In fact, almost always, I get something like this:

I’m purchasing it for my cousin as a gift.  I’m presently out of town (offshore) so I can’t pick up, but I will offer you $[MORETHANYOUASKED] including shipping expenses via USPS Express Mail to him as he schools in Belgium
Let me know if we can make the transaction asap, and I’ll send the money through my paypal account.
Regards
Susan

So, recently, I’ve starting responding like this:

Oh, wow, that sounds great!  However, I looked into it, and it’s going to cost US $4963.00 to send this ITEM overseas. If you send me that amount, plus the $1750 I’m asking for the ITEM, plus a US $3722.00 packing fee, then once the cashier’s check has cleared (in about 90 days) then I will send the ITEM right out to you!

Let me know if you agree.

I’m hoping I get a bite one of these days and make a nice return on my time…

I have thought about taking one up on their offer some day, and then sending them wet phonebooks instead of the “item” but since I don’t go to great lengths to hide my identity, I just figure that would backfire and find me in trouble. Dang legal system!

~w

That upset me a bit because Cambridge is a very pedestrian-friendly town, the van was in an area that has no less than five crosswalks crossing Mass Ave within about a three block section, and with behavior like that, the driver is going to hurt someone some day. I like to look after my fellow humans, and my righteousness was flaring, so I ducked around the corner where the van was parking and began to write down the number to the plumbing company that the van belongs to along with the license plate. The driver jumped out at that point and began yelling at me, telling me to be sure to tell the company that I jumped out in front of him when I call and that he would have killed me had he tried to slow down since he would have locked up the brakes. Yes, apparently he was unable to slow the vehicle over a 2/3 block distance without locking up the breaks. Honestly, if he thought that it was too rainy for me to be using the crosswalk normally, then doesn’t it follow that it was too rainy for him to be driving so fast as not to be able to safely stop in that distance?

Anyway, at that point he started getting belligerant. He claimed to have a witness who would testify that I jumped in front of him and demanded my name so he could file a police report before the morning. Of course, that is just a waste of resources for a petty situation, so I told him we could just drop the whole thing and leave it be. He would hear none of it and instead called me a douchebag. Yes. A douchebag. It’s funny, he looked older than 12, but I guess not.

I left at that point, unwilling to put up with any more from this silly person. After talking with my husband, I did choose to call his workplace and leave a message, calmly explaining the situation, stating that I was calling them because it was their vehicle that was being driven irresponsibly and dangerously, and mentioning that I would be happy to let the situation pass if the driver would as well. Then I shrugged it all off and headed home. I can’t imagine that anyone of sound mind would make anything of this, but if he choses to do so, I wanted to put down my recollections of the incident while it was fresh.

Now for some pure speculation…

I have no idea what was going on in this guy’s head, but I imagine that he legitimately thought that I was misusing the crosswalk because he was in a situation where he needed to make accommodation for a pedestrian. (comments he made like “I know you pedestrians think you own the road” made it clear where he stands in regards to the most healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transportation we have) I imagine, though, that he quickly realized he was in the wrong when he noticed me taking down the information on his van, and in typical macho-man fashion, chose to embellish, expand, and vigorously defend his story so as to have something to fall back on if he got called on his actions. Unfortunately this is a vicious kind of person – the person who knows he’s wrong but has followed the lie so far that he can’t get out of it. I find these people to defend their positions so irrationally and vehemently as to be scary, impossible to deal with, and dangerous.

I made only one mistake in this entire situation. I gave him my business card when he demanded my name. I have absolutely nothing to hide, and so I should not be worried about this, but, honestly, when dealing with an irrational person like this, I do have some misgivings having given him too much information about myself. It will all work out, of course.

The Obama administration essentially must grant permission for this pipeline and they are likely to do so without a lot of pressure. With the money thrown around by the large corporate stakeholders, it’s essential that those of us who oppose this short-sighted and dangerous project are even louder so that we may be heard.

Late this August and into September, volunteers will be marching and protesting at the White House in an attempt to get President Obama to pay attention to non-corporate, non-profit-driven interests. I was scheduled to go, but my injury has prevented that from happening. I am inviting and encouraging as many others to take action and join in the protests as possible.

Please take a moment and read more about this critical issue here: http://www.tarsandsaction.org/invitation/

There may be some “alarmist” speech on that page, but I, for one, have begun to feel that raising the alarm is no longer premature.

~w

Boston Globe (My photo was used, a competitor was actually mentioned in the article)

Boston.com (haven’t been able to bring myself to watch that one yet)

TUAW.com (That’s me back by the end of the cattle guards with David Nunez, a partner in DINO)

OK, that’s enough tooting.

Next up was marking the pattern of brass tacks I would be applying. I was going for the classic zig-zag offset pattern one might find on an old leather club chair, so I marked off a grid with a fine-tipped sharpie and went to work with the tacks and hammer. (Just before tacking, I made a quick pass over the frame with some dark brown shoe polish to create an aged look)

//Thanks to Matt Mets for the initial version of this, to which the code below
//bears only a passing resemblance…
//To use this sketch, you will need an image of all 10 digits (all equally
//sized and closely cropped) as well as a colon image and a blank spacer image.
//These must be in the Data directory in the sketch's directory

// Set these to match the resolution of your frame
int imageWidth = 480;
int imageHeight = 234;

//This array holds the names of the digit images
String[] imagenames =
  { "zero.jpg", "one.jpg", "two.jpg", "three.jpg", "four.jpg", "five.jpg",
    "six.jpg", "seven.jpg", "eight.jpg", "nine.jpg" };
String imageName = new String();

//This will hold the image objects for each digit
PImage[] images = new PImage[10];
//This image will be added to the front and back of the clock
//image to pad it out to the size of the frame as defined at the top
PImage spacerImage;
//The colon image used to separate the hours from the minutes
PImage colonImage; 

//The width of each digit. Generally you will take the width of your frame
//and divide by 5. (4 digits plus the colon) Since the colon will be much
//narrower, you will want to split the extra into the front and back
//padding. My frame is 480px which gives me 5 digits of 96px. I chose to
//make my colon 26px wide, leaving 70px. I then divided that in two to
//arrive at a 35px spacer front and back

int digitwidth = 96;
int colonwidth = 26;
int spacerwidth = 35;

int myInt, count=0;

void setup() {
  //Populate the array of images using the image name array above
for (myInt = 0; myInt<10; myInt++){
 images[myInt] = loadImage(imagenames[myInt]); 

}

//load the non-digit images
  spacerImage = loadImage("spacer.jpg");
  colonImage = loadImage("dot.jpg");
  imageMode(CORNER);

// Set Processing's screen to the size of the frame so the images won't
//be scaled by the frame, get blocky, take too long to load, etc. and
//give us all black bg/fill/stroke
  size(imageWidth, imageHeight);

//You can use a different background color, but if your images are
//sized correctly, you shouldn't see it anyway
  background(0);
  stroke(0);
  fill(0);

//Starts at 1:00 and works through to 12:59 - your clock will start at
//1:00 instead of 12:00 when first powered up

for( int hours = 1; hours < 13; hours++ ) {
    for( int minutes = 0; minutes < 60; minutes++) {
      // Clear the background by painting over it
      background(0);
      //Draw the first spacer image at the far left
      image(spacerImage,0,0);
      //Draw the colon in the middle
      image(colonImage,spacerwidth+(digitwidth*2),0);
      //Draw the second spacer at the far right
      image(spacerImage,spacerwidth+colonwidth+(digitwidth*4),0);

      //divide hours by 10 to get first digit, 0 or 1
      image(images[hours/10],spacerwidth,0);
      //mod hours by 10 to get second digit, 0-9
      image(images[hours%10],spacerwidth+digitwidth,0);
      //divide minutes by 10 to get first digit, 0-6
      image(images[minutes/10], spacerwidth+colonwidth+(digitwidth*2), 0);
      //mod minutes by 10 to get second digit, 0-9
      image(images[minutes%10], spacerwidth+colonwidth+(digitwidth*3), 0); 

// Write out an image file. My frame handleded >200 images/folder fine, so
//I removed the subfolder code, but you can enable it if you need.
//Note the ugly code that pads zeros into the imageName string and which
//should be done a different way with string formatting, but, hey, it was
//very early when I wrote this.

      imageName="";
      if(count < 1000){
          imageName="0";
          if(count < 100){
            imageName = "00";
            if (count < 10){
              imageName = "000";
            }
          }
      }

//Use this line if you need to break the images into 200/folder
//      save(count/200 + "/" + imageName + count++ + ".jpg"); 

//This line saves the image as a jpg
      save( "img/" + imageName + count++ + ".jpg");
    }
  }
}

So, putting it all together and turning it on, I ended up with a very nice meta-Nixie clock as a great gift for my husband Cameron – who absolutely loved it, by the way!

A problem with charliplexing is brightness. Since you have to turn each led on and off only one at a time, you must cycle them very quickly and rely on persistance of vision to make it look like many are on at once. The faster you can cycle, the brighter they will seem.

Arduino libraries can be very convenient, but some are slow. Using the original routine which called PinMode() and DigitalWrite() twice for each LED, only limited brightness could be achieved. I worked out a way to use direct port manipulation instead, a process which allows you to directly set the output mode and state of the pins of the ATMega very quickly – and set multiple pins at once to boot! Check out the Arduino Port Manipulation page for more.

Here’s how it works. At the heart, we have a 2D lookup array which contains 4 values for each of the 126 LEDs on the board. The values are what needs to be shoved into the corresponding DDR and PORT registers to turn each LED on. (I used a quick processing sketch to generate this) As an example, let’s walk through the 4 values stored for LED 0, the upper-left LED. It uses pin 13 as its positive pin, and pin 5 as its ground. The values stored are:  {32, 34, 32, 0}

There are a few things you should know about when looking for spaces. (Warning: this could get a little long)

What kind of zoning fits your needs?
This can be a big one, and is going to vary a lot depending on your location and goals. If you are just getting a private space to have a few people share as a studio, lounge, hackerspace, etc. then you may well be able to get by with a residential place. This will generally keep everything cheaper, but you could run into issues with the landlords (who often frown on non-traditional use of residential space), neighbors (people coming and going at odd hours, suspicious of what you are doing, noise complaints), and government agencies (running many businesses out of a residence is illegal, gathering of people for commercial events is problematic, etc.).
A popular co-working facility I know started in a residential area, which served them well for a while. But with their growth and popularity on the rise, friction with the neighbors and landlords have forced them to look for a new space.

How much space do you really need?
Space is a paradox. It simultaneously goes further than you might expect, and is always smaller than you think. It pays to think this one out well. Get too little space, and you won’t have anything better than the corner of your bedroom where your soldering iron is threatening to send the bed up in a blaze. Get too much space and you may not be able to afford it long enough to get your community off its feet.

I highly recommend pulling out a program like Visio, Illustrator, or even just a sheet of graph paper. Mark out a reasonable space, say, 300 square feet. Now measure out some of the average pieces of furniture you would like to have – chairs, couches, desks, workbenches, server racks. Make shapes (either electronically or physically) and arrange things in the space. (Allow for things like doors, clearance for chairs, etc.) This will give you a much better idea of how much space you need and want. Scale up or down the room as needed – and keep in mind, you may not get a single, big rectangle of space, so be prepared for odd corners and niches. (Great for mini lounge areas!)

What amenities do you need?
This is where you decide if you need a bathroom (or if the one down the hall will work), a shower, utility sink, kitchen, lots of windows, no windows, 220V power, and more. There are a lot of things that fall into this list, and it’s easy to go overboard. (Of course we need a full bathroom, kitchen, back yard, porch, parking, hardwood floors, 220V, fiber internet, and a live-in housekeeper!) Prioritize things into “requirement”, “important”, and “nice-to-have” lists. No space is likely to have everything, but you can use this list to evaluate what it does have against other potential spaces. And, depending on the space, landlord, and funds, many of your amenities could be added after you move in.

Where should your space be located?
This can make or break your space. Put your hackerspace down a dirt road four miles from the nearest place to buy coffee and snacks with no parking for visitors and a scary/grimy back alleyway leading to the entrance and you’ve likely doomed yourself from the start. (There are exceptions to this, especially if you have a closed group of people who *like* grimy alleys, like to be left alone, and you aren’t looking at starting a open/public group.)If you live in a car-centric area, make sure you have parking. If you live in a transit-centric area, make sure you are convenient to the bus or subway. If most of your members live on one side of town, don’t put the space on the opposite side. The convenience of getting to/from the space is key in making sure people use it regularly.
I don’t think you can overestimate how important this is. (But it’s all a balancing act – you probably can’t get a floor in a high-rise downtown no matter how convenient it might be!)

What kind of lease are you willing to settle for?
There are a lot more to leases than just the length of the lease term. Residential leases are going to be about the same from place to place in your district, but they all need to be read carefully. (What if they don’t like what you are doing and kick you out on a technicality – are you still responsible for paying for the rest of the lease?) Commercial leases are a different ball of wax and will vary greatly from place to place and landlord to landlord. If you are going with a commercial place, you are probably going to be better off going with a space that you lease directly from a person. They are more likely to work with you to understand your needs and to give you reasonable terms on a lease. Corporate lessors are often more interested in tenants they can put into a pre-defined category (“office workers”, “restaurant” or “manufacturing”) and their leases are often much more strict owing to the army of lawyers who have made their mark on them.
One of the most important things you can understand about commercial leases is the concept of a “Gross Lease” vs “Net Lease” – and the variations between. In the residential lease world, if your stove breaks or toilet leaks, you are used to calling the landlord who (usually) comes and takes care of it. Not necessarily so in the commercial world. Residential leases are usually gross leases which means the landlord takes care of pretty much any expense that arises from the ownership of the property, including repairs and taxes. There are commercial gross leases available. On the other hand, a full net lease could leave the lessee holding the bag for all repairs (regardless of original condition of the property) and even the taxes! Often, you will find leases fall in the middle somewhere, but you should expect to take care of some of the repairs of the space that come up over time yourself – and by that, I mean you foot the bill for the plumber or electrician unless you are *well* qualified to complete such repairs.

Also, a note on pricing terms. You may see commercial spaces advertised at “$25/sf” or “$3/sf” – this usually means “per year” or “per month” depending on the going rates in your area. Once you get a feel for what space is renting for around you, you’ll know at a glance whether they are talking per year or per month rates.

Landlords and listing agents lie in online ads.
Ok, so that’s a bit harsh, but in my experience it’s true more often than not. They aren’t always big lies, but things like the convenience of the location (especially when an address is not supplied), the total square footage, the actual lease payments, and even the city in which the property is located are misrepresented more often than I ever expected. I remember calling on a series of promising properties listed on Craigslist only to find that it was the same property, listed by three different people all likely on commission. That same location varied from 250sf to 600sf and the rent fluctuated by $200 depending on who I was talking to. So, don’t dismiss ads you see, but be prepared for some part of the property to be dissapointing. (Really, this isn’t much different from apartment hunting. At lease commercial listers don’t usually use “cozy home” or “cute apartment” as euphemisms for closets.)

Branch out beyond the online ads.
If your community still has printed papers, check them. Visit real estate agents. Drive/bike/walk through the neighborhoods you are interested in. Non-tech-savvy landlords may be your best find as they may be more willing to deal with you on a person-to-person basis. (I don’t know about you, but I like to be treated like a human.) Keep in mind that going through an agent may mean paying a fee or commission, but that can be worth it if they have the perfect space for you. And these fees can be negotiable – try to get the landlord to foot the bill, split it with you, or lower the rent a bit to compensate.

Check out the property thoroughly and make sure it meets your needs.
Make sure it’s sturdy. Be sure the sinks/toilets work. Check the outlets, A/C, heat and anything else you need and may be responsible for repairing. Make sure it’s going to work for your purposes – big tools generally don’t work well in third-story walk-up wood-framed units from 1902 no matter how beautiful the crown moulding is. It’s not worth taking a space simply because it’s available and well-priced if it’s not going to work for you.

Think carefully before entering into a lease – it’s a legal contract.
Consult a lawyer if you can. Consider who will be named on the lease – a person, or do you need a partnership/LLC/etc? Think about how long you and others can commit to paying the lease – and if those commitments are feasible. What happens if half your members walk away on one day and take their rent payments with them?  Defaulting on a lease can have real and terrible repercussions – especially in our credit-score-centric society. You don’t want your experimental hackerspace to keep you from renting an apartment next time you have to move.

Whew – and that’s just what I can say about searching for a space. There will be more coming. I hope someone finds this helpful.