[hs-equality] Stories and profile pages

[Mitch Altman]

profile page:

Mitch is a San Francisco-based hacker and inventor, best known for inventing TV-B-Gone remote controls, a keychain that turns off TVs in public places, he was also co-founder of 3ware (a SillyValley RAID controller company), did pioneering work in Virtual Reality at VPL Research, invented the NeuroDreamer sleep mask, and created the Brain Machine, one of MAKE Magazine's most popular DIY projects. He's contributed to MAKE Magazine, written for 2600, and for the last several years has been leading workshops around the world, teaching people to make cool things with electronics and teaching everyone to solder. Mitch has also organized and been on Geeks & Depression panels as well as been on Queer Geeks panels at hacker conferences. He is co-founder of Noisebridge, and President and CEO of Cornfield Electronics.

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Altman 
Contact email: mitch **at** CornfieldElectronics **dot**com
Twitter: @maltman23
Facebook: maltman23
Google+: Mitch Altman
Diaspora: maltman23 

Please feel free to contact me for any reason, any time. 

I've attached a photo to use [mitch.jpg].


Intro story:

I had an awful childhood.  My mom was depressed, and I learned well from her how to be the same.  Being bullied and beaten up every day at school for being a queer, fat, introverted geek who hated sports didn't help.  And trying out all sorts of addictions throughout my teens and early twenties enabled me to make depression more than a full-time job.

I finally came out as queer when I was 33 years old, when I came out to everyone at once.  That, along with other conscious choices (such as quitting TV, and quitting jobs I hated) started my long (often very difficult, though very rewarding) process of learning from my choices, and making more choices -- eventually leading me to live a life I love living.  Which isn't to say that I don't still experience plenty of ups and downs -- I do!  Life is full of ups and downs for all of us.  And, as I see it, navigating these ups and downs, making choices, and learning from them is the process that gives my life meaning.

One of the things I love doing is helping others however I can.  We all need supportive community.  And we all need to feel that it is OK to be who we are.  This is why I co-founded Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco.  This is why I've organize Geeks & Depression panels at hacker conferences.  This is why I've been on panels for Queer Geeks at hacker conferences.  And this is why I am contributing to this website.

Whether you are straight, queer, political, apathetic, depressed, joyous, boy, girl, trans, or a unicorn -- we all deserve respect, and I would love to see all of us welcome at hackerspaces all over the world, able to contribute in the many and diverse ways we each feel we can.


Mitch.


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> Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2012 19:29:11 -0700
> From: rubin at starset.net
> To: equality at lists.hackerspaces.org
> Subject: [hs-equality] Stories and profile pages
>
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> Got stories you want to share on the site? Start writing them up!
>
> Also if you think you'll be contributing to the site (or some how
> already have) give me a paragraph or two you'd like for me to use on
> some sort of profile page, and if you want a link to your email or
> contact page. Also a photo or something would be nice. :)
>
> - --
> Rubin
> rubin at starset.net
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