SussexDigital

sussexdigital: RT @joshr: #showAndTuttle is on tomorrow at @theSkiff, thx to @jonmarkwell who will be your host and is providing beer! http://is.gd/1Ba1H

2009-07-16T16:40:10Z

sussexdigital: RT @joshr: #showAndTuttle is on tomorrow at @theSkiff, thx to @jonmarkwell who will be your host and is providing beer! http://is.gd/1Ba1H

sussexdigital: Thursday: 9am OpenCoffeeSussex at Sussex Innovation Centre (Falmer). 8pm first Brighton Hackerspace meeting at http://theskiff.org

2009-07-15T16:21:04Z

sussexdigital: Thursday: 9am OpenCoffeeSussex at Sussex Innovation Centre (Falmer). 8pm first Brighton Hackerspace meeting at http://theskiff.org

sussexdigital: Tonight: iPhone developer event @theskiff (starts 6pm), and freelancers networking in Hampton pub (8pm-closing) @brightonfarm #brighton

2009-07-15T16:18:38Z

sussexdigital: Tonight: iPhone developer event @theskiff (starts 6pm), and freelancers networking in Hampton pub (8pm-closing) @brightonfarm #brighton

Jul 21, 2009: FlashBrighton: Ruby On Rails: the Webapp meat to your Flash gravy at The Werks

2009-07-15T14:47:44Z

Ruby On Rails is a popular framework for building web applications.

But upon my soul, a knowledge of 'Ruby on Rails' - or, by the somewhat more unseemly monicker by which it goes amongst enthusiasts, 'RoR' - will indubitably make your digital labours considerably less fractious. Indeed, if you will permit me what i feel is a particularly illustrative metaphor, one might say it could act as the 'meat' for your Flash 'gravy'.

My friends, the undertaking to enlighten us on such a commodious topic as 'RoR' could only be undertaken by an fellow of great discernment and familiarity with the subject, and we are, as one, mightily pleased that we number amongst our ranks one such individual. We talk, of course, of that upstanding gentleman unmatched in his field, the captivating and adroit Mr. Jez Nicholson. Mr. Nicholson is a backstage technical expert for society games and maintains a keen amateur interest in cartography.

This empirical session is aimed at novices in the discipline of 'RoR', or 'newbies', as i believed they are referred to in the fashion of the day. Mr. Nicholson will dutifully instruct you in the rudiments of the language and convey the not inconsiderable pleasure he gains from his daily enterprise therein. Perhaps more fittingly, he also plans to demonstrate how 'RoR' can communicate with Flash, forming an auspicious union between these two great technologies.

Our flask is full to the brim, so come sup with Mr. Nicholson at the gentleman's club by signing up here, and allow us to add Webapp meat to your Flash gravy.

It won't be essential to join in, but if you'd like to give it a go then we will be using Rails 2.3.2 with Gem 1.3.1. It doesn't take long to install, but you should have it up-and-running before the night. A good way to install these on the Mac is by using macports http://macports.org/

Jul 28, 2009: FlashBrighton: Genetic Algorithms at The Werks

2009-07-15T15:21:04Z

Genetic Algorithms - or "GA's" - are a class of algorithms inspired by evolutionary biology.

The session will be led by Plug-in Media's Alan Owen. He will introduce you to the concepts such as 'optimisation algorithms', 'particle swarms', 'optimisation methodologies' and 'neural networks'. Alan has previously studied Biology and Evolutionary & Adaptive Systems, so knows his stuff.

We want this session post itself to evolve in the same way that a GA would, so if you want to know what these things are and what Alan will be telling you about them on the night, use the comments box below to ask questions and Alan himself will respond.

What are you waiting for? Ask Alan a question!

We'll bring you more details as they emerge

sussexdigital: The £5 App meeting tonight is in the Skiff from 8pm. AI kites for power, & other interesting things http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2770972/

2009-07-14T09:44:50Z

sussexdigital: The £5 App meeting tonight is in the Skiff from 8pm. AI kites for power, & other interesting things http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2770972/

sussexdigital: RT @brightongames Reminder: Have I Got Games News For You quiz, tonight :- http://twurl.nl/lvmnwx #brighton

2009-07-13T10:00:29Z

sussexdigital: RT @brightongames Reminder: Have I Got Games News For You quiz, tonight :- http://twurl.nl/lvmnwx #brighton

Jul 16, 2009: First Brighton Hackerspace Meeting at The Skiff

2009-07-10T10:27:41Z

Hackerspaces (http://hackerspaces.org) are community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects.

They are not co-working spaces but more an open community lab or studio/workshop where people of diverse backgrounds can come together to share resources and knowledge to build/make physical things.

We are proposing to start one in Brighton as we feel that the city is the perfect place for something like this to grow. Starting the week beginning 13th July we shall be holding weekly meetings at The Skiff about planning the hackerspace and figuring out how we are going to organize it and what the space will provide for both individuals and communities within the Brighton and Hove area.

We have started a mailing list to discuss the space and proposal. You can join us at http://groups.google.com/group/brightonhackerspace.

In this first meeting we shall be discussing some of the important issues that need addressing if we are to start a hackerspace. The agenda currently is as follows:

1) Name the hackerspace - Brighton Hackerspace is so dull, we should think of something catchy and indicative of our aims!

2) The space itself. We need to decide
a) location - where should it be
b) size - what is the mimimum & maximum size we should look for
c) cost - what is our annual rental cost maximum
d) any other requirements

3) Structure of the hackerspace organization - for or non-profit, co-op style, subscription based. I should have more information about our options by Thursday

4) How do we fund the space
a) How do we raise the initial cash to pay for the space and equipment
b) what long term funding strategies do we need and how much do we need to charge

5) What do we need in the space and how to we equip it.

6) Assignment of tasks. Currently identified 'roles' and responsibilities that we need volunteers for are:
a) 'accountant'
b) advertising
c) sponsorship
d) legal

7) timescales

8) Any Other Business

Please come along if you want to be a part of building the hackerspace.

Jul 17, 2009: Show & Tuttle at The Skiff

2009-07-10T11:00:42Z

20 people surrounding one mac and a projector, showing each other things on the internet.

( read the notes from the last meet http://icanhaz.com/tuttlePadJuly09 )

no prep
no schedule
no agenda
no context
make it fun, educational, awesome, entertaining, inspiring, etc..

let's see where the conversation takes us.

you can:

take notes
record/stream anything/everything
interrupt
just show youtube videos
hack/code/design
show us what you've been working on
share things you've discovered
talk about your friends work
experiment with things live with the group

please bring your non-geek friends too! this is a cultural exchange :)

no singing. unless it's funny.

no pressure to be there at 5pm, come along whenever you can make it, then we'll probably go to the fountain head pub afterwards.
Website: http://brightonsocialmediacafe.pbwiki.com/Show

sussexdigital: Next Tuesday there's a £5 App meet, featuring Kites with AI, short geo-urls and running a website as a business http://icanhaz.com/5app18

2009-07-09T12:10:21Z

sussexdigital: Next Tuesday there's a £5 App meet, featuring Kites with AI, short geo-urls and running a website as a business http://icanhaz.com/5app18

sussexdigital: Tonight there's freelancers networking in the Hampton pub (Upper North St) from 8pm until closing. Run by http://brightonfarm.com

2009-07-08T13:45:28Z

sussexdigital: Tonight there's freelancers networking in the Hampton pub (Upper North St) from 8pm until closing. Run by http://brightonfarm.com

Jul 14, 2009: £5 App Meet at The Skiff

2009-05-26T09:14:15Z

A meet-up for programmers, web developers and designers to discuss and showcase their "£5 apps" - lightweight software created by one or two people who take a simple idea and run with it.

The discussion will range from technical (what tools/languages were used during development) to business (building communities, spreading the word, costs and rewards).

Allister Furey (http://www.afurey.com/) will be talking about applying 'bio-inspired' AI techniques to the next generation of wind energy technology which uses tethered wings (that's kites to you and me) to drive electrical generators. He'll show some:

" ... examples of where these techniques; genetic algorithms and neural networks, have been used in other applications, sometimes in combination with physics simulation. Hopefully demystifying some of these techniques and show how they can be relatively simple to implement, including how to program a genetic algorithm in one line of code and how to let a physics model build itself."

Next up there'll be Jamie Matthews (http://www.j4mie.org/) on http://hereit.is:

"a simple web app which lets you create and share short urls for geographical locations. As well as explaining what it is and how it works, he'll be taking you on a whistle-stop tour of MVC architectures, REST APIs, CSS3 magic, the Google Maps API, and anything else he can squeeze into twenty minutes."

Finally David Hawes (http://blog.davehawes.com/) will discuss how a knee operation in July 2008 and hence an unexpected chunk of "down time" allowed him to finish a decent version of http://www.safetytrainingnetwork.co.uk, through the haze of various painkillers, in time for a launch at the Focus on First Aid conference:

"The launch was well received and so he decided to quit his safe job at Avanade, in the depths of the recession, to pursue his own ideas full-time. Eight months later he released the first subscriptions for http://www.trainingcoursebooker.com enabling small Safety Training Providers to manage their businesses and sell courses. David will talk about what he has learnt and why he is glad he has done it after working at large companies for the last 5 years."

Jul 8, 2009: Farm - Web freelancers networking at The Hampton Arms

2009-07-06T14:08:34Z

Meeting for freelancers and small business people working in web design, development and related industries.

Come along for a chat over a beer about work you've got, work you want, client frustrations or the latest technology.

Generally 16-20 people attend over the evening. To help find us look out for the technical book on the table (normally a white and black Ruby on Rails book.)

Jul 15, 2009: Farm - Web freelancers networking at The Hampton Arms

2009-07-06T14:11:01Z

Jul 22, 2009: Farm - Web freelancers networking at The Hampton Arms

2009-07-06T14:12:54Z

Jul 29, 2009: Farm - Web freelancers networking at The Hampton Arms

2009-07-06T14:15:59Z

Jul 7, 2009: FlashBrighton: Projects Night VIII at The Werks

2009-07-06T09:22:20Z

This Tuesday at cuddly FlashBrighton
Is a free study night to enlighten
Us on whatever we'd like
To play with that night
someCode + someGeeks = rightOn;*

A limerick, and now the details in rude haiku form:

Tuesday the 7th
Of July at 7pm
At 'The Werks' in Hove

* - just to be clear: this Tuesday will be an informal study group with no agenda. Just turn up and start hacking away at whatever you fancy!

sussexdigital: RT @JonMarkwell: A new iPhone development event is coming to Brighton at @theskiff on 15th July. http://bit.ly/DeAcr

2009-07-03T10:32:15Z

sussexdigital: RT @JonMarkwell: A new iPhone development event is coming to Brighton at @theskiff on 15th July. http://bit.ly/DeAcr

Jul 15, 2009: 3 Free iPhone Talks + Networking at The Skiff

2009-07-02T16:28:01Z

This time, we'll have the following speakers:

Dan Sayers on: "Balls: a personal take on the app store"
Mark Baker on: "iPhone for the hobbyist developer: the first 1000 sales"
Adam Martin on: "Integrating iPhone with Facebook in 5 minutes"

+ an hour of freeform networking afterwards.

This is the meet-up for anyone with an interest in iPhone development. If you have ideas for apps, or you want to start coding for your iphone, or just want to meet other like-minded folks over beers then come along.

Bring friends. Bring iPhones. If you've got anything you've made yourself, definitely bring it along!

NB: attendance is open to all, but we have limited places - please RSVP by clicking the "i'm coming" link in the upcoming.com page (Upcoming keeps "removing" the limit for some reason - sorry!)

Jun 30, 2009: FlashBrighton: FlashBrighton Summer BBQ at West Pier

2009-06-30T09:36:29Z

'Case you pommies don't know this Tuesday is FlashBrighton's annual beach barbie. S'no drama, we do it every year. Reckon we'll just get a few coldies, some mystery bags and some avos - or whatever it is you vejjos like to eat - and head down the beach to catch the rays and let the amber flow.

Mate, that's not all. We'll also be drawing our bi-annual raffle, to win a copy of Adobe CS4. Seriously mate, London to a brick: we're giving away a copy of Adobe CS4. As long as you've been to FlashBrighton at least once in the last six months or presented a session or something you'll have qualified for some tickets. But if you don't turn up and your name gets pulled, you won't win nothing (altho if you deffo can't make it, you can nominate a cobber as a stand in)*.

Every day is 'Australia Day' at FlashBrighton, so grab a slab and whatever tucker you fancy and come on down. Tuesday 30th June, roundabout the West Pier, 7pm onwards. We'll pull the raffle sometime after 8pm eh, turn up whenever.

Ripper!

* - The use of the double negative 'won't win nothing' has been included in order to maintain the authenticity of the piece's Australian colloquial style. This does not however indicate that your non-attendance 'will' win you 'something'. Assuming you name gets pulled from the hat, in order to claim your prize you will be required to attend in person or, as indicated in the official text, nominate someone in advance to act as your 'stand-in' on the official FlashBrighton mailing list prior to your arrival at the event.