A Home for Windsor's Tech Community


Community Satisfaction Survey

May 31, 2023

by Lauren Hedges in News

This survey is intended to take the pulse of Hackforge – to get a sense of how you feel the organization is (or isn’t) meeting your needs. It asks about your experiences at recent events, and invites suggestions for future programming. It should take fewer than five minutes to complete.


Your responses are completely anonymous, and will be used to help steer our future. Please be honest in your feedback, and keep in mind that we are always open to your input, even when there isn’t an official survey.


Job Opportunity! We need a temporary resource to help implement a walking tour

May 5, 2023

by Lauren Hedges in Jobs

This is an ideal opportunity for a hobbyist or student to develop and validate their skills!

Windsor Hackforge requires a temporary resource to help with the implementation of a 2SLGBTQ+ historical walking tour for Windsor using Pytheas, an open-source guided tour application developed by Parallel 42 Systems. The tour application is written in JavaScript, leveraging the React.js framework.

Please send applications to info@hackf.org by Friday, May 12th at 5pm

The work should take 16-24 hours to complete, and involves the following high level steps;

  • Collect required information from volunteer partners
  • Set up a local development environment
  • Encode geoJSON and JSON files with required information
  • Develop a colour scheme in collaboration with volunteer partners
  • Modify application source code to implement colour scheme
  • Add required images to source folder for each point of interest on the tour
  • Test application locally and make required fixes
  • Implement application in hosting environment for public use
  • Minor code changes as required and applicable

A software development skill set will be critical to the success of this project, but deep experience is not needed as there should be no significant code changes required. Familiarity with web development, JavaScript and React.js will be significant assets.

Compensation for this position is set at $30/hour.

In partnership with:

Trans Wellness Ontario

May 2023 at Hackforge

May 3, 2023

by Lauren Hedges in Events

Border City Data: Making Attractive Maps with OSM and QGIS

Thursday, May 4th @ 6pm Hybrid

In this joint Border City Data/OSM Windsor-Essex event, Doug Sartori leads an interactive session demonstrating the tools for surfacing OpenStreetMap data in QGIS. Follow along as he makes a paper map for children to use in an upcoming Jane’s Walk event in South Walkerville!

Join Doug in-person or online, and learn how you can take the overwhelming database that is OSM and turn it into a simple line-drawing, perfect for colouring books, scavenger hunts, and kid-friendly cartography!

More about the Jane’s Walk event featuring Doug’s map.

OSM Windsor-Essex: Mapping with Every Door

Monday, May 15th @ 6pm In Person Only

There’s a new tool for mobile OSM edits, and this one’s available cross-platform! Come meet up with us in Downtown Windsor and we’ll test it out together!

Every Door allows users to create and edit objects in OpenStreetMap, including building addresses, benches, and more! It works on both Android and iOS devices, and even supports offline mapping, with the ability to download tiles in advance.

Meet us at the Hackforge HQ at 6pm on Monday, May 15th where we’ll make sure everyone has downloaded and signed in to the app, then we’ll head out to update some downtown data. Bikes and other personal belongings can be left in Hackforge for the duration of the event.

Download Every Door

Questions? Reach out to Lauren@hackf.org

Hackforge Website Redesign Meeting

Thursday, May 25 @ 6pm Hybrid

After ten or so years, the Hackforge website is getting a refresh!

As the people adding to the site every month we have an idea of the changes we’d like to see, but we want your feedback, too! What content would you like to see on www.Hackf.org? How can we make the layout better? Let us know!

We’re also open to help from anyone who might want to be part of this meta project. Whether you’re a high school student looking to learn (and earn volunteer hours!?), a copywriter looking to build your portfolio, or a professional site designer who wants to give back to the community, we’ve got space for you!

This is our first open meeting on the topic, so come on out to share your ideas! Virtual and physical attendance options are available.

Winfosec: OWASP Top 10 Pt.6 – Vulnerable and Outdated Components

Friday, May 26 @ 7pm Hybrid

25,227 software vulnerabilities were published last year and the numbers keep rising. Join us for Winfosec’s sixth session on the OWASP Top 10. We’ll talk about how vulnerabilities happen, how to manage them, and keeping your software supply chain safe.

Free event, all are welcome, join virtually or in-person.

Linux User Group: Inaugural Meeting

Monday, May 29 @ 7pm In Person Only

Join us for our first Linux user group meetup! We’ll be getting to know each other, sharing our experiences with Linux, and diving into the technical side by compiling the Linux kernel together. Whether you’re a seasoned Linux user or just starting out, all are welcome to join us. Don’t forget to bring your laptop and a willingness to learn!


April’s Message from the Chair

April 5, 2023

by Lauren Hedges in News

Big news first: After three years and change as a virtual organization, Hackforge now has a physical address again. Hackforge events can now be held at the Parallel 42 offices in the University of Windsor’s downtown Computer Science building. We’re planning to continue to offer programming via the Internet, but some of our future events will be hybrid, starting later this month with Border City Data and Winfosec events happening online and in meatspace. We’ll also have some events that are in-person only, like the video game swap meet that’s coming up. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Hackforgers again, so I hope you’ll consider attending one of our April events in person!

— Doug Sartori, Chair of the Hackforge Board of Directors


April 2023 at Hackforge

by Lauren Hedges in Events, News

Border City Data: Working with Climate Data

Monday, April 17th @ 6pm Hybrid

The Canadian government publishes climate data from thousands of individual weather stations going back decades. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to access for certain scenarios – particularly when you’re interested in a geography wider than a single station.

In this session Doug Sartori demonstrates a Python solution to access climate data in bulk and store it in a database table for analysis or visualization. Everyone is welcome and there is no cost to attend this hybrid event.

Windsor AWS User Group: AWS Cloud FinOps

Wednesday, April 19th @ 7pm Online Only

FinOps, AKA “how to manage your cloud costs and have all teams take ownership of their cloud usage.” It’s a cultural practice that applies to developers, engineers, architects, and finance teams. Let’s learn how to master this important discipline!

Featuring guest speaker and Amazon Web Services Technical Account Manager Rick Triana.

Windsor Hackforge Video Game Swap

Saturday, April 22nd @ 7pm In Person Only

Are you looking to part with some old games, or hunting for some nostalgia? Perhaps you’re just interested in meeting like-minded folks and playing a few casual rounds of Jet Moto? Either way, we want you to come out to the Windsor Hackforge Video Game Swap!

All games and systems are welcome. We’ll have a couple of consoles set up for people to play and test games on, and attendees are also welcome to bring their own consoles.

This event is happening at our new HQ (300 Ouellette Ave, Suite 210) on Saturday, April 22 from 1 – 4pm. It is completely free and open to everyone, but there are a few ground rules:

  1. While straight swaps are encouraged, sales are allowed. However, this event isn’t intended as a money-maker for anyone. Please keep this in mind.
  2. Hackforge is not mediating any sales or swaps. This is entirely peer-to-peer, and we expect everyone to behave civilly.
  3. Don’t be a jerk.
  4. If you are a jerk, you’ll be asked to leave.
  5. Play nice and share the consoles.
  6. Attendees under 18 must be accompanied by a guardian
  7. Please respect Hackforge’s facilities and volunteers.

Winfosec – OWASP Top 10: Security Misconfiguration

Friday, April 28th @ 7pm Hybrid

We’re now halfway through the OWASP top 10! Attend to learn about number 5 of the list: Security misconfiguration.

Modern software is highly configurable, making this security threat more and more common. Ensuring that all security settings are properly enabled (or even enabled at all) can greatly reduce threats to your system or application. Join this free training to learn more – physical and virtual attendance options available!

You can also check out past Winfosec events on the Hackforge Youtube channel.


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