Archive for the 'News' Category
A Requiem for a Hero
In March of 2009 a young bat gave his or her life in the pursuit of adventure, and in doing so captured the heart of a nation. NASA chronicled the odyssey of “space bat” in Interim Problem Report 119V-0080. Ultimately his or her unsanctioned attempts to break the bonds of earthly existence were deemed acceptable in ICE-01. NASA believed that space bat most likely perished soon after launch, but at the very least he/she lives on in our hearts. I like to think he/she made it to orbit, I like to think his or her little mind was doing back flips the entire way. And while I know it is impossible, I hope that he or she found the peace he or she sought among the stars.
As we approach the end of November, and the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery, it is important we remember what a rich history it has. Space bat, is just one of several hundreds of heroes that have climbed aboard that vessel in the hope of challenging the stars. But, space bat enjoys the special privilege of having been the only member of his or her species to ever attempt space flight of their own volition. He or she is a true American hero and truly a symbol of Discovery.
I hope that everyone will take a moment to remember space bat in those few short seconds during countdown before Discovery makes it’s last voyage into Ginsberg’s dynamo.
No commentsMitch Altman needs YOU!
Quoting an excerpt from Mitch seen on Make Blog:
Notacon was way wonderful this year. The Hardware Hacking Area was way bigger than last year (as is the case *everywhere*!), and it was totally hopping! More than a third of people at the con made something!
Me and Jimmie joined in on the Hardware Hacking Area set up by the new Makers Alliance hackerspace in Cleveland. We love giving these workshops at hacker conferences and hackerspaces around the world! It is just so incredibly gratifying to see so many people happily making cool things together! That’s why we do this! We actually don’t make any money from doing it — but we do break even, which means that we make enough from each workshop to allow us to pay for the overhead of the next one. And it works out really well! We love teaching people how to make cool things!
The only bummer about Notacon this year (besides for my train being canceled, necessitating me taking a Greyhound to NYC!) is that someone(s) stole a bunch of my kits and Jimmie Rodger’s kits. $585 worth of my kits were taken, including a pile of FTDI cables, a pile of MiniPOV3 kits, plus a bunch of other kits. Jimmie had 2 Arduino boards taken plus a few of his kits, which comes to about $250 of his stuff taken. Last year was my first Notacon, and though I loved it more than enough to come back this year, $690 of my kits were stolen there (again mostly FTDI cables and MiniPOV3 kits).
Out of all of the workshops I’ve given over the last few years, I’ve never had kits stolen from any of them — Notacon is the only place. That is so odd, because Notacon is such a great conference! It draws a great group of people, most of whom get to know one another over the weekend. The organizers do a great job of creating an intimate atmosphere with lots of interesting talks, demos, workshops, and way fun activities. I’d recommend it to anyone. I’d also love it if whoever has taken my kits would return them.
Cornfield Electronics
572 Hill St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
Mitch Altman mitch@CornfieldElectronics.com
Mitch is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He’s dedicated himself to going around the planet ( quite literally ) and getting people of all ages excited about making stuff. I helped Mitch run the hardware hacking space at Notacon the year before last, and it was amazing. This year was even better thanks to the local Cleveland hackerspace guys. And I’ve been pretty adamant about Notacon being one of my favorite conferences. It’s small, but it’s got great people, and one of the only demo scene events in the US. Hearing this really makes me feel horrible. I’ve been to almost every Notacon since Notacon 1, and I’ve never had an issue inside of the conference area. People tend to look out for each other. I can’t imagine what someone would be thinking when they took this stuff.
Anyways, if you have any idea where / what happened to Mitch’s stuff please step up and right the wrong.
I am not currently aware of any sort of formal effort to help get Mitch back on his feet with a supply of kits. But, I suppose the biggest issue here is time. Getting new boards, components, and kits put together for upcoming events could be tough if not impossible. Hoping whoever is responsible has a change of heart. Spreading this throughout the community hopefully will get their attention.
Anyways our thoughts are with Mitch right now.
No commentsThe Next HOPE, Call for Projects!
From thenexthope.org:
2600 Magazine presents The Next HOPE, the eighth conference in the 16 year history of the Hackers On Planet Earth series. It will happen at the Hotel Pennsylvania in the middle of New York City from July 16-18, 2010, and will be the largest creative technology conference on the U.S. East Coast.
Traditionally HOPE conferences have been more about the talks than the physical projects, but with the 2008 conference that started to change, and this time organizers are pushing for an even stronger showing of projects and tech art. This call for projects goes out to hackers, makers, technologists, artists, and free thinkers around the world. Come share your passions and ideas with 3,000+ of your soon-to-be closest friends.
If you want to pitch in and you don’t know what to do…
* Lounge/Hang-Out Spaces
o HOPE usually has work spaces, seminar spaces, and crash spaces. Can you organize more chill zones for simple conversation?
* Games
o You have 3,000+ people, three floors of a massive hotel, an RFID tracking system, and The City of New York. What can you do with that? Teach, play, explore.
* Art
o What’s your vision of the future? Show us using hardware, software, electricity and imagination.
* Night Life
o The talks usually stop around midnight. What else could be going on between midnight and 9am? Plan it, make it interesting, make it happen.
The main visual theme of the conference is visions of the future from the past, so things that reference The World’s Fairs, The Jetsons, flying cars, DaVinci, Asimov, and so forth would be very appropriate. However, projects are not required to carry the central theme in any way. Some projects, such as OpenAMD, are already being planned to be simply visions of the future from the present, rather than referencing any futurist thoughts from antiquity.
Some projects already in the works include…
* The Attendee Meta-Data Project (“OpenAMD”)
o An expansion of the RFID crowd tracking project from The Last Hope.
o Needs programmers and hardware hackers, and is prime for spinoff projects.
o Many possibilities exist for the development of games, data mining, and visualizations.
o Ask about the OpenAMD API.
o http://amd.hope.net/
o contact: amd@hope.net
* Radio Statler!
o Streaming 24 hours a day live from the expo floor.
o Needs people to do shows, experienced engineers, reporters, and people with interesting audio gear.
o Needs a large isolation booth.
o http://radio.hope.net/
o contact: radio@hope.net
* Installation Art
o The Next HOPE invites artists, local and beyond, who have a vision of the future expressed as installation art.
o Installations must be technology-based. They can range from electrical experiments to computer-controlled machines, to data and information processing visualizations, they can be static or interactive, and they could be visual or musical, this is a very open field.
o This is an unpaid exhibition, but the selected installation artists will be given free admission to the conference, and an online gallery with artist biographies will be set up for promotional purposes.
o What are your space, power, time, and data connection requirements?
o contact the curator: artspace@hope.net
* The Hackerspace and Hardware Hacking Village
o A 24 hour gathering point for the hackerspace community, a hardware hacking workshop area, and a supply post for hardware hacking tools and expendables.
o Are you involved with a hackerspace? Reserve a special area for your group to chill and show off projects!
o Looking for hardware hackers and hackerspaces from all around the world to come together and and share ideas.
o contact: hackerspace@hope.net
If you need help with your project, you can find a lot of people on our forum before the conference starts, at talk.hope.net. The HOPE wiki is also available for your use, wiki.hope.net.
Contact the projects coordinator with a plan of action, along with your space, power, time, and data connection requirements: projects@hope.net.
No commentsLive Shot from Hackathon!
Edit: Thanks everyone who came out for the hackathon!
Here’s a semi-live shot of the hackathon at NYCR this weekend! Say hello internets.
7 commentsSeth Hardy running for (ISC)2 Board of Directors
My long time friend Seth, and a founding member of the Hacklab.to hackerspace in Toronto is making a run at Board of Directors for (ISC)2. In case you aren’t familiar with what (ISC)2 does, read their “about” page. The short story is, they set the standards for testing and certification requirements in the Information Security arena for large enterprises. The now almost mandatory CISSP certification is one of their creations.
For a long time now there has been considerable dismay in the hacking community with the quality of the CISSP certification. In spite of this, it has become the defacto standard in required education for work in any infosec related field of technology. Which is why it’s time for some reform. Seth is a proven security professional whose academic background is grounded in math and more specifically cryptography. He has presented several times at Black Hat and other prestigious ( and less prestigious) conferences in matters of security and cryptography. He currently is a malware researcher for a major anti-virus company. He’s also a pretty cool guy and doesn’t afraid of anything.
As a former security auditor myself, I’ve seen first hand some of the very real problems with the CISSP and the industry that’s built atop it. Placing Seth in a position to make changes to the way (ISC)2 does business is better for everyone in the long run. Which is why I’ve decided to make this post. If you or someone you know holds a CISSP certification please let them know about Seth’s campaign for a seat on the board of Directors. Only CISSP holders can vote for these positions.
You can read more about the campaign here: sethforisc2board.org
No commentsAd-hoc Art Invades Metrotech!
Taken on iPhone generation 1
So a group of artists flying under the banner of “Ad-hoc Art” has renovated a row of empty store fronts around the corner from NYC Resistor. These buildings were bought out for a building project that never happened, and with the economic downturn may never happen. It’s great to see that someone has taken advantage of that and brought us something truly great.
So if you are coming by Resistor for a class, or for our party Saturday. Stop by. These things are amazing, and my iphone camera does not do them justice.
But for those of you far away in distant lands, here’s a flickr set from my iPhone.
Thanks Ad-hoc Art team. Your work is awesome.
No commentsClean Up Day
We had our spring cleaning at NYCR and swept and mopt and chased all the dust bunnies down and killed their processes. Shelves were built and empires extended.
No commentsMy weekend at FOO Camp…
This past week I had the opportunity to attend FOO Camp in Sabastapol, CA. It was an amazing experience and I’m still trying to digest it all. Sessions I attended included ‘Hacking Bacteria’, ‘The History of Internet Art’, ‘Better Data Visualizations’, ‘Open Source Hardware’ and on and on… I also gave a talk on ‘The Future of News’ with John Markoff, Steven Levy and Monica Guzman and I participated in a 5 min Ignite talk titled ‘NYCResistor and Hardware Hacking in Brookland’. I could go on and on about the prodigious experiences at FOO Camp (not to mention playing werewolf until 4:30 am.) but one versatility it really affirmed for me is that the individuals that make up this global hacker, tinker and open source world are a truly altruistic, talented and generous community. You can see more photos here.
The Scale of Sound @ The Tank NYC 5/28/08
Since when were hackers the best thing happening in Avant-garde music? SINCE ALWAYS DUMMY!
This event is curated by Speaker Synth artist Lesley Flanigan.
excerpt:
This Wednesday night at the Tank, a group of amazing people come together for a night of performances based on amplification. It will be AWESOME! A really special opportunity to see such a great, eclectic group of performers all in one night. For my part, I will perform both my latest speaker feedback instruments and Bioluminescence with Luke DuBois. So please come out and join us all for drinks, fun, and sound!
~Lesley
now come check out this awesome show at the tank in NYC at 7:00 pm
Map:
No commentsASDF | Semicolon Show Tonight at the Tank
Tonight, hackers will take over the Tank in Chinatown, NYC!
ASDF; is a laptop quartet comprised of intractable innovators, beat mavens, shirtless composers, tireless experimenters, and robots. Using their QWERTY keyboards as midi triggers for software synthesizers and samplers, they cross-breed your expectations by performing both their own original works as well as unique mashups of works by composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and not excluding pop artists who won’t be mentioned here… asdf; brings a dance-party attitude to classical minimalism and postmodern experimentalism. In a word, asdf; is Laprock.
The Tank is a venu in NYC that is responsible for many great shows and also awesome hack-fests such as the Blip festival and also the Bent festival. Be sure not to miss this event!
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