[nmglug] make santa fe opening at Meow Wolf [Was: meeting tonight; ]

[Arlo Barnes]

Reply below quotes.

On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 10:22 PM, Max Bond <max.o.bond at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 5:16 PM, <sam at thepromisedlan.org> wrote:
>
>> Hey Arlo! Speaking of Meow Wolf, apparently Make Santa Fe is Grand Opening
>> tomorrow and they're located at MW?
>>
>> This was news to me when the email came out this week, but I don't pay
>> _that_ much attention. Though I do see that there's much more info on the
>> website than when I moaned about it a few months back.
>> https://makesantafe.org/
>>
>> Give us the insider scoop and hard pitch on joining this new maker space,
>> I'm fairly excited that such a thing is happening, and would take at least
>> some pride or pleasure in being a founding member, but the prices are not
>> insignificant. What's the dollar number on the "big savings" they
>> advertise for joining before tomorrow? Is there any interest in software
>> freedom over there?
>>
>
> I'm not going to pitch you much harder than to say I'll greet you warmly,
> but normal membership is $65/mo, founding members (coupon code FOUNDER) pay
> $50/mo for the first year. People who pay by the year pay for 10 months.
> Orientation (which is required to use the tools) also costs $10, and the
> first opportunity is on the 19th. There is a separate orientation to use
> the Rapid Prototyping tools (including the 3D printer) on the same day.
>
> Studio members elect to pay $110 or $200 for a desk space or a carrel w/
> storage. I'm imagining desk space means that the area between two pieces of
> masking tape on a table is yours, but I'll report back tomorrow after I
> know for certain.
>
> Day passes are also available for $20.
>
> Tomorrow it'll be open to everyone (from 2pm to 8pm) which would be a
> great chance to examine the goods before shelling out. If you'd like my
> advice, sign up for a $10 orientation; you'll get a chance to meet the
> people involved, and you can buy a day pass when you decide you'd like
> something laser cut.
>
> Memberships: https://makesantafe.org/membership/
> Founding memberships: https://makesantafe.org/become-a-founding-member/
> Orientations: https://makesantafe.org/learn/
> Tools: https://makesantafe.org/tools-and-equipment/
>
> Cheers,
> Max
>

Honestly, the last time I was working for (volunteering for, now they have
paid employees) MSF was last summer. Then I had a job from late summer to
early winter, and then school started in the new year. So I am coming back
in as a member, pretty much the same as any other; my insider scoop is
about the size of a teaspoon.

That said, I will offer my observations, since I was at the former Silva
Lanes location, both in the House of Eternal Return and the adjacent rooms
of the makerspace, yesterday and the day before that and the day before
that (which is why it took so long to reply, I thank Max for jumping in
with his thoughts in a more timely manner; I drafted this after only his
first two emails).

In fact, he has addressed most of your questions, I think, except the one
about 'ware/culture freedom (and I want to add to some of his answers).

First, I expect the price to go down as additional revenue flows for the
'space come online (if the history of Quelab and presumably other 'spaces
nationwide are any indication, which I believe they will be). So perhaps
sign up for a day pass (and see if you have a student ID somewhere,
orientation is free and workshops are reduced with one; and of course
signing up for a single cheap 1-credit-hour class at the Community College
that you can switch to audit after signing up if you want gets you an ID)
just to get all the prerequisites for constant access to the space besides
the payment itself. Then wait for a need, for a rhetorical improved future
state of disposable income, and/or for the price to go down and buy a month
(or a year, for savings at the expense of needing to be able to dole out a
lump sum) at a time.

I asked a co-founder (which is an actual title, I do not count as a
founder; this person is a board member too) and the two floor managers
about using free distributions specifically. Zane, the co-founder, said
that there is already a computer dual-booted as Windows / Linux (he did not
specify), and a couple of dedicated Linux (again, generically stated)
machines planned for the near future.
When asked about transitioning over as the chances to find and switch to
alternatives to the proprietary softwares currently being used (mostly
in-house controllers for the commercial machines, like a jobs manager and
print configuration utility for the small laser cutter, or Makerbot Desktop
for the Replicator 2, but also workflow issues: the most painful was the
use of CorelDraw for sending vectors to the cutter because

   1. Corel Suite was already installed on that computer, even though one
   person at most is familiar with it and nobody is super comfortable with it,
   and
   2. there is some weird behaviour with the aforementioned print
   configuration utility that makes it not play well with Inkscape (which I am
   basically comfortable/familiar with), but these issues seem not to arise
   with CorelDraw; they plan to get Creative Cloud [:(] to see what the sitch
   is for Illustrator (which the floor managers are comfortable/familiar with,
   although one, Amy, seemed to like what I had showed her of Inkscape).

), he was hesitant:

Besides the dual-booted box, they are running OSX (some version) on the old
flatscreen iMacs, and Windows 10 on assorted boxen (some rather swanky).
The justification behind this is that people with encounter 'what they are
used to', so they can just jump right in and use them; but most people will
be learning new skills at the makerspace anyway, and I would think in a
majority of *those* cases at least one new software (like Cura, which they
thankfully also have; Zane is well aware of the free software movement and
subsequent spinoffs [free hardware, culture, design, and data], and is even
involved with a business based around OpenDesk, and agrees that it shares
much 'philosophy' with the Maker movement). Why not start fresh with a
uniform interface to a standard set of open interoperable programs? There
are established (but also in flux, in many cases) workflows and toolchains
using only free software that are often used by makers (if you are willing
to accept that as a real title).

Also, they want to make logins for members when they sign up, which will
either have to be done on the fly or by a beleaguered employee, and while I
hear Windows does have network-/sys-admin tools for this, and presumably
Mac also, good luck getting them to work across the walls of the gardens.
Not that it would be impossible, just unnecessarily annoying and fragile.
Additionally, if they need to add or swap out computers (if one breaks or
is otherwise out of comission for any important length of time, for
instance), they will have to use bolted on tools for reinstalling all the
needed software or again, more essentially wasted person-hours, whereas the
APT or comparable system when combined with local network caching perfectly
fulfills this requirement in a well-integrated way.

Anyway, enough ranting to the preachers, the answer to the question of what
is the makerspace's stance towards free software*, is: positive, but not
dedicated due to baggage even at this early stage and in need of guidance
either way (convinced they should commit or not, that is).

*I know the question of terminology has been beat to glue and resurrected
over and over *ad tedium*, but what do you think about the phrase "users'
rights"? Like human rights, in that some of them are 'native' (sometimes
referred to as 'inalienable', despite repeated demonstrations of
alienation), and can and should be expanded upon. User does not necessarily
denote 'end-user' in this context.

-Arlo

*PostScript*: Other GNU/Linux related happenings at Ol' Silva -- the study
of one of the main "characters" in the House of Eternal Return has a
computer in it, and it runs LXDE - somewhat kiosked, because they really
want you to play with the files / launchers on the desktop which contribute
to the story and atmosphere, but Control-Alt-Delete opens the Task Manager
or whatever LXDE calls it. About one of the said launchers - it opens the
terminal emulator, but the normal commands do not work, and suggested
commands work weirdly (it suggests 'help', which further suggests the
commands 'something', 'something', and 'something'...presumably a work in
progress or just intentional uselessness?), I suspect some clever alias
usage.

Also, I told my friend's boyfriend, who I met the second day there, and who
wanted to branch out from being a lifelong Macintosh user, about the GLUG -
he seemed interested.
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