2006/08/26

Workshop Sessions at BarCampMilwaukee / NN issues

Random neuron firing this morning generated ideas for (at least) two workshop sessions at BarCampMilwaukee: Portable Computing With a Flash Drive & CD, and Arcade Game Repair/Burger Time.

The concept of workshop sessions at BarCampMilwaukee is that they involve more than talking and writing on paper or whiteboards. Workshops involve hands-on making of an end product or physical skill. This can be a single end product which everyone contributes to and can use, such as websites or programs from mashups or group programming sessions that Pete P has discussed. A workshop can also involve multiple products everyone can make and take home with them, such as some custom business cards or a new program or customized flash drive. Alternately, a workshop session can involve hands on working with physical objects, such as the lock picking session mentioned below.

The 'Portable Computing With a Flash Drive & CD' workshop session would consist of everyone putting together an 'ultimate' 1 GB flash drive and CD. When you're not in your normal computing location (away from the office, dorm or home), you should still be able to compute securely, privately and comfortably. One way to do this without dragging around your laptop is to use a flash drive or, in some cases, a CD. Gina Trapani has a good post on the topic, "Carry your life on a flash drive". The session also ties in two of Gina's other posts, "Securely track your passwords" and "Encrypt your data", and covers Luke W's method of booting Linux from a flash drive. This author's knowledge is too scant to lead such a session, but other appropriate session co-leaders will be rounded up. The CD part of the session is discussing or customizing "live" CDs such as Ubuntu, Knoppix or Bart's PE for those cases where you can't use the flash drive.

The 'Arcade Machine Repair/Burger Time' session will happen if a hardware hacker or two can be located who are willing and able to help troubleshoot a malfunctioning table arcade game, Burger Time. If the assembled BarCampMilwaukee participants can repair the machine, it can then be used for relaxation classic gaming by the participants. Who knows --- by the end of BarCampMilwaukee the table arcade machine may be hacked and able to play many classic games... Let me know if you can help with this session or know someone who probably can help. Gracias! (Luke said the access door on the game table may be locked and the key is missing --- sounds like justification for a lock picking session at BarCampMilwaukee! Is there a locksmith/hacker out there willing to lead a session on lock picking? Seattle Mind Camp and some other barcamps have had sessions on lock picking, since that's a time-honored tradition of hackers, starting with the MIT Model Railroad Club...)

----

Below is the initial list of issues for the 29 August 2006 NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology issues) 7 pm weekly gathering at Mister Churro, 207 N. Richmond St., Appleton, Wisconsin, USA. The best churros and empanadas argentinas in Wisconsin are available at Mister Churro! The weekly issues list will be updated by 3 pm on 29 August.
*****

posted by myDigitechnician at 26.8.06

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home