Posts

Posted on

Lower membership rate

Before the party last week TOG held it’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2011. After reviewing the treasurer’s report for 2010 and some discussion, the group has decided to reduce the standard membership rate to €45 per month (down from €50), the starving hacker rate will stay at €30 per month.

TOG has established itself as a charitable organisation and is non-commercial and not-for-profit. Our intention is that our membership fee will be set so that it covers our operating costs. Our operating costs include rent, insurance, fees, electricity, gas, internet, etc.

Since moving to our new space in June 2010 our operating costs and membership income have now stabilised. So we are now at a point where we can start reducing the standard rate which has be set at €50 since we first began collecting money early in 2009. As more members come in, we hope to continue this process.

Posted on

Engineers Week 2011

We’re participating in Engineers Week again this year (14th-20th February) with our regular activities and some special events.

Monday, 14th of February, 19:00- 22:00 – Electronics and Micro controller Group Night – 555 Timer Intro
Tuesday, 15th of February, 19:30- 21:30 – Arduino 101 – Learn to Blink
 Wednesday, 16th of February, 19:00- 22:00 – Computing/Networking/Programming Group Night – OS Install Demo
Thursday, 17th of February, 19:00- 22:00 – Geodesic domes and IPv6 – Open Social Night
Saturday, 19th February 2011, 10:30-14:00 – Soldering Workshop Sold Out
Sunday, 20th February 2011, 11:00-17:00 – LED Dot Matrix Display Workshop

The weekend of the 19th and 20th is also a Synchronous Hackathon weekend running each day from 11:00 to late. So we’ll be participating in the Global Hackerspace Challenge which will be announced within a week. Update: The challenge involves submiting an entry to the 555 Contest. We’re hoping for have a small 555 night on the Monday to introduce people to the wonders of 555 timer IC.

All the weekday events and hackathon are free, the workshops have a cost and the challenge might have a small materials cost/donation. All the events are targeted at adults and mature older teens.

Posted on

TOG is two!

Today is the two year anniversary of the announcement of TOG on the Irish Linux User Group mailing list. So to celebrate our birthday we are going to have a party on the anniversary of the first meeting.

The party will be in our space on Saturday January 29th starting 7:30 pm, this is a free event and BYOB.

So we can keep an eye on the numbers please post a comment below if you going to attend.

Posted on

Cupcake Challenge (Result)

Our cupcake arrived in The Perth Artifactory, here’s the video of the results.

The scores were very generous thanks, even though the postal system didn’t result in the cupcake arriving in the best condition.

They also have blog post about it here.

Update.

The cupcake from Alpha One Labs arrived and here is the opening video. We’ve also added some photos to the gallery.

Posted on

The Cupcake Challenge – TOG’s Cupcake

The Cupcake Challenge – The flour dust has settled in TOG and the result is one cupcake winging it’s way to Australia.

After trying a recommend cupcake recipe with mediocre results we tried a recipe using the chiffon method and we were very happy. In the end for the cake we went with a chocolate flavouring using cocoa powder and a lot of melted chocolate. The frosting was an Italian style buttercream flavoured with melted chocolate. The buttercream was then piped onto the top of the cupcake. The decoration was a mint flavoured fondant icing which we shaped into a shamrock.

Weighing up the options for the packaging we decided to go all out and protect the frosting. We suspend the cupcake through the cake base using wooden skewers. The skewers were in a crossed shape with a piece of cardboard used to keep the shape stable. The cupcake and skewers were wedged firmly into a plastic container used for pre-made soups. Using some bubble-wrap to fill the remaining space. The plastic container was then wrapped in more bubble-wrap and packed into large box.

The resulting package was 28x20x18 cm and weight less then 500g. We found that the international courier service from An Post the national postal service and DHL was the cheapest at only €50, where the other international providers were more then €100. One issue with this service was that due to recent terrorist activity with printer cartridges, package contents need to be inspected before they can be sent. So the postal lady undid some of the careful work we did to package our cupcake.

Now the main concern which we could do nothing about is that its southern hemisphere summer in Australia and the buttercream frosting is unlikely to survive the high temperatures.

Some more photos of the cupcake and packaging are available on the gallery.