West Seattle Tuesday: ‘Hack Night’; Junction Neighborhood Organization; Crime Prevention Council…

Thanks to Mark Wangerin (of benefit calendar fame!) for that photo of a surf scoter in local waters! Wading into our calendar highlights for tonight:

WEST SEATTLE HACK NIGHT: 6:30 pm at WS Office Junction (WSB sponsor), as previewed here on Monday. Register if you’re thinking of going – our calendar listing shows how – so they know who to expect! (6040 California SW)

JUNCTION NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZATION: 6:30 pm, Senior Center of West Seattle. “Let’s ring in the season with a lively discussion of what JuNO has accomplished to date and what we can accomplish in the coming year. This would be a good meeting to invite a neighbor that has not yet been to a JuNO meeting,” suggests director René Commons, also asking attendees to bring a treat to share and a donation for the West Seattle Food Bank. (Oregon/California)

HOPE LUTHERAN SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE: 6:30-8 pm, all-school open house for Hope Lutheran, which serves preschool-8th grade. (42nd/Oregon)

WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL: No special guests on the agenda tonight – bring your concerns and ideas, and hear about crime trends in Q/A with local police leadership. 6:30 pm at the Southwest Precinct. (Webster/Delridge)

ALAUDA BELLY-DANCE SHOWCASE: 7:30 pm, free, all ages, Skylark Café. (3803 Delridge Way SW)

BLUES TO DO: Vicki Stevens and Sonny Hess headline the weekly blues showcase at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor), 8 pm. (6451 California SW)

OR, IF YOU WANT TO DO THE SINGING … two venues with karaoke are on our nightlife slate for tonight; see them (and more) by going directly to our calendar!

pelicans November 18, 2014 (11:11 am)

Is it just me, or does the news of a bunch of techies getting together to learn/network/share info on something called a “Hack Night” have very sinister overtones? Maybe it’s a good idea to them, but the term “hack” has nothing but a negative connotation for most of us. Time for a name change.

WSB November 18, 2014 (11:27 am)

Pelicans – “Hack” has actually taken on a much-more-positive connotation lately in many contexts – as in “create,” “figure out,” etc. I know what you mean, but it’s become the best verb for describing a sort of technical brainstorming session.

DRG November 18, 2014 (12:46 pm)

Yep. Pelicans, as a couple quick examples, google “life hack” and “IKEA hack” to see how the term has changed.

pelicans November 18, 2014 (7:15 pm)

Tracy and DRG,
I’ve had to replace debit and credit cards multiple times as precautions in the last few years due to hackers stealing info from Target, Home Depot, and other sites/companies. I’ve even received a year’s worth of free credit monitoring from my employer (govt.) after a headquarters employee left thousands of our security clearance files vulnerable to hacking. Chinese hackers have also attempted to access these same files, so you can see how I feel about that term. Sorry, but all the newly benevolent uses of it can’t outweigh the cringe factor every time I hear or read it in the news or get notification of it.

WSB November 18, 2014 (7:35 pm)

Certainly can empathize; we deal with attempted hacking 24/7 on our website, as does almost every website operator (the kind of security measures you have to run tend to be the online equivalent of a dozen layers of metal doors, plus software that recognizes when certain IP addresses have tried to get in X times in X minutes). Was just trying to explain why it’s not a negative term for everyone and why you would see it here in that context. – TR

pelicans November 18, 2014 (8:26 pm)

Understood, TR. We all see their spams on the forums page every night. Your description of your security measures reminds me of the beginning of the old show “Get Smart.” Remember all those doors clanging shut and then the telephone booth elevator?

miws November 18, 2014 (9:34 pm)

pelicans, I got the “Get Smart” visual as well, when reading TR’s comment! :-)

And I also have not been able to overcome the negative connotation of “Hack”.

Mike

pelicans November 19, 2014 (3:10 am)

Thanks, Mike.

I did look up the new uses of the word that were mentioned. Turns out I had heard “life hack” used in passing.

Here’s another one. In the military, you would occasionally hear of an officer in some trouble (usually a young one) being “put in hack.” It was kind of the adult equivalent of being sent to your room and told to stay there until the CO said you could come out.

Sorry, comment time is over.