When cryptocurrency was first popularized by the emergence of Bitcoin, it promised to disintermediate economic transactions from entrenched middlemen like central banks or credit card companies who have long been pushing for a “cashless” future. In contrast, “cash is king” for most ordinary people, who still prefer exchanging paper banknotes or metal coins to transact with each other.
Electronic services like Venmo and CashApp have come to fill this desire, but using them comes with the same risks as relying on the big players: a lack of privacy and a dependence on centralized actors that might betray and de-bank you, punish you for chargebacks, or charge monopolistically unfair fees to use. Of course, there are benefits to electronic transactions, like being able to transact remotely. For example, using a credit or debit card enables online shopping, automated bill pay schedules, highly secure escrow and deposit systems, and much more.
What if it were possible to have the best of both worlds? As both a buyer and a seller, the ideal would be a way to transact remotely, but with the privacy, reliability, and simplicity of physical cash.
In this cryptocurrency primer, we’ll get straight at the heart of the issue: learning how to acquire, swap, and spend digital currencies that cannot be traced and that no one can prevent you from using in the future.
You’ll be introduced to a special class of cryptocurrency options called privacy coins—specifically Zcash and Monero—whose opaque ledger systems differ from Bitcoin’s transparent ledger to protect your financial data, and why that is the key distinction allowing you to transact privately and discreetly. You’ll also learn the lay of the land when it comes to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, including methods for storing your funds safely, evaluating custodial and self-custody “wallet apps,” getting a feel for Know-Your-Customer (KYC) techniques, and becoming familiar with which cryptocurrency exchanges you can use more privately than others, preparing you for navigating the world of “crypto” better than HODL gang Bitcoin bros.
When you leave, you’ll have a self-custody wallet app such as Cake Wallet, Edge Wallet, or Zashi, and enough knowledge to transact safely by protecting both your “coinflow” and your netflow data. After all, if money is speech, and you care about the ability to speak both publicly and privately, you should be able to transact in both those ways, too!
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>Have you been “pwned”? For years, security researcher Troy Hunt has been running a website at HaveIBeenPwned.com that lets you check to see if your online accounts have been pwned—that is, if your personal information such as your password, has been leaked, accessed, or (worst of all!) “cracked.” Go on, check for yourself!
If you’ve been “pwned,” this workshop is your chance to learn exactly what the risk might be, and what you can do about it. Derived from one portion of the Tech Learning Collective’s popular “Hacking with Mr. Robot” (Security 101) course, this class will clarify the basics of cryptography and encryption within a context that actually applies to your day to day life online.
Learn what websites do with your password when you log in to them, and why using free password management software can make you both safer and more productive. On the flip side, learn professional techniques for recovering passwords from their “encrypted” (hashed) representation, such as using optimized wordlists, word-mangling rulesets, and employing basic doxing techniques for creating personally targeted password-cracking attacks.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>At their core, digital computers are very complex writing instruments. Like pen and paper, they allow us to record our thoughts, dreams, and desires for later review. Unlike pen and paper, they allow us to do this at the speed of electricity and at a scale never before imagined possible, and their ability to directly manipulate the physical world through servomotors, industrial control systems, biomedical devices, and other robotic prosthesis means they can potentially supercharge every facet of our humanity.
When a system administrator or programmer uses a computer, they often issue instructions one by one using a special-purpose, text-only interface called a command line. Individually, these instructions are called invocations. (Yes, that’s their technical term!) In this beginner’s workshop, you’ll learn how to write whole spells, rituals, or (sacred) texts called shell scripts to inscribe your own thoughts, dreams, and desires in the electrified silicon and minerals of your computer.
By saving your scripts in files, you can invoke arbitrarily complex routines to reproduce tasks or automate complex procedures with a single command. Writing scripts also makes it possible to share what you can do with others and, as such, are one the simplest forms of computer program that you can write and distribute. Come learn how the magic of digital inscription can help you do your work, and increase your power to accomplish your dreams.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>Note this night of November the 4th, a noctural celebration notwithstanding November’s numbing nonchalance, surely introduced by its nippy temperatures. Nay, our evening’s novel narrative is nonfiction, and hosted by the neighborhood’s most notorious gender nonconforming hacker nymph on skates, Vi, with her network of naturally talented nightingale performers!
Indeed, you navigated the seasons! Now, this 4th of November, nourish a nonstandard way to fall into Fall!
On the eve of November 5th, we’ll prepare for the coming cold of Winter in the way we know best: enjoying cathartic, dreamy trance beats spun by some of Brooklyn’s hottest DJs, basking in radio waves from WiFi-enabled digital libraries letting you browse thousands of e-books for free, and drinks with huggable friends, all bathed in the warm glow of Wonderville’s many arcade cabinets. Drift into an exemplary, shimmering plane of possibilities to recharge your bio-batteries!
November the 4th is also DJ Astral_Dejection’s birthday, so come early (before the show starts) to participate in a delicious name day treat this November, November that will never be forgot!
Featuring:
Shift-CTRL Space
Tech Learning Collective
Death By Audio Arcade
lain__d
Astral_Dejection
heaven ender
dis_aster_ous
stuttersprite
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from the event without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
heaven ender is an immortal entity inhabiting the mortal plane of existence seeking to make the world a more beautiful place. Host of Gender Experts Party, producer of Str8 to DVD and all around creature of the New York underground rave scene, they are known for their unrelenting, genre blurring sets and condemning you to dance for eternity.
New York based, New Jersey raised DJ favoring the atmospheric, psychedelic, and experimental side of dance music.
Shift-CTRL Space is an elusive collective of New York City-based hacktivists whose mission is to strengthen local affinity groups with the power of contemporary digital technologies often hoarded by or made illegible by large corporations. As anti-(techno)capitalists, solarpunks, and radical technologists. Our ethics place us against “Adtech,” “Fintech,” and Silicon Valley. We believe technology is an intangible earth, with which we can and should have an earthly relationship. It is power that we can harness through holistic methods as individuals and cooperative networks for the empowerment of oneself and of one’s actual communities.
If you’ve spent time in Bushwick’s post-quarantine queer party scene or in a number of billiards bars around the city, you may have seen Vi zipping around on her rollerblades. As Brooklyn’s own trans hacker roller slut, she has the type of main character energy found in cyberpunk hentai and is best known for her approachable, sporty whirlwind of kind, extroverted energy radiating from a hard femme candy shell. Whether she’s holding a pool cue, a keyboard, a tequila shot, or all three, it’s all about having a good, safe, and memorable time making people feel comfortable at the party. Say hi!
The Death By Audio Arcade is a series of lovingly crafted local multiplayer arcade cabinets produced by local indie game developers. We are also a progressive, open community of like-minded artists, artisans, and enthusiasts. We host events at least once a month, in NYC and at events across the country, from SXSW to the Smithsonian.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>Virtualization and containerization are concepts almost as old as computing itself so, no matter what you’re doing on your computer, you’re probably using one form of it or another. For example, partitioning a hard disk chunks its total capacity into smaller units useful for specific purposes, much like the individual drawers in a dresser might separate undergarments from outerwear. Organizing, or “containerizing,” your closet this way is useful in its own right because it helps you keep things neat and orderly. But this organizing method also offers dramatic security enhancements because a misbehaving program (or dirty sock) will be confined to its own container.
Today, virtualization has become integral to how desktop computers, servers, and global data networks work, and cross-platform, Free Software virtualization programs have never been easier to use. Storage virtualization makes it possible for a single file on your computer to appear to be an entire hard disk drive (such as provided by VeraCrypt), network virtualization makes it possible to simulate different networks (e.g., using VLANs) or even the whole Internet (using INetSim), processor virtualization makes it possible to run programs built for one microchip architecture on computers running a completely different one (e.g., in QEMU), and fully-fledged virtual machine monitors (VMMs) or hypervisors can construct and modify entire hardware environments complete with virtual video monitors and other peripherals on the fly (as is offered by Proxmox). Virtualization is even the bedrock of numerous Operating System and Web browser security features, such as in the Qubes Operating System, macOS’s App Sandbox, and Firefox Containers.
Whether you’re using your computer for fun or for profit, this workshop will get you up and running with Virtual Machines using the VirtualBox type-2 hypervisor so you can experiment with unfamiliar software more boldly, browse the Web more safely, and play games you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. By learning how to take advantage of the virtualization capabilities your computer already offers, you can revive your love of that long-lost DOS point-and-click adventure, reliably build and test single- and multi-machine networked software systems, or simply create an almost unlimited number of purpose-built virtual machines that all exist, like inception, inside your existing laptop or other personal computer.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>From illegal online drug stores like Silk Road to DDoS botnet command and control headquarters, media attention has long painted “the Dark Web” as though nothing good can come of it. But learn just a little bit more about how Tor and “hidden services” work and you’ll find a treasure trove of valuable possibilities for day-to-day Internet use. The same technology that can hide the location of a drug ring can also serve as a free VPN-like service to protect your privacy while you browse the Internet, make censored websites available again, and even let you host your own Internet services for free, all without opening a single port on your firewall!
In this deep dive workshop on Tor, the Tech Learning Collective’s cybersecurity trainers will show you how to make the most of this widely available and free digital safety tool. They’ll demonstrate numerous Tor features such as Tor authentication, target service load balancing, and NAT-punching. In the process, you’ll finally understand—on a technical level—what the “Dark Web” actually is and how it works. Bring a laptop to class, and you’ll leave having run your own Dark Web site. This class is for everyone; whether you’re a veteran black hat or a timid newbie, this class will shine a light on the Dark Web once and for all.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>How much good does a powerful tool do for you if you don’t know how to use it well? How much more capable would you be if you mastered all the tools available to you? It might sound ridiculous, but failing to learn the practicalities of computer system operation basics is arguably the most common mistake people in the fast-paced tech scene make.
Modern computers are power tools, and behind each one of them is a human operator, or “system administrator,” responsible for configuring and maintaining that computer. If you have a personal computer such as a laptop or smartphone, then you are already a system administrator whether you realize it or not! Making sure the apps you want to use are installed and up to date, managing the amount of free space you have for your photos, and connecting or disconnecting from the Internet are all examples of simple system administration tasks that you probably already take on a daily basis.
In this beginner’s workshop, we’ll start by exploring what happens inside your computer when you take every-day tasks like open a Web browser or save files, and then dive down the rabbit hole to meet the special class of programs that make it possible for all your other programs to work. Called daemons, short for Disk Access and Execution Monitors, they make up the world of Operating System services, signals, sockets, and more under the hood of your desktop environment. By the end of this workshop, you’ll have a far deeper understanding of how to care for your computer, as well as the ability to understand any new tools or services you encounter a whole lot faster than ever before.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>Our ability to browse Web sites, send and receive digital messages like emails and text messages, and make phone or video calls depends on the connections our digital devices make with one another. That makes it critical to understand how these connections are made, and where they lead to. Far from being an amorphous “cloud,” modern telecommunications networks and services like the Internet are made up of physical devices. Some of these you can see, like your own computer or the router and modem in your house, and others you can’t, like distant servers or Layer 2 switches that make up the network infrastructure itself.
In this workshop derived from a portion of the Tech Learning Collective’s NET101 course, you’ll have the opportunity to actually look—visually and with great detail—at how your computer “talks” to other computers like those that power Google Drive, Facebook, and other cloud services. By using an industry-standard tool called Wireshark, we’ll dissect a conversation between your computer and a server and walk through the process of encapsulating a packet of application layer data, emitting it onto a network, and watching it travel to its destination. We’ll also touch on some illustrative counter-examples to explore how things can go wrong on a network, such as DHCP server misconfigurations, ARP spoofing attacks, and unsecured or weakly-secured Wi-Fi networks.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>In today’s IT environments, application servers, databases, file shares, and even network devices are too numerous for any individual or team to provision, configure, and administer one at a time. To deploy, maintain, and secure large digital fleets, site reliability engineers leverage the inherent power of computerized automation to perform everything from daily tasks (patching, updating code) to critical but rare operations (migrations, incident response). But even small groups can take advantage of this sort of automation to massively amplify their impact; today, a two-person hobby project can outperform a 100-person company if they use the right tools the right way.
Generically called Infrastructure as Code (IaC), modern configuration management tools like Ansible, Chef, SaltStack, and Puppet make it possible for a single operator to paralellize executing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) like initiating backups or performing blue-green deployments on hundreds or thousands of machines at once. By using virtualization through IaC tools like Vagrant, entire “cloud” environments can be emulated for heterogenous development teams, massively streamlining everything from software development, to R&D, to education and onboarding. (Tech Learning Collective’s own course exercises and practice labs are defined in code as Vagrant configurations!) Encoding your organization’s infrastructure requirements in standard, vendor-neutral, open formats such as Terraform means you can switch from one infrastructure provider to another with ease. But perhaps most important of all, “automating all the things” means that potential disasters like ransomware extortion attempts, outages, or even mere accidents can be audited, diagnosed, and remediated in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks.
In this workshop, you’ll get a practical introduction to cloud infrastructure automation. You’ll learn how to create your first virtual private cloud (VPC), add multiple machines to it, automatically install server software on those machines, and write exectuable runbooks to automatically perform upgrades and other maintenance tasks on your new infrastructure. Whether you’re already administering a fleet of servers at work, or just want to slim your “weekend project” time down to size, this far-reaching workshop will solidify your understanding of the development operations (DevOps) skills every IT professional needs to hone to have success with modern digital infrastructure projects.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
]]>To be useful, every computer must offer some way for you to control it. Generically, the way you can control a computer is called a user interface because it allows you (the user) to interact with (that is, “to interface with”) the computer system. Most people may already be familiar with Graphical User Interfaces or GUIs, which are the buttons, windows, and other controls that you can point-and-click on, but this way of controlling a computer comes with severe limitations. Chief among these is the fact that you are limited to using only one tip of one finger on one of your hands (called your pointer or mouse cursor) and, worse, you have no access to anything outside of your immediate reach. In a GUI, if you cannot see it or touch it with the mouse, you cannot manipulate it.
This is why almost all hackers, programmers, and system administrators prefer a Command Line Interface or CLI over the graphical options for many, if not most, of their day-to-day tasks. In a command-line, or “terminal,” you can use the complete expressive power of spoken language to control your computer. You can use symbolism and metaphor to express any idea that you have the words for. Moreover, you always have all the words you know at your disposal at any time, even if they refer to things that are far away or that you cannot currently see.
In this beginner’s workshop, you’ll learn how to access the command line interface of your computer, and you’ll learn the basic grammar of command line languages such as that provided by the ubiquitous Bash command interpreter. You’ll also be introduced to the basic set of utilities required to quickly accomplish tasks that require working with files and folders, processing text, and automating common workflows that would take dozens or even hundreds of clicks with a mouse to complete in a Graphical User Interface. By learning how to “speak” to your computer using a command language, you can save hours every day and take your first step toward using your computer the way the best hackers would.
As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.
To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.
If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.
Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.
As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.
Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.
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