Synchronous Hackathon

Its that time of the month again. The 9th Synchronous Hackathon is on this weekend Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th. The space will be open to all from  about 12.03pm until late each day. Its a great chance for anyone with a project to come long and work on or just for a chat.

Some on going projects, home brew CNC, Maker bot ,  lasagna or if there sun a bbq, firewall, Spark & RISC servers.

Trip West to 091labs

Last weekend members headed west to visit the new 091labs hackerspace in Galway. They moved into their space only four weeks ago. They’re making great progress growing their members and setting up their new space. They have a community night on Tuesdays and a projector night on Sundays. They have loads of ways to contact them, on their website 091labs.com, on boards.ie and there twitter feed. While in 091labs the TOG members helped out running two soldering workshops for the people of Galway in the space. The workshops were well received with all involved learning to solder to a reasonable  level. If your in Galway check them out, they’re a great group of people.

RFID Group

There has been some interest within TOG and also from visitors about regarding a technology that is pushing its way into our lives more and more each month. From transport ticketing systems, access control in workplaces and even in our very own passports, all contains a contactless smart card technology known as RFID.

OpenPCD and OpenPICC

So to start off I want to try get people interested together and see if we can arrange a regular meeting playing with RFID devices, exchanging knowledge and maybe collaborating on some projects. We will meet this Thursday, 15th July 2010, from 7pm to 10pm (to get our buses home). If we have a enough people together and a need to , we will try to start a bi-weekly meet-up. This is not a workshop, we are meeting to discuss the technology. A workshop might me considered in the future if there is a need for it.

Please bring your readers, writers and RFID cards that you would like to show. Some of the known devices within the group include OpenPCD, OpenPICC, Proxmark, TouchaTag (previously TikiTag) and OmniKey readers. If you have any more please bring them along with you. Any non members attending please send me a message so we can expect you. (contact form below)

Hope to see you there

Jester
Continue reading “RFID Group”

Craft Night!


*puts on ringmaster hat*
Roll up, roll up, ladies and gentlemen. Hot off the presses, TOG will be having it’s first, yes first, Craft Night! This coming Tuesday (13th July) from 7pm ’til late. The event is free, yes, won’t cost you a dime, and is open to non-members, so bring one, bring all!

Inside the ‘Classroom’ (second door on the left) in the larger, better, whiter, newest TOG premises you’ll find plenty to amaze and astound the most jaded modernist. Any form of craft is welcome, from textile crafts, to paper crafts, to anything else you care for. Specifically on the agenda is Drawing, Painting, Knitting, Sewing, Embroidery, and that’s just the ones we know for sure. Whether you’re into Woodwork, Metalwork, making shoes, making jewelery, making candles, making bags, making clothes, okay, so, simply making ANYTHING, we’d like to see you there. Bring whatever you’re working on, get some more done, or simply show-off a little.

We’ll have sewing machines (and even an overlocker/or serger to our North American friends) set up, and plenty of thread on offer, so if sewing is your thing we have you covered. We mightn’t have other specifics available, but that’s all the more reason to come along. Come, tell us what you’re into, and if we have the numbers we’ll set about sorting you out. One thing we have for sure is space, and a shared desire to make and remake.

Speaking of numbers, the ‘Classroom’ only holds about 12 people, so that’s our limit. If you’re interested in coming along and meeting other crafters then please send us an email below.

Also, if you’re just looking for inspiration or maybe for a new hobby to pick up, come take a look. There will be some books, and all ten issues of Craft: Magazine around for flicking through. Never know what might spark your interest! This event is a one-time only affair, so make sure you don’t miss out. (*whispers* If we get the numbers we will see about a more regular event, but for now it’s just the one.)

*EDIT*
We’re sorry, but we’re full! No spaces left for Tuesday. Let us know if you’re disappointed and that will encourage us to hold another one soon.

If you want to just come and have a look around and hang out that should be okay as there’s a Social Night on in the space as well, so plenty of people to talk to. But please, still let us know that you’re coming, we don’t want anyone getting lost!

Continue reading “Craft Night!”

Open Social – 1st July – Huge Success :-)

A big thanks to everyone who came to last nights social night. We discovered during the evening (Thanks Rob) that we have officially had the keys for our new home for 1 month and what better way to celebrate that by having a few drinks and watching a movie.

We watched Sneakers ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/ ) last night with the projector on one of our newly painted walls and it worked quite well. We had 6 visitors to the space last night and it was great to show people around the space after so much hard work has gone into making it our new home.

Our Social nights are always great ways to check out the space as well as have a chat with a few of our members and get a feel for what we want to do with the space. As usual, we have events on in the space during the weeks ahead and the list is always growing. I even got a few ideas for some bi-weekly/monthly group nights and I’ll try ask about these on the list next week. RFID and/or lock picking anyone? 🙂