Iffy Books | 404 S. 20th St., PHL

⚡️ Open Soldering Session
2023-06-22 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Thursday, June 22nd from 6–8 p.m. we’re hosting an open soldering session. If you’ve been meaning to get a soldering project done, now’s your chance! We’ll have soldering irons and solder to share for free, as well as DIY electronics kits for sale.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step introduction to soldering, we’re hosting beginner classes on July 13 and August 10.

✏️ The Writing Room
2023-06-21 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-06-14 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-06-07 17:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Wednesdays 5–8 p.m.
(5–7 p.m. the last Wednesday of the month)
Come co-work with other writers in three 40-minute units of silent writing. Writers and projects of any type welcome. 10-minute breaks and accountability check-ins between units. BYO coffee, water, computer chargers, notepads, etc.

📍 Philadelphia Bookstore Map Release Party
2023-06-21 10:00 - 12:00 | The Skyline Room, Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine St., Philadelphia, PA, United States
Join us at the Philly Free Library on Wednesday, June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon for the Philadelphia Bookstore Map release party!
A grassroots project to showcase our 50+ brick & mortar bookstores, a keepsake quality map to be distributed FREE around the city.
The map will include all of the city’s brick-and-mortar bookstores, regardless of size or prominence. Copies will be provided free of charge and made available to anyone who wants one.
The map will be painted and designed by local artist Henry Crane.
Each storefront will be represented by a two-by-two inch watercolor, along with contact information and a descriptive blurb.
The project will be financed by public fundraisers rather than ads to ensure all businesses are represented equally, regardless of whether they can afford to advertise. We’ve launched a GoFundMe
Please spread the word!
Support the Philadelphia Bookstore Map project here.

Bleeding Control Basics
2023-06-20 18:00 - 20:00, 2023-05-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Presented by Untitled Medical Collective in association with Philly SRA, Bleeding Control Basics will go over first aid as it applies to severe bleeding. We will cover scene safety, injury assessment, basic bleeding control, and tourniquet application. This class doesn’t provide any kind of certification, and is just meant to provide essential information to as many people as possible.
If you have any questions about class content, reach out to untitledmedical@proton.me.
Register:

💾🌾 Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup
2023-06-18 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Our next permacomputing meetup is on Sunday, June 18th at 1:00 PM EDT. You can join us in person at Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St. #2I, PHL) or via Jitsi Meet.
This month we’ll discuss the new article Permacomputing Aesthetics: Potential and Limits of Design Constraints in Computational Culture by Mansoux, Howell, Barok, and Heikkilä (2023).
➡️ Meetup Link
From Permacomputing.net: Permacomputing is a more sustainable approach to computer and network technology inspired by permaculture. Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in digital technology. In a time where computing epitomizes industrial waste, permacomputing encourages a more sustainable approach, maximizing hardware lifespans, minimizing energy use and focussing on the use of already available computational resources. We do this because humans are part of nature and technology is an extension of humans, and we acknowledge that technology has been used to harm nature. We want to find out how we can practice good relations with the Earth by learning from ecological systems to leverage and re-center existing technologies and practices. We are also interested in investigating what a permacomputing way of life could be, and what sort of transformative computational culture and aesthetics it could bring forward. If you want to know more, please start reading about what is permacomputing in essence, and then dive into its principles.

🐡 Hackers' Assembly: Streamlined Fuzzy Logic Inference Development for Anti-Phishing
2023-06-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
There are not many opportunities to learn the use of fuzzy logic without a detailed coding learning curve. This presentation makes an effort to provide the important and practical concepts of fuzzy logic while applying it to anti-phishing solutions.
This discussion will take the form of both a presentation and a workshop. After some coverage of the phishing problem and the mechanics of fuzzy logic inferencing, the audience will participate in a workshop that demonstrates a streamlined approach to implementing a fuzzy inference system. Two components are covered: (1) The IEC 61131-7 standard of a Fuzzy Control Language and (2) Scalablurry (https://github.com/raygarcia/scalablurry), a platform independent Scala fuzzy logic library that also processes IEC 61131-7 standard scripts. The goal is to build runnable implementations using these two components as a streamlined approach against existing phishing data sets. Only a minimal effort is required to get set up on a laptop for anyone to participate. Instructions will also be provided.
About the Presenter: Raymond Garcia, Ph.D.
Ray is experienced as both an applied researcher and a practitioner in the public sector and across several areas in the private sector that include the telecommunications, pharmaceutical, and banking industries. Within these industries, Ray has used a variety of technologies in applying natural language processing, numerical techniques, and machine learning to subject matters that include insider threat, information assurance, and situational awareness.
Ray has a BS (Temple U.), ME (Penn State), and Ph.D. (Georgia Tech) in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Applied Mathematics.
Materials for the session can be found here:
https://github.com/raygarcia/scalablurry
➡️ RSVP on Meetup

📡 Virtual Meshtastic Meetup
2023-06-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Jitsi Meet (iffybooks.club), 19107
We’re hosting a virtual meetup on Tuesday, June 13th at 7 p.m. to help Meshtastic users get connected. Our goal is to make a wireless chat network across the PHL area using low-power LoRa radios.
To join the network, you’ll need a LoRa radio such as a Heltec LoRa32, LILYGO LoRa32, or LILYGO T-Beam. Here’s a full list of compatible devices.
➡️ Meetup link

🎤 Audio Recording Basics
2023-06-11 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, June 11 at 1 p.m. we’re running a free workshop on the basics of recording audio. We’ll discuss mic technique, audio hardware, recording conditions, and software options. Everyone will get a chance to make a recording with Audacity and start editing with Reaper.
We’ll have a computer available for everyone who signs up.
Register:

This event is free. Donations accepted.
Photo CC-BY Tm

🎉 Rail Park Block Party 2023
2023-06-10 12:00 - 17:00 | The Rail Park, 1300 Noble Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Rail Park Block Party 2023
Sat, June 10th
12–5 p.m. at The Rail Park
1300 Noble Street, PHL
Free

What’s more Philly than a block party? Join us on June 10, 2023 for The Rail Park’s Annual Block Party for a day filled with live music, local vendors, food trucks serving up delicious treats and plenty of activities for all ages. Whether you want to dance the day away, explore the park’s beautiful views and greenery, or just soak up the sun with friends, we’ve got you covered.
You won’t want to miss our live musical performances featuring some of the city’s most talented artists and bands curated by Philly’s own Chill Moody.
Best of all, you’ll be supporting the Friends of the Rail Park, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing this iconic public space for generations to come. So, bring your family, friends, and neighbors, and join us for a day of celebration, community, and fun!
We can’t wait to see you there!

Register on Eventbrite!

🚂 Model Internet Club
2023-06-09 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Model Internet Club meets again on Friday, June 9th at 6 p.m. Our goal is to build an offline network for fun and learning. We’ll have routers, switches, servers, and plenty of Ethernet on hand.

⚡️ Beginner Soldering Workshop
2023-06-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Thursday, June 8th at 6:00 p.m. we’re running a soldering workshop for beginners! Anyone can attend for free, but you’ll need to buy a circuit board with components for $6 to complete the project. Here’s what’s included in the kit:

1 x Weevil-shaped PCB
2 x LEDs
1 x 47k Ohm resistor
1 x miniature photocell
1 x 2N3904 transistor
2 x 220 Ohm resistors
1 x CR2032 coin cell battery
1 x 20mm coin cell battery holder

Register:

🪄 Intro to ImageMagick
2023-06-03 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Saturday, June 3rd at 3:30 p.m. we’re running a workshop on ImageMagick, an essential command-line tool for converting between image formats and applying custom compression and filters.
Register:

🔐 Philly 2600 Meetup + TOOOL Meetup
2023-06-02 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Philly 2600 meetup will be at Iffy Books on Friday, June 2nd, starting at 6:00 p.m.
> The Philly 2600 meeting is a monthly gathering of local hackers, phreaks, nerds, geeks, activists, tinkerers, developers, infosec professionals, and other interesting people.
We’re also hosting a meetup for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Open Organization of Lockpickers:
> Come join us for our monthly First Friday Open Pick Night at Iffy Books! Whether you’re a novice who just stumbled upon LockpickingLawyer, a seasoned safecracker, or somewhere in between, come join us for a evening of fun as we pop some locks.

📚 Reading Group: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
2023-05-31 19:00 - 20:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Wednesday, May 31st at 7 p.m. we’ll meet to discuss The Water Knife (2015) by Paolo Bacigalupi.

✏️ The Writing Room at Iffy Books
2023-05-31 17:00 - 19:00, 2023-05-24 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-05-17 17:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States

📡 Virtual Meshtastic Meetup
2023-05-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
We’re hosting a virtual meetup on Tuesday, May 30th at 7 p.m. to help Meshtastic users get connected. Our goal is to make a wireless chat network across the PHL area using low-power LoRa radios.
To join the network, you’ll need a LoRa radio such as a Heltec LoRa32, LILYGO LoRa32, or LILYGO T-Beam. Here’s a full list of compatible devices.
➡️ Join the meetup

📙 A Poetry Reading with John DeWitt, Mark Francis Johnson & Rosa van Hensbergen
2023-05-28 17:00 - 19:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Hi all!

I’m kind of feeling this “cold month of May” thing, reminds me of one of my favorite Cocteau Twins tracks.

That said, anticipate a HOT HOT reading in the early evening of Sunday, May 28th, at Philadelphia’s fabulous Iffy Books. I’m really humbled to be hosting some of my favorite poets!

John DeWitt is a poet and researcher living in Marseille. He is author of 20 20 Pretzels (Materials, 2020) and The Neckless Spokesperson of the Garden of Earthly Delights (Face Press, 2019), as well as a doctoral dissertation on the work of Clark Coolidge.

Mark Francis Johnson‘s latest books are Blown Study (Erotoplasty Editions, 2022) and Doleful Hoo-Ha (Intrinsic Coat, 2022). He lives in Philadelphia.

Rosa van Hensbergen is a researcher, translator, writer, and performance maker. She is Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she teaches and researches modern and contemporary Japanese and American literature and performance. She has five poetry pamphlets published, and she publishes other poets’ work through her small press, Tipped Press.

We’ll be gathering around 5p with the reading beginning at 5:30p at Iffy, which is located at 319 N. 11th St #2I. Attached is a flyer in my typical style— please distribute freely to any and all interested parties.

Love and solidarity until then!
ted

🎥 Machines in Flames (2022)
2023-05-27 20:00 - 22:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Saturday, 5/27 we’re screening the film Machines in Flames at 8 p.m., followed by a virtual Q&A with the filmmakers.
Machines in Flames (2022, 50min) finds a secret history of destruction by following the footsteps of a clandestine group of French computer workers from the 1980s.
In 1980s Toulouse, an elusive group began bombing computer companies. ‘CLODO’ disappeared after three years, without ever being caught or ever to be heard of again. Two film makers launch an investigation into CLODO, looking for answers, motivations and identities, but are soon frustrated by a collective that struck in the dead of night, leaving in their tracks only ashes and the sporadic line of cryptic graffiti. The film combines archival traces, a viral desktop choreography, and late-night video recordings of CLODO’s targets into a meditation on computation, destruction, and the lure of archives.
Presented by the South Philly Autonomous Cinema Association.

💻 Router Hack Day & Used Electronics Sale
2023-05-27 13:00 - 18:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
• Command for opening serial connection with router:
minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB0 -c on
• Firmware download for Tenda FH1206 router
• Docker command for decompressing firmware with unblob:
docker run \n–rm \n–pull always \n-v /Users/iffybooks/Documents/Router_firmware/output:/data/output \n-v /Users/iffybooks/Documents/Router_firmware/input:/data/input \nghcr.io/onekey-sec/unblob:latest –report firmware_reoirt.json /data/input/firmware.bin
• Jim’s unsqhashfs instructions
On May 27th we’re spending the whole afternoon (1–6 p.m) hacking away at an old Tenda FH1206 router, with the goal of installing open firmware such as OpenWrt or FreshTomato. We have plenty of routers to go around, which we’re selling for $8 each. Proceeds will be split evenly between Philly Community Wireless and Iffy Books.
This will be an informal event, more like a hackathon than a structured workshop. We recommend bringing a laptop if you have one.
We’ll also be selling used electronics, including desktop computers, monitors, peripherals, cables, and TS-7600 single-board computers. Come early before they’re picked over!
1–3 p.m. Orientation
We’ll show you how to examine the router firmware and gain root access via telnet.
3–5 p.m. Soldering session
You’ll learn to access your router’s serial shell, which requires soldering a few wires to the board.
5:00 p.m. Progress reports
We’ll go around the room and talk about what we’ve learned.
The routers we’re trying to hack were sold under the name Atlas Media AMW-DBR1200AC, but they’re actually repackaged Tenda FH1206 routers.
Here’s a blog post with our progress on the router so far.
And here are more details to get you started:
• FCC page for Atlas Media AMW-DBR1200AC
• User manual for Atlas Media AMW-DBR1200AC
• Firmware for Atlas Media AMW-DBR1200AC router
• FCC page for Tenda FH1206
• Tenda FH1206 manual
• Firmware for Tenda FH1206 router
• Wireless Cat page with hardware details
• unblob, a program you can use to decompress the firmware files
• OpenWrt build for a similar Tenda router
• CPU details: Broadcom BCM5358B0

📙 Sebastian Castillo & Caroline Rayner Book Release
2023-05-25 19:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Please join us to celebrate the release of Salmon and The Moan Wilds on May 25th at 7:30 p.m. With readings by Sebastian Castillo, Caroline Rayner, Ted Rees, Oscar d’Artois & Alina Pleskova. Hosted by Lucy K. Shaw.

⚡️ Chip Set: A DIY Electronics Meetup
2023-05-25 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Chip Set is a DIY electronics meetup at Iffy Books on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. If you’re interested in circuits, microcontrollers, and/or single-board computers, stop by and make some friends! All ages and skill levels are welcome, including total newbies.

This is an informal meetup, without a set topic or agenda. Feel free to bring a project to show the group!

Photo by Raimond Spekking (CC BY-SA 4.0)

💾🌾 Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup
2023-05-21 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Our next permacomputing meetup is on Sunday, May 21st at 1:00 PM EDT. You can join us in person at Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St. #2I, PHL) or via Jitsi audio stream.

➡️ Jitsi Stream Link
From Permacomputing.net: Permacomputing is a more sustainable approach to computer and network technology inspired by permaculture. Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in digital technology. In a time where computing epitomizes industrial waste, permacomputing encourages a more sustainable approach, maximizing hardware lifespans, minimizing energy use and focussing on the use of already available computational resources. We do this because humans are part of nature and technology is an extension of humans, and we acknowledge that technology has been used to harm nature. We want to find out how we can practice good relations with the Earth by learning from ecological systems to leverage and re-center existing technologies and practices. We are also interested in investigating what a permacomputing way of life could be, and what sort of transformative computational culture and aesthetics it could bring forward. If you want to know more, please start reading about what is permacomputing in essence, and then dive into its principles.

🪡 Hands-On Darning Workshop
2023-05-20 13:00 - 16:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Saturday, May 20th at 1:00 p.m. we’re hosting a darning workshop and mending session. Total beginners welcome!
Register:

📡 Meshtastic 101
2023-05-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Friday, May 19th at 6:00 p.m. we’re hosting an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sized LoRa radios.
Here’s a link to our updated zine on LoRa + Meshtastic. (We’re still working on it; we’ll post a PDF version soon.)
If you have a LoRa radio (or reserve one below), we’ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device and customize the settings. If you don’t have a LoRa radio, you’re still welcome to attend!
Note that we have two antenna options: The slim antenna is smaller, and fits neatly inside the Heltec LoRa32 V3’s plastic case. The other antenna is slightly too big for the case, so you’ll need to attach it to the outside with a rubber band. The larger antenna comes with an SMA adapter, making it easy to swap in different antennas in the future.
Register:

⚡️ Beginner Soldering Workshop
2023-05-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Thursday, May 18th at 6:00 p.m. we’re running a soldering workshop for beginners! Anyone can attend for free, but you’ll need to buy a circuit board with components for $6 to complete the project. Here’s what’s included in the kit:

1 x Weevil-shaped PCB
2 x LEDs
1 x 47k Ohm resistor
1 x miniature photocell
1 x 2N3904 transistor
2 x 220 Ohm resistors
1 x CR2032 coin cell battery
1 x 20mm coin cell battery holder

Register:
