http://www.cyberspace.org/

The BlinkenArea members did not only set their sights on developing and operating flashlights, but also on collecting money that is intended to flow into public welfare. Accordingly, visitors were able to get one of our nice construction sets, T-Shirts or buttons during HAR and to give some money for charity at the same time. Afterwards, the donations went to UNICEF (Education in Nepal) and FoeBuD e.V. in equal parts as already announced on Twitter. We wish to thank all contributors, that enabled us to support each organisation with 123 Euros!

During What The Hack!, the BlinkenArea was encircled by construction lights. They were blinking all in a tumble, because they were not phased so far. Since HAR, the construction lights are operated by full flashlight support. The Chaos Construction Light Controller 32 (CCLC32) provides 32 outputs, which can be connected to construction lights, when those are rebuilt in a certain way. A serial interface can receive CCLC32 data from BlinkenOutput. Furthermore, a running light-function is integrated as well.

A scheme and a part list can be found on the CCLS32 page at our Wiki.

The building, in which project bluebox took place, had been built in 1967. Shortly after the German Reunification, all inhabitants started to move out. Almost each of them left behind a nice ceiling light in his or her flat. In the run-up to HAR2009, nine of the old lamps went into action again. After cleaning and repairing them, they were arranged as a 3×3 matrix. Now, they are showing the appropriate hacker symbol Glider, which refers the the hacker culture around free software and open source. See Wikipedia for further information..

The amazing documentation video of project bluebox is finally available on the internet!

We had to keep it from the public until now, because music was employed, that can only be used against payment of a fee to the performing rights society (GEMA), when the movie is supposed to be publicly available. Now, ST set the movie to music again with music free of GEMA charges. Enjoy it!

Yesterday afternoon, we had our presentation about the BlinkenArea and our flashlight projects. Unfortunately, the tent was not full to capacity, because the weather was very well for the first time. Nevertheless, we got a lot of positive feedback and we would like to thank those, who joined the presentation. Some of you asked for more technical details after it. Apparently, we should hold two different presentations during one event to get you all satisfied.

Thanks to Sascha for the nice pictures! Get more on flickr.com!

During the last two days, we continued to build up more BlinkenArea projects. Yesterday, the construction lights were arranged and got wired today. We also set up the Glider and improved it by coating the roof battens with black paint (Thanks to PoC Sascha, who origanised the paint and to the guys, who borrowed it). TroiCade is now operating at HARcade, a village about computer games. Furthermore, the IT infrastructure has been installed and the tent has been cleaned up already. Today, we will ad some information about the projects. Thus, we nearly completed the BlinkenArea village so far. Unfortunately, the weather is cloudy and rainy most of the time.

Now, it is time for cooking. Have a nice afternoon!

Yesterday, we prepared our first meal in our great tent. It was spaghetti with cheese and tomato sauce – what else? But for the sake of variety, we had pancakes with a various number of side dishes, such as apple and cranberry puree, Nutella, bacon, and cheese, a short while ago with Efelon and Sandra, who joined us this afternoon. Hence, our mothers can be assured that everything is fine with us.

Today, we arrived at HAR area between 2 and 3 am, although we planned to join HAR on sunday. Heavy traffic and our nice trailer allowed us to cover the distance to the Netherlands in about 13 hours. After that horrible awesome trip, we pitched our tents immediately and went to bed just before 6 am. Noise waked us up at 9.30 am and of course we were all pretty tired today, but take a deep breath of fresh air when waking up was great.

Nevertheless, we started to build up the BlinkenArea village. Yesterday, Stefan and his dad had already installed the new orange BlinkenArea tent. Hence, we got started unloading our nice trailer in the morning and set out the first projects, such as blueboxMini, Glider and TroiCade, during the day. In the evening, we went for a walk and wanted to buy some food in town. Unfortunately, the shop closed just before our arrival and we had to have a second try by car. The PoC recommended a nearby shop, where we could get everything. Thank you very much!

The sun was shining during the day, but in the meantime it started to rain. Hopefully, it will stop soon. Have a nice evening, everybody!

Before packing my bags, I just had a look for the weather forecast. Follow this Link to get the complete information about the weather at Vierhouten, NL during HAR on wetter.com.