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  • Name: Nick Farr
  • Location: Washington, DC
  • Web: nickfarr.org
  • Bio: Financial Accountant & Community Architect
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Nick Farr's Recent Activity

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For when your Starfleet "Dress Uniform" isn't really appropriate
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Thermal Printer Hacking for Craft Shows!

Nick Farr says:

Kellbot has a few cool posts on building a digital knucklebuster to accept credit cards at craft shows and not pay ridiculously high fees for a simliar bank-provided wireless setup.  Here’s the post on initial success in hacking the printer!

Amplify’d from www.kellbot.com
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Thermal Printer Success!

 Success! I’ve managed to print to the thermal printer by sending commands over my homemade connector cable in HyperTerminal.

Read more at www.kellbot.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  3 months ago

In tech? Techcrunch says move to Chile

Nick Farr says:

Personal Globalization: A friend of mine in Germany told me about this incredible slate of incentives the Chilean government is offering tech firms that want to relocate there.

The country that led the way in nationwide pension reform (for better or worse) is trying another experiment to lure tech-saavy folk down to one of the most beautiful countries on earth.  They’re THROWING BIG MONEY at people who create tech jobs.  What’s the catch?  You gotta learn Spanish…and that’s about it.

Amplify’d from www.techcrunch.com
Chile Wants Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses, Your Tech Entrepreneurs
Are you an immigrant who is fed up with waiting for years for a green card which you may never get? Or a tech entrepreneur looking to dramatically cut costs? I’ve got a suggestion for you. Move South. No, I don’t mean to Los Angeles or San Diego, I’m taking about way down South in Chile. They’ll welcome you with open arms and offer you incentives which will cut your burn rate more than half. And you’ll get to live in a land which makes even California look drab.
But first, you want to check out the country, right? The government will give you 60% of your due diligence costs, or up to $30,000, to visit and explore Chile. And they’ll grant you another $30,000 to launch your company in Chile. If you work from one of their tech centers, the government will pay for 5 years of rent (up to $1 million) or split the costs if you want to locate elsewhere in this gorgeous country.Read more at www.techcrunch.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  3 months ago

The Future of Open Source: Gadget Made for Hacking

Nick Farr says:

Apparently, Wired agrees with point #29 from my SIGINT speech.  The future will be more modular, and hackable.  The BUG was the example I gave there and Wired cited it as well!

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Future of Open Source: Hack This Gadget

Take Bug Labs. The New York-based company makes modular open source hardware components that can be snapped together and programmed to build custom devices with specialized functions. The central building block of the BUG hardware stack is the BUGbase, a $250 portable computing device with an ARM processor, memory, a rechargeable battery and various ports. Additional modules, which are sold separately and snap into the BUGbase, can be used to add speakers, GPS, camera, motion sensors and an LCD touch screen. They have also announced support for new modules that will add WiFi, 3-G and a tiny video projector.

Read more at www.wired.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  7 months ago

Now you can print 3D buildings

Nick Farr says:

Digital building fabrication.  Sweet.

Amplify’d from www.shapeways.com

3D printing buildings: interview with Enrico Dini of D_Shape

Enrico Dini dreamt of buildings, construction and impossible shapes. He was particularly inspired by Gaudi’s architecture and loved his fantastic(in every sense) work. He became a Civil engineer and later branched out into making machines. All the while dreaming of those impossible shapes.

Read more at www.shapeways.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  8 months ago

Go Hive 76!

Nick Farr says:

Philly’s new Hackerspace, Hive 76 is live and kicking.  They’re even on twitter.

Amplify’d from www.hive76.org
Processing and Python Wednesday nights

Wednesday nights is Processing, Python, and Pizza nighs at Hive 76.  Stop by our HQ at 915 Spring Garden St. between 7 PM to 9 PM to get some pizza, hang out, and work on projects in Processing or Python.

Read more at www.hive76.org
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  8 months ago

These guys do Fight Club and Scooter Disco

Nick Farr says:

Which makes them incredibly cool.

Amplify’d from www.gods-entertainment.org
Read more at www.gods-entertainment.org
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  8 months ago

Risk measures are a metric for healthy banking?

Nick Farr says:

Patently wrong…but conceptually right.

Amplify’d from twitter.com
Prediction: @kiva and Grameen bank will take over the US banking system because they can measure risk cost effectivelyRead more at twitter.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  8 months ago

Small banks are boring, profitable

Nick Farr says:

Boring means profitable in down times?  Perhaps!

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
We’re Dull, Small Banks Say, but Have Profits

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s unlikely that any group of professionals is happier to highlight the dullness of their work than small-town bankers.

At a recent conference held here by the Indiana Bankers Association, attendees said it over and over: our business is plodding and boring and we would not have it any other way.

“Banking should not be exciting,” said Clay W. Ewing, president of retail financial services at German American Bancorp, a community bank in Jasper. “If banking gets exciting, there is something wrong with it.”

Read more at www.nytimes.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  8 months ago

Females bullying females in the workplace?

Nick Farr says:

Shocking, but mostly true

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Work

It’s probably no surprise that most of these bullies are men, as a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group, makes clear. But a good 40 percent of bullies are women. And at least the male bullies take an egalitarian approach, mowing down men and women pretty much in equal measure. The women appear to prefer their own kind, choosing other women as targets more than 70 percent of the time.

Just the mention of women treating other women badly on the job seemingly shakes the women’s movement to its core. It is what Peggy Klaus, an executive coach in Berkeley, Calif., has called “the pink elephant” in the room. How can women break through the glass ceiling if they are ducking verbal blows from other women in cubicles, hallways and conference rooms?

Read more at www.nytimes.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  9 months ago

This is the kind of thing I think of when talking about cloud banking

Nick Farr says:

Neighbors lending to neighbors…

Amplify’d from abookstoreinbrooklyn.blogspot.com
Amplify’d from

Community Lender Update

Read more at
In addition to getting your loan back with interest, community lenders get the employee discount of 30% off all purchases at Greenlight until the loan is paid in full. And they’ll get special “community lender privileges” like advance notice of author appearances, sales and other store functions throughout the life of the bookstore.
After conferring with our lawyer and accountant, Rebecca and I have finalized the new terms of the loan and promissory note for community lenders. Basically, we’re giving lenders the option of choosing their own interest rate, between 2.5% (just above the minimum required by the IRS) and 4% (just above the prime rate). The loans of $1000 or more will be paid back by Greenlight Bookstore with quarterly payments over five years, beginning one year from the opening date of the bookstore (this gives us a grace period during the traditionally difficult first year of business). Interest begins to accrue on June 1, 2009, and will be compounded annually.
Read more at abookstoreinbrooklyn.blogspot.com
 
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Posted by Nick Farr  9 months ago
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