functional paranoia.

had a strange visit today. some guy came up to my door and wanted to buy railroad ties. Said that "someone" had told him that "somebody in a house nearby" was selling them. Felt strange, guy had a "skeezy PI " vibe.

 As I am probably going to end up in court with the railroad and past experience with PI's demonstrated that they'll tell the client what they expect the client wants to hear. I took the video capture of his visit encrypted it with AES256 encryption (if I'm just paranoid, the guy looking for railroad ties doesn't need to go public) and posted it on a cloud service. If I'm wrong, I learned about aes256 encryption and cloud storage, If suspicions are correct. It's secure and off site.

Good evening reddit.

I've been playing around with the idea of casting aluminum With a smelter made our of old bricks and steel cans and making my own charcoal.

so far I've had some proof of concept success in making coffee grounds into charcoal burning scrap twigs from the yard and was going to try my first melt, but I decided that I needed to up my safety routines instead, as melting metal in a 100+ year old wood building that has been drying in the desert for its entire lifespan seemed a might iffy.

In moving the smelter I found I had a lot of very fine wood ash and decided that I would try to make "lyewater" like the stuff they made old school soap out of.

This is done by filtering water through the ash to extract potassium hydroxide. (note both potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide are known as "lye")

I poked a small hole in the bottom of a large plastic salsa jug, filled it with ash and put a jar under it and poured water into it. Got a jar filled with uh.... TEA! colored liquid.

So I have a jar of noxious liquid, no ph testing gear but I know that aluminum in a water-sodium hydroxide solution will produce hydrogen and aluminum oxide.

So I dropped a small piece of aluminum in the goo and got bubbles, I think I have hydrogen.

problems with e-waste policies

This is a work in progress and subject to change as I collect more data expect the addition of links to various examples to be added and probably some remedial editing.




Basic points.


First we must understand that the United States is no longer an industrial nation and as such we do not have the ability to produce or dispose of the devices we use.

Modern industrial and marketing practices are fundamentally counter environmental as they promote shorter and shorter product cycles. As there is no way to produce anything without a waste product More production inevitably leads to more waste.

Electronic “takeback” programs can exacerbate this problem by promoting a “Design to grind” model that does not actually reduce the amount of waste but moves it into other areas of the environmental spectrum.

For example. Current environmental law requires that a fee be charged to handle the disposal of electronic items in California. These funds are used to dispose of material by use of grinding of the items and refining of the raw material, This is laudable in intent but counterproductive in action.

To demonstrate; An electronic device is almost always constructed in an area where wages are low and environmental laws are non-existent or still under development. Examples of this would be China,India, Vietnam,Malaysia,Thailand,etc. Weak environmental practices combined with the fact that most of these are coal fired economies lead to predictable and demonstrable levels of environmental degradation and as pollution does not respect borders is an issue that affects us all, add to this the corporate motivation to sell a new item as often as possible and you find that this leads to the observation that the most environmentally friendly item is probably the one you buy least often.

The environmental issue are compounded when one adds transport to the problem. Maritime transport is among the most toxic aspects of our current production scenario as it is largely unregulated and consumes prodigious amounts of high sulfur fuel. The simple fact is that the more you ship the more waste is produced.

This is only the production end, the disposal end has additional problems and they are as bad if not worse than production and are also potentially made more problematic by current “takeback” methods.

As we are no longer an industrial nation the best that can be reasonably hoped for is some pre-proccessing before the material gets shipped back to coal fired, low wage industrial economies using highly polluting transport.

This is actually an optimistic view as can be demonstrated by the existence of massive toxic waste dumps in Asia, Africa and eastern Europe.

Reclamation/disposal when done correctly is expensive and has small profit margins. This is unfortunately not the case when done incorrectly by the unscrupulous. Massive profits can be made by cutting corners.


In addition our need to buy new materials is actually promoting violence,Child slave labor and the extinction of specie by funding those who would use these methods to generate income. An example would be the horrific sources for the coltan used in some of our most popular devices.

All of these problems could be reduced by reducing consumption through extending product lifespan.

I am not trying to say that we cannot have new devices, only pointing out that we could provide an incentive to the consumer and the manufacturer to make better choices through the existing electronic disposal system.

This could be done by modifying the system to promote lifespan.

First we start with simple things.

Modern video displays/televisions have three primary points of failure. The lighting system, the physical display/screen and the power supply.


Computers/tablets, First the observations listed above apply to notebooks/laptops with the addition of motherboards/memory and storage. Again nothing here is difficult and nothing should require the use of anything more than a simple screwdriver. Desktop computers could be even easier.

Phones, Seemingly obvious things like user replaceable batteries and standard fastenings would be a good place to start.

None of these should ever require more than a screwdriver and simple instructions to replace allowing for repair by the consumer. If we lower the mandated disposal fee for the item we can encourage both the manufacturer and consumer to choose a product that will last longer, costs less in the long run and limit the amount of transport. This reduces the cost to the consumer and the planet as a whole.


As a negative example a major manufacturer of smart phones recently went so far as to replace the screws on its phones with proprietary ones when brought in for repair or replacement of a battery. Thereby holding the consumer hostage to the manufacturer. This is an example of what we should be discouraging with the current system and reflects a predatory design flaw reflected throughout the entire product line. Practices like this should be charged more under the system to reflect the increased environmental costs.

In addition user replaceable components could allow for upgrades to existing hardware allowing for increased lifespan and improving capabilities.

Examples of this might be, replacing florescent lighting in your tv with a bar of Light emitting diodes,replacing the batteries in you cell phone when better technologies become available, etc.

We could also tie the system in with the Maker/Hacker movement through something as a simple as a “User serviceable parts inside!” Sticker on the back. I could be wrong but I think that is a ready to roll add campaign.

Thank you for your consideration.

ice tower.

leaking water tower in Wendel CA

heat from rot.

Observations on the jean pain method of composting:


for background info on this process see this

http://


1, it appears to be an anaerobic composting process.

2.It uses material that would normally be considered poor compost material.
3.It uses large amounts of water.
4.It produces significant and salvageable amounts of heat and can be used for home heating purposes.
5.The heat can also be used as a heat source for producing bio gas.


Jean pains method used large amounts of material and consisted of piling up large amounts of finely ground underbrush. on and around a central coil of piping and wetting it thoroughly. In more advanced systems a central tank is filled with a slurry of finely ground organic material and water.


Operation.

As the organic material in the pile decays it puts off heat. This heat can be salvaged by running water through the coils and heating as a sort of reversed radiator. The heat can also be used to provide heat to the central tank and used to promote methane production through anaerobic fermentation.

This will potentially provide heat and cooking gas to an off grid cabin.

Problems with applying the Jean Pain method to my circumstances.

1.sub freezing temperatures (high sierra's)
2.lack of water and very low humidity (high desert)

Potential solution: put it in a hole..

This would reduce evaporation and provide insulation allowing for better temperature regulation.

When no longer producing heat and gas you could pull out the coil and tank and plant a fruit tree in the hole.

With proper planning you might be able to provide heat and cooking gas/power by digging a hole and filling it with the product from land clearing/cutting a fire break. Do this every fall and every spring plant another tree and you eventually have an orchard.

On a side note: when I was much younger and thinner I was a seasonal firefighter. One of the fires I fought was at a golf club in the hills above Fairfax CA. I no longer remember the official name of the fire but We called it the “horseshit mountain fire” The golf course was very old and had used horses extensively for years and dumped the waste products out the back of the barn and into a canyon.


Much later in the late 80's or early 90's the drug dealer who serviced the staff of the golf club decided that the pile of ancient horseshit would be a perfect place to hide his profits. So he buried a coffee can full of money in the pile.

This oxygenated the pile and caused it to catch fire that evening.

So I know that decaying material can produce heat.

earthbag construction

notes for earthbag construction of a 10 by 12 structure as a prototype for a larger structure.

If you are wondering what I'm talking about google "earthbag construction"




Earthbag home prototype.

Dimensions internal: 10'*12*12 Before roof.
Dimensions external 11'* 13'*12 “ “ “ “

an 11 ft length is 5 bags and a 13 is 6 so each layer uses 22 bags.

Facts and assumptions: bags are 14”*26” with an assumed thickness when filled of 3” or
1092 cu in or .63 cu ft.

Walls will require 1056 bags and 4608 ft of barbed wire.

Basement is 13'*11'*-6' (6' deep hole) will provide 858 cu ft of fill material. Or enough for 858/.63 or 1350+ bags. Enough for the walls.

Sloping the roof. Based on my readings it is not recommended to exceed an overhang of more than ¼ of the width of the bag or with these bags no more than 3.5 inches per layer. I'm nervous and live in an earthquake prone area so I'll go for 2' per layer for the roof. The roof will require 54 layers and will be approx 13.5 feet tall for an above ground height of 20 ft. losing a bag per side for every 13 layers or,

6*5 for the first 13 layers (286 bags) , 5*4 for the next(234), 4*3 (182), 3*2(130), 2*1 (78) At this point I'll change orientation of the bags by turning the next layer by 90% and capping it off.

Takes 910 .bags.

Totals

Bags :1966. Note: no windows or doors in this calculation so the actual number will be smaller.
2000 bags cost $580 delivered
Barbed wire 6 rolls. $630 delivered. Roll is 1320'

1250 cu ft of clean fill..

Still figuring out how much stucco/cement/papercrete to skin it and the cost of application

approx internal space:

Basement 10'*12'*6 or 120 sq ft or 720 cu ft
main floor 10'*12'*8' 120sq' or 960 cu' (note: walls begin to slope at 6' so this calc is over.)
loft approx 7'*9".
assuming floors at 6" high loft peak is 20-9=11 ft

I said some time ago that I'd piss on you grave.

But the penguin takes precedence.


Sco lost its last chance court case. Its fucking toast. Jury said no, Not yours.

I've had worse days. http://www.groklaw.net/ for details

fucking with stalkers

I got an email day before yesterday. see below.

Hi James,

Just fyi... someone was trying to post this comment on my blog. I will not approve it of course... it's written as slander.

But I did want you to see that someone is out there pretending to be from ACCRC posting this kind of shit.

Hope all is well,

Michael



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: WordPress <wordpress@tinyfreehouse.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 8:20 AM
Subject: [Tiny Free House] Please moderate: "Making Connections - James Burgett"
To: janzenms@gmail.com


A new comment on the post #211 "Making Connections - James Burgett" is waiting for your approval
http://www.tinyfreehouse.com/2008/10/03/making-connections-james-burgett/

Author : James (IP: 64.81.52.25 , tigerme.asani.com)
E-mail : info@accrc.org
URL : http://accrc.org
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=64.81.52.25
Comment:
James is not a 'great guy'. Shortly after you talked to James he physically attacked his wife. He choked her so hard that he left bruises on her neck. I do not care how many computers he recycles, Great Guys do not physically abuse women.

As to the comments content I'd rather deal with people not hidden cowards so first we expose them.

googling the ip address we find this


The first hit has a "vonguard" as posting from that ip address. Now I know who "vonguard" is but the audience will need to be shown so we google "vonguard"

and get this

Well what do we find? a twitter account,a facebook account, a blog and when we look into them we find that its Alex Handy . Clueless boy blogger for the SDtimes or maybe his wife Veronica.

We also see that they posted as James@accrc and gave response information of info@accrc and the website info as www.accrc.org This is impersonating accrc (and me) and consists of identity theft.

so making unsubstantiated claims while hiding and being so clueless that I found out who they were in about 3 minutes.

idiot genius

As part of my ongoing medical issues I've been collecting and reviewing old medical records.

A wais-r test from before I started accrc/mcrc and that I had largely forgotten is probably the best example of a hidden handicap and proof of my genius all at once.

The scores:

The wais-r consists of 11 sub categories combined to provide two aggregate scores.


The sub tests.

test scaled score percentile.
information 12 76
digit span 8 24
vocabulary 13 84
arithmetic 9 37
comprehension 12 76
similarities 18 99
picture completion 9 37
picture arrangement 15 95
block design 12 76
object assembly 7 16
digit symbol 6 9

Verbal IQ 114
Performance IQ 96
avg percentile 57 (may have no meaning)

Based on my own research these results are consistent with one of more head injuries and show that most of my damage is located in the right hemisphere.

It also appears that computing technology makes a very good coping tool for right hemisphere issues. (at least for me)

I apologise to the (probably fictional) audience for yet another self referential post.

wildland biohazards

ticks,rattlesnakes,and coyotes seen so far. The ticks are the only ones to draw blood. 10 day old tick bite.

post singularity politics

As I understand it The concept of the singularity is that technology will make it impossible to predict where power will concentrate or to predict the concentrations effect on the social,political or technological landscape.

A worldwide bunch of porn swapping message board denizens have decided that they don't like iran's current government.

I think the government was fucked before and doomed now.

Go Anon. Dictator spanking and lols at the same time, that's fucking glorious.

(title links to subject of this post)

rural entropy

dead cabin series

slave collars

Why I hate closed source software: A recent reminder.

I gave a working tested notebook with ubuntu 8.o4 to my neighbour to assist some associate. Said associate did not want ubuntu so the neighbor loaded a (probably pirated) copy of windows on the damn thing.

As this guy is dead broke and wants to do comic books art I can only assume that he's gonna pirate the fuck out of his toolset. This will result in a thief with encumbered work. "nice photoshop work, Where is your license?" Is the death of cheap graphic entrepreneurship.

Poor people cannot use closed commercial products unless they wish to stay poor or be criminalised. At best you allow others to control your work at worst they own it.

I will never support the distribution of a proprietary OS and I think that those who do for charity are judas goats, Leading those they would help to servitude.

I could rant on but I'm supposed to remain calm and try not to get so worked up over the deeply stupid and those that prey on them.

Stopping point.

We have beaten all major problems over the last few years.

Bankruptcy: nailed it through re-organisation and we are out the other side even with a greedy, self serving, buffoon as the opposing council. (hint for Mr. pepler, When the judge uses the word "disgorge" to describe your future negative earning potential, you are a failure).

Fought past the DTSC's judgement which would have required that we destroy placeable material,valuable museum equipment, and research materials. We now can have a museum and our research into re-use is no longer threatened by the dtsc. My opinion of the agency as a whole is restored and even improved but my opinions as to one particular agent stand. (people who mindlessly follow the rules are better suited to the polyester clad food service sector, not protecting the environment.) As to the trolls who rose up from orange stained basement lairs during this fiasco. I imagine poo flinging monkeys loaded on mountain dew and cheetos, I give them cute names like Dim load and the -hat to remind me of the wit and wisdom displayed by those fine practioners of the ancient art of sitting in a bathtub, farting and trying to bite the bubbles.

As to those who defended us and helped us. You are conquering heroes and with your assistance we still stand. (oh and don't piss off Christian he seems to have digg in his pocket.)

Funding: We have a plan in place that will generate a profit, We are currently profitable and we seem to have survived the %20 cut in state funding for the disposal of crt's. and it seems that our competetors are getting desperate and in some cases dying out. ( Just for my own petty ego gratification, I have been on the record from day one pointing out the fact that the state funding mechanism was flawed and so the cut in funding was not a surprise It may come as a bit of a shock to a numbnut knowitall at SVLUG though) I also dont think that cuts are done yet. A collapsing economy will limit new purchases that fund the system while entropy is inevitable and disposal will continue. The conversion to HD next year will compound the problem as people will buy conversion boxes instead of new tvs and conversion boxes bring no funding into the system.

We functioned before the state got involved and can survive the (hopefull) demise of the state system. Its the wounded flailing around on consumer funded life support that concerns me.

Thieves: yup we had 'em and yup we pressed/are pressing charges. Its demoralising to find that people you are trying to help are stealing material intended for those needier than themselves. People with roofs over their heads stealing from homeless programs, people with food stealing from programs that feed the hungry, and people who squandered their chances at an education stealing from schools. As these are where our machines go that is what they did. they where/ are useless piles of slowly rotting meat too stupid not to piss upwind .) Now that we have gotten rid of them I seem have to enough notebooks to consider placing them.

My own personal stuff.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in january of this year. I was put on a drug that increased insulin levels through increased pancreatic output of insulin and went on a restricted diet and increased execise and got my blood sugar levels from 279 (this was the diagnostic measurement after 12 hours of fasting) to 97 three months later ( same test) . ( I was actually eating ice cream and jelly beans at night to get my blood sugar up to reasonable levels I would hit lows in the high 50's if i did not) I had energy to burn, ate like a horse and lost weight. Brief moment of pancreatic cancer related hypocondria. ( I knew 3 people who died of pancreatic cancer) This is a remarkable achievement, yes? no. I was on the wrong meds. The good news is that I was on the right kind of meds but stronger and in too high a dose. I was clueless and thought that I was the king of diabetics and that this was a breeze, This diabetes stuff is easy!

It all came apart when my pills were not green. My refill showed up and I put it on the table and finished my first bottle before opening the new one. When the day came I openend it up and saw neat little white pills, this concerned me as the previous ones had been green. I emailed my doctor and asked something along the lines of shouldn't these be green? Should I take these? I got back some confusion involving generic medications and variations in apearance and was told to take the pills. The next day was bad I had low blood sugar all day and was constantly eating sugar to maintain a reasonable level. I e-mailed back "I am less than thrilled with these pills and am having real trouble not going below safe blood sugar levels" eventuially it turned out that I had been given the wrong meds and that I had been taking them for the last six months.

I am not a big fan of medication and having proof that I had been on the wrong meds didn't make me more co-operative so I got them to let me try to deal with my diabetes thru diet and exercise. on this regimen I now test out on average in the 120's by my own meter. (123 7 day average,125 14day,128 for the month)

So it seems to work and my diabetes is reasonably controlled but I am allways tired and my normally irratible nature has become much worse. I also find that when I am at healthy sugar levels I feel like crap and act like mr hyde.

So We have won our wars and can walk off the field before the next horde comes over the horizon. I for one am tired, As is Ilma. Who quite frankly deserves more credit than I for all of our achievements, but who is far to self effacing to claim her just due. none of it would have happened with out her.

The load is heavy and we are tired and wounded. I think its time to set it aside.

linuxworld recap:

summary:

installfest: went well did 750 machines 600 at linux world and 150 at accrc/mcrc.

Caveats: 1. dont use machines for installfest to test installfest hardware. We have a significant number of machines with incomplete/old software installs. This is due to people turning on machines and seeing what looks like a complete install then putting it into the "done pile"

Good news: doesn't actually add to the workload as we expected to do a final load to cover any last minute modifications to the software before placement.

Bad news : the number of installs on the server do not match the number of machines in the done pile. this caused no small amount of stress amoung those who are tracking our progress.

I have 10 pallets at approx 75 machines each labelled done and due to installfest. Accrc will give away 750 machines. All other details are indeed details.

Collection event: was abyssmal. amounts of material are measured in pounds not tons and probably did not exceed 3 digits. Accrc is very much out of pocket due to linux world.
(A recycled computer grosses about $40 in raw materials and poorly thought out state funding 750*40= $30,000 so installfest will eventually cost accrc 30k before labor costs) .

since refurbishment and placement are why I'm here this is just cost of doing what I want to do, but it does piss me off that the for-profit grinders are paid to destroy while I have to pay to preserve.

installfest 2.0

We will be doing the next installfest at linuxworld in august. This is a joint project with Untangle and with the gracious support of linux world.

We have been working on getting the servers updated and can now load ubuntu 8.04,xubuntu,edubuntu and gnewsense.

The ubuntu will be for conventional machines,xubuntu for low resource machines, edubuntu, for classrooms and gnewsense because we can and should promote the four basic freedoms whenever possible.

Observations on the above so far:

ubuntu 8.04 just works as claimed and the other ubuntu variants use the same repositories so we can load all of the 'buntu's from one set of local mirrors,

xubuntu seems to be viable and we will be trying to get it loaded on a bunch of old (p1 75mhz) toughbooks that we got from various police departments and should allow us to make some use of older hardware and demonstrate that our motto (obsolescence is just a lack of imagination) . Plus we get to play with bad ass millspec notebooks (will your notebook stop a bullet?)

Edunbuntu. very cool, lots of apps. I have an issue with client- server based systems. (single and potentially expensive point of failure in the server, lack of flexibility and poor performance unless you can afford a high end network)

Gnewsense. As far as I know this distro is fully compliant with the fsf's four basic freedoms and I applaud the developers and the fsf for developing and promoting it.
It is also much more functional and polished than I would have thought possible.

It does still have issues but these have nothing to do with the code. These come from an unwillingness of some vendors (hardware and software) to provide drivers or release specifications. This "dog in the manger" attitude is slowly dieing off (good riddance) but at this time our biggest problem with gnewsense is multimedia (there are open source flash players out there but last time I tried one, the steps required to get the video to play far exceed the skills of our average client.) we've also had some issues with drivers for various network and video cards. (just to beat this horse further, this is not a failing with Gnewsense or the FSF, it is a failure on the part of the manufacturer).

The FSF is correct in that software should be free (freedom and beer) and gnewsense demonstrates that it can be.

We expect to have approx 1000 machines ready for install fest but I doubt that we will have room,time or power at linuxworld to do that many installs so we will be running installs at linuxworld and our berkeley and marin facilities during the event.

I've been told I need to document more of what we do.

smart kid, old digital camera, glorified junkyard, internet,weirdos= new accrc blog.


Aftermath is ongoing but constant content junkies should look here.

victims.

Testing. testing. testing. new blogger training session.

picture is last known image of our electric bike in its natural state.

You could of told us

there is a new video about us on current tv.

It comes as a bit of a surprise.

Thank you Graham.

We got a whole bunch of fiber optic stuff today and more on moday. The picture above is one end of a 250 ft length. One end is in sunlight the other is in the darkest spot I could find in the warehouse.

bizarre anniversary

Ok I know that you are not gonna believe this but remake is on the 39th anniversary of what is probably the most bizarre car accident you will hear about today and is quite possibly one of the moments that helped define my life as an attractor of random chaos.

On march 30th 1969 at 385 geary in SF a man named Jeffery Young was having a very bad day. We can not at this point go into what or why he was less than up but his actions can safely lead us to the conclusion that he was somewhat depressed.

Mr young jumped off a building. falling over 130 ft toward his intended target, the ground.

He missed.

Our car, sensing his distress, Gave The final sacrifice and leapt under him.

He landed on us, My whole family plus my grandmother on my fathers side.

Five of us (suddenly almost six) in an Alpha Romeo coupe.

I took a whack to the head, as did my grandmother, (died nuts, I'm only strange, She got hit harder.)

One can probably assume that Mr. Young wanted this event to be an escape or at least an end to all his worries. Our car denied him this.

He lived. For all I know he's still alive as he was only nineteen at the time.

Verification can be found in the archives of the oakland tribune via newspaperarchive.com (and yes they will want ducats)

send foil hats to Sebastapol

Just read that Sebastapol Voided its contract to provide free wireless to its citizens.

I have a particular hatred of people who embrace stupidity and fear. (there are those who would state that those that fear wireless networks are merely ignorant, but as the information debunking fearful positions is readily available any attachment to an unsupportable conclusion is choosing to remain in ignorance and is therefore stupid.)

I have had similar experiences. We got many pallets of wireless gear from 3com a couple of years back and offered to set up wireless access points all along University (a major street in berkeley not the educational institution in Berkeley.)for free to any business along telegraph that wanted it, We lined up an upstream internet provider and had clients lined up.

project died because one of the players involved thought that it would cause a "radiation problem"

I was told this over a cell phone.

Back to Sebastapol, I say recall the politicians involved as they demonstrate either fear of things they do not understand and an unwillingness to avoid their fear through simple education, or they fear the power of ignorant cowards. A more cynical option would be that they are making a play based on a true knowledge of the electorate and that pandering to ignorance keeps them in office.
I submit that recent presidents demonstrate this but it is interesting that it can be so readily demonstrated on both sides of the political spectrum and what does it say about the people of sebasatpol? Or the rest of us? The case against wireless is has as little merit as those proposed by various hick school boards in kansas. As they are elected officials the method of correction should be obvious.

What makes this even more amusing is that they could quite possibly use wireless to lower the net load of "radiation" as they could Possibly move some (most,all?) of the existing cell phone traffic to voip over wireless and hell, Might even end up with free local calling as a happy consequence all on a fraction of the power used by the thin, chrome, microwaves they currently glue to their ear.

One of the best definitions of humanity I have ever encountered was that human beings process information better than anything else we have yet met. Better than any other animal. Better than any machine. It has also been said by many that are considered wise that knowledge is the only way to defeat fear. In a small town in Sonoma the fearful and the ignorant rule.

I submit that we need to send aluminum foil hats to the city council of Sebastapol and to any citizens therein who might have concerns about such issues. I suspect that some sort of poll was taken and that everyone involved was properly numbered and listed, so helping them out with a little anti-radiation home millinery should be fun, easy and you help the handicapped. (stupidity is a handicap) from 21st century cooties!! if you use your sandwich wrap, its recycling!

Sorry got A little silly there. But let try this instead: While I think in the long run it probably just makes me more neurotic, I have been lauded more than once and on some major stages (for verification see the freaking sidebar) for what I have done for the environment and for my fellow human beings and I say that this serves neither. I'd even go so far as to say it harms both.

Can an entire town win a darwin award?

getting ready for chaos.

Makefaire 3 is around the corner and we plan to be better prepared for it this time.

Remake:

First the collection event: We have this nailed. Nothings too old nothings too weird. Bring it on. 10-5 sat the 29th. We want Computers,monitors,robots,blenders,microwaves,sexbots.toaster ovens, stable man made isotopes,pu-38 initiators,mysterious things that go boop!!,tv's vcr's, turntables,reel to reel equipment,special request for hand held audio recording equipment (hi mark got a box for ya.) notebooks,lifters,mysterious objects that don't go boop!,power tools,unpowered tools,animatronic ape heads, Weed wackers,Weird stuff you found in your uncles basement(No sweaty explosives please),alien artifacts,powered unmentionables etc.

Remake proper.
12-5 the 30th By invitation.
this year should be a little less chaotic. as i understand we will not be opening this to the public, but to makers who might need salvaged equipment for various projects and hopefully to inspire new projects.
In addition we have a couple of projects that we would like to showcase and see if we cant find some people with skill sets we lack.

We will provide in varying amounts and conditions. Monitors,flat panels,big led displays,a bart display,a cop light bar,boxes of walkie talkies in various states of repair,notebooks (parts machines, don't ask for working) motors from very small to forklift scale, ac and dc, fans.tripods,big freaking speakers,5 pallets of new music cd's,43 dissasembled electric scooters,wheel chairs,batteries,radio control equipment,electronic doodads,etc (we covet the powered unmentionables.)

MUSIC PROVIDED BY A 9FT TOXIC SKULL

ACCRC/untangle installfest beta.

we tested the new install servers over the weekend and it appears that we can load 24+ machines an hour from our main server.

We hope to get 4 locations live on the first and hope to load over 400 machines in a single day.

System specs. hp netserver donated by the marin civic center. 5 32 gig scsi3 drives in raid 0.
Gig-e out to a very pretty trend switch donated by untangle.

Switch has two gig-e ins and 24 100baseT out.

Test data: Not big on broadcom gig-e cards. Like intel.

Loading ubuntu 7.10 on all machines. Machine spec is p3-750+ 512 mb mem and at least a 20gig hdd.

We will also probably use system as the burn in cluster and render povray animations on it.

new developments.

Got diagnosed with diabetes last week. Went in with numbness in hands and feet, Blood sugar was 3 times the "YOU HAVE DIABETES" level and I strongly suspect that the numbness is peripheral neuropathy.

So head injuries,bipolar disorder,no education,ptsd from childhood trauma,brittle bones due to calcium deficiency thanks to moms Munchhausen's bi proxy, (thanks mom! I do not now nor did I ever have a milk allergy) and now my hands don't work all that well and I have to live to a clock and don't dare lose my medical insurance.

This self pitying crap is probably just some blood sugar fluctuation, But right now it seems a mite too deep and dark to handle without at least bitching and whining

Also very disappointed in those who are supposed to be helping me. Made a simple request to multiple people and none delivered. I will complete my commitments but will not make any new ones to any of these people and will from this point expect them to be nothing more than time wasting posers.

Anyway needed to get this out and like always I will complete all my commitments regardless of the failures of others so existing plans will be completed, promises will be kept.


Anyway sorry for the lack of entertainment.

AAAIIGH!!!!

CBS evening news does a profile on us and the storm blows out our network.

so a late post and a few corrections:

1): We/I did not build the skull. The skull was produced by Greenpeace and while we are very proud of our association with it and its production. (We wired a lot of it and you can probably guess where the stuff came from, But concept,design and construction was greenpeace.)

2) Takeback: Takeback without design for re-use/lifespan is at best a mixed blessing. At best it keeps material out of landfill but promotes needless manufacturing and transport. At worst it subsidises shipping material overseas in a gray "recycling" market that involves dubious recovery efforts and disposal methods, promotes planned obsolecence and calls it environmentalism.

I support takeback as a concept and an ideal and I note that the original drafts of the (frankly very bad) rules we have to work with here in california actually made an effort to address design for environment and re-use but last minute negotiations seemed to (in my humble opinion) gut any
actual long term benifit from the states attempt to solve this problem and just allowed manufacturers to sell disposable crap, Make you pay to destroy it needlessly and then tell you that they are doing you a favor and saving the planet.

Needless consumption will never save the planet. Steve Jobs's Reality distortion field causes global warming.

closing out 2007 pt 2

First image is of a 49cc two stroke motor and clutch assembly and two of the scooter motors turned into a crude generator. (puts out between 24-36 volts with no load depending on throttle setting) second is a 24 volt motor salvaged from a forklift. The third is a selection of tested deep cycle batteries.

closing out 2007.

My new toy!!!

Monitors work and we can put image on eyes and teeth. sound is an old stage monitor amp, so its a multimedia device. Was donated by greenpeace (thanks Ashby)

we hope to add powered wheels/tracks to it by next makefaire . (skull tank)


Past projects that need updating:

Hydrogen fueled vehicles: our method for making hydrogen has a serious contaminant in the form of aluminum oxide. The good news is that it slows combustion and actually makes it easier but it is a serious abrasive and is probably caustic so this is only to be considered in escape from new york type scenarios. (so Brain you say that with a can of draino and some beer cans we might get this old junker to run us past the brain eating mutants? Yeah but if it don't blow up it'll never run again)

We hope to solve the contaminant issue with this stuff: (so much the image going where I want it:) the blue boxes wrapped in pallet wrap are industrial electrolyzers used in electroplating and should provide copious hydrogen as long as I am willing to pay for power.

The scooters are not for sale.

Reasons for this.


We don't yet know how many we have or what their condition is, We don't sell to the public (no resale license) We have no idea what our liabilities are in selling them(legal,environmental,etc) and charitable placements/re-use/research/playing with the shiny bits, seems like a better idea.

On a previous topic: having trouble fitting 250mw led into 5mw led lens housing. All components tested and unfocused unit scorched my desk during testing.

todays "disposal"

40+ electric scooters in various states of repair. The blue one foreground is intact and functional some are totally intact and as yet untested others have minor issues and some are parts machines

Basic specs:
Features:
• 13 MPH maximum speed with a 6-hr. runtime and 7-8 hr. recharge time
• 12AH, 24V battery required and included
• 220-lb. weight limit
• For ages 14 yrs. and up
• 48Hx25Wx48D" deck: 13Lx13W"

(based on ad copy pulled from the web)

If you assume that its total range is half of its top speed times 6 hrs you get 36-40+ miles on a charge.
(re)uses:

Well scooters .
try putting motor on a mountain bike frame and try to incorporate rear derailer and sprockets to increase range/speed (this may be based on a totally false set of assumptions as I've never seen it done)

24 volt generators for wind and/or other mechanical input.

Can we make a solar powered scooter with the photovoltaics on hand? How a about a very small hybrid with a chainsaw or model airplane motor?

nothing important.

An old toy raygun a dead dvd burner and a collimating lens assembly.

orielly/boingboing/digg/slashdot effect.

Its very real and it actually does amount to something. Some good some bad.

I do very much believe and can demonstrate that it had no small effect on the government in this issue. This is at least from my standpoint a good thing.

I also believe that I am winning the cnn poll due to it. As I disagree with this choice I see this as a detriment as I think that the gorillas should take priority and that the fact that I am popular with a small,vocal,internet savy group is slanting the poll to the detriment off all.

more corrections

Boy this is getting tiresome.

Getting a letter from the EFF and saying that you are making an appointment does not translate into "eff is helping with legal defemse"

adapting legislation involving re-use is not backing down.

We are not getting any new permits nor does the state believe that we are not properly filed. Nor do we foresee any significant changes in our operations. Ignorant people with issues keep trying to put that nonsense in.

Again the only thing outstanding is the retention of material over a year. Not permits,licensces,handling,safety or any other issue.

So the people who support me exagerate while the ones in opposition just make crap up.

more updates.

Got a very nice letter from the EFF and am trying to put together an appointment to discuss options.

The dtsc situation is under control for the moment, May light up again later next month when they look over our proposed solutions.

To reiterate some basic facts before the trolls run off at the ass.

The inspection that started this all was a recurring,random yearly inspection. There was no complaint nor does the dtsc have any reason to think that a release of any form has occurred (none has)
As far as I know all handling issues have been addressed and the only thing that we still have on the table is the "get rid of it within a year" issue and all parties seem to be interested in how to get around/find a way to ignore this restriction without letting the corporate scumbags use it as a loophole.

In addition the next waste board stakeholders meeting has re-use on the agenda.

The trolls and spammers are getting a little thick so I'm killing anonymity on this blog and activating other tracking and security features. I apologise and find it personaly offensive but so is a couple of hundred **** YOU's in all caps.

Oh We just renewed our leases for the next five years so it appears the city of berkeley's attempts to turn this area into car lots are somewhat impaired if not dead.

cnn heroes

I don't know how to do this but I disagree with those of you who are voting me up in the cnn poll.

Of the four people there only one is dealing with extinction. Dead is dead, anything else is negotiable. Vote for the gorillas. 25 grand and fame that id probably just piss away anyway is not worth a specie.

I don't know if it will help, but I'd feel like crap if I won and the gorillas went extinct.

On the other hand there is nothing saying we can't get anything out of this. You could ask cnn to put all the other heroes videos into an open/at least not so closed codec so that everyone could see them. Being the guy who got a major media outlet to guit supporting a monopoly would be a more than adequate consolation prize.

some corrections.

There are some false assumptions going around. (some of them activley encouraged)

1: The dtsc did not order us to dispose/destroy everything within a year.

This is demonstrably untrue as can be determined by anyone reading the report. (jpg's of the report can be found down the page) Not only does the dtsc demand destruction/disposal they required that we provide a plan for such within 30 days of the receipt of this violation determination.)

This is a quote from the dtsc finding. "
Compliance Action: ACCRC shall develop an inventory for all items set aside for possible use by Aftermath Technologies and for donation/development of a museum, etc. The inventory shall be submitted to Asha Arora C/o DTSC, 700 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 within 30 days of receipt of this report. In addition, ACCRC shall ensure that those universal wastes are not accumulated onsite for longer than one year."

Now I submit that this is indeed a destruct order. No amount of rovian parsing will change that. In addition as the fines for non-compliance exceeded our assests on hand it was a "do this or die" situation.

So as it stands now, the state still impairs re-use and encourages destruction. (we will end up with additional paperwork and handling requirements while destruction is funded by a consumer funded subsidy) but is no longer threatening to close us down for reuse. (the term "threat" may be incorrect I do not believe that this was malicious or even intentional but the effect is the same)

So rather than run off and say that all is well. The thruth is that all is not well, The laws involving electronic waste in california are at best of dubious environmental and social value and those that try to follow a higher path are penalised.

So the state is now merely impairing re-use no longer effectivly banning it. While this is an improvement it is not a "solution".

developments (good news)

I'm trying to figure out how to phrase this without putting anyone into a corner.

Once again we have a situation where ACCRC does not fit within the standard profile inherent in the system.

The DTSC is aware of the problems presented in the violation notice and is working with us to find a viable solution. It appears that all parties agree that the destruction of usable/historic material is not in the public's best interest and the system should adapt.

This is a two party process and the ACCRC will have to make some adjustments.

Notably we have to be able to explain to a novice what we are keeping it for. (reasonable)
Just because its cool/old doesn't mean it is not a potential problem and the same handling proceedures for dealing with the material we dispose of would apply to the handling and storage of this material. As such some of our volunteers will need more rigorous training if they wish to work on material without a qualified staff member present (also reasonable and I submit already in place).

We also need to demonstrate that we have a method for disposal of material even when we have given up on it. It appears that our methods for disposal of non-recoverable material will suffice.

So in a nutshell it has gone from what we perceived as a "do this or else" to a mutual understanding and attempt to find a workable solution.

We very much appreciate this position on the part of the DTSC and thank them for demonstrating a refreshing level of flexibility in this matter.

We fully expect to work this out in time.

some clarifications.

the fed epa is not the problem. dtsc is part of a state agency the cal-epa.

to my knowledge we have no issues on either side with fed epa. In fact they gave me an award last year.

While I am a great fan of free speech and such you should at least target correctly.

Please quit telling the wrong people to @#$% themselves. For that matter the phrase lacks creativity and at this point even I think its overboard.

I very much appreciate the sentiment but even I have toned my stuff down a bit. I even.. edited. (you really have no idea how difficult that was.)

I have also been told yet again not to play with the trolls. but we seem to have one out there in the wild. I'm getting bored with his points so I shall address them here.

The comparative volume of what the dtsc is upset about is approx 5% of the total mass in the building at any given time and represents a much smaller volume over time as we move an awful lot of stuff we cannot (yet) recover. For example I regret to inform you all that I have no good use for your grandmothers old console tv (mount a mythtv box in it?) and we see an awful lot of them. These leave almost immediately to a another company as do the monitors we do not use. (things we don't place or think we might use leave in less than a week and are (last I checked)in dtsc compliance.) This also applies to the electronics as I have no interest in holding on to a dead vcr for any length of time.

Nor does the complaint in any way point to any containment or release issues. (sealed concrete floor, locked building an over abundance of fire extinguishers in a fully sprinklered building) we have passed all safety and fire inspections. While flooding has occurred in the area in the past it has never resulted in a release and frankly it would now have to be biblical in proportion to be an issue as the first (last and only) one was quite educational.

Again the dtsc has an issue about the stuff we think might be recoverable/valuable/historic nothing else. If they impose a fine it could quite possibly kill us. The threat to impose a fine is in the text and is not a point of argument. Running out of funds would close us down. (this threat has been reduced, Thank you for the support, We are working on the donation receipts)

Nor does this have anything to do with corporate take back campaigns (if you don't like them you have no idea of the cold loathing I have for them as I consider them to be planned obsolescence)


as for reading things that are not in the text. We have no environmental complaints no complaints from our neighbors (other than maybe my behaviour toward neighbors with property line issues) no safety issues and the dtsc is not complaining about anything except the stuff we want to keep and the overstressed, brain damaged, periodic jackass who runs the place. (and admittedly the second part was due to a bipolar moment on the jackasses part. While the opinions still stand the expression was of dubious value.)

updates.

First WOW!! thank you all for your support and assistance.

Meeting with a higher level rep from the dtsc on the 25th.

In addition I have reason to believe that what we call diversion paperwork (diverted from the waste stream) exceeds what they require as "inventory". We track weights and dates on all material going into and out our of re-use departments. and can demonstrate a past history of doing so going back years. The dtsc agent did not bother to ask what sort of tracking system we might actually have before running off with a false assumption and slamming us with a class 1 violation.

If my assumptions are correct than all we have left is the "speculative acumilation" nightmare.

Speculative acumilation:

two examples of where this is actually a good thing and then how it does not apply in this case

In general this is to keep people from taking waste, collecting it into big poisonous piles and then walking off leaving the public to deal with the problem.

More specific example. When sb-20/50 came into play there was a legitimate concern about people collecting material with the expectation that the state would eventually pay for its destruction. This was a legitimate problem and as many vendors have huge material streams and if allowed to stockpile and then bill the state, would have bankrupted the new system.

I have no problem with either of the above examples.

How this is misapplied in this case.

there is a minimum value on everything that we set aside and a simple phone call could turn the whole damn collection into cash. This is at worst case bulk electronics and valued at 3-5 cents a pound but in most cases much higher value. So no big pile of nasty for the dtsc to have to deal with. (although if I were to take this option collectors would probaly curse my name for generations)

In the second example above, We are actually taking material out of the state payment system and as such saving the state money so I cannot determine how this determination is in the states best interest.

So no clean up and no state payments on this material. Whats the problem?

In fact since our various re-use projects are things that we fit in around paying the bills I cannot recall a single project that did not take at least a year. For example the beowulf cluster development is at least 10 years old. The electric vehicle project (dead van,dead electric forklift,a ups as the charging system, a buttload of ups batteries,motor controllers from old industrial milling equipment,) is over two years old and expected to roll sometime next year.

In additiion our hydrogen vehicle program (we are quite probably the only people on earth who have gotten a 1969 lincoln continental to run on hydrogen) requires huge amounts of metal hydride as a fuel storage medium. We have two options to aquire this. buy it (very expensive) or recover it from metal hydride batteries. Based on current flow will take another year before we have enough storage to be comparable to a standard gas tank. So a 460cid internal combustion engine thats cleaner than a prius (The exhaust is water) and all the information on how we did it provided to the public for free is not in the publics best interest?

And if we fail the information is still valuable and the failure would be disposed of in the proper manner so again why do we need to abandon this project after a year?

So is free commodity supercomputing and completely repurposed zero emission vehicles something that the dtsc wants to discourage? How does the state profit from this? Do I throw them away?

Very thin skins.

I was woken up by a call from the dtsc today. During the course of the conversation I expressed my concerns and thought that we were actually getting somewhere.

I was told that a conference call would be put together sometime between 8:30 -9:30

When the call did not come in I called the dtsc back and was informed that the conference had been cancelled due to offensive statements on this blog and that this had come down from "the executive" office.

Not calling to tell someone that you had cancelled the conference is a cowardly and creepy act.

Using unpleasant opinions as an excuse to avoid a problem is also a cowardly act.

For the record I stand behind the personal opinions expressed in this blog and will continue to express them.

Apparently the dtsc is unaware that the internet in general and blogs in particular tend to have rather rough opinions.

So instead I have been told that I can try to get an extension but I have no assurances or expectation of actually getting one. otherwise we are in violation and subject to fines as of the 17th of this month as the minimum fine is more than our total assets we may close as early as monday.

what you can do.

I was told that I really should give some action points for those who want to help.

unfortunately I'm not all that used to asking for or accepting help so this may seem a little disjointed. I'm also not all that well educated so this may not come across as intended.

I'm also very,very pissed off.

you can

express yourself:

Arora, Asha
AArora@dtsc.ca.gov
(510) 540-3874

I submit that she's clueless and probably offended by language so be polite and use simple concepts and single syllable words.

Contact your state and federal reps and ask them to look int0 this.

The legal defense fund. (look a shiny new paypal button!)
The penalty for this violation is not less than 2000 dollars and not more than 25000. As of this morning accrc's total assets equal less than $500 dollars so whatever the fine is we are screwed.
We also do not know if they can hand us this fine over and over again so we expect to be fined out of existence. In addition as our funding from the state is dependent on our dtsc compliance we may find ourselves without any funding source at all

In addition our legal rep is a volunteer and will need to go back to being gainfully employed so if this doesn't blow over soon, so we will need to fund our defense.

Up until now we took great pride in being a self funded charity (we earn the money to cover our operations spending what conventional thinkers would call the profits on the charitable placements) and did not ask for cash. But no amount of penny pinching will take on a deranged state agency.

We may have to picket and or other (LEGAL!!!!) actions so if you are willing to participate in meatspace we could use you. ( zombie pickets maybe?)

If you have ideas,contacts,comments etc. Comments are open and we are very much hoping that others have better ideas than we do.

Thank you:

James Burgett
Executive director. ACCRC.

Mind numbing government stupidity

It looks like accrc has finally found an obstacle it cannot overcome. Government stupidity.

We have been told by the department of toxic substances control that we will have to inventory all material that we divert and we are not allowed to stockpile any material for more than one year under any circumstances. This would preclude any support for Makefaire,the shipyard,the tech museum,the exploratorium,vintage tech,the computer history museum etc In addition we cannot find any reason for this that would not also apply to the computers we place so we expect to be told by the state that we are in voilation of state law in regards to the distribution of toxic waste in the form of free working computers.

Please note that if I destroy this material I have none of these restrictions. So thanks to the state re-use has more hassles,hurdles,and paperwork than destruction. So not only does the system only pay for destruction it now is actually impairing re-use.

I frankly need help.

I have supported the maker/tech community wholeheartedly and have rarely if ever asked for anything in return. Today I am calling in all my markers.

I do not know what to do, My only hope at this point is to open source the problem and see if anyone has any ideas or contacts that I can use to get around before she kills us out of a love for rules and a profound disconnect from reality.

DTSC Inspection

September 11, 2007

State of California
California Environmental Protection Agency
Department of Toxic Substances Control
700 Heinz Ave
Berkeley, CA 94710

RE: Summary of DTSC Violations
Alameda County Computer Resource Center
Inspection, August 15, 2007

Following is an objection to the Section I violation. Also enclosed are several documents supporting our corrective action on Section II violations as required by the Summary of Violations for the inspection of our facility on 8/15/07.

Section I
1.Violation: Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC) violated California Code of Regulations (Cal. Code Regs.), Title 22 (tit. 22), section 66273.35, subsections (c)(1) and (c) (2), in that on or about August 15, 2007 ACCRC failed to maintain an inventory onsite that identifies the date each UWED became a waste or was received. ACCC failed to demonstrate inventory for the universal wastes:
a.Stockpile that ACCRC claimed to be used by Aftermath Technologies.
b.Items that ACCRC claimed may be of value for the museum or collector items.
c.Other universal waste items in the room with computers and peripherals that may be of some use.
Compliance Action: ACCRC shall develop an inventory for all items set aside for possible use by Aftermath Technologies and for donation/development of a museum, etc. The inventory shall be submitted to Asha Arora C/o DTSC, 700 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 within 30 days of receipt of this report. In addition, ACCRC shall ensure that those universal wastes are not accumulated onsite for longer than one year.

ACCRC RESPONSE

Objection: We dispute the definition of universal waste in this context.

a. Repurposable material is not waste.
b. Items of historic interest are not waste and disposing of them after one year would be destroying history for a short sighted bureaucratic requirement.
c. What does this mean? Please define.

As it is not waste, we dispute the requirement to inventory and dispose of non-waste.

Is it the intention of the DTSC to encourage destruction over reuse? We have neither staffing or funding to maintain an inventory. In addition we cannot come up with any logical argument that applies to this material that does not apply to the computers we refurbish and
charitably place. We fear that this interpretation on all our other reuses would eventually be applied to our computer refurbishment and therefore stop all reuse operations. As our primary goal is reuse and this inventory requirement would preclude reuse, is it the DTSC’s intention to close us down?

Also, we wonder if this rule is applied to any other organizations that do these functions for charitable purposes, such as Goodwill Industries? If not, why are we being singled out for this inventory issue? Is Goodwill required to get rid of their inventory after one year?

The material in question is not waste. In an effort to promote environmental responsibility, ACCRC demonstrates that one does not need to squander resources by buying new materials if more environmentally correct materials are available for reuse.

People bring their material to us because we contribute to the protection of our environment by making every effort to reuse any and all material first, before consigning them to the waste stream to be recycled. When items and material are donated to ACCRC, we first direct potential items/materials to either of our reuse departments (Computer Placement or Aftermath Technologies). If we determine at initial donation that the material has no current reuse potential, it is sent on to a recycler.

Aftermath Technologies is a project of ACCRC that is devoted to technological reuse. This department supplies material to other organizations for projects ranging from alternative energy to art. Examples include organizations like Make, the Shipyard, Greenpeace, the Crucible, the Exploratorium, many local schools and the Boy Scouts, who draw from Aftermath for various educational, environmental and artistic projects.

We also investigate reuse potential. Examples include making super-computers out of reutilized commodity hardware and converting our entire facility to run on waste vegetable oil, propane/methane powered vehicles, etc. All of these projects draw exclusively from what you call the waste stream. By conventional means these accomplishments would have cost tens of thousands of dollars and would be rendered impossible by this requirement.



Section II
1.Violation: Failed to provide training to all employees conducting treatment of UWEDs.
Compliance Action Completed: Following please find a copy of the training provided to employees who dismantle UWEDs. We have provided UWED training for Phil Fraser and James Burgett. Please see the following signed and dated “UWED Training Acknowledgement” forms and our UWED training module.

2. Violation: Failed to provide training to employees for CRT treatment (yoke removal).
Compliance Action Completed: We in fact did provide training, to our employees for CRT treatment (yoke removal). On 8/15/2007, I faxed signed copies of our “ACCRC Employee Safety Training Sign-in Sheet” indicating that both Diane Paulson and I (Ilma Willard) received CRT training on November 2nd & 3rd of 2006. On the next day’s followup meeting with Ms Arora, I showed her our ‘ACCRC CRT Training’ module upon her request. Ms Arora then decided that our training module, which had passed two prior inspections, was incomplete. We request that Ms. Arora explain what previous inspectors missed regarding our CRT training module so we can revise it to her specifications.

As we consider the Ms. Arora’s interpretations to be fundamentally flawed, we would like to formally request that we converse with a different DTSC inspector regarding these issues.

Thank you,
James Burgett