Santa Barbara Hackerspace

 

WebTech Wednesday Presents... Hackathon/Finish-athon Tonight @ 6pm!

Hackers,

Come on by the 'space (map, video) tonight @ 6pm to work on that app, program, or script you've been meaning to finish in a collaborative environment!  At the end we'll demo our awesome creations.

See you there!

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted May 23, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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General Meeting TODAY @ Noon in the 'space!

Hackers,

You know the drill:

- Meet and greet new-comers
- Build cool stuff (software, electronics, robotics)
- Eat lunch at ~4pm
- Build more cool stuff

Come on by and bring your friends!

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted May 19, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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WebTech Wednesday Presents... Lee Nathan on his new website, ltlsts ("little lists")!

Hackers,

Tonight at 6pm at the hackerspace (map, video), Lee will be going over the features, mindset, strategy, history, and future of the new site he just launched -- ltlsts!  Here's the pitch:

ltlsts.com (little lists) is a simple but powerful and helpful tool for creating lists and collections. 

No, it’s not another todo list application; I promise. It’s for every other kind of list. Lists of people, places, and things. It’s for lists of websites, collections of images, top 10 lists, and packing lists. It’s for lists of instructions and directions and information you’re tired of giving out over and over again. It’s for recipes, agendas, key notes, study guides, college courses, personal inventories, songs you want to buy, lines in a blog that made you go aha!, moodboards, reasons, and pros and cons. It’s for lists of lists and lists of anything and everything. The list goes on and on.

ltlsts lists are shareable and embeddable. No sign up is required to start listing immediately. 

Make a list, share a list, get a list, make it your own.

See you there!

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted May 16, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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Revised WebTech Wednesday Schedule (Product Launches, Demo Day, "Modern Web Engineering" series, and...)

Upcoming WebTech Wednesdays

5/16: Lee on his new web app (more details soon!)

5/23: Classwave presenting on ???

5/30: Joe on RDFa/Semantic Web

6/6: Products built at Startup Weekend in Santa Barbara(?)

6/13: ??? or a gap week before Demo Day

6/20: Demo Day (~3-5 presentations, 20-30 mins each; tell me your topic and rough outline of what you plan to cover to secure your spot)

6/27 or 7/4: Possible new course -- Modern Web Engineering.  Topics may include much of the following (subject to extreme change)...
    - Cloud Computing; NoSQL/NewSQL Databases; Scripting Languages in a Multi-Core World
    - Big Data; Data Mining; Natural Language Processing
    - ...and plenty of other topics from guest lecturers!

7/4 or 7/11: Steve on "Humiliating Rails for Fun and Profitlessness"
    - May be part of Modern Web Engineering course/series

???: AJ (and maybe Garrett and/or Steve?) on Python + boto + EC2 (+ scaling an actual app?)
    - May be part of Modern Web Engineering course/series

???: "Tools, Tips, and Tricks of the Trade" (~6-10 presentations, 5-15 mins each; more details soon)

???: $You on $Your_Cool_Topic

Let me know if you'd like a slot, either for Demo Day or a talk of your own.

Each meeting will be at our hackerspace (map, video) unless otherwise specified.

--Steve

Posted May 15, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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General Meeting TODAY @ 1pm: Meet and Greet, Python, and Electronics

Hackers,

Many of us will be at the 'space today starting some time between noon and 1pm.  See you all there for yet another day of electronicalness and Python programming!  Bring your friends and I'll see you there.

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted May 12, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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WebTech Wednesday Presents... Something!

Hackers,

Tonight
Either...

1. Lee presenting on his new product/website

or

2. swiss telling us about the Future of SBHX, including ideas from the recent board meeting.  After that it'll be a hackathon free-for-all, with me helping people with Python and/or us all building something.  (I've got a version of SBitter in development I can work on...)

Sorry for the late notice; see you there!

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted May 9, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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Tomorrow @ ~Noon: Come Celebrate SBHX's One-Year Space-versary at Aero Camino!

Hackers,

It may be hard to believe, but this week marks the one-year space-versary -- which means, of course, the one-year anniversary of SBHX getting its own space!  Come on by (map, video) tomorrow at ~noon to hack on software, hack on hardware, and talk tech with our fellow geeks.  See you there!

(I'll be there to teach people Python, help new-comers and/or show them around, get caught up on yesterday's board meeting, and maybe even write some code!)

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted May 4, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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Tentative Schedule: Upcoming WebTech Wednesdays

WebTech Wednesday Schedule (tentative)

5/2: NO MEETING
5/9 or 5/16: Lee on his new web app
5/16 or 5/23: AJ (and maybe Garrett and/or me?) on Python + boto + EC2 (+ scaling an actual app?)
5/30: Joe on RDFa/Semantic Web
6/6: PTM and/or ??? on Startup Weekend in Santa Barbara
6/13: ??? or a gap week
6/20: Demo Day (~3-5 presentations, 20-30 mins each; tell me your topic and rough outline of what you plan to cover to secure your spot)
6/27 or 7/4: Possible new course -- Modern Web Engineering.  Topics may include much of the following (subject to extreme change)...
    - Cloud Computing; NoSQL/NewSQL Databases; Scripting Languages in a Multi-Core World
    - Big Data; Data Mining; Natural Language Processing
    - ...and plenty of other topics from guest lecturers!
7/4 or 7/11: Steve on "Humiliating Rails for Fun and Profitlessness"
???: "Tools, Tips, and Tricks of the Trade" (~6-10 presentations, 5-15 mins each; more details soon)
???: $You on $Your_Cool_Topic

What do you guys think?  I definitely can't wait for many of these -- exciting stuff!

I'll send out updates as the above schedule solidifies once I collect more feedback.

I'll be at the 'space this Saturday if anyone wants to talk about the above or related... as long as it's awesome... or we're building something impressive.  Hellz yeah.

--Steve

Posted May 2, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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Ideas for Upcoming WebTech Wednesdays

Hackers,

Here are several ideas for WebTech Wednesday meeting topics, some of which we'll be focusing on over the next couple weeks:

- WebTech Demo Day.  I'm really stoked about this one.  I and at at least a few others are writing some cool stuff I think we'd like to show off soon.  Who else wants to demo something?

- Anyone here interested in giving a talk/presentation/walk-through/demo?  Or maybe you know someone else who might?  Feel free to invite people to come speak!

- Got an idea for a presentation you'd like to see/hear/learn from?  Someone wanted to see some unit testing, which I think would be valuable.  What else?

- Going over the CS 212 homework questions/solutions after they're posted

- And in general -- what are people building, or getting stuck trying to build?  Want to walk us through a partial solution to something you're working on, either a program or, say, a Learn Python the Hard Way problem?  I believe that telling us what you've figured out so far, and what you're not sure about moving forward, would be helpful to all.

More ideas welcome!  What would you like to see from WebTech Wednesday?

Whatever would be awesome -- that's what we should do.  So let's do it.

--Steve

Posted May 1, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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Board Meeting Reminder and Correction

A quick correction and reminder about the Santa Barbara Hackerspace
board meeting. The correction: the board meeting will be Thursday
5/3/2012 and NOT Wednesday 5/2/2012 as had been previously indicated,
sorry for the mix up. The meeting will start at 6pm and likely last at
least an hour, afterwards will be the standard think tank Thursday
evening. There will be pizza and soda for the meeting so come by, get
some dinner, and have your say in the direction of the space. We will be
covering the 'space finances, membership, future tool acquisitions,
community, and organization. If you would like to add anything to the
docket or have any ideas or suggestions please email me at
mtbales@fastmail.fm and I'll see you on Thursday. Until then happy
hacking.

Posted April 30, 2012 by mtbales 
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SBHX Saturday TODAY @ Noon en el Hackerspace de la Santa Barbara!

Hackers,

Come by today to hack the day away!  People should be there from noon till at least 4 or 5pm, so come on by! (swag)

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted April 28, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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WebTech Wednesday Presents... Improving your Python with Udacity's CS 212!

The Unit 1 questions we'll be covering "are only for your learning. Your performance on them does not affect your grade."  --From their FAQ.

--Steve

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 15:50, Steve Phillips <elimisteve@gmail.com> wrote:
Hackers,

Tonight at 6pm, come on by the hackerspace (map, video) to practice some Python by working through some CS 212 exercises together!

Important: in order to avoid breaching Udacity's Honor System agreement (as I understand it), today's WebTech Wednesday is chiefly for people in one of three categories -- those who (a) aren't taking this course at all, (b) have already completed these exercises (and thus aren't using any knowledge gained as an unfair advantage to improve their standing in the class), or (c) choose to audit the course in order to acquire knowledge rather than win a certificate.  My original idea was to help people jump into CS 212, but that may be against their policy?  A one-way discussion follows below...

My goal is to learn and to teach.  If you simply audit the course, as their FAQ says it's OK to do, you should be fine.

CS 212 now has an explicit policy of making it so we "can always get a 100% on the homework assignments by just submitting after the deadline" for the sake of maximizing how much we learn.  Lastly, if you are enrolled, we'll be going over Unit 1, not Homework 1, so I may be making a big deal out of absolutely nothing; I just wanted to be explicit.

Whether you choose to join the class this hexamaster (or to audit) is of course your own choice, but no matter what you choose, be ready to learn how to solve problems in Python at 6pm!

I've worked through ~3/4 of Unit 1 so I should be in good shape to help people think through these exercises.  See you tonight!

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted April 25, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
// 0Comments
 

WebTech Wednesday Presents... Improving your Python with Udacity's CS 212!

Hackers,

Tonight at 6pm, come on by the hackerspace (map, video) to practice some Python by working through some CS 212 exercises together!

Important: in order to avoid breaching Udacity's Honor System agreement (as I understand it), today's WebTech Wednesday is chiefly for people in one of three categories -- those who (a) aren't taking this course at all, (b) have already completed these exercises (and thus aren't using any knowledge gained as an unfair advantage to improve their standing in the class), or (c) choose to audit the course in order to acquire knowledge rather than win a certificate.  My original idea was to help people jump into CS 212, but that may be against their policy?  A one-way discussion follows below...

My goal is to learn and to teach.  If you simply audit the course, as their FAQ says it's OK to do, you should be fine.

CS 212 now has an explicit policy of making it so we "can always get a 100% on the homework assignments by just submitting after the deadline" for the sake of maximizing how much we learn.  Lastly, if you are enrolled, we'll be going over Unit 1, not Homework 1, so I may be making a big deal out of absolutely nothing; I just wanted to be explicit.

Whether you choose to join the class this hexamaster (or to audit) is of course your own choice, but no matter what you choose, be ready to learn how to solve problems in Python at 6pm!

I've worked through ~3/4 of Unit 1 so I should be in good shape to help people think through these exercises.  See you tonight!

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted April 25, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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General Meeting TODAY @ Noon in the 'space! Python/Go Coding, Chalk Bot, and more!

Hackers,

Happy Saturday!  Time for another gathering at Santa Barbara/Goleta's one and only hackerspace (map, video).  Come on by to learn through doing/building something you're interested in, be it physical -- like the chalk bot, the custom motor controller, or tDCS board -- or virtual, like SBitter, the IRC bot, or (co-?)working on some web-based project or product as a few of us are doing.

Just as there is plenty of help to be had on the hardware/electronics side, I (and usually several others) would be happy to help people with Python, Go, or similarly awesome programming!  Relatedly, there are some interesting plans and updates coming soon for upcoming WebTech Wednesdays (hint: demos!).  Stay tuned.

Don't forget to tell your friends and... bring 'em.  Totally.  See you there!

--Steve Phillips / elimisteve
SB Hackerspace Blog, Wiki, Twitter, and **IRC** (come chat with us!)

For first-timers: The hackerspace is located at 158 Aero Camino, Suite A (map, video) in Goleta, right off Hollister.  There should be plenty of parking in the street right in front of the space and immediately across the street.  SBMTD bus riders can take the 12X, the 6, or one of a few other buses (depending upon which direction you're coming from).

Posted April 21, 2012 by Steve Phillips 
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Think Tank Thursday, a new project, and some news

First the usual news, we'll be at the space Thursday starting at 6pm so feel free to come by and work on a project or see what we're up to. Projects include the chalk bot, the custom motor controller, TcDS board, and whatever else comes to mind. Now on to the new project, we're putting together an entry into the 2013 microtransat competition. The microtransat challenge is to build a completely autonomous sailboat to cross the Atlantic ocean. More information, past entries and details can be found at http://www.microtransat.org/ The sailboat will be built around the beaglebone embedded computer, with HAM radio gear for ship to shore communications, and a suite of other sensors. And the final bit of news: In an effort to improve our community and the 'Space we'll be holding a board of director's meeting next Thursday 5/2/12 starting at 6pm so please come by and participate, put in your two cents worth about the direction the space will be taking and what we can do to improve our hackerspace.

Posted April 18, 2012 by mtbales 
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