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Trivia Extravaganza!
Know a lot about computers, programming, and the tech industry? Here's your chance to win some cash at our Trivia Extravaganza on April 3rd!
Format:
Compete in teams of 4 (pick your team or we will put you into teams)
No aids allowed, except your brain
There will be 10 rounds, 4 questions each round, total of 40 questions
The 4 questions from each round will be from four different categories, all the categories will be announced before the round begins
Each round has a betting pool of 16 points, which means each round you can win a maximum of 16 points. You are allowed to bet in 1,3,5 or 7 points per question in each round, and every bet value can only be used once. This allows you to strategically plan your betting depending on categories that favors your team's pool of knowledge
Your team has 30 seconds to write down answer and the betting amount the once the question has been read. Everyone will show their answer and bets at the same time. If you answered correctly with a valid bet, you win that bet, else you don't get any points.
After 10 rounds, teams with most points will win prizes
Categories will be based knowledge that every person should know if you are in the computing industry. They are mostly from HA talks, tech and engineering in the computing world.
Prizes:
1st Place - $100 Cash
2nd Place - $40 Cash
3rd Place - $20 Cash
4th-6th - small swags and prizes from our sponsors with randomness
Many thanks to our sponsors for their support: Newegg, Microsoft, AMD
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iOS NETtalk 03/27/2012
Own an iPhone/iPad? Want to write that iPhone app that will make millions of dollars, and make your friends jealous of the size of your wallet? Hacker Academy is here to help you achieve that dream!
HA's web developer James Cash will be continuing on from last week's API Design talk. On Tuesday, we'll look at the API of iOS both as a case study and to get an idea on how writing apps for iPhones & iPads works.
This is the last NETtalk of this school year.
When and Where: March 27th 2012, BA B024, 7pm-8pm Refreshments will be served
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Synaptop App Competition
Spark @ U of T is running app competition with Synaptop: Synaptop App Competition. Teams of 1-2, simply submit an idea for an app and best idea wins $200! Top teams also get a chance to be interviewed by Synaptop. Check it out!
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Urban Planning NETtalk 03/13/2012
What's this? Hacker Academy talking about designing cities? Madness! No not really. We shift gears today from programming to the development of civilization. Do you know why do we live in cities instead of holes? Of course not, but these three Urban Planning graduates from U of Waterloo seems to know. Really, they have a workshop for us too. Join us today BA B024 7pm to learn about Urban Planning!
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Javascript Animation NETtalk 03/06/2012
Join us today at 7pm with Adam's Javascript Animation! Learn how to animate and improve interactivity on your website without using Adobe Flash! Mar 6th 2012 BA024 7pm-8pm. See you there!
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Dev Dojo Mar 3rd 2012 Participation Survey
Our next Dojo is coming on Saturday Mar 3rd. We realized that there are a lot midterms and assignments packed in the adjacent weeks. We want to see how many people will be participating so we can better organize this event. Please vote in the following survey if you will be participating on Saturday as soon as possible.
http://www.doodle.com/bg249b9phsztbfvc
Please stay tune as we announce the Dojo information for next week!
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Linux Terminal 101 NETtalk Feb 28th 2012
So, you've done the right thing and installed a Linux distribution, winRAR! You proceeded to tinkering with your xorg.conf and check out your snazzy new window manager. But something went wrong... Oh no! You've broken your graphical interface. Now, you could just re-install your distribution but you've spent hours customizing everything to your liking, there has to be another way. There is, Linux terminal to the rescue! You can now fix your xorg.conf, manage your system, surf the web, abandon GUI and go terminal-only forever!
On Tuesday, we have Roberto to talk about the Linux terminal (BASH in particular). The talk will go over some of the most widely used BASH commands that can help improve your productivity on Linux, and some of the common terminal tools that you can use to do everyday things like web surfing, text editing, and multimedia applications.
When and Where Feb 28th 2012 7pm-8pm Room BA024 Refreshments will be provided
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Request for Quotations
We're raising money from university departments to serve you better (more swag, food, prizes, etc.). It'd be awesome if you could send us a quote and photo of yourself in support of HA, which we will include in our funding document. If you're interested, email us with:
your name, program and year, (ex. Rafal, EngSci 1T1)
a photo of you (preferably smiling, or happy, or excited)
140 characters or less describing one or two reasons you're a part of HA
Send to info@hackeracademy.org. As a thank you for your support, we'll reward you with 128 points towards your HA account, and a special reward during our year end meeting.
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Electric Courage is Hiring!
Many of you may remember our Dojo sponsor from last year, Next Mobile (creator of Electric Courage mobile app) is now looking for an enthusiastic intern software developer to help them develop their mobile application. You get to see how a startup is operated, learn and develop mobile applications, and get paid. There is nothing better than that!
Their CEO, Duncan Bays, was one of our guest speakers for our Entrepreneurship Discussion Panel, and one of Canada’s aspiring entrepreneurs from the Next36 initiative.
Enough talk, here are the details:
Development Intern Wanted
Next Mobile is on the hunt for a developer interested in helping us solve mobile social networking. If you’re looking for an opportunity to build mobile applications with a team of smart and committed people, keep reading!
Next Mobile started in the Next 36 (www.thenext36.ca) program, and we recently closed our second round of financing. As an early stage startup, we rely on the flexibility and creativity of everyone on the team to move the ball forward. Our office is located on Bloor Street, just around the corner from the Bay Subway station and within 5 minutes walk of Yonge and Bloor.
Who we are looking for:
• Is self-motivated
• Has excellent communication skills
• Considers themselves to be a killer developer
• Has some previous experience, bonus points if it was in mobile development. (Could have been in school, a co-op position, or a previous job)
• Based in the Greater Toronto Area
What you can expect:
• A chance to learn mobile development while you work
• Autonomy and the ability to own your project
• Flexible work hours
• Performance driven environment with high work standards and expectations
• Access to a broad range of high-impact mentors
Technologies we use:
• .NET (Server infrastructure)
• Java (Android and BlackBerry)
• Objective-C (iPhone)
• JavaScript, CSS
Hours:
• 16 hours/week starting immediately
Pay:
• $1000 stipend at the end of May 31’st
Send your application to duncan@electriccourage.com. Please include a list of the three most interesting projects you’ve worked on, and what made them fun as well as your resume.
Also a quick reminder that there will be no meeting during reading week. We will be back on Feb 28th with Linux Terminal 101. More info on Dojo for Mar 3rd coming soon.
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No meeting this week or next week
Just a reminder that there are no meetings this week or next week.
Roberto's talk on Linux Terminal 101 has been moved to Feb 28th.
Enjoy your reading week!
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Dojo Feb 4th; Entrepreneurship Talk Feb 8th
Remember Dojo is on Sat! 3 hours, multiple problems, win prizes.
Bahen Center 40 St. George Street Room 2135 1:30-5pm
Be there or be square.
Entrepreneurship Discussion Panel Feb 8th
7pm-8:30pm BA 2145
Featuring:
Duncan Bays - Electric Courage Nelson Wu - Hoody, Raise5 Jan Miranda - Navlar
Learn about tech entrepreneurship and ask away your questions about starting your own business!
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Ace a Technical Interview + Dojo Dates Rescheduled
On Tuesday, learn how to perform exceptionally at a technical interview! Featuring main speaker Adam Hueniken.
The talk will feature a collective knowledge of student's interview experience to help you perform your best at your next technical interview!
BA024 Jan 17th 7-8pm
Dojo dates has been moved due to UTEK on 21st. Please check our schedule for updated dates
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Spring 2012 Orientation + Tablets
Join us in a new year of Hacker Academy!
The spring briefing will cover events of HA for this term, and a quick talk on tablet technology of today and future.
Join us BA024 7pm Jan 10th!
See you there!
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Happy Holidays from Hacker Academy
After a long month of hardship facing exams, it is finally time to relax and enjoy the holidays. Go ahead, you deserve it. In the holidays, it is a great time to take a step back, review and reflect on things that you've learned. I'd like to take this opportunity to quote Bruce Lee, "Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own". This does not only apply to martial arts, but everything in our lives. Reflect upon what you learned in school and combine with your own knowledge from personal engineering and technology adventures, and you'll discover that it is one of most satisfying and pleasurable experience you'll ever have.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
See you in 2012!
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HA Social Event Survey!
Hey if you'd like to eat, talk, play games, and win some geek prizes and Hacker Academy swags, come to our dinner outing in December!
We are still organizing the event and booking the restaurant, but let us know if you are coming!
Let us know @ http://www.doodle.com/ifc5ef4u3gcbgsc3
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Herobox
Our friends at Hoody (gohoody.com) are helping local tech startup who won the recent Toronto Startup Weekend competition, Herobox to compete internationally in Global Startup Battle! Give them a vote if you like what they do!
Visit bit.ly/herobox
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Last NET talk of 2011
As we wrap up the year with much song and dance about technology, we have one more NET talk for you to finish off the year. The festive holidays are upon us and shopping for that latest piece of gadgetry is probably on your top list of priorities. HA presents the last NET talk of the year, a Christmas special to teach you how to avoid false sales pitch and debunk some of the common myth about technology. Some topics that will be covered:
Cables and surge protectors (i.e. Monster cables really better?)
Printer inks
Truth about LCD panels
Wifi and cancer
Usage-based-billing (UBB) Internet
Mac vs PC
End of Moore’s Law
And more…
Finally, we would like to wrap up the year with a review of what we achieved in the short 3 month, and a teaser of what’s to come in 2012.
When and Where
GB 217 7pm-8:30pm Nov 29th 2011
Oh, did I mention there will be food…?
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Web Security - NET Talk 11/22/2011
On next Tuesday, we have our web guru Raf talking about web security! The talk will include an overview of top web security exploits, demos of each, and explanations of how to avoid these errors. Techniques will include: SQL injection, cross-site scripting, password encryption (and decryption), and a cryptography overview. If you are running a website and worried about security, this talk may help you prevent attacks to your site!
When and Where Nov 22nd 7pm - 8pm BA 2165 Refreshments will be provided
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Electric Courage Dojo Wrapup!
On behalf of Electric Courage, we'd like to thank everyone for attending our second Dojo and making it a huge success!
Remember, Electric Courage is looking for part-time and full-time software developers for their mobile app. If you are interested for an interview, simply send your contact with resume and cover letter to shahed@electriccourage.com (make sure to mention if you were a past participant in one of HA's Dojo, especially if you are one of the top performers). They are also offering a $25 referral fee if you can refer a person who gets an interview with them.
Thanks again to all those who participated. Our next Dojo is in January 2012. Stay tuned!
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Overclocking Live Demo– NET Talk 11/15/2011
Want to turn your $400 PC into a $1000+ performing PC for free? Learn how to double your PC performance by overclocking your CPU and GPU! Han Jiang will be giving a basic talk on processor performance. There will also be a live demonstration to teach you how you can overclock your own PC. We will let you know every precaution you should take, so you don’t damage any hardware in the process.
When and Where
Nov 15th 7pm-8pm BA 2165 10min talk on processor performance, 40 min demonstration
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CSSU Game Night - Friday Nov 11th!
They will be raffling away tons of prizes including THREE XBOX WITH KINECT!
"The Computer Science Student Union is hosting Game Night on November11, 2011, in Bahen Centre. Game Night starts at 7 PM and ends at 7 AM the following morning.
University of Toronto students in Engineering or Arts and Sciences are welcome to attend. T-Cards will be checked at the registration desk, but students are welcome to bring guests.
We will be hosting several tournaments across different gaming platforms, and there will be games available for all participants to enjoy.
Steve Engels will talk a bit about game design, Gary Baumgartner will demonstrate sound-as-input through Fluxus, and there will be pizza and raffle time. Come out to Game Night on November 11, 2011, in Bahen Centre."
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Microsoft Engineer Challenge
Upcoming Microsoft Event at U of T!
Build It Engineer Challenge
Can you think outside of the box? Are you a great collaborator? Do you have what it takes to beat your peers?
Go head to head with other teams as you battle to build the most innovative solution to our problem out of unconventional materials!
Thursday Nov 10th @ 5:30pm in GB202
It's time to relax the have some fun!
Food and Prizes provided!
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Electric Courage’s Dev Dojo Programming Competition - Sat Nov 12th 2011
Our next Dev Dojo programming competition is on Nov 12th 2011 sponsored by local startup Next Mobile Inc. Over $200 in prizes. Come hungry because lunch will be provided! All level programmers are welcome. Solve as many problems as fast as you can to earn the most points. Work alone or in teams. Use any language you like.
To prepare for the Dojo, we suggest that you should learn how to output data in JSON format. However we will be doing a tutorial for this in C/C++ at the beginning to get you started
o Python: http://docs.python.org/library/json.html
o C: http://www.digip.org/jansson/doc/2.2/
o C++: http://jsoncpp.sourceforge.net/
o Ruby: http://flori.github.com/json/doc/index.html
o Java: http://wiki.fasterxml.com/JacksonInFiveMinutes
About Next Mobile Inc.
“Incubated in the prestigious Next 36 Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative, Next Mobile Inc. is a mobile application development startup based in Toronto. Our first app, Electric Courage, offers single 18-25 year olds a location based platform for social networking. We are currently seeking highly skilled and motivated developers to join our team on part-time and full-time capacities. Successful candidates can expect a fast-paced startup environment with plenty of opportunities to learn and influence the direction of the company.”
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Herobox
Our friends at Hoody (gohoody.com) are helping local tech startup who won the recent Toronto Startup Weekend competition, Herobox to compete internationally in Global Startup Battle! Give them a vote if you like what they do!
Visit bit.ly/herobox
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Racecar Vehicle Dynamics; Room back to BA 2165 – NET Talk 11/01/2011
Amanda Santos will be delivering an introductory talk on racecar vehicle dynamics, including the concepts of Tires, Kinematics, Steady State Basics, Weight Transfer, & Damping. What makes a Porsche more exciting to drive than a Prius? This talk will provide you with an understanding of those details.
The automobile is arguably one of the most influential inventions of the 19th Century. Whether we're waking up at 8:00 a.m. to catch a Sunday F1 race or using them to get from A to B, we interact with vehicles on a frequent basis. As technology fans, you may be curious as to how cars move the way they do.
Thanks to Amanda for giving this talk! This HA’s second NET talk given by a member. We return to BA 2165 on Nov 1st! Refreshments will be provided
Where and When:
BA2165 Nov 1st 7pm-8pm (Talk will be under 30mins, feel free to stay after and discuss)
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ElectricCourage is Hiring
Our friends at ElectricCourage (www.electriccourage.com) are looking for Blackberry and Android developers, and Campus Ambassadors. Give them a shout if you got the chops. Job description available on their homepage top left corner.
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HA's First Hardware NET Talk
Hardware elites unite! Featuring first hardware talk of Hacker Academy by HA’s very own Han Jiang! Ever wonder what’s inside your desktop/laptop? CPU, motherboard, RAM, GPU… ever wonder what they really do? We talk about the hardware that you use to write your hacker code, and the hardware that you use to pwn noobs. We talk about hardware that is in your desktop/laptop today from technical, engineering, and business perspective. In addition, learn how to read hardware specs, and how to buy and pick the best and sexiest hardware.
This talk will be useful for future talks on PC building and overclocking. We will also try to relate modern PC hardware to the hardware engineering knowledge that you've learned in university.
Refreshments will be provided.
Where and when: GB 217, 7pm-8pm
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Points Update!
You should Like us on Facebook if you haven't yet. You can get 32 points while you're at it!
We've put up a few large posters around the school. Find them, take a picture with yourself and the poster, post it on Facebook, let us know and get 128 points!
If you're missing any points (check online) and let us know.
We've added profile fields to your HA account (language of choice, program and year). Fill them out so we can compile Dojo stats, such as: C++ vs Python, which performs better at the Dojo?
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Thanks for participating in our first Dev Dojo!
Thanks to everyone who participated at our first Dev Dojo programming competition! Congrats to our top coders:
1st (504 pts) - Team Zongyi, Colin, Cheng
2nd (448 pts) - Roberto Bortolussi
3rd (398 pts) - Mengye Ren
4th (354 pts) - Adam Hueniken
Many thanks to Newegg.ca for sponsoring and providing prizes for our event!
Next Dojo will be one month away, stay tuned!
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First Dev Dojo Saturday Oct 15th!
Reminder that our first Dev Dojo is on Saturday 1:30pm-4:30pm BA 1240!
Bring your own laptop. Solve as many problems as fast as you can to earn the most point. You may work alone or in teams. Top performing teams will win prizes!
Over $200 in prizes sponsored by Newegg.ca We will also be giving away HA RFID membership tags!
Lunch will be provided!
Be there or be square!
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Introduction to Programming & Using IDEs - NET Talk 10/04/2011
If you've never programed before or are looking for ways to speed up your mad coding skills then this is the talk for you! Many of our members responded during our orientation that they don’t know how to program. Given that our Dev Dojo programming competition is on Oct 15th, we figured it is best to go over some fundamental programming knowledge with our members. If you’ve never coded before this is the talk to attend! Even if you already know how to program, you may learn some cool new tricks…
For those who know how to code, are tired of coding in Notepad, and are wondering if there's a better way, there is! HA will also be talking about IDEs (integrated development environments), which are a comprehensive software package that allows you to code, compile, debug under a single interface. This is extremely useful for any coder, and speeds up coding by many factors.
Useful for programming courses such as: APS105, ECE244, ECE294, CSC467, ECE452, CSC418
Refreshments will be provided.
Itinerary: 7:10-7:40 – Introduction to Programming, by James Cash 7:40-7:50 – Break and snack time 7:50-8:20 – Programming in IDE, by Han Jiang
When and Where: Oct 4th 2011, 7pm-8:30pm BA 2165, 40 St. George Street The Bahen Center for Information Technology
We hope to see you there!
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NET Talk 09/27/2011 - HA Presents: Guide to Web Development. No exp required!
Hello Hackers, thank you all for coming to our orientation! Make sure to claim your points with our special code at every meeting.
NET Talk Topic for Sept 27th
Hacker Academy Presents: Overview of Web Development
By: Rafal Dittwald
Interested in developing web application? Interested in starting your web site? Want to be the next Internet billionaire? Learn how to get started and learn some key design principles behind developing for the web! Make a web page for yourself and show off to that special person in your life! No previous experience required. This is also great opportunity for you to find a partner if you are interested in a doing a web development project.
When and Where: Sept 27th 2011, 7pm – 8pm BA 2165
Refreshments will be provided
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Thanks to everyone who attened our orientation!
Big thanks to everyone who attended our orientation! It was wonderful meeting everyone and we hope that you guys had a great time.
Next week, Raf will be presenting: Overview of Web Development
If you are interested in developing web applications or making something cool for the web, this is the session to attend!
Special thanks to our sponsors at Newegg and Microsoft.
Our exclusive Newegg Promo code: HACKER2011 10% off of minimum $20 purchase Valid until Sept 30th Can be used once per account
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Hacker Academy Orientation!
OUR ROOM HAS BEEN CHANGED TO BA 2165 TO FIT MORE PEOPLE!
Welcome to Hacker Academy! Big thanks to everyone who signed up and visited us during the club fair! As you’ve all anticipated our orientation is coming up on Tuesday Sept 20th. We will be going over what Hacker Academy is about how you can benefit by attending our meetings. At the Hacker Academy, we don’t give boring lectures, we don’t educate academics, we tell you what’s real and what is REALLY useful in the world of engineering and technology, and you get to meet some of the most talented people in the world (i.e. us).
Itinerary:
7:00-7:15 – Fasten your seat belts
7:15-8:00 – Hacker Academy Feature Presentation: NET Talks, Dev Dojo, Membership, and More!
8:00-8:15 – Break
8:15-8:30 – First NET Talk : You need to know this! What is next big thing in technology?
Where and When:
Sept 20th 2011 7-8:30pm BA 2165 (originally BA 3008) The Bahen Centre for Information Technology, 40 St. George Street Refreshments will be provided
If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at info@hackeracademy.org
We hope to see you there!
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Hacker Academy at Engineering Club Fair!
Hacker Academy will debut on Sept 6th 2011 for the Engineering Club Fair!
When: September 6th 2011 10am - 12pm
Where: Bahen Second Floor Near Room 2185
See you there!
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Welcome to HackerAcademy 2011
Hello, and welcome to the latest season of Hacker Academy! More information is soon to come — create an account and check back here shortly.
In the mean time check us out on Facebook