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The Latest Flacknite: BBC Micros, Culture Night & more

As our members and followers, will be aware, Flacknite is our semi-regular monthly hackathon, spanning at least 24 hours, which is open to everyone. It provides a bed, a home and an excuse for projects that have been put back, and a lively environment for more time-sensitive ones. As always, they’re catered with food and drink, which this month was generously sponsored by Instil Software.

This month’s Flacknite ran on September 15th and 16th, and brought to life several different projects. Several internal software projects marched onwards towards completion, piecing together our in-house management system and building control network.

Culture Night Preparations
Electronics and LED-testing going on into the night

The more exciting and eye-catching work took the form of some preparations for Culture Night, which has been making news throughout Belfast and scheduled for tonight, Friday 21st September. Robin, an artist attending Culture Night, built and tested several high-power LED array bars, to be used in his project to under-illuminate a table. His work will be on show tonight near the Hayfield Market in Belfast City Centre.

A welcome break came in the form of Opera Pizza, which delivered a substantial order to our door for all to graze on. Beer and pizza flowed plentifully for several hours after the delivery.

The BBC Micro lives!
The BBC Micro lives!

Work continued in other parts of the building, with Dan Reid and Tom Gilmour working with others to bring to life two BBC Micro computers, both of which had dead power supplies. They were successful and much of the remainder of the night was spent programming the Micros, and upgrading their RAM installations. Dan continued in the following days to install more RAM and software, and the two computers are approaching “perfect working order” condition.

Others worked on personal projects and private endeavours, and most stuck around until the daylight hours on Sunday. Numbers waned due to sleep, but recovered later on Sunday. Overall, numbers were good and the atmosphere was great. Our next Flacknite will be next month, on the 20th October, and will be publicised heavily to let everyone know.

Thanks again to Instil Software for their generosity, and for everyone that came along to such a good night!

See you next time.

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