This email is off topic. If it offends you then suck it :-) But seriously, I know this will interest USA readers (unfortunately for now primarily on the west coast only). How cool is this concept http://techshop.ws/index.html Cheers, Dean ________________________________ From: Dean Collins Sent: Sunday, 3 August 2008 7:53 PM To: 'newtech-1 at meetup.com' Subject: TechShop Just got this email; Thought it would interest some people here as well. Way Cool, wish they were here in New York..... Brooklyn would be a good location :) http://techshop.ws/index.html <http://techshop.ws/index.html> Wish you had a workshop out back, but just can't find room for the floor-mounted plastic seam welder? <http://techshop.ws/> TechShop is betting that the DIY and Making trends are spreading everywhere, quickly. It's growing a series of well-equipped workshops for hobbyists and light manufacturers alike. Check out the class catalog <http://techshop.ws/take_classes.html> for a taste of the tools you can use. TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment...or a Kinko's for geeks. Anyone can come in and build and make all kinds of things themselves using the TechShop tools, machines and equipment, and draw on the TechShop instructors and experts to help them with their projects. TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, "makers", hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that they dream up but don't have the tools, space or skills. What a great concept - kind of like a tool rental company...but you get their space as well. Regards, Dean Collins dean at cognation.net +1-212-203-4357 (New York) +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney) http://www.Cognation.net <http://www.Cognation.net/profile> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20080804/e7e3f427/attachment.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 8039 bytes Desc: image001.gif Url : http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20080804/e7e3f427/attachment.gif
On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Dean Collins <Dean at cognation.net> wrote:> This email is off topic. If it offends you then suck it J > > But seriously, I know this will interest USA readers (unfortunately for now > primarily on the west coast only). How cool is this concept > http://techshop.ws/index.html > > > > Cheers, > > Dean >I considered a similar business for people to work on their cars. If you are looking for starting up a business, not just a hobby shop, I suggest seeking a local tech incubator program. Here is one of the many to my area http://www.hceda.org/CBTD/neotech.aspx Thanks, Steve Totaro
At 9:34 AM -0400 2008/8/4, Dean Collins wrote:> >This email is off topic. If it offends you then suck it J > >But seriously, I know this will interest USA readers (unfortunately >for now primarily on the west coast only). How cool is this concept ><http://techshop.ws/index.html>http://techshop.ws/index.html > > >Cheers, >Dean[snip] So, I'll take a bit off-topic and then go on-topic: I am a big fan of TechShop (I worked in the Bay Area before coming to work for Digium) and in fact I arranged this video interview there one or two months ago: http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/05/01/techshop-a-community.html Lots of great stuff going on there, and they're opening in a number of different cities "real soon now." It's the cheapest thing going, relatively speaking, and the community of people using the facility is very much an "open-source" environment. I tried talking them (management) into going with Asterisk as their PBX, but Jim wanted to completely outsource those functions to local DSL providers (which, based on probability and luck, are probably Asterisk anyway.) This is a great place for people to get involved in making physical hardware that interacts with web and voice interfaces. When the Portland OR TechShop opens, I'll probably do a session on "voice control of your robot" or a similar topic since Asterisk is very accessible to people building stuff that responds to external stimuli. Asterisk plus the Lumenvox speech recognition platform (or even just DTMF) is a quick and dirty way to get audio control into a robotic platform that has multiple "channels" of listening for commands. Asterisk is being used more as an application framework in that case, but it's simple and there are lots of people pre-building the methods and documents on how it's done (see Dave Troy's DTMF-controlled Roomba or the oft-cited botanicalls.com site.) JT -- -- John Todd jtodd at digium.com +1-256-428-6083 Asterisk Open Source Community Director -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20080804/e1d83ef2/attachment.htm
On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 1:30 PM, John Todd <jtodd at digium.com> wrote:> At 9:34 AM -0400 2008/8/4, Dean Collins wrote: > > This email is off topic. If it offends you then suck it J > > But seriously, I know this will interest USA readers (unfortunately for now > primarily on the west coast only). How cool is this concept > http://techshop.ws/index.html > > > > Cheers, > > Dean > > [snip] > > So, I'll take a bit off-topic and then go on-topic: > I am a big fan of TechShop (I worked in the Bay Area before coming to work > for Digium) and in fact I arranged this video interview there one or two > months ago: > http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/05/01/techshop-a-community.html > Lots of great stuff going on there, and they're opening in a number of > different cities "real soon now." It's the cheapest thing going, relatively > speaking, and the community of people using the facility is very much an > "open-source" environment. > I tried talking them (management) into going with Asterisk as their PBX, but > Jim wanted to completely outsource those functions to local DSL providers > (which, based on probability and luck, are probably Asterisk anyway.) > This is a great place for people to get involved in making physical hardware > that interacts with web and voice interfaces. When the Portland OR TechShop > opens, I'll probably do a session on "voice control of your robot" or a > similar topic since Asterisk is very accessible to people building stuff > that responds to external stimuli. Asterisk plus the Lumenvox speech > recognition platform (or even just DTMF) is a quick and dirty way to get > audio control into a robotic platform that has multiple "channels" of > listening for commands. Asterisk is being used more as an application > framework in that case, but it's simple and there are lots of people > pre-building the methods and documents on how it's done (see Dave Troy's > DTMF-controlled Roomba or the oft-cited botanicalls.com site.) > JT > > -- > > -- > John Todd > jtodd at digium.com +1-256-428-6083 > Asterisk Open Source Community DirectorBah, all the commercials.......