Category Archives: Workshop

Free event: Introduction to Online Security

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Saturday 24 January 2015
3:15 pm – 7:15 pm

By: https://www.flickr.com/photos/intersectionconsulting/

Every week we hear about new hacks and bugs affecting individuals, companies or entire countries. Come spend an afternoon with us discussing the basics of how the Internet works, how its weaknesses are abused, and how individuals, developers, companies and governments can do their part to keep us safer online. Talks will be aimed at people with little or no IT background to introduce basic concepts of internet security, prompt discussion of recent news stories and recurring issues in online security and provide a foundation for future learning.

Topics introduced will include: Bad guys: who they are, what they want and how they get it. Security on public and private WiFi. Internet routing and website names (DNS). Introduction to cryptography. Website certificates. Email encryption. Signed messages and signed software.

RSVP (optional) via the event’s page at meetup.com

Image by intersectionconsulting (CC BY-NC)

The 2nd Annual HacDC CryptoParty is Nov 16

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cryptoparty

Date: 16 Nov 2013
Time: 4 – 10pm
Place: 1525 Newton St NW
Washington DC 20010
(16th St entrance)

Subscribe to HacDC’s CryptoParty list for more interactive info and updates.

The HacDC CryptoParty will cover topics aimed at helping you keep your data safe by learning how to use basic cryptography tools to protect the content of your data and — of particular interest because of recent revelations— to thwart common forms of surveillance.

Like most of us, your life is probably pretty normal and of course you have nothing to hide. You may even think that allowing the government to read citizens’ email is the price we all have to pay for security.

But what if increased surveillance actually doesn’t keep us safer? What if the mere specter of surveillance suppresses your free expression? And what if you do have something that you want to keep private — for instance your sexual orientation, health status, political views, or that you’ve decided to stop practicing your religion?

Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom. —Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo

Continue reading “The 2nd Annual HacDC CryptoParty is Nov 16” »

NPR Segment on ArduSat features HacDC Summer School!

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NanoSatisfi's ArduSatHacDC’s Summer School 2013 was featured a few days ago in a NPR story by Geoff Brumfiel about the upcoming ArduSat launch. ArduSat is an Arduino-enabled satellite that you can buy time on to run your own Arduino-powered extra-terrestrial experiments that make use of the nanosatellite’s “STANDARD sensor package.” Read more about it and listen here (includes workshop photographs by NPR’s Heather Rousseau):

Tiny Tech Puts Satellites In Hands Of Homebrew Designers

ArduSat image 2013 © NanoSatisfi, Inc

HacDC Summer School 2013

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Attendees at Summer School 2013 kickoff kit-buildHacDC Summer School 2013 is doing a whiplash, 4-workshop tour of physical computing using Arduino, Processing and Sparkfun’s Danger Shield. A group of curious attendees, many from non-technical backgrounds that range from law and philosophy to the arts, have learned to solder by assembling the Danger Shield (DS). The DS is an ideal learning project and fits in perfectly with the free series’ exploration of physical computing. It has a variety of input/output devices and is well suited for simulating the kind of sensing and control of the physical environment that makers need for their home brewed projects and media art.
Soldering during Summer School 2013 kickoff kit-build
The workshops have covered soldering, the basics of Arduino programming and interfacing, a crash course on programming in the astoundingly great environment of Processing, and next week’s closing workshop will tie it all together when they will use the DS via Arduino to manipulate live video capture.

This popular series was designed and developed by a handful of HacDC members and we hope to eventually offer it online. It will complement a curriculum on physical computing with a follow-up workshop series on microcontroller programming and a lead-in series on basic electronics. Join our MeetUp Group to stay informed about future sessions.

Feel free to visit HacDC if you want to learn about all aspects of DIY electronics and programming, or to work on your own projects. We have a range of equipment that can help you make stuff!

Awesome photos by doubly awesome HacDC member, MissionControl! (Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)