Hackathon

On Saturday the 23rd October, the Hackers invade The Space! In association with QUESTS, Dragonslayers, and IETNI, HackerspaceBelfast will be running a series of events over 24 hours of software, network, and hardware hackery goodness, as well as screening hacker movies, DIY repair, and maybe, just maybe, how to build a laser. Running parallel to Dragonslayers’ 24 hour gaming event, which will incorporate console, PC, and tabletop games, attendees will be able to both play and make games to their hearts content. ...

October 14, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

Stuff I've found interesting in the past month - 23/09/2010

Segway Olympics - prototype run Segway Olympics - prototype run European Parliament All But Rejects ACTA My First Place On HGTV: How to Spend Your Next Thirty Years House Poor BugMeNot Lite Now Provides Anonymous Login Credentials in Chrome [Downloads] 10 fresh and lite jquery content sliders for web applications EEVblog #108 – Amazon Kindle 3 3G/WiFi Review Cyber-Offence is the New Cyber-Defense SweetSearch Finds Credible Research Sources for Students [Research] ...

September 23, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

Kindle 3G 3.0.2 Experience

Just under a month after ordering, with a shipping schedule fraught with manufacturing delays and pushed-back dispatch dates (Not complaining, I’m not the only one so everyone was shocked by the demand also) I recieved my new UK kindle 3g at 11 this morning. Immediately I loaded some math-loaded PDF’s which the free.amazon.com document converter handled with ease, then started going through my usual list of sites on the free 3G network, Twitter (largley fine but sluggish), Facebook (buggy with regards to javascript elements, occasionally freezing completely needing to be latched-off and on again) Google-Apps Mail(constantly refreshing and wouldn’t load stably), google reader (worked perfectly out of the box including keyboard shortcuts, which are awesome!) and my ToDo list of late, TeuxDeux (sluggish and slightly misaligned, but usable) ...

September 21, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

News from the Belfast Hackerspace

So we’re only a few weeks into developing this idea, and first I’m going to give some credit where credit’s due; the people that I’m working with this have been brilliant, I want to give special thanks (in no particular order) to Ryan Grieve (@thegrieve), David Kane, Ben Harrison, Martin Gilchrist (@Gilchrist_LLP), Jonny Milliken, Dan Reid, and Chris Murray (@kris18890). Anywhere, where are we now? ...

September 7, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

Stuff I've found interesting in the past month - 23/08/2010

Why PulseAudio? The Freesound Project Aggregates Creative Commons Licensed Sound Effects [Sound Effects] ONE LAST CHANCE TO SAVE THE HOTEL PENNSYLVANIA Venting Frustration Will Only Make Your Anger Worse [Mindhacks] U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It: Laurence Kotlikoff - Bloomberg -_ “So the IMF is saying that closing the U.S. fiscal gap, from the revenue side, requires, roughly speaking, an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal-income, corporate and federal taxes as well as the payroll levy set down in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act.” ...

August 23, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

High-Frequency Trading Revolt, and Why its a good idea!!

Remember that little economic apocalypse that happened a few years ago? You may remember it as the day your 401(k) dropped a digit or 3; those short sighted (w/b)ankers and middle management that essentially collectively said “You want some money? Sure, go ahead!” to the entire world and didn’t think about where it was coming from, while getting paid sums of money that would make Scrouge McDuck blush. Well, turns out they have been too greedy at home (no suprise). ...

August 4, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

Citrix Web Client with Ubuntu

Ubuntu is one of those polarising technologies; Its really easy to use on a recreational basis, or as part of a institution/business wide rollout, but heartbreakingly awkward to use ‘alone’ within an entrenched business setting. One such setting is that of Queen’s University; the only form of secure remote access that is made (quietly) availiable is through a Citrix XenApp gateway. Great in theory; everyone can take a slice of a virtualized desktop, do whatever they need to do, and that processing power and memory can be easially reappropriated when they’re done. Unfortunately, in an effort to be ‘secure’, you HAVE to use Windows, and you HAVE to have Internet Explorer installed, and you HAVE to install the propitiatory XenApp client. ...

July 24, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

Stuff I've found interesting in the past month - 23/07/2010

Google Doc Mount Puts Your Google Docs in Nautilus for Editing [Downloads] Google PhD Fellowships go international Use Chrome like a pro Android Development 101 – Part 1:Hello World Rachel Maddow’s Blonde Yearbook Picture [Most Likely To Succeed] App Inventor for Android MultiBootISOs Boots Multiple Operating Systems from a USB Drive [Downloads] - Well, thats my monday afternoon sorted… I’ve been looking for just this sort of tool for weeks; drop in an ISO and it’ll work! Love it! ...

July 23, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

Belfast Hackerspace Anyone?

Contrary to popular belief, the concept of a ‘hacker’ (or at least self described ones) has very little to do with coding and networking wizards pounding through systems and stealing valuable information or just destroying everything they touch. In fact, Google (and Princeton University’s) first definition of the word has more to do with Golf than security (try it by googling “define:hacker”). The so called ‘hacker subculture’ is usually taken as a group of not necessarily like minded, but creative individuals with or without technical or theoretical skill, including artists, musicians, carpenters, machinists, or extreme knitters, and can generally be shortened down to ’tinker-ers’ or ‘messers’.Belfast is a growing hub of technology, software, and art of all forms within Europe; and with Londonderry being named the ‘City of Culture’ for 2013, it is clear the Northern Ireland is no longer (or never was?) the poor child of British (and Irish) creativity and excellence. ...

July 17, 2010 · Andrew Bolster

Intel 4965: Poor wireless performance under Ubuntu

I had an incident recently where the Windows 7 side of my laptop connected easily to an open AP, but the Ubuntu 10.04 (or 9.04, tried both) wouldn’t, with the Intel Iwlagn drivers reporting in syslog a deauth (reason=6), basically the card spoke too soon. I eventually found the solution. After several weeks of asking the same question everywhere I could think of (as well as emailing Intel…) I found the answer a lot closer to home, from a PhD student ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Graduate in my University over LinkedIn (Ironically enough, I’m actually working with him on my Final Year Project next year… Good stuff to come :D ) ...

July 8, 2010 · Andrew Bolster