foulab.org - Foulab News

GO! Going Open - Getting started with open source creativity tools.

maxster — Sun, 29 January 2012 17:42:50 -0500

Ever get tired of trying to pirate software? Ever wish you could search and install software in a breeze? By having access to hundreds of programs at your fingertips, going open source can remove many walls between you and your creativity.

This intensive workshop will cover:
-Installing Ubuntu Studio
-Getting familiar with the linux
-Quick introductions to : JACK, OSC, PureData, Ardour, Inkscape, Gimp and more!

****UPDATE**
-This workshop is aimed at creative people who use computers, beginners welcomed! In other terms, that I disagree with, this workshop is "for artists".
-The workshop will be followed by the finissage of the Fauxlab exposition.Cost : 0-10$ donations to Foulab.
Saturday February 4th, 1300h at foulab, the real one, NOT fauxlab at eastern Bloc. RSVP to info@foulab.org

This workshop is offered in connection to the fauxlab expo at the Eastern Bloc gallery.

First monthly meeting of Toool Montreal

einstein — Sat, 14 January 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The first meeting of the Montreal chapter of Toool(The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers) will be held at Foulab on January 29th at 13:00. This first informal meeting will be an occasion to meet everybody interested in lockpicking here in Montreal. During the meeting we will also discuss the future activities of the chapter, and plan the next meeting. Do you have an old lock missing its key? Bring it at the meeting!

What is Toool? The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers is a group of lockpicking enthusiasts. This chapter will offer a way for its members to practice their skills, and learn new ones. Prior knowledge is not required, only a bit of interest!

- tooolmtl

Op-Amps for Everybody!: a Kit-Building Workshop and Introduction to Surface-Mount Soldering

legionlabs — Mon, 19 December 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Op-amps (operational amplifiers) are a wonderful piece of analog technology. The design, conceived in the days of vacuum tubes, was so useful that the basic idea is still used today in most pieces of consumer electronics. You have used an op-amp already today, so why not learn a little more about them, maybe build a cool toy?

This workshop consists of two sections, theory and kit-building, which can be attended separately if desired. The theory section will go over the history of op-amps, some basic design rules, and demonstrate/discuss some simple opamp circuits. It will last about an hour.

In the kit-building section, we will build a guitar pickup/seismograph. It is a simple op-amp circuit using surface-mount components, on a custom circuit board. Out of the box, it makes an excellent low-noise preamplified pickup suitable for many musical instruments. With minor design changes (which I will be prepared to make on the spot), it will work as a footstep detector, seismograph, throat microphone, and several other things I have not thought of yet. Also, this will serve as an introduction to surface mount soldering, which is much easier and faster than through-hole soldering (once you get used to it).

Cost:

Theory: 10$, 1 hour (free for lab members)
Practice: 40$, 2 hours, kit included
Both: 45$
Date: 2011-Dec-30, 17:00-18:00 Theory, 18:00-20:00 Practice

RSVP appreciated (it helps me prepare) but not required.

Additional kits will be available at the end of the workshop and for a few weeks afterwards for people unable to attend.

PDMTL#45

maxster — Fri, 9 December 2011 00:00:00 -0500

.----------.| pdmtl#45 |`-=--------´

.-=-----------------------------------------------------------,| La quarante-cinquième rencontre du club d'utilisateurs de /| PureData de Montréal aura lieu le samedi 10 décembre 2011 (| de 13h00 à 17h00 au FouLab.`-=-----------------------------------------------------------`

.-=-----------------------------------------------------------,| Le FouLab est situé au local 33B du /| 999, rue du Collège, dans l'arrondissement Sud-Ouest, (| à 5 minutes du métro Place-Saint-Henri (ligne orange).`-=-----------------------------------------------------------`

.-=------------------,| Entrée gratuite ! (`-=------------------`

 |
 |

.-=-------------.| à l'horaire : |`-=-------------´

.-=---------------.| 1. Packet Party || par MaxD |`-=---------------´

/
Packet Party est une patch développée pour intervention publique. PacketParty sonifie le trafic de réseaux informatiques, pour sensibiliser lepublic à propos des réseaux qu'ils utilisent régulièrement.

.-=-------------------------=-.| 2. démos de patchs diverses || par Mathieu BOUCHARD |`-=------------=------------=-´

/                          `-------[#remap_image]

 a) polar.pd : pixélisation en coordonnées polaires

 b) zède1.pd : inversion complexe des coordonnées de l'image

 c) koch_polygon*.pd : construction récursive de polygones

 d) gl-poly-demo-with-blend.pd : troupeau de triangles

 e) joyeux_noël.pd : joyeux noël !

(il s'agit d'une patch des exemples de GridFlow, une patch variante d'unepatch d'aide, et trois patchs inédites)

.-=----------------------------------------------------.| 3. (?uvre sans titre) || par le collectif //termostat : || Stéphanie CASTONGUAY, Jenny ABOUAV, Romain BERGER |`-=----------------------------------------------------´

/
L'?uvre consiste à capter les ondes présentes dans un espace et de« matérialiser » sous la forme d'image en mouvement l'aspect invisible deces flux permanents qui transitent dans les espaces publics. À savoir,capter le chemin et l'action que les gens parcourent/actionnent surinternet à travers leurs téléphones portables, leurs ordinateurs et de lematérialiser dans l'espace où ces informations transitent, ne font quepasser. À travers ce projet, la question de la proximité entre l'espacepublic et l'espace privé est primordiale.

.-=-----------=------------=-----------=-.| 4. Cercle de patcheux et de patcheuses |`-=------------------------------------=-´

/                                      `--[s $0-allô]

/
Pour que tout le monde réponde aux questions de tout le monde, au sujet dutricotage de patchs, du gossage d'abstractions, du macramé de DSP, de labroderie linéaire récursive, et cætera et cætera...

PDMTL #44 @ Concordia EV6.809

maxster — Thu, 6 October 2011 13:04:31 -0400

NEW LOCATION****CONCORDIA EV6.809!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Montreal Pure Data user-group will be meeting at Concordia EV 6.809, Sunday the 16th of October at 13h. There will be a few presentations and disscussions. Details to come.

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER VISION WITH OPEN CV, SATURDAY OCTOBER 29

strawdog — Sat, 1 October 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Do you want to make your computer react to light, movement and gestures? Do you want to capture and process images and video as part of your project? Do you wonder: whats wrong with these lazy AI programmers, why cant my computer recognize me yet? Get answers to all these questions and more at the Foulab Workshop “Introduction to computer vision with OpenCV”!

The workshop is aimed at people with some programming knowledge, but not necessarily any computer vision knowledge. We will cover:

how to install and set up the Open Computer Vision toolkit,
an introduction to computer vision algorithms,
a couple interactive OpenCV demonstrations that you can use as a starting point for your own projects.

The primary programming language for the workshop will be Python. Some C++ will also be used.

This workshop has an important hands-on component - please bring a laptop and a webcam. When you preregister, you may want to let us know what type of computer and operating system you have.

The cost is 25$. The workshop is limited to 20 places - please preregister by sending an email to info@foulab.org. Please bring cash payment with you on the day of the workshop.

Cost: 25$
Time: Saturday, October 29, 1-5pm
Required materials: laptop, webcam

The workshop presentations will be in English, but we are more than happy to provide support and answer questions in French. While this workshop will be limited in scope to OpenCV itself, people are encouraged to stay after the workshop and discuss more advanced topics, such as the interfacing of openCV with other libraries and languages. If you have projects in mind or in progress, please do stick around and chat with us!

Op-Amps for Everybody!: A Kit-Building Workshop and Introduction to Surface Mount Soldering

legionlabs — Thu, 29 September 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Op-amps (operational amplifiers) are a wonderful piece of analog technology. The design, conceived in the days of vacuum tubes, was so useful that the basic idea is still used today in most pieces of consumer electronics. You have used an op-amp already today, so why not learn a little more about them, maybe build a cool toy?

This workshop consists of two sections, theory and kit-building, which can be attended separately if desired. The theory section will go over the history of op-amps, some basic design rules, and demonstrate/discuss some simple opamp circuits. It will last about an hour.

In the kit-building section, we will build a guitar pickup/seismograph. It is a simple op-amp circuit using surface-mount components, on a custom circuit board. Out of the box, it makes an excellent low-noise preamplified pickup suitable for many musical instruments. With minor design changes (which I will be prepared to make on the spot), it will work as a footstep detector, seismograph, throat microphone, and several other things I have not thought of yet. Also, this will serve as an introduction to surface mount soldering, which is much easier and faster than through-hole soldering (once you get used to it).

Cost:

Theory: 10$, 1 hour (free for lab members)
Kit-Building: 40$, 2 hours, kit included
Both: 45$

Date: 2011-Oct-08, 18:00-19:00 Theory, 19:00-21:00 Practice

Additional kits will be available at the end of the workshop and for a few weeks afterwards for people unable to attend.

Dwarf Fortress! Workshop

legionlabs — Tue, 27 September 2011 00:00:00 -0400

This workshop, to be held at Foulab, 999 Du College #33B on Sunday October 16th from 1-5pm is for people who have some basic, rudimentary experience with Dwarf Fortress.

None of us are experts and we're hoping that by bringing a bunch of people together, we can compare and contrast experiences and get better as a result.

Dwarf Fortress is a free and fun downloadable game which has been in constant evolution since 2002. It is a...n incredibly complex and immersive simulation in which you take a group of dwarves through the creation and evolution of an expansive fortress, replete with multiple subterenean levels, complex, interconnected industries, foreign powers you can trade with (and war against) and a myriad of complex machinery to keep a slew of mythical creatures at bay. Interestingly, all of this is conveyed via a strictly ASCII interface. We'll do this by looking at some online tutorials and then breaking up into small groups to discuss: 1. site selection, 2. embarkment, 3. rudimentary fortress creation and 4. things to bear in mind when expanding.

You should bring a laptop with the game installed.

This workshop is also connected to a class I'm doing in which I'm interested in looking at the extent to which Dwarf Fortress recreates the integrated complexity of what we can name as "the everyday". As such, for those interested in participating, we'll allocate some time at the end to have a brief discussion and fill out a small questionaire.

Participating in this will set you back a suggested $5-10 donation to go towards Foulab, montreal's hackerspace: www.foulab.org. Please RSVP at info@foulab.org

Presented by www.GeekMontreal.com

Basic Electronics, Again

legionlabs — Mon, 19 September 2011 01:11:10 -0400

Several people who missed the first course asked me if I could run it again. Why not?
Date: 1st of October, 2011 @ 18:00

Workshop: Basic Electronics

legionlabs — Wed, 24 August 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Are you looking for a good way to gain the basic knowledge necessary to build (and understand) simple electronic circuits? If so, this course is a nice place to start.

We will focus on practical knowledge including multimeter use, soldering, and reading circuit diagrams. The physical laws that govern electricity and passive electronic components will also be discussed. This is a hands-on course, so expect to get your hands dirty! This course will be in English, however questions in French are welcome.

Date: 2011-09-10 @ 18:00
Required materials: All materials will be provided
Required knowledge: Basic algebra
Cost: 25$ cash per person (10$ for lab members)
Duration: 3 hours. Discussion period of 1 additional hour.

RSVP if possible at info@foulab.org

Defending online privacy, anonymity, and freedom: a workshop with Jacob Appelbaum

einstein — Sun, 3 July 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Wednesday July 6, 2011, at 7:00pm
QPIRG-Concordia
1500 de Maisonneuve West, suite 204

This workshop will cover issues of internet monitoring, filtering, and censorship, as well as practical tools such as Tor, encrypted communications, and secure operating systems, which can be used to counter these threats to our privacy and security. This will be a hands on workshop, so bring a laptop or other device if you want.

Jacob Appelbaum, also known as ioerror, is a core member of the Tor project, creating free software and a global network for the protection of online anonymity. As an advocate for the project, he explains to people around the world the importance of online anonymity for defending our real life freedoms. He focuses on how Tor and other tools can help social justice activists who are targeted by state repression. After speaking for Wikileaks in 2010, he has himself become a frequent target of American law enforcement and border security agencies.

This event is organized by Anarchist Tech Support, a working group of QPIRG-Concordia.

Wearable Electronics Workshop

fx — Wed, 22 June 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Foulab is pleased to announce our next workshop, Wearable Electronics for beginners!

Come learn all about building your own wearable creations, using your own garments and ideas.

The workshop is divided into two parts, an Introduction to Sewing in the morning and an Introduction to Wearable Electronics in the afternoon.

During the sewing workshop, you will learn about: Your basic supplies - Needles, thread, pins, measuring tape, fabrics and sewing machines. Basic techniques: Threading needles, tying knots, common stitches, measurements, and how to put things together. Mundane stuff that will give you the basics to do many different projects!

If we have time we will also cover basic garment making and modding.

After lunch, you will learn to apply these techniques to electric circuits that can be sewn into clothing. Bring your own clothes and ideas for how to make them flash! We will connect a blinking circuit to LEDs that you can sew into your garment. You'll leave with a turn signal jacket, a blinkenhat, or a blinkensac, or anything else you like.

The workshop will take place Saturday, July 16, at 10:00 AM, at the Foulab location (999 Du College, Suite 33B). Bring a dish to share! We'll have a potluck (with collectively purchased beer!) between the two halves of the workshop.

Registration via Eventbrite is mandatory for this event. Please register here:http://foulabwearable.eventbrite.com/

Anarchist key signing party

fx — Tue, 7 June 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Anarchist key signing party:Bring your public key, and bring your friends!

Wednesday, June 15th at 7pmAt Foulab, 999 du Collège, Suite 33B

One of the main design principles underlying the PGP email encryption system was that it is built on decentralized networks of trust for identity verification rather than placing that trust in hierarchies or centres of power, such as governments and corporations. As anarchists, this makes a lot of sense to us! In practice, a good way of doing this is having a gathering where we can talk to each other face-to-face and share public keys: a key signing party.

As the Anarchist Tech Support collective (ATS), we're holding an anarchist key signing party, which means it is open to all hackers, radicals, geeks, anti-authoritarians, makers, breakers, tinkerers, free-thinkers, and all of our comrades, allies, and friends. In other words, open to anyone who wants to come.

In addition to verifying public keys, we also want this party to be a chance for us to have public conversations about related topics such as state repression and security culture; common ground between hackers and anarchists; or the power relations that are built into our technologies, and the technologies that are being used to overthrow ruling powers. Because trust is about a lot more than identity verification!

If you aren't set up yet to do PGP email encryption or aren't sure how it works, we strongly encourage you to come! We'll be explaining how it works, helping with installation if you have a laptop, and helping create keys. See you there!

Anarchist Tech Support

PDMTL#42

maxster — Wed, 4 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Join us for a couple of presentations!
Plus!

Kinect + PureData

maxster — Mon, 18 April 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Curious about the new fancy input device? Want to hook it up to Pure Data?

This Wednesday (20/04/11 1900h) we will host an informal kinect/puredata workshop/jam. Bring your laptop/ideas and hook them up to a kinect. One free beverage if you bring one of the fancy input device!

Folks are also welcome to hang out and do non kinect related stuff, work on your current programming projects, mess with arduinos...

PDMTL #41

maxster — Wed, 6 April 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The Montreal Pure Data user-group will be meeting at Foulab, Saturday the 9th of April at 13h. There will be a few presentations and disscussions.

Monochrom's Kiki and Bubu: RATED R US - Screening at Foulab

einstein — Tue, 29 March 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Foulab will be the host of Canada's premiere of Kiki and Bubu: RATED R US. The event is on Thursday, April 7, 8:00pm to 9:30pm. Be there!

RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191842124187659

Our favorite sock puppets Kiki and Bubu have some feelings, so they sign up for an online dating site. When the People of China want to become their friend, they are excited. However, sending the People of China a video of themselves proves to be difficult: Their content gets flagged as inappropriate and taken down from YouTube. On the long quest for knowledge which follows, Kiki and Bubu learn all about Internet censorship. And love.

Join us for the Canada premiere of Kiki and Bubu's longest (50 minutes!) and most epic movie adventure! monochrom's Johannes Grenzfurthner will present the film and share some behind-the-scenes knowledge. Yada, yada!

http://www.monochrom.at/rated-r-us/
http://www.monochrom.at/kiki-and-bubu/

Derstrudel's Disco Robots - Workshop + Party

maxster — Mon, 14 March 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Ever wanted to get started in ANALOG ROBOTICS? Ever wanted to learn the circuit dance? To cool for the arduino? This is your chance. Les Laboratoires Foulab are proud to welcome, from Germany, DERSTRUDEL. Join us for an intensive afternoon workshop. In the evening come and see who will out-dance who.

The workshop will take place on Saturday March 26, and will start at 1100h sharp. It will be a busy day. Attendants should bring their favorite craft supplies they wish to integrate in their creations. Cardboard, fibers, solid wires, whatever your comfortable crafting with. The workshop cost is 50$. Register for the workshop at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1434266931, it is limited to 15 attendants.

The party, at 2000h is open to everyone, it will be kicked of with a special performance from our guest!

This event is sponsored by: Groupe de recherche sur les diagrammes actifs (DIAA) de l'École des arts visuels et médiatiques de l'UQAM.

Foulab @ Geekfest!

fx — Wed, 2 March 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Foulab is happy to announce that we will have a table exhibiting some of our projects at Geekfest Montreal, this weekend (March 5th and 6th)! We'll be there both days from 10AM to 5PM so please drop by and see us.

We will have a number of projects on display, including the Tweletype, the True Random Number Generator, a theremin, some retro computer systems, Foulab swag, and a few more surprises.

Foodhacking workshop: how to make mustard

grapefruit — Tue, 15 February 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Making mustard is easy, fun and mustard is really good for you! On saturday February 26th (12-2pm), you too can learn how to make it!

Many people like mustard but have no idea how easy it is to make. Pretty much the only thing you need is mustard seeds, salt and vinegar - everything else is to taste. You can make tons of different kinds of mustard - white, yellow, black, with different spices, with honey, etc...People also don't know this, but mustard has many health benefits from being a digestion booster to being a source of Omega 3s. The only tools that are needed to make mustard are some mixing bowls and food processors.

This workshop would last 2 hours and will 1. introduce people to the health benefits of mustard, 2. get people to make their own mustard by going off of a basic, adaptable recipe.

Participation is $5-10 sliding scale entry. Please bring: 1 a mason jar to bring home your mustard, 2. a plastic mixing bowl and a spoon.

PDMTL#40 @ Foulab 06/02/11 @ 1400-1800h

grapefruit — Mon, 31 January 2011 12:53:38 -0500

La quarantième rencontre du club d'utilisateurs de PureData de Montréal aura lieu le dimanche 6 février 2011 de 14h00 à 18h00 au FouLab. Plus!

Introduction to computer vision with Open CV, Saturday February 5

grapefruit — Tue, 18 January 2011 18:07:05 -0500

UPDATE: The workshop has been rescheduled from 3-7pm, on the same day, to accomodate those who wish to take part in the political demonstration downtown.

Do you want to make your computer react to light, movement and gestures? Do you want to capture and process images and video as part of your project? Do you wonder: whats wrong with these lazy AI programmers, why cant my computer recognize me yet? Get answers to all these questions and more at the Foulab Workshop “Introduction to computer vision with OpenCV”!

The workshop is aimed at people with some programming knowledge, but not necessarily any computer vision knowledge. We will cover:

- how to install and set up the Open Computer Vision toolkit,
- an introduction to computer vision algorithms,
- a couple interactive OpenCV demonstrations that you can use as a starting point for your own projects.

The primary programming language for the workshop will be Python. Some C++ will also be used.

This workshop has an important hands-on component - please bring a laptop and a webcam. We are planning to support windows and linux - if you would like to use a mac, please let us know well in advance.

Cost will be 25$

Time: Saturday, Feb 5, 1-5pm

The workshop presentations will be in English, but we are more than happy to provide support and answer questions in French. Preregistration is not mandatory, but it will help for planning purposes, printing hand outs, etc. Send a quick email to strawdog3@gmail.com

While this workshop will be limited in scope to OpenCV itself, people are encouraged to stay after the workshop and discuss more advanced topics, such as the interfacing of openCV with other libraries and languages. If you have projects in mind or in progress, please do stick around and chat with us!

Crafthacker at the geek-out: hack your winter coat!

grapefruit — Tue, 18 January 2011 17:56:35 -0500

Is your winter coat warm and functional but ugly or boring? Is it an old favourite that's falling apart? Do you have a light jacket you'd love to wear year-round but it's just not warm enough? If you answer !yes! to any of these questions, then you'll probably be interested in joining this week's crafthacker. Come on out to the Geek Out this Saturday to repair, repurpose, refurbish, embellish, decorate, modify and transform your winter coat into something kickass.

Where? Geek Montreal holds their monthly Geek Out at the downtown Burritoville, 2055 rue Bishop
When? 14h - 18h
What to bring? Ribbons, buttons, fabric, adornments and decorations that you or anyone else might like to use. A basic supply will be available on site, with a fabric store nearby. Sewing materials and machines will be available for use. If you have access to another sewing machine that you could bring and share for the afternoon, that would be so excellent.

The Montreal winter is long, so you might as well look and feel awesome outdoors ... in your own unique way. See you on Saturday!

Suggested donation: 5$

A Foulab-Geek Montreal co-presentation, crafthacker is a community event that facilitates skills sharing and dialogue about crafts in their social context. Each crafthacker is based around a theme, beginning with a presentation followed by a workshop and then a free-for-all craft session. There are two crafthackers each month, one at Foulab, the other at the Geek Out. Share your ideas and skills! Stay tuned here and at geekmontreal.com.

pdmtl meeting saturday january 15

grapefruit — Tue, 11 January 2011 22:54:45 -0500

PDMTL is Montreal Pure Data user group, they host monthly meetings featuring presentations by local patchers. This month Foulab will be hosting the meetup, on Saturday the 15th at 1400h. Come by to hang out with graphical programming enthusiasts and see some demos!

Python workshop this Sunday, January 16

grapefruit — Tue, 11 January 2011 19:38:49 -0500

This sunday, if you've ever wondered how your computer or other electronic device can do as its told, or wanted to automate something, come on down to Foulab, Montreal prominent hackerspace, for a laid back introduction to the magic of programming. The time shall be spent taking a calm and laid back approach to concepts common to most modern programming methods though the incredibly powerful, yet simple, language that is Python.

With practical examples, puzzles and just plain tomfoolery, this course's goal is to hopefully have you leaving with a better understanding of the things that are becoming a major linchpin of modern society, if not instilling an intuitive foundation in order pursue greater things!

So this sunday 16th come for a day of learning and discovery at Foulab.

Time? : 13:00 to 18:00 ( just drop in! ) Cost? : 25$

Material? : Bring your laptop no matter how powerful. Be it a Mac, PC, or Linux computer, Python runs on all of those! As well as a number of smartphones!