hacklab.to

Python Newbie Nights on Thursdays will be on hiatus for a couple of weeks, returning in mid-January. Folks aren’t around as much and I’m a bit burnt out, so it just seemed like the right time to take a break. Watch this space for the class’s return!

-Leigh

On September 1st, I sent an email to the HackLab discussion list asking for folks to commit. Less than 24 hours later, members and non-members alike stepped up and pledged $700 in addition to my initial commitment of $200. Our MakerBot Batch 7 CupCake CNC will ship in early October, hopefully in time for MiniSoOnCon!

3D printing is so amazing. This is the MITS Altair of a DIY revolution whose shape I’m not at all certain of. I couldn’t be more exited to see what the hacklabbers make and how we improve the machine, too.

In alphabetical order, the donors were:

3ric Johanson
Alex Leitch
Byron Sonne
Chad Mounteny
Cheryl Mok
Chris Pilkington
Dale Babiy
Dan Kaminsky
Eric from NYC Resistor
Kate Raynes-Goldie
Sergio Martns
Seth Hardy

Welcome to the future, folks.

-Leigh

The HackLabTO board of directors is responsible for the legal structure behind the lab, and is accountable to the members. Tonight we had the first meeting with our new board members, Dan Fraser and Chad Mounteny. It was quick and efficient, and we got lots covered; the minutes are up on the wiki here (registration-required). Fred Supinski, who was one of the initial Board signatories, is passing on the torch but staying on as a member.

We’re still looking for members to step up to be officers of the corporation – an email will go out to you all shortly.

-Leigh

lazzor music! from hypatia on Vimeo.

One of the HackLab members, Jed, wrote some code to turn music into lazzor motions. The result is this brilliant interpretation of the Super Mario theme :)

I gave a 5-minute Ignite talk about HackLabTO at DemoCamp last week.  Check out the writeup over at my blog:

http://hypatia.ca/2009/03/hacklabto-ignite-at-democampto19/

Slides are up at Slideshare if you just want to see the pretty pictures :)

-Leigh

To celebrate that important annual geek milestone, Pi Day (March 14), we’re having a party featuring a pie contest at the lab.  We haven’t decided what the prize will be, but it will be AWESOME and probably be made on the lazzor.

Entrance to the party will be a $10 donation (which will go towards lab expenses), or bring a pie.  Homemade pies only!  Quiche and other savory things made in round dishes count as pie.

Things will start up at 7pm, though there will likely be folks around the lab earlier.  As usual, check our IRC channel (#hacklabto on freenode) to see if people are around if you want to drop by early.

Feel free to get in touch with me (hypa7ia on irc or leigh at hypatia dot ca via email) if you have any questions!

Here’s a button to add it to your Google Calendar or otherwise see details:

During last week’s python class we got to the part in our wonderful textbook where the concept of recursion is introduced.  My friend Susan posted a witty line to my facebook feed regarding the teaching of recursion:

I normally teach recursion by checking to see whether they understand recursion, and if not, teaching recursion.

Within the class we have a variety of levels of experience with programming in general, and recursion in particular.  I’m curious to hear peoples’ favourite recursion teaching tools, examples, or other witticisms.  What’s your favourite programming problem to solve recursively?

-Leigh

Posting this well in advance so that people show up!

Tuesday Dec. 9th I’ll be making duct tape wallets and would love for others to participate too!  I’ll have some tape available, and instructions, but please bring tape too if you want to make your own.

I’ll have enough heavy duty tin foil for a zillion wallets, so don’t worry about that.

It’s on our google calendar, of course:

-Leigh

For the past couple of weeks a few of us have been meeting up at the lab to learn some Python.  Some of us are complete beginners, while some of us have been programming profesionally for years.  It makes for an interesting evening and we’re been learning lots.

We’re basing the sessions on the book Python for Software Design: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, which is available for free online.  We’ve been impressed so far with the book’s clarity and the quality of the example code it comes with.

After a few successful sessions, we’ve decided to make this a more regular / official meeting at the lab.  It’ll be every Thursday at 7PM until around 9, though we have gone later in the past, and some of us show up earlier as well.  Feel free to drop in our IRC channel (#hacklabto on freenode) if you want to see if anyone’s already at the lab.  For this Thursday if you feel like catching up before you come out, we’re at chapter 4; don’t worry, though, we’ll be able to get you caught up if you’re a total beginner :)

-Leigh

Are you curious about the space and want to come check it out, but fear that you won’t know anyone or have anything to do?  Are you afraid of showing up in Kensington and knocking on the door only to find it locked?

Fear not!  Unpatched Tuesdays are just the thing for you.

Every Tuesday from 6(ish) to late in the evening we have an “open lab” night.  It has varied between a mostly social event and a productive work party depending on what people are up to, but the key thing about it is that the door is open to all comers.  Show up with a Linux or BSD question, an interesting piece of hardware, a technical problem, or your new widget that you want to show off.  The Tuesday night crowd is a resourceful and friendly bunch, and it’s always great to see some new faces.

You’re also welcome to show up empty-handed, but we might put you to work!  There are a bunch of ongoing hardware and infrastructure projects at the lab, so expect to be assigned a bug on our bugtracker :)

The other important thing to note is that you don’t need to be a 5up3r 31337 hax0r to come out on Tuesdays.  Just be friendly and interested and you’re totally welcome.  There’s no minimum height, age, or skill level required to participate.

There are also other events going on at the lab.  Go Night on Mondays, and irregularly scheduled classes which all get posted on the calendar and announced on our pretty low-traffic mailing list.  We usually post about them on the blag too, so subscribe to any of those to keep up to date.

-Leigh