talks

41 Articles

Hackaday Belgrade Talks Will Live Stream Saturday

April 4, 2016 by 4 Comments

We have an amazing line-up of talks for Hackaday | Belgrade, Saturday April 9, in Belgrade, Serbia. The talks have been sold out for weeks. You can still get a ticket to the night’s concerts if you’re in the area. Either way, the big news this morning is that we will stream all of the talks live!

Live-stream links will be posted on the conference page as soon as we get them. You should also join the chat over on the Hackaday | Belgrade project page. Just click the “request to join this project” button in the upper right. Do that right now.

There are a ton of great speakers, check the poster below. I’m excited to hear Mike Harrison (mikeselectricstuff) speak about his journey down the rabbit hole of video projection tech, Phoenix Perry’s talk on Forward Futures, Voja Anotic’s talk about the hardware badge, Peter Philip’s talk about reinventing VHDL, and pretty much all of the rest too! From the Hackaday crew you can watch Sophi Kravitz give a talk on her shutter glass project, Chris Gammell will be talking Top Down Electronics, and I will end the 8-versus-32 argument once and for all (yeah right!).

While you’re listening to the talks, why not try your hand at badge hacking. You don’t need any hardware, you can use the emulator to try out your hacked code right now your own computer. We’ll be sending out prizes for the best entries and there are only a handful so far.

You do not want to miss these talks! If you don’t believe me, check out the talks from SuperCon last November and you’ll be convinced — Hackaday conferences provide the best collection of hardware talks anywhere.

Continue reading “Hackaday Belgrade Talks Will Live Stream Saturday” →

Donuts Of ShmooCon

January 12, 2016 by 5 Comments

This weekend is ShmooCon, a hacker convention held in Washington DC. Brian Benchoff and I will be there, both of us for the first time. We’d love your input on what talks look the most interesting. Check out the schedule of speakers, then leave a comment below to let us know which talks you think we should cover.

It’s great hearing the big presentations, but I find a lot of times great hacks can be found in smaller venues, or just by walking around. Two examples from 2015 DEF CON: the best talk I sat in on had about 10 people spectating in the IoT village, and I had a great time trying to track down everyone who had an unofficial hardware badge. If you’re at ShmooCon and have something to show off, please find us (@szczys, @bbenchoff)!

On Saturday join us for a Hackaday meetup in the lobby of the Washington Hilton. ShmooCon is well-regarded for the quality of its “lobby-con”, what better place to gather? Look for the Hackaday crowd starting Saturday 1/16 at 8:45am. We’ll bring the donuts, and some swag like Hackaday Omnibus Vol. 02 and of course, some Jolly Wrencher stickers.

Building The Infinite Matrix Of Tamagotchis

November 24, 2015 by 45 Comments

Tamagotchi is a digital pet, living in and cared for through a key-chain size piece of hardware. The mid-90’s toy lives in pop culture, but now it lives well beyond. A limitless network of Tamagachi has been created using some amazing tricks to feed, socialize, and monitor the beast now known as the Tamagachi Singularity.

Last weekend at the Hackaday SuperConference we were graced with a talk by [Jeroen Domburg], a.k.a. [Sprite_tm]. [Sprite] is a favorite of ours and over the years his hacker cred includes everything from reverse engineering hard drive controller chips to putting video games in his keyboard.

[Sprite] is also something of an Architect, and like all Architects he only wants what is best for the system he created. In this case, it’s a Matrix of Tamagotchis. [Sprite] created a hive of Tamagotchis that are able to interact with each other in their own separate world. The best part about this Matrix? There’s no allusions to violating the laws of thermodynamics in the exposition.

xkcd.com/1546
xkcd.com/1546

Like all good hacks, a Tamagotchi Matrix wasn’t created in a vacuum. A few years ago at 29C3, [Natalie Silvanovich] dumped the ROM in the current generation of Tamagotchis. This is an incredible feat of reverse engineering, that allows anyone to use the full capabilities of the 6502-based microcontroller that controls these digital pets

After [Sprite] figured out how to read and run the code in the Tamagotchi, the next obvious step towards a world of egg-shaped pods containing an entire population of Tamagotchis is virtual Tamagotchis. [Sprite] used a hard-coded state machine that takes care of pooping, flushing, training, feeding, and turning the lights off at bedtime.

With a single Tamagotchi described as a state machine, it’s a simple matter to build another. This is where things get interesting and Matrix-ey. Tamagotchis don’t live alone; they have an IR LED and receiver that allows them to interact with each other, eat, play, marry, and have kids. Emulating a single Tamagotchi is one thing, but controlling multiples is another thing entirely; some sort of protocol was needed to breed Tamagotchis and keep them happy and well-fed.

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Check Out Who’s Speaking At The Hackaday SuperConference

November 3, 2015 by 9 Comments

The Hackaday SuperConference is just eleven short days from now! We’ve put together a conference that is all about hardware creation with a side of science and art. Join hundreds of amazing people along with Hackaday crew for a weekend of talks, workshops, and socializing.

Below you will find the full slate of talks, and last week we revealed the lineup of hands-on workshops. We’ve expanded a few of the more popular workshops. If you previously tried to get a ticket and found they were sold out, please check again. We know many of you are working on impressive projects in your workshops, so bring them and sign up for a lightning talk at registration.

This is a gathering of people who make the hardware world go round, and that includes you. Apply now to attend the 2015 Hackaday SuperConference.

 

2015 Hackaday SuperConference Talks:

Shanni R. Prutchi

Construction of an Entangled Photon Source for Experimenting with Quantum Technologies

Minas Liarokapis

OpenBionics: Revolutionizing Prosthetics with Open-Source Dissemination

Fran Blanche

Fun and Relevance of Antiquated Technology

Danielle Applestone

Founding a hardware startup: what I wish I’d known!

Luke Iseman

Starting a Hardware Startup

Grant Imahara

Recapping Mythbusters and his Engineering Career follow by a Fireside Chat

Noah Feehan

Making in Public

Jeroen Domburg

Implementing the Tamagotchi Singularity

Sarah Petkus

NoodleFeet: Building a Robot as Art

Alvaro Prieto

Lessons in Making Laser Shooting Robots

Zach Fredin

You Can Take Your Hardware Idea Through Pilot-Scale Production With Minimal Prior Experience And Not Very Much Money, So You Should Do It NOW!!

Kate Reed

The Creative Process In Action

Oscar Vermeulen

PiDP-8: Experiences developing an electronics kit

Reinier van der Lee

The Vinduino Project

Radu Motisan

Global environmental surveillance network

David Prutchi

Construction of Imaging Polarimetric Cameras for Humanitarian Demining

Rory Aronson

Why great documentation is vital to open-source projects

Jonathan Beri

I like to move it, move it: a pragmatic guide to making your world move with motors!

Neil Movva

Adding (wearable) Haptic Feedback to Your Project

Dustin Freeman

The Practical Experience of Designing a Theatre Experience around iBeacons

Kay Igwe

Brain Gaming

Why You Need To Be At The Hackaday SuperConference

October 20, 2015 by 18 Comments

Hackaday’s first ever SuperConference is November 14th and 15th. Imagine a hardware conference that’s actually about hardware creation, packed with the most talented people – both as attendees and presenters. We are taking over Dogpatch Studios in San Francisco for the event that’s sure to change your engineering life. Apply Now for your tickets.

This isn’t hype. Our excitement is well founded, and especially so in this case. Here’s why:

Continue reading “Why You Need To Be At The Hackaday SuperConference” →

SuperCon Presenters Revealed

October 15, 2015 by 16 Comments

When we announced the Hackaday SuperConference earlier this week we weren’t able to mention any presenters; the call for proposals to this epic hardware conference was still open. Now that the proposals are in we have been poring over them and starting to send acceptance notifications. Just a few of the notable presenters who have already confirmed are listed below. This is more than enough to get the excitement started but we will of course announce more in the coming days.

Check out the amazing space we’ve booked at Dogpatch Studios. It is perfect for the non-stop, high-throughput schedule that has been assembled. There will be one speaking track for talks that spans the entire weekend, while multiple concurrent workshops are held on the other floor of the venue. The evening party will kick off with the announcement of the 2015 Hackaday Prize winner, and the winner of Best Product.

Head over and apply now to attend the two-day SuperCon in San Francisco on November 14th and 15th. This list of amazing people and topics is just a taste of over thirty talks and workshops going on at the hardware conference you’ve been waiting for.

Shanni R. Prutchi  | Construction of an Entangled Photon Source for Experimenting with Quantum Technologies

Sprite_TM | Implementing the Tamagotchi Singularity

Michael Ossmann | Simple RF Circuit Design Workshop

Fran Blanche | Fun and Relevance of Antiquated Technology

Paul Stoffregen | Advanced Microcontroller-Based Audio Workshop

Noah Feehan | Making in Public

Sarah Petkus | NoodleFeet: Building a Robot as Art

Minas Liarokapis | OpenBionics

Luke Iseman | Starting a Hardware Startup

Dozens more to come.

Download the SuperCon poster and hang it everywhere. Share the @hackaday #SuperCon.  Do it now.