Hacklab is announcing three workshops for the end of 2011:

Monday Nov 28th, 7-9pm: RepRap Users Group & Workshop
Come to hacklab.to to play with 3D printers! See RepRap.org. We’ll have our MakerBot Cupcake working, plus a good chance of having a functional RepRap, and several other printers under construction. Bring your own and we’ll all help each other! Newbies welcome, want to come see what a 3D printer looks like and learn how it works? Maybe even get inspired to build your own? This night is for you!

Monday Dec 5th, 7-9pm: Soldering Workshop #5
RSVP at Eventbrite (limit 10 people)
For total beginners, or those with some experience. Learn how to solder. Soldering is a method of assembling an electronic circuit using a hot iron and solder, a metal which liquefies at a fairly low temperature. Instruction by Eric is free, and we’ll have a variety of interesting kits on hand for you to purchase as learning templates. You’ll take your kit home at the end of the night, working, guaranteed! Open to the public – you do not have to be a member of hacklab to attend.

Monday Dec 12th, 7-9pm: Arduino Total Beginners Workshop
Arduino Beginners Workshop. For total beginners. All are welcome, no RSVP required. Eric will show you how to get started with Arduino, the super-friendly microcontroller platform that even artists love. We’ll cover getting the software installed and going, hooking up the Arduino, and a little bit of basic programming, via explanation of the Examples. You too can cut and paste your way to a working project! You’ll need to bring your own Arduino (any kind will do) and a laptop on which you can install software. Also please bring any cables required to attach your Arduino to your laptop – typically this means an A to B USB cable. If you do not have an Arduino, you can purchase one at Creatron, only a few blocks away from hacklab at 255 College Street.

All workshops are free and open to the public.

We’re playing board games at hacklab again at 3pm this afternoon (Sunday October 30th)! We’ve got Dominion and Settlers of Catan, both are award winning super popular games. Or bring your own favorite game!

Gamfternoon is free and open to the public!

We just has hacklab’s first Burrito Night. It was a massive success.

Yay Burritos!

I organized vegetarian ingredients, Eric organized chicken, Nick brought Jalapeno peppers and Daniel lent us his grill/press. Our expenses were 40 dollars for generic ingredients and 6 dollars for the chicken. We made 65 dollars, after expense that left us with 19 dollars for hacklab. Yay!

We’ve received some queries for further details on the Arduino Workshop. So here’s some more info for those of you thinking of coming:

Arduino Total Beginners Workshop
Monday Sept 12th 2011, 7pm-9pm

You’ll need to bring your own Arduino (any kind will do) and a laptop on which you can install software. Also please bring any cables required to attach your Arduino to your laptop – typically this means an A to B USB cable. If you do not have an Arduino, you can purchase one at Creatron, only a few blocks away from hacklab at 255 College Street.

As before, all are welcome, no RSVP required. Eric will show you how to get started with Arduino, the super-friendly microcontroller platform that even artists love. We’ll cover getting the software installed and going, hooking up the Arduino, and a little bit of basic programming, via explanation of the Examples. You too can cut and paste your way to a working project!

The Hacklab.TO Monday Workshop series is starting again! Each Monday we will be offering a way to get started hacking. Learn some basic skills, meet some friends, and see what hacklab is all about!

Monday Sept 12th: Arduino Beginners Workshop. For total beginners. All are welcome, no RSVP required. Eric will show you how to get started with Arduino, the super-friendly microcontroller platform that even artists love. We’ll cover getting the software installed and going, hooking up the Arduino, and a little bit of basic programming, via explanation of the Examples. You too can cut and paste your way to a working project!

Monday Sept 19th: Learn how to Solder. For total beginners, or those with some experience. Learn how to solder, which is one method of assembling an electronic circuit. Instruction by Eric is free, and we’ll have a variety of interesting kits on hand for you to purchase as learning templates. You’ll take your kit home at the end of the night, working, guaranteed! RSVP here: http://hacklab-soldering.eventbrite.com/.

Monday Sept 26th: 3D Printing. For hacklab members only. Come learn how to use the makerbot from Christopher. Note: this is not a modeling workshop, you will not learn how to design 3D parts. You’ll learn how to use the Makerbot to actually print them. RSVP here: http://hacklab-3d-printing.eventbrite.com/.

Hope to see you at a workshop soon!

A short clip of  the recent Train Overlord hackaton:

Haskell is an awesome purely functional language that I’ve been becoming more and more obsessed with in recent months. I consider it to be the most elegant language I’ve ever worked in and want to introduce more people to it!

So, on Monday, August the 8th, 7pm/19:00 I’ll be teaching an introduction to Haskell workshop! Come and learn about laziness, type classes and (the awesome power of) monads!

Please note: This is not an introduction to programming class. You will not be able to follow along if you don’t have experience programming. I am planning to do a day long weekend Introduction to

Programming/Python workshop sometime in the near future that would be much more appropriate for you.

(Sorry about the late notice. I posted to discuss and then forgot to put up a blog post.)

Update: And it went awesome! There was a much bigger turn out than I expected. Here are some notes:

(continue reading…)

Hacklab.to member Byron Sonne who was arrested June 22, 2010 on charges related to the G20 summit in Toronto was released on bail today. Byron is innocent until proven guilty and continues to be recognized as a full member of Hacklab Toronto. His trial will begin in November 2011.

Full information about the case, including links to media articles and other information can be found at: http://www.freebyron.org

Hacklab.to had one of the best booths at the Toronto Mini Maker Faire and our member aonomus made a great video about it! Join us at our open house every Tuesday night at 170A Baldwin Street in Toronto to see some of the projects that were on display at the faire.

Hacklab is going to have an awesome booth at the Toronto Mini Maker Faire, a celebration of maker culture:

Toronto Mini Maker Faire is the ultimate celebration of making, crafting, DIY-ing, tinkering, hacking and sharing. It’s a weekend where makers of all kinds will show off their projects and hold how-to workshops, with hands-on activities for all ages. Exhibits on display will include robots, laser cutting, letterpress printing, a 3D print gallery and kinetic sculptures.

At hacklab’s booth, you’ll be able to meet our members, and see some of our various projects including:

• 3D printers: Maker Bot, RepRap, Hacklab RepRap, lots of printed objects
• Soldering workshop! We have blinky LED kits available, learn how to solder!
• Train Overlord, our robot on rails (now with laser!)
• Buttons, stickers, fliers: get your Hacklab swag!
• Laser poster – information about our laser cutter
• Sensebridge: North Paw compass anklet, Heart Spark pendant, conductive thread
• HUGE Capacitor bank, good for making HDD platters jump (can crushing demo!)
• Slide show of Hacklab activities
• Some members have their own booths: GoodRobot (Alan) and Strich Labs (Sarah & Lisa)

Come visit us and support making stuff in Toronto!  The Mini Maker Faire is Saturday and Sunday this weekend, 10am-6pm, at the Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave, Toronto.