HacDC

LET’S BUILD A ROBOT FOR THE 4 TH USA SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FESTIVAL 2016.

We are designing a ROBOT & you can help! If you do not know how to build a robot come & learn with us! We need ideas for: Stable & compact design, movement techniques, functional components, its mission, strategies, and how to make it fun.

Thursday, March 24th, 6:30pm to 9:30pm at HacDC.

We can begin using ImplicitCAD: https://kalli1.faikvm.com/ImplicitCAD/Stable

The 4th USA Science & Engineering Festival is the largest STEM education event of its kind in the USA, hosting over 10,000 attendees at the Washington DC Convention Center and many more at satellite events nationwide. HacDC will be there showing off HacDC projects, tools and our community of hackers.

Following our monthly members’ meeting, HacDC member Bobby regaled us with a brief introduction to nuclear physics from hydrogen and its isotopes thru nobelium and whatever #110 is called. Naturally occurring nuclear reactors, light water reactors, heavy water reactors, fast breeder reactors and the search for ever heavier elements!

Marty Pittinger, KB3MXM will be speaking at HacDC on Wednesday, March 9th at 7:30 pm.  Marty is the Section Manager for the American Radio Relay League.

Last week the FBI invoked the All Writs Act of 1789 to compel Apple to assist the FBI in accessing encrypted data on the iPhone of the San Bernadino shooters. Apple is refusing and appealing, arguing the request is burdensome, a violation of its free speech rights and that its compliance would undermine the security of all iPhones and that it would set a bad legal precedent worldwide.

The Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) requires phone companies and internet providers to enable lawful wiretapping in their systems. The next version of CALEA may require messaging app publishers (Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, BlackBerry, etc) to incorporate a similar wiretap capability. Most security experts say such a ‘back door’ would be a boon to criminals and foreign governments.

Encryption protects innocent people from criminals, criminals from prosecution, victims from abusers, journalists from repressive governments, foreign adversaries from security agencies and vice-versa, all at the same time. Join us for a discussion of the technical, legal, international and maybe even philosophical aspects of easy-to-use default encryption for the masses.

Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30pm. 1525 Newton St NW #212 (inside St. Stephen’s).