It has been quiet on my blog. Well, quiet.. It has been a ghost town on my blog. HAR2009 is mainly to blame. Being a main organiser of a hacker-party where thousands are invited is, as it turns out, a tad bit time-consuming. Not that i haven’t had the inspiration to write more blog posts, on the contrary. Instead of writing those posts, let me just summarise some of the posts I could have written had Earth’s rotation been a bit slower. Just so you can appreciate what has gone unwritten.

Side by side: Halting state vs Daemon

Of course, it’s unfair to compare serial-novelist Charles Stross with debuting author Leinad Zeraus, but the similarities in both books struck me. Where Stross succeeds in telling a story of a society in which technology has such a central role that it could make or break civilisations, Zeraus fails. Don’t get me wrong, Daemon is a nice read if you enjoy fiction with correctness on nerdy matters. But where Zeraus is quite literal on incorporating current-day technology, Stross succeeds in interpolating it to a not-so-far future where things indeed go awry. Ah well, as said: comparing any sci-fi author to Stross is unfair, the man is a genius!

HAR2009 gains momentum of a run-away freight train

Yes, I could have written blog-post after blog-post about how awesome HAR2009 is going. We’re booking succes after succes, to such an extend that is almost terrifying: where is the normal chaos, disaster and governmental sabotage that plagued previous editions of these events? We can’t do anything wrong it seems. Our PR is so good, even if you’re only slightly tangential to the hacker community you must’ve heard of it (and personally, i’m very much flattered that people seem to think Rop Gonggrijp is writing those witty little articles on the HAR2009 website, while that was actually me; I mean, for someone like me growing up on hacktic, that’s quite the compliment). Ticket sales is outside of any charts, and sponsoring is coming along nicely. HAR2009 is gonna be a blast!

PostgreSQL rocks

What can I say: PostgreSQL rocks. There’s a whole bunch of new, nifty features comin up like hot standby, parallel restore, column-level security, sliding windows, recursive queries (those are not new actually) and more. Meanwhile, the community just remains a blast to hang out with as witnessed in Brussels for fosdem 2009. To top it all of, i’m seriously planning a first Dutch-Belgian PostgreSQL User Group (dbug) meetup, so if you’re interested keep an eye out on that!

A bit of a step back from GroenLinks

Reading all that, one might think all is well and swell. Unfortunately, with all this activity I became a bit stressed, overworked and burnt-out. So I had to scratch some activities from my list, urgently. It was just not healthy anymore. Now, I had to stop being involved in lots of projects, but most near to my heart has been the treasury of GroenLinks Den Haag, as well as my chairmanship of the ICT workgroup of GroenLinks. To start with the former, I’ve had to make a serious consideration: what was I getting out of it. I won’t go into details, but I felt that the position generated too much frustration, while the reward was too small to just shrug it away and move on. I will remain active doing the technical stuff for GroenLinks Den Haag though.

Now, for the ICT workgroup its an entirely different story. The group is marginally active (although a recent case led to success in the press), and getting it on track will require quite an investment of time. Time I do not have while organising HAR2009. I announced quite early on (around August 2008, when it became clear that my involvement with HAR2009 would go beyond the occassional volunteering) I would have to take a sabbatical from the working group. However, I plan to be back in full effect after HAR2009 for that particular part of GroenLinks.

Project multiverse concludes and continues

Meanwhile, a group of students led by Melvin Rook started a project named ‘multiverse‘, designing and developing an idea I have had in the back of my mind for a while: an open, distributed virtual world. The core concept is that anyone can throw in a server to host part of the virtual world, plus there is no single point of failure. A failing node will not bring down the entire virtual world, only the part of it hosted on that particular machine. What I hope the project will accomplish is to have a truly open (open-source as well as open-access) alternative to such commercial ventures as second life, which are entirely controlled by a single company. The students have finished their project, but the project is not finished. Luckily, some of the students decided to carry on and create a community around the project so it can mature. The nomination for the free software awards will probably help there too.

And all the rants

Last but not least, you’ve missed all those rants about cheap German mice that make my cursor hover all over except on the link i want to click, smokers and other scum in Bink36 who conspire to make my workplace unworkable, companies such as eneco, KPN, xs4all and T-Mobile, the general state of public transport these days, all the bullshit on the news, designers with pixel-fetishes, apple, and much much more.

It’s too late now though, so this is it. Enjoy it, it was written to last some time: I don’t expect to be able to spare a lot of time writing elaborate blog posts in the near future.

Well, it’s been a hectic day, as we just went live with the announcement below:

Hacking at Random

International technology & security conference. Four days of technology, ideological debates and hands-on tinkering. On August 13-16, 2009 the 20th anniversary edition of the four-yearly Dutch outdoor technology-conference will take place near Vierhouten, NL.

What is HAR?

Since 1989 the international community that builds the internet has been getting together on a series of conferences to discuss the state of contemporary technology, the future of it and the sociological and political consequences of their work. The participants vary from students and people with personal interests to researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs who are widely recognized as the best in their field. The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed, the average level of knowledge is high and outside of the official lectures the site is buzzing with energy, ideas and projects. The New York Times likened the 1997 edition to a “Woodstock for Hackers”. We do our best to keep that atmosphere. When these conferences first happened twenty years ago, the internet was like the Wild West, a new frontier to explore. That has changed, virtually every household in the Western world has access to the internet and, just as happened in the Wild West, new questions have risen. Questions of governance, sustainability, integration with existing power structures, shortage of IP space and energy, censorship, security, etc. The notion of hacking, to use a system in a creative way that was not thought of when it was invented, has also shown to be applicable to fields outside of ICT technology.

Where is HAR?

The location (+52° 19′ 50.02″, +5° 49′ 27.98″) is near Vierhouten, a small settlement in the beautiful Veluwe area renowned for its culinary industry. The former socialist youth-camp de Paasheuvel provides some good old-fashioned Dutch gezelligheid. A variety of camping areas will cater to our broad range of camping and non-camping audience: varying from secluded spots in the foliage to larger fields for those of you who want to cluster together to form a village. There is a train-station nearby, in Nunspeet. From there it is a 10-minute drive to the festival terrain. Some form of transport from the station to the terrain will be arranged, but the truly adventurous among you may choose to take a hike: it is definetely within walking distance and the surroundings will not disappoint.

Who is HAR?

You, me and some hundreds (if not thousands) of other like-minded folks. In true spirit, there will be no visitors but only volunteers. In order to keep costs low, expect to lend a hand here and there. You might be operating the A/V-equipment in one of the lecture tents, sweep the floor in the bar tent, check in visitors at the entrance or pour drinks at the bar. A great way to discover new talents, or develop those hidden ones you never suspected you had! Of course, there is a somewhat smaller group of madmen and women that will lay (and have been laying) the groundwork for another great edition in the year leading up to the event. This event could easily be dubbed ‘the next generation’. Because, yes, the original crew that has been working hard on these conferences have earned a relaxing holiday by organising the four preceeding events. A new generation is eager to take over, and continue their legacy. Not to say that the old farts are not interested, au contraire my friends. There is a healthy mix of new blood and experienced hands currently working on the necesarry preparations. In fact, this is reflected nicely in the foundation that was set up to handle all the paperwork and other legal requirements: the Hxx foundation. Its board is a 50/50 mix of old and new: Aldert Hazenberg and Mischa Peters have been involved to a great extent in all past events, Koen Martens made his organising debut 3 years ago on WTH and Mathijs Schmittmann is our new kid on the block. In case you are wondering “but where is Rop Gonggrijp”, no fears: he is right around the corner and believes we “pesky new-generation event-hackers” are going to do just fine. He will help out where possible, but more on that below. Of course, HAR will not be happen without huge sums of money. We have tried to keep ticket prices low, even in these times of financial crisis, so we are attracting a number of sponsors and donors. But don’t worry, HAR will not be called ‘Yoyodyne Inc. HAR2009′ even if Yoyodyne coughs up millions of euro’s.

And more..

As this is being written, the last work is undertaken on the ticket-webshop, which we hope to have online early december. At the same time, the program committee, led by the more than qualified Rop Gonggrijp, is preparing the call for papers and otherwise developing a solid lecture program that’ll make your mouth water (even if you have visited every single conference between WTH and now and seen em all). Of course, planning has started on an in-promptu power infrastructure and intranet, with uplink to the interwebs. And naturally, there will be various foods and beverages.

Subscribe

If you want to receive the latest news on HAR2009 as it happens, be sure to subscribe to the relatively low-volume announcement list. Send an email to announce-subscribe@har2009.org or visit www.har2009.org and enter your email in the subscribe form. Perhaps you’re thinking “hey, I want to help!”. If you have some time in the next months and are prepared to make a commitment, send an email to help@har2009.org. The wiki is available at http://wiki.har2009.org/. Potential sponsors can mail directly to sponsoring@har2009.org. Press inquiries can be sent to press@har2009.org.

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It’s nice to have an ABC right around the corner! Because that means you can restack your supply of sci-fi with a short walk. Added to my list: I finally got a copy of Alastair Reynold’s latest: house of suns. Also picked up a copy of his short-story collection ‘galactic north’, which to my surprise i did not have in my library yet. While browsing the shelves, I also noted more Charles Stross. He writes em faster than i can read em. The last one of his novels I read was Accelerando: something i want to recommend to every geek/nerd out there! With Glasshouse (an oldie from ‘06) and and Halting State, he continues to explore the genre which i would (probably incorrectly) dub ‘post-cyberpunk’. In his novels, consciousness and the virtual are so intertwined that the disctinction vanishes.

Anyway, what I wanted to write about is an older novel from (I believe ‘89) by Alan Steele. I’ve enjoyed his coyote-series, and Orbital Decay is his first non-coyote work i’ve read. Although, really, the style is not that different. Steele describes the folk who are pioneering the expensian of the human race into space. Apart from the crazy commander and maybe the doctor, these are common folks: construction workers, bikers and fishermen.

An interesting twist to the story, around which Steele unfolds his expose on those common men, is the prediction that in 2010 (at or about, which is when the story is situated; remember it was written in ‘89) the US government will roll out a network of satelittes allowing them to tap into any phonecall made. Not only long-distance and international, but local too. And what’s more, the system is able to transcribe those phone-calls and alert the NSA whenever something fishy is being said. In the examples, the fishy things include a conversation between a mom who complains about how the current administration sent off her boy to war, afraid he’ll get killed.

I don’t know whether Steele realized at the time of his writing that his prediction was spot on. In the ‘war on terror’ the US has breached its constituents privacy in ways very similar to what Steele predicted. Perhaps even more so. I won’t go into detail on that here, if you’re curious about it browse eff’s site or aclu’s for a bit. Maybe it isn’t that much of a surprise though, as it turns out he was inspired by earlier such tendencies. One of the characters mentions the McCarthy witchhunt, and something termed the ‘Accuracy in Academia’ movement. The character furthermore points out the arrests of many people in the US during world-war I for saying anything that even slightly smelled of agreeing with the Germans.

And this is why all this surveillance crap is so dangerous: it is (in this case) the NSA that decides when you’re suspicious. You might have an innocent chat with your neighbour about the middle-east or Osama bin Laden or whatever. A slightly careless phrasing of your thoughts and voila: you’re on the suspect list! Scary stuff!

All in all, a good read. The surveillance stuff is actually not a central part of the novel, but more of a motive around which the stories of the people that work and live on the earth-orbitting space station unfold. A thought-experiment about living with tens of people within the cramped confines of a space station. The irony of being in space, stretching out endlessly beyond the small confines in which human life can be sustained.

Vandaag stond ik samen met wat GroenLinks-collega’s een kraam te bemensen op ‘t Plein, alwaar de volksopstand 2008 was georganiseerd. Een demonstratie, dachten wij, tegen de inperking van de privacy en het afbreken van de burgerrechten. Een korte opsomming: wet bewaring verkeersgegevens telefonie en internet, ongebreideld afluisteren van telefoongesprekken door de amerikaanse overheid, ov-chipkaart, identificatieplicht, nationale vingerafdrukken en dna database en ga zo maar door.

Allemaal onderwerpen waarvan te weinig mensen doorhebben dat ze een serieuze bedreiging vormen voor onze democratische rechtsstaat: de drie-eenheid van wetgevende, uitvoerende en rechterlijke macht (trias politica) wordt kortgesloten doordat opsporing en vervolgen volledig voorbij gaan aan rechterlijke toetsing.

Daar kun je allemaal erg rationeel over nadenken, en D66 europarlementarier Sophie in ‘t Veld doet dat ook en haar toespraak was dan ook prima te verteren. Ook de opsomming van problematische wetgeving door Stephan Ockhuizen was prima in orde, en de toespraak tegen de identificatieplicht goed te volgen.

Zweven

Dat we intussen in onze stand werden aangesproken door mensen die zich ernstige zorgen maken over ‘chemtrails‘ en nulpuntsenergie, verbaasd ons nog niet eens. Je hebt dat wel vaker bij het actievoeren.

Plots wordt echter e.e.a. duidelijk, als de volgende spreker op het podium verschijnt: Marcel Messing begint een verhaal over de facistische nieuwe wereldorde, Mensen worden geimplanteerd met chips die gedachten manipuleren, nazi’s zijn door het vaticaan beschermd en maken binnenkort hun comeback, regeringen zijn massaal mensen aan het vergiftigen, UMTS masten worden gebruikt om ons DNA te manipuleren, en ga zo nog maar even door. En dat allemaal vanwege het buitenaardse complot.

We voelen ons nu wat ongemakkelijk. Dit is allemaal niet meer serieus te nemen, en heeft niets meer te maken met de aanleiding van de demonstratie! We pakken snel onze spullen in, en houden het voor gezien.

Vrijbit ontmaskerd

De organisatie van de demonstratie is in handen van vrijbit. Vrijbit belooft een organisatie te zijn voortbordurend op het enkele jaren geleden ter ziele gegane Bits of Freedom (BOF). BOF was een uiterst capabale en rationele organisatie, welke zich inzette voor privacy en digitale burgerrechten. Een belangrijk onderwerp in deze tijd waarin ICT een zo centrale rol in het dagelijkse leven inneemt.

Vrijbit, schaart zich echter na vandaag in het illustere rijtje van niburu, scientology en andere sekte-achtige clubs die de meest bizarre complotten menen te ontwaren in ogenschijnlijk willekeurige gebeurtenissen. Nu begrijp ik ook waarom een goede vriend van me, die in het bestuur van vrijbit zat, zich onlangs heeft teruggetrokken.

Het is jammer dat op deze manier een belangrijk onderwerp wordt vertroebeld met, ik zeg het maar recht voor zijn raap, gestoorde samenzweringstheorieen. Het is maar goed dat er weinig mensen op de demonstratie af kwamen en er geen pers bij was.

Terwijl wij onze kraam voortijdig ontruimden, vroegen enkele verbaasde passanten ons nog waar dit nu allemaal over ging. Ik kon het ze niet uitleggen. Vol verbazing keerde ik huiswaarts, om nog eens in de uiterst vermakelijke materie te duiken. Sites als wijwordenwakker.org, niburu.nl, nulpuntenergie.net en chemtrails.nl. Voor wie van drogredenen, paranoia en samenzweringstheorieen houdt een oneindige bron van vermaak!

Or actually, the reverse. Not long ago I started Jack Vance’s ‘Tales of the dying earth’, which is a collection of four (all four) of the dying earth novels. After a small interlude of short stories from Asimov’s, i continued into his ‘Alastor’, which provides the entire Alastor trilogy. I had never read Vance before, which is odd because he is one of the great of sci-fi, and with right i discovered.

To start with the dying earth: at first i was taken aback, as it started about magicians and strange gardens and a general atmosphere of fantasy i never quite can get in to. Even though the novel is set in the very-far future, where the sun is waning and coming to an end of its life (we’ll forgive Vance that the sun will not die as a small flickering red start but instead starts a new life cycle after expanding beyond earth’s atmosphere), there is not much technology in the stories.

One of the sub-stories details ancient technology, that after lying dormant in the foundations of an old city where strange folk live is brought to life again by an adventurer from elsewhere. I’m a sucker for hard sci-fi, where technology and the explanation thereof makes up an important part of the verbatim. It may then come as a surprise that this was not the story that interested me the most. What I found most intriging were the wanderings of Cugel the Clever.

Set in an almost medieval scenery (but like the other dying earth novels really situated in the far far future), the stories revolving around this unfortunate character describe his troubles as a result of trespassing on the premises of Iocunou the laughing magician. Cliffhanger after cliffhanger propel the reader (ie. myself) through the chapters. Misfortune is met by ingenuity (Cugel is not called the Clever for nothing), and in the end all is well.

However entertaining the dying earth novels were, their lack of star travel and techonology left me wanting. So I started the Alastor trilogy without too much expectations in that regard. The trilogy is set in Alastor cluster, a set of some 30.000 stars around many of which worlds revolve, inhabited by the off-spring of earth people. Three such worlds are described by the stories of some of their inhabitants.

Generally, the surroundings of these worlds are relatively low-tech, but still Vance manages to instill in the stories a good sense of how life might be in such a future where mankind has spread over 3000 worlds. He brilliantly discusses three very different cultures, that have evolved over the aeons. The story set on Marune reads like a fairy tale, with kings and queens, knights and noblemen and castles riddled with secret passageways. Still, they ride in air-cars and converse by video-phone.

The first and last stories show a contrast, in the story set on Trullion a young man returning from a few years of active duty to discover his homestead beyond recognition struggles to get together the money that, when acquired, will set everything right. Or so he thinks. An open, but relatively happy end leaves the reader wondering about what might follow with the people he has come to known intimately.

The last story, set on Wyst, is no doubt inspired by the anti-soviet sentiment prevalent in the US around the time the story was written, something you get a lot actually with sci-fi from the 60s/70s. Called egalism, the doctrine of equality among all gives the people of Arrabus a seemingly lustful live: they work only a few hours a week, and spend the rest of the week enjoying themselves. Although their joy is relative, as it exists mostly of drinking and exploring sexual perversities. There are only three dishes in the country, and all live the same live. Revolution is in the air, though, sparked by the visit of the off-worlder who is the hero in this story.

Vance is a master of describing cultures, somewhat reminiscient of David Brinn’s exptrapolations of extra-terresterial life (although of course Vance preceded Brinn). Reading the stories is visiting the worlds. It is easy to identify with the main character, because all three of them are, like the reader, dropped in unknown surroundings, perplexed by the people and the circumstances. Gradually the circumstances unfold, and the secrets become known and we learn the true nature of things.

Luckily, Vance is a proliferate writer. There’s at least a dozen more novels from his hand to explore. I’m hooked, ABC stock your shelves with Vance, I’m coming for more!