Over the weekend I was at Massey University doing an Arduino workshop. It was intellectually challenging and geekily exciting. Arduino is an open-source something microcontroller something something.

Ok, so I don’t really know what it *is*, but I know what it does. Basically, with a modicum of electronics and programming knowledge you can get input from the environment and output that as art, robotics, or other tech cookery. Does that make sense?

Watch this 45 second vid for an idea of what can be done. There’s all sorts of other cool stuff tagged Arduino on YouTube. Also check out LilyPad which is designed for use with textiles.

The Webcycle: the faster you pedal, the faster your internet goes.

Anyway, that’s not what I was going to tell you about.

I saw a poster for the library that said “Food for fines”. Basically, if you have library fines during this one week you can bring in a non-perishable food item and have $5 worth of fines wiped out. It’s only for overdues, not lost or damaged items.

I think that’s great. I’m not convinced that fines actually modify behaviour in the way that they are intended but they aren’t going away soon. So a $2 can of food will help out a student in a hungry jam and save you some money.

I wish more libraries would do things like this.