The Collexion Newsletter

Nikolai Warner

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Oct 21, 2009, 1:28:27 PM10/21/09

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The Collexion Newsletter - 2009.10.21

:: COLLEXION HACKINGS ::

TONIGHT! => 10/21 - 6:00pm - Collexion Meeting @ Third Street Stuff (257 N Limestone St)
Come hack and chat about rad new stuff. Everyone's invited. Bring a friend/laptop.

TOMORROW => 10/22 - 7:30pm - Ruby Users Group - HackNite Build-A-Bed @ Third Street Stuff (257 N Limestone St)
The Ruby Users Group is building a website on Rails for a local Non-Profit. Come learn some ruby and work on an amazing open-source project for a good cause.

FRIDAY! => 10/23 - 1:00pm - "Collexion + Friends" Lunch Meetup @ Bangkok house (275 Ave of Champions)
Hang out with the dudes and dudettes of Collexion for lunch. bangkokcrunkin.

10/27 - 7:30pm - Flashcoders @ Elevation Studio (839 National Ave)
The local flash users group does it with actionscript.

10/29 - 7-9pm - Ubunutu 9.10 Launch Party! @ Woodland Computers (507 E High St Lexington)
For context, refer to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cX4t5-YpHQ
In a lot of ways, it's just a normal party with Ubuntu 9.10 as an honored guest. Throw on your favorite pastel-polo and bring your mom or grandma... apparently they LOVE operating systems!
Any you know what's great? It's going to be totally informal.

11/6-11/7 - 9pm to 9am - "Buildycrunkin #1: Hocus Focus" @ 3rd Street Stuff (257 N Limestone St)
ALL NIGHT free funfest at 3rd Street Stuff. Collexion members will be there hacking, as well as local knitters, gamers, readers, students, artists jammin on some creativity.
See the attached flyer.

More Coming Soon:
10/28 - 6:00pm - Collexion Meeting @ Third Street Stuff
10/30 - 1:00pm - "Collexion + Friends" Lunch Meetup

:: ANNOUNCEMENTS ::

1) Starting in November: The Collexion Book Club (official name TBA) will be choosing the first book (probably Flatland). More info coming soon. Contact Steev H. if you want to join or have ideas.

2) Interested in video games? We're starting up a Lexington chapter of the ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association), an advocacy organization for consumers of interactive entertainment (aka video gamers rights). More info here: www.theeca.com/. Contact Nick W. if you want to join or have ideas.

:: COMMUNITY EVENTS ::

All November - National Novel Writing Month
Some of our members will be participating this year. Some have actually won in past years. Perhaps you could write a novel about dudes who use their computer skills to find evidence about a supervirus while being pursued by the Secret Service and an evil computer genius.
More info: http://www.nanowrimo.org

:: RESOURCES ::

The Collexion Website: http://collexion.net
Kentucky Ruby Users Group: http://kyrug.org/
Lexington Flash Coders Group: http://lexingtonflashcoders.com/
The Bluegrass Amateur Radio Society: http://www.bluegrassars.org/

:: QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/SUBMISSIONS ::

Have an announcement, event, idea, or hack to submit for the next newsletter? Email ni...@nwarner.com

Nikolai Warner

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Oct 21, 2009, 1:44:18 PM10/21/09

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Here's the flyer for Buildycrunken. Get pumped.
-N

--
nikolai warner
director of research and development | TAO Experimental Media Lab
http://www.taoagency.com | http://www.nwarner.com
o:857.488.4525 | m:859.619.6638

buildycrunken.pdf

Dave

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Oct 21, 2009, 2:46:26 PM10/21/09

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--- On Wed, 10/21/09, Nikolai Warner <nickw...@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Nikolai Warner <nickw...@gmail.com>
> Subject: The Collexion Newsletter - 2009.10.21
> To: coll...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 1:28 PM
> The Collexion Newsletter -
> 2009.10.21
>
> :: COLLEXION HACKINGS ::
>
> TONIGHT! => 10/21 - 6:00pm - Collexion Meeting @ Third
> Street Stuff (257 N Limestone St)

Cool. I'm planning on showing up again tonight, with those plotters I
mentioned a while back, since there has been some interest in them. I pulled
them out of the storage warehouse last last night, just on the chance that
someone might want them. I think they work, but it's been years since I've
done anything with them. So, even if they don't, well, hey, the price is
right: free! Oh, and the dust on them is included at no extra charge. ;-)

I don't have the pens, but there appear to be quite a few on e-bay (Search on
"HP plotter pen".). Also, I believe that it's possible to refill the pins, but I
haven't actually tried this myself, so some trial and error experimentation
may be needed to find an ink with the correct viscosity, drying characteristics,
etc. It may also be possible to hack the pen holder such that it will work with
an alternative pen (e.g., a Sharpie). Someone with some plastic modding
experience would be required, though.

One of the things I had thought about doing with them is to replace the pen
with a focused/collimated LED to produce a photo-plotter, replacing the
paper with film. I also toyed with the idea of using a UV LED and directly
plotting on to a photosensitizied PC board, but never got past the thinking
part (Too many fun projects, not enough fun time.).

I'll also bring my LED light bulb. It would be nice if some one can bring a
lamp to screw it into (standard "Edison" base), since I don't have an extra
lamp that I can bring (since I'm at work, and forgot to bring a lamp in from
home).

> Come hack and chat about rad new stuff. Everyone's invited. Bring a
> friend/laptop.

I don't do laptops. A computer isn't a real computer unless it weighs 30,000
pounds or more (Hey, think I'm kidding? Look up the specifications for the
IBM 3090 mainframe series! And, yes, I once had an IBM 3090-600J machine
as a "personal" computer! NICE!). ;-)

Dave

Dave

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Oct 22, 2009, 11:08:51 AM10/22/09

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At the meeting last night, I mentioned that I'd provide some links. For the book
club, I mentioned that I know author Dr. Clifford Pickover. Here's a link to some
of his books (and, yes, some of them are "out there"!):

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/bookscp.html

His home page is at:

http://www.pickover.com/

I've worked with Cliff (off and on) for over 20 years, including collaborating with
him on some of the patents we have.

As for Forrest M. Mims, III, he's currently the editor of "The Citizen Scientist",
which is the monthly publication of the Society of Amateur Scientists:

http://www.sas.org

His personal web-page is at:

http://www.forrestmims.org/

He has a new book coming out entitled "Fifty Years of Monitoring a Changing Atmosphere: The Story of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory". It should be hitting the presses momentarily.

Dave