Chaos Communication Camp 2007, Day 4

There was a brief rain shower in the morning. Although Chichan and I were outside eating when the rain came, we were able to get in to a bunker being used as the "Art And Beauty Area" before getting too wet. While we waited for the rain to stop we played virtual air hockey on a multitouch screen. It was sufficiently interesting that I shall describe the set up below.

Air hockey is a game that was popular before my time. It consists of a table with hundreds of hole drilled in, through which come jets of air. A small plastic disc floats on the air, and two players each use a larger plastic disc to knock the small disc into each other's goal, located at either end of the table.

Multitouch screens are touch screens which can recognise several points or even sets of points at the same time. They typically work by using a camera to see where the points(eg. your fingers) are, and a projector to provide the display.

After a few games of virtual air hockey we went to the hackcentre, where we found Mitch Altman catching up with his emails. Mitch kindly said he would get one of his "Brain Machines" for us to try out. We tried it. It rocked.

Mitch Altman's Brain Machine consists of a pair of glasses with an LED mounted in each eyepiece, and a pair of headphones which plugs into a small circuit board on the side of the glasses. The Brain Machine runs a 14 minute program of flashing lights and strange sounds. The lights and sounds are emitted at brain wave frequencies. Your brain syncs up to the light and sound, but as the brain waves are external it doesn't know what to do, so you can get some very nice hallucinations...

Chaos Communication Camp 2007, Day 3

Woke up at 8 am, full of energy and ready for a full day and night of hacker fun. Foolishly I went back to sleep and woke up again at 11:10 am, missing the start of the first talk and feeling very tired.

I bumped into Mitch Altman and asked him about someone I saw yesterday who seemed to have become ill from using the meditation mask that Mitch has been showing people at the camp. It seems that the guy had epilepsy but thought it would be ok because his last seizure had been a year ago. It must have worried Mitch a lot at the time, but the guy was ok in the end.

Chichan and I met up with Richard and the three of us decided to walk to the town to eat brunch and go to the supermarket. We got some take away Chinese food and then bought lots of water and Haribo at the supermarket.

In the evening we attended a live talk show-style presentation given by Monochrome, an Austrian artist collective. The presentation consisted of interviews with three guests, a couple of presentations, a film, a music performance and a bunch of other random things.

Chaos Communication Camp 2007, Day 2

Managed to get to the first talk of the day called "21 st Century Digital Bikes". It was essentially a talk on battery-powered bikes. Good, but not great.

Attended a very dry talk on Signaling System 7, the most common telephone system in the developed world. I struggled to follow it, partly because SS7 is a very complex set of protocols and partly because the speaker's English was hard to understand.

In the evening we went to a talk called "Life And Complexity" which was about how emergent complexity and the relationships between complexity, energy and information.
Got a free book from the Bookcrossing village for Chichan to read. Almost all of the books available were in German so our choice was extremely limited.

I may try to do some interviews tomorrow for my podcast. People I'd like to interview at the camp include Mitch Altman, Emmanuel Goldstein, Jacob Appelbaum, Bicycle Mark, Dan Kaminsky, English Glen, Tim Pritlove, Rop Gonggrijp and BigM000. Even if I just interview one or two of them it would be very cool.

Chaos Communication Camp 2007, Day 1

At 11 am Chichan and I attended the opening ceremony. CCC ceremonies are always very moving because there is a deep shared culture among hackers, particularly those in Europe.

Chichan and I had lunch with Mitch Altman, inventor of the TV-Be-Gone. We discussed the effects of television on the human psyche and how deeply TV invades every aspect of our lives. Mitch claims that the average person in the western world spends 13 years watching TV, a very frightening statistic.

We went to a talk on Sputnik, an open RFID platform. Although the speaker spoke good English, it was hard to understand because he spoke quickly and not very clearly. I got the impression that he spoke his native language in the same way. The Sputnik project is very popular at the CCC. At the conferences and this camp you can buy a Sputnik RFID badge which you register online, allowing people to track your location at the camp.

We took a "Power Nap", as my good friend Edward Pacman would say, and then went to a fantastic talk called "Dungeons And Hyperlinks" which was all about interactive fiction and text-based adventure games. One of the speakers has written a text adventure based around the Chaos Communication Camp called "Reconnaissance at Finowfurt" You can download the game here. Please play it and post some comments here.

We spent some time looking at all the beautiful lights of the camp, and saw some people releasing homemade hot-air balloons, which was truly magical.

At around 1 am we brushed the fairy dust out of our hair and went to bed, leaving at least half of the camp wide awake.

One Day Of Waiting

The Chaos Communication Camp officially starts tomorrow, but already loads is going on and there are a couple of thousand people here. I've almost got to the point where I can ignore the Migs and other aircraft that are scattered around the site...

Chichan and I happened to be present when Hackers On A Plane arrived, a group of 38 people from the USA who had traveled to the camp together from DefCon, a commercial con in Las Vegas. The Americans looked really funny; it was obvious that many of them had never been outside before. When I organise a hacker camp in Japan there will be exercise sessions each morning and no doughnuts...

Arrival At The Chaos Communication Camp

Chichan and I checked out of our industrial hostel at 9:50 am and went in search of fuel for my camping stove. It was only at the third shop that we managed to find some. We also got some spare tent pegs and a collapsible water carrier.

At around 5 pm we got on the train to Eberswalde, the nearest train station to the camp. There were no seats on the train but the journey was less than one hour so it wasn't too uncomfortable. After quite a bit if delay we managed to get on the correct bus to the camp. The walk from the bus stop to the camp is about 4 km, so we were very lucky to get picked up by a couple of hackers who were traveling to the camp by car.

The camp site is actually an aviation museum on the site of a Russian military airbase. There is an airfield next to the site with light aircraft taking off and landing during daylight hours. Five large aircraft hangers are being used for the camp, two of them are for talks, one is the hackcentre, one is the art and beauty area and one if for the Chaos Emergency Response team which provides firefighting and medical services for the camp. The hangers are about 40 foot high, and although they are above ground they are covered in several feet of earth so they are cool in the day and warm at night, a lot like Earthships.

When the sun starts to set the lights start to come on at the camp. Many people have decorated their tents with coloured rope lights, there are search lights on top of the hangers and coloured neon lights lining the roads. Most impressive of all is the glitter ball hanging in a tree...

A Man Walks Into A Pet Shop

A man walks into a pet shop and says to the girl behind the counter "I'm very lonely, and I have a small apartment. Can you recommend a pet that would be suitable for me?". The girl replied "We have a cute hamster which would be perfect for you!". So the man bought the hamster and a cage and took it home.

The hamster certainly was cute, and the man spent a very pleasant evening feeding and stroking the hamster, knowing he would never be lonely again.

When the man woke up the next morning he was shocked to see that the hamster had died. He took the dead hamster back to the girl at the pet shop after work and asked for a replacement. The girl said that they had no more hamsters but that they would order another one for him. "It will take a few days to arrive. While you are waiting, just pop the dead hamster in a blender, and spread the blended mixture over your garden." The man thought that this was a very strange suggestion, but he followed the girls instructions.

The next day the man went downstairs and checked his garden. To his surprise the garden was full of beautiful yellow flowers. The man rushed to the pet shop to tell the girl what had happened.

"I did what you told me to, and now my garden is full of the most beautiful daffodils I've ever seen!" The girl stared at him in disbelief. "Daffodils! Daffodils! That's very strange! You usually get tulips from hamster-jam."

The Karamoon Podcast Has Arrived

After what seems like an eternity, the first episode of the Karamoon Podcast is finally here. You will, I promise, be disappointed. Things will improve very soon though. The link to episode one is here Right click and choose "Save target as" or something similar.

Please post comments!

You can subscribe to the podcast by putting http://feeds.feedburner.com/karamoon into iTunes or whatever podcatching software you are using. I'll sort out a subscribe button soon.

Departure To The Continent

Chichan and I got up at 5 am and took the train to the port of Harwich, a journey of 1 hour 30 minutes. We got on the ferry to Holland without any hassle at all. No customs, no immigration control.

On the ferry I recorded quite a bit of material for my podcast using the Edirol R-09 mp3 recorded. It will be posted soon.

When we arrived in The Netherlands we took the train to Amsterdam. The walk to our guest house seemed really far because of our heavy bags. After dumping our stuff we went out in search of food and found a good Indonesian restaurant.

In Fairy Dust We Trust

Every few years a spaceship called The Heart Of Gold lands somewhere in Germany. The arrival of the ship is usually announced quite a few months in advance, and therefore there is always a large group of people to welcome the ship. Hackers, phreaks and geeks cluster around the landing site and organise talks, workshops, parties, film screenings and meetings in celebration. This is known as The Chaos Communication Camp.

Tomorrow Chichan and I begin our journey to welcome The Heart Of Gold.

Kuro Neko

I telephoned a Japanese shipping company to arrange the collection of my many boxes of books etc. which will be sent to Japan. The company said shipping my stuff to Japan will take 8-10 weeks, so I may have to hang around in Tokyo for my stuff to arrive. This will be really annoying as I want to spend a month or so traveling round Honshu(the main island of Japan) before I get settled in Tokyo.

I really like the shipping company's logo, which is why I am going to entrust them with everything I own...

Mugged!

I got attacked this evening in the park. It was just after 10 pm, so it had been dark for less than an hour. I was practising some jumping and rolling on my own, near some skateboarding ramps. I heard 2 men arrive somewhere behind me, and felt it was time to move on.

I walked a few metres away from the skate park and did some stretching. All this time my back was to the skatepark so I couldn't see the two men. I heard one of them shoult, presumably to get my attention. Then he walked up behind me and shouted again. As I turned round he punched me hard on the jaw. I think I must have been moving away from him at the time because I didn't get the full force of the strike. In any case, I've been hit far harder by my martial arts instructors both in the UK and Japan.

He tried to punch me quite a few times and may have kicked me as well. Each time I was moving back so I don't think he actually managed to hit me after the first strike to my jaw. While this was happening I asked what it was about. He just kept trying to hit me so I moved back again and started running.

The man chased me, shouting "Just wait until we catch you". His friend joined the chase as well. I've been jogging in the park almost every day for the past couple of weeks, so I knew exactly how far it was to the park exit, and what running speed I could maintain. I looked back at one point about 20 seconds after I started running, and saw the guy a couple of metres behind me. For some reason I knew he and his friend wouldn't be able to catch me, so I just kept running.

When I got home I had a glass of water and looked in the mirror. My jaw was red and slightly shiny where I had been hit, but there was no bruising. My left leg hurt a lot, maybe the guy landed a kick or punch there, or maybe it was just from the running. My left knee is often a bit sore after running, so that may be the cause of it.

All in all, a strange experience but not a terrible one. I'm so glad for the hours I've spent running and for all the martial arts training I've done.

To Live And Die In LA

This afternoon I watched the 1985 film "To Live And Die In LA". Before I go any further, I must say that I love Los Angeles. I know that many (most?) Americans hate LA, but to me it's an amazing city of contrasts and adventure. Also, the lead role in the film is played by William L. Peterson, possibly my favourite actor due to his perfect performance in the film Manhunter. It is therefore unsurprising that I loved To Live And Die In LA.

The plot is pretty formulaic: a Secret Service agent hunts for a counterfeiter who killed his collegue, with hilarious and violent consequences. The soundtrack, by UK New Wave group, Wang Chung, adds a lot to the atmosphere of film and also helps to set the pace. To Live And Die In LA is essential viewing for anyone interested in 1980's culture and/or quality cinema.

Podfast

Had a restful day at home. No run, just packing, throwing stuff away and listening to various podcasts from Japan. The three I've been listening to regularly are Tokyo Calling, Finding Japan and A Year In Japan.

The three podcasts are very different and it's great to listen to all three on a regular basis. Each time I listen to a podcast I remember that I have, thus far, failed to produce a podcast of my own.

Tokyo Calling is a very personal podcast by Scott Lockman, an American living in Tokyo with his wife and three young daughters. Most episodes detail Scott's daily struggle with work in Japan, as well as his experiences watching his daughters grow up. Scott often includes audio in his podcasts that he has recorded outside with an Edirol R-09 MP3 recorder, which helps the listener feel that they are actually in Japan.

Finding Japan is by Christopher, a young American man who is in Japan as part of an international program organised by his university in the US. Christopher doesn't hesitate to dive in to any situation so he often has quite interesting tales to tell.

A Year In Japan is by a young British man called Joseph Tame who is in Tokyo as part of his degree in Japanese Studies. Joseph's opinions on Japan are very similar to my own, which means he's right...

There are two other popular podcasts from Japan "Herro Flom Japan" and "Kobe Beef" but I haven't listened to either of them yet.

The Perfect Saturday?

Had a very good Japanese lesson with my teacher Takako. It's great to be learning Japanese again even though I'm constantly reminded of my low ability.

When I switched my mobile on after the Japanese lesson I found a text message from my friend Anwar. We decided to have lunch at a Malaysian buffet restaurant.

Anwar has just self-published a novel that he wrote and will probably become a local celebrity over the next few months. Maybe I can be his manager...

When Anwar noticed I had a cold he gave me a large bottle of organic carrot juice. Not sure if it will help, but it's the sort of thing I feel I should be drinking as part of my new, healthier lifestyle.

Had a good run in the evening and did some circuit training as well.

Blood, Breathing, Bones, Be Safe

Attended a first aid course for work. The instructor was quite good and improved greatly throughout the day. In the morning he stuck to the prescribed course, but in the afternoon he spent most of the time telling stories about his many experiences as a first-aider for the Royal Air Force. Over the years I've done quite a few first aid courses but I still think I need far more training. Sometime next year I'd like to do some battlefield first aid training and also a wilderness first aid course.

The King Of Hearts

I had lunch with my friends Mai and Sora at a cafe called The King Of Hearts. It sucked. No surprises there. The service was dire and the main courses were over-priced. The only redeeming feature was that the desserts were great. They were made even better by the fact that the waitress fucked up our bill and didn't charge us for them.

Oh Mr Sandman, Meme Me a Meme

My good friend Dr Edward Bearskin forwarded me an meme-mail which summarised various economic systems in terms of cow ownership. Here are some choice selections:

COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the
majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Sell one cow to buy a new President of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull.

JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

IRAQI CORPORATION: Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them
that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the fuck out of
you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least now
you are part of a Democracy....

BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. Both are mad.

My favourite is:
ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

Bad Dreams Are Made Of This

I had a very bad dream this morning, or it may have been a series of bad dreams. I woke up around 8:00 am but then went to sleep for another two hours. At one point in my dreak I found some phreaking notes that had been left in a public phone box. I was so excited at knowing that someone else in the area was exploring the phone network. For some reason or reasons I was in fear for my safety. There were several layers of stuff going on. Often I had to ask people "how do I know you?" because it was so difficult to trust anybody and I had met so many people recently. I felt utterly alone.

Living On A Train

Today I went to Cambridge with a bunch of friends. The weather was great and everything worked out well. Or almost everything...

Sora and I walked to the station via the supermarket. At the station we met up with my friend Richard and Mai, a friend of Sora's. The journey to Cambridge was much longer than usual, due to engineering works. We had plenty of snacks and drinks with us so the journey was great fun. Most of the other people in our carriage were traveling alone or in pairs and seemed to be dead. They just sat there as their lives slipped away.

We had Dim Sum for lunch near the train station. Eating Dim Sum (Yam Cha) always reminds me of my student days as my the Japan Society at university often ate at Dim Sum restaurants.

We spent the day walking around the city of Cambridge, relaxing by the river, standing on bridges, taking photos, complaining about England, teaching and learning Japanese, looking at phone boxes(ok, that was just me!), watching tourists, walking among trees and flowers, eating Bombay mix(described by Mai-chan as "chotto hoto!"). Above all we spent the day not being in Norwich, and feeling better for it.

I walked Mai home and as a result I got to my own home at around 1 am. It was a clear and warm night, and I felt incredibly lucky to be able to look at the stars and dream of space adventure. I am so fucking lucky.