NEW: Blue Tree Lighting

We marked the beginning of a new BlinkenArea at HAR a few weeks ago. Of course, we showcased our flashlight projects and we had a great looking tent with an amazing atmosphere according to our new motto “Light. Beauty. More.”. But we also added some static lights in the treetops near our village — our wonderful Blue Tree Lighting — to head for our new field of activity: light up things and create more beauty.

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Heute ist übrigens Weltalphabetisierungstag.

Mag SpongeBob eigentlich Chips?

Auf Wiedersehen, Glühlampe!

Heute wurde nun der schleichende Abschied von der Glühlampe eingeläutet. So ist es nun vorbei mit den 100W-Exemplaren, in den nächsten Jahren folgen dann Lampen mit kleinerer Leistung. Abgesehen davon, dass die Glühlampe ein Symbol für technischen Fortschritt, aber auch für Ideen oder Innovationen ist, nimmt elektrisches Licht dann doch überwältigende 2 Prozent des Stromverbrauches ein. Gefeiert wird der Abschied der Glühlampe von den Verantwortlichen, als ob die Menschheit in Zukunft nahezu ohne Strom auskommen kann – jetzt wo der Stromfresser Glühlampe endlich vom Markt verschwindet. Vielleicht hätte die aufgebrachte Energie für entsprechende Gesetze und Regelungen lieber in Ma?nahmen gesteckt werden sollen, die Verluste bekämpfen, die zwar nicht bei 97 Prozent liegen wie bei der Glühlampe, absolut aber einen höheren Beitrag am Stromverbrauch einnehmen. Vielleicht hätte es sich auch gelohnt, den Menschen die Vorteile einer Energiesparlampe zu erklären? Denn jeder, der ihren Nutzen verstanden hat, verwendet sie inzwischen auch hauptsächlich. Jedenfalls hoffe ich, dass uns die gute, alte Glühlampe zumindest für historische und künstlerische Anwendungen erhalten bleibt.

HAR: Donations Transferred

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!

UNICEF & FoeBuD e.V.

NEW: Project Glider

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..

HAR 2009 - Hacker Glider
HAR 2009 – Hacker Glider

HAR: Happy Meal

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.

HAR: Arrived at de Paasheuvel

Travel to NL - in between a large traffic jam
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!

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Discountereingang

HAR: Weather Forecast

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.

HAR weather by wetter.com