Exploring the Real World

We've taken some time off in the last few days to explore the out-of-doors. On Sunday we drove around the Lyngen peninsula to its northernmost point. Not quite the northernmost point in continental Europe, but pretty damn close. It was quite cold and blustery on the other side of the peninsula. The FabLab is built on Pollseidet, a little hummock on the east side of the peninsula. It's warmer than the rest of the area year-round, and has been inhabited since the last Ice Age. Apparently, the warmth of the Gulf Stream melted the ice on Pollseidet while the rest of Europe was still covered.

This fishing village hosts a small shrimp fleet and a couple of whale hunters (blue boats on the left). Norway is one of the few countries in the world that still hunts for whale (minke whales are the only whales allowed to be taken).

Sod roofs are very traditional in this part of Norway. They add quite a bit of thermal mass to the roof, which functions as a big solar collector.

This contemporary sod-roofed house occupies a pretty little hideout on the coast. I got up close to look at the roof system; it's got a standard corrugated plastic roof membrane (just like we use for green roofs), then they lay a layer of sod with the roots facing up, then a wire mesh screen, and finally a layer of sod roots-down. The roots bind together through the mesh and form a solid mat.

The end of the road, just NW of Lyngseidet. The northernmost point of the peninsula is around the corner, but the terrain is too steep for building a road, so we had to go around the other way.

Stockfish (dried cod) are a staple of the traditional Norwegian diet. The fish are gutted and strung up in little drying huts all along the coast.

Yesterday evening we took a pre-supper jaunt up the mountain behind the lab to this waterfall, which is one of the falls I can see from my cabin.

This is the view looking back toward the lab, which is approximately in the middle of the picture. Lots of nice farmland for sheep and goat famers, and some lovely mountains. We got pretty high up, which involved a bit of scrambling on loose rock.

These are a couple of Jorgen's sheep, who were trying to hide from us. Once they figured out we had seen them, they took off to join the rest of the flock.

The flock is heading off into the hills, for some reason.

I have to say, when I started thinking about visiting the FabLab this summer, I had no idea that the setting would be this spectacular. I need to spend a bit more time once this Boot Camp is over exploring the area. Haakon has a fleet of bikes for his guests that I promised to do a little maintenance on; I'll adopt one of those as my own for the rest of my trip and get out and about.

Documentation Day

We spent nearly all day Saturday documenting the first week's projects for the FabLab Norway website. We set up a little photo studio outside, and Roman employed his fancy Nikon to capture all of the products of our work so far.

Don't think the projects will go up on the site for a couple of days, so until then, here are some links to PDFs of my projects (with lotsa photos):

Engraved Cup

Buggy Laptop Stand

Bike Works Silkscreen/Stickers

HELLO WORLD Array

HELLO WORLD Tags

And here are a coupla shots of the two guys I'm spending all my time with.

Roman, from Zurich, in his freshest FabLab shirt:

And Josh, from Tulsa, sporting the FabLab logo tee:

Tomorrow we take the day off to explore the fjord. Tonight, we're watching In Bruges before heading to bed (I forgot how funny Colin Farell is in this movie).

G'night.

The sun comes out!

This is the view from my back porch when the sky is clear. It's strange to talk about the sun coming out when one know it's actually up there all day and all night; I guess it's really no different than talking about the sun being out in the daytime, except that it's kind of always daytime here. Anyway, we've been fabbing up a storm for the last couple of days. I spent quite a bit of time designing a laptop stand, which is something I've needed for a while.

The cardboard mockup makes it easier to see the form, since the final product is made of clear acrylic. I spent quite a bit of time getting the bend sequence, and temperature right, as well as embellishing the stand with engravings of bugs crawling all over it. This is the test card I made to get all my settings right; you can see the welder we use as an acrylic bender in the background (the heating element is a resistance wire clamped into the circuit).

The bending was a bit stressful, but it really turned out nicely. And the bugs look great.

The stand is super sturdy, gets the screen up at a good height, and allows me to stow my external keyboard underneath to open up space on my desktop (the physical one). I'll be bringing this home with me (actually, I'll be bringing home version 2.0 and leaving this one @ the lab). I'll also have the file, so if anyone wants to do a little acrylic bending clinic this fall, I'll help you make your own.

We've also used the vinyl cutter to cut out stickers and screen printing masks (which we used to print shirts and posters today), but most of my time in the last coupla days has been spent working on circuits.

We mill them on a Roland Modela mini mill, and then solder on all the components. These first several boards will all be "HELLO WORLD" boards, which respond to specific inputs in some way that lets you know you've put them together and programmed them correctly. Most, if not all, of these boards were designed by Neil Gershenfeld, who is the god of FabLab. His ability to run CAM directly from the command line is spoken of with (justified) awe. I'm looking forward to meeting him in Amsterdam later this summer.

Tomorrow we'll be loading programs onto our new boards, but tonight we took advantage of the clear sky and hiked up a little mountain to take some photos. It is said that this mountain is holy to the Sami people (the local indigenous reindeer herder types). This cryptic sign marks the top.

Roman set up a tripod and took bracketed 360 degree exposures with his Nikon DSLR so we can create an absurdly large HDR panorama; while we're waiting on that project, you'll have to make do with the image I took. 9pm, Norway time.

Boot Camp Begins!

Fab Boot Camp started yesterday, so I'm pretty wiped out. Only 2 other participants for the next two weeks; Roman from Zurich and Josh from Tulsa. So far, we're enjoying each other's company. The day started with a lot of talk about the mission and values of the FabLab organization. FabLab is "a global network of people who want to cooperate and share knowledge." Really, it's less about the tools and more about communication and strategizing within a global community. We talked a lot about FabLab Kenya, which is near Lake Victoria, and creates all its own energy with solar panels. They are almost completely run by women, and the heart of the enterprise is a bakery (with oven built by Haakon) that bakes bread for the whole village. Sarah Obama (Barack's grandmother) lives next to the FabLab, and she has given Haakon her old walking stick and machete.

One of the Africa-focused projects that is being worked on in Norway is a solar lantern to replace the unhealthy and energy-intensive paraffin lanterns used throughout the continent. The design right now is pretty basic (which is good), but could use some reconceptualizing to make it more useful as a product which could be modified by Africans to suit particular needs and utilize local (and waste) materials.

Also, FabLab Norway has done a good business making molds for a local chocolatier, including this scaled-down cast of her breasts (sorry for the lousy image, but I didn't think I should take it out of the box and get her breasts all fingerprinty).

Anyway, our first project was to take a coffee thermos and engrave on the sides and top cap (the lab has been producing individualized mugs for all the Norwegians in their Armed forces). I chose to make mine a souvenir to commemorate my summer travels. It worked out nicely.

The top has my initials, which are a bit off-center. I've made peace with that.

The sun came out for a bit, but I was inside at a computer, so no pictures of the glorious mountains. Maybe tomorrow.

Tromso to Lyngen

Woke up dry and warm this morning, despite a night of hard rain. After packing up and breakfasting at the campground, I decided to take in some ARCHITECTURE, so I took the bus to self-styled ISHAVSKATEDRALEN (Arctic Cathedral), which claims to be the northernmost cathedral in the world (this is, of course, disputed).

It's a strange little cathedral, kind of a Sydney Opera House on a budget. That's it from the back side.

The payoff for the oddly composed exterior is the arctic light washing the interior walls.

I guess the exterior makes a bit more sense in context.

I strolled across the bridge and back into town, stopping in for a pint at the Mack Brewery, which claims to be the northernmost brewery in the world (again, disputed). At 11am, the place was packed, including a half dozen people dressed as Disney characters. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them. Upon stumbling back into the light, I was greeted by a full-on small-town parade, with traditional costumes and everything.

Also, fisherman's hats.

I caught a bus to Lyngseidet (after a stop at the Tromso H&M for flip-flops; I managed to bring 2 lefts and no rights across the ocean), and was greeted by my host for the next 7 weeks, Haakon Karlsen (Haakon was the 1st king of Norway, I think. Not my Haakon, another Haakon. Haakon is fun to say). The FabLab is a short drive up into the mountains. The lab occupies a newly-built Viking-style log barn, but I felt right at home when I saw the Mcmaster-Carr catalog on the shelf.

Also, there is a LEGO loft.

My home for the next few weeks is the AMERICA HOUSE, which I'll have to myself most of the time. It's a small log cabin with beds for 5, a living room and kitchen, and the most technologically advanced shower I've ever seen.

This is the most spectacular of the 5 waterfalls I can see from my back porch.

I hit the sack early, but woke up around 2am and puttered around for a bit. This is what Norway looks like at 2am. That's 3 more of the 5 waterfalls, by the way.

Fortunately, I made it back to bed and racked up a total of 12 hrs sleep for the night. I needed it.

The Arctic is lovely, really.

It's been a long coupla days, but I've finally arrived WELL north of the Arctic Circle in Tromso, NO (Lat. 69). The sun hasn't gone down here for several weeks, and I won't see a sunset for the next 7 weeks.

That's a picture from the airport. I didn't take it, cause I was a bit overwhelmed with all the everything, but it seriously looks just like that. The runway starts and ends right at the water's edge. It's my new favorite airport.

The town is overrun with the excessively fit, as the Midnight Sun Marathon is tomorrow; so I've found a place for myself at a lovely campground just outside town.

That's my OR tarp pitched next to a babbling Norwegian brook. There are several Exped tents here as well, for those who care about such things (Mark).

Anyway, this first post is a bit of a rambler; next time I'll try to be more coherent AND have better pictures.

BTW, I'm composing this while sitting at a cafe in town drinking a local pilsener. It's quite nice; apparently the night life in this town doesn't really get going til well after midnight, and doesn't stop til after breakfast. That's what 24hr daylight gets you, I guess. I plan to be snug in my sleeping bag well before midnight.

Later,

Jack