First Meeting of Fall 2011!

Hey all! I hope everyone had a lovely and productive summer. Our first event of the year is tonight! We will be screening the smash-hit Hollywood classic, Hackers at 9:30 in King 106, Oberlin College. Come see some sweet hax0rs smash some computer systems, trash some cybervillains, and zip around in gnarly 90s gear and roller skates! We will also be talking more about the goals of OHack before the movie starts and get a general sense of membership interest.

Our first official meeting for OHack will be this coming Tuesday, October 11 at 9 pm in a room in Wilder. Stay posted for exact location. Come with ideas for projects and directions you would like to see OHack go in. Even if you feel like you are lacking computer expertise, you are still very welcome at OHack---we aren't just about computers and programming, we're about creative collaboration, after all. We will also be building a new OHack website, which will host a wiki that will have pages for individual projects that memers will be working on. Please let us know if you have any interest in helping to develop this!

See you soon!

(trailer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP6iTjhlOvs

Python Tonight

Don't forget - we're hanging out and talking about Python programming tonight! If you have a laptop, bring it. We only have one Linux machine available right now.

Here are some excellent free Python resources you can find online:

For beginners

Never programmed before? No worries - Python is a popular first language.

Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

This book covers the fundamentals of Python. If you've never programmed before, start here!

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

Learning programming is much more interesting if the "motivating problems" aren't just "Hello, World!' and interest rate calculators. This book starts out with simple text-based games like Hangman and progresses to talking about AI and Othello and graphical games using the Pygame framework.

For intermediate/advanced programmers

If you already know some Python, or know another programming language, you may find these resources useful.

Dive into Python

Although the examples can be somewhat intimidating at first, this is a great book that covers the core elements of Python.

Building Skills in Python

I've found this book to be a very useful reference. Covers everything (more than DIP). 

The Python Challenge

A web-based scavenger hunt, where each clue can only be solved with some (Python) code. Although the website looks painfully late-90's, the puzzles are fun and get hard fast.

Project Euler

Math problems that can only be solved by programming. Fun!

April Events!

On Tuesday, April the 19th from 7-9, Luke Lovett will teach a beginner's workshop on MaxMSP, a popular music software.

On Tuesday, April the 19th from 10-11, Louisa Berger and Luke Lovett will host "Snake Charmers: Learning Python." Come if you're interested in learning Python.

On Thursday, April the 21st from 8-10, Garrett Robinson, Louisa Berger, and Luke Lovett will teach a beginner's workshop for building websites. We will discuss the preliminaries (domain names, hosting) and begin talking about basic HTML/CSS. If you know anybody who wants to make a website for themselves, their work, or their organization, tell them to come!

FURTHERMORE, we want your input! One event we want to host is "5 minutes of fame," ideally a bi-weekly event for people to present works-in-progress, concepts that need collaborators, or just something really cool that you know about! Powerpoint presentations, musical performances, or any other medium you choose could be a possibility (we have a whiteboard and markers if you just want to kick it old-school). Inspired by http://5mof.net/

Other ideas: Python, Ruby, web frameworks, electronics, lock-picking, projecting a live conversation feed on the side of Mudd, running our own web server...

Desktop Background

Here's a big copy of the OHack logo, suitable for setting as your desktop background:

Let's see this on every computer in Oberlin! First Mudd, then... maybe the Science Center! King? Dorms have computer labs sometimes, right?

HACK THE CAMPUS

How to Write a Program

Louisa Berger and Ike McCreery are teaching an introductory workshop, How to Write a Program, tonight from 8 to 9 p.m. in the upstairs OCCS lab.  We'll be tackling the 3n+1 problem collaboratively.  It's a workshop aimed at CS150 students who would like to get a better sense for how to tackle a programming assignment.  Hopefully we will all leave with a better sense of the method behind the madness of programming.