Preston Raspberry Jam

The Raspberry Pi is steadily making it’s way to thousands of eager early adopters, and along it’s way, there is a new growing trend.

Raspberry Jams are user groups for those interested in Raspberry Pi and it’s possible uses.

People from around Lancashire journeyed to attend this special event, hosted by the creator of the concept Alan O’Donohoe (@teknoteacher).

The idea is simple, provide a place where Pi enthusiasts can get together, show off their projects, and discuss computing related topics.

There were many speakers at this event, Simon Monk (of the Evil Genius book series) talked about using the Pi with an Arduino.

Cefn Hoile spoke about Shrimping (taking old IT equipment and reusing it in open hardware hacking)

Jason from frambozenbier, spoke about running Quake 3 on the Pi, and using it as a thin client to a Windows server.

The night was fantastic, I managed to record all of the talks, and I will be releasing the audio ASAP., so watch this space.

You can find my photos on my Flickr page

Manchester Raspberry Jam

The UK’s first Raspberry Pi User Group

Madlab was the venue for the first Raspberry Pi focussed user group meeting.

The venue, kindly provided free of charge, was filled with Raspberry Pi as far as the eye could see, all being used for different reasons.

The event, organised by Ben Nuttall, was developed to promote programming, and the Pi , to a larger audience.

But one common theme, was seeing everyone so excited and interested in the diminutive device, especially the children that attended.

Amy, who is eleven, built games using scratch, and is quite clearly a future game designer, she is also an active Manchester Girl Geek

The event started with Ben hosting a short introduction to the format of the day, and explaining his path into the world of IT.

We then broke up into smaller groups, each working together to get our Pi’s setup and ready to go.

We then had our first talk, which was presented by Olly from Blackpool LUG, he chaired an open discussion on Linux, focussing on Debian based distributions such as Debian, Linux Mint and Ubuntu. Olly explained the history of Linux, and showed off the latest versions of the previously mentioned distributions.

Our next talk, was presented by Martin, he spoke about 3D printing, as the Raspberry Pi currently does not have an official case, lots of people are making their own with 3D printers. He talked about using 3D printers with the Raspberry Pi, surely this would be a fantastic idea, and create quite a polished 3D printer in a few months time.

Next up was the legendary Florentina sandwich from Rustica.

And then I spotted a photo op

After lunch, Jon Chamberlain hosted a Python primer, and used the Raspberry Pi directly on the Project A Sketch. Jon has been hosting a weekly Python meeting at Blackpool LUG and via our Google Hangout. Jon explained Python, and showed of a few procedural programs to simply explain the syntax.

Our last talk was Bob “Paragon” Clough talking about using the Raspberry Pi in place of an Arduino for hardware hacking. Bob is a keen hardware hacker, and has built many devices using an Arduino, and other clone boards.

Ben should be very proud of this event.

The user group has been kickstarted into life. with lots of support from Ben and the Manchester geek groups.

Very special thanks to Madlab, once again they have provided a home to a user group, and asked for no money in return. I really wish that we had more places like Madlab around the UK.

Hack to the Future 2012

I’ve been to a lot of unconferences in my time, but none with any level of excitement to match Hack To The Future!

The event, created by Alan “@teknoteacher” O’Donohoe, was a massive opening salvo to highlight the recent UK Government announcement that the ICT curriculum is changing from September 2012. Alan successfully brought together children, businesses and enthusiasts to produce 40+ talks and workshops on the day.

Some stand out sessions include

Freakclown’s – Ethical hacking.

Andy Piper – Nanode workshop (Many thanks to Ken Boak for providing 10 free Nanodes!)

Dr Tom Crick – The future of ICT Education.

I loved the mix of workshops and sessions, children loved the hands on experience of using electronics in the lab, I saw many children sitting down and learning to solder with the Fignition team, Julian and Helen did a fantastic job of engaging with the children (and the adults who were fighting to get their hands on the tiny 8-bit computer) and illustrating that electronics can be fun.

Children also enjoyed creating their own hama bead creations, a session lead by a 12 yr old girl. Adults sat side by side with children and learnt how to make various badges and figures (There were quite a few 8-bit and 16-bit game character creations coming out of that workshop.)

The children were given free reign to choose what talks they wanted to see, and used handy mini maps and mini grids to record when and where a talk took place.

On the day, the BBC unveiled a very early pre alpha build of their new coding platform, dubbed the BBC Micro II. This platform allows beginners to learn how to code, and then their source code can be compiled for many different platforms. It’s still early days, but it is a fantastic premise, and one which I will follow with great interest.

Blackpool Linux User Group were there, and interest in Linux was very high, children asked about the different distributions, and tried out the latest on a bank of laptops that they had ready for them to use. One child asked if they could make a CD for them to take away, and the team were more than happy to do that for them, until the asked for a 50 Cent CD. (Surely they meant 50CentOS?)

Microsoft showed off their Gadgeteer platform, it’s very similar to the Arduino platform. The Gadgeteer workshop ran all day, and it was packed! Children had the chance to build and program a digital camera using the platform. I really liked the idea of the Gadgeteer, it was easy to use and develop for. (But don’t worry Arduino is still my first choice for developing hardware.)

At the end of the day, Dr Tom Crick presented the closing keynote, that the purpose of the day was to excite and inspire children and adults to make a difference in the ICT curriculum, highlighting that the event is the start of many similar events around the UK, and indeed the world.

Alan is keen to point out that the event was completely open source, and that other schools around the world are encouraged to use the framework at wiki.hackademy.org.uk and improve upon it. Take the framework into your school or college and shape it into something that delivers the maximum benefit for your children.

This event was fantastic, and I recommend it to children and adults, you can learn so much, just by having fun.

Take a look at Hack to the Future’s lanyrd page

Oggcamp 11

Oggcamp, the jewel in Linux unconference community, now in it’s thrid year, and growing bigger and better every year.

I am lucky, in that I have been to all of the previous Oggcamps. The first, in 2009 was in Wolverhampton, at the Connaught Hotel. The venue was just right for the number of attendees, lots of space in the main room, and a few smaller rooms where talks could be hosted.

In 2010, the venue changed to the Black-E in Liverpool, a much larger venue, for a much larger crowd.

In 2011, the third Oggcamp was held in Farnham Maltings, Farnham. A large, well layed out venue, with a large hall (seating around four hundred people), exhibition space, and smaller rooms for sessions.

This years Oggcamp was fantastic, creating a large event, filled with lots to see and do, while at the same time providing a personal and comfortable experience for Oggcamp veterans and newbies alike.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Daubney, used under CC-BY-NC-SA)

This year, I was the crew manager, and I was responsible for leading a crew of around 22 volunteers in the general running of the event. The best word I can use to describe how the crew worked was seamless, everyone just slotted into place.

(Photo courtesy of Miia Ranta under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

So dear reader, lets take a look at behind the scenes of Oggcamp

Saturday 13^th August, Premier Inn, Aldershot

• 06:30
  • It’s early…I’m tired, but I am excited to be getting ready for Oggcamp, no breakfast, as they didn’t open until 7:30am #facepalm
• 7:30
  • Tony Hughes, Arran Gallagher and I wait for Mike “Heed” Rimicans to arrive in “The Heed-mobile”
• 07:45
  • Heed arrives…after I ring a back up taxi! We load up the car, and head out to Farnham Maltings
• 08:00 Farnham Maltings, Farnham
  • We arrive at the venue, and unload the gear.
• 08:15
  • I assemble the crew, and start issuing out jobs to people.
    • Those identified as having AV skills meet Alan Bell, our head of AV for the weekend.
    • I have a natter with Alan, to ensure that all of his AV requirements are met, and ask if he needs more crew over the day, to which he says yes, so I gather more crew for him to work with over the weekend.
  • The rest of the crew, and I start shaping the venue to our requirements.
    • Setting up tables for stalls.
    • Banners and Signage.
    • Moving stock to the stalls.
    • Reception desk
    • Campfire Manager terminals
    • Twitterfall
    • Setting up the exhibition space
      • Ensuring exhibitors requirements are met.
      • Checking rooms are fit for purpose, with no health and safety issues present.
      • Ensuring health and safety rules were complied with (Sorry Ken, but Nanodes in the sunshine was a lot better )
• I allocated some of the crew to work in the rooms, on a rotating hourly shift basis, so that they worked for an hour, then had an hour off.
• Other crew members took part in the talks, and helped out where necessary, for example giving crew members on the stalls a break where needed.
• I was conscious that the crew were all volunteers, and as such I wanted them to enjoy Oggcamp, rather than feel as though they had to work the whole weekend, so I ensured that everyone rotated around the venue, and had as much time off as possible.
• 11:00
  • I’m interviewed by Ken Fallon from Hacker Public Radio, about how the crew were organised.
• 12:00
  • Myself and Robin Catling record a quick fullcircle podcast segment about day one of Oggcamp.

• 12:30

• I assemble a crack team of soft drink smugglers, and using the trolley from the venue (sorry venue) we head over to the O’Reilly offices to liberate some soft drinks.

(Photo courtesy of Miia Ranta under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

• 13:00
  • Geeknic is go..go..go……A park full of highly caffeinated geeks is a good thing.
• 14:00
  • Back to work for the team.

• Live Show
  • All the crew work together to ensure that the venue is cleared, secure, and all of the attendees are in the main hall for the live show.

• End of the day
  • Check all the rooms are secure, our merchandise is locked away in the venue, everyone knows what time to report the next day (well apart from one person I missed, who unfortunately turned up 2 hours early, sorry mate).
• 17:00
  • Now back to the hotel to get ready for a few beers in Farnham.

• 18:00 to unknown
  • Hello my name is beer, I like Les.
  • @bobobex got smashed, daughter dismayed.
  • Fire performers.
  • Slow bar staff.
  • Great music.
  • Not enough drinking time.

Sunday 14^th August

• 07:30
  • You know the drill…
• 08:00
  • Breakfast, in a word, shocking!
  • I believe I ordered my bacon cooked!
• 09:30
  • Arran, Tony, Kevan, Frances and Les pile into Tony’s car and head to the venue.
• 10:00
  • We arrive and start yesterday’s process again. But this time I make sure that the crew who worked in the rooms the day previous, were not working in the rooms on Sunday.
  • Ensuring that there are enough crew to man the stalls, man the rooms, cameras, av suite, help exhibitors, take breaks you name it.
• 11:45
  • Ambjörn, who shall now forever more be known as Gaius Baltar (the resemblance is uncanny) needs his presentation printing out, cue Les liaising with venue staff to make that happen.

• 14:00
  • __Freakyclown__ has a problem with Campfire Manager, so I call upon Mark to help him out.
• 15:00
  • The first “live in front of a studio audience” edition of The Dick Turpin Roadshow. With special guests Mr & Mrs Corenominal
    • Now this was a challenge! We had to swap rooms with another speaker (Thanks Big Ron from Wolves LUG).
    • Update Campfire Manager (Thanks Mark) to reflect the new room.
    • Beg, borrow, cadge and steal enough equipment to record the show and play jingles / show image on screen.
    • Ask Dan Lynch to use the mixing desk, and record the show through that (on his Zoom H4, with my Zoom H2 as a backup on the stage)

• Raffle
  • Just like the live show, check all the rooms are clear, and that everyone is in the main room for the raffle.
• End of event
  • I place Tony “Hard Sell” Hughes on the merchandise stall, and he does me proud, I thought thumb screws were illegal, but he applied them with scary efficiency.
  • Pack up, tidy up, and ensure that everyone is out, and that all of our equipment is too.
  • Hand back the keys to the venue staff.
  • Get taxi back to hotel.
• 18:30 till far too late
  • Food, drinks, friends.

Monday 15^th August

• 02:55
  • Fire alarm goes off, I wake up instantly, room mate is unaware of any alarm, even after I tell him to get the f”(% up
• 07:30
  • I am very tired, so I make a coffee, and try not to wake my room mate, then head outside for some fresh air. Where I am pounced upon by HPR roving podcaster Ken Fallon, so with a cup of coffee in hand we record a podcast on a picnic bench, in the playground of the pub next door.
  • I then join Phil, Becky and Emma for breakfast, where we look back to the weekend that was with melancholy, happy to have been part of it all, but completely shattered.
• 12:00
• On train, back up’ north!

Oggcamp was amazing, the presenters put on a great show, the speakers were exceptional, but I think the biggest thanks should go to the crew, they volunteered their time, they worked tirelessly, and knew exactly what to do!

So to all the crew I say, thanks!

Roll on Oggcamp 2012

Les

Oh and just in case you missed it, popey just loves chicken

It’s all happening!

It’s been a mad few weeks, so lets try and recap.

Geekup Blackpool

Blackpool finally has a geek social event.

I’ve wanted to setup an event like this for a while, but I’ve not had the time. So it came as quite a shock when the plan fell into place without any major hitches.

The first meeting was on the 25th July at Gillespies pub, and you can read more here

I’ve also been in a meeting with Fiona Dransfield from Blackpool Council, about the councils involvement with social / creative and technical events in Blackpool (such as Barcamp Blackpool Blackpool Social Media Surgery, and Geekup)

Blackpool Social Media Surgery

Duncan and Cath held the second Blackpool Social Media Surgery, I came along to help as a surgeon.

Myself and @surlydev showed Mike from Blackpool Advocacy (@blackpooladvo) how to use Twitter effectively for their organisation. Including how to use Dropbox to share private and public files with employees and service users.

Blackpool LUG

We’ve created an Android app a banner, played with Arduinos, you name it, this group has done it!

Oggcamp

It’s only two weeks to Oggcamp

I’ll be there in my capacity as Crew Manager, spending some lovely time down south, and chatting with some old friends.

OK Computer February 2011, Madlab, Manchester.

OK Computer was a new type of Free Software event, in that it truly tailored to the requirements of a new user.
Created and hosted by Anna Morris, from Manchester Free Software and the Girly Geeks team, it was a light hearted and insightful introduction into a world that so many people take for granted.

The Freedom, in Free Software, does anyone know what it truly means? Was the uptake in Linux and Free Software due to ethical choices about freedom? I hope so, and those that attended the event were treated to a day of learning all about those freedoms.

Blackpool LUG attended, there in an audience, and support capacity.

The day started with an informal introduction to Software Freedom, what it was, how it started and how you could contribute.

Next up was a live demo, on how to install Ubuntu. Luckily we had been gifted a number of PCs that we were able to give away to the attendees. So we had Ubuntu pre-installed on most of them, and taught people how to use Ubuntu and Free Software.

After a coffee break, with some lovely cakes, there was a talk hosted by Charlie Owen, a whistlestop tour of Ubuntu, all the apps you need, and how to get the best from Ubuntu, even yours truly was put on the spot to deliver a quick tour of Kompozer

After the talks, the day was more hands on, with people networking and getting to grips with Ubuntu.

I really enjoyed this event, it showed that Free Software isn’t just beards and penguins, but people and passions.

There will be a follow up to OK Computer, a 1.x event that will be there to offer support to the attendees from the last event, and there will be a new event this autumn, OK Computer 2, so watch this space.

You can find more pictures here

I’ve been gone for far too long…forgive me

Well it’s been a busy 8 months, so lets recap!

• The entire ground floor of my house was taken apart and rebuilt!
• That was four months of my life that I won’t get back.
• I’ve attended numerous events
• Software Freedom Day 2010 – Showcasing the best that Free Software has to offer.
• R3PLAY – A retro games expo, excellent day out!
• Okay Computer – A beginners guide to Ubuntu and Free Software

• I organised a follow up event to 2010′s UCubed
• UCubed 2011 was a massive success, and you can read more here
• Pictures are here
• And you can listen to me talk about it here Fullcircle Side Pod Ep8

What have I achieved since we last spoke?

• Completed an NVQ (or ITQ as they are called now) Level 3 in IT.
• Completed a course on working in schools as a creative practitioner, this was via Curious Minds
• Started writing articles for Linux Format magazine.
• I will soon be a commissioned writer for the magazine.
• Organised and project managed UCubed 2011…oh I’ve said that already.
• Done abit of adhoc podcasting.
• Full Circle Podcast Episode 17: Why Would They Do That?
• Full Circle Side-Pod Episode Eight: Hardware, Software and Knitting
• Linux Outlaws 202 – A Note from the Future (Interview Special)

What’s happening next?

• I’ll be going to Open Tech on May 21st, and I will be interviewing some of the speakers, I’ll post the audio when I get back.
• Dan Lynch has offered me the position of Lt at the this years Oggcamp 11 my main duty will be to look after the team of volunteers who will be manning the event. I jumped at the chance, as Oggcamp is such an awesome event.

Well thats all for now…better make MrsP’s dinner.

Les