Category: Hackerspaces

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What the heck is growing in your window??

We here at the Hive are (un?)fortunate enough to have two large windows that don’t seem to want to stay open (read: safety hazard). What are we supposed to do with stuff that doesn’t work the way it should? Use it for something else, of course!

We are looking to increase some of our greenery and reduce our grocery bills by growing food and herbs at the space. Now, with your pizza or burrito, you can enjoy a fresh picked geek salad!

Though the build specifics(?) still need to be hashed out, you can be sure to see some plants in our 5th story windows this spring.

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Giant Operation Game at The Franklin Jan 30th

Giant Operation board by Hive76 and Make:PhillyMake:Philly folks and Hive76 got together back in November and December to build a GIANT version of the board game Operation for an event they were having. We spent 3-4 weekends working on it, and got some nifty coverage of it by Tango-Echo ‘zine.

The project was for a Body Words 2 event at The Franklin Institute back in December. Unfortunately, the event got snowed out that weekend when we got a (mini) snow storm.

We just got notice that the event has been put back on the calendar for Jan 30th. The kids will be playing the board game ‘Operation’ form 11AM to 1PM, with the final round being played on our GIANT Operation board we built! Come on out, check out what we make and do!

Summary:
Operation Event, with Make:Philly & Hive76 GIANT Operation Board
Saturday Jan 30th from 11AM to 1PM
The Franklin Institute
222 N. 20th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

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Far McKon speaking at PACS on Saturday

Far McKon and Digital Snowart at 26C3
Far McKon and Digital Snowart at 26C3

Through some kind of GROSS error on their part (do they know what they are getting into?) I’m going to be speaking at Philadelphia Area Computer Society (aka PACS ) this weekend. I have no idea how or why I got through their sanity filters, but there is my name, on the schedule for a talk.

I’m going to be talking about Hackerspaces, how they relate to Software Libre and distributed software projects, and why the are going to take over the world (peacefully). I’m going to have a blast talking, and I hope I’m entertaining to the folks listening.

If anyone wants to come watch me make a fool of myself in person, the meeting is at the Community Center at the Super Giant Food Store of Willow Grove, and my talk starts at 12 Noon, and there is great stuff before and after it.

If you want to come and are not a member, You’ll probably need to grab a guest pass (from the right sidebar). Hopefully this is a first step in Hive76 and PACS working together on great stuff around Philly!

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Party Photos

Here are some very pink, and very blurry photos I took at our super rad party (The more beer I had, the blurrier they got I think..)

We hope you see you at the next one.

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Hive’s first Board of Directors!

Hive76 has got gotten in the results of it’s first round of elections for Board of Directors. I, for one, welcome our insect overlords. The Board (in general) does overseeing and big-picture naval-gazing for a group(wikipedia explains it a bit better), and Hive elected a great group of people watch our collective navel(s).

Our Board is:
Adam E – Is an active member of Hive76, and has a pretty great weblog about making things.

Jack Zylkin –  A founder of Hive76,  Jack is an inventor who makes laser trip-wires, tesselated puzzles, synaesthetic synthesizers, manual cnc machines, and the like. He graduated Drexel University with a BS in Electrical Engineering in 2008 but is old for his age.  He cares deeply about conserving fossil fuels.  His interests include bicycles, jazz fusion, chinese food, and funny hats. He has taught classes for Hive76 and the Hacktory concerning chocolate mold-making, talking gift cards, singing pencils, and DIY guitar pedals.

Jordan Miller – (@jmil) is a founder of Hive76, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. His research combines chemistry and rapid prototyping to direct cultured human cells to form more complex organizations of living vessels and tissues. Jordan has been a member of Hive76 since it’s inception and spearheaded the fundraising, assembly, and maintenance of our MakerBot, 3D-PO.

Steph – Is pleased as punch to serve on the board. She’s a Unix/Linux admin by trade, treehugger by training, and tinkerer by habit. She will preach about environmental justice and appropriate technology indefinitely if you let her, and alternately scowls at gratuitous gadgets, and jumps up and down at provably cool tech. She like bikes, plants, homebrew, diy renewable energy, Brazilian pop, Philadelphia, and figuring out what the heck polymerization has to do with natural wood finishes. With any luck, she’ll soon graduate from the 2010 Master Gardener program through the PSU Cooperative Extension, and finish up her Master of Environmental Studies at Penn (for which she’s doing a study about electronic waste), at which time you may call her “mistress.”

Far McKon – A loud mouth and general instigator, and is a founder of Hive76. He is often the first one jumping of bridges, and and can convincing others to follow. 87.4% percent of the time he is correct about landing on giant marshmallows at the end of the fall. 12.6% of the time the landing is just deep (sometimes hot) water. When he is not coding or building stuff, he’s coding and building stuff. Far has co-founded a Housing Cooperative, a City Wiki, 2 hackerspaces, and 1,000 weird and wonderful friendships.

[Edit: This post has been updated as Bio’s have come in from Board Members]

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Party in our new Space on Dec. 5th

Hackerspace Party Madness
Hackerspace Party Madness

Party in the New Space!
Dec 5th. Doors open at 9PM
Hive76 Headquarters
Food and Drink available all night
$10 suggested donation at the door
RSVP required!


We just moved to a new Headquarters (3x the size of the old one), and we want to celebrate. So we’re throwing a party December 5th with the doors opening at 9PM. We’ll have a couple of VJ, a DJ, and food and drinks all night. This is open event, so if you’ve wanted to come check out our new space, or meet the crew, come on out. If you want to drop in, we’re going to ask for $10 donation at the door, because we’ve mostly wiped our our saving to expand. If you’re broke, well, come anyway. (If you want to know what a hackerspace party looks like, here’s a peek).

Here are some numbers for you math-heads. 6 months now. 4 classes, 10 workshops, 24 open houses, and 1 (minor) electrical fire. From 4 to 12 members. 42 awesome personal projects, 33 pointless arguments, and a 1-billion ‘dude, that is such a bad idea’s’. OK, those last 3 are made up. But we are living the life, and doing what we promised. We are making things awesome, and making awesome things.

We are a little limited on space, so be sure to RSVP for it, so we can plan.