect them to be nothing more than time wasting posers.

Anyway needed to get this out and like always I will complete all my commitments regardless of the failures of others so existing plans will be completed, promises will be kept.

Anyway sorry for the lack of entertainment.

AAAIIGH!!!!

2008-01-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

CBS evening news does a profile on us and the storm blows out our network.

so a late post and a few corrections:

1): We/I did not build the skull. The skull was produced by Greenpeace and while we are very proud of our association with it and its production. (We wired a lot of it and you can probably guess where the stuff came from, But concept,design and construction was greenpeace.)

2) Takeback: Takeback without design for re-use/lifespan is at best a mixed blessing. At best it keeps material out of landfill but promotes needless manufacturing and transport. At worst it subsidises shipping material overseas in a gray "recycling" market that involves dubious recovery efforts and disposal methods, promotes planned obsolecence and calls it environmentalism.

I support takeback as a concept and an ideal and I note that the original drafts of the (frankly very bad) rules we have to work with here in california actually made an effort to address design for environment and re-use but last minute negotiations seemed to (in my humble opinion) gut any
actual long term benifit from the states attempt to solve this problem and just allowed manufacturers to sell disposable crap, Make you pay to destroy it needlessly and then tell you that they are doing you a favor and saving the planet.

Needless consumption will never save the planet. Steve Jobs's Reality distortion field causes global warming.

closing out 2007 pt 2

2007-11-29T11:50:00.001-08:00

First image is of a 49cc two stroke motor and clutch assembly and two of the scooter motors turned into a crude generator. (puts out between 24-36 volts with no load depending on throttle setting) second is a 24 volt motor salvaged from a forklift. The third is a selection of tested deep cycle batteries.

closing out 2007.

2007-11-29T11:11:00.001-08:00

My new toy!!!

Monitors work and we can put image on eyes and teeth. sound is an old stage monitor amp, so its a multimedia device. Was donated by greenpeace (thanks Ashby)

we hope to add powered wheels/tracks to it by next makefaire . (skull tank)

Past projects that need updating:

Hydrogen fueled vehicles: our method for making hydrogen has a serious contaminant in the form of aluminum oxide. The good news is that it slows combustion and actually makes it easier but it is a serious abrasive and is probably caustic so this is only to be considered in escape from new york type scenarios. (so Brain you say that with a can of draino and some beer cans we might get this old junker to run us past the brain eating mutants? Yeah but if it don't blow up it'll never run again)

We hope to solve the contaminant issue with this stuff: (so much the image going where I want it:) the blue boxes wrapped in pallet wrap are industrial electrolyzers used in electroplating and should provide copious hydrogen as long as I am willing to pay for power.

The scooters are not for sale.

2007-10-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

Reasons for this.

We don't yet know how many we have or what their condition is, We don't sell to the public (no resale license) We have no idea what our liabilities are in selling them(legal,environmental,etc) and charitable placements/re-use/research/playing with the shiny bits, seems like a better idea.

On a previous topic: having trouble fitting 250mw led into 5mw led lens housing. All components tested and unfocused unit scorched my desk during testing.

todays "disposal"

2007-10-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

40+ electric scooters in various states of repair. The blue one foreground is intact and functional some are totally intact and as yet untested others have minor issues and some are parts machines

Basic specs:
Features:
• 13 MPH maximum speed with a 6-hr. runtime and 7-8 hr. recharge time
• 12AH, 24V battery required and included
• 220-lb. weight limit
• For ages 14 yrs. and up
• 48Hx25Wx48D" deck: 13Lx13W"

(based on ad copy pulled from the web)

If you assume that its total range is half of its top speed times 6 hrs you get 36-40+ miles on a charge.
(re)uses:

Well scooters .
try putting motor on a mountain bike frame and try to incorporate rear derailer and sprockets to increase range/speed (this may be based on a totally false set of assumptions as I've never seen it done)

24 volt generators for wind and/or other mechanical input.

Can we make a solar powered scooter with the photovoltaics on hand? How a about a very small hybrid with a chainsaw or model airplane motor?

nothing important.

2007-10-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

An old toy raygun a dead dvd burner and a collimating lens assembly.

orielly/boingboing/digg/slashdot effect.

2007-10-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Its very real and it actually does amount to something. Some good some bad.

I do very much believe and can demonstrate that it had no small effect on the government in this issue. This is at least from my standpoint a good thing.

I also believe that I am winning the cnn poll due to it. As I disagree with this choice I see this as a detriment as I think that the gorillas should take priority and that the fact that I am popular with a small,vocal,internet savy group is slanting the poll to the detriment off all.

more corrections

2007-10-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Boy this is getting tiresome.

Getting a letter from the EFF and saying that you are making an appointment does not translate into "eff is helping with legal defemse"

adapting legislation involving re-use is not backing down.

We are not getting any new permits nor does the state believe that we are not properly filed. Nor do we foresee any significant changes in our operations. Ignorant people with issues keep trying to put that nonsense in.

Again the only thing outstanding is the retention of material over a year. Not permits,licensces,handling,safety or any other issue.

So the people who support me exagerate while the ones in opposition just make crap up.

more updates.

2007-10-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

Got a very nice letter from the EFF and am trying to put together an appointment to discuss options.

The dtsc situation is under control for the moment, May light up again later next month when they look over our proposed solutions.

To reiterate some basic facts before the trolls run off at the ass.

The inspection that started this all was a recurring,random yearly inspection. There was no complaint nor does the dtsc have any reason to think that a release of any form has occurred (none has)
As far as I know all handling issues have been addressed and the only thing that we still have on the table is the "get rid of it within a year" issue and all parties seem to be interested in how to get around/find a way to ignore this restriction without letting the corporate scumbags use it as a loophole.

In addition the next waste board stakeholders meeting has re-use on the agenda.

The trolls and spammers are getting a little thick so I'm killing anonymity on this blog and activating other tracking and security features. I apologise and find it personaly offensive but so is a couple of hundred **** YOU's in all caps.

Oh We just renewed our leases for the next five years so it appears the city of berkeley's attempts to turn this area into car lots are somewhat impaired if not dead.

cnn heroes

2007-10-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

I don't know how to do this but I disagree with those of you who are voting me up in the cnn poll.

Of the four people there only one is dealing with extinction. Dead is dead, anything else is negotiable. Vote for the gorillas. 25 grand and fame that id probably just piss away anyway is not worth a specie.

I don't know if it will help, but I'd feel like crap if I won and the gorillas went extinct.

On the other hand there is nothing saying we can't get anything out of this. You could ask cnn to put all the other heroes videos into an open/at least not so closed codec so that everyone could see them. Being the guy who got a major media outlet to guit supporting a monopoly would be a more than adequate consolation prize.

some corrections.

2007-09-28T03:41:00.000-07:00

There are some false assumptions going around. (some of them activley encouraged)

1: The dtsc did not order us to dispose/destroy everything within a year.

This is demonstrably untrue as can be determined by anyone reading the report. (jpg's of the report can be found down the page) Not only does the dtsc demand destruction/disposal they required that we provide a plan for such within 30 days of the receipt of this violation determination.)

This is a quote from the dtsc finding. "
Compliance Action: ACCRC shall develop an inventory for all items set aside for possible use by Aftermath Technologies and for donation/development of a museum, etc. The inventory shall be submitted to Asha Arora C/o DTSC, 700 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 within 30 days of receipt of this report. In addition, ACCRC shall ensure that those universal wastes are not accumulated onsite for longer than one year."

Now I submit that this is indeed a destruct order. No amount of rovian parsing will change that. In addition as the fines for non-compliance exceeded our assests on hand it was a "do this or die" situation.

So as it stands now, the state still impairs re-use and encourages destruction. (we will end up with additional paperwork and handling requirements while destruction is funded by a consumer funded subsidy) but is no longer threatening to close us down for reuse. (the term "threat" may be incorrect I do not believe that this was malicious or even intentional but the effect is the same)

So rather than run off and say that all is well. The thruth is that all is not well, The laws involving electronic waste in california are at best of dubious environmental and social value and those that try to follow a higher path are penalised.

So the state is now merely impairing re-use no longer effectivly banning it. While this is an improvement it is not a "solution".

developments (good news)

2007-09-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to figure out how to phrase this without putting anyone into a corner.

Once again we have a situation where ACCRC does not fit within the standard profile inherent in the system.

The DTSC is aware of the problems presented in the violation notice and is working with us to find a viable solution. It appears that all parties agree that the destruction of usable/historic material is not in the public's best interest and the system should adapt.

This is a two party process and the ACCRC will have to make some adjustments.

Notably we have to be able to explain to a novice what we are keeping it for. (reasonable)
Just because its cool/old doesn't mean it is not a potential problem and the same handling proceedures for dealing with the material we dispose of would apply to the handling and storage of this material. As such some of our volunteers will need more rigorous training if they wish to work on material without a qualified staff member present (also reasonable and I submit already in place).

We also need to demonstrate that we have a method for disposal of material even when we have given up on it. It appears that our methods for disposal of non-recoverable material will suffice.

So in a nutshell it has gone from what we perceived as a "do this or else" to a mutual understanding and attempt to find a workable solution.

We very much appreciate this position on the part of the DTSC and thank them for demonstrating a refreshing level of flexibility in this matter.

We fully expect to work this out in time.

some clarifications.

2007-09-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

the fed epa is not the problem. dtsc is part of a state agency the cal-epa.

to my knowledge we have no issues on either side with fed epa. In fact they gave me an award last year.

While I am a great fan of free speech and such you should at least target correctly.

Please quit telling the wrong people to @#$% themselves. For that matter the phrase lacks creativity and at this point even I think its overboard.

I very much appreciate the sentiment but even I have toned my stuff down a bit. I even.. edited. (you really have no idea how difficult that was.)

I have also been told yet again not to play with the trolls. but we seem to have one out there in the wild. I'm getting bored with his points so I shall address them here.

The comparative volume of what the dtsc is upset about is approx 5% of the total mass in the building at any given time and represents a much smaller volume over time as we move an awful lot of stuff we cannot (yet) recover. For example I regret to inform you all that I have no good use for your grandmothers old console tv (mount a mythtv box in it?) and we see an awful lot of them. These leave almost immediately to a another company as do the monitors we do not use. (things we don't place or think we might use leave in less than a week and are (last I checked)in dtsc compliance.) This also applies to the electronics as I have no interest in holding on to a dead vcr for any length of time.

Nor does the complaint in any way point to any containment or release issues. (sealed concrete floor, locked building an over abundance of fire extinguishers in a fully sprinklered building) we have passed all safety and fire inspections. While flooding has occurred in the area in the past it has never resulted in a release and frankly it would now have to be biblical in proportion to be an issue as the first (last and only) one was quite educational.

Again the dtsc has an issue about the stuff we think might be recoverable/valuable/historic nothing else. If they impose a fine it could quite possibly kill us. The threat to impose a fine is in the text and is not a point of argument. Running out of funds would close us down. (this threat has been reduced, Thank you for the support, We are working on the donation receipts)

Nor does this have anything to do with corporate take back campaigns (if you don't like them you have no idea of the cold loathing I have for them as I consider them to be planned obsolescence)

as for reading things that are not in the text. We have no environmental complaints no complaints from our neighbors (other than maybe my behaviour toward neighbors with property line issues) no safety issues and the dtsc is not complaining about anything except the stuff we want to keep and the overstressed, brain damaged, periodic jackass who runs the place. (and admittedly the second part was due to a bipolar moment on the jackasses part. While the opinions still stand the expression was of dubious value.)

updates.

2007-09-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

First WOW!! thank you all for your support and assistance.

Meeting with a higher level rep from the dtsc on the 25th.

In addition I have reason to believe that what we call diversion paperwork (diverted from the waste stream) exceeds what they require as "inventory". We track weights and dates on all material going into and out our of re-use departments. and can demonstrate a past history of doing so going back years. The dtsc agent did not bother to ask what sort of tracking system we might actually have before running off with a false assumption and slamming us with a class 1 violation.

If my assumptions are correct than all we have left is the "speculative acumilation" nightmare.

Speculative acumilation:

two examples of where this is actually a good thing and then how it does not apply in this case

In general this is to keep people from taking waste, collecting it into big poisonous piles and then walking off leaving the public to deal with the problem.

More specific example. When sb-20/50 came into play there was a legitimate concern about people collecting material with the expectation that the state would eventually pay for its destruction. This was a legitimate problem and as many vendors have huge material streams and if allowed to stockpile and then bill the state, would have bankrupted the new system.

I have no problem with either of the above examples.

How this is misapplied in this case.

there is a minimum value on everything that we set aside and a simple phone call could turn the whole damn collection into cash. This is at worst case bulk electronics and valued at 3-5 cents a pound but in most cases much higher value. So no big pile of nasty for the dtsc to have to deal with. (although if I were to take this option collectors would probaly curse my name for generations)

In the second example above, We are actually taking material out of the state payment system and as such saving the state money so I cannot determine how this determination is in the states best interest.

So no clean up and no state payments on this material. Whats the problem?

In fact since our various re-use projects are things that we fit in around paying the bills I cannot recall a single project that did not take at least a year. For example the beowulf cluster development is at least 10 years old. The electric vehicle project (dead van,dead electric forklift,a ups as the charging system, a buttload of ups batteries,motor controllers from old industrial milling equipment,) is over two years old and expected to roll sometime next year.

In additiion our hydrogen vehicle program (we are quite probably the only people on earth who have gotten a 1969 lincoln continental to run on hydrogen) requires huge amounts of metal hydride as a fuel storage medium. We have two options to aquire this. buy it (very expensive) or recover it from metal hydride batteries. Based on current flow will take another year before we have enough storage to be comparable to a standard gas tank. So a 460cid internal combustion engine thats cleaner than a prius (The exhaust is water) and all the information on how we did it provided to the public for free is not in the publics best interest?

And if we fail the information is still valuable and the failure would be disposed of in the proper manner so again why do we need to abandon this project after a year?

So is free commodity supercomputing and completely repurposed zero emission vehicles something that the dtsc wants to discourage? How does the state profit from this? Do I throw them away?

Very thin skins.

2007-09-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

I was woken up by a call from the dtsc today. During the course of the conversation I expressed my concerns and thought that we were actually getting somewhere.

I was told that a conference call would be put together sometime between 8:30 -9:30

When the call did not come in I called the dtsc back and was informed that the conference had been cancelled due to offensive statements on this blog and that this had come down from "the executive" office.

Not calling to tell someone that you had cancelled the conference is a cowardly and creepy act.

Using unpleasant opinions as an excuse to avoid a problem is also a cowardly act.

For the record I stand behind the personal opinions expressed in this blog and will continue to express them.

Apparently the dtsc is unaware that the internet in general and blogs in particular tend to have rather rough opinions.

So instead I have been told that I can try to get an extension but I have no assurances or expectation of actually getting one. otherwise we are in violation and subject to fines as of the 17th of this month as the minimum fine is more than our total assets we may close as early as monday.

what you can do.

2007-09-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

I was told that I really should give some action points for those who want to help.

unfortunately I'm not all that used to asking for or accepting help so this may seem a little disjointed. I'm also not all that well educated so this may not come across as intended.

I'm also very,very pissed off.

you can

express yourself:

Arora, Asha
AArora@dtsc.ca.gov
(510) 540-3874

I submit that she's clueless and probably offended by language so be polite and use simple concepts and single syllable words.

Contact your state and federal reps and ask them to look int0 this.

The legal defense fund. (look a shiny new paypal button!)
The penalty for this violation is not less than 2000 dollars and not more than 25000. As of this morning accrc's total assets equal less than $500 dollars so whatever the fine is we are screwed.
We also do not know if they can hand us this fine over and over again so we expect to be fined out of existence. In addition as our funding from the state is dependent on our dtsc compliance we may find ourselves without any funding source at all

In addition our legal rep is a volunteer and will need to go back to being gainfully employed so if this doesn't blow over soon, so we will need to fund our defense.

Up until now we took great pride in being a self funded charity (we earn the money to cover our operations spending what conventional thinkers would call the profits on the charitable placements) and did not ask for cash. But no amount of penny pinching will take on a deranged state agency.

We may have to picket and or other (LEGAL!!!!) actions so if you are willing to participate in meatspace we could use you. ( zombie pickets maybe?)

If you have ideas,contacts,comments etc. Comments are open and we are very much hoping that others have better ideas than we do.

Thank you:

James Burgett
Executive director. ACCRC.

Mind numbing government stupidity

2007-09-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

It looks like accrc has finally found an obstacle it cannot overcome. Government stupidity.

We have been told by the department of toxic substances control that we will have to inventory all material that we divert and we are not allowed to stockpile any material for more than one year under any circumstances. This would preclude any support for Makefaire,the shipyard,the tech museum,the exploratorium,vintage tech,the computer history museum etc In addition we cannot find any reason for this that would not also apply to the computers we place so we expect to be told by the state that we are in voilation of state law in regards to the distribution of toxic waste in the form of free working computers.

Please note that if I destroy this material I have none of these restrictions. So thanks to the state re-use has more hassles,hurdles,and paperwork than destruction. So not only does the system only pay for destruction it now is actually impairing re-use.

I frankly need help.

I have supported the maker/tech community wholeheartedly and have rarely if ever asked for anything in return. Today I am calling in all my markers.

I do not know what to do, My only hope at this point is to open source the problem and see if anyone has any ideas or contacts that I can use to get around before she kills us out of a love for rules and a profound disconnect from reality.

DTSC Inspection

2007-09-11T12:04:00.001-07:00

September 11, 2007

State of California
California Environmental Protection Agency
Department of Toxic Substances Control
700 Heinz Ave
Berkeley, CA 94710

RE: Summary of DTSC Violations
Alameda County Computer Resource Center
Inspection, August 15, 2007

Following is an objection to the Section I violation. Also enclosed are several documents supporting our corrective action on Section II violations as required by the Summary of Violations for the inspection of our facility on 8/15/07.

Section I
1.Violation: Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC) violated California Code of Regulations (Cal. Code Regs.), Title 22 (tit. 22), section 66273.35, subsections (c)(1) and (c) (2), in that on or about August 15, 2007 ACCRC failed to maintain an inventory onsite that identifies the date each UWED became a waste or was received. ACCC failed to demonstrate inventory for the universal wastes:
a.Stockpile that ACCRC claimed to be used by Aftermath Technologies.
b.Items that ACCRC claimed may be of value for the museum or collector items.
c.Other universal waste items in the room with computers and peripherals that may be of some use.
Compliance Action: ACCRC shall develop an inventory for all items set aside for possible use by Aftermath Technologies and for donation/development of a museum, etc. The inventory shall be submitted to Asha Arora C/o DTSC, 700 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 within 30 days of receipt of this report. In addition, ACCRC shall ensure that those universal wastes are not accumulated onsite for longer than one year.

ACCRC RESPONSE

Objection: We dispute the definition of universal waste in this context.

a. Repurposable material is not waste.
b. Items of historic interest are not waste and disposing of them after one year would be destroying history for a short sighted bureaucratic requirement.
c. What does this mean? Please define.

As it is not waste, we dispute the requirement to inventory and dispose of non-waste.

Is it the intention of the DTSC to encourage destruction over reuse? We have neither staffing or funding to maintain an inventory. In addition we cannot come up with any logical argument that applies to this material that does not apply to the computers we refurbish and
charitably place. We fear that this interpretation on all our other reuses would eventually be applied to our computer refurbishment and therefore stop all reuse operations. As our primary goal is reuse and this inventory requirement would preclude reuse, is it the DTSC’s intention to close us down?

Also, we wonder if this rule is applied to any other organizations that do these functions for charitable purposes, such as Goodwill Industries? If not, why are we being singled out for this inventory issue? Is Goodwill required to get rid of their inventory after one year?

The material in question is not waste. In an effort to promote environmental responsibility, ACCRC demonstrates that one does not need to squander resources by buying new materials if more environmentally correct materials are available for reuse.

People bring their material to us because we contribute to the protection of our environment by making every effort to reuse any and all material first, before consigning them to the waste stream to be recycled. When items and material are donated to ACCRC, we first direct potential items/materials to either of our reuse departments (Computer Placement or Aftermath Technologies). If we determine at initial donation that the material has no current reuse potential, it is sent on to a recycler.

Aftermath Technologies is a project of ACCRC that is devoted to technological reuse. This department supplies material to other organizations for projects ranging from alternative energy to art. Examples include organizations like Make, the Shipyard, Greenpeace, the Crucible, the Exploratorium, many local schools and the Boy Scouts, who draw from Aftermath for various educational, environmental and artistic projects.

We also investigate reuse potential. Examples include making super-computers out of reutilized commodity hardware and converting our entire facility to run on waste vegetable oil, propane/methane powered vehicles, etc. All of these projects draw exclusively from what you call the waste stream. By conventional means these accomplishments would have cost tens of thousands of dollars and would be rendered impossible by this requirement.

Section II
1.Violation: Failed to provide training to all employees conducting treatment of UWEDs.
Compliance Action Completed: Following please find a copy of the training provided to employees who dismantle UWEDs. We have provided UWED training for Phil Fraser and James Burgett. Please see the following signed and dated “UWED Training Acknowledgement” forms and our UWED training module.

2. Violation: Failed to provide training to employees for CRT treatment (yoke removal).
Compliance Action Completed: We in fact did provide training, to our employees for CRT treatment (yoke removal). On 8/15/2007, I faxed signed copies of our “ACCRC Employee Safety Training Sign-in Sheet” indicating that both Diane Paulson and I (Ilma Willard) received CRT training on November 2nd & 3rd of 2006. On the next day’s followup meeting with Ms Arora, I showed her our ‘ACCRC CRT Training’ module upon her request. Ms Arora then decided that our training module, which had passed two prior inspections, was incomplete. We request that Ms. Arora explain what previous inspectors missed regarding our CRT training module so we can revise it to her specifications.

As we consider the Ms. Arora’s interpretations to be fundamentally flawed, we would like to formally request that we converse with a different DTSC inspector regarding these issues.

Thank you,
James Burgett

About takeback

2007-06-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Note: working document expect revisions and sources over time and as comments warrant.

Why I think that electronics recycling in California is a on a stupid, dangerous path:

First let me get my biases and introductions out of the way, I am a big proponent of re-use as a primary path to environmental sustainability rather than re-cycle as re-cycle as currently understood is wasteful of energy and economic resources.

I am an EPA award winner. (enviromental champion in feb of 2006), a sustainability award winner (berkeley 2006) a vocational rehab award winner (alameda county 2006) a CNN hero,(may 2007) and a Maker (make faire 2007) I have recntly been profiled for voice of america but do not know when that will play (went out june 26th).

I move about 225000 lbs of electronics material a month, have given away over 16000 machines all over thje world. And have a staff of eighteen most of whom would be considered unemployable.

I submit that I have a right to be heard on this issue and that my opinions are based on real world data, not rarified wishfull thinking that seems to be the standard at CAW and Sacramento in general.

Assumptions:

1) That a state subsidised system will promote design to fit within that system.

2) California (and the US in general ) has little or no electronics manufacturing
3) That most electronics manufacturing occurs in coal fired economies (examples. china,India)
4) That maritime shipping is among the most polluting methods of transport. (High sulphur
fuels and no emission controlls)
5) That almost all "recyclers" are actually grinders shipping semi-processed material out of
state if not out of country.
6) That any environmental studies out of the EPA for at least the last 6 years have not
considered the global warming aspects.
7) current legislation is anti-innovative and anti-jobs.
8) That current Californian legislation has profound funding issues and is non-viable in the long term.

These assumptions are based on observation.

basis for assumptions:

1) this is basic economics, with a set amount of income per pound/unit. The only method for increasing profit is to lower cost. In this environment that would be to design for destruction (design to grind) , As we have no subsidy to do anything else.

2) Who ? Where? and what fraction of the total problem do they produce?(note: fraction)

3) anyone want to debate this?

4) Again anyone?

5) some of them even brag about it. (example: electronics recyclers of America)

6) recent supreme court decisions bear this one out.

7) if #2 is correct then almost all jobs created are overseas. Computer repair becomes a thing of the past as computers become disposable bringing additional social and environmental costs in lost jobs and unnecessary destruction and production. As for innovation. We will have made it so that any new advance will have to be integrated with the whole unit, Rather than a single component. This will increase cost to innovate and restrict creativity.

8) lets do the math: a 17" cathode ray tube monitor weighs 40 lbs. The state charges $8 to cover recycling this monitor, the state pays $.48 per pound to destroy this monitor for a cost of: $19.20 per unit at a net cost of 11.20 to the state per unit. To add to the fun the state is paying for every unit made before the system was put in place and as such is looking at a much larger fiscal hole.

So lets walk through the world these assumptions predict:

A computer is made in China, packaged and shipped to California,
sold, used for 18 months to 3 years, shipped to grinder,ground,loaded into container,shipped back to china,refined, and the system repeats.

This is the best that can happen under current and pending legislation. producing pollution at every step of the process.

In addition the system is not working even this well. To my knowledge the horrific landfills that got the Basel action network fired up are still growing and we have succeeded in making new toxic nightmares in Africa,Pakistan,India and various points in eastern Europe. (for that matter I'd look at yuma arizona when it comes to lead in sensitive environments )

Proposed modifications to current and pending legislation.

Charge an environmental fee based on re-usability.

Examples:
1)
If the unit is easily and readily repairable/upgradeable charge $10. (example: a rigid compliance to the atx or itx standard) this would be the most environmentally/economically viable computer as after initial purchase one would have the option of replacing a component themselves or through a local repair shop rather than replacing the whole machine/ thereby reducing costs on an environmental and economic level as it would keep production down. in addition the jobs provided are local and fill local tax coffers. (bad paragraph: confusing and wordy come back and fix)

2)
If the unit is proprietary but has limited open upgrade ability charge $20. Most major manufacturers build machines that are capable of using some aftermarket components but are restricted as to motherboards and power supplies and as such have limited upgrade options and as such short usable lifespans.

3)
Design is totally locked down and is non-upgradeable. charge $30 (examples:most all in one machines esp apple.)

If we walk through this scenario it looks like this:

Computer is manufactured in china,shipped to California,sold and lives on a desktop until something goes wrong or obsolete, at this point it either goes into the system to be ground or the user replaces the failed component themselves (easier than you think) or takes it to a local repair facility. They then spend less than the cost of a new box on a personal and environmental level and get another 18 months to 3 years out of the machine. This process can be repeated indefinitely as systems fail or technology improves.

More later as I have to deal with the warehouse, feel free to comment and debate or dispute my points.

pre makefaire.

2007-05-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

hearse is live. sdv is good to go. toys are being packed as I type. We are ready.

Time for some commentary:

Microsoft: show us the your 235 patents or STFU. I'm fairly certain that your patents are pretty bogus and that you run a real risk of getting into a fight that even you cannot win. (please,please,PLEASE try though cause after SCO dies I will need an idiot to abuse.)

I suspect that your patents can be worked around or broken and I for one would love to watch your empire crumble.

Threatening to sue your clients is a very stupid game. Please go all in.

what happens here with a broken usb stick

2007-03-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

I have a tendency to break/lose small expensive objects. One of these was a 2 gig usb stick.

I was able to build this in about 15 minutes with a leatherman.

2 gigs usb and you can still play space invaders. (was easy, one hidden screw under the main label,lots of space inside, toughest part was not tearing 29 year old paper)

I shouldn't lose this one.

more chaos

2007-03-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

We've been busy. the propane conversion equipment has been moved the hearse. The lab rat is now a gasoline/hydrogen hybrid test bed.

We've been attracting media attention and it appears that you will be seeing our bizarre machines on the road and on your television sometime this year.

We've also discovered that refurbing a hearse is different from any other vehicle.

An example.
The dead flowers from dead people.

progress (more pics)

2007-02-01T18:12:00.000-08:00

The first image is hydrogen burning (hydrogen is almost colorless, I think the color comes from the tube but might be some residual sodium from the sodium hydroxide. The second is an attempt to document the engine running (astute observers will note that the fan is spinning) It starts and runs for about 10 seconds then we run out hydrogen as the very large engine empties that tube faster than a ritalin dosed child inhales a pixie stick. We then wait about 30 sec and we can do it again.

Next we increase the capacity of the aluminum/lye part of our reactor (get 2-3 more buckets ) and start determining what lye/aluminum/water ratios and what water temp is optimal.

Warning to those stupid enough to try this:
A mistake with lye is a very painfull way to turn yourself into soap.
hydrogen is as dangerous as you have been lead to believe (we have had one reactor explosion yesterday and a backfire today destroyed our fuel line)

In addition the reaction between lye and aluminum is exothermic (hot!!!) and the hotter the reaction gets the more efficient it becomes so a runaway reaction (exploding reactor) could turn you into burning soap spread over a wide area.

This is commonly considered a bad thing and only a total nutcase would even try it. (The staff of aftermath have a wide variety of issues)

Test 2 worked. engine runs on hydrogen and we have the next development planned.

It's alive!!!

2007-01-31T18:17:00.000-08:00

We got the lincoln to run on hydrogen today (poorly! it backfires like crazy) but it does indeed run. We expect that a rather massive modification of the timing and fuel delivery system (ie getting it actually tuned and having a fuel system that doesn't consist of a hose jammed into the carb should help.

2006 recap

2007-01-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

We built a vegetable oil powered beowulf cluster, converted a horribly obsolete overbuilt monster to an alternative and cleaner burning fuel. Got to the point where we divert over 200,000 pounds per month of toxic waste from landfill,gave away 1200 plus computers and beat a bankruptcy into submission.

Pictures of the monster:

First picture is of the engine compartment looking ominous. You can see the mixer stack and air cleaner. The second is from the oposite side and you can see the pre-heater and connection to the mixer stack. The third shows the fuel tank and trunk modifications. The fourth seems to be a clone of the second.fifth and sixth are a side view (its a long car and i'm a pathetic camera operator) seventh is the interior dash showing the fuel selection switches (what is this autofocus you speak of?) and last the front grill and hood with horrific modifications.

notes on vegetable oil powered computing.

2006-10-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

We got dugg today and some people have some misconceptions.

We did not add the ghz of the various procs together to get our effective power. We ran a benchmark on a single machine and then ran the same benchmark on the cluster. compared run times between the two and then stated that it would take a 22.7ghz p3 to run the job in the same amount of time.

as for the people who claim that 30 amps is a useless measurment of power consumption:

Last I checked standard wall current is 115vac so please quit being obtuse.

As for the macrophilliacs out there. I am so sorry you spent a stupid amount of money for a crippled *nix box in a shiny package. But face it, you are running an expensive,poserific,drm loving piece of enviromentally damaging,disposable, x86 crap.

Some might say that I am a liberal.

2006-09-06T23:57:00.000-07:00

Personal commentary on abc's 911 documentary.

2006-08-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

useless fact for today:

the linux kernel if(2.6.17, 39m compressed)

encoded to punchcards would make a stack approx 1242 feet high.

roughly 124 stories tall or 10 ft shorter than the empire state building.

enviromentaly correct ways to blow oneself up

2006-08-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

Started very simple pyrolitic gas production today (pyrex flask full of paper on a small electric burner) in an attempt to demostrate proof of concept. It worked and frankly better than expected

Paper works well as do wood chips. The real surprise was printer toner which really puts off the hydrocarbons (and is quite possibly the most expensive non-nuclear fuel source ever )

This has a huge don't do this at home label on it as it can be both toxic and explosive (and with my current reaction vessel would include flying glass shards) so I wear a welding mask in the lab.

Based on the wikipedia article on wood gas I should be able to run a straight reactor to engine system but i'd rather contain,filter and purify before feeding it to the lab rat (my 1969 lincoln)

on the other hand the idea of holding the world speed record for a toner powered vehicle is amusing, Maybe I'll do it to my hearse, build a coffin shaped reactor and name it cremetoria

Sunday,sunday ,sunday see the garbage burning funny cars.

thermal gasification?

2006-07-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

propane works. Car drives, moved it in to take care of rotting vinyl and begin cosmetic modification.

Methane production is disapointing (read: slow) trying to digest almost pure paper. Still going will report back in 3-4 months.

Thermal gasification: process of extracting gaseous hydrocarbons from solid carbon compounds.

Apparently most prevalent product is methane.

Possible idea: fresnel lens from old bigscreen tv, old fire extinquisher filled with paper, some pipe, a valve= methane?

lye,water and aluminum production of hydrogen works better than expected. Containment is another matter

Still need pictures.

sco

2006-06-30T23:34:00.000-07:00

Ha! snicker, snort, giggle, chortle, rofl, etc.

seems that the judge was somewhat miffed at a lack of specificity in sco's case.

still looking for the million lines of code guys? maybe a publicly distributed header? still trying to hide your releases under gpl?

I hear IBM's all lathered up to go latham act on your ass (good news you should soon be able to tell it from a hole in the ground, It'll hurt.)

I'm at the popcorn and beer stage here. I actually hope they try to play it out as it has become really funny.

ongoing "research".

2006-06-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Actually took the propane lincoln around the block and discovered a shifting problem.

Had a brain fart and started making a flame toy out of an old leaf blower,a propane torch and a bunch of laser printer toner. should belch big balls of flame and smoke. (might explode!) Should look sorta like a bfg 9000. Discovered that toner does indeed burn readily and that the plastic bonding agent tends to stick and burn (my inner neandertal is very happy!) Need to mount torch (a reliable ignition source) and toner feed (flaming chaos stuff). Im hoping to get away with a simple spring loaded door based gravity feed.

getting camera together, should be able to post pictures after the 4th

2006-06-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

We have ignition! the 69 lincoln lit on propane today. runs smooth and seems to have adequate power. I need to nail some stuff down (fuel tank is sitting on the ground during testing as i didnt want to mount it before i knew it would light) but I should be driving by next week. will follow up with pictures and more info.

I will begin building the methane generator next week. I have a 50 gallon compressor tank that should do niceley. I will start with decomposition based methods of methane production. But hope to eventually come up with a method of extracting methane from waste plastic.
Once I have methane from decomp i can work on cleaning up the contaminants (co2 and hydrogen sulfide) with lime water and iron oxide (problem: whats "lime water"?)

End result:
positive: energy independence and turns waste into compost.
negative: only reduces greenhouse gasses does not eliminate them (how does it compare to a compost pile of the same mass? at least in terms of greenhouse emissions?)

We also may try producing hydrogen from waste aluminum,water and lye so we can demonstrate a greenhouse gas free 460 cu engine. (i don't like using lye and aluminum but it allows me to provide hydrogen gas on an "as needed" basis and allows me to work out the bugs in the engine while working on the metal hydride storage system).

When completed we will have a vehicle based totally on re-use. salvaged car,salvaged fuel system and salvaged low/no greenhouse fuel

Beats the fuck out of a poser in a prius (how environmental! a disposable plastic car filled with toxic chemicals)

ab3001 and why it sucks the nether orifice

2006-06-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

What Happened to Reduce, Re-Use, then Recycle?

This letter was published April 25, 2006, regarding California State Assembly Member Pavley's proposed AB3001 e-waste recycling bill.
See also our previous text, Notes on the failure of California's SB-20/50, and proposed solutions.

It seems that, contrary to logic or sense, our government continues to throw reason to the winds and continue to call a consumer-funded planned obsolescence subsidy "environmentalism". I am executive director and founder of a non-profit computer recycler and have been diverting electronic waste for over twelve years. We are the providers of over 16000 free refurbished computers to the needy and we divert over 200,000 lbs of toxic waste per month. I have been recently recognized by the US EPA and Congresswoman Barbara Lee for my outstanding and invaluable service to the community as an environmental "champion". If you think you can find someone with more credibility on this issue please do so.

Let me make this as clear as is possible. SB20 and SB50 are, at best, under funded planned obsolescence subsidies and AB3001 looks to be woven from the same profoundly warped cloth. All of these bills fund the destruction of working hardware. All of these bills promote a philosophy that encourages a "design to grind" world. Manufacturers and waste disposal companies pursue higher profits by selling consumers new machines more often. They take older machines, not only off the market, but actually use a consumer tax to destroy machines that in my experience are many times better than what we have in our schools and definitely better than what the poor can put in the hands of their children.

Under loud and repeated protest, we are an authorized and fully compliant collector and recycler of electronic waste under the California's SB20/50 Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003. (If stupid is the only game, then you gotta play stupid.) The regulations under this system make little or no effort to accommodate, and even go so far as to discourage, reuse.

What I believe should be seriously considered is an extended life span, not an artificially abbreviated one. Make manufacturers provide a clear five-year user serviceable upgrade path. For bonus points make them adhere to an already existing, common industrial standard such as ATX or Mini-ITX.

You don't even have to make it mandatory. Simply modify the system so machines built without these concerns addressed are more heavily taxed than those that are.
Example:

First determine base cost for disposal. That is a topic of another document, but for the purposes of this example lets go with $10.

* Computer built to a common/open standard: $10
* Computer built to a closed but upgradeable standard: $20
* Grinder fodder: $30

There will be some debate as to fees and classifications but the basic theme is simple and sound.
Advantages:

1. Saves the consumer money, as they can simply buy a part, not a new computer. If we adhere to a common standard they could buy a new part from a DIFFERENT MANUFACTURER!! (Ooh the horrors of a competitive marketplace).
2. Saves on secondary and often hidden environmental and fiscal burdens in unnecessary manufacturing, disposal and transport.
3. Keeps jobs here. To my knowledge, we have little or no actual computer manufacturing in the United States. So, "design to grind" (yes I'm pushing that meme; prove me wrong) only benefits stockholders and off-shore manufacturing. On the other hand, parts compatibility would re-vitalize a threatened industry of local computer repair and upgrade businesses.
4. Promotes real innovation, not money extraction. The cost of innovation would be the cost of a component, not a computer, and the market, not marketing, would define and shape creation and design. (As an interesting note, Steve Wozniak tried to sell the personal computer concept to a major computer manufacturer. The fact that he ended up changing the world from a garage demonstrates my point and illustrates the oxymoron that is corporate innovation)
5. If you go with a pollution over time or energy consumption over time concept instead of a simplistic "Computer bad!! Make go away! Me smash!" solution, I submit I make a lot more sense.
6. Even if you ignore the whole "saves the consumer money, saves energy, and is less polluting" arguments, I still have the "We can and have helped people with what you would destroy" card. I submit that this card, at the very least, should trump any card in any hand at this table. Isn't this state among the lowest in the country in terms of computer access in the classroom? Do you really want to force schools to pay more, and more often? Why should we pay to throw educations away?
7. Makes the most wasteful manufacturers shoulder the largest part of the burden and promotes environmental and consumer friendly manufacturing.

Disadvantages:

I leave this to those supporting current legislation. As they seem to think every environmentally threatening waste should be handled the same way we handle spent bottles, I don't expect much.

Sincerely,

James Burgett
Executive Director Computer and Technology Resource Center 501(c)(3)
Director Alameda County Computer Resource Center 501(c)(3)
Founder Marin Computer Resource Center 501(c)(3)
US EPA Region 9 Environmental Achievement Award Winner 2006
Special Congressional Recognition 2006
SB20/50 authorized collector and recycler
Provider of 16,000 free computers to the needy in 12 years

added june 2nd)

I am of the opiniopn that this nightmare is what comes when technical problems are left to politicians.

Examples of said ignorance: (I will add more as i continue to reveiw the legislation)

I have also recently learned that they intend to catagorise based on number of cores with one or two cores classed as a "computer", While a machine with four+ cores is a "workstation"

A "computer" will be paid for while a "workstation" will not.

AMD just announced that they will be selling its new pluggable 4x4 multi core as a "white box" (a component that is sold individualy to the consumer for installation in any/many open standard case) i submit that the technology has allready rendered the legislation irrational.

So new proposal for purposes of definition:

"A computer is any device with an instalable operating system"(linux,win,osx,bsd,solaris,Be,etc and or stuff coming along in the future (plan9?) not a definition that requires a constant pursuit and revision as the technology advances.

A note that I didn,t get into before; The global warming issues of unrequired manufacturing and disposal. More trucks, more factories,more oil wells,more mines. While in themselves troubling. They all require power and the vast majority of power generation is greenhouse inducing oil or coal.

basic intro.

2006-05-31T23:14:00.001-07:00

Good evening.

Couldn't sleep and have been thinking about this for some time.

This blog will be used to show off various research projects at accrc in re-use and recycling and to comment on eviromental legislation and enviromentalism in general.

First I guess I should give you some idea of who you are dealing with.

I am a 350 pound tattooed weirdo who for the last twelve years has run an electronics recycling company thats primary purpose is to give computers to the needy. We have done this approximatly 16,000 times and we have placed computers all over the world.

I recently won an EPA award. I've also won a voc rehab award for working with people with "troubled" histories.

English majors may find this blog difficult as my formal education went sideways around eighth grade and grammars little squggly bits have little or no meaning to me.

Instigator of fry-grease burning generators powering supercomputers made of garbage and obsessed with finding new (and sometimes profoundly innapropriate!) uses for our broken toys.

The topics that I see coming are our integration of solar panels into Uninteruptable power supplies to see if we can come up with small off-grid power sources. I don't expect to be able to produce power on a contious basis but we might be able to get a usable light hours in to power hours out ratio. say four to one which could be more than enough for a small off-grid weekend cabin as it could charge through the week and power a weekend.

another topic is alternative modes of transport with a focus on re-design for enviroment.

Examples would be converting older vehicles/engines to alternative fuels such as propane, methane, hydrogen,grease and electricity.

Why old cars? cheap, easy, and I like them.
Grease: done. Chinese military surplus generator converted to waste vegetable oil. outputs 110volts at 100 amps. (thanks to Dylan,Jake,Chris and Allan. All grease-pushers beyond the pale.)
propane/methane: parts aquired. I have propane conversion equipment (Jake) and a 1969 lincoln continental(Me). both need cleaning/reconditioning. will use propane to get it working and then work on methane/hydrogen generation and compression. (gassification of waste plastic?)
electricity: parts aquired? have drive train from a 80 something mitsubishi tredia, the motors and controlls from to dead electric forlifts and a lot of batteries. Thinking of going for a trike.

And yes i'm allways like this.

Note : I rarely actually "build" these projects as I often lack the skills required. As stated before I am an instigator. I try to provide resources to those who can use them and shape the output to promote re-use. ("producers never get any credit")

testing 1... 2... 3...

2006-05-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

This is a test