Celebrate TOG’s sixth birthday (and last one at Chancery Lane)

party_bgTOG is six years old! We’ll be having cake to celebrate this Saturday 24th of January. It’ll also be our last birthday in Chancery Lane as the lease is up and we need to move. So, the details:

The Birthday Party
There’ll be cake! There’ll be friendly neighbourhood hackers! There’ll be good times! Did we mention cake? TOG will be open from 7.30pm till late on Saturday 24th of January. Just drop down and enjoy yourself. You don’t have to be a member and there’s no cost to attend, though we’d welcome donations for the move (see next section). If you want to bring any nibbles to share, that’d be great but not obligatory. Likewise, if you want beer, bring your own (you don’t have to share that). If you’ve not visited us yet, this is the perfect time to scope us out!

We Have to Move
TOG need to leave Chancery Lane by the end of April. We are currently looking for a new place to lease, so if you know of anything that we can’t find ourselves (we’re keeping a close eye on daft), suggest it to one of our members or send a note on the contact page. We want to stay in the city centre so it’s easy for everyone to get to the space, and we’d like to be able to have a few sub rooms so we can keep workshop gear separate from the sewing machines and nights of talks (similar to our current set up).
Once we find a place, we’re going to have some extra costs (deposits need to be paid upfront, vans and skips need to be rented), so if you’d have a few bob to spare, consider donating some €€’s to help us out through the paypal link below or by dropping in to the space. If you want to help us in the longer term, consider becoming a member and sharing the month to month running costs. We’ll have a laser-cut collection box at the birthday party, so if you want to donate lovely anonymous cash, we’re prepared for that too.
We’ll keep everyone posted on how things are going with finding a place and moving. Group nights will continue as normal in Chancery Lane until we’ve settled elsewhere.




January 2015 Book Club

Thank you for attending this months book club meeting. The next meeting is set for 19:30 Friday 20th February. As we were all so pleased with the short story “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster we’ve decided to try it again this month.

The book this month is “Player Piano” by Kurt Vonnegut;

Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines.

And the short story this month is “The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Bierce, which is public domain and available on Gutenberg.

As a reminder, feel free to pop over to our goodreads group and add suggestions for future reading.

Happy reading, and see you next month!

Engineer’s Week: Bridge Building Competition

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For Engineers Week, we are holding our third annual bridge building competition in Science Gallery on Saturday 14th of February.

This is a family-friendly competition that puts teams against one another to build the strongest bridge. Engineering theory and building materials will be provided to help you during construction. Last year’s winning team, created a bridge that held over 41KG with no sign of breaking. Check out some of the destructive testing here or photos in our gallery.

Update: We have added a second session due to popular demand.

When: Saturday, February 14th. From 3pm until 5pm.

Where: Science Gallery.

Cost: Free. Tickets below.

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Engineer’s Week: Build a Skull Radio

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Have you ever wanted to listen to music without using your ears? Turn your own head into a speaker? The skull radio allows you to listen in total silence, by sending sound waves through your teeth! Join TOG and assemble a specially designed kit that allows you to hear sounds directly, using vibration.

This hands on workshop will cover the basic techniques of soldering. No electronics skills required. Participants must be at least 16 years old.

If you can’t wait to try out a skull radio, Jeffrey’s and Sinead‘s Guzman Box is on display in the Lexicon, Dún Laoghaire until the 24th of January.

 

 

When: Sunday, February 8th. From 2pm until 4pm.

Where: TOG.

Cost: €20 + fees for non-members, €16 + fees for members of a hackerspace. (All proceeds go to support TOG.) Tickets below.

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TOG open on Sat 27th December

get in hereBy Sat 27th December, after two days of Christmas festivities, hopefully you’ll be in the mood to get out and about. We’ll be opening up TOG from about 2PM until very very late. It will be open social style opening……just an excuse to come in, hang out, get some music on, call out for some food etc. If you’re around town, drop in for a break from the post Christmas shopping. The kettle will be on.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about coming in or even joining. It’s a great chance to see the space and what we’ve been up to in 2014. Whether you’re a member or visitor, its free to come in. We’ll be talking about plans and projects for 2015.  Hope to see you on the 27th. The craic will be mighty.