Workshop and Class Ideas (Archived)

THIS PAGE IS OUTDATED.

PLEASE USE THE LINK BELOW FOR SCHEDULED CLASSES

FamiLAB Public Classes & Events

We all bring some skill to the collective that others could benefit from. Once we've equipped the space, we'll host Hacker Labs to teach others. Put your name or initial in the ()'s at the end if you're willing to try leading it. If you'd like to see it, write it in with a (?) at the end.

Labs seem to be recurring and progressive, sadly similar to traditional academic classes. I guess the difference is they depend on our continued interest, so the 'coursework' constantly changes based on social necessity, while continuing to educate.

It's good to have a 'challenge' set up for a lab. For instance, 'control a 4x4 led grid with arduino', 'crack a test WEP AP', or 'build shortwave radio transmitter, verify it transmits'.

If you don't know enough about a topic, but want a lab about it... do it anyway.

Scheduled Labs

• Ham Radio Certification - Sundays after 3pm
  • If you want to carry a scanner, you need a radio license. Want Wi-Fi channels that aren't polluted by your local *$s? Use amateur radio frequencies! Every aspiring wireless hacker should have an amateur radio license. (C?)
  • Sundays, after 3pm, starting 10/25/09 !
  • Need materials to teach from
  • Cheshire and whoever he brings
  • Need to schedule testing, eventually. Can Cheshire give/grade exams?

Almost There

• AudioLabs (D)
  • We had one AudioLab on Friday 10/16/09, we didn't get a lot done, per se, but we had a lot of fun. I could see it happening again, with more structure.
  • circuit bending
  • linux audio studio software
  • apple audio studio software
  • windows audio studio software
  • make some crappy music! make albums of it. 3 minutes per song. hey, we're generating content!
  • video stuff, too?

Planning

• Machine Learning / AI lab using the Weka ML Toolkit. (D)
  • After I gather and normalize some large datasets, we could draw some interesting conclusions!
    • Predict future arrest bookings based on previous arrest patterns
  • Markov Chain generation using Machine Classifiers
• WiFi hacking labs / competitions
• Python classes/hacklasses (?)
  • I don't know Python that well, but we could go over chapters together in a workshop environment to encourage continued learning until we get through an entire book.
  • What awesome things can we make possible in Python?
  • A lot of python hackers are using the OpenCV Computer Vision library to do cool things
  • 3D programming with python. 3D is always cool.
  • Bring your cool scripts, have people try to program them.
  • Mook-Python Interface
  • BlinkenWall like LED wall with Python interface
• Java Decompilation
  • explore the unintended open source world of Java Bytecode
  • use of one of the many java bytecode decompilers (jad)
  • use of Eclipse and Jadclipse to automatically decompile bytecode in an IDE
  • are there others for other java IDE's?

Wanted

• How to Incorporate (?)
  • Most average people don't know what incorporation options they have, or the benefits of incorporating themselves. Corporate persons have a lot of abilities regular people don't have. Maybe every person should have an adjoining corporate personality?
• Intro Classes - Stuff not taught in High School
  • electromagnetic propagation
  • alternative economic structures/interpretations (F?)
  • mathematic primitives (D,F?)
  • computer history - aka story time (D?)
  • security
  • hacker philosophy/ethics
  • history of corporate personhood
  • psychology
  • interesting/unusual history (F?)
  • personal finances
  • photography (Scott?)
• Radio Basics (?)
  • Antennas
  • dB and losses, cables, etc.
  • Propagation characteristics
  • Digital vs analog radio
• Intro to Microcontrollers - Embedded CPUs outnumber PCs by orders of magnitude. Who doesn't have some bright idea for a device that needs a little bit of smarts? (?)
  • Pick a uC to teach with. Arduino? PIC?
• How to Solder - Sure, we can get stuff to stick together. What about trickier parts, like SMD? What makes a "good" solder joint (?)
• IP Networking basics (?)
• Robotics (?)
  • Lego Robotics are pretty cool and might not be too hard to obtain
• Embedded Linux - Linux on WRT54G, other embedded platforms
  • We have one DD-WRT router in the space at least
  • Roll our own embedded distro
• Linux labs
  • LFS (Linux From Scratch)
  • Linux Basics
    • Some people don't know shell commands.
    • If you teach them to ls, cd, and grep, you can blow their minds with for and while
    •  :(){:|:&};:
• Lockpicking (D,?)
  • Get locksmith certification? Need this to carry lockpicks legally
  • get lockpicks printed from a precision cnc machining lab? or just order in bulk?
• Web Presence Workshop (?)
  • Step by Step show people how to install a Wordpress, what directories contain what, how to alter the look, how to popularize it, how to get a presence in today's Web.
• Linux Basics (D)

Speakers We Would Like

• Hackers View on Corporate Law (how to incorporate, the benefits of incorporation, how to live the humanist American Dream through the use of corporations)
• Security professionals with real opinions and information
• Professional Lawyer to talk on tech
• Intellectual Property Lawyer