[hackerspaces] Fwd: [london-hack-space] Don't hack my tools!

[Marc Juul]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 3:22 AM, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Charles Yarnold <charlesyarnold at gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 8:20 PM
> Subject: [london-hack-space] Don't hack my tools!
> To: Hackspace Mailing List <london-hack-space at googlegroups.com>
>
>
> So I was thinking, there is some stuff in the space that we shouldn't
> hack. Like the wifi robot tank. What are peoples thoughts on a small
> sticker you can put on things you donate/lend/the space buys, that
> denotes that some thing is a hacking tool. I suggest this as some
> thing like a hammer is obviously a tool and should stay that way, but
> an arduino wave sheild can be modified. A sign on it would denote it
> as some thing to hack with, but not to change the function of the
> thing itself.
>
> Would this made sense to you? Would following this mean you would
> bring more cool tools and gadgets for all to use if you could mark
> them as a tool, meaning you wouldn't come in to find your line
> following robot was now a flame throwing attack droid!
>
> My idea for the sticker is the blue circle with a white cutout of a
> hammer. Any other ideas?

At Labitat we're building a system that uses QR-code labels with human
readable text and symbols next to it. The idea is that everything
large enough for a label has a defined location. Scanning the codes
will let even new members know where to put stuff when ordering /
cleaning the space. Our symbol for "do not hack" is simply a square
with the letters DNH. Our symbol for "this is owned by a member, not
Labitat" is a person inside of a circle. Here's a photo of a label
with only the DNH symbol: http://twitpic.com/19nlfn

The QR-codes lets anyone with a camera-phone scan the labels and we
have a couple of camera-phone that are lying around in the space.

We're using a relatively cheap Brother label-printer. It has a linux
driver but I believe the driver is closed-source.

-- 
Juul