After years of sitting in storage, my deadbeat ex-housemate’s old Symbolics XL1200 Lisp Machine has found a new home: HackLabTO, located in Accordion City’s Kensington Market neighbourhood. I thought ...

Hacklab.to presents Hack'o'ween fundraiser party! Last Saturday of October to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and Halloween. Costumes optional; theme: w…

Hacklab.to is a community space with a diverse membership, including artists, programmers, web designers, and hardware hackers. It is inspired by the philosophies of the global hackerspaces movement which encourages people to socialize, share knowledge, and work together on their projectsNewcomers are welcome every Tuesday evening at our Tuesday Open House.

Hacklab.to is a community space with a diverse membership, including artists, programmers, web designers, and hardware hackers. It is inspired by the philosophies of the global hackerspaces movement which encourages people to socialize, share knowledge, and work together on their projectsNewcomers are welcome every Tuesday evening at our Tuesday Open House.

Please respond if I email you asking if you're human.  Several tickets were deleted because they appeared to be registered by bots.  If I deleted your ticket by mistake, please let me know by using the "Contact Hacklab.to" link at the bottom of the page.   Learn to pick locks at Hacklab.to!  Lockpicking is a fun and unusual skill, and can help people get a better grasp of how locking systems fit into a physical security model. Photo courtesy of Adam Evenden (https://hacklab.to)   Who should attend the workshop? Anyone of any age, interest or walk of life!  Lockpicking is an extremely easy skill to learn, and is accessible to most people with normative fine-motor skills.  However, the following folks might be particularly interested: Organizational security experts and IT security folks who want to make sure people can't waltz into their server room and walk out with their NAS.  Individuals working for Human Rights NGO's in situations or countries where the government is hostile or organized gangs/militias might attempt to breach security. Home and business owners who want to better understand their own security. Competition-minded individuals -- there are lockpicking related clubs such as TOOOL and competitions like LockCon held all over the world. Anyone who wants to survive the Zombie Apocalypse.   When is this? Hacklab is running two workshops on this day to teach basic lockpicking for North-American style pin-tumbler locks -- the sort of thing you buy at the hardware store.  We will likely be running these workshops in the future as well.  Workshop #1 is from 2pm until 4pm, and workshop #2 is from 5pm until 7pm.   What should I bring? All supplies will be provided at the workshop, and the participants need only show up with their EventBrite ticket to attend!  The workshop is PWYC, but we suggest a minimum donation of $10 to help keep our supplies stocked up and the lights on.   What's covered in the workshop? Each workshop will be limited to 5 people per session, and will cover the following: Legal aspects of lock picking in Ontario Basic pin-tumbler lock design principles Types of picks and tool selection Lock-picking principles and technique Which locks show resistance to picking or manipulation Defensive security strategies Each session will include at least an hour of practice time on specially prepared practice locks.  Each participant will get to try their skills on 5 practice locks, each harder than the last.  After a participant makes it past the last practice lock, we have a large locksport bin with many different cylinders for participants to work on.  The workshop facilitator will be available to give tips and pointers on technique, and the small workshop size means that each person will get a significant amount of one-on-one time if needed.   How formal is this? Quite informal.  There is a period of instruction and theory at the beginning, but questions and tangents are encouraged.  Most of the workshop is spent practicing and working on technique, as well as discussing countermeasures to picking.  If you have lots of questions we have lots of answers.     FAQs   Are there ID requirements or an age limit to enter the event? Nope, this is open to everyone, regardless of age.  Young and old people welcome!   What are my transport/parking options getting to the event? There's parking West of the lab around Queen & Dunn.  Save yourself the headache and take the TTC.   What can/can't I bring to the event? Bring neat locks you want to share!   Where can I contact the organizer with any questions? INFO at HACKLAB dot TO   Do I have to bring my printed ticket to the event? Please yes.  This type of workshop tends to fill up fast and we only have so many spots due to available practice locks.  If you show up without a ticket you won't be able to use any of the lockpicks or practice locks as we only have so many.   The name on the registration/ticket doesn't match the attendee. Is that okay? That's just fine.

HackLab.TO is a community space with a diverse membership, including artists, computer programmers, web designers, and hardware hackers. It is inspired by the philosophies of the global hackerspaces movement which encourages people to socialize, share knowledge, and work together on their projects. Newcomers are welcome every Tuesday night at Unpatched Tuesdays. We use the term "hacking" in the MIT sense. We make things, repurpose things, program things, invent things, and make lights blink!