Heipei

Yeaye! I didnt think it would happen, but when i checked half an hour someone had really returned my wallet to the Lost and Found counter. It had been found outside the congress center, the money of course gone. Funny, the thief even took the 1-dollar note which was there purely for decorational purposes.

Anyway, congress is moving along, the CTF is still taking place (!eof ranked last while we were there). We moved to a more comfortable spot, we have a table, two couches and still no stable internet (which is our fault, you should see the Discordian Cable Management here). Flo is doing everything to respect the wish of the Infotresen which was printed everywere in Huge Letter “Use more bandwidth”. Seems that there are to few people here to really make us of our 16Gbit/s internet uplink, or that the people here have better things to do than leech all the time (or simply that everything you could ask for is available in the internal network so there is no need for downloading from the outside world). Hmm, i should really upload some more photos…

Congress is coming along pretty good so far. But there is a downside. About 5 hours ago my wallet was stolen (well, i suppose it was since i went the 50m back where i could have left it and it wasnt there). Yes, it happened inside the BCC, and no, it wasnt checked in at the Infotresen yet (and i suppose it never will). This really sucks, and i cant stress this enough. There was some money in it, which doesnt bug me that much. Whats really annoying is that with the money a lot of other things have vanished, like my ID, my drivers license, and a lot of other important documents which puts me in a somewhat critical situation. I can remotely understand how someone thinks he needs to steal money, but even people sinking that low should have the decency to return wallets to the Lost and Found… Btw, if you happen to find it (Black 4You Wallet), please contact me here or return it to the Lost and Found.

Nevertheless, i am not going home like some people already did but ill try to enjoy the congress anyway. Weather forecast annouced 15cm (or more) snow this night for Berlin, if this should really happen we might see many more people sleeping in the hackcenter i think.

The second day has just begun in terms of the congress schedule. I feel really confident that i will see a few lectures today, which is partly because im really fit again thanks to almost 12 hours sleep in a real bed with real sheets. It might also be because i got to shower this morning. I showered yesterday evening as well, so this makes it a new record for my congress visits. Right now fw and me are sitting in the upper ring between the NOC/POC and the Wikipedians. There is an annoying phone which rings every two minutes and noone seems to answer it, but thats okay, compared to the Hackcenter, where we spent most of the time since we arrived. I told myself that i wouldnt go back down there again, since its just so hot, overcrowded and quickly becoming really dirty. The climate up here is much more comfortable, and you can even look outside. I hope ill see some interesting lectures during the day so i can report about it later.

So, finally we arrived after about 6 hours of driving. Flo fell asleep for the last hour or so, but i woke him up early enough to enjoy some highlights of Berlin at night.

We started in meors at about 6 pm, took a little detour right at the beginning (damn you A45) but then we drove straight through, only stopping once in some little hill-billy nest somewhere near Hannover, where they didnt seem to have any winter-service. My mum called about 100km before Berlin, telling me that they had announced some nasty snowfall in Berlin itself, but when we arrived i was a little disappointed, because those “masses” of snow wouldnt even bother anyone back at home.

Right now im sitting in the Lounge of the BCC, the bistro, whatever. There are already quite a few people here and most of the critical systems (entrance tickets, lighting, food) seem to be running, but, same procedure as every year, the Wireless DHCP network is not functional at the moment (thats why im writing this locally ;).

More updates later.