nerd nite 19: masheeeens
Masheeeens, more commonly called ‘machines’, are widely used these days, in everything from this to, well, that.
Our three speakers will amaze and enthrall on subjects related to these remarkable man-made objects, on Monday November 18th, at the Hotel Bristol, 6pm*.
As always, nerd nite is a FREE event (with 2 for 1 meal specials, hooray!), so bring yourself, your loved ones and your nemeses.
See you there!
Note: speakers are not necessarily listed in order of appearance.
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As always, we want to hear from you if you would like to speak, hear a talk on a specific subject, or volunteer someone to speak.
* Speakers start at 6:30pm, but beware trying to find a table/seating if you cut it too fine!
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Sticky Buds And Bootsectors
Adam ‘metlstorm’ BoileauÂ
Just over 25 years ago, the most successful DOS era-virus started its rampage around the world’s IBM PC XTs via 5.25″ floppy disks. Stoned, the classic boot-sector infector virus, went global; shipping from the factory on Seagate hard disks as late as 2007, but from humble beginnings – right here on the corner of Cuba and Manners. This is the story of Stoned; perhaps Wellington’s most successful tech startup.
Bio: Adam ‘metlstorm’ Boileau is a security consultant with Insomnia Security, organiser of Kiwicon, and news pundit on award-winning podcast Risky.biz. In his spare time he owns and operates a unix beard.
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3d printing a 3d printer
Tim Rastall
3D Printing: You can print Guns (only a darwin award candidate would use). You can Print busts of Master Yoda. What the hell else is it good for? Well, it’s pretty good if you like designing and building 3d printers.
Tim Rastall is a Wellington based project manager, parent and tinkerer, he’s also got a bit of 3d printer obsession….. OK a lot of a 3d printer obsession. A year an a half ago, for reasons that are now quite vague, Tim embarked on a project to build a 3d printer. 6 months later he had one. Sadly it wasn’t quite as awesome as he expected, so he started making some upgrades. A Year later, he’s still making changes to this ever evolving device that prints it’s own upgrades. What’s more, along the way, Tim learned enough to start designing a new printer, using the original to produce parts for it’s successor.
Tim is going to bring one of his current printer projects in for a show and tell, and will talk about the thriving international community of makers contributing to the rapid evolution of open source 3d printing technology and provide some idle speculation on what the likely developments in the field will be over the next few years.
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The Art of Looping
Jacob Lister
Since the age of recorded music began there’s been the possibility of the loop – taking a slice of recorded sound and playing it back in repetition alongside and in time with the current performance. Loops can be built up layer upon layer to create a thick chorus of sound, from either a single instrument, or one person playing multiple different instruments.
The first modern loopers as we know them started appearing in the 1960s and 70s; magnetic tape recorders were modified to place record and playback heads a distance apart, with recording tape then literally ‘looped’ around reels. Nowadays the job is done with electronics, in stomp-box effects sitting at a musician’s feet, or with software running on laptop computers.
Jacob has been looping for years, and while not writing software for a livelihood, hacks away at his own software-based looper which runs on the linux operating system, and strums, picks, thrashes and shreds away on his various guitars. For nerd nite, he’ll explain and demonstrate the basics of looping in its various forms.
Posted in nerdnite wellington | 
Tags: 3d printing, adam boileau, IBM, jacob lister, looping, maker, music, PC, stoned, synthesier, tim rastall, virus
A masheeeen is when Pusheen the cat uses a machine.