Category: Events

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Make Philly BBQ is this Sunday!

Get outside this Sunday, and spend some time with other makers, crafters, hackers, designers, and a lot of other ‘-er’s at Make:Philly’s summer BBQ. As usual there will be food (bring some of your own), frisbee, people hanging out, and Water Rockets. Bring your or, or make on on the spot using whatever happens to be lying around, and prepare to get soaked when you take your turn at the launcher.

If you were around last year, you got to play with The Wondergy team’s “Solar Smores” machine, a parabolic mirror perfect for toasting some mallow. They are bringing it back for this years BBQ, along with some new toys, like a trash-can launcher, that will send a trash can on a 20-50 foot flight.

In Short:
Sunday, August 8th, 1-3PM
Lemon Hill, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia
Kid Friendly: Yes
Food: Potluck – please bring something to share with 3-4 other people.
Water Rocket: Build yours at home and bring with you, along with a bottle of water

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Next HOPE is Next Weekend

The Next HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) conference is next weekend in NYC. Along with Hive76 helping with the Hackerspace Village and the OpenAMD project, there are a bunch of Hive related folks at the conference giving talks or on panels. Below is the quick list of some people you might have run into around Hive or in Philly who are presenting at HOPE and how they are related to our space.

Stephanie Alarcon (board member), Mitch Altman (workshop), Maggie Avener (workshop), Scott Beibin (local vj), Matt Blaze (UPenn professor), cpfr (project), Travis Goodspeed (philly local), Joey Mariano (local musician), Far McKon (officer), Don Miller(local musican), Christina “fabulous” Pei (visitor) , Tiffany Rad(visitor) , Pete Tridish (frequent visitor). And more!

Come to HOPE! Help with the Hackerspace Village! Meet interesting people, and hear about their project! See the RFID awesomesauce. There are still some tickets left, and it’s a train ride + two block from 30th Street Philly to Hotel Penn in NYC.

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The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers (TOOOL) visits Hive

The Open Organization Of Lockpickers (TOOOL) is a non-profit, public advocacy group that encourages people to learn about and play with locks. By understanding lockpicking, people can experience the thrill of an exciting and fun hobby and also be better consumers in the marketplace, basing purchasing decisions on hard fact as opposed to marketing promises.

This month’s meeting of the Mid-Atlantic chapter will take place at Hive76 on Tuesday the 22nd, 18:30. It’s open to all who wish to play and learn in an atmosphere of open disclosure and honest discourse.

Locks, picks, and other tools will be made available. Event open to all with a non-criminal interest in locks. Folks asking nefarious questions or hiding behind childish online nicknames will be asked to leave. 🙂

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Summer Project Day (Hackaton) on June 12

Everyone has cool projects they’ve not finished, or ones they’ve not made time to start yet. A Project Day (aka Hackaton) is a day to get together with friends, and finally get some of that stuff done. Have art to finish? A kit you want to build? Some software you need help on? Hive76 will be open 10AM to 10PM, so come by and get some quite, some help, and some comradeship as you work on whatever project you’ve wanted to finish. Little known facts about Hackatons:

  • People being too loud or just socializing will be politely asked to go hang out in the lobby.
  • Desk-sized whiteboards and some markers will be available to help in brainstorming.
  • We will have ‘quite please’ signs. Feel free to take one if you don’t want to be interrupted while you work.
  • If you just want to drop in and help, Hive76 will find something that fits your talents that can help the community.
  • A white board will be reserved for anyone to write what they are stuck on, to help people find tutors or helpers.
  • Lunch will be outside, at about 1PM, for about an hour. Get some sun!
  • People working on open source projects get free lunch!

(Photo CC and by Opacity of PS:One)

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Trenton Ave Arts Festival

2009 Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby (51)
With all of the excitement and planning taking place in preparation for the Trenton Ave Arts Festival, we forgot to post about it…

Our bad!

So, without further delay, I’d like to announce that Hive76 is going to be representin’ at our first all-day event, this Saturday, May 22nd!

“But what can I expect to see at booth #73?”

For starters, we’ll be teaching folks a little bit about electronic circuits and how to solder, so they can walk away with their very own, custom made in Philly, bike odometer/safety light!

“Seriously? Can it get any better?”

We’re Hive76. Of course it can! If the bike odometer isn’t your thing, how about a not-so-plain safety light? We’ll have an assortment of LED colors on hand to choose from to make a light that blinks at a rate related to how fast your riding!

“Cool! But I don’t like soldering irons, or batteries. What can I do?”

We’re going to have the amazing, vinyl-cutting Craft Robo! Custom cut vinyl stickers to make your sweet ride even sweeter?? Sweet! You’ll even have an assortment of colors to choose from!

“You all must really like bikes. Are you going to buy a 6 person bike with all our loot?”

We do like bikes! So much so, that all of the proceeds from this event are going to fund tech-centric bike classes for kids! This June, Hive76 and Neighborhood Bike Works are going to team up to offer cheap or free classes to kids where they will be making their own bike lights.

“Oh yeah? What else is going on?”

Well, there is a little something called the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby that will be right around the corner…

So be sure to come and check out the Hive76 booth this Saturday, May 22nd, at the Trenton Ave Arts Festival! Do it for the kids!

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Wikipedia Takes Philadelphia

This Sunday (April 11) at Noon a there is a Wikipedia scavenger hunt and photo shoot that is happening in and around Philadelphia. There is a huge list of places that need Wikipedia Photos around our city. The goal is to get as many of them photographed and into Wikipedia in a weekend, and get a better set of city photos up.

If you have a camera and want to run/walk/bike around and get some photos of the city. Sunday’s event would be a great time to do that.

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3 Hour Game Jam with GameDev.net

Next Saturday at Hive76 we will be hosting an international 3 hour game jam with gamedev.net. Contestants have 3 hours to complete a small game based on a secret theme, to be revealed at the beginning of the contest. This contest has a secondary requirement that all of the games have to be puzzle games.

Any programming language and API is acceptable, as long as it will run in some way (app or web app) on the judges 64-bit Windows Vista machine or their Mac Mini.

Third and second places are premium memberships (3 months and one year, respectively) to gamedev.net First prize is a $75 gift card for Amazon.com!

Organizer: Sean McBeth (Philip Fominykh at the assist)
More Information at : http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=566163
Saturday, April 10th, contest starts at 5:00PM

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Teardown and Take Apart Workshop (March 28th)

Image thanks to drewzhrodague (CC licensed)
Teardown and Take Apart is your chance to take something apart, to see how it works. Bring in your old electronics, typewriters, or other stuff, and we will (carefully) help you take it apart to see how it works. Do you have an old printer, computer, or fax machine at home you want to try to take apart? Want to look inside a printer and see what makes it work? This is your chance to mess with it, and check out what is inside.

Please come with gloves, goggles (if you have them) and your curiosity. This is a carry-in carry-out workshop, so be prepared to take home whatever you bring with you. We also reserve the right to stop folks from taking apart dangerous things, or to stop teardowns that can be health or safety issues.

This event is free, but a $5 to $10 donation is appreciated, depending on how much help we provided you in your quest for take-apart-fu.

This event is organized by Far McKon ( FarMcKon@gmail.com ) of Hive76. If you have questions, email him.

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Ignite Philly 5!

Have a short attention span? Like to get excited about things? Like to know what awesomeness is taking place right under your feet while enjoying a tasty local beer? Well, you’re in luck, because…

It’s that time again!

Ignite Philly will be making it’s fifth come around next week on Tuesday, March 2nd. Tickets are available for purchase at the low, low cost of $5, and I suggest you pick some up because these events fill up fast! (proceeds benefit an Ignite Philly alum, TBD)

From the Ignite Philly website…

“Ignite Philly is part of a worldwide network that entertains and educates people in short 5 minute bursts. Ignite Philly is the local group, and is our way to highlight great ideas coming to life here in Philadelphia.

Each presenter is on stage for  a total of 5 minutes (20 slides, at 15 seconds each slide). These talks are a ’spark’ if you will, they are lightening fast and leave people with a new idea to mull over and talk about.”

So buy your tickets, and head on over to Johnny Brenda’s next Tuesday!

Doors open at 6PM and the speakers begin at 7.