Author Archive

Bar Camp Atlanta

Sunday, August 12th, 2007

Thanks to Mark, we have two page referrals from http://barcamp.org/BarCampAtlanta.  This is cool because I didn’t know there *was* a BarCampAtlanta.  Since I’m out of state, I won’t be attending, but this is something that I want to see more of.  As one of the BarCamp comments states:

  Why is it that with the size of our technology and business communities, we can’t manage to have events like this happen?  [Jonathan Peterson]

Check out the link above – even if you don’t plan on attending, it is a list of like minded people in the Atlanta area.

atlHack Meeting Spot in CNN/Money

Saturday, December 9th, 2006

Octane Coffee, atlHack’s weekly meetup spot, is mentioned on CNN’s website as a spot for startups to woo investors.  atlHack has never had any formal association with Octane, but its been a consistently good place (which has never thrown us out :-D) to meet up and talk about trendy tech.

Atlanta Startup Links

Saturday, December 9th, 2006

I’m currently busy in Colorado, but I haven’t forgotten about the ATL.  I just found some new Atlanta startup oriented resources:

This brings up something which has been eating at my brain for a while now… why is Georgia Tech not more involved in startups?  Is it a lack of faith in their people?  Are they not aware of the possibilities?  Have there been a lot of failures in the past?  Maybe its the lack of substantial venture capital in the southeast.  Even from Colorado, I can see that Atlanta is more up-and-coming than most people realize… its time for Tech to get involved.

About: Details

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

Why

Generally the order goes "who, what, where, when, why", but I think that this one is the most important, so its right up here at the top.  Why we do atlHack is a complicated topic, and it has its own page.  Here’s the short version:

Computing isn’t a nerd sport anymore.  You probably own an iPod, might check the news on your laptop at the local coffee shop, and own a car with more than twenty computer processors in it (the days of the gear-head are gone – today’s car tuner is part computer geek).  Computing is a culture: a culture of artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, industrialists, consumers, scientists, and philosophers.

… and you need to feed that culture.  If you dream of a startup, or art installations, breaking into industry, or just keeping on top of trends, you can’t do it alone.  None of us want to lay down in front of anyone to further the cause, but as a group, we’re simply more powerful than we are alone.

You’re not going to get a job looking at Monster.com.  GeorgiaTech career services can’t wait to hook you up with some mundane position that makes them look good (they love big business and name dropping).  Your only hope is to stumble onto something good, and that’s what we’re here for.  Maybe you know someone who is looking for startup-fodder, maybe I know someone who is looking for you.  The only way you’re going to find out is by hanging out with the gang.

Man, this wasn’t short either… it gets longer every time I rewrite it.

Who

If you are in the Atlanta area, atlHack is you!
Maybe you aren’t in the ATL, but your spirit is here with us.  If so, atlHack is still you!

What

We are computer people, poet hackers of the cyber frontier.
We have a weekly get-together in a local coffee shop, where we code and talk about computers.

Where

We live in Atlanta, GA (airport code ATL), but not everyone is from here – I’m from the New England area (a part of "the northeast").  Some of us have ties to GeorgiaTech, some of us don’t.

We currently meet at Octane coffee (www.octanecoffee.com), but its quickly becoming a very popular (meaning crowded) spot.  We may need a new home soon.

When

atlHack.org was started in the Summer of 2005  (registered 6-Jul-2005 02:31:49 UTC)
We have meet-ups every Thursday at 7:30 (or so) at Octane Coffee.

every Tuesday at 9pm (or so) -graham

How

Not really sure what goes in "how"…

The atlHack website is hosted on a pithy linux box on my Speakeasy DSL.  It uses Drupal for content management and Subversion for source control.

We’re all geeks with ties to GeorgiaTech.

Macs are nice computers.  At least, I think so… don’t ask the other guys.

atlHack stickers in Macon

Saturday, April 22nd, 2006

If you happen to live in Middle Georgia and want an atlHack sticker, there are a few of them on the hand-outs table at the back of the Joshua Cup near downtown.

Hackfest 11000 Postmortem

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

– Since Last Time
    – Graham
        – Lots of stuff
        – Released clocks: http://ravelite.org/code/clocks
            – check it out!  is it annoying?  how is it applicable?
        – Chuck
            – added fade ins and outs
            – multiple shreds are note-synchronized
            – wants to Chuck Atlanta
        – Fixed parts of chuck-mode.el
            – bad files still fail silently (due to emacs call-process logic)
            – server doesn’t run in shell mode (or inside emacs at all)
    – Alex (n00b!)
        – http://hackmode.org/~alex/blog/
        – Wrote a spanish to english translator
        – poetry generator (Trurl’s Electronic Bard! from The Cyberiad)
        – wrote a device driver
        – has been looking at GUI -> clisp interfaces (foil.sf.net)
        – likes openNLP (used by SWIMM)
    – Vinny
        – have a commotion release now, @
              http://ynniv.com/Commotion-0.5.1.tgz
        – got some GUI stuff working, boxes and lines with drop
              shadows
            – did some Shark
        – wrote a little commotion documentation
    – Beckham (n00b!)
        – TechComm project: open source home security & automation
            – fidgets, ibutton, obscure automation tech, x10!
        – Mail and news client, command line, no control keys!
            – gnus … minus emacs
        – moralminority.org, spockornot.com, area23.com projects
        – admin for gehennom.net
            – OIT sucks
        – wrote a frameless clock for debian / X windows (osd_clock)
    – Martin (n00b!)
        – hacking chuck
            – file IO for general purpose things
            – working with Jason Freeman on a composition
                – localization -> composition
                – many person environment – 75 audience members
– Today’s Plans
    – Vinny
        – work on commotion blurb
        – publish commotion link w/ blurb
    – Graham & Alex
        – SWIMM – how it extracts features
    – Beckham
        – converting a build server from bash to python
    – Martin
        – hanging out and planning Chuck Atlanta
– Today’s Reality
    – Alex & Graham
        – Marsyas
            – hooking v2.0 in SWIMM
        – Found the location of sequence features in SWIMM
        – read up on OpenNLP maximum entropy
    – Beckham
        – tried to convert Graham to various CLI tools
        – tried to use socat… hows that work?
    – Vinny
        – as usual, very little.  set up a tunnel to gehennom for
              news reading

Hackfest 10111 Postmortem

Saturday, February 25th, 2006

– Since Last Time
    – Graham
        – worked a lot on Clocks – almost done, at least one more bug
            – implemented proxy files to store data
            – save and load use proxy-enabled replacements
            – enabled conservation of time
            – wants to write article, release soon
            – needs to field test it by coding using it – is it
                  annoying?
    – Vinny
        – work ($$$) work a lot – XUL + JS
            – leaving proof of concept for product integration
        – thinking about how to write documentation
            – latex
                – has lots of hokey syntax, like & ~
            – docbook
                – XML based
                    – lots of rigid, verbose syntax – not very terse
            – toolchains
        – thinking about schools
        – λ
– Today’s Plans
    – Vinny
        – write a blurb about commotion
    – Graham
        – fix that error
        – blurb for Clocks
        – Chromatic modulation in chuck
            – has diatonic chord progressions, wants more general
                  code
        – overall
            – Stickers (vgkids.com)
– Today’s Reality
    – Graham
        – fixed that bug
        – wrote a blurb
    – Vinny
        – bad slacker! bad!
        – got a latex template from stephen, and read some of Stephen’s paper

Living Game Worlds 2

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006

The first LGW was held at the Biltmore last year.  This year, there are more presenters, the same hash of Georiga Tech professors, and of course, Will Wright.  Come see what Will has done since last year!

Registration is free:

http://gameworlds.gatech.edu/

Podcast 1111

Monday, December 12th, 2005

The audio is alive!

atlhack art: sticker

Sunday, December 4th, 2005

If we find a way to produce static stickers (pdf):

sticker