Testing the food press concept ...

I took a pound (16 oz.) if veggie waste -- lettuce, cabbage, celery, a couple of small tomatoes -- and squeezed them in a plastic bag between two soft wood boards using simple screw clamps and wound up with 12 oz. That's a 25% reduction in weight without even doing anything special. This has promise.

New concept in fruit/vegetable food waste disposal ...

As part of our evolving Earth Systems & Environmental Science Urban Laboratory initiative we will be exploring new ways and means to reduce volume/weight of waste material by simply removing the liquid from food waste without composting the solid material. Hilding Lindquist, Eric Burbank, and Clarence Williams, III, came up with the concept of using a fruit/wine press to squeeze the water out of fruit/vegetable waste, and theoretically could reduce the transport costs disposal of restaurant food waste.

We will begin testing the use of these devices at Valley Settlement House and The Rack Cafe as soon as we can acquire a representative unit. We will keep you informed of our progress, but it appears promising on the face of it.

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/fruit_press.aspx

Let's do it!

We now have everything in place that we need to "shoot hoops" with coding apps and creating content at The Rack Cafe at our Friday evening workshops from 5 to 7 pm.

In one corner we will be set up to work through the various online coding tutorial programs starting with w3schools.com.

At the raised corner, that doubles as the performing stage, we will be set up to broadcast over livestream.com or record video for YouTube, or other internet venues.

The Rack Cafe is located at 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ 07040, (973) 327-2353. They are on the internet at facebook.com/therackcafe.

In case you were wondering, we use "shoot hoops" to let everyone know this is a drop in, "open court" program. If you want get a start at coding apps or creating content then come on down and get involved.

No hurry.

To give you a headsup on getting started ...

We will be using the w3schools.com lesson set while following the wisdom of lifehacker.com on:
Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code  
We'll be a "study room" for cross-mentoring ... come on down when you are ready ... or simply curious about coding ... or just want to participate in open source sharing/learning ...

Last but not least we have two Noblis NB 7850 S for casual app coding by drop-ins. We can do this.

House Band gets it start

Ralph Desmarais on drums and Jared Blackwell on keyboard get their start as the very first house band for the Geeks FSO First Fridays at The Rack. The Rack Cafe, 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ 07040.

Ton Duong kicks off the First Fridays Program

On Friday evening, October 3rd, Ton Duong kicked off the GeeksFSO First Fridays Program at The Rack Cafe, 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ.


First Fridays showcases the talent of local young people for creating and publishing content for the internet. The talent is drawn in part from the regular "open court" access to practice (access2practice.org) workshops that GeeksFSO conducts on the other Friday evenings from 5 to 7 PM.

GeeksFSO sees the process of creating content for the internet as a gateway to technology for diverse and disadvantaged population groups, and the language of technology is math.

Ton Duong and an open mic at The Rack on Friday, October 3rd!

Plus an open mic for a few talented performers. Sign up at the door and if the list isn't already full, you will save yourself ten bucks!

Making progress ...

The new Valley Settlement House website is getting ready to go online ...

Our high school senior is working on his portfolio ...

Archie and I helped a 4th grader do his homework for the Summer Program on one of the downstairs computers ... that desperately need a wifi connection ... which is coming as soon as we have a website so our  reverse marketing guru can pull in the donations.

The 4th grader mentioned the bird feeders and the cameras. He said he would like to help. That made my day.

It's all coming together, slow but sure.

If you would like to help by donating, for the time being you can give through our crowdfunding website:

http://www.patreon.com/geeksfso