A strangely enjoyable computer purchasing experience
Nov0
I recently had to purchase a few new computers for the Wanaka Wastebusters office. I was resigned to having to go the Dell route due to their aggressive pricing but having had two excellent Thinkpads in the past (an R50 and my current T61p) I checked the Lenovo site just to see what was going on with Lenovo in NZ.
When I bought my T61p from the USA i could bring it in at around half the price of the same machine online through Lenovo NZ. So it was with surprise that I saw really competitive pricing on the NZ site. Yeehaaa. Dell has astonished me in the past with their (lack of) customer service, especially with a XPS Merle had which had well documented design flaws they refused to take responsibility for. If you know you’ve made a bad mistake in a product surely the length of warranty should be extended?
I was even more impressed that during ordering online I rang the 0800 number with a technical question and got a very helpful woman, I think in NZ or maybe Aussie, who obviously knew the product inside out.
Ontop off all this when the laptop arrived it had excellent low key, recyclable packaging (see below). Which considering the machine is to be used in a packaging campaign is very apt.
Lenovo laptop packaging, simple, elegant, recyclable.
Some more Loopcase action
Jul0
Some late night and weekend time (the new fan heater makes it possible) in the workshop has resulted in some more Loopcase experiments and prototypes. Winter fun.
The first is a set of three custom bags for Sisu Software in Wellington and their Dell 5500 laptops. These have custom printed panels with their logo, are padded and have a bicycle inner tube reinforced corners. They came out really well and now I just need to find some time to make one for me.
While sitting at the sewing machine I had an epiphany about a new design using the “Loop” for a wallet from seatbelts (have been trying to find new seatbelt uses for a while). The photo shows prototype #2, I think #4 or #5 will be useful and #6 or #7 perfect :-)
Merle and I have also been tapping away at the Loopcase site – it almost has enough stuff in it to warrant a new theme I think…or at the very least a tidy up.
Laptop bag prototype – 95% recycled content
May0
I haven’t had much time recently to do as much on Loopcase as I’d like but I did manage to get a prototype laptop case made fro Tommi last week. It is for a Sony 13.1 inch Z-Series (VPCZ116GGB).
I really like having a separate case for the laptop/mouse/power adapter to my pack or other bag. Having a laptop in with my soup pot or tape measure and pliers I seem to carry around doesn’t feel right. So this format – a padded sleeve with front pocket for the peripherals works really well. You can always throw it in another bag if needs be.
Bunk beds from recycled materials
May0
Finally finished this project a few weeks ago – bunk beds for my ‘god’ children (what a strange phrase) Manu and Moana. These are constructed from old rimu timber bed frames and fittings and have ski slats. Lots of fun :-)
Loopcases on the way
Feb2
I have been fooling around designing clever ways to close bags with out using velcro (wears out to fast) or zips (sometimes slow and fiddly) for almost twenty years, well at least since the early days of Cactus and brainstorming with the estimable Mark Schafer. I have also been meaning to put some large advertising banners than came my way to good use.
The result is “Loopcase” – the intention being a range of recycled material camera cases and shoulder bags. That in itself isn’t particularly new or exciting, but the closure, finish and general um … je ne sais quis? May well be. I am especially stoked with the compact camera cases.
Office Refit – Wanaka Wastebusters
Jan0
Mooted quite a few months ago I finally managed to find an accomplice, the extraordinary Gutter Man – Tony McCutheon aka Gromme, and get the office refit project for Wastebusters well underway last week.
The goal was to increase the productivity of the office space by providing storage for each work space and some division between them. I adopted a rule of 1m3 storage per 1m of desk space, which is a lot but reflects the fact that the office space is connected to the best second hand shop in ~ Wanaka? The world?
Storage is provided by the vertical cases which also split up the desk space. The traffic way around the central island is also now blocked to provide a private (Simon!) workspace. Walkways only work if there is enough room to transit without interrupting which there wasn’t in this case.
All construction is from seconds 15mm plwood from Trademe, some of which was… er… very second rate. To be expected I guess. It all screwed with superscrews so it can be re-configured or dismantled easily at a later date.
Below is the quick Sketchup representation I did to convince everybody it would work, and below that some pictures of it in progress.
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- New printer station with paper and toner storage above
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- Before - all deskspace is linked and storage is mostly under desks.
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- During refot - Storage towers are in place and extra shelving.
GetReal Kiwis – www.getreal.org.nz
Mar0
Part of my work last week was creating a project scope around the idea of moving the excellent lobbying work being done from the Wanaka Wastebusters HQ into a national conversation with interested people.
What we are looking for is a mandate to be a bigger actor in the decision making process around the creation of waste and recycling. The work that is already being done would be all that more powerful if we had a documented constituency behind us.
There are many precedents for bringing ideologically close people together through the Internet to support campaigns, the likes of Get Up Australia and more politically partisan the recent Move On campaign in the USA.
I put a lot of thought into the possible manifestations and decided that to maintain any momentum the presence has to be more a conduit than a single issue site, a rolling maul of campaigns around issues which we can offer high level research and action. It could also act as a vehicle for other activists who share our leanings and are looking to connect with a broader voice.
Of course we have to be careful (thanks Phil) of asking questions with out a context and only ones we can actually deliver results on with the right support. What is exciting about Wastebusters is we have the resources and the skills to do this, we are not starting from scratch.
Once the idea crystallized I started mapping it out in a database data structure – I find this can, strangely, be a good logical test of what is a social idea. A bit of tuning, a re-presentation, a fortuitously available CakePHP collaborator and we should be live in a couple of weeks.
Insulation – Round 2
Mar0
My house is the first house I designed and therefore comes under the ‘allowable mistakes’ section I guess. I mistake is only a problem if is not assimilated into future practice, and of course remedied.
One of the biggest was not sealing the strawbale wall top adequately, combined with the curved and therefore gappy nature of the surfeit it resulted in way too mch air movement through the rafter cavity. The roof is insulated on the exterior of the waterproof membrane so the dew point can not be inside but with the rafter cavity running some brisk natural air-con the insulation never really got to do its job.
So, the problem sat in my draft addled head for many years. How best to inject insulation with the least amount of work and maximum impact.
I found Paul Kennets house insulation project very inspiring but I didn’t really want polystyrene inside the house where it could rain down through the micro gaps in the T&G ceiling. But the method made sense.
My belief is that an unwanted singular thing can be a problem, waste I guess – but a lot of an unwanted thing is normally a resource I started looking for insulation options from the wastestream. It didn’t take long to find bedding grade polyester fibre insulation offcuts through the Christchurch waste exchange Terranova. Toby and I needed a shipping container so as it was travelling empty I took a day to fill it with free insulation in Christchurch and ship it down.
So the last few months has been the occasional session of ripping up 30m3 of insulation and blowing it into the roof space with a Ryobi leaf blower on suck (over 200kmh muzzle velocity!). Kinda noisy and mindless work but it already seems warmer.
Clients
