The StrangeMinds of SmilyBorg

An alternate stream of conciousness in a topsy turvy world

Posts Tagged ‘hacker’

In the beginning

Friday, December 19th, 2008

This came to me last night while I was trying to document the history of Ductape. Its still pretty rough and I don’t think that I’m much of a creative writer, so I welcome comments and suggestions.

In the beginning
In the beginning there was the void, and into the void stepped the hacker, for a void is empty and requires stuff to built. The void was dark and the hacker stumbled and stubbed his toe, so he shouted “Let there be light” and the first LED flickered into existence. The hacker saw that it was good but was annoyed that the LED lay on the floor and would not stick to the walls or ceiling. So the hacker shouted, “Let there be Duct tape” and it was so. The hacker looked at the tape and saw that it was good, for it had a light side, a dark side and could be used to hold the universe together. With the tape, the hacker stuck clusters of LEDs to the walls and ceiling. These would be the stars and constellations that would light his work area as he hacked away into the night. The hacker stepped back and saw that this was good, for he had created the first hackerspace, and so he rested. Thus ended Day 0.

Ductape – Durban’s First Hackerspace

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Ok, So I’ve been a bit busy lately, but here’s an update.

A few weeks ago I got talking to a couple of guys I know in the Durban area about hackerspaces. I then setup a Facebook group in order to guage interest and to allow everyone to start communicating. Within a few days we Had our first meeting and blog, wiki and mailing list were all setup. The name of the hackerpace is Ductape which has so many meanings but all fit. For now we are having weekly meetings on Tuesdays at random places. The first one was at Europa in Florida Road, the second at Spur in Musgrave center etc.

We really seem to have a good group of guys interested in getting things going. Most of the guys seem to be on the more IT/programming side of things but we have a number of radio hams in the group, a few people with electronics skills, and some with more mechanical skills like metal casting and such. Quite a few people have expressed an interest in micro-controller programming and electronics, so I’m looking into getting some kits together for some training workshops.

If anyone is interested in what Ductape is up to or if you are keen to come along to one of our meetings, more info can be found on the Ductape website http://www.ductape.co.za/

Untill next time, happy hacking :-)

SB