Scheming, Dreaming, and Programming with SICP

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Schemers is a study group for those interested in exploring Structure and Interpretations of Computer Programming (SICP), an introductory Computer Science textbook used by MIT. Not only is the entire textbook available online for free, but it has some rather zealous fanboys and fangirls.

From Stack Overflow:

SICP, however, is in a different league. It is a book that will enlighten you. It will evoke in you a passion for writing beautiful programs. Moreover, it will teach you to recognize and appreciate that very beauty. It will leave you with a state of awe and an unquenchable thirst to learn more. Other books may make you a better programmer; this book will make you a programmer.

Our study group will be going through the book and meeting every other Tuesday at 7:30pm starting next week Tuesday, May 22. For the first meeting, we will be setting up testing environments and discussing Section 1.1. You should read the section and take a stab at the exercises before the meeting. Check out the Meetup event for more details and to sign up!

Become an Original Member of HARC May 9

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Next week Wednesday, May 9 is your chance to become an original member of HacDC’s Amateur Radio Club (HARC)! The club-within-a-club will be getting their ARRL paperwork signed, voting for club officers, and affirming their constitution and bylaws.

If that’s not enticing enough for you, HARC will also include Frank Hunleth and Bill Babson presenting on their Nerves project, which they host using a BeagleBone. What is Nerves, you ask? Nerves is an embedded Linux based environment for running Erlang, a programming language highly suited for communications applications requiring high availability. Their talk will explore uses in ham radio applications.

The meeting will begin at 7:30pm at HacDC. HARC encourages you to RSVP to the event on Meetup if you know you’re going to attend.

HacDC Rocks SciFest

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Last weekend, HacDC hosted a booth in the USA Science and Engineering Festival at the DC Convention Center. HacDC members who volunteered at the booth report that festival participants kept them plenty busy throughout the duration of the festival. Thank you to everyone who stopped by!

The HacDC booth demonstrated a variety of gadgets including a 3D Printer, the chassis of Spaceblimp 5 (or, “This lunchbox has been to space!”), a montage of beautiful Spaceblimp photos, a pen plotter writing portraits of people, various LED hacks, and a tank of water with a bubble ring generator.

A picture of our booth at the fest in case you missed it. Not quite the same, but we try.

I asked the volunteers and festival attendees to tell me about things they saw that they found particularly interesting:

  • Baby hacking, or in other words, how babies learn to distinguish speech sounds that are present within the language of their environment.
  • Ever want your own personal submarine? (Only if it comes with a periscope, right? Same here.) The Personal Submersibles Organization has one that is light enough that it can be carried on a trailer and lowered into the water on a ramp.
  • Extracting Banana DNA and wearing it on a necklace was a highlight.
  • As one member said, “There was probably something for every kind of geek.”

It sounds like everyone had a great time and we’re looking forward to attending more festivals in the future!

HacDC Lightning Talks V: Call for Speakers

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HacDC Lightning Talks are back! Our fifth round of talks will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 9, 2012, in the auditorium at St. Stephen’s Church (1525 Newton St. NW, Washington, DC). Twelve speakers will talk for five minutes each on a wide range of topics – in the past we’ve had talks ranging from digital signal processing and DIY cyborg implants to the best food near HacDC and the evolution of death. Anything is fair game, and hey, five minutes goes by in a flash - anyone can do this!

To submit a talk topic proposal, please email hidden; JavaScript is required with a title and brief description.

Why would you want to do a lightning talk?

  • To show off a project
  • Let people know what you’re into
  • Get feedback on an idea
  • Practice talking about a particular topic
  • Practice public speaking in a nonthreatening way
  • Find project contributors/volunteers/members

We’ll have a projector, microphone, and speakers set up. You’re welcome to use (or eschew) any visual aids, including slides and physical objects. We would like to record (video and still photography) talks when speakers are amenable, but if you’d rather not
have your talk recorded, you may opt out and give an off-the-record talk.