Comment Model a Hackerspace (Score 1) 268
Get a 3D printer, vinyl cutter, poster printer, and other fabrication tools so that the computers can be applied to a wider domain. Grab some arduinos and electronics to interface computers with sensors and motors. Consider getting some easily hackable gadgets like kinects, wii-motes, webcams. A couple DSLRs w/ fluorescent light kits & green screen?
I'd include ubuntu, OS X, and windows in your network if you can; if you're creating a budget of some sort, don't forget creative software costs (Visual Studio, Adobe Suite, Autodesk).
Make sure you will be able to grant administrator access without compromising the lab (you can use something like windows steady state, but I'd also keep backup images at a clean state). A local storage server with redundancy is a good idea to keep system images and other work safe.
Go for the skylights and vegetation; there are a lot of shade loving vines and plants that thrive with only a little light.
Comment Arduino-based geiger counter shield (Score 1) 371
Check out this project from Tokyo Hackerspace:
http://tokyohackerspace.org/en/project/tokyo-hackerspace-netrad-geiger-shield
"This is the project page for the Tokyo Hackerspace/RDTN Geiger project. This is an Arduino-based geiger counter shield that makes it easy to upload data to the internet and also interchange tubes. Since it's open source and Arduino-based, its also easy to hack this to other interesting applications."
NASA To Trigger Massive Explosion On the Moon In Search of Ice 376
Microsoft Adding jQuery To Visual Studio 67
Comment Re:cloverfield (Score 1) 511
Submission + - Old islamic tile patterns show modern math insight
Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s.
"Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry."
It isn't known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns.
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