Obviously this was posted by someone from the "Other" makerspace in town. Physically we have much more than 20 people, there are several hundred working directly with The Geek Group on a daily basis. Anyone can become a member - just visit the website and sign up it's free. If you want to work on projects at the lab, it's $40/month. The Geek Group is much more than a physical building, it's a community. It's geeks online and at the multiple facilities around the globe. It's crowd sourced engineering and science. It's a place to learn and teach technology. The Geek Group isn't just a makerspace, it's an entire community of folks trying to learn and teach technology. The fire here at the lab is a huge blow to what we've been working so hard on for so long. To sit on your armchair soapbox and dismiss it as you do and post as an anonymous coward speaks volumes as to the type of person you are. I'm sorry you hold so much contempt for such a great place. If you had any kind of soul, you would come out and help out with the rest of community. The Geek Group will get the mess cleaned up and get back open to the public. In the meantime, come volunteer at the greatest hackerspace around and show what your made of. Slewfoot

As a controls engineer, I program these type of systems all the time. A simple incorrect setting for when the pumps turn on and off (Lead,Lag) could cause this type of problem. It could literally be a new operator that fat fingered a parameter in the SCADA system. To hack these systems requires specific knowledge of exactly what kind of control architecture is in place at the facility and then having the appropriate software to gain access to the control system. Not that this type of hack cannot be done, but it does require specific knowledge. This really sounds like operator error to me.

I'm sorry that the word "FACT" hurt your feelings.
I'm actually amazed that you were able to spew that much hate and inference from one single word. It really is quite a feat. Congratulations!

As President Ronald Reagan said, "Facts are stubborn things"

I'd be just as comfortable with a Pebble Bed reactor...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor

But... micro nuclear reactors DO exist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_4S
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Power_Generation

Ahh, I see the eco-nuts are in full force with this post... Putting on tin-foil hat...

Nuclear power - PLEASE put one of these in my back yard! http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-toshiba-micro-nuclear-12.17b.html

Mercury - Here are some mercury FACTS from the department of energy... http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/pollutioncontrols/overview_mercurycontrols.html.

Drilling for oil - So while the rest of the world goes out and drills for oil, going so far as to cross drill under US soil, the United States should take a back seat and watch these resources be taken and used against us. Gee, I certainly hope the countries that are actually drilling for oil don't stop sending it to us. I'd hate to see what that would do to our economy.

Running multi-room audio can be challenging. Some things to consider... a typical amplifier will only work at 8 or 4 ohms per channel. This means you can only run 1 or 2 speakers on each channel before you run into trouble and put too much load on your amplifier. That being said, consider a 70v amplifier and speakers. A 70v system allows you to run multiple speakers from one amplifier and select the speaker wattage at the speaker. you still need to do the math to make sure you don't go over the amplifiers rating, but this is how restaurants and grocery stores do it. Since the feed signal is always at 70v, the speakers can be run in series. The speakers have a small transformer on them to select the wattage for each one. You can also get a volume control that does the same thing. One thing to note, Audio quality can suffer with a 70v system, but the trade off is long speaker runs in series and wattage selectable speakers. TOA makes a good 70v amplifier as does Peavey. Here is a site to get you started... http://www.allprosound.com/catalog/viewproducts~m~Amplifiers~s~70-Volt-Power-Amplifiers~fsubcatid~9.htm

It's not really about rich people as much is it is corporations. It's really simple economics... if I have a business that earns money from selling a product and my costs increase due to increased taxes on my business, I am going to raise the price of my product to cover the increased costs. In an economy that is struggling, any increase in tax (Especially to the companies that sell us goods and services) will drive up the cost of everything! The consumers end up footing the bill and the corporations become the middle man for the taxes that end up back to Uncle Sam. I don't know where everyone else stands on this, but to me, the choice is clear.