├── LICENSE ├── MAS-Tips.md ├── README.md ├── Random-MIT-Stuff.md ├── Random-Old-Projects.md ├── Random-Social-Things.md ├── images ├── 99fridays │ ├── 99f_returns_ad.png │ ├── building_an_art_installation.jpg │ ├── elevator_couches.png │ ├── example_video_DJing.gif │ ├── level6_dancefloor.jpg │ ├── live_tattoo_at_99F.jpg │ ├── outdoor_planning.png │ ├── seedvault_deepdreamed_media_lab.png │ └── zine_future_ML_artwork.png └── FoL │ └── FOL22_print_agenda.pdf └── making-things ├── Building-Weird-Things.md └── Building-Weird-Websites.md /LICENSE: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | MIT License, obviously 2 | 3 | Copyright (c) 2022 Tobin South 4 | 5 | Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy 6 | of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal 7 | in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights 8 | to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell 9 | copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is 10 | furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 11 | 12 | The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all 13 | copies or substantial portions of the Software. 14 | 15 | THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 16 | IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, 17 | FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 18 | AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 19 | LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, 20 | OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE 21 | SOFTWARE. 22 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /MAS-Tips.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # A collection of links to MAS & Media Lab resources 2 | 3 | ### Foodcam 4 | foodcam.media.mit.edu 5 | 6 | ### Edit Email Lists 7 | https://legacyweb.media.mit.edu/necsys/services/mail-edit/cgi-bin/aliases-browse 8 | 9 | 10 | ### NeCSys - Network and Computing Systems Wiki 11 | New: https://nuwiki.media.mit.edu/bin/view/Necsysdocs/WebHome 12 | Old: https://wiki.media.mit.edu/view/Necsys 13 | There are so many random things in here it's hard to know where to start. Poke around. 14 | Some useful stuff: 15 | * [Setup Media Lab VPN (Good for printing)](https://nuwiki.media.mit.edu/bin/view/Necsysdocs/HowToVPN) 16 | * Discover the Matlabber machines 17 | * [Printers 🖨️](https://nuwiki.media.mit.edu/bin/view/Main/LabPrinters) 18 | 19 | 20 | ### MAS Links 21 | I often find myself needing a link that was sent one time to a Media Lab website that turns out to be absolutely critical and I can never find again. Here are some of those pages: 22 | * [What MAS courses do you need to take?](https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/registration-information/) 23 | * [MAS Quick Links page](https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/quick-links/) 24 | * [Media Lab Logos](https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/identity-materials/) 25 | * [Old Internal Media Lab Wiki](https://wiki.media.mit.edu/view/Main/) 26 | 27 | 28 | ### Plan Courses 29 | It's honestly really hard to choose from the hundreds of incredible courses. Hence the expression of [''drinking from a firehose''](http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1991/fire_hydrant/). 30 | * [Firehose](https://firehose.guide/) where you can better see your class timetable. 31 | * [What MAS courses do you need to take?](https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/registration-information/) <- super useful to know what MAS classes to take 32 | * The rest of the classes are either on the registrar or emailed out with often less than a week's notice before classes start. 33 | 34 | ### Getting UROPs 35 | Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) is a program where you hire MIT (or partner university) students to work with you on your research. They get paid and it should be a symbiotic relationship where they learn and you get extra research done. If your lab can afford more UROPs many people find success in having multiple UROPs work together. Take careful note of the UROP funding deadlines. More info on [ML Wiki on UROPs](https://wiki.media.mit.edu/view/MAS/UROP). 36 | 37 | ### Random Other 38 | 39 | * Control the atrium lights: [LIGHTS! 💡](http://lights.media.mit.edu/atrium/) 40 | * See the calendar of all the room bookings: [Conference Room and Resource Calendars](https://roomrequest.media.mit.edu) 41 | * [Identity Materials (including glyphs, logos, and templates)](https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/identity-materials/ 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # The Insider's Guide For New People at the Media Lab 2 | 3 | > "Whether you're a brand new graduate student, or a heavily recruited tenured professor, as a new inhabitant of the Media Lab, you'll eventually run across the same basic need to make a Xerox or not get locked out of the building. So here's a nitty-gritty survival guide to the new occupant of the Media Lab. Each pearl of wisdom on this page represents hours of frustration spent on a task that should only take minutes. As you stumble and bruise yourself on your administrivia, let your search for light not be in vain." - Benjamin Resner 4 | 5 | Benjamin Resner in the class of 2001 created [The Insider's Guide For New People at the Media Lab](https://alumni.media.mit.edu/~benres/newpeople/). This is an homage to it and continuation of its legacy. This was created by Tobin South in 2022 while TA'ing the MAS-S90 (Intro to MAS) class, with help and inspiration from Joost Bonsen. This is a live and collaborative document, and always needs updating and more content. *Feel free to fork, edit and perform a pull request, I'll approve it immediately.* 6 | 7 | ### A wicked smart introduction to the Media Lab. 8 | There are many parts to this journey, so you'll find them divided up amongst several markdown files. While there may be an illusion of structure, everything in the Media Lab is connected to everything else, so you might have to go hunting. 9 | 10 | I'll end this README with some excerpts from Ben's original piece that are still relevant today. 11 | 12 | 13 | > #### Feelings that are normal during your adjustment to the lab 14 | > 15 | >*I am the smartest person in the lab. Everyone else is way too absorbed in their own little universe to see the big picture the way I do. 16 | >*I am the dumbest person in the lab. I am here because of a huge administrative mistake, and it's only a matter of time before they get me. 17 | >*I have no idea what I am going to do for a thesis. 18 | >*I have no idea what I am going to do tomorrow. 19 | >*Are there people who really do live here? 20 | >*All the low hanging fruit has been picked -- there's nothing interesting left to do. 21 | >*Nothing interesting has been done. 22 | >*The UROPS (Undergraduate Research Opportunities) get more done and know more than anyone else. 23 | > ### Feelings that are NOT normal during your adjustment to the lab 24 | > 25 | >*I'm bored. 26 | >*The dress code is way too formal 27 | 28 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Random-MIT-Stuff.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Random Stuff About MIT 2 | Yes things exist outside the Media Lab. 3 | 4 | ### The Muddy 5 | * [muddy.mit.edu](https://muddy.mit.edu) 6 | * You can get beers for like $3 and jugs for $8. 7 | * Super close to Media Lab but closes early. 8 | * _Apparently_, their [Twitter](https://twitter.com/muddycharlespub) has the most up to date opening hours. 9 | 10 | ### Alumni-Wang Gym 11 | While there is the large and famous Z-Center / DuPont Center if you want to excerise, there is also a lesser know Alumni-Wang Gym. In the Stata center right near ML. 12 | * You can check the [pool schedule here](https://www.mitrecsports.com/pool-schedule-aw/?week=1) 13 | * They have towel service for like $4 a month with unlimited towels. 14 | * Not open on weekends. 15 | * There is also a shower at the Media Lab in case you hate communal showers. 16 | 17 | ### MITOC - MIT Outdoor Club 18 | * [mitoc.mit.edu](https://mitoc.mit.edu) 19 | * Has lots of free and low cost gear for hire. 20 | * Runs lots of events that you can join for free. This is especially fun for the winter. 21 | * They also have [super discounted IKON passes for skiing](https://mitoc.mit.edu/activities/skiing). 22 | 23 | ### IAP 24 | Independent Activities Period (IAP) is a four-week period in January during which a tonne of random actibities will be help. While you could go on holiday to somewhere warm, if you find yourself at the lab doing research, take some time to do weird activities like learning pottery or building your own bike from scratch. 25 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Random-Old-Projects.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # A \~_very incomplete_\~ of random weird old projects at the Media Lab 2 | ## 🤖🦿🌱🧠 🎹📲🎻📺🔐 3 | 4 | 5 | Much more to do here. 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ### PongCam 10 | 11 | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0t0HYsOaZAa6vUlHoI8hbQ/videos?view=0&sort=da 12 | https://cargocollective.com/jcherston/PongCam 13 | 14 | 15 | ### FlipFeed 16 | 17 | https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/flipfeed/overview/ 18 | 19 | 20 | ### A Collection of old WIRED articles written by Nicholas Negroponte 21 | 22 | https://web.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/Wired/ 23 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Random-Social-Things.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Cool Random Media Lab Things 2 | 3 | Lots of weird things happen in the Media Lab, and it can be hard to keep track of all of them over time. 4 | Here is a non-exhaustive collection of interestign stuff that happens sometimes, with links to things. 5 | 6 | ### Studcom 7 | Studcom is how we colloquially refer to the MIT Media Lab's Student Committee. We are an open and welcoming group of students interested in building and maintaining the student community at the Lab. We administer a budget available to any student with an idea (a project or event) that builds community. Studcom is also responsible for organsiing 99Fridays and has created many of the weirdest and wackiest events and projects to come out of the media lab. 8 | 9 | Studcom operates as a direct democracy through mailing lists `studcom@media.mit.edu` and note taking on the open etherpad website at [studcom.media.mit.edu](studcom.media.mit.edu). 10 | 11 | 12 | ### 99 Fridays 13 | 99Fridays (branded 99F) is a half art installation / half party for the extended Media Lab community. 99F is all about co-creation, so everyone joins a participatory crew to make the event even better. It is an expressive leave-no-trace event, people are asked to bring their own cup, costume and dance moves. The name originates from MIT's policy that police were required for an event with 100 or more attendees. As such, no more than 99 people could attend (and challenge coins were issued to people who completed challenges to gain attendence rights). The MIT did not state a limit on organisers, and as such, everyone else who wanted to come had to co-organise the event through art, planning, cleaning or logistics. 14 | 15 | You can see photos in the [`images`](/images) folder. 16 | 17 | [99f.media.mit.edu](99f.media.mit.edu) 18 | 19 | ### Sci-Fi Library 20 | The SciFi Library (scifilib), located in E15-384, is a space for the community to learn about the past, and get inspired to create the future. The Library is scaffolded a generously donated collection of hundreds of science fiction books, which span many divergent possibilities for what the future might hold. To surface many of the whacky ideas lost to the sands of time, it also contains a ecclectic collection of artifacts from long gone groups (such as Design Fiction and Scalable Cooperation). 21 | [scifilib.media.mit.edu](scifilib.media.mit.edu) 22 | 23 | ## Festival of Learning (FoL) 24 | A longstanding annual day-long festival at the Lab, made by-the-community, for-the-community, involving students, UROPs, staff, and faculty. To celebrate 🎉, learn 👯, eat 🥘, make 🗜️, share 🤝, play ✨, and dance 💃🏽 together! 25 | 26 | [thefestival.media.mit.edu](https://thefestival.media.mit.edu) 27 | 28 | ## Cool things in our building 29 | * The Piano that people sometimes play in the basement of E15. 30 | * Bartos Theater (a full theatre in the basement of E15 that you can book). 31 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/99f_returns_ad.png: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/99f_returns_ad.png -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/building_an_art_installation.jpg: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/building_an_art_installation.jpg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/elevator_couches.png: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/elevator_couches.png -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/example_video_DJing.gif: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/example_video_DJing.gif -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/level6_dancefloor.jpg: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/level6_dancefloor.jpg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/live_tattoo_at_99F.jpg: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/live_tattoo_at_99F.jpg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/outdoor_planning.png: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/outdoor_planning.png -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/seedvault_deepdreamed_media_lab.png: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/seedvault_deepdreamed_media_lab.png -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/99fridays/zine_future_ML_artwork.png: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/99fridays/zine_future_ML_artwork.png -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /images/FoL/FOL22_print_agenda.pdf: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobinsouth/IntroToMediaLab/20a0e510596ccf17e82b486781430065898a9fa5/images/FoL/FOL22_print_agenda.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /making-things/Building-Weird-Things.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Building Weird Things in the Media Lab 2 | 3 | TODO: I'm hoping Alfonso or someone else can add info here. 4 | 5 | ### CBA Workshop 6 | What's the history here and who can use it. 7 | 8 | #### How to get access 9 | 10 | 11 | ### How to make almost anything 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | ### How to grow almost anything 17 | 18 | TODO: Is there a lab space people can use after? 19 | 20 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /making-things/Building-Weird-Websites.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # How to build a random website quickly 2 | This was a resource made based on a small workshop run by Ziv Epstien extra input from Dan Calacci. It's an example of a small hacky toolkit that is useful to know and share around here. For Media Lab folks, may attention to 'Getting your domain' below. 3 | 4 | 5 | # The HTML + Python Life 6 | 7 | ## The Front End 8 | This is the pretty part. 9 | 10 | ### Start with a static web template 11 | * Look through the deck of free website templates at [HTML5 UP!](https://html5up.net) and find what you want. 12 | * Download the one you want and edit the `index.html` look how you want. 13 | 14 | 15 | #### Editing HTML, Javascript & CSS 16 | This is scary and hard. 17 | Use the chrome inspector tool to find what parts of html to edit. 18 | Don't mess with the Javascript, it's making things interactive and reactive. 19 | Everything under the sun in CSS has been done. 20 | Always add CSS rather than take it away. 21 | 22 | 23 | ## The Back End 24 | ### Get a flask instance going 25 | 26 | You can now replace stuff in the static html with `{{variable}}` which can then be passed into the route function call of Flask. 27 | 28 | ### Getting your domain 29 | Email `help@media.m(...)` asking for your exact domain (e.g. example.media.mit.edu). 30 | Ask for a VM and ask to have it for 24 months (or however long you need). 31 | 32 | 33 | ### Removing the PORT (so that it looks legit) 34 | 35 | Just follow exactly [this](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-serve-flask-applications-with-uswgi-and-nginx-on-ubuntu-18-04). 36 | WSGI is a mystery and you don't need to perfectly understand it. 37 | 38 | 39 | # The React Life 40 | React, Solid, Svelte, and so many more. These are the modern javascript libraries that will serve as your full front end. 41 | They can be deployed in simmilar ways to python flask apps. 42 | 43 | 44 | # Databases 45 | You could have a backend SQL databased that you connect to with via Python or React (or whatever) 46 | Or you could just use Google Sheets as your backend. There are python and react packages or 47 | you can sing JQuery you can change your html without messing too much. 48 | 49 | 50 | # Other Stuff 51 | * [TailwindCSS](https://tailwindcss.com) is a great way to add style without messing too much with html. This pairs really nice with any html. There are lot's of [templates and resources](https://www.tailwindtoolbox.com) you can use as well. 52 | * Keep all your credentials in some `creds.?` file and put that in your `.gitignore`. 53 | * You should think about the cyber security at some point. Maybe ask someone about that. 54 | 55 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------