FishermansEnemy

As part of becoming part of the greater community I decided to go along to the monthly brum2600 meeting last Saturday (3/9). Anyone who is familiar with 2600 meetings will realise that this isn't an "official" meeting as they are only held on the first Friday  of the month, however I think the choice of Saturday night means that it will be accessible to more people and that can only be a good thing.

I'll not go into specifics as I don't want to list any information form the other members of the group that probably was not intended for general release, but below is a list of *some* of the things that we ended up chatting about in the 4 hours we were in the pub:

Digital archiving, hardware hacking including ARM, ATMEGA, Arduino etc. jury service, cable broadband networks, IPv6, Hardware level rootkits, DMA hacking via firewire, password strength, HAM radio, robotic arms, how much MYSQL sucks, "unconventional" ways of running a highly efficient database, how much it would cost to freepost a car battery to a junkmailer (a lot)  and what you can achieve when locked in a cupboard (more than most people not locked in a cupboard).

This is not exhaustive and my memory is probably clouded a little by the DoomBar that was being served, but considering there were only five people at this meeting I reckon we did OK. There were a pair of characters that were mentioned a few times that I can't wait to meet, hopefully they will be able to make the next meeting.

As far as the regular group members go they were a frighteningly cleaver bunch. It's always nice to be able to talk with people who have dedicated such a large amount of their time to understand completely the subjects that they are passionate about. it really made me want to up my game so I can give back in the same way that they do.

So in summery, if you can get the Snow Hill station on the first Saturday of the month and you are interested in anything that uses electricity then you should check it out. The Tech Event calendar lists all meetings as well as a bunch of other West Midlands based events and the Brum2600.net page allows you to sign up for the mailing list.

As this is not an "official" 2600 meeting as it happens on a Saturday then it does not get any publicity in the magazine, I hope that this post goes some way to offset this. This meeting is a great resource and anyone in the vicinity of Birmingham who considers themselves a hacker would do themselves a favour by checking it out.

UPDATE:

I've just realised that I can't actually make the October meeting as it is the same night as the Wheatus and MC Frontalot gig at the O2 Academy. As this is only the second time Front has come to the UK I'm going to have to make the hard choice and skip this meeting. Don't let that stop you though!