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

🎹 Pico MP3 Sampler Workshop
2025-05-02 15:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Create your own digital audio sampler using a Pi Pico clone board! This project requires some soldering. It’s recommended for folks who have soldered once or twice before, but beginners are welcome too. For the programming portion, you can bring a laptop or use one of our lab computers. Here’s a link to the workshop materials.
You’ll need to buy a kit for $16.95 to complete this project. We’re suggesting a $10–30 donation for the workshop.
Here’s what’s included in the kit:
• RP2040/Pi Pico board
• wood block w/ pilot holes
• 3.5mm stereo jack w/ screw terminals
• 2×4 push button keypad
• 2 push button switches
• 10 screws
• tiny screwdriver
• 20 header pins
• 4.7 uF capacitor
• 9 port to port jumper wires
• 2 port to stripped jumper wires
• 1″ stripped wire
• 3″ tie wire
• 8 plastic spacer rings
• micro USB cable w/ data
Register
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

📚 Capital Reading Group
2025-05-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on the first and third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. for a reading group on Capital by Karl Marx.
Readings for May 1st:
• The Working Day
• The Rate and Amount of Surplus-Value
We’re reading Paul Reitter’s recent translation (Princeton University Press, 2024).

🪐 Speculative Futures Reading Group: 'The Year of the Flood' by Margaret Atwood
2025-04-30 19:00 - 20:30
The Speculative Futures Reading Group meets on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m.
> Our April book is Margaret Atwood’s Year of the Flood and in May we’ll read Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, which defies genre but is about exploring a labyrinth. For June, we have to pick a Le Guin — there are recent lovely editions of both The Lathe of Heaven and Five Ways to Forgiveness, either of which are excellent choices for us.

✏️ The Writing Room
2025-04-29 17:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-22 17:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-15 17:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-08 17:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
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.

🌊 Wave Craft: Music Box Spectrogram
2025-04-27 10:00 - 11:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Stay tuned for details!

🎹 Pico MP3 Sampler Workshop
2025-04-26 10:00 - 12:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Create your own digital audio sampler using a Pi Pico clone board! This project requires some soldering. It’s recommended for folks who have soldered once or twice before, but beginners are welcome too. For the programming portion, you can bring a laptop or use one of our lab computers.
You’ll need to buy a kit for $15.95 to complete this project. Here’s what it includes:
• RP2040/Pi Pico board
• wood block w/ pilot holes
• 3.5mm stereo jack
w/ screw terminals
• 2×4 push button keypad
• 2 push button switches
• 14 screws
• tiny screwdriver
• 20 header pins
• 9 port to port jumper wires
• 2 port to stripped jumper wires
• 8 plastic spacer rings
• micro USB cable w/ data
Register
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

📡 Meshtastic 101
2025-04-25 15:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us for an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sized LoRa radio transceivers. We’ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device, customize the settings, and start chatting with your friends.
Here’s a link to our zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.
No registration needed for this one!

🎵 Cassette Mixtape Session
2025-04-25 11:00 - 12:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Bring a playlist on your phone/computer and we’ll help you record it to an audio cassette tape. We have plenty of tapes to share!
Register:
coming soon!

🗯️ Overflowing Poetry: Mark Francis Johnson, Ryan Skrabalak, Jen Soong & Ted Rees
2025-04-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Doors at 7, reading at 7:30!

❤️ Soldering Practice: LED Heart Board
2025-04-24 12:00 - 13:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Come out and get some soldering practice! This time we’re making a heart-shaped board with 22 LEDs, using an oscillator circuit to dim and brighten them at the speed you choose.
This project is ideal for folks who have soldered at least once before. Beginners are welcome to join us, but it may take you more than one session to finish. Working with a friend is encouraged!
The kit you’ll need to complete this project costs $5.50. We’re suggesting a $10–$25 donation for the class, no one turned away for lack of funds.
No registration needed for this one!

📻 Soldering Practice: FM Radio Transmitter
2025-04-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Come out and get some soldering practice! This time we’re assembling a short-range FM transmitter kit with a built-in mic and a 1/8″ audio input jack.
This project is recommended for folks who have soldered at least once or twice before. If you’re brand new to soldering, we recommend taking a beginner class first.
Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

• Transmission Distance: 5-50m
• Transmission Frequency: 88-108MHz
• Audio Input: -15dB (max)
• Operating Voltage: DC 2.7V-3.3V
• Operating Current: 5-15mA

⚡️ Beginner Soldering: USB Data Blocker
2025-04-23 16:30 - 17:30, 2025-04-11 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-07 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-07 12:00 - 13:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Charging your phone in a public place can be stressful. What if someone is collecting your metadata for marketing purposes? What if they’re copying your files or installing malware? A USB data blocker can help! It’s a little adapter with the data terminals left disconnected, so you can charge your phone anywhere without fear.
This is a relatively quick soldering project, perfect for total beginners. We’ll have soldering irons and supplies to share.
Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

⚡️ Beginner Soldering: USB Data Blocker
2025-04-23 16:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Charging your phone in a public place can be stressful. What if someone is collecting your metadata for marketing purposes? What if they’re copying your files or installing malware? A USB data blocker can help! It’s a little adapter with the data terminals left disconnected, so you can charge your phone anywhere without fear.
This is a relatively quick soldering project, perfect for total beginners. We’ll have soldering irons and supplies to share.
Register:
coming soon!

🚂 Model Internet Club
2025-04-20 10:30 - 12:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
The Model Internet Club is back! Join us every third Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for an informal meetup focused on building small-scale computer networks.
No registration needed for this event! If we run out of space we can expand into our back yard area.

⏰ Buzz & Beep: Make a Custom Alarm with an ESP32-C3
2025-04-19 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-04-13 10:00 - 11:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Build and program an alarm that makes sound and vibrates! No soldering required! We’ll be using Micropython.
To complete this project you’ll need to buy a kit for $12.95. Here’s what it includes:
• ESP32-C3 Super Mini microcontroller
• Mini breadboard (170 tie points)
• Vibration motor (3.4mm)
• Active buzzer module
• Momentary push button switch x2
• Port-to-plug jumper wire x2
• Plug-to-plug jumper wire x5
Requires a USB-C cable with data (sold separately)
Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

🔓 TOOOL Lock Picking Meetup
2025-04-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us from 6–8 p.m. for a meetup run by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Open Organization of Lockpickers.
> Come join us for our monthly 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.

💥 Digital Synth Workshop
2025-04-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Design your own digital synthesizer in a wooden box using a Pi Pico clone board! We’ll have soldering irons, hot glue, and all the other supplies you’ll need. It’s an open-ended project, so you may have to finish at home or come back for a future session.
This project is recommended for folks who have soldered at least once or twice before. If you’re brand new to soldering, we recommend taking a beginner class first.
Register
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

You’ll need to buy a kit for $35.95 to complete this project. Here’s what it includes:
• RP2040 development board (a.k.a. Pi Pico)
• 64 rainbow wires (for buttons & knobs)
• red and black wires (for power & audio)
• mono screw-terminal audio jack
• rotary encoder w/ knob
• potentiometer w/ knob
• dipole on/off switch
• 2×4 push button keypad
• 2-prong push button switch x8
• through-hole push button switch x2
• 2.2 uF non-polarized capacitor (225)
• 4.7 uF non-polarized capacitor (475)
• 10 uF non-polarized capacitor (106)
• LED light x5
• 5 100 Ohm resistor x5
• tiny screwdriver
• push pin
• M2 screws (self-tapping, 10mm) x8
• plastic spacer x16
• 3x AA battery clip
• micro USB cable with data
• wooden box

📚 Capital Reading Group
2025-04-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on the first and third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. for a reading group on Capital by Karl Marx. We’ll post the sections we’re covering before each meeting.
Reading for April 17th:
– The Rate of Surplus-Value
– The Working-Day
We’re reading Paul Reitter’s recent translation (Princeton University Press, 2024).

⚡ Beginner Soldering: Make a DIY Guitar Cable
2025-04-16 12:00 - 13:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us for a relatively quick and easy soldering workshop, suitable for total beginners! You’ll strip some wires and solder 1/4-inch plugs to the ends, creating your own guitar cable.
You can get a kit with 6 inches of cable for $4.25, or 4 feet for $13.50. We’re suggesting a $10–$20 donation for the class, notaflof.
Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

💡 Solder & Code: Make a 3-Button Keyboard with a Pi Pico
2025-04-12 10:00 - 11:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
In this workshop you’ll build and program a customizable 3-button USB keyboard using a Pi Pico microcontroller. You can program each button to type a chunk of text (e.g., your email signature), enter a keyboard shortcut, or launch an application. It’s easier than it sounds!
Here’s what we’ll do:
• Solder three push button switches onto your Pi Pico
• Install CircuitPython firmware
• Install Adafruit HID libraries
• Copy example code to your Pi Pico
• Adjust the example code to make your own custom keyboard
We’ll have a limited number of computers to share, so bring a laptop (Windows/macOS/Linux) if you can.
You’ll need to buy a Pi Pico Push Button Interface Kit for $9.75 to complete this project. We’re recommending a $10–$25 donation for the class (notaflof).

Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

💥 Digital Synth Workshop
2025-04-11 14:00 - 16:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Design your own digital synthesizer in a wooden box using a Pi Pico clone board! We’ll have soldering irons, hot glue, and all the other supplies you’ll need. It’s an open-ended project, so you may have to finish at home or come back for a future session.
This project is recommended for folks who have soldered at least once or twice before. If you’re brand new to soldering, we recommend taking a beginner class first.
Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

You’ll need to buy a kit for $35.95 to complete this project. Here’s what it includes:
• RP2040 development board (a.k.a. Pi Pico)
• 64 rainbow wires (for buttons & knobs)
• red and black wires (for power & audio)
• mono screw-terminal audio jack
• rotary encoder w/ knob
• potentiometer w/ knob
• dipole on/off switch
• 2×4 push button keypad
• 2-prong push button switch x8
• through-hole push button switch x2
• 2.2 uF non-polarized capacitor (225)
• 4.7 uF non-polarized capacitor (475)
• 10 uF non-polarized capacitor (106)
• LED light x5
• 5 100 Ohm resistor x5
• tiny screwdriver
• push pin
• M2 screws (self-tapping, 10mm) x8
• plastic spacer x16
• 3x AA battery clip
• micro USB cable with data
• wooden box

📡 Meshtastic 101
2025-04-10 12:00 - 13:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us for an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sized LoRa radio transceivers. We’ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device, customize the settings, and start chatting with your friends.
Here’s a link to our zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.
Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: ‘Obfuscation: A User's Guide for Privacy and Protest’ by Finn Brunton & Helen Nissenbaum
2025-04-09 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Full schedule: victorgom.es/neoluddite
➡️ Virtual Meetup Link
Time and Place: The 2nd Wednesday of each month 6:30-8:30 ET in person at Iffy Books. There is also a virtual option for accessibility purposes, also hosted by Iffy Books.

Email neoluddite@victorgom.es, or sign up at iffy to be added to the mailing list! Necessary for receiving the jitsi link (video-conferencing software we will use) and if you’d like to join the discord.The issues and harms surrounding emerging technologies are especially concerning given the lack of regulation in the tech industry generally, and the tendency of productivity-increasing technology to further concentrate power in the hands of the few. This reading group will explore these risks and engage with how they work in the hopes of better organizing to protect the rights of workers and individuals. The goal is to have a better understanding of the costs (data, carbon, human labor) and risks (misinformation, unpredictability, bias) of making these machines, as well as limitations in what they can learn about the world primarily through data scraped from the internet.We’re currently reading two books on privacy and related practices: Cybersecurity by Duane C. Wilson and Obfuscation by Finn Burton and Helen Nissembaum.Archived pages of our previous books include: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Resisting AI, The Human Use of Human Beings, Race After Technology, Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech, and The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence by Matteo Pasquinelli. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.

Schedule
If you’re joining for the first time, I’d suggest you read this before anything else for brief context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff.
The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. You’re still welcome to participate if you haven’t done the readings as long as you are mindful. For each chapter, I’ve also noted some optional readings for context, so I’d suggest checking those out rather than reading ahead in the book. And remember, if you ever find yourself struggling with any of the readings or concepts, reach out! Either directly to me over email or to the entire group over discord.

Meeting 1 (March 12th):📖 Cybersecurity

1. Cybersecurity Origins

A History of Cryptography From the Spartans to the FBI by Panos Louridas

2. Foundations

The Surveillance AI Pipeline by Kalluri et al.

3. Cryptography Demystified

A Primer on Cryptography by Aïda Diop

4. Cybersecurity in Layers

TBD by

5. Who Attacked Me?

TBD by

6. Malware in Action

TBD by

7. Modern-Day Applications

Homeland Security Uses AI Tool to Analyze Social Media of U.S. Citizens and Refugees by Joseph Cox

8. Cybersecurity for the Future

Artificial intelligence is going to supercharge surveillance by James Vincent

Meeting 2 (April 9th):📖 Obfuscation

1. An Obfuscation Vocabulary

TBD by

2. Understanding Obfuscation

TBD by

Additional resources

Outreach Resources & Guides

📜 Digital Defense Playbook: Community Power Tools for Reclaiming Data by Our Data Bodies
📜 A People’s Guide to AI by Mimi Onuoha and Mother Cyborg (Diana Nucera)
📜 Algorithmic Accountability: A Primer by Data & Society
🗞️ Prior to (or instead of) using ChatGPT with your students by Autumn Caines

Potential Future Reads

📖 Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks
📖 Questioning Technology: Tool, Toy or Tyrant by John Zerzan & Alice Carnes
📖 Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment by Michael Huesemann & Joyce Huesemann
📖 Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
📖 The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow

Links to more links

📋 Critical Lenses on AI by Iris van Rooij
📋 Resources by Ruha Benjamin

More on Luddites

🗞️ I’m a Luddite. You should be one too by Jathan Sadowski
🗞️ Byron Was One of the Few Prominent Defenders of the Luddites by Kat Eschner

Poems

🎵 A Luddite Lullaby by Don Bogen
🎵 All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Richard Brautigan
🎵 I Am the People, the Mob by Carl Sandburg
🎵 They Say This Isn’t a Poem by Kenneth Rexroth
🎵 Under Which Lyre by W.H. Auden
🎵 When I Heard The Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman
