Attendees

  • Kalin
  • Steven
  • Steve
  • Tate
  • Kris

Minutes

  • ESP8266 wifi chip beacon tracking - arduino-like chip - Steven
    • http://www.esp8266.com
    • sniffs wifi packets
    • can set up in a mesh and detect locations of people in space
    • only cost $3, need 5-6 to do triangulationa and a server for processing
    • can determine occupancy, based on wifi signals, can detext employee presense, etc.
    • wider range than ibeacon - 50m
    • work passively, but can do an active ping
      • the active ping often disrupts other people’s wifi
    • takes up to 15 moinutes to detect people passively, waiting on devices to poll
    • can also track people moving around space
    • can set up beacons around the city and collect stats on peoples’ movement
    • opportunity to do savings on electrical and HVAC
      • finding a good target customer
      • MEC is big enough for occupancy and energy savings, but approachable unlike walmart, etc
      • what about building management for office management?
    • 2 AA batteries last a week or so, or can run on 5V USB
    • tag people with a beacon
    • this is a limited window before digital CV cameras become ubiquitous from companies like Vigilon (Vancouver startup with 600 employees)
    • Vigilon does digital cameras and employed a lot of optics people, should be Vancouver startup darlings
  • Casper for desks - Steve
    • Concept is a nice well-designed desk by mail
    • Endy is the Casper of Canada
    • Customize desk by printing on it
    • Tube and clamp construction
    • Kee Klamps, they are about $8 per node but piping is about $2 a metre. Lot’s of DIY designs
    • Compare with desk add-on: http://www.varidesk.com
    • Better quality, simpler construction than IKEA - too disposable
      • desklamp
      • shelves, and drawer system that matches and works with it
      • some level of customization
    • Idea was inspired by attempt to design coffin for IKEA
    • Basic desk could be inexpensive, but with modular add-ons that bolt on
    • Additional idea: plastic bolster to lean against to maintain posture
    • Ergotronix desks are like this too, but start at $5000
    • Eiermann tables from Germany are a classic high-quality collapsable design
  • Babysitters - Tate
    • thinking of having kids, you should babysit to see if you’re ready
    • trial parenting
    • trail parents come with a coach, takes care of parents feeling fear
    • could potentially charge on both sides of the equation
    • hard to find babysitters that you can trust or vet?
      • rely on family, recommendatinos from freinds
    • forces you to handle weird anomolous situation
    • co-parenting
    • high-trust stuff goes off-netowrk, may need to charge up front for introduction
    • start provess with a week-long workshop on parenting for trail parents
    • how to rate reputation
      • klout, etc.
      • gaming followers on twitter or instagram
      • web of trust on keybase and PGP keyrings
      • keybase has a new chat client
      • Signal sends all their messages through GCE
  • Meal sharing - Kalin inspired by Steve from 2 weeks ago
    • Josephine.com and mealsurfers.com are examples of this idea that are in early stages
    • Getting around legalities is an issue
      • Could deal with credits instead of currency
      • Sell branded tupperware and make transactions about tupperware lids
    • California is changing laws for homemade food
      • https://qz.com/909255/the-sharing-economy-for-food-is-the-latest-thing-california-may-legalize/
      • https://blog.josephine.com/the-2017-california-homemade-food-act-bb4655d64009#.desfgukno
      • CA recently decriminalized street vending of food to help illegal aliens not have crimiinal records
        • What else may be decriminalized because of this?
    • Club system for food or convenience store items
      • Not a Trunk club
      • Saas club - pay for serivces that the membvers provide to each other
    • Club that does group buys, with votes
      • Jet.com for food - bluk purchases, walmart just bought them
      • Pool cash monthly and have a vote, you get something at bulk prices even if it’s not what you wanted.
    • Small-scale catering, getting bids from people on a subreddit
    • Bootstrap restaurant reviews with catered food evenings
  • Other topics
    • I want to take 3 months off work and do 50 different jobs - temp service
      • BCIT discovery program - try out all the trades to see what you like
      • specifically there are also programs for women-only
    • Peterbirough Ontario, endeavour center
      • spend months talking about different tech for building houses
      • Learn all sorts of tech, and then build energy efficient homes
    • Canada Goose
      • 20 year long story of their success
      • Former conractor for Woods Canada
    • Qubes OS https://www.qubes-os.org
    • Heyavailable.com is a website that you tweet at with hiring or lookingfor and it’s lookingfor work or hiring
    • Real Estate discussion - All
      • minimalist apartments
      • increasing density in Vancouver
      • Cocquiltlam around lougheed hwy has a lot of weak old furniture store, this area could be rezoned as a tech hub
      • EA bought cheap land around BCIT
      • conferences and tech companies looking at Vancouver with Trump making it hard for people to operate in the US
      • H1B satellite offices for people
      • how do you make public spaces better?