<Copied to Nick of BrainSilo, in case he is not subscribed to the PLUG lists.>
I spent Wednesday and Thursday at the PLUG booth at OSCON (more about that later), and between the end of the Exhibit Hall and the Linux Fund party I made a trip to BrainSilo. BrainSilo has been mentioned here as a possible location for Advanced Topics, since the sudden closure of Roots. During the Exhibit Hall our booth was visited by Nick, one of the principals in BrainSilo. Nick had suggested that we would be welcome there for our Advanced Topics meetings. BrainSilo is a little difficult to find if you forget the instructions. The address is 611 N. Tillamook, but the entrance is via the alley behind the building. And note that it is N Tillamook, not NE Tillamook. It is eight blocks from the Albina/Mississippi stop on the Max Yellow line, and about ten blocks from Widmer Brothers Brewery, just off Interstate Avenue. It is also served by the #35 bus. Tillamook is the third street north of Broadway. And lest you be worried about the neighborhood, it is an industrial area; I saw no evidence of crime. After 5:00 there is street parking aplenty. For details as to what BrainSilo is all about, here is the link to BrainSilo's web page: http://brainsilo.org/wiki/Main_Page When I arrived I found the place populated by about ten hackers of various ages. Some (including Nick) were tearing hardware apart or putting it back together. There were soldering irons. Others were intent on their laptops, presumably coding. Several were just shooting the breeze. As a new face I was immediately the center of scrutiny. But Nick introduced me, and a few of the others recognized me from having seen me at OSCON. After introductions the breeze-shooters gave me a tour. The main floor is a small area, so it took less than sixty seconds. But then I was invited to see the basement. The basement has limited headroom, is dank, claustrophobic, dimly lit, and there are probably spiders, or worse. The basement did have one interesting feature: The Pit. It is the size of an elevator shaft, and goes down into the ground too far to see the bottom. As if I was going to get close enough to the edge to peer down anyway. I suggested they acquire a pendulum, and perhaps a raven. The square area of the basement is large, but for the aforementioned reasons, it is not recommended as a meeting venue. Back upstairs I took closer inventory of the facilities. There are about 15-20 chairs. Nick knows of a place where one can get folding chairs for $2.50, so perhaps one of us could make a modest contribution to get the number up to our needs. I figured that we could arrange the chairs to seat 20-25 people. Of that, about half would be at a desk/table, the remainder would have to hold their computers and notes in their laps. Square in the middle of the area there is a big-ass post. I didn't measure it but, if memory serves, it was about 12" by 12", and solid heartwood as was available early in the last century. About five or six feet from the floor was a small platform. Nick told me that the purpose of the platform was to hold a projector, and that BrainSilo had a projector that worked on the platform. The projector faces a wall that is currently painted pale yellow. I suggested to Nick that repainting a screen-size area on the wall with white paint would be a good idea. He said that the yellow actually worked better than it sounded, but that if someone wanted to paint a screen area white it would be fine. He suggested glass-bead paint. I have not heard of such, but enough to paint a screen area on the wall couldn't cost too much. Looking at the denizens of BrainSilo at the time I was there (roughly 7:30 pm), I expressed to Nick my concern about conflicts between our Advanced Topics meetings and the needs of their regular users. Nick informed me that the policy of BrainSilo is that user groups have priority. If other users need to use the space they need to go to another area or stay home or something. In our case that should create little problem, as our meeting times can be announced there to give other users plenty of advance notice. And if one of them wanders in during our meeting, they are welcome to sit in. A negative feature of BrainSilo for us is that it is not a tavern/restaurant. We are accustomed to being able to order drinks and food during Advanced Topics. On the other hand, considering issues we sometimes have with food and beverage establishments, perhaps that is a blessing in disguise. Nick told me there is a pizza establishment nearby (which I did not check out). We are also welcome to bring a keg or six-packs or whatever we want. I'd recommend ordering a few large pizzas of various varieties, and each of us bring some libations. We could leave the unused portions for the hackers to use the next day. In my experience hackers will eat pizza several days old, and beer forever. BrainSilo does have a coffee pot and mini-fridge, in case we need to use them. Having seen the place my recommendation is that we make arrangements to hold our August meeting there as a mutual experiment between PLUG and BrainSilo to see if it works out to our mutual advantage. I also recommend that other PLUGGERS visit BrainSilo if you are in the area and have a few minutes. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
