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Tech

Toronto's Hacker Culture Is Alive and Well

Hackers aren't all 1995 Matthew Lillard from 'Hackers.'

​When people think of the term 'Hacker' they usually have two concepts in mind: either Matthew Lillard in 1995's regrettably definitive Hackers or South Park's World of Warcraft guy. What probably doesn't occur to you is an open and ever growing community of skilled, smart, outgoing and creative people from all walks of life actively focused on building, rebuilding and inverting things.

Hacking in the MIT sense came out of its Tech Model Railroad Club and the Artificial Intelligence Lab in the 1960s. At the time it obviously wasn't based on circumventing or disabling computer security, because computer security in the 1960s simply meant a man guarding a room.

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The new, more accepted term for the idea of a 'hacker' is someone who loves the intellectual challenge of figuring out how electronics and programming languages work on an intimate level and then building something new out of that knowledge. Which, isn't about exploiting weaknesses, but more about learning and creating.

HackLab Toronto is a public space for like-minded hackers to get together and expand their abilities. It was founded in 2008 and in October of this year they moved to a brand new location in Parkdale thanks to a successful IndieGoGo campaign last year that exceeded their goal almost four times.

A Panoramic view of the inside of HackLab. 

Every Tuesday at the HackLab they have an open house that anyone can attend. This is part of an ongoing effort from the Toronto hacker community at large to sway the public perception away from the misconceptions. HackerNest (based out of Ryerson's Digital Media Zone) also hosts similar monthly 'socials' to attract new members.

Hacklab's focus is predominantly on the education and enlightenment of the hacker community and anyone with an interest in maker culture or electronics at large. Its most famous 'production' is this laser etcher ​producing the Mario Bros theme song, but the member community's larger goal is to help out other enthusiasts with their projects and build the community further. Attracting likeminded creative people from different walks, helping one another and building on each other's knowledge is the major goal.

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Hack.Lab's laser cutter.

What you get out of these meet-ups, aside from being able to take a look at the HackLab's list of toys, which includes MakerBots, sewing machines and a Van De Graaf generator amongst others, is that it gets you one step closer to full membership. That process is completed once you're voted and after you've expressed interest through a meet-up and paid your small membership fee.

We're not talking illuminati here; it's an ever-growing, inclusive community space for tech-minded people to work on projects and build relationships with other hackers of vastly different disciplines.

The most recent open house features a demonstration of the CNC embroidery machine, which is probably the last thing you expected to see at an underground hacker facility. Previous events at the HackLab have included secure TOR web-surfing tutorials and winter soldering workshops.

Hackers and hacking has received a decidedly bad rep, all thanks to public misconception that boils down to people thinking it's all about breaking into computers and ruining lives. While there will always be a part of that in hacking culture, there's also a larger, far more helpful community out there. And one that is booming in Toronto.