aaronsw Memorial Hackathon

On Saturday, February 2, 2013 from 11am – 11pm (planned) HacDC will be hosting one of many, self-organized, global hackathons to memorialize the late computer programmer, writer, political organizer, and Internet activist Aaron Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) (Wikipedia article)

Participants will be asked to advance solutions to issues that were near to Aaron’s heart.

Activities for the day will center on furthering work on his repositories, opening access to information belonging in the public domain, developing or contributing to countermeasures to Internet censorship, and exploring code-driven methods to enhance social justice through access to data.

Among the like-minded participating groups will figure HacDC’s resident Project Byzantium and the organizer and team from the District Commons project.

Those interested in participating should register via our MeetUp event.

Those wanting to arrive after 2pm should make note of our telephone number, 202-556-4225, to gain entry as the building will be locked. More location information on our homepage’s sidebar.

Participants are encouraged to bring food and drink and practice good neighborliness. There are a variety of carry out options available around Columbia Heights though some may suit individuals more than others. There may be a group purchase at some point(s) but nothing has been set as of this writing. We’ll update this post as needed.

Related: An event taking place on Capitol Hill, on Monday, 2/4/13, at 7pm, this event memorializes Aaron Swartz and seeks to raise awareness about the urgent changes that are needed in the CFAA. These changes are part of Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s draft “Aaron’s Law” (PDF here).

Raspberry Pi Roadshow Visits HacDC September 26 @ 7:30 pm

The Raspberry Pi Foundation presents the Raspberry Pi – an ARM GNU Linux development board for $25:

Talk:
RaspberryPi: Past, Present & Future – An introduction to the RaspberryPi, including an overview of its history and development, details on the technical specification and an outline of future developments with many cool tech demos along the way. Followed by a Q&A session.

Tech Demos:
A chance to demonstrate various OS’s, new revisions of the Pi and the latest add-on expansion hardware.

Workshop:
A Taste of RaspberryPi – A chance to play with the RaspberryPi hands-on.

Show & Tell / Prizes:
An opportunity to display RaspberryPi projects from the community with prizes for notable projects.

This event, as with all HacDC events, is free and open to the public.

For more information about Raspberry Pi: http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Robotcast Video Podcast on the HacDC RepRap Build-a-Thon

HacDC RepRap on Robotcast

Wow!  HacDC friend Carl Leonard has done it again!  His most recent (and always fantastic) “Robotcast” video podcast is all about the RepRap Build-a-Thon we had at the HacDC space last month.  Great video of a bunch of interesting and enthusiastic folks building robots, with a surprise appearance by Adrian Bower.  It is kind of a music video for hardcore hackers, and nicely shows off the space and people of HacDC.  Thanks and props to Carl for sharing it with us and the world!

Live Balloon Photography TODAY

When you want aerial imagery from below 1,000 feet, a tethered balloon is the obvious solution. Hang a few high-res cameras from it and see the area from a unique perspective!

Weather permitting, Curt Westergard of AirPhotosLive will be at the HacDC space around 3:00 pm today (Saturday, July 5th) to demonstrate his aerostat photography rig. Come learn how it works, visit the space, and hang out! We’ll have a fridge full of cold drinks.