We like to keep busy: keeps us honest. So a scant 2 hours after doing the CTT event, we were back at the lab for Tuesday Open Night! Here’s more kwartzlab TV for you, featuring Karl’s robotic snake. Hey, if you like this content please shoot me an email.

As always, click through for more…

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Tags: kwartzlab tv, meetups
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I returned from DC just in time to catch a little of the Tuesday night action at my own lab. I like to go there asap after I get back in town to see what I might have missed.

There was all kinds of great stuff happening, including some more cool Karl-bots.

click through for more…

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I’m guessing we had somewhere between 30-40 people out for our Ubuntu release party. It may take a while to get up to the 200-300 they got at the Berlin (Germany) party, but we’ll get there, I’m sure.

At the very least, it’s gratifying we got more than the 4 people who showed up for the Windows 7 party.

• Laurel Russwurm put up a great write-up on her blog
• punkin’s photos
• My photos
• Paul has posted slides from his GNU Screen presentation.

Thanks to everybody who helped out with the release party on Thursday. Especially Paul, who brought in a projector for us to use to do his presentation, Bob, for getting the word out and helped burn CDs, Ben, who got pizza, and Steph, Cedric, Mike, Eric, Gus and the rest of the Kwartzlabbers for being awesome as always. And, of course, everyone else who showed up and made it an fantastic party.

See you in April for Lucid Lynx! And stay tuned for open source hackery in the ‘lab!

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Tags: linux, meetups, release party, software, ubuntu
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In the lab on Thursday, we’ll be throwing a party to celebrate the release of Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala. It’s an open event with free admission. Anyone and everyone with some interest in Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular are welcome to attend.

I’m running around getting stuff ready for it. I think tonight I’ll be finalizing cake-related details. Parties have to have cake, after all. Pictured are the special, limited edition collectors CDs I’ll be handing out. (I’m doing the labels ahead of time, since it takes a while. We’ll burn the CDs on release day). There won’t be that many, so if you want one, get there early.

Incidentally, the awesome koala was drawn by a friend of mine. He also appears on posters around town.

We’ve got great support from the local LUG and I handed out a huge stack of posters at Ontario GNU/Linux Fest.

Come out and enjoy the freedom! If you’re interested in giving a demo of your favourite Ubuntu-related tool or feature, we’ll have a fairly informal BarCamp-style presentation setup. Demos about how you use Ubuntu in your hacking endeavours are especially welcome.

You can contribute ideas on the wiki.

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Tags: linux, meetups, release party, software, ubuntu
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James, Andrew, and I ran a learn-to-solder meetup in my garage this morning. A big thank you to my two co-organizers, the 7 makers that attended, and Dan L. and Jeff-O for loaning us a couple extra irons. Click through for deets…

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Tags: meetups
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The Board decided today that we’re going to be converting the “non-incorporated club” members to full corporate members at a meeting on the 31st, at the lab (time TBA).

What this means for you depends on whether you joined the unincorporated club or not:

I Joined the Club!

Congrats and thanks! You need to bring your first month’s membership dues to the meeting. That’s cash or a cheque for $52.50 ($50+GST). You’ll sign a form, get voted in by the Board, and then you’ll be a member… and get your keys!

I haven’t joined KwartzLab yet!

You’re running out of time to join as a founding member! Fill out an application form, and get it to a board member with at least $100 in cash or cheque (you may want to make it $152.50 to cover your first month’s dues). You can bring it to the meeting on the 31st if you like. At the meeting, you’ll be voted in as a member by the Board, and get your keys!

I don’t know if I want to join or not yet!

We’re meeting on the 20th to hang out, show off our projects, and have a few beers! Come on out and meet us! We’ll sure you’ll want to join then

Tags: meetups
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Here’s a walk-through video of our fantastically cool and first-ever physical space for kwartzlab.

Click through for stills from the day.

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Tags: meetups
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Having run two meetups now and one more in planning I’ve had a chance to think a lot about what goes into making a successful meetup. In hopes of lowering the threshold for other makers to stand up their own meetups, I’ve written a draft design pattern for maker meetups. It’s a wiki, so you know what to do: change it, add to it, mash it up.

Thanks to Natalie and Andrew for reviewing the first draft.

Feedback (dw@kwartzlab.ca) welcome and appreciated.

Happy Making,
DW

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Tags: meetups
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