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  • November 2025

  • Wed 5
    The symbol of the permacomputing movement, a pixel art flower 7 pixels wide and 9 pixels tall, in white on a black background.
    November 5 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ๐Ÿ’พโ˜€๏ธ Permacomputing + Solarpunk Meetup

    ๐Ÿ’พโ˜€๏ธ Permacomputing + Solarpunk Meetup

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    The Permacomputing + Solarpunk meetup is the first Wednesday every other monthย at Iffy Books! You can join us in person (404 S. 20th St., PHL) or remotely via Jitsi Meet. โžก๏ธ Virtual meetup link Fromย Permacomputing.net:ย Permacomputing is a more sustainable approach to computer and network technology inspired by permaculture. Permacomputing is both a concept and a […]

  • Thu 6
    Flyer with an icon of a laptop and the following text in pink outlined with green: FAFIO meetup fuck around and figure it out! STEGANOGRAPHY NIGHT! Thurs, Nov 6 6:30 pm โ€“ 8:30 pm Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., PHL
    November 6 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm ๐Ÿค” FAFIO Meetup

    ๐Ÿค” FAFIO Meetup: DIY Steganography

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    FAFIO is a new meetup for folks who want to learn new tech skills but aren't sure where to start. Let's fuck around and figure it out! This session the focus will be on steganography, a way to conceal secret messages in digital photos. You'll need a computer if you want to try it. More […]

  • Fri 7
    Animated GIF of a small circuit board with two blinking LED lights, two transistors, two capacitors, and four resistors
    November 7 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm โšก๏ธ Beginner Soldering: Flashing LED Circuit

    โšก๏ธ Beginner Soldering: Flashing LED Circuit

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    In this workshop you'll learn the basics of soldering by building a tiny oscillator circuit with two transistors and two LED lights. No previous experience needed! Register:  

  • Fri 7
    The words "Philly 2600" in an old-school digital font
    November 7 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm ๐Ÿ’ป Philly 2600 Meetup

    ๐Ÿ’ป Philly 2600 Meetup

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    > The Philly 2600 meeting is a monthly gathering of local hackers, phreaks, nerds, geeks, activists, tinkerers, developers, infosec professionals, and other interesting people.

  • Sat 8
    Flyer with a drawing of two turtles with computers in their backs and the following text: Model Internet Club Picnic at Rittenhouse! Sat, November 8th 10:30 AMโ€“12:30 PM at Rittenhouse Square Bring a web server and/or snack Looks like perfect weather!
    November 8 @ 10:30 am - 12:30 pm ๐Ÿš‚ Model Internet Club

    ๐Ÿงบ Model Internet Club: Picnic at Rittenhouse!

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    On Saturday, November 8th the Model Internet Club will meet outdoors for the first time! We'll be at Rittenhouse Square from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Our plan is to set up a battery-powered wi-fi network that anyone in the area can connect to and browse our tiny collection of websites. You're welcome to browse […]

  • Sun 9
    A one-time pad encoder/decoder sheet, with two 36x36 grids of letters and numbers, with the following text at the bottom right: There's no space character, so we'll use 0 (zero) instead. When digits appear in your cleartext message, skip the surrounding Os that would normally indicate spaces. Examples: MEETOATOPARK7PM CALLOCASEY2156823032 Pad the end of your message with Os to obscure the length. If your message ends with a digit, you can pad the beginning instead to avoid ambiguity. ALLOCLEAROFORONOW000 (padded to 20 characters)
    November 9 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am ๐Ÿ—’๏ธ One-Time Pad Encryption Workshop

    ๐Ÿ“ One-Time Pad Encryption Workshop

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Join us for a workshop on one-time pad encryption! We'll walk you through a technique for sending truly private messages without a computer, using 6-sided dice to generate random numbers. We'll use an encoder/decoder sheet that fits on a single sheet of paper and can be recreated from memory. You can find the workshop materials […]

  • Sun 9
    A king penguin head. Photo taken at Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland.
    November 9 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm ๐Ÿง Linux Lab

    ๐Ÿง E-Z Command-Line Encryption with OpenSSL

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    At this workshop you'll learn to create passphrase-protected files using OpenSSL, a command-line program that's probably already installed on your computer. With this technique you can send encrypted files via email/Dropbox, then share the passphrase with the recipient on a secure channel (e.g., Signal). Useful for avoiding surveillance & data mining! Save message: echo "My […]

  • Tue 11
    Flyer with a green background and the following text: The Writing Room @ Iffy Books / Every Tuesday 5-7:30 PM / Come co-work with other writers in three 4-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.
    November 11 @ 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm โœ๏ธ The Writing Room

    โœ๏ธ The Writing Room

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 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.

  • Wed 12
    Old-fashioned website screen capture with a repeated picture of a cloud in the background: Welcome To The *Making Your First Website* Workshop Learn HTML and create a home page on Neocities! Total beginners welcome! Iffy Books / Ragman WARNING: this page is under construction
    November 12 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm ๐Ÿ’ป Make Your First Website

    ๐Ÿšง Make Your First Website

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Make a home page like it's 1999! Join us at Iffy Books for a new workshop called Make Your First Website, led by Ragman a.k.a. Richard Green. You'll learn the basics of HTML and create a static site on the free hosting service Neocities. No experience necessary! Please bring a laptop if you have one. […]

  • Thu 13
    Book cover for 'The Whale and the Reactor A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology' by Langdon Winner, with yellow line illustrations on a red background: leaky oil drum, wind turbine, internal combustion engine, CFL light bulb, amoeba, oil pump, oil well, missile launcher, solar panel, gas mask
    November 13 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm โš™๏ธ Neo-Luddite Reading Group

    โš™๏ธ Neo-Luddite Reading Group

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    โžก๏ธ Virtual Meetup Link โ€œIn an age in which the inexhaustible power of scientific technology makes all things possible, it remains to be seen where we will draw the line, where we will be able to say, here are possibilities that wisdom suggest we avoid.โ€ First published to great acclaim in 1988, Langdon Winnerโ€™s groundbreaking […]

  • Fri 14
    Animated GIF of a small circuit board with two blinking LED lights, two transistors, two capacitors, and four resistors
    November 14 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm โšก๏ธ Beginner Soldering: Flashing LED Circuit

    โšก๏ธ Beginner Soldering: Flashing LED Circuit

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    In this workshop you'll learn the basics of soldering by building a tiny oscillator circuit with two transistors and two LED lights. No previous experience needed! Register:  

  • Sat 15
    An artist's rendering of a black hole, with a large patch of bright white light on the right side and a dimmer area of light on the left.
    November 15 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

    โŒ Home Ad Blocking with Pi-hole

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    On Saturday, November 15th at 11:00 a.m. we're hosting a presentation on network-wide ad blocking with Pi-hole and AdGuard Home led by Dave Slinger. No registration needed for this one!          

  • Sun 16
    The Meshtastic logo, with the word "Meshtastic" in black
    November 16 @ 10:30 am - 12:00 pm ๐Ÿ“ก Meshtastic 101

    ๐Ÿ“ก Meshtastic 101

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Join us for an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sizedย LoRa radio transceivers. Weโ€™ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device, customize the settings, and start chatting with your friends. Hereโ€™s a link to our zine on LoRa + Meshtastic. […]

  • Wed 19
    Book cover for 'Triple Cross: How bin Ladenโ€™s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI' by Peter Lance, with distressed-looking all-caps text framing a high-contrast mugshot
    November 19 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm ๐Ÿ‘๏ธ Intelligence History Reading Group: ‘Agents of Subversion’ by

    ๐Ÿ‘๏ธ Intelligence History Reading Group: ‘Triple Cross’ by Peter Lance

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    This is the story of the most dangerous triple-agent in US history. Peter Lance, author of the highly acclaimed "1000 Years for Revenge and Cover Up", returns to uncover the story of Ali Mohamed, a trusted security advisor of Osama bin Laden who hoodwinked the United States for more than a decade. As Lance reveals […]

  • Fri 21
    Animated GIF of a small circuit board with two blinking LED lights, two transistors, two capacitors, and four resistors
    November 21 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm โšก๏ธ Beginner Soldering: Flashing LED Circuit

    โšก๏ธ Beginner Soldering: Flashing LED Circuit

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    In this workshop you'll learn the basics of soldering by building a tiny oscillator circuit with two transistors and two LED lights. No previous experience needed! Register:  

  • Sat 22
    Logo for the Python programming language, with interlocking blue and yellow snakes
    November 22 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am ๐Ÿ Python Install Session

    ๐Ÿ Python Install Session

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    If you haven't already installed Python on your computer, join us for an installation session!

  • Sat 22
    Flyer with a photo of a tiny mp3 player, a sparkle emoji, and the following text: Python Script-Along: Download Podcasts to an MP3 Player!
    November 22 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm ๐Ÿ Python Script-Along: Download Podcasts to an MP3 Player

    ๐Ÿ Python Script-Along: Download Podcasts to an MP3 Player

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    One of the reasons it's hard to leave home without a cell phone is that it's nice to listen to podcasts while you're walking around. In this workshop you'll learn to write a Python script that downloads the latest episodes of your favorite shows to an MP3 player (or a folder on your desktop if […]

  • Sun 23
    Logo for the Python programming language, with interlocking blue and yellow snakes
    November 23 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am ๐Ÿ Python Install Session

    ๐Ÿ Python Install Session

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    If you haven't already installed Python on your computer, join us for an installation session!

  • Sun 23
    Flyer with a photo of a tiny mp3 player, a sparkle emoji, and the following text: Python Script-Along: Download Podcasts to an MP3 Player!
    November 23 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm ๐Ÿ Python Script-Along: Download Podcasts to an MP3 Player

    ๐Ÿ Python Script-Along: Download Podcasts to an MP3 Player

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    One of the reasons it's hard to leave home without a cell phone is that it's nice to listen to podcasts while you're walking around. In this workshop you'll learn to write a Python script that downloads the latest episodes of your favorite shows to an MP3 player (or a folder on your desktop if […]

  • Wed 26
    Old-fashioned website screen capture with a repeated picture of a cloud in the background: Welcome To The *Making Your First Website* Workshop Learn HTML and create a home page on Neocities! Total beginners welcome! Iffy Books / Ragman WARNING: this page is under construction
    November 26 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm ๐Ÿ’ป Make Your First Website

    ๐Ÿšง Make Your First Website

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Make a home page like it's 1999! Join us at Iffy Books for a new workshop called Make Your First Website, led by Ragman a.k.a. Richard Green. You'll learn the basics of HTML and create a static site on the free hosting service Neocities. No experience necessary! Please bring a laptop if you have one. […]

  • Thu 27
    Cartoon image of a smiling tofu cube with red cheeks and green onion on its head Credit to Vecteezy (vecteezy.com)
    November 27

    ๐Ÿด Closed November 27th

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    We'll be closed on Thursday, November 27th. But we'll be here on Friday!

  • Sat 29
    Flyer with 6 LED lights attached to a Pi Pico development board, with the following text: Pico LED Hourglass Workshop โŒ› Iffy Books A programmable timer for writing, cooking, games, etc.!
    November 29 @ 10:30 am - 12:30 pm โณ Pico LED Hourglass Workshop

    โณ Pico LED Hourglass Workshop

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Learn to make a programmable game timer and dice with a Pi Pico microcontroller! First youโ€™ll solder six LEDs, two switches, and a vibration motor to the boardโ€™s GPIO pins. Then youโ€™ll install and customize the CircuitPython code that makes it work. No experience needed! Youโ€™ll need to buy a kit for $8.50 to complete […]

  • Sun 30
    A one-time pad encoder/decoder sheet, with two 36x36 grids of letters and numbers, with the following text at the bottom right: There's no space character, so we'll use 0 (zero) instead. When digits appear in your cleartext message, skip the surrounding Os that would normally indicate spaces. Examples: MEETOATOPARK7PM CALLOCASEY2156823032 Pad the end of your message with Os to obscure the length. If your message ends with a digit, you can pad the beginning instead to avoid ambiguity. ALLOCLEAROFORONOW000 (padded to 20 characters)
    November 30 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am ๐Ÿ—’๏ธ One-Time Pad Encryption Workshop

    ๐Ÿ“ One-Time Pad Encryption Workshop

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Join us for a workshop on one-time pad encryption! We'll walk you through a technique for sending truly private messages without a computer, using 6-sided dice to generate random numbers. We'll use an encoder/decoder sheet that fits on a single sheet of paper and can be recreated from memory. You can find the workshop materials […]

  • Sun 30
    A king penguin head. Photo taken at Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland.
    November 30 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm ๐Ÿง Linux Lab

    ๐Ÿง E-Z Command-Line Encryption with OpenSSL

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    At this workshop you'll learn to create passphrase-protected files using OpenSSL, a command-line program that's probably already installed on your computer. With this technique you can send encrypted files via email/Dropbox, then share the passphrase with the recipient on a secure channel (e.g., Signal). Useful for avoiding surveillance & data mining! Save message: echo "My […]

  • December 2025

  • Tue 2
    Flyer with a green background and the following text: The Writing Room @ Iffy Books / Every Tuesday 5-7:30 PM / Come co-work with other writers in three 4-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.
    December 2 @ 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm โœ๏ธ The Writing Room

    โœ๏ธ The Writing Room

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 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.

  • Wed 3
    The cover of 'Planetes Book 1' by Makoto Yukimura, with an illustration of a circular porthole in a spaceship with the Earth below filling the view
    December 3 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm ๐Ÿช Speculative Futures Reading Group

    ๐Ÿช Speculative Futures Reading Group: ‘Planetes Book 1’ by Makoto Yukimura

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    The Speculative Futures Reading Group meets on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m.! This month we're discussing Planetes Book 1 by Makoto Yukimura. (Illustrated by Makoto Yukimura, translated by Yuki Johnson, adapted by Anna Wenger & Brendan Wright.)

  • Thu 4
    Flyer with an icon of a laptop and the following text in pink outlined with green: FAFIO meetup fuck around and figure it out!
    December 4 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm ๐Ÿค” FAFIO Meetup

    ๐Ÿค” FAFIO Meetup: Terminal Beginner Night

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    FAFIO is a new meetup for folks who want to learn new tech skills but aren't sure where to start. Let's fuck around and figure it out! This month we'll be learning some basic command-line skills!ย Feel free to come and work on something else!

  • Fri 5
    Picture of Benjamin Franklin wearing sunglasses in green on a black background. Parts of his face and clothes look like a circuit board. At the bottom it says "B-Sides Philadelphia"
    December 5 @ 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

    ๐ŸŽฒ B-Sides Philly

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    See y'all at B-Sides!

  • Fri 5
    The words "Philly 2600" in an old-school digital font
    December 5 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm ๐Ÿ’ป Philly 2600 Meetup

    ๐Ÿ’ป Philly 2600 Meetup

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    > The Philly 2600 meeting is a monthly gathering of local hackers, phreaks, nerds, geeks, activists, tinkerers, developers, infosec professionals, and other interesting people.

  • Sat 6
    Image with the following words in different fonts, colors, and angles: Make a hand-coded *holiday* SVG e-card
    December 6 @ 10:30 am - 12:00 pm ๐ŸŽŠ Make a Hand-Coded SVG Holiday E-Card

    ๐ŸŽŠ Make a Hand-Coded SVG Holiday E-Card

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Learn to make an animated SVG file using a plaintext editor and web browser. No fancy tools needed! Geany text editor Register

  • Sun 7
    Image with the following words in different fonts, colors, and angles: Make a hand-coded *holiday* SVG e-card
    December 7 @ 10:30 am - 12:00 pm ๐ŸŽŠ Make a Hand-Coded SVG Holiday E-Card

    ๐ŸŽŠ Make a Hand-Coded SVG Holiday E-Card

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Learn to make an animated SVG file using a plaintext editor and web browser. No fancy tools needed! Geany text editor Register

  • Sun 7
    '80s style pink glowing text reading "Homebrew Website Club" with a purple triangle and rainbow and grid receding into the background
    December 7 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm ๐Ÿ  IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club

    ๐Ÿ  IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, United States

    Homebrew Website Club is a growing world-wide network of meetups for everyone who wants to take back their web experience from social media silos, and own their online identities & content, or just want support with blogging!

  • Tue 9
    Flyer with a green background and the following text: The Writing Room @ Iffy Books / Every Tuesday 5-7:30 PM / Come co-work with other writers in three 4-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.
    December 9 @ 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm โœ๏ธ The Writing Room

    โœ๏ธ The Writing Room

    Iffy Books 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 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.

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