Dawn comes early here, at about 5:30 as the cock crows. The cock in the garden next door, that is. I would like to have strangled the cock but since this one has its spurs it might be a tossup who would cry last. At 6:30 I showered and washed, then prayed, taking care to avoid the scat from the numerous deer that browse this open field, usually (when there aren't tents there). Afterwards, I walked around a bit more and examined a different beach with interesting algae that has flotation bladders, making it look like the dread spawn of Chtulhu in the unborn state. The driftwood was also oddly feminine.
The office opened at last and I registered a spot to move the tent on Friday afternoon, to avoid having to pick up on Sunday. Unfortunately extra payment had to be made. I also signed in to the event, officially, and got a bag with a shirt, an inkable circuit pen (more about that later), a wristband, and a little quadcopter. The field set-aside just for drone racing just got a lot more interesting, especially since I'm pretty close to it.
After walking around, I went into the garden to examine it in greater detail and met a man who is the CTO of the company that makes the printable pen circuit thingy distributed in all the bags. He is a dedicated chemist, biologist, molecular biologist, and gardener, i.e. a maker in the biblical sense, which is amusing since he is also Jewish, and opened our conversation by telling of his great-grandfather's kippah, made of leather and died like a beachball, and now over a hundred years. He participates in the ArduCopter project, a project that after 10 years of effort and many shoulders of design has crafted a quadcopter seven feet in diameter that he and a friend plan to pilot to the island. It will rise in hover mode to a certain height, then convert to a flying wing almost and glide the rest of the way. It's being piloted from Seattle. The goal is to deliver a warm, non-burrito vegetarian taco to the man for his Thursday lunch.
The place continues to get more crowded, even as a steady drizzle has begun. More will be posted later, maybe when the wifi connection is finally made.
Part Two - this is being written Thursday morning. Wednesday for the most part passed quickly, and was all about registration and arrival. The field filled up with tents and people. In need of a grocery run, a welcoming couple allowed me a spot in their van, with their dog Lola who had her own Toorcamp shirt. We went into the town of Eastsound, which heavily caters to tourists. I bought a bunch of fruits, veggies, cereal, and a 12-pack of beer to share with people. The store had the largest (and best) selection I'd ever seen of 12-pack beer samplers, and I couldn't resist.
It also appears that everyone walks around either drinking beer or smoking weed, which is legal in Washington. I queried the couple who gave me a lift (T&A), who live in Seattle, and they felt that weed had a semi-taboo status on account of still being federerally forbidden. However, people say things like "I can't wait to eat, get a little bit stoned, it'll be just right" and the ability to say that without fear of retribution (even if there wouldn't have been retribution earlier in the privacy of your own home) is curiously enlightening. And T&A might be right, as even my friend L was oddly surreptitious when mentioning how much he had the night before.
You'll notice the lack of names. For whatever reason, whether to preserve anonymity, or because of the heavy use of IRC among some people, where nicknames are common, between half and all of the people here have nicknames or prefer to be called only by their nicknames. Hex (more about him later), _pronto (haven't seen him yet), the aforementioned L, etc. T&A have names, but I think it's nice to leave out the details.
After getting groceries, I continued walking around and while going with L to get a beer we came across a curious contraption, clearly, even to the uneducated eye, for some powerful force. It had 10 giant capacitors, connected to various coils and other things, and on top of the thick plexiglass in which all the electrical stuff was contained was a coil, like a stovetop heating element. After guessing and giving up, the pleased man standing next to it revealed that it is a device with no use whatsoever beyond Toorcamp. It shoots hard drive platters into the sky, via 2000 volts of energy and 3000 joules of power, by inducing a magnetic field in whatever metal part is placed on top of the coil and launching it on the big step for hard-drive kind (beep/beep-beep/krkrkrk) via opposing magnetic fields. The field is powerful enough to create a slightly concave shape in the hard-drive platter.
L had to shuttle people from the remote car lot, and I went over to the "Lower Field", the other assemblage, besides the "Upper Field" where I'm encamped, where makers and breakers are sitting. The Lower Field also hosts the in-camp phone network, ShadyTel, hopefully ShadyTelTV, the radio station 98.3 "the lol", a german group of CCCamp enthusiasts, and groups of cabins with tents pitched right up against them to give the illusion of inclusiveness in the wild. You can sign up with ShadyTel, via a form with carbon copy of course, to have a line run out to your tent anywhere on the camp. Every part of the form is real, thus my discovery of BORSCHT, without which some crucial element would not work. ShadyTel also satirizes the greedy excesses of telcos, right up to the banter of the techs (who do this as a hobby) and the voicemail.
Later I discovered that someone was brewing mate. Turns out that CCCamp in Germany has a favorite drink, which is basically mate with lemon or lime juice added, then carbonated. This is club mate, and is very popular among German hackers. It was brought to the HOPE conferences, by people such as Emmanuel Goldstein, and is now extending its reach to Defcon, Shmoocon, and at last to here. The brewing is done in large batches, then placed into some sort of kegs with knobs on top to cool, then carbonated. These kegs will be carbonated today and placed on tap for anyone. Hex pointed me to an Argentinian man, who turned out to be the wodrously knowledgable guru Martin, for more details about mate brewing. Martin being the being he is, the discussion swiftly turned to the divine properties of his mate cup, a small porcelain vessel glazed with Japanese Maple wood ash. Due to the absurd chemical and physical elements of the wood ash, the color of the vessel changes based on climate or what it holds, and due to body waarmth. Smoking fish turned it ochre, while holding it for merely a few hours turns it darker.
Shortly after, while discussing the certificates needed to join one of the wireless networks, I met E and offered him the certs on a USB key with the certs for wifi access. He showed me the yurt he's using, and we walked back to my side of the camp. He does DevOps and wondered at the composition of the attendees, as I had earlier. We sat around and talked a little longer, and he also offered me the best canned cider I've ever had. It had an extra taste almost of pretzels, and was absolutely amazing.
Later I tested the drone batteries in the main dome and talked to a former worker at the Doe Bay resort and some woman who was "being weird" in her own words, as she tried to direct a headlamp beam into the disco ball at the top of the dome to get it to reflect in people's eyes. At last sleep approached, and I fell asleep swiftly. Earplugs are indeed wondrous.
Today, Thursday, the talks begin at 9. Also, at last I have internet access, although it is recommended even on this one to use a VPN. So I will mostly type in vi and post when possible.
Pictures will come after the trip, or possibly later this week.
Update 6-15-16 - Some grammar edits
