Detroit area CodeYear meetup here, 2/7, 7pm

Have you been learning to program with the Codecademy‘s Code Year program? It’s not too late to start! Participants are gathering around the world to celebrate their progress and compare notes, and i3 Detroit is the venue for the Detroit-area Code Year meetup.

Like almost all of our events, non-members are explicitly welcome. Doors should be open by 6:30, meetup officially starts at 7.

(Note to members: This means the regular membership meeting has been pushed back an hour, to 8:30.)

No plans for the weekend? Fix that!

Friday at i3 Detroit: It’s the return of the infamous unusual musical instrument jam session! Does you own something that makes noise? Then bring it along, and play it! Things should be rolling by 8pm, see the original post for details.

Saturday at District VII: Travelers on the Fabric of Time, a steampunk ball at which some i3 creations will be featured. Also burlesque performances, an aerial act, music, and more. District VII has a fantastic space, and if you haven’t been down there for an event before, it’s worth checking out. It’s not too late to glue some gears on something!

(Also, website hiccups continue as we work with our new webhost to iron out some server quirks. Bear with us.)

Android meetup

Is it the fourth Tuesday? Then it’s Android meetup!

Tonight I’ll be attempting to apply the rest of the “Unbrickable” mod to my Galaxy Tab, plus whoever else shows up and whatever else gets hacked!

Meetup starts at 7pm, but there should be a member around by 6:30 so non-members are welcome any time after that. Bring toys…

Open House at All Hands Active

Who’s up for a trip to Ann Arbor?

All Hands Active is having an open house!

5pm until 10pm, Saturday 1/21 (yikes, that’s today!)

Mention was made of liquid nitrogen twinkies…

And now for something completely different!

Q: What’s an electronics nerd do for his dad for Christmas?

A: Refinish some furniture!

This stout old walnut desk literally sat in a barn for years before my dad adopted it as his office desk. The finish on the top was utterly destroyed, so he always kept it covered with clutter (that’s the logic I’m using, anyway), and nobody thought too much about it.

After having seen another member totally transform a beat-up tabletop a few months ago, I hatched a plan. While my folks were out of town for the holidays, I snuck in, absconded with the desktop, took it to i3, and proceeded to apply copious amounts of elbow grease. After planing the old varnish off (with the help of a slightly-overkill dust collector) and sanding the surface, I applied some new stain, and then went on to relearn everything I’d forgotten about polyurethane.

Four coats later, plus a day to dry, the desktop is back in place, back in use, and pleasantly less cluttered. I still spend most of my time at i3 in the electronics room, but perhaps I should avail myself of the other facilities more often!