Archive for May, 2009
Vacuum tubes presentation at HSF
Posted by lekernel in Geek collectives on May 30, 2009
IBM tubes
Here are the draft slides for the upcoming talk about vacuum tubes at Hacker Space Fest #2 :
- PDF file
- LaTeX sources (tar.bz2)
If you plan to attend Hacker Space Fest, make sure to register.
Project update
- A development mailing list is now open. You are welcome to subscribe here. Language for the mailing list is English, and “development” should be taken in the broad sense of the term. This is specifically on the list topic :
- feature requests
- bug reports
- patches
- writing software for the chip (even if unrelated to the initial application)
- EDA tools and methodologies
- technical questions not answered in the documentation
- reusing Milkymist’s IP cores or software in your own open-source project
- contributions
- and anything that does not fit…
- Draft conference slides for the presentation at HSF2009 are online. They give a good introduction about the technical aspects of the project.
- On the technical side, I have finished the compiler for the PFPU ; it is now able to completely generate the microcode from the preset equations. The PFPU has been slightly modified : I have added more registers (128 instead of 32) to the PFPU, as it turned out that 32 was not enough for even the simplest presets. The design has been modified so that those registers end up in Block RAM to improve FPGA resource efficiency. Finally, the PFPU now supports a COPY instruction that copies a register to another in order to enable the compiler to meet certain register placement constraints. Next steps are to draw waves properly and to implement all the management code for the rendering pipeline.
- The wiki is still active.
Hacker Space Fest Schedule – 26th to 30th of June 2009, France.
Posted by lekernel in Geek collectives, Milkymist on May 20, 2009
========================================================================
== Hacker Space Festival #2: Program for 26-30 June 2009, Vitry/Seine ==
========================================================================
We are proud to announce the HSF program for the events which will
happen from the 26th to the 30th, of June 2009 at the /tmp/lab & 6 Bis
in Vitry sur Seine.
Hacker Space Fest aims to be an open forum for exchanges on
Hacking, Art, Technology, Freedom, Openness and Society, and as
such we wish to meet all of you who are contributing to these fields,
individually or as an integrated domain.
We'd like to thank all the people who sent us proposals, as well as the
Programming Committee for their time and dedication. Thank you all of
you who proposed your side-effects and helped make this program
festival even better. See you there!
Make sure to register, more information here:
http://www.hackerspace.net/register
(For short, to register, please send a mail to hsf-contact@tmplab.org
with "Subscribe" as the subject.)
The official program with details and the latest updates can be found
online:
http://hackerspace.net/schedule
See you there,
The Organizing Committee 
========================================================================
== Table Of Contents ===================================================
* Friday 26th June: Build-up / Help welcome
* Saturday 27th June: Conference Day #1
* Sunday 28th June: Conference Day #2
* Monday 29th June: Conference Day #3
* Tuesday 30th June: Workshop Day
* Ongoing Events
* Food
* Lightning Talks
* Registration
* Subscribe to the HSF-TALK Mailing-List
========================================================================
== SATURDAY 27 JUNE : CONFERENCE DAY #1 ================================
09:00 - 10:00 Keynote Speech: Groogle Summer of Crode,
by Serguey Grim, Eric Schmoudt, Larry Fake (EN)
10:00 - 11:00 Les activismes contemporains,
by Laurence Allard & Olivier Blondeau (FR)
11:00 - 12:00 SIGKILL imminent - Novel Robot Uprising Mitigation
Strategies,
by astera (EN)
12:00 - 13:00 Sauerkraut hacking,
by Doctor Ferrand & Mister Rébus (EN)
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:00 Fabrication de Biodiesel,
by Gaëtan & Sébastien Bourdeauducq (FR)
15:00 - 16:00 HostileWRT,
by Itzhack & Mr. Parkinson (EN)
16:00 - 17:00 Subverting Windows Embedded CE 6 Kernel,
by Petr Matousek (EN)
17:00 - 18:00 ICT Disaster Recovery,
by Jaromil (EN)
18:00 - 20:00 Round Table I: ICT Disaster Recovery (EN)
-> Facilitator : Jaromil
-> Participants: Isazi, Xenon (more to come)
20:00 - 21:00 Dinner Break
20:00 - 23:00 Concerts and performances
23:00 - 07:00 DJs & VJs
========================================================================
== SUNDAY 28 JUNE : CONFERENCE DAY #2 ==================================
09:00 - 10:00 The only mov(i)e is... Hackers in movies,
by Caspar Clemens Mierau (EN)
10:00 - 11:00 Gaming Platform Libre,
by Laura Bécognée & Yann Guidon (FR)
11:00 - 12:00 NutIP : un serveur web pour calculatrice HP-41,
by Khanh-Dang NGUYEN THU LAM (Paris) (FR)
12:00 - 13:00 Linux et le GSM,
by XXX (FR)
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:00 The Virtual Hacker Space Room,
by hellekin (EN)
15:00 - 16:00 Milkymist: an Open Hardware VJ Platform,
by Sébastien Bourdeauducq (EN)
16:00 - 17:00 Blender Game Engine + ODP = Sexy Presentation,
by Kevin Roy (FR)
17:00 - 18:00 HackerSpaces Status Updates:
- the un/loquer in Medellin, by Alejo Duque (EN)
- Syn2Cat in Luxembourg, by Steve Clement (EN)
18:00 - 20:00 Round Table II: The Future Of Hackerspaces (EN)
-> Facilitator : Philippe Langlois
-> Participants: Alejo Duque, astera, Casper Clemens
Mierau, hellekin, Jaromil, Steve Clement
20:00 - 21:00 Dinner Break
========================================================================
== MONDAY 29 JUNE : CONFERENCE DAY #3 ==================================
09:00 - 10:00 Scrying,
by Martin Howse [remote from Berlin] (EN)
10:00 - 11:00 OpenCV anonymization,
by jilt (EN)
11:00 - 12:00 La face cachée des moteurs de recherches,
by XXX (FR)
12:00 - 13:00 Pushing the Limits in Open Source Licensing, and beyond,
by Philippe Langlois & Thiago Alves Maximo (EN)
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:00 Vacuum tubes, your grandpa's electronics,
by Sébastien Bourdeauducq (EN)
15:00 - 16:00 AANN - Artificial Analog Neural Network,
by Phil Stearns (EN)
16:00 - 17:00 Hackers & Painters,
by Milovann Yanatchkov (EN)
17:00 - 18:00 EU Software Patents v3.0: The Patent Empire Counter
Attack,
by Benjamin Henrion (EN)
18:00 - 20:00 Round Table III: Internet : liberté graduée et ripostes de
la création (FR)
-> Facilitator : Jean-Marc Manach
-> Participants: to be announced
20:00 - 21:00 Dinner Break
========================================================================
== TUESDAY 30 JUNE : WORKSHOP DAY ======================================
Lightning Talks can be proposed until the last minute according to the
available space-time. See http://hackerspace.net/lightning-talks
10:00 - 13:00 Lightning Talks (20 minutes)
10:00 - 13:00 FPGA & Verilog workshop preparation
10:00 - 12:00 Metasploit workshop, by Jérôme Athias (EN/FR)
13:00 Lunch Break
14:00 - 20:00 Lightning Talks (20 minutes)
14:00 - 18:00 FPGA and Verilog introduction, by Sébastien Bourdeauducq
(EN)
16:00 - 18:00 Logiciel libre, standards ouverts et conservation des
œuvres d'art numérique, by Anne Laforet (FR)
20:00 - 21:00 Dinner Break
========================================================================
== ONGOING EVENTS ======================================================
For the whole duration of the festival...
== Ongoing RepRap Event
Alexandre Korber will setup an ongoing RepStrap build during the whole
festival, from A to Z.
The workshop will be split in several activities:
1. Soldering of the electronics components on an Arduino basis
2. Building of the 3-axis robot
3. Building of the extruder head
4. Calibration and tests
========================================================================
== FOOD ================================================================
Last year, we had a lot of vegetarian food. This year, it'll be organic
vegetarian food
Please register yourself by sending a mail to this address if you wish
to eat onsite: hsf-food@tmplab.org
========================================================================
== LIGHTNING TALKS =====================================================
Lightning Talks are open to anyone until the last moment, according to
the available space-time and will take place all day of Thursday 30
June 2009 in the conference room. Lightning talks will be held on
Tuesday. Each talk is to be 20 minutes, no more.
Please send your proposal to the HSF-TALK mailing-list so we can update
the wiki for you (you have to subscribe first):
http://lists.tmplab.org/listinfo.cgi/hsf2009-talk-tmplab.org
More information:
http://www.hackerspace.net/lightning-talks
========================================================================
== REGISTRATION ========================================================
To register, please send a mail to hsf-contact@tmplab.org with
"Subscribe" as the subject.
You'll be invited, in the confirmation email, to give a donation for
the participation to Hacker Space Fest.
The suggested donation price if 40 EUR (forty). Half-price for
students, unemployed and seniors.
Registering is a good idea as it will ensure you for access to the
conference:
1. All people having paid the full donation price in advance are
SURE to get in.
2. All people having paid some donation (but not the full donation)
will get in all the time, EXCEPT if there are too many people
inside the rooms at a given time.
3. All people having registered online (here) will have priority
during onsite registration
4. All people not registering online will have to pray that not so
many people come to HSF 
========================================================================
== THAT'S ALL FOLKS ====================================================
Follow-up on the HSF-TALK mailing-list:
mailto:hsf-talk-subscribe@lists.tmplab.org
Hacker Space Fest presentations
Posted by lekernel in Geek collectives, Howto's, Milkymist, Small projects on May 9, 2009
I will make the following presentations at the Hacker Space Fest :
Milkymist, an open hardware VJ platform
The Milkymist™ project develops a stand-alone device in a small form factor that is capable of rendering MilkDrop-esque visuals effects in real time, with a high level of interaction with many sensors and using live audio or video streams as a base.
Open source components and design tools have been developed or used as much as possible. A system-on-chip implemented in a FPGA has been chosen for meeting this goal at the IP core level.
The flexibility of the FPGA enables advanced users to modify the design, and also permits compact integration of many interfaces (MIDI, DMX512, analog sensors, video inputs), making Milkymist™ a platform of choice for the mobile VJ.
The design is also highly modular and documented, making the code easy to re-use in other open source system-on-chips.
Project homepage: http://www.milkymist.org
The conference focuses on the technical aspects of the project. Live demonstration included !
FPGA and Verilog introductory workshop
(This is an English re-edition of the FPGA workshops at /tmp/lab)
Agenda :
- Using Xilinx tools in command-line
- Logic design and Verilog introduction
- Hands-on: basic functions + implementation of a small audio generator
- Simulation techniques
Pages from the previous workshops (in French) :
- http://www.tmplab.org/wiki/index.php/Workshop_Introduction_aux_FPGA
- http://www.tmplab.org/wiki/index.php/FPGA:_la_suite
FPGA boards needed, please bring your development kits for those who have (even if you don’t come to the workshop).
Vacuum tubes, your grandpa’s electronics
Since the invention of the transistor, vacuum tubes have been progressively phased out and are now quite rare. Yet, for the hacker, they can still be of interest :
- Fun factor. Who doesn’t like the warm glow of the filaments, the green/blue light of the magic eye tubes, and that mess of low-tech capacitors, coils and wires inside the devices ?
- DIY potential. Yes, with a little recklessness it is possible to make your own tubes, and use them in practical applications. And even if you don’t make your tubes, they are much easier to use in simple -yet good- analog circuits than transistors, that you truly understand. A modern circuit of the same quality typically requires black-box integrated circuits that require much more knowledge to completely understand.
- Demonstration of the laws of physics. Tubes can be used to show fundamental laws of electromagnetism, which are the basis for making high-end radioactivity detectors or particle accelerators.
This conference will explain in detail the functioning of different tubes and will show how to build circuits like audio amplifiers or radio receivers/transmitters.
Live demonstration of tube equipment included !
Hacker Space Fest deadline extended
Posted by lekernel in Geek collectives on May 6, 2009
We would like to thank everyone who submitted proposals for the second Hacker Space Festival. They were very interesting ; and thanks to you we will be able to organize an excellent festival this year again.
However, to make this event even better, we extended the submission deadline to May 12th, in order to fill the few remaining slots. We especially expect more workshops (on any subject) and technical conferences.
Read the call for proposals: http://www.hackerspace.net/call-for-proposals
As a reminder:
- this is a hacker event
- this is a self-organized operation
- we can’t cover any expenses (travel, visa, etc.)
- we can provide free (makeshift) accommodation on site (bring camping gear)
- we can provide cheap (but good) food
Speakers already selected will be notified starting tomorrow, as scheduled.
And even if you don’t submit anything, you are very welcome to attend the HSF !