2009
02.28

Directions to the Underground Lab

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If you’re coming from the south (for example, Johnson County, K-10 Highway, etc):

South Map to CCCKC Underground Lab

South Map to CCCKC

  1. Take I-35 to the Rainbow Blvd. / 7th St. Trafficway exit.
  2. Turn Right onto Rainbow and get in the left lane.
  3. Turn Left onto Southwest Boulevard. Stay right.
  4. Turn Right onto 31st St, just after passing QuikTrip.
  5. Follow the curve and take 31st St to Mercier, just after Dean Machinery.
  6. Turn Right on Mercier, then hang a quick left into the parking lot next to the elevator tower marked 3101 (photograph shown here)
  7. Take the elevator to the lower level. Suite 404 is a few doors to the left.

If you’re coming from the North (I-70, Kansas City, Liberty, etc)

North Map to CCCKC Underground Lab

North Map to CCCKC

  1. Take I-35 to the Southwest Trafficway exit. This is a left-lane exit!
  2. Merge onto Southwest Trafficway and continue on to 31st St.
  3. Turn Right onto 31st St until you get to Mercier.
  4. Turn left on Mercier, then hang a quick left into the parking lot next to the elevator tower marked 3101 (photograph shown here)
  5. Take the elevator to the lower level. Suite 404 is a few doors to the left.

CCCKC Underground Lab
3101 Mercier, Ste. 404 [MAP]
Kansas City, MO 64111

2009
02.28

Grand Opening – Workshops Galore (and After Party)

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Saturday, March 7th will bring a full day of workshops and classes with a random smattering of presentations on a wide range of topics.

Soldering Workshops

Ever been curious about learning to solder? Come learn basic soldering and de-soldering techniques and come away with a fully complete and functioning blinky robot! There is no need to own a soldering iron or the kit in advance (though if you have another kit you want to work on during the day feel free) as we will have all the supplies on hand!

There will be two sessions at three hours a piece. Space is extremely limited so be sure to RSVP to someoneknows2000@gmail.com early to secure your spot.

Session 1: 0900-1200
Session 2: 1300-1600

Introduction to the Arduino

1300-1400
The Arduino is one of the fastest growing platforms for electronics development on the market. Jestin and Vince will cover some of the basics and will be ready to help you do some programming for either your Arduino or Boarduino.

E-Textiles
1400-1500
Sure, making electronics to carry around is cool, but what if you could wear your creations? Whereischaio will cover some of the basics of creating electronic textiles…just don’t wear them to Logan Airport.

Wii Device Hacking
1500-1600
The Nintendo Wii changed the way we play video games, taking us from sitting on the couch to…standing in front of the couch! Learn how to utilize that Wii controller (and the balance board of course) in different ways from controlling your PC to building your own Wiibryinth.

Information Flow Management
1600-1700
With every passing day the volume of information bombarding our lives increases. There must be some way to wrangle the different sources of information in such a way that things like email are useful again. This talk will cover show tested techniques to filter information and deliver it to multiple devices with every component including your office computer, home computer, laptop and mobile phone.

Other talks to be announced here as they are confirmed.

After Party at Dolce!
Featurnig music from Chicago DJ GAZEBO!!, laser graffiti and plenty of liquid refreshment, we will migrate from the Underground Lab to Kansas City’s new Ultimate Lounge, Dolce for the culmination of a week of events.

Think hackers don’t know how to party? You’re mistaken my friend. From the HacDC party at Shmoocon to the legendary Hackerpimps and Ninja Party at DEFCON these are blow outs that make your fraternity formal look like a night at the old folks home. You’re not going to want to miss this!

2009
02.28

Grand Opening – Speaker Showcase and Late Night LAN Party

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Friday, March 6th will feature some amazing talks from our membership. After the talks finish up, we’ll be screening Hackers are People Too and GRL the Complete First Season while we set up for the LAN party. Pwnage will happen with a number of old and new games so feel free to bring out that gaming rig that’s been in your basement for a while.

Fun with the Fon – AsmodianX and Ax0n

The Fon router is one of the coolest and most hackable wireless devices on the market. Learn how to turn this low cost device into one of the most powerful and useful nodes on your network.

An Airport HiJacking – hevnsnt

It’s easy to get excited when you find that the airport you’ve found yourself at for a long layover has free Wiffy. What evil lurks on these networks where all users are inherently transient?

Implementing and Scaling Moodle for Fun and Profit – Asomodian X

So you’ve enrolled in classes and picked up a hot new Apple or Linux notebook, only to learn that the school you’re attending uses Blackboard. Now you’ve got to figure out a way to get Internet Explorer running. Lame. Learn how Moodle is changing the way technology is implemented in higher education.

Retro Computing – Frogman and Ax0n

Got old hardware that you think is dead and ready for the trash heap? Think again. Featured old-school tech used for modern purposes includes a Zenith ZWL-184, HP Jornada 720 and a Mac SE.

The History of Lock Design – Ulysses

We interact with locks multiple times throughout the day. Learn how they work, how they keep our stuff safe and how some locks are vulnerable to attack.

2009
02.28

Grand Opening – Membership Meeting (keys!)

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Thursday, March 6th we will have our regular member meeting. Our meetings are a great time to find out what’s going on in the larger sense with the organization. While they certainly aren’t mandatory, they are a lot of fun. The business end of things usually lasts for about an hour with people staying and chatting about projects and ideas for a couple more hours.

We will also be distributing keys to the members at this meeting. If you’re one of our members, here are the things you’ll need to do before picking up your keys:

  • Make sure your dues are current
  • Download, fill out, and print the forms in your membership packet. Bring in the pieces that exec will be retaining and you’re all set

The most exciting part? The Underground Lab will never be closed again.

2009
02.28

Grand Opening – Project Night

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Wednesday, March 4th we will be hosting a showcase of member projects. This is a great night to come out to see what kind of work will be done in the Underground Lab and get a real feel for what hacker spaces are all about.

Here are just some of the projects which will be on display for you to take a look at and be inspired by:

The Wiibrynth

Sure, you can play a labyrinth like game with Wii Fit, but why not dig out the lanbyrinth from your youth and turn it into a real party game? Using ~$60 worth of parts (minus the labyrinth and balance board) Jestin and Vince have brought old and new technology together.

Fun with Lasers

hevnsnt will be bringing in some of his laser creations, including a repurposed Blu-Ray laser diode which is extra useful if you need to pop balloons or start fires. Seriously.

Kung Fu Robotics

Mike Overstreet will have his humanoid robot on hand to lay the beat down on any other robot who thinks they are up to the challenge.

Alternative Energy Generation with the Seebeck Effect

Randy Childers likes green technology…a lot. Generating power using nothing but water and the sun? No problem. Learn more about how the Seebeck Effect works and see what’s next in this rapidly developing area of technology.

Pedal Power

Our youngest member, Henry (age 12) will be displaying his electricity generating bike.

Building a Hackerspace

Somewhat of a meta-project, jur1st will give a short talk on the history of hackerspaces and how the Cowtown Computer Congress was taken from concept to reality in under 12 months

2009
02.28

CCCKC MacBook Raffle

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Just a quick update regarding the raffle –

Thank you to everyone for your generous support. The raffle was a tremendous success, selling out early! We greatly appreciate the support we received from the community. Your donations will be used to create a thriving hackerspace that will benefit the community for many years to come. Anyone familiar with the space should have already witnessed the positive impact that you have made to the space. We now have chairs and workbenches, and more tools and folding tables are on the way. All of this contributes to the eventual success of the space, and we really need to thank each and every one you, I say this with a sincere heart that I hope YOU win!

So now lets talk about how the raffle will work. By this time EVERYONE who purchased a ticket should have received it. We had a large run on numbers toward the end combined with a mail-server change the process was significantly slowed. Our treasurer is stating that all 200 numbers have been emailed out, so if you dont have yours yet, you need to contact raffle@cowtowncomputercongress.org. (Make sure to include your paypal information)

The number drawing will happen SUNDAY MARCH 1st.  The number will be drawn using random.org’s “True Random Number Generator”.  From their website:

“RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use RANDOM.ORG for holding draws, lotteries and sweepstakes, to drive games and gambling sites, for scientific applications and for art and music.”

We will post the results ON THIS WEBSITE sometime after 1pm March 1st.  So keep checking the site to see if you have won the BRAND NEW, ALUMINUM UNIBODY 2.4 GHz MACBOOK.  We will then contact the winner (via email) sometime March 2nd, to congratuate that lucky person and to get shipping information.  Good luck, from everyone at the CCCKC — we hope YOU win.  (yes, I mean YOU, the one reading this right now)

2009
02.27

Photos from the Feb. 26th Meeting

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The space is really coming together, and last night looked like I expect many nights will look as we prepare to open the space 24/7 for makers, hackers, and tinkerers to collaborate with one another. It was cool to see some toys, projects and brainstorming already underway at our underground lab.

It was retro-computing night, apparently. This is my Zenith ZWL-184-97 “SuperSport”. It’s rocking an upgraded CPU (8086 with 8087 co-processor) at 8MHz, a 20MB built-in HDD and a 4-greyscale CGA monitor.

Victor tore into his Apple //e. He feared that the drive had been “eating” disks, so he took to it with Everclear. One drop for the read head. One shot for Victor. Two drops for read head. One, Two shots for Victor. No, he didn’t drink it.

The ultimate test: Oregon Trail! Success!

Nekkid Apple pr0n:

Someone put a license plate frame on the plate I donated to the space.

And hevnsnt brought in the LED banner

… then Jestin defaced it…

Billy Crook’s Remote-camera robot was a big hit. The camera mounted on the claw transmits audio and video back to the visor being held in the background.

A Robot’s eye view:

Arduino hacking

An old rack-mount modem bank, repurposed as an LED display project.

This robot is controlled by an R/C car remote and uses normal (albeit slightly modified) R/C servos. It’s designed to fit inside a typical hamster ball and then you can stroll around. The battery pack bracket hangs from a second servo, so steering is handled by changing the center of gravity. Sorry, no camera attached to this one.

Originally posted at HiR Information Report

2009
02.26

Grand Opening – Affiliate Night

Category: Affiliates, Events / Tags: no tag / 1 comment

On Monday, March 2nd beginning at 1830 the CCCKC board of directors will be on hand to meet with current and prospective affiliates.

Who should attend? All current and prospective affiliates of CCCKC

What’s affiliation all about? One of our primary goals as an organization is to support the local user group community. We can do this through cross promotion and the provision of space to work on projects and hold meetings in our 700 square foot classroom space. Affiliates also will have a member placed on the CCCKC Board of Directors so that everyone who utilizes the space has a say in its management.

Why should affiliates come out on this night over the others? This will be a great time to see the facility without all of the other activities which will be going on during the rest of the grand opening. Of course everyone is invited to participate in all of the week’s activities.

If you would like to attend, we recommend that you contact cinus at cowtowncomputercongress dot org in order to ensure that we will have a packet of materials for you to take back to your group.

2009
02.26

Grand Opening – CCCKC at the Movies

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All next week we will be screening a number of films. The movies will start after the other activities wrap for the evening, and we hope you can hang around to take part.

Monday Night: REVOLUTION OS

Wednesday Night: MAKE: Television

Thursday Night: Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness

Friday Night Double Feature (or Revenge of the Bad ISO): Hackers Are People Too and Graffiti Research Lab: The Complete 1st Season

2009
02.26

CCCKC Announces the Opening of their Underground Lab

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Note – This is the press release which we issued to a number of media outlets. You can watch the schedule of events become more refined by subscribing to our calendar or checking the events page. – jur1st

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Cowtown Computer Congress Opens Their Underground Lab

February 26th, 2009. Kansas City, MO – The Cowtown Computer Congress (CCCKC) is happy to announce the opening of their Underground Lab to the public with a full week of events Beginning on March 2nd, the grand opening showcase the rich and vibrant community of creative minds in the Kansas City area. CCCKC, the first organization of its kind in the midwest, will serve the community by providing technology classes, donating unique projects to local organizations and technology assistance to those in need.

The week will kick off on Monday, March 2nd with an open house for individuals and organizations who are interested in learning more about the organization and how they can take advantage the Underground Lab for meetings, classes and other activities.

The creative talents of CCCKC members will be showcased on Wednesday March, 4th. The member project showcase will be followed by a screening of Make:TV, a public television series which will be shown for the first time in the Kansas City area that night. If you’re curious about what CCCKC and the maker culture are all about, this is the night to come be inspired. Projects to be showcased range from alternative methods of energy generation to a labyrinth game which is controlled with the balance board from a Nintendo Wii Fit.

Thursday, March 5th is the regular member meeting where members come together to discuss group projects being developed for donation to local organizations and plan future community service projects like our monthly free computer repair opportunities.

Friday evening will feature a slate of speakers covering topics ranging from improving home security and information management to protecting data from theft while using public wireless internet.

On Saturday the public is invited to take part in a range of free workshops on basic electronics and soldering, e-textiles and Nintendo Wii hacking. All day members will be available to assist members of the public choose, install and configure computers using the free and open source Linux operating system.

About The Cowtown Computer Congress

The Cowtown Computer Congress (CCCKC) is a not for profit technology cooperative founded to advance technology of all kinds. They are a member supported organization providing technology classes, workshops and services to the public free of charge. CCCKC brings together some of the finest minds in midwest to collaborate on research and projects for other local groups. Through their affiliate program, CCCKC gives assistance to specialized technology user groups by providing them with a facility to hold meetings and work on projects of their own.

CCCKC’s Underground Lab is located 85 feet below the surface of the earth at 31st Street and Southwest Trafficway in Kansas City, Missouri.

http://www.cowtowncomputercongress.org

Further inquires should be made to:
press at cowtowncomputercongress.org or to
John Benson – President and Co-Founder
816-332-6389

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