Snowcon 2011 Begins
The moose is out in force, and the ground is covered in white. It's Shmoocon time again, and we're here to cause our usual stir. From an umbrella that looks like a Katana, to a grape soda delivering bomb disposal robot, heads are already turning.
Registration was smooth, and we're less than 30 minutes away from opening talks. A lot of familiar faces, and a brief visit to ReverseSpace has this years geek fest off to a good start.
Looking forward to the friends, the parties, the mindless goofing off, oh yeah and the talks too.
RockTheSlot.com – Internet connected IGT Slot Machine
Inspired by the internet connected claw machine, Kyle has built an internet connected slot machine. But it's not what you might think. There is no money flow in or out of the machine. The machine is connected to a host PC (running Linux) and allows software on the PC to command the machine to play. It also reads out any pay outs from the slot machine, and tricks the machine into thinking that the coins were paid out (there are no coins in the machine.) With every play an entry hits a SQL database logging the play, and any payout that may have occurred. Thousands and thousands of plays later there is data to be played with. Live video of the machine is also streamed onto the internet via the machines web page, and visitors can claim a spin of their own. Nothing is payed out, it's all in the name of fun and numbers. Information on the last plays is reported on a flat panel display that was repaired at the lab (thanks Jerry!) so that those curious can look in and see how it's going.
Kudos to Kyle for a job well done on a unique project!
More project information is in our wiki page about the project.
MAGFest (Jan 13th+) and Frostfest (Feb 5th)
Some members of the lab will be at MAGFest in Alexandria this weekend manning a table that will be representing Hampton Roads to a crowd of possibly 3000 people. We've done behind the scenes work for this years MAGFest including the InvisoFrogger frogger arcade hack, and some work to get past security measures on the Arkanoid arcade game board to get it to display custom made levels. InvisoFrogger has the frog removed for more difficulty, and some custom text.
Also of interest is the Frostfest ham fest in Richmond on February 5th. It sounds like it's going to be pretty large. We're hoping to get a table once again to represent the creative wizardry going on in Hampton Roads. www.frostfest.com has more information on the hamfest. I'm thinking we will bring information from our high altitude balloon project.
Flyers will end up at Shmoocon in DC. If anyone is interested in doing a video stream watching event at the lab, speak up on the mailing list.
And later this year in June it will be off to Maker Faire in Raleigh, NC. Another exciting event!
More info on that as it nears.
Mata Hari pinball gets a leg up (actually 4)
Ethan, MarkG, and Matt got the legs mounted on the Mata Hari pinball. Later, when DJ Mike arrived, we went to Cogan's Pizza for dinner, where we discussed plans for our upcoming MAGFest road trip. At MAGFest, we plan on setting-up a vendor table to promote the hackerspace, and maybe the radio station project.
There was also talk of a lab members-only meeting the following weekend (Saturday, January 22, 2011 around 6:00 PM EST), followed by an open hack night (8:00 PM EST until whenever).
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- Matt mounts rear legs on the Mata Hari pinball
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- Ethan mounts front legs on the Mata Hari pinball
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- Ethan mounts front legs on the Mata Hari pinball
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- Matt mounts rear legs on the Mata Hari pinball
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- Matt mounts rear legs on the Mata Hari pinball
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- Matt mounts rear legs on the Mata Hari pinball
Other plans include another electronic / MIDI music jam session, and another LAN party, both in February. Stay tuned.
Hackerspace vpn network
During my visit to FAMiLab space in Orlando, there was some talk of standing up some VPNs between spaces. I think this is an interesting idea, and think we should participate. But it raises a few issues regarding security. 757 Labs already has at least 4 separate networks, and I don't think it would be a good idea to introduce foreign traffic into any of them. But it would be possible to stand up a couple of new VPNs to help support the idea of a hackerspace network.
That talk with FAMiLab was a hostile network (for CTF type events) and a non-hostile network. I can see running some simple services on something small and low powered to contribute to the non-hostile network. Perhaps share video and audio content from our meetings and such. Any other thoughts on fun things that could be done with such a network?
Ruby/Python meetup videos
We recorded the last Ruby meetup, and it's on Vimeo for those interested. We recorded a most excellent presentation by Jeremy Demar about pcap processing with python, and unfortunately something went wrong and there is no audio. We've got things down to a science now, and in the future there should be many more presentations from the lab.
International visitor, MakerFaire NC, etc
Sorry we've been slow updating the blog. There is a bunch of stuff coming rapidly. This is one of many posts coming.
In November the lab had a visitor from the Netherlands who did a tour of hackerspaces around America. He did an interview of some 757 Labs members and spoke about it on his podcast. You can listen here. More info here..
We've got visitors coming in Febrary from Michigan to check out our space. They are bringing an interesting project.
June 18th is Maker Faire in NC at the State Fairgrounds. 757 Labs plans to be there representing Hampton Roads! If you have ideas of projects to build or bring, let's talk!
More updates coming shortly.
Open hack night, Saturday, December 18, 2010
We are having an open hack night on Saturday, December 18, 2010. It will last from the afternoon, well into the night. Everyone is welcome -- bring a friend!
For new visitors: we are located at the corner of Bute & Duke streets in Norfolk, VA. Free parking is located behind the building, and there is also a city parking garage across the street (the York Street Garage) which has paid parking.
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- left-to-right: Mike (guest), Harold, Ethan, & Mark (guest)
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- Harold & Ethan troubleshoot a flat-panel TV
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- Ethan samples a 1970’s-era drum machine
More updates
Kyle has successfully connected a real IGT slot machine to a computer running Linux. The computer plays the game (simulating quarters) and records the payout (if any) to a SQL database. Soon the game will be online for people to play (not for money), and more importantly to record and calculate the odds of winning. Pretty neat stuff, and the whole project has progressed very rapidly.
The co2 laser has arrived for the engraver.
Some work has started to build an online radio station that will play music from Hampton Roads. Right now things are being worked out with the automation system. Next up will be the streaming system and web page. Then soliciting for content.
Donkey Kong has been repaired, Ms Pac-Man has been moved to a switchmode power supply and will hopefully be stable.
Just checking in with some updates
At HRGeeks ][ Matt Crainer gave a presentation on the progress of a laser pong game being developed.
Our friend Ken Kurzweil donated a real, industrial robot arm to the lab. It's made by American Robot and is a Merlin model. We're a bit of parts from making it work, but we know where we have to go to make it run! This is an exciting addition to the lab.
The Lan party was a new diversion from working on projects. It was fun, but won't be an every-month occurrence. I'm thinking we had 14 people playing.
Also there are some new projects that are really active, props to Kyle! More public information on his work soon!
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User Groups
- 757 CCC Comic & Cartoon Creators
- 757 Objective C Group Objective C and Cocoa programming group.
- 757 Python Users Group
- 757.rb Ruby Users Group
- HR Geeks Hampton Roads Geek Community