Jeremy at Extinction Level Event

from	Jeremy Ray  reply-to	jeremyray01@yahoo.com to	Samuel Rose  Reply

> Jeremy, I am going to copy Marcin Jakubowski on this email. > Marcin is the > guy behind http://openfarmtech.org, and he is really > starting to ramp up > some usable stuff for people like you who are thinking > about this.

Thanks Sam! It will take me a while to absorb all this, but I'll be looking through it. The greenhouses and solar collector I could apply. I'm interested in seeing how the jewish artichoke works out as a biofuel. It'd be good to keep my current car's ICE running until the cost of electrical components comes down.

J

Jeremy writes:

Speaking of farming, what is the farming thing you're involved with? I've been helping put in our garden, and got to thinking - this produces enough vegetables for 4 people for a year, and there's only two. We had another garden of equal size, but it was allowed to grow over for lack of manpower. Then there's the horse pasteur, currently occupied by a couple old horses who will be gone in a few years. There's a couple other spots that might be farmable. I don't know anything about farming, and it's likely there's not enough land here to grow the big business crops. But maybe something could be done with the organic market?

I don't know if this should even be called a pipe dream, since it's so far out of my area of expertise, and my energies are going to be directed elsewhere, but I like to keep my eyes open, and it doesn't cost anything to ask. So if you know anything. ..

Sam replies:

Jeremy, I am going to copy Marcin Jakubowski on this email. Marcin is the guy behind http://openfarmtech.org, and he is really starting to ramp up some usable stuff for people like you who are thinking about this.

Marcin is over in Missouri, and he runs a totally self-sustaining farm there, and is using the time that this frees up for him to research and develop open source technologies. See http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/ for what he is up to.

Coming up soon, he is working on stuff like the open source tractor, multi machine, solar collector, lots of other stuff that can be used to make land like yours productive for extremely low, to no start up cost.

Marcin is offering an arrangement wherein you could visit and stay with him, learn how to build the technologies you would need to power your farm, and learn some farming basics in the process, build the machines and stuff you need, and pay Marcin back by sticking around and helping him with some labor on production of machines, farming, etc in return. Or even sticking around longer than that to produce extra products that you can then sell and use as startup money for your own business, etc. for instance. Marcin is a cool guy, unique individual, and shares many of your values about open sourcing the stuff that runs our world. If you are interested in getting your land productive, marcin is probably one of the best people to hook up with right now, and not terribly far away from you, either.

@Marcin, meet Jeremy ray, who is an amazingly talented 3D visual artist, cartoonist, and thinker/pioneer around open source business models. He lives in the woods in Kentucky. You can check out his work at http://extinctionlevelevent.com.

Jeremy, I really do not think it is a pipe dream at all, and well within your reach to make your land extremely productive, and working with Marcin can help you learn how to do it with very little overhead cost. Organic foods, fruit production, raising low maint. animals like goats and poultry, aquaculture, etc etc You can even make money from the waste products of your farm by turning it into fertilizer/compost/etc. You could build low-cost greenhouse enlosures and extensions on all of your buildings to supplment heat in the winter, clean the air in the house and building,s and raise extra food for yourself and others. There's lots of stuff you can do. If you are way out there, you can even probably build an in-greenhouse aquaculture system that progressively cleans your sewage, but also produces ornamental aquatic plants (like water lillies and hyacinths), ornamental fish like coy, tilapia for food etc

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 7:31 PM, Jeremy Ray  wrote:

> >   > > It looks like the price of owning a mocap system will > be coming down soon - > >   > >    > http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=125874 > >   > > I've now got a building that is large enough to do    > mocap in. It's nothing > > fancy but it should work. I've got enough home > office space to seat six or   > > seven guys, maybe more, although the wiring would have > to be upgraded. >   >    > What would the cost on all of that be?

Upgrading the wiring would only be the cost of the wiring. I don't need a contractor for that, momma wired this house up in the first place when her father built it.

Using a couple rooms as office space only costs me whatever the additional utility expense is (besides the cost of machines).

We'll have to look at the cost of the Mocap equipment when we're ready for it. I don't know how long it's going to take me to get the comic going anyway, 60 pages is a helluva lot of work. Right now the Organic Motion system is $80,000, but they see it becoming so affordable that it would be a Playstation accessory (or so I gather from the Popular Mechanic's article) -

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4264771.html?series=6

If that means a really good system could be had for $10,000 or less in a couple years, I can see just buying it and being done with it.

Here's what I see as the key part -

"The company's $80,000 Stage system allows clients to create a 12 ft. x 12 ft. x 7.5 ft. studio with 14 cameras facing inward from its perimeter."

I've got more than enough space to run their system.

> That is the problem with declining economy. Robberies and > murders are way up   > here in this town, too. We are going to become like Flint, > MI soon.

Yeah, we had a high school girl get gang raped by 8 guys last week. I hear there were 20 involved overall, and this is just a small rural town. That's a fifth of the size of my graduating class involved in raping one girl. People have got two good career options around here, welfare and drugs. It turns them into animals. They've tried growing marijuana back in our woods (not on our property, but in this area) twice. I guess it would look like a place where you'd get away with it, but the police always find out. Although the first time, the local police got busted for being in on it and also molesting an under age girl.

> One thing I think about "open movie" business > models is that the novelty is   > starting to wear off in different ways for people. I think > we were focused > on the wrong market in the past, which I'll call the > "hype" market. The > "hype" market can only afford one or two > unique/new projects, because of   > their uniqueness and newness, and I think then it moves on, > especially when > people realize that the systems in place (like the system   > behind a swarm of    > angels) cannot really scale to many, many projects. > Because, it relies on a   > limited niche of enthusiasts.

I agree, and it doesn't help that most either fail, are taking longer than anticipated to succeed, or are rather bad.

> So, and feel free to correct me if I am wrong, the > market(ing) momentum for > ASOA lies mostly in wannabe and actual movie making > enthusiasts wanting to   > jump on board.

That appears to be true about ASOA - not a lot of normal folks involved. Mostly a lot of budding writers, and a few budding artists. If it succeeds it will only be by the sheer willpower and marketting skill of Matt Hanson. Which could be sufficient, because he is a savvy guy. But overall the open movie process so far hasn't been entertaining enough to bring in normal Joes.

I think we realized that was a limited > resource to tap into, > at least with current conditions. But, it think there are > many new markets > for a movie making business like the one you describe > above.

It's likely most of the people who would be drawn to that kind of thing have already heard about it, tried it, and feel burned. I feel burned. I didn't put my money into ASOA to have my opinion on open source software censored for fear of offending closed source guys. I'm sure most of the guys who worked with me feel like their effort wasn't appreciated - I admit that I don't know an easy way to tell someone when their work needs to be stepped up. I've tried but it never goes down easy.

I'm not planning on relying on open production in the future. I hope to be able to do the comic myself, and I can speed the comic making process up with Wong, who has proven to be reliable. I'm not sure what his availability will be in the future. He's finishing his Ph.D and looking for a job now. He says the job market for his field isn't good though. I could do a lot with him here, and if the comic takes off it might be possible to bring him over. It'd be easier if we had universal health care in the U.S.

I'm working on setting up the production flow for the comic so it can also serve as a storyboard and possibly an animatic. I don't know if I can do the animation for the animatic too, that might be too much for one guy to carry. But if I had Wong full time we could probably get both done. I'll also be able to hand off sets and props, at least in an early stage of modelling/texturing; Terragen 2 backgrounds, and 3D characters. It could possibly be the slickest, most streamlined movie production process out there. If I can pull it off. ..

> I think in particular, with XTIN, you could start out > exactly where you are > right now, with exactly the people you have right now, and > still release an   > open license movie, as you planned, but possibly in small > serial episodes.

I agree with the serial installments. It'll be a much easier way to get started while retaining full ownership of the product and business. Much easier to do with a smaller team of people. I may have all the room I need for it, and if not, there's room for another building, or to build onto the house. It's an unusual approach to the problem, but then you don't get many rural guys trying to make movies. Maybe this would be the standard way of doing it if it were common for farmers to transition into film making.

Speaking of farming, what is the farming thing you're involved with? I've been helping put in our garden, and got to thinking - this produces enough vegetables for 4 people for a year, and there's only two. We had another garden of equal size, but it was allowed to grow over for lack of manpower. Then there's the horse pasteur, currently occupied by a couple old horses who will be gone in a few years. There's a couple other spots that might be farmable. I don't know anything about farming, and it's likely there's not enough land here to grow the big business crops. But maybe something could be done with the organic market?

I don't know if this should even be called a pipe dream, since it's so far out of my area of expertise, and my energies are going to be directed elsewhere, but I like to keep my eyes open, and it doesn't cost anything to ask. So if you know anything. ..

J