Today I Learned

TODAY I LEARNED @ SUDO ROOM


Come to Sudo Room every Saturday at 2:00PM to learn something new. "Today I Learned" is a series of one-off classes, workshops, and talks led by members of the Sudo Room community.

Sign up to teach a class

Please add the proposed title of your class and your name. Please make a new wiki entry for your class with as much detail as you'd like and link to it from here.


Jan. 19 Polymer Clay Millefiori, a hands on introduction to fractals

  • Title of Class: Polymer Clay Millefiori, a hands on introduction to fractals
  • Class Facilitator: Patrick
  • Cost: Free demo, scrap clay available, donations welcome, Starter Kits available
  • Interested Attendees:

Jan 26 Vanilla: From Bean to Ice Cream

Title of Class: Vanilla: From Bean to Ice Cream

  • Class Facilitator: Ray the Ice Cream Man has made ice cream for Bi-Rite Creamery, iScream, & Silbermann's. He lead the innovation lab (the infamous NOM Team) at Fentons. His last gig was the ice cream designer for the opening of the Ice Cream Bar in San Francisco. Ray is currently launching his own venture, Atomic Ice Cream, and starting a motorcyle gang.
  • Description: Vanilla is yummy. And fascinating. This is a class into the history, botany, and appreciation of one of the most ubiquitous tastes and smells in our culture. We will make vanilla extract (everybody goes home with a bottle of extract), taste single origin vanilla ice creams and learn how to make a Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream (everybody goes home with a container of ice cream). There will be a low class fee for materials (approximately $5) and an empty pint container for generous donations.
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. Diana (talk)
  2. VMittal
  3. Julio (talk)
  4. mfb
  5. Tunabananas (talk)
  6. Vicky
  7. Anthony Di Franco (motorcycle gang)
  8. Angie
  9. garrettr (and friends!)
  10. Juul (talk)
  11. Christine
  12. Joe
  13. Brandon

Feb. 2 No Class

  • No Class
  • Common Room being used for Raw Food event

Feb. 9 Sewing Hackathon

  • Title of Class: Sewing Hackathon
    • This will be an expanded version (1-4PM) of the mini-workshop we held this summer featuring the opportunity to add LEDs to your garments, patch holes, add pockets, or otherwise hack up boring old clothes into the new wave of the future! We will also be sharing ways to make your own wearable bike light. We will have clothes for you to modify and take apart, but we encourage you to bring any materials/clothes that you would be interested in modifying.
  • Class Facilitator: Rachel
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. Liz
  2. you

Feb. 16: Livelihood Hacking AND Teaching Techniques Collaborative Workshop

  • Title of Class: Livelihood Hacking
    • Your biggest regular/monthly expense is likely rent followed by food, which also happen to cover some of the more basic needs. Significantly reducing the financial costs of these significantly increases potential ways to live ones life. Morten lives comfortably for $500 a month and will talk a bit about how that looks like, throw some ideas for how it might be replicated in your context, and together we will further explore this topic of livelihood hacking in a workshop setting.
    • Class Facilitator: Factotum (Morten H. D. Fuglsang)
    • Time: 4pm -> ~5.5PM
    • Interested Attendees: you,
  • Title of Class: Teaching Techniques Collaborative Workshop
    • This will be about how to be a better teacher, as well as how to expand the TIL program and teach material outside of our collective comfort zone. We will also aim to create a sudo wiki entry on this material. It'll be hosted as a potluck.
    • Class Facilitator: Sam
    • Time: 5.45PM
    • Interested Attendees: you,

Feb. 23 Optimize Rational Inquiry: How Bayesian Statistics Can Help You Reason! AND How to Build a Naive Bayes Spam Filter

  • Class Facilitators: Sam T, Anthony Repetto, Anthony DiFranco
  • Time: 2:00PM - 4:00PM
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. Ray
  2. George
  3. Matty
  4. you

Mar 2. PAUSED for Workshop Weekend

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

Mar. 9 Jewelry-making and jewelry repair

  • Title of Class: Jewelry-making and jewelry repair
    • Bring broken and second hand jewelry plus any beads or other bits you have on hand and we will learn how to take apart old jewelry to make new creations. We will also have people on hand to help you repair any broken jewelry. Bring yourself and a friend, we’ll have snacks!
  • Class Facilitator: Jane
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. mk30
  2. Tunabananas (talk)
  3. You!

Mar. 16 : Just enough Sketch-up to pretend you can 3d model

  1. IsThisThingOn (talk)
  2. Tunabananas (talk) 22:35, 12 January 2013 (CET)
  3. Bleeblahblue (talk) 21:38, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

Mar 23. Workshop: Intro to Electronics / Learn to Solder (with Mitch Altman)

  • Title of Class: Workshop: Intro to Electronics / Learn to Solder (with Mitch Altman)
  • Class Facilitator: Mitch Altman
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. Matt (talk)
  2. Tunabananas (talk)
  3. Factotum
  4. newbs!
  5. experts!

Mar. 30 Intro to Bicycle Repair and Maintenance

  • Title of Class: Intro to Bicycle Repair and Maintenance.
    • Come learn how your bike works and how to do basic bicycle maintenance and repair. Feel free to bring your bike!
    • Bring tools, materials, parts, and other useful supplies as a drive to fill our space with more bike essentials!
    • Read More
  • Class Facilitator: Matt (talk)
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. Julio (talk)
  2. Tunabananas (talk)
  3. you

Apr. 6 Audio Recording 101

  • Title of Class: Audio Recording 101
  • Class Facilitator: Shani
    • In this class, we'll go over the tools, terminology and applications you'll need to get crackin' on a variety of audio endeavors.
    • Topics covered will include:
      • Audio rudiments and terminology
      • Analog v. digital
      • Types of recordings (documentary, instrumental, electronic, MIDI)
      • What you need to get yourself started on a project
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. Maximilianklein (talk) 15:18, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
  2. Rick
  3. Liz (First Friday Guest)
  4. Nikhil (first friday guest) he is bringing a microphone, cool cogswell schools tudent
  5. you

Apr. 13 Clothes Hacking

  • Title of Class: Clothes Hacking
    • low key sewing workshop. Bring ideas, projects you are stuck on, clothes that need repair, an extra machine if you have one or just yourself. We have a scrap heap and clothes you can have!
  • Class Facilitator: rachel lyra
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you
    • Romyilano - could we do wearable electronics as well?

Apr. 20 Just enough sketchup to pretend you can 3d model II & Just enough slic3r to pretend you can extrude I

  • Title of Class: Just enough sketchup to pretend you can 3d model II & Just enough slic3r to pretend you can extrude I
  • Class Facilitator: Maximilianklein (talk) 17:31, 24 March 2013 (PDT)
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

Apr. 27 Hootup (Postponed-to be rescheduled)

  • Learn to install and use HootSuite to schedule and monitor all your Social Media in one dashboard
  • Join Laney College's HootSuite Campus Ambassador Mark Wilson
  • And students in Journalism 65: Social Media for Journalists
  • Who should attend? Anyone interested in expanding their Social Media toolkit

May 4 Hacking Sexual Health: DIY Cloth Menstrual Pads Workshop

  • As Part I of the Hacking Sexual Health series, we will be learning how to make beautiful and practical cloth pads out of old clothing! Materials will be provided, but if you want, you can bring old ripped-up clothing (preferrably soft, natural fibers), needles, thread, snaps or buttons. This workshop is intended for people who menstruate and for people who have friends who menstruate (and want to make them lovely presents). We will also go over a dizzying array of cool lady products beyond the cloth pad, and have fun cost-comparisons of different options.
  • Guest appearance: Craig for DIY Bio and hacking a non-antibiotic treatment for highly resistent gonorrhea!
  • Class Facilitator: ykciVicky
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. Maximilianklein (talk) 11:24, 9 April 2013 (PDT)

May 11, 2013 Comics, 3D Printing and the Universe

May 18 Fix-It Day!

  • Title of Class: Fix-It Day (PLUS Linux Install Day!)
    • We have a lot of computers and other equipment at Sudo Room in various states of functionality. You may also have computers and other kinds of equipment in various states of functionality! During this "Today I Learned" session we will come together to test/repair computers and learn more about fixing computers. **BONUS: Have you always been curious about Linux but not sure where to start? If you are interested in installing Linux on your Windows computer (it is not necessary to delete Windows to install Linux), we will also be helping participants install Linux.
  • Class Facilitator: Everyone! We will all work and learn together.
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. mk30
  2. you

May 25

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

June 1

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

June 8

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

June 15

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

June 22

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

June 29

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

July 6

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

July 13 : The Hacker Distro

  • Learn about Arch Linux and why it's the software hacker's DIY distro of choice! Play with real live Arch Linux machines, and install your very own with guidance and help. We may also discuss other distros, Linux in general, OS technology in general, and free software in general. All skill levels encouraged! Bring your own machine if you can, but no one turned away. Installation options can include:
    • Live CD/USB
    • virtual machine inside your existing OS
    • dual boot with your existing OS
    • installing over it. ;)
    • Arch on a Raspberry Pi (pending interest - I would need to order them in advance and ask for ~$40 each)
  • Class Facilitator: Yardena
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

July 20

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

July 27

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

August 3

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

August 10

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

August 17

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

August 24

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you

August 31

  • Title of Class:
  • Class Facilitator:
  • Interested Attendees:
  1. you


I would love to attend a class/workshop on:

  • open source install day
  • raspberry pi primer
  • arduino (hol?)
  • audio production/radio
  • tech support - fix my browser, my computer is slow, etc. intro to computers and troubleshooting.
  • knitting circle/knitting class
  • 3D printer class - how to use it, how to model, how it works
  • approaches to teaching/tutoring technical topics
  • python (x2)
  • lockpicking
  • intro to networking
  • OpenWrt
  • Build a portable stereo from choosing the amp (ie 41hz' amp6-basic), soldering it, choosing speaker components, designing casing for aucustics, making casing, putting it together!
  • letterpress
  • zines + cataloguing zines
  • comic book drawing
  • mural making (electronic and large-scale painting)
  • skateboarding (focus, not necessarily same as longboarding)
  • How to make cultured/fermented drinks (kombucha, kefir, kvass...); share cultures/colonies