Giant Brains Terrorize Mission District

Went to Noisebridge.org last night in the Mission. Awesome. About forty hackers of 60 attended their "organizational" meeting, if it can be called that. I had to walk through the shitty interesting neighborhood (see below)

Typical Mission Resident

to get there and was delighted to see on rounding the corner four punkish persons smoking dope. "Must be the place", I remember thinking. Inside, it was pleasantly crowded. Lots of under-35s discussing fascinating projects and stupid cult films. Hackable crap everywhere and puzzle-type games on one shelf (apparently they play Go on Thursdays and study Mandarin on Fridays). I chatted with a few of them and then the meeting proper started. Entirely driven by consensus, possibly the best decision was not to give the safety committee the power to vet activities. Awesome quote (half-remembered): "If we have to go through a committee and get approval, interesting dangerous stuff will not happen!"  They found six grand for an additional space in the same building among the 40-50 people there, then inducted six new members (who were promptly sent on a beer run).

Noisebridge is too pricey for me to become a member ($80/month), but they let strangers come in and use the place, so I think I will show up Mondays and solder with Mitch Altman.  I could always use a TV-B-Gone.

Really, if I spent all day trying to remember cool stuff I heard and cool people I met I wouldn’t get any of my drudgery done, and I have a wife and two kids. Get back to work, you.