757 Labs A Hackerspace in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

21Oct/110

Hack the Whole Weekend

Posted by markg

Friday, Oct. 21: Open Hack Night
Saturday, Oct. 22: LAN party
Sunday, Oct. 23: Comic & Cartoon Creators
Monday, Oct. 24: Microcontroller Monday

Ready to get your geek on for a whole weekend? Come out to the lab and join in an event! Or join all the events!

We begin Friday with our monthly open house, or "Open Hack Night". This is a great opportunity to see the lab for the first time and take a tour. It's a very casual atmosphere where you can shoulder-surf members actively working on projects or just chill and discuss ideas. Sometimes there is a loosely-coordinated dinner/drinks outing to somewhere along nearby Granby Street. A few people might even start setting up for the next day's gaming event, which is...

Saturday is the LAN party, which usually begins around 1 PM, but may have even began the night before. BYOC (bring your own computer) and try to do all your downloading and patching at home before joining in on the festivities. Team Fortress 2 is the most popular game, especially since it's free, though other games are certainly welcome -- Diablo, Minecraft, Quake, you name it.

Feeling creative? 3 PM Sunday is the 757 Comic and Cartoon Creators meeting. Bring something to draw with.

And just when you think the weekend is over, it's Microcontroller Monday! Beginning at 7 PM, discussions will focus on everything microcontroller-related; from hardware to software. Beginners and advanced users are both welcome.

9Jan/111

Mata Hari pinball gets a leg up (actually 4)

Posted by markg

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).

Other plans include another electronic / MIDI music jam session, and another LAN party, both in February. Stay tuned.

23Nov/101

Just checking in with some updates

Posted by telmnstr

At HRGeeks ][ Matt Crainer gave a presentation on the progress of a laser pong game being developed.

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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.

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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.

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Also there are some new projects that are really active, props to Kyle! More public information on his work soon!

3Nov/104

CNC parts, Video, TF2 lanparty, ROV

Posted by telmnstr

ROV (underwater remote operated vehicle) project is underway. Check out the mailing list for more information.

CNC routing mill parts have arrived. The 60" axis and 35" axis parts should be ready to be built out.

Vex is working on the laser engraver controller.

There is talk of a TF2 lan party. Ping Mark G if interested!

New video recording system parts are mostly in. Still waiting on a few connectors and the final cameras. Will be programming the AMX for it this weekend.

Skillcrane is rocking (www.rocktheskillcrane.com.) It did close to 1000 plays yesterday.

31Oct/100

Members-Only Cookout

Posted by markg

The members-only cookout was a success! And by success, I mean, we managed to not burn-down anything.

The lab now has its own mini-grill, so we can look forward to future cookouts. The next one will probably in a few weeks, on a Saturday in the late afternoon. Also being planned is a LAN party, probably featuring Team Fortress 2, and possibly open to a small number of guests / non-members.