DIY

It's very nice that the city of Austin is making it much easier to recycle by moving to single-stream, but it's more important to reduce our creation of waste in the first place. That involves a lot of work in terms of changing corporate priorities on containers and packaging, and a lot of work in changing people's mindsets about their own goods.

America has developed a throw-away culture in the past half century, mostly through deliberate changes in marketing and municipal infrastructure. There's something insane about that- chunking our goods instead of seeking simple repairs or adapted uses. That sort of thing is thankfully showing signs of rebirth in our culture. People are developing new ways of re-engaging with their built world, inventing and repairing its elements rather than add to the waste stream.

I thought I'd toss these links up I just ran across. They're for websites that storehouse scanned user manuals for appliances, tech equipment, and such. Enjoy.

Since the big telecom companies seem deadset on smothering the utterly sane concept of municipal wireless in its crib, I decided to post a few links on building very cheap wireless antennae and suggestions of where you might point them to in Austin. Don't download anything big unless the place is closed, because you'll get it shut down.

Municipal wireless is the elegant and inspired proposition to provide broadband wireless internet for an entire metropolitan region as a public utility, paid for out of tax revenues. Oh god, more taxes! Some say. But back when Philadelphia was seriously considering it, before it got mangled into a corporate boondoggle, the cost estimate per person would have been $6 per person for the first year and $1-1.50 per person EVERY YEAR AFTER for maintenance. So instead of paying $50 a month, $6 the first YEAR and $1 afterwards.

Berkeley Public Library Tool Lending Library

I just wanted to post a link about this program offered by the Berkeley Public Library system. It's also offered by the libraries of Oakland and San Francisco. You can check out tools of all types (from hammers to cement mixers) with a valid library card and proof of residence. Amazing. I personally think this sort of program would be very popular in the Austin area as well.

Another great example of a tool library is the independent nonprofit Atlanta Tool Bank, which loans out tools to community groups for repairing homes and civic buildings, building theaters and play sets, etc. They live by donation, so check 'em out.

I read this post and it floored me.

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

I think this is the best way to think about the cultural shifts that are occurring in pop culture today. It's amazing to me that we've reached a point where young folks will talk about and use a large encyclopedia for fun, sometimes at parties. There's something much more profound to this though as this article discusses. We've got a surplus of leisure time, more or less. And we're seeing the beginnings of a cultural shift towards using that time for constructive communitarian projects, rather than pissing it away on television and self-destruction.

Build it.

Replicating Rapid-prototyper

"What is RepRap?

RepRap version 1.0

Look at your computer setup and imagine that you hooked up a 3D printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust, think Lego bricks and you're in the right area. You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself.