11-16, 11:50–12:20 (Asia/Hong_Kong), LT8
Language: English
We build everything ourselves at Dim Sum Labs, Hong Kong's first Hackerspace. This includes Hackman, the IoT system that manages our membership and controls the space's door, lights, appliances, and electricity usage. Hackman is written in Python and runs entirely on a Raspberry Pi 5. We will bring a replica of Hackman and some attachments (we can't bring the door, though) and give a live demo. You will hear about how we use Nix, DevOps/GitOps, a staging Raspberry Pi, and software engineering practices that make it reliable. We will show how it can be easily extended using Redis.
Hackman is a Hackerspace management system for Dim Sum Labs, Hong Kong's first Hackerspace. It is a Django application running on a Raspberry Pi 5 that manages our membership, controls access to the space, and much more. It serves a critical function for our space hence it must be reliable. Our members should easily add features to it while keeping the core stable.
In this talk, we will talk about how we use various software engineering practices to make it stable and reliable while making it extensible. We'll discuss:
- How the Django application is structured
- How we use Redis as a means to easily extend the system
- How we use Nix to make the operating system and the application easily reproducible
- How we use DevOps/GitOps along with ample tests to manage software deployments
Dim Sum Labs is Hong Kong’s first and longest-running Hackerspace since 2011, open to anyone interested in hacking: the intellectual challenge to creatively overcome or otherwise “hack” the limitations, capabilities, purposes, forms, etc. of virtually anything — or in other words: to mess around and build anything for fun. The members extend this ethos to its membership management system and the IoT in the space. For more information, visit us at https://www.dimsumlabs.com/ . Hackman is open source and can be accessed at https://github.com/dimsumlabs/hackman
A lifelong dabbler, learner, and maker, Nigel is an active member of Dim Sum Labs, Hong Kong's longest running Hackerspace. Professionally, he is currently Head of Engineering at Eythos, a tech-enabled fine arts service company in Hong Kong. His varied background includes inventing and selling Chokerkeys (a macro keypad), being a consultant at McKinsey & Company, and Silicon Valley engineer at Google, Yahoo. He holds a Masters in Computer Science from Stanford University.