YLab
123A Hillsview Drive L4C 1T3 Richmond Hill, ON, Canada

Since we can't run our Python for Programmers class in person during the COVID lockdown, we've posted some great links for learning the language or improving your skills on your own. Our recommendations range from beginners to university-level machine learning. Don't just sit there - learn something! https://www.ylab.ca/learnpython/

Ylab's A.I. North series is back on Monday January 4, 2021 at 7 PM - and we're on-line. Start the new year by getting into the learning habit! https://www.ylab.ca/ylabs-a-i-north-is-back-jan-4-and-on-l/. This month's topic: A.I. Gets a Bite of Reality Sandwich.

A.I. North is back on January 4th - in an on-line format! We've lined up some great speakers to restart our popular monthly series of machine learning, artificial intelligence and Python programming topics. This months' topic: A.I. Gets a Bite of Reality Sandwich, where we cover the changes in expectations and the difficulties of implementing A.I. You can register here https://www.meetup.com/AINorth/events/275400463/

Ylab is going on-line! Our home at the David Dunlap Observatory is a community center of City of Richmond Hill, and community centers are tentatively closed until June 2021. So we'll be kicking off a series of on-line events. Check out our new website at https://www.ylab.ca and watch here for announcements coming out in the next few days.

The restoration to our home at David Dunlap Observatory in City of Richmond Hill is going great, with scaffolding coming down and the main dome and the three domes on the administration building looking great. We hope to give an update soon on getting our maker space back in operation. https://www.ylab.ca/update-on-the-ddo-restoration/ Follow the link for more pictures.

Great progress on the restoration work to ylab's home at City of Richmond Hill 's David Dunlap Observatory! Here are a couple of pictures. The first is the partly stripped telescope dome. It's painstaking work - safely taking off the old paint from the main telescope domes and the three smaller ones that people often don't notice on the roof of the admin building. The second picture were taken as they just started taking down the scaffolding. It shows the beautifully restored stone work on the back of the building and the first two restored windows. They kept the original panes of glass and put them back into the restored wooden frames!

Ylab: Closed for now, but keeping busy. Our maker space is located in the David Dunlap Observatory, which is officially a Park and Recreation facility of City of Richmond Hill. By order of the Province of Ontario, all such facilities are closed for now. But we've pulled out our 3D printers, and they're running to make parts for face shields. The clear shield itself needs to be laser cut. We have not removed our laser cutter because that would be impossible without violating t...he clustering laws. If you don't know why, check out this post from when we moved it into the DDO. https://www.ylab.ca/laser-cutter-returns-to-the-ddo/. But have no fear - our friends in a local laser cutting shop will do the job for us when they can locate the clear plastic sheeting required for the shields It's in high demand and difficult to source. That's a good thing, because it means commercial operations that can do much higher volume than us are on the job. Printers in the picture are humming away at a secret, undisclosed location (a.k.a. Craig's place). One is ours, one is Craig's, and one is on loan for the task.

Open house tonight Monday March 2 in Ylab's maker space at the David Dunlap Observatory in City of Richmond Hill. Let us know you're coming by registering here on meetup https://www.meetup.com/ylab_at_DDO/events/269032237/

OOPS! SCHEDULE CHANGED! Open House on Tuesday Feb 18 at 7:30 PM. We've been focused on our own projects and some new stuff. Come out, see what's new and what's been happening at the Ylab maker space. Let us know you are coming here on meetup https://www.meetup.com/ylab_at_DDO/events/268602439/ . At the amazing David Dunlap Observatory in City of Richmond Hill.

Quick reminder that it's our holiday open house tonight in the ylab maker space in the David Dunlap Observatory. Register here to let us know you're coming https://www.meetup.com/ylab_at_DDO/events/266997447/

NOTE DATE CHANGE: Tuesday Dec 17 (changed from Dec 10) is an open house at ylab's maker space, and you get to customise and take home your own Christmas - or other seasonal holiday - ornament for the donation of a toonie (or more!). You can also enjoy a cup of cider (no, not that kind) and a cookie or two. *All* proceeds will go to an appropriate organisation to help the needie. And you get to see our maker space in our home in the David Dunlap Observatory in City of Richmond... Hill, It's even more spectacular in winter with snow on the ground, and the City does a great job keeping the driveway and parking plowed. Register here to let us know you are coming on meetup https://www.meetup.com/ylab_at_DDO/events/266997447/ or on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ylab-open-house-laser-cut-your . Like all ylab events, it's 18 years and up. See more

It's third Thursday of the month... which means tech and startup night in City of Richmond Hill. Startup Drinks York Region is on at Turtle Jacks at 5 PM. Grab a bite and/or a beverage, get and share some small business advice. Then head over for 7 PM to the David Dunlap Observatory (only 10 minutes away!) for ylab's Artificial Intelligence North meeting https://www.meetup.com/AINorth/events/265931947/ where we'll be giving the concentrated version of the best talks from this path weekend's PyCon Canada 2019 . You might be a Data Scientist and not even know it! Don't forget to check out Richmond Hill Small Business Enterprise Centre for more great tech and small business events.

A.I. North at ylab is back this Thursday November 21 at 7 PM. We have three members/friends who attended this past weekend's Python Canada conference, and they'll concentrate the two days into one evening covering the Data Science, Machine Learning and Python development highlights of the conference. Even if you attended, it's worth it because you were only able to attend 1 in 4 concurrent sessions, and none were repeated! Register here on meetup https://www.meetup.com/AINorth/events/265931947/ And of course it's always a great time to visit us in the David Dunlap Observatory in City of Richmond Hill.

We don't mean to pick on Canadian Tire. It was just dumb luck that we picked the Motomaster compressor for this week's fix-it. https://www.ylab.ca/another-fix-it-night-sorry-crappy-tire/

PyCon Canada, Canada's premier Python conference, is in Toronto Nov 16-17, followed by code sprints Nov 18-19 to jump in and help on some open source projects. Some ylab members and friends at Maxxian have been attending for several years and highly recommend it. We'll be changing out our Nov 21 A.I. North session to present some of the highlights. Check out the agenda some of the excellent speakers here https://2019.pycon.ca/

Tuesday Nov 5 is our next maker space open house. Register here to come check out our space, our projects and how you can join the fun. 18 years and up, of course. https://www.meetup.com/ylab_at_DDO/events/265467290/

We finally put the lid on our metalwork project for enclosing the reception desk in our home a the David Dunlap Observatory in City of Richmond Hill. https://www.ylab.ca/closing-up-the-desktop-project/

Last week we posted about fix-it night for some Canadian Tire Crappy Tire tools, and showed a pair of snapped side cutters we could not repair... or so we thought. This week our metal master Miro was up to the challenge! https://www.ylab.ca/more-tool-repair/. All in our maker space in the City of Richmond Hill's David Dunlap Observatory. BTW: went sent a facebook message to Canadian Tire on the night of the original post (Oct 21). They asked for our phone number and said they would get back to us. Still waiting...