Space...The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the 
workshop Dog Solitude. It's perpetual mission: to explore the 
limits of the blivet, to seek out new sources of stuff (aka 
obtainium,) to boldly go where few hackers have gone before. 

Blivet: 1 - Anything overfull. 2 - An item of unknown purpose, 
often unnecessary or useless or annoying.

I've written about small workspaces a few times in the past, 
and released plans for a nominal 8x8' starter workshed that you 
can make with plywood sheets (8x4') and 2x4s. For about the 
same price as the wood these days you can also buy a 10x7' 
storage shed kit that gives you a little more square footage. 
Those of you with apartments probably have a corner of section 
of the nominal living room or bedroom where you can put a bench 
if you live by yourself. If you have a roommate you might have 
to work out of your bedroom unless you have a situation like 
New Hack City in Boston where all the residents were into tech 
stuff. If your roommate happens to be your significant other 
and they aren't into hacking, you might want to think about an 
extra bedroom in the next place you rent, or go buy a place.

Dave Wildflower and I used a nominal 4 to 6 foot long table 
repurposed as a workbench. Mine right now is I think 5 feet 
long and originally from my dining room. I've got another 
that's plastic and folds in half. I bring out when I don't want 
to go out to the workshop, and/or don't have to do anything 
involving solder fumes. One of my favorite books, The Art of 
Tinkering, shows many such small workspaces. You don't need a 
lot of space to start out, however...

This arrangement works most of the time, except for when you 
walk past that Lincoln welding rig on sale at Home depot, what 
Gibson in Mona Lisa Overdrive calls The Shape grabs you, and 
you find yourself getting involved in some heavy-duty Mark 
Pauline Survival Research Labs action. When I bought the 1866 
House twenty-some-odd years ago, one of the selling points was 
the full basement, all 800 square feet of fuck around and find 
out.

I remember visiting Count Zero and Brian Oblivion back in the 
day when they were neighbors in Boston. Count Zero as I recall 
had a spare bedroom for his lab, but Brian was set up in a 
lminal space that was getting cramped. Back then the dumpster 
diving in Boston was pretty good, and there was a scrapyard a 
couple blocks away that always seemed to have electronics. I 
actually think there's a picture of me in a fishtail parka or 
black M65 field jacket next to a a pile of old TSPS consoles or 
other type of telecom scrap. The obtainium was so fucking rich 
it fertilized the ground that grew the l0pht, and yes, it 
filled the spare nooks and crannies of both l0pht I and l0pht 
II that the dudes started selling it and often giving it away 
at the MIT Flea.

One of the first rules of obtainium is that it will eventually 
fill up any spare room you have in your space, whether you have 
an 8x8 square or a 28x28 square. Another first rule of 
obrainiums is that you always take any free obtainium when it 
is offered because the day you stop accepting it is the day 
that source stops sending it your way. Remember that obtainium 
is worth what you pay for it, so if you get it for free it is 
either priceless or worthless. Set aside a shelf unit or two 
for obtainium storage. When it fills up, and you get more, 
dispose of the old obtainium by either selling it at a swap 
meet, giving it away to a fellow hacker, or tossing it in the 
recycling bin. If you have not touched it in a year, there is a 
good chance that you will not miss it.

To be continued...