Having just returned from the twenty-fourth chaos communication congress, I am now preparing to make a relaxed transition to the next release of time 2.0. We’ve collected quite a bunch of measurements in the freifunk network set up at the congress, and I will parse through these during the next days.

The congress itself was great, as usual, and I sincerely suggest that you parse through the schedule and recordings of the talks if you haven’t done so already.

I am as always impressed by the sheer number of intelligent, creative people gathering in such a small place and the things that just emerge.

Things happen while blogs starve.

My plans to build a graphic tablet display got spoiled by the sudden appearance of Penabled tablet PCs on my horizon of knowledge. Especially the Tecra M7 convertibles which we will use for demonstration purposes at my company.

Recently, I spend a lot of time drawing maps for the OpenStreetMap project, which I fully support. Because information should be free.

I am planning to visit the Chaos Communication Camp in Summer. Hopefully, I will be able to build an Open Source Flying Drone at the workshop of the same name. Who knows, maybe one could use this for mapping even.

source: mikrokopter.de

And finally, I have just booked a business trip. Serious business, honestly. The conference venue is at a place which you can easily find when you enter “Surfers Paradise” at Google Maps. (Try and envy!)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Sixties music is playing in my head.

I’ve been playing with location-based services today. GSM-based localization told me unmistakably that my cellphone is closer to belong to the local bulky waste dump than to my work place. Then the hauptstadtblog comes along and reports about Berlin emergency services using cellphone localization to ease their work. I know now where they will be searching for my body.

Still, attaching a cheap used cell phone with a good standby time and a powerful battery to your belongings may be the cheaper alternative to buying a 450€ professional GSM device. Especially when you don’t need it.

..on sunday, we had planned to have a final short glance of the festival of lights. As it turned out, we were one day too late, despite the indications on their web site. At least, that’s what I understood from the neon installation by Maurizio Nannucci at the Altes Museum.

I just noticed that I completely forgot to mention this great skating and sightseeing opportunity: Approximately every two weeks there’s a big skater manifestation, the Berlinparade (not to be confused with the Love Parade) taking place in the center of Berlin. A different track is skated every time and police escorts will close the roads for traffic. The track length is usually around 20-35km, with an average speed of maybe 12-18km/h. Last friday was the last parade in the evening, but there will be a few remaining ones this year on sundays at 3 p.m.

Or, as the organizers would say:

“Don’t stau, skate now.”

maybe the best of which was crusing through the city with a bunch of 30 likeminded longboarders.

photos from the city cruise

photos from the race

Last weekend we profited from the windy days to do some landkiting. While I am just slowly getting the hang of my kitewing, Franky had some fun on the mountainboard. The weather was quite variable, we had the choice between kiting in wind and rain, or drying in the sun with calm winds. The spot however is quite great - a large construction site in the middle of Berlin, which will become an ice hockey stadium sometime. The ground is perfectly flat, rocky and hard. The surroundings are largely unspoilt from buildings, allowing the wind to pass. (more…)