Presentation: Emil will be speaking about a brief history/introduction of 3D printing technology and how it has gone from industrial to hobby use, its future, how to use it and how it can affect what you do.

About the speaker: Emil Reyes is the owner of RAPID Technology and has been involved with the 3D Printing/RAPID prototyping industry since the late 90s.

When: March 21st, 6:30pm

Where: The Box Jelly (current location of the HI Capacity Makerspace). Address: 307c Kamani St Honolulu, HI 96813 Look for the "The Box Jelly" sign (or the Fishcake sign). Street parking is available and there is also parking at Sports Authority (owned by the same land owner).

Please RSVP on EventBrite: hicap-3d-overview.eventbrite.com/

Over the past 2 months, HICapacity.org has gone through a major overhaul on the front-end and back-end. We want to take a moment to expose our architecture for the site, examine our choices, and talk about the future of the site.

Why Jekyll?

Take a look at the content on most sites. What actually warrants a backend database? Typically things such as logins, remote private API access, etc do. It turns out that, these services can sometimes be off-loaded to a web service with the proper security measures. Most of the time for a news-centric site, like ours, all we need is a static site generator. Jekyll is perfect for the job. You write all your posts by cloning a Git repository. You can save the server a lot of resources by using flat files generated from Jekyll. If you need plugins like Facebook, you can still add them to your site by calling their APIs through client side Javascript.

Read about Jekyll here - https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll

Presentation by Julie

Take time out of your day to come to Julie's presentation about Jekyll on Thursday, February 9, 2012 - 7 PM at the makerspace.

I try to take a neutral stance towards politics at HI Capacity. I don't want politics to get in the way of our creativity and our movement. The moment someone doesn't agree with what you believe in, they'll start dismissing your ideas and slowly..... dismiss you completely. How can you become a fair leader when you dismiss your constituents?

These bills are too broad and would allow for censorship on the internet, stifling our entrepreneurship in Hawaii and all over the United States. A technical examination of the bills proves that even with the best intentions to block piracy, those with nefarious intents can still censor.

When legislature gets in the way of our civil liberties we must act. Last night The Greenhouse Innovation Hub hosted a session on SOPA. While I wasn't there, I can assure you that the message is clear. We need to contact our legislature and show them our concerns. There are other ways to stop piracy and counterfeiting than blocking web pages.

I contacted Senator Akaka in November to protest the PROTECT-IP act. Here's what he had to say

Dear Mr. Badeau:

Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011, also known as the PROTECT IP Act of 2011.

As you may know, S. 968 was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on May 12, 2011. This measure would authorize the Attorney General (AG) or an intellectual property right owner harmed by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities (ISDIA) to commence an action against a registrant of an ISDIA's domain name or an owner or operator of an ISDIA accessed through a domain name. In addition, the bill authorizes the AG to commence action against individuals associated with nondomestic domain names. Following the commencement of such an action, the court is allowed to issue a temporary restraining order or injunctions against the nondomestic domain name, registrants, or the owner or operator of an ISDIA. On May 26, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported the bill to the full Senate where it was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar.

I support the bill's intent of ensuring the protection of intellectual property. However, in doing so we must ensure that we do not hinder the free-flow of information or stifle innovation. Rest assured I will keep your concerns in mind should the Senate consider S. 968 or related legislation in the 112th Congress. Mahalo again for contacting me.

Aloha pumehana,

DANIEL K. AKAKA

U.S. Senator

I urge you to contact Senators Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye and protest the PROTECT-IP act in the senate. Contact Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and Rep. Mazie K. Hirono to protest SOPA. Their stance is currently unknown but have received money from lobbyists in the entertainment industry. Call their office, send them an email, write on their Facebook wall. This will be the only way to change their opinions.