Bring your Razers because it's scraping time! The challenge for this month's hackfest is to scrape data from one or more sources using a language of your choice to create a unique and creative data mashup. Additional points will be awarded if you pull additional data from third-party APIs like Facebook, Twitter, Full Contact, Last.fm, or even Reddit. Bring your Band-Aids or maybe just your beer mugs. Either way, a good time shall be had by all.

Register: On our Eventbrite page
When: Wednesday, October 24th, from 6 - 9 pm
Where: QL HQ
Who: Anyone and everyone

We’ve been dying to throw a Hardware Hackfest for a while now, and last Wednesday the stars finally aligned (see also: The crew over at SparkFun are full of win and agreed to donate 30 SIK’s for the event). Twilio came on board with a sponsorship and we had ourselves an event!

Hold onto your keyboards ladies and gents, Christmas has come early. On Wednesday, September 19th, we’re throwing the Hackfest you’ve been dreaming of since you built that Millennium Falcon LEGO pièce de résistance when you were 12.

That's right, it's an Arduino Hackfest.

Last Wednesday night we got all kinds of wild with emails. Attendees had 3 hours to use SendGrid’s API in the most creative way. And the winners were....

Missed out on this Hackfest? Don't fret - on September 19th we're hosting an Arduino Hackfest with SparkFun. Register here.

On Saturday, Sept. 8th, our Backbone.js training is kicking off in San Francisco. Our friends over at Singly have graciously agreed to host us, so we'll be setting up shop right in the Mission district of SF.

In this hands-on training session, we’ll cover the basics of how to best utilize Backbone, from getting up and running to organizing large JavaScript applications. Attendees will learn how (and when) to leverage Backbone within their projects and best practices for building applications. Get all the details and register.

Thought emails couldn't be scintillating? THINK AGAIN.
This month, Quick Left and SendGrid are teaming up to bring you another awesome hackfest. We'll be hacking on SendGrid's API to compete for Apple gift cards (err... prizes). Register here.

When: August 29th, 6 - 9 pm
Where: Quick Left Headquarters @ 902 Pearl St.
What: 3 hours of intensive hacking to make the best use of SendGrid's API
Who: Any and all developers interested in hacking on SendGrid's API. And anyone else who likes to eat pizza and drink beer at the Quick Left office. Register here.

For the next four days, you can get 25% off your four month subscription to Sir Richard's condom supply by heading over to their promotion on Fab.com. You can feel extra good about your purchase because Sir Richard’s will donate one condom to a developing country for every one that is purchased.

Why is Quick Left promoting condoms?

Because we helped build the thing, dammit.

Sir Richard’s came to us needing a custom condom subscription engine. We built one that allowed them to edit monthly offerings, redeem coupon codes, etc. and seamlessly integrated it into their existing site. It’s so smooth, you won’t even know we were there (we’re hoping she didn’t say that).

Be safe getting busy, kids.

Next Wednesday night we’re opening our office for the One Night Stand. Unlike Founder Dating, we’re not trying to form any serious relationships here, just dedicate one night to project oriented hacking.

You’ve got 3 options:

1. Bring your side projects that need a little Ruby on Rails, JavaScript or UI help.
2. Being the sensitive and caring developer or UI designer you are, donate your time in any of those areas to help someone else move their product forward.
3. Eat pizza, drink beer and kick it with the Quick Left crew with absolutely no mention of work or side projects.

We’ll match you with someone who can help move your project forward. Or someone whose project needs help moving forward. Or someone who knows nothing about you or your project, but likes your face. Whatever.

Register for the One Night Stand and we’ll see you Wednesday, the 25th, at 6 pm.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of volunteering at Big Boulder. The talks were thought-provoking, the people were brilliant, and the food was incredible. All in all, a great conference. One talk in particular, a discussion on social media analytics, got me thinking about just how common it was for businesses (and marketers especially) to do things backwards.

We forget to ask ourselves why we are doing things. Instead of first stating our desired outcome and then identifying what problem most needs solving, we usually start by focusing on things we think we should be doing. When we do this, we end up creating extra work that may not actually be accomplishing anything of value.

To keep me on track, I’ve created a quick checklist to run through before I start on any new project.

UPDATE: Did you have your picture taken by Snapjoy? Check out the Geek Field Day album.

A big thank you to everyone who came out for Geek Field Day! In between the Nerf gun fights, Choco Taco consumption, and prize giveaways some great conversations took place and we're pretty sure some fun was had.

This party would not have been possible without Silicon Valley Bank and the help of Ef Rodriguez, so show them both some love. A big shout out goes to White Girl Salsa, Popchips, and DRY Soda for keeping us fed and hydrated. Last, but not least, thank you to Occipital, SocialEngine, Simple Energy, Orbotix, and SendGrid for providing us with challenges. SnapJoy is currently editing the photos from the photobooth, so stay tuned for their posting.

Can’t wait to see everyone next year for #BSW13!

P.S. In case you missed the announcement, we’re offering training sessions on everything from Backbone.js to creating a blueprint for your product. Check out the first class we’re offering here.