Hello Hackers-
(This wrap up is a little late--you can blame life.)
Thanks to Lot18 for hosting us! BTW, if it wasn't obvious from all the wine, they sell wine online.
Andrew was disappointed that so few of you [ read 0 --ed ] took the challenge to share implementations of RC4! Maybe it was too difficult, or not exciting enough, or whatever. We thought it to be appropriate, given the privacy concerns of being hosted by Facebook, and everyone should think about encryption at least once in their life...
Many of us use interpreted languages (Python, PHP, Ruby...). How do they work? Checkout page 13 in the classic LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual, for perhaps the most important half a page of code ever written.
David got a full MRI scan of his brain and asked for the images. Then he stitched it together to create a 3D, interactive viewer for it, which shoots frickin' laser beams. [ trust us, it's even better than sharks with laser beams -- ed ]
- GitHub
- laser beam head
- Osirix - the software he used to make something out of the scans
Learning another language can be a challenge when you're short on time. But for just one sentence a day, you too can learn to read Japanese. Act now!
- Macronics - (it means gibberish)
- kyTea - toolkit for Japanese and Chinese: word segmentation, part of speech tagging, and pronunciation
- Microsoft Translator API - I mean, hey, it's free!
- getting started with the above api
Siraaj was back again to show us his experiments in learning about full-text indexing. Rather than read a lot about it and then implement it, Siraaj took some rather good advice from Erlang's Joe Armstrong. "If you don't know anything about something, the best way to learn is to try to implement it." [ that's not the exact quote, but close enough -- ed ]
Anthony showed us a digital logic simulator that works in the browser. He doesn't (yet) have a schematic for a Flux Capacitor, but if he did the logic simulator could, well, simulate it, which means, I guess, you could time travel through your browser [ Wait, I forgot. It's been done before: Wayback Machine -- ed ]. Also, if you're interested in learning about Physics, Anthony has you covered!
Gary opened up a conversation about getting users to do things, and how to manage it. To be honest, we didn't really follow it so well...
We learned about some risks in weather ballooning, and were told some tales, but the coolest part, which was hardly discussed was Dan's Iridium Satellite modem as an Arduino shield!
Fitmeal is simple in concept, but endless in possibilities--but sure, there exists things like it already. But, did they present at Hack and Tell? I think not. Anyway, Fitmeal is Georges attempt at finding a way to eat properly. He's labored hard to add Manhattan eating establishments close to where he lives and works, so your mileage may vary.
Sometimes you need an uncensored backchannel for commenting on web pages, you know because you like to stir the pot and get banned. Well, uncens is a project that implements just that. [ It's almost like Tim May's BlackNet, OK, maybe not -- ed ]
We're always looking for spaces, even though January has a promising spot. If you're willing to host, get in touch!
- San Francisco / Bay Area (recently active again)
- Berlin, Germany (very active)
- Singapore (NEW!)
- Melbourne, Austrailia (EVEN MORE NEW!)
Check out http://hackandtell.org for links, and expect a new hackandtell.org any year now!
Happy Kwanmaskhah year!
Andrew and James
[0]: We generated random bits by using von Neumann coin unbiasing: von Neumann, John (1951). "Various techniques used in connection with random digits". National Bureau of Standards Applied Math Series 12: 36.