The last month of the year is here! Work winds down, people start working on projects, and with it, a whole stack of interesting things to do appears around the lab. Here are just some of them:

Tuesday December 12th @ 18:30 - 23:00

You may have heard of our last unofficial Project Night - an informal gathering where people demo cool stuff they have worked on lately. Good news - our member noi is hosting another one just next week! Drop by to see our community’s work from professional to casual, or even demo something of your own! See you there.

Sunday December 17th @ 15:00 - 19:00

The last event by Killed by Dice has unfortunately been canceled due to a COVID scare. Foulaber der_moderne_man’s tabletop RPG community returns to invite guests to an afternoon of Mothership once again. Join us in a thriller RPG set in the far off future. Fight off cosmic horrors on a Sunday? Sounds good to us. RSVP here if you want to join us - be wary, slots are limited!

Thursday December 21st @ 18:30 - 23:00

A Christmas party? A New Year’s party? A weighted average of all the winter-related parties in one convenient Foulab package? Yo!

If there are any events around Foulab to visit this month, this is definitely the one you should show up to. Enjoy a festive mood with fellow hackers and grab a slice of pizza as we send this old year off together 🎉

Saturday December 30th @ 15:00 - 17:00

Another organizational meeting. We’ll tally up 2023, and discuss how we plan to go forward with the things that transpired. Spoiler alert - it’s looking pretty good. Join us to see the internal workings of this space, and maybe even make your voice heard on an issue you care about!

Whether to move, turn, send a picture or change color, all fixtures and other gadgets receive their orders through the protocol ANSI E1.11 - 2008 USITT DMX512-A. I invite you to build your “DMX” interface with an Arduino controller, discover lighting control programs and discuss all issues around the DMX myths.

The invitation is for all the curious, potential users, artists, designers, stage technicians, designers and other techie!

Whether you have a possible project or the installation of your biggest life contract in lighting control, come live and discuss what DMX communication standard. Camaraderie and learning are the foundation of this meeting.

When: Saturday, March 7, 13 h 30
Where: at Foulab (999 du Collège, suite 33B, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H4C 2S3)
Reserve: Please reserve with dmx7mars (at) stephanebarbeau.com as the number of places is limited
Price: A $10 donation to the lab is suggested

• Interface creation: Transmitter only (without programming)

  • Materials:
    • 1 x Arduino or USB serial interface,
    • 1 x 75176 or Max485,
    • 1 x 100 ohms,
    • assembly plate.
    • Computer to host the control program. (PC, Mac or Linux)

• DMX reading (might be interesting to make a tool.)

  • Materials :
    • 1 x Arduino Uno or Pro mini,
    • 1 x 75176 or Max485,
    • 1 x 100 ohms,
    • assembly plate and some wires.

• Software Installation:

  • Take a tour of selected software
    • Q light + (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)
    • Martin M-PC
    • Other

• Discussion of the protocol and test with electronic equipment (scope).

  • Cabling test
    • Type (zipcord, micro, cat5, cat6, various, recommended)
    • Length (short, long and very long)
    • Type variation on same length
    • Configuration test (to understand, should do or should not do)
    • Y, star configuration…
    • With and without terminator (100 ohms)
    • With Opto-isolater

If several people are interested, a group for Arduino (or copy) purchasing could be created.
I will have some parts (75176 mainly) for sale.

A list of resources (circuit, interface and program) is available on my website.

In this first edition of our new crypto anarchy series, we will talk about distributed online systems and homomorphic encryption. A key emphasis will be placed on online voting, and why it is not as hard a problem to implement securely with recent advances in crypto over the last 2 decades.

This will be a high level introduction to the subject with an emphasis on the engineering challenges of such a system. We will also show how a similar system is used at foulab to provide a reasonable degree of anonymized access control to the hackerspace.

A quick overview of a number of defensive crypto engineering design choices will also be looked at.

In accordance with Quebec government mandates, open-nights are suspended until further notice.

Code: Debugging the Gender Gap is a documentary directed by Robin Reynolds which looks at the reasons behind the dearth of women and minorities in programming. Thanks to the generosity of Staci Hartman, one of the producers, Foulab is able to offer a free screening of this film. We encourage you to donate to support their work, details can be found on the Code documentary website.

Admission is free but an RSVP is necessary because space is pretty tight (20 places). Snacks will be available on site for a small contribution, but you are also welcome to bring your own.

• Where: Foulab
• When: Saturday, Jan 30, 2016 @ 14:00
• RSVP on eventbrite

An introduction to cleaning up with Audacity using the free audio editing program Audacity, with an emphasis on removing background noise, music, and errors. This is a 101-level workshop for audio editing.
Including a one-on-one component.

General topics to be covered (time permitting):
-Basics of hearing sound and digital audio
-Using EQ and filters to removed persistent sounds
-Techniques for making volume consistent
-Removing noise
-Isolating vocals
-Repairing clicks and pops
-Pitch and speed alteration

Date/Time: February 15th, 1PM
Length: 2 hours (instructor will be available after for additional discussion)
Cost: $30
Location: Foulab
Capacity: 12

REQUIRED MATERIALS:
Laptop with Audacity already installed (any operating system)
Headphones
Mouse (highly recommended, we have some spares on-hand)
Files you would like to clean (optional)

Tickets available at event, or HERE

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is gearing up to launch a new online space for the public to learn about their civil liberties. As part of the launch, the CCLA is visiting community organizations, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders to build a blueprint for the project’s development post-launch.
The CCLA will be visiting Foulab on Thursday May 14th from 5:30 — 7:30pm for an informal get together — bring a friend, and your ideas about civil liberties in Canada!

What content about civil liberties, rights and freedoms do you feel is currently missing or hard to access? What issues should the CCLA be focusing on in the coming year? Come have a beer and talk about it with Lex Gill and Dr. Brenda McPhail from the CCLA, this Thursday!

(This main event will be in English, but the Q&A; and discussion afterwards will be bilingual.)