Newsletter/2014-07-21

This is currently work in progress!

Monday, 21 July 2014

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You can find all the back-numbers archived HERE

Skill Exchange

We are looking for hackers and non-hackers who either posses or wish to posses certain (technical) skills to attend or hold workshops surrounding said skills. If you're interested please have a look at our Skills exchange wiki page:

   https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Skills_exchange

Upcoming Events

• TC1 (see below)
• Soldering workshops (Through-hole and SMD editions)
• Privacy and Security Workshops
• Summer Hacker Camps and other interesting events outside TechInc: https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/User:Becha/Events_2014
• TechInc Events: https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Events
  • Now also announced on Meetup.com : http://www.meetup.com/Technologia-Incognita/

Kids Workshops: Kids in Space

In February, March and April we had 3 kids workshops:

https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/KidsWorkshopFeb2014

https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/KidsWorkshopMar2014

https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/KidsWorkshopApril2014

Second powerbar, powerbars working much better

The space now has two powerbars. One in the main room, one in the auxilary room. The second powerbar (in the auxilary) room is controlled by a small ARM board that is (currently) hanging from the ceiling.

The powerbar control (web) interface got a much needed makeover, and it should now be more functional and clear than before. We also worked out some major stability issues, so the powerbars should be much more stable now.

Still lacking is a 'hardware interface' to the powerbars. If someone wishes to pick this up, you can contact User:Wizzup for any questions.

You can read all the details here:

   https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Powerbars

Pictures:

   http://old.villavu.com/merlijn/power.png
   http://old.villavu.com/merlijn/power-browse.png

TC0, upcoming TC1

After a successful TechInc Technical Colloquium 0, we're planning a new one, with more awesome technical talks and contents. If you have suggestions for talks or topics, please contact one of the following organisers: (Rep, Stef, Wizzup, MMalecki)

Servers...

The Network team has been busy working on projects to improve the stability of our current infrastructure and improve the reliability of space services such as the wireless network, Member Virtual Machines and Project Virtual Machines.

I would first like to thank the following people for their hard work and time they put into making the project happen so with no particular order:

Muse: For the design and implementation of our new LTSP classroom environment.

Ultratux: For assisting in placing the rack, getting two power feeds to the rack and helping with pulling redundant network connectivity to the rack.

Justa: For helping build the rack and for helping with pulling redundant network connectivity to the rack.

Nathan7: For helping design and implement our current environment and the required management tools (network, powerbars,hypervisors and our backup environment).

Ardaxi: For the monitoring, monitoring map designs, PXE boot infra and our new openwrt core router.

Our current infra consists of two hosts both having 2TB of usable space and 10gb of available ram, each host runs KVM,NFS and ISCSI for virtual machines and storage each host is backed by the ZFS file system to ensure data integrity.

Anyone who would like to see the current state of the network at anytime can go to monitor.ti when inside the space and login as guest,this will allow you to see the current state of all machines in the space or click the link below to see the live map:

http://monitor.ti/map.php?sysmapid=1&severity_min=0

We have yet to migrate the current LDAP server to the new platform and once we have finished the migration we will then start handing out spacenet accounts to all members your LDAP account will be soon work on the wiki, space shell server, LTSP and any application members want to make LDAP connected.

The following services will be available soon since:

LDAP (migrating), RADIUS (migrating), Space Shell Server for members (soon), Monitoring (done), CTF Team ether-pad and jumpbox (done), VPSes (testing), shardik (done)

Workstations

Thanks to a generous donation from the Blender Institute, we now have 5 new workstation at the space. One is already set up with at the desk next to the member boxes. The four other machines are on the shelves at the Aux Space. If you require a machine in the space, feel free to check one out. The machines have 8800GT with 4Gb of RAM, they are diskless, but they'll PXE boot from the network with LTSP provided Ubuntu boot images (and a selection of Window Managers) or from any sane LiveUSB / liveCD.

More diverse hacker drinks

In addition to all the Club Mate variants (winter, flora, granat, cola) we frequently have other special drinks in house, such as Fritz lemonade, Rose lemonade, Sauer rhabarber and ginger beer. Drinks, other then club mate, are now chosen randomly at each order round. If you prefer a less random selection process (read: if you like a particular beverage) notify the club mate contact person.

Suggested membership fee changed to 25 Euro

Following the ALV on 9 May, the recommended membership fee has been changed to 25 euro to be able to pay the rent. If you can save the extra 5 euro, please change your membership payment to 25 euro.

Contact: Board

Resolutions from the ALV meeting on 9 May

• https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/ALV-9-May-2014_actions

New projector

TechInc recently recieved a new(er) projector, donated by TheOnlyJoey. ( http://www.projectorcentral.com/EIKI-LC-SD10.htm )

There were some small problems - the 'Power' button did not work. But after some failing-to attach-a-button-that-wouldn't-break-after-five-minutes-of-usage, we managed to come up with a workable solution to start/stop the projector. The projector has only one VGA port, so you may have to re-plug the VGA-cable that you want to use. Wizzup also ordered a few HDMI to VGA convertors, so we should also be able to use the HDMI cable near the presentation stand in the future (converted to VGA near the projector, so presenters should not notice)

Picture of the projector in action:

   http://wizzup.org/techinc_projector.jpg

Contact: User:Wizzup, meridion, TheOnlyJoey

Laser cutter

TODO: (Daan?)

More 3D printer fun

TODO: (maarten, justa, rep, radO)

Arduino workshop

TODO: (chotee, mrseeker)

Basic Electronics Workshop

The workshop on basic electronics on Friday, July 18 was surprisingly popular considering the tropical weather. Julf did a presentation on basic electrical theory and electronics, followed by a practical experiment session with Ultratux, the_Jinx and Phicoch. It was agreed that this was a good start for a series of regular workshops focusing on specific subtopics.

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