A call for help!

Hey everyone, I need some help getting the word out for the know your rights event. If anyone in MKE can spare some time to pin up a few flyers please let me know. Anyone who helps out will get a free dc414 shirt. Some places I would like to see hit up are FUEL Cafe and Brewing Grounds For Change and any place like them. As well as other cafes and colleges and just anywhere you think is a good place to put flyers. So if you can help out drop me a line at anarchy@new.dc414.org Thank you.

Know your rights event

dc414 is proud to produce the “Know your rights event” on January 11th 2014 at The Meetupery. The goal of this event is to educate the people and teach them how they can preserve their civil liberties during police encounters with confidence. The event will start with a viewing of the 40 minute film “10 Rules for Dealing with Police” from FlexYourRights.org followed by a few words from Stephen Govin attorney at law. After which there will be time for any questions the audience might have.

More information here.

November meeting recap.

First, many thanks to The Meetupery for hosting our meeting. You guys rock! Klaiviel got things going with his thingy that he plans on trying to make more of “I hope to get one!”. Then we went around the room and found out what everyone is up to. I made a few announcements that will be repeated here on a later date and Ngharo talked about his big plans for the new and improved dc414 PBX! I can’t wait for that to get done 🙂 Then dc5304 attempted to show us a super sweet SDR but ended up showing us how to brick one 😛 Then we talked about a old ass UHF/VHF scanner that you programmed with crystals I found at a yard sale. The one I got had 8 ports but only 5 crystals 4 of which had been identified with the fifth one unknown. We attempted to find the frequency of it but did not have all the right equipment. Anyway I thought it was a cool little piece of radio history so we gave it away along with a few other things. Here are a few pictures from the meeting. Congrats to the big winner college boy!

June Meeting Recap

Thanks to all that attended the June meeting.  Lot’s of interesting discussion and demos as usual.

Some highlights were Klaiviel giving an in-depth look at the state of 3D printing with a focus on weapons and some of the issues surrounding it.

We later headed for the roof of Bucketworks to learn about DirectTV hardware installations and some of the tools the pros use.  We got to learn about different satellites  and had some really good discussions while the ISS zipped past brightly in the night sky.  Thanks Darkwind.

dw5304 took over next and showed off some 40Gb Ethernet gear along with a demo.  We also had fun exploiting some really awful security of a customer management portal that dw5304 stumbled upon.

edgewalker was one of the lucky contestants to win the Free Junk Giveaway.  Enjoy the LetterPerfect software on your IBM/DOS compatible PC! 

Some pictures courtesy of our beloved overlord, AnarchyAngel.

A Question to Milwaukee, a Bucketworks Emergency

Bucketworks is a co-working, meetup, and practice space for creative professionals.  They’ve been gracious enough to host DC414 monthly meetings and many other events for hackers.

We’re all at risk of losing this space due to some recent financial problems they’re encountering.  I encourage anyone to give back to this awesome space and help them continue to help us.

DC414 as an organization is helping, you can too by donating to Bucketworks by following this link.

Please read Tim Syth’s (Director of Bucketworks) question to Milwaukee:

After being born and raised in rural Wisconsin, and spending nearly 5 years wandering the planet as a photographer and student, I came to Milwaukee about 18 months ago because the city intrigued me. It was gritty, blue-collar and raw. It did not offer the apparition of a polished facade. Its issues were displayed prominently on its sleeve. It felt real.

Perhaps naively, I also came to Milwaukee hoping I could make a difference. Here was a place I could come and actually have a name and face as I tried to leave a positive mark as the director of a project called Bucketworks. I still believe this.

Bucketworks, for those who don’t know, just celebrated its eleventh birthday. Eleven years ago this May it was started by James Carlson and a cadre of accomplices who wanted nothing more than to explore creatively in a way that only art in warehouses can provide. There was little method to the madness, but it was one of the first collaborative spaces in the country, and in Milwaukee of all places. It was a place all about making it happen (whatever “it” was) and giving people a reason to gather and work together. It was the spot in the city for the curious and motivated to gather and create art, businesses, theater, events and products.

Bucketworks has had its issues, much like its home city, but through thick and thin and two floods Bucketworks has managed to persevere, and in that time, Milwaukee has started to blossom. We now have the Milwaukee Makerspace, ArtMKE, the Hudson, VETransfer, Gener8tor, MARN, the Creative Alliance, Open MiKE, just to name a few. As a relatively new transplant, the vibrancy of the creative culture in Milwaukee is a sorely told story—we are lucky to be in this time and place. But as each of these great efforts filled a niche, and as each of these efforts has been born, Bucketworks has adjusted and pushed ahead because it has always been the job of Bucketworks to be on the edge—to be that hard-to-explain place “where things start.”

Fast forward 18 months from my arrival in Milwaukee to today and some of that gritty, blue-collar and raw is weighing on me. Those of you I have had the pleasure of meeting know that I have been very open about the situation at Bucketworks. It has its issues and it wears its dirt on its sleeve. Specifically, we have not been been paying rent for 4 months. For the year I have been here prior to those four months, we paid $7000/mo for 6 months and $2500/mo for 6 months before that. We are not paying rent because we spent $2500 on a broken heating system we don’t own, but because we could not afford to fix the system completely, we still paid $2500/mo to heat the space in the winter. We patched a roof we don’t own with the gracious donation of time from a Milwaukee startup that helps veterans develop job skills. We repaired air conditioners. We spent $2000 on a sprinkler system we don’t own to get the building up to code. We replaced toilets that were broken, patched floors, and fixed lights, all while running the organization.

But why not just raise the prices to cover the bills? We don’t raise the prices because we feel it is important for there to be a place in our city where a person can explore projects without breaking the bank. We believe a lack of money should not stop people from trying. Bucketworks is home to 15+ businesses on any given month who pay on average less than $200 a month to operate. If you can get past the Commons, bang for your bucket it is the lowest-cost place in the city to start a business. Bucketworks is a place where teenagers from the city come to make art while learning important things like punctuality and responsibility. Bucketworks is a place where people gather to learn English and to learn about citizenship. Bucketworks is a place where people meet to talk about open data and to teach each other about technology and mysticism and financial planning. Bucketworks is a place to sword fight, practice aerial silks and to dance. Bucketworks is where people voluntarily work together on improving healthcare. Bucketworks is the place where bees are nurtured and celebrated. In short, Bucketworks is a living and breathing demonstration of functional, diverse community in a city that is known for its silos and segregation.

Please note this isn’t a blame game that falls on our landlord or others who are currently interested in the space. I have a good relationship with our landlord—we agree with a shake of our hands and then do the best we can. We operate like much of Milwaukee operates, and I think this is to be celebrated. Also note that this text represents solely my words and perspectives.

In closing, I want to say that Bucketworks is cleaning out its closets and washing the dirt from its sleeves. I will meet with anyone who is interested and let them know where we stand, what we need to do better and what our plan is to get there. We already have great partnerships that are interested in supporting and bringing stability to this wonderful project, but right now we need time, and in order to get that time, we need money. $18,000 would get us six months of runway on rent, $36,000 would get us twelve, and anything in between would be awesome.

As a recent transplant to this city who has seen Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Venice, New York, Mexico City, Riga, Paris and many others, I believe Milwaukee is a place to be right now. We have a city that can hide little and is full of people who want to do more. I am committed to making this a place where people have a real option when they want to try an idea. I am willing to do what it takes to bring long term stability to an awesome project in a city that is just rediscovering itself.

So the question I have is this:

Does Milwaukee want Bucketworks?

If it does, please donate what you can. If all you can do is forward this on, please do so. We have an opportunity to show that Milwaukee is a community together. We are not asking for much and we never have asked for much, but I am asking for Bucketworks now. If we reach our goal, the funds will be used for to cover rent. If we do not reach our goal, the funds will be used to find a new home. Our goal is to raise $18,000+ by the end of the business day today—please help.

Thank you,

Tim Syth
Director of Bucketworks

March meeting madness!

The March meeting was no let down, we had lots of people and as always great demos. Ngharo got it started with a make your own pringles can cantenna. 9 luck attendees got to make and take home their own cantenna!  Then he kept it going with a quick demo of radio Mobile and how to use it to make a long range wireless mesh network. Then the professor gave a demo on metasploit using a java exploit to root a windows box. dw5304 took over and gave a little demo of a hacked xbox360 and using a laptop to control everything the console does. Here are some pictures from the meeting. Congrats to uberushaximus for winning 100 free hours to AOL high speed!!

dc414.org now hosting a tor exit node!!

dc414 is now hosting a tor exit node on our main server!! That’s two nodes running full time under the dc414 banner!

Here is the info on the tor server on dc414 – http://torstatus.blutmagie.de/router_detail.php?FP=0df6b76f92abbad09dfef4f2e3748c9ad75fe12c

Here is the info on the tor server I run from my house – http://torstatus.blutmagie.de/router_detail.php?FP=D6859BFF04AD1267DFC7B5646ED2A304B824FC21

I hope others follow our lead and set up exit nodes where ever they can! Got one running now? Comment to this post or send it in to us and we will drink a beer in your honor, for a job well done!

For the cause!

As some of you might know I run a Tor exit relay from my home connection. I got this in the mail the other day:

Hello and welcome to Tor!

We’ve noticed that your Tor node dc414 has been running long enough to be flagged as “stable”. First, we would like to thank you for your contribution to the Tor network! As Tor grows, we require ever more nodes to improve browsing speed and reliability for our users. Your node is helping to serve the millions of Tor clients out there.

As a node operator, you may be interested in the Tor Weather service, which sends important email notifications when a node is down or your version is out of date. We here at Tor consider this service to be vitally important and greatly useful to all node operators. If you’re interested in Tor Weather, please visit the following link to register:

https://weather.torproject.org/

You might also be interested in the tor-announce mailing list, which is a low volume list for announcements of new releases and critical security updates. To join, visit the following address:

https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-announce

Additionally, since you are running as an exit node, you might be interested in Tor’s Legal FAQ for Relay Operators (https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq.html.en) and Mike Perry’s blog post on running an exit node (https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment).

Thank you again for your contribution to the Tor network! We won’t send you any further emails unless you subscribe.

Disclaimer: If you have no idea why you’re receiving this email, we sincerely apologize! You shouldn’t hear from us again.

Yay my node is now stable!! Now we just need to get one running on the dc414 server 🙂