Som bekant så är Umeå Hackerspace medlemsförening i Förbundet Unga Forskare. De söker just nu folk som är intresserade av att sitta i förbundsstyrelsen, eller som verksamhetsrevisor. Viktiga och intressanta saker, så om nån känner för att ställa upp, kolla in på sidan för intresseanmälan vetja.
This weekend – on Sunday at 13.00 CET – we’re having a workshop in the hackerspace! The workshop is a three-parter and organized by Brian Oko, a student at the Umeå Institute of Design, and will explore what one can do with e-waste. The three sessions are separating, fixing and repurposing.
The workshop will have two followup sessions, one being the following tuesday (March 6th, sometime after 18.30) and one on Saturday (March 10th, around 13.00). The facilities will be open for anyone to come join during these hours – if we’re out of e-waste you can still just hang around or join in other ways. If you know you’ll come by, please mark it with a signature of interest at this Doodle calendar or post a comment below.
The hackerspace is in the cellar of Fabriksgatan 8b in Umeå, marked with a sign that (among other things) says Umeå Hackerspace.
If you think this sounds interesting, please let us know (or to Brian directly) and there may very well be followup workshops with a greater advance on the invitation!
I går kväll genomfördes Umeå Hackerspace sitt årsmöte, med resultat att en ny styrelse valdes (med i stort sett samma människor som föregående år), samt en ny verksamhetsplan (med ungefär samma generella inriktning).
I korthet ser styrelsen numera ut såhär:
Huvudsakligt fokus för året är att se till att information faktiskt kommer ut till medlemmarna om vad som pågår. För detta ändamål kommer den här bloggen förhoppningsvis faktiskt att uppdateras en smula framöver, samt att länkar kommer läggas in till vår projektwiki på lite olika håll
Vidare hoppas vi kunna införskaffa någon eller några Raspberry Pi när de faktiskt börjar produceras i upplagor som motsvarar efterfrågan.
Umeå Hackerspace ordnar öppet hus ikväll på källarvåningen Fabriksgatan 8b, där vi liveströmmar från hackerspacet Sparvnästets konferens ikväll: Power of Adhocracy.
Sändningarna börjar 18.00 och pågår till 22.00.
Can’t attend? There will be a live stream of the talks.
17:00 – 18:00 : Socialize & Mingle
18:00 – 18:30 : Elis of Telecomix (talk in Swedish)
— What is the Telecomix?18:40 – 19:00 : jn & pawal of DFRI (talk in Swedish)
— Presentation av Föreningen för digitala fri- och rättigheter (DFRI)19:00 – 20:00 : Food and refreshments
20:00 – 20:20 : Mats Henricson (talk in English)
— Activism economics – Funding your project with Bitcoins20:30 – 21:20 : Jacob Appelbaum (talk and Q&A in English)
— Internet censorship and ways for activists to contribute to circumvention21:30 – 21:50 : Caroline Wamala of SPIDER (talk in English)
— Exploring conditions for successful Mobile Governance in Kenya21:50 – 22:00 : Socialize. Last chance to swap contact info and GPG keys.
Till att börja med är Umeå Hackerspace medlemmar i Förbundet Unga Forskare.
FUFs styrelse har kallat till en extra distriktsstämma för distriktet Övre Norrland. Stämman hålls i Umeå Hackerspace lokaler på Fabriksgatan 8b kv. i Umeå klockan 19.00 tisdag 20 september 2011.
Alla tillhörande handlingar är bifogade i detta inlägg:
What do you do when you bought a wall-wart or car charger for your phone, and it doesn’t work due to not following the USB Charger specification*? Well, you could open it and make it follow the spec, or you could build an universal adapter that converts any USB outlet into a dumb charger!
So, we gathered some old USB cables and cut them open. Inside there are four smaller cables, two that carries the actual power coloured red, black, and two that carries data, coloured green and white. So what we did was to solder the green and white together on the end with the female USB connector, and then patch the power lines back with the other (male) end of the cable. And then some shrink tube for stability.
* The USB Charger specification states that a dumb charger should indicate its dumbness by short circuiting the lines used for data.
We just got rid of a table and some crap. Time to celebrate the new empty space within Umeå Hackerspace!
Also, the police may have visited us, as can be seen on this surveillance tape.
The board of Umeå Hackerspace actually performed its function (to the surprise of many), and held a meeting, laid some plans, and actually did something vaguely related to same.
Specifically, there is now a way to give us money (yay!), namely through Bankgiro 742-4690, meaning that we will soon begin collecting membership fees, and thus have some money to spend on our projects! See the organisation page for details.
Further, there is going to be a small party at the space for the release of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal on the evening of the 28th of April. Bring some Ubuntu cola and come eat CAKE, woo!
Plans are proceeding on a bunch of RFID related projects, both in relation to Länstrafiken and to Bostaden. It is quite remarkable how an at least somewhat secure method (regular metal keys) is being supplanted by, in effect, a proven-to-be insecure method (RFID tags) for various reasons. Even more remarkable is that this is said to be done for security reasons. Oh well, money talks, I suppose, as well as shiny high tech sales people.
Given that culture is no longer stored as a plastic disc, there’s really no good reason to keep the old racks in your livingroom. But throwing stuff in the bin never feels quite right. Thus, the best solution is to simply renew the functionality of your hardware.
A creative hacker in Umeå Hackerspace figured that her test tubes ought to be stored more conveniently. A couple of minutes later using the space’s metal hacksaw, pliers and imagination, the wall-mountable test tube rack was taking form.
Skatteverket beslutade 23 mars 2011 att ideella föreningen Umeå Hackerspace skall tilldelas organisationsnumret 802458-8587. Föreningens interimstyrelse, med ordförande Petter Ericson, som valdes tidigare i år intervjuades av Mikael Hansson från Infotech Umeå strax efter det konstitutionerande mötet.
Med anledning av den officiella organisationen så fungerar föreningen enligt demokratiska principer och lyder under valda stadgar. Det finns därmed även ett registrerat namn, vilket är varför vi numera använder oss av domännamnet umeahackerspace.se och dylikt istället för projektnamnet “Grill-bit”.
Absolut inte för att skryta, men det är minst sagt lustigt, så hann föreningen polisanmälas redan innan Skatteverket fattade sitt formella beslut. Som nämnt ovan arbetar vi efter demokratiska principer och har inget intresse av att utöva lagbrott, varför vi finner denna anmälan ganska osmickrande.
Utöver detta har även andra mindre korrekta kopplingar till hackerkulturen gjorts i media på sistone, där Västerbottens Kuriren beskrivit DDoS som hacking t.ex. Dock gör inte all media denna felkoppling, även om det tillhör samma koncern, och kallar det rätteligen för överbelastningsattack.
Med dessa händelser som inträffat bara alldeles nyligen kan det konstateras att problemlösare och hackerkulturen i övrigt har en uppförsbacke att vandra. Förhoppningsvis kan vi nå ut och bemötas som de vanliga, laglydiga medborgare som vi är. Föreningens syfte är att sprida kunskap och väcka uppmärksamhet kring problemlösning och teknik – något som alla människor har nytta av.
Är du intresserad av att delta i våra aktiviteter är det öppet hus i lokalen i källarvåningen på Fabriksgatan 8b varje tisdag från 18:30 till 22:00. Välkommen!
Ever plugged in too much power into your electronic equipment? Or for some other reason seen smoke come out of it? A friend of Umeå Hackerspace had a Casio PT-1 that he apparently had tried to use with a bit too much power in the supply. Fortunately he hadn’t caused too much damage.
The Casio PT-1 is an old piece of hardware, dating back to the long-long agos when circuit boards weren’t packed with integrated circuitry and everything was done in just a few couple of chips. As a result of this, it has been the subject of much circuit bending throughout the years. A wonderful hobby and definitely something Umeå Hackerspace encourages!
Step one: Flip it over for unscrewing!
But this post is about a damaged PT-1 and how we managed to fix it. Just as with most ordinary hardware problems, the error lies in a single or very few components. In this case it was a blown circuit, a transistor, which had literally been blown to pieces:
The blown transistor, with the new one in place on the board.
It was unfortunately impossible to read the label on the component itself, but according to the circuit board there was supposed to be a transistor there. What was confusing was the layout according to the board, with the Base on one of the edges, rather than in the middle as one is often used to. Fortunately the circuit board – as is more common with older hardware – had the component name printed on it:
T9=2SA1199R, a PNP transistor
A quick search on the internet gave us the datasheet for the old component, a 2SA1199R, which turned out to be a PNP transistor. Fortunately we had a lot of BC557s lying around and grabbed one of those. Remembering the odd layout for the legs, we matched it up (backwards and with a twist!) and stuck it where the old component had been fitted. A little bit of soldering later, it was time to screw the keyboard back together. Not much to our surprise, it worked. Old hardware sure is nice to work with!
There’s a reason why there are safety circuits built in. Not just for your physical safety, but also for the electronics. Hardware is much easier to fix when everything isn’t integrated – and even more so when the components are labeled and specified right on the circuit board!
A Class-D amplifier made with a LM324 Op-amp, a 555 timer and a N-channel FET.
I have no idea how something this simple and cheap can sound so good, and even without any kind of filter.
Time to test out som unconventional “speakers”!
Arduinos are truly universal, this one is playing some fine music, almost makes you feel like dancing, doesn’t it?
Used code and schematic from this site:
http://interface.khm.de/index.php/lab/experiments/theremin-as-a-capacitive-sensing-device/
Arrrr…duino!
This afternoon, 2011-01-19 at 19.19 CET, Umeå Hackerspace will have its constitutional meeting. This means that it will become a registered organisation that can not only sign deals and organize events but also manage an economy and democratically use the money for whichever cause the members see fit.
The upside of this is of course accountability. There will be a real organisation with real people that, when media or whomever wants to interact, are official representatives of Umeå Hackerspace. Also the responsibility over common resources is shared between reliable, elected members of the organisation.
The downside of this is the possible staleness of an organisation. The most creative hierarchies are flat, where no one has more or less power than the next person. It is therefore very important that the individuals elected to the board are open-minded and neutral.
All-in-all I personally believe that the organisation created will mostly be one of those necessary for certain interactions with other organisations. Such as organising events. The everyday activities, hacking or otherwise, will most likely seldom have anything to do with the formal organisation – these are still mostly spontaneous, random interactions between people. Nothing necessarily scheduled, planned or managed.
So don’t think we’re losing our grip and fading into boring, old-fashioned hierarchies. It’s nothing like that. Becoming a formal, registered organisation is only a step in becoming more relatable for your average Joe – rather than imposing some fictional idea of authority.
You are welcome to become a member, or even attend the constitutional meeting. It will be held tonight at 19.19 CET. The address is Fabriksgatan 8b kv in Umeå. I hear there will be coffee and some sort of related snack.
MMN-o and pettter. Photo: Mikael Hansson/Infotech Umeå
With a Grill-bit delegation having visited 27c3, meeting hackers from all over the world, the local technology internet magazine InfoTech Umeå wanted an interview.
The article produced is in Swedish and rather lightly informs of the general hacker mindset. It also speaks briefly of our engagement in internet activism (such as Telecomix) for a more open and democratic society, which was a common interest with and subject of talks at the CCC.
The point is also made that we’re doing it (“being hackers” as the author Mikael Hansson writes) not only because it’s important but also because it’s fun. A perfect combination of interest.