Fwd: [HAL2001-Announce] update

[Florian Lohoff]

Hier

----- Forwarded message from Gerrit Hiddink <grit at dnd.utwente.nl> -----

From: Gerrit Hiddink <grit at dnd.utwente.nl>
To: announce at hal2001.org
Subject: [HAL2001-Announce] update
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001 11:41:55 +0100 (CET)

Hi folks,

some of you have asked questions about how to help, what to do, how's
organizing things going. To give you an idea of what has been done so far
and what still has to be done, I'll give you an update of the organizational
activities and then indicate how you can help.

Note: prices I mention will be in US dollars. One dollar is 1.08 Euro.

CAMPSITE
The campsite will consist of one large area and a few smaller ones. If you
take a look at this map: http://www.hal2001.org/ut/UT-zoomed.gif The
entrance is to the south of the campus. A road "drienerlolaan" runs from the
entrance to the north. The area to the left and to the right will be the
main camping, including some fields north of the "BB gebouw". This area is
not only grass but there are also small to large areas with trees. So it may
be needed to use some other fields. There will be a camper lane. Cars will
have to be parked on the parking lots all over the campus (there's no single
large parking lot). A parking crew will direct arriving cars to vacant
parking lots (we'll not use 100% of their capacity because there will have
to be space for UT employees on thursday and friday). There will be means to
get your heavy stuff to the campsite, we're thinking about hiring trikes &
quads & carriages (or another Hal Transportation Device) that drive a fixed
route. You can unload your stuff & wait for the HTD to arrive, throw your
stuff onto it (please take care to miss the driver) and follow it to the
campsite.

REGISTRATION
A preliminary registration form will be online soon (within about two
weeks). This form will allow you to register *if* you pay in advance via
bank transfer. We are working on credit card registrations, more news on
this later.

FACILITIES
The swimming pool can be used by HAL participants! Tickets are 3,50
guilders ($1.5). The opening times are limited because of other activities
(swimming lessons, waterpolo training) but I'll try to get as many
opening hours as possible.
If there is sufficient demand, we can arrange a dormitory with space for
several hundreds of people. I'm still negotiating, but it may be needed to
ask a small fee from you for this facility (approx $4 per night). There's a
slight chance, however, that due to new security regulations it may not be 
possible to provide this facility at all... 
There are approx. 100 showers in the sports centre for us to use. The sports
ppl assured me that the waterheating unit has sufficient capacity.
The "openlucht theater" (to the north) is a amphi-type open air theatre that 
can be used for public (art) performances or other activities. 
The HAL networking guys (FHQ) are already very active and have a complete 
network design. The university will provide a 1Gbit/s uplink, at least. 
FHQ is still in need of heavy duty switches, lower-duty end switches, and 
a backup router. FHQ has chosen a leader, the Chief Network Operations: Aldert 
Hazenberg. Contact him if you know where to find spare equipment at
fenrir at hal2001.org. FHQ will try to provide 100Mbit/s connections where 
possible. There will also be some wireless base stations, so bring your
wireless card and leave your microwave at home ;)
There will be at least 1.5 MW power from power generators and/or the UT
power grid. 

FOOD
UT Catering will provide hot meals for a reasonable price (approx. $6.5).
These may contain meat, but there will also be a good vegetarian alternative.
These meals are served in a HAL feeding tent. You can also go to the students'
mensa where you can get a cheaper meal: approx $4. The lower price does have
consequences on the quality of the food, but it's still edible. The mensa
also has vegetarian alternatives. 
There will also be a pizzabakery, and a french fries & hamburger & other greasy
stuff dude. We're still looking for a good one near Enschede; if you know
good quality guys, please send us a mail.
UT Catering will probably also provide breakfast.

COMPUTER SHOP
The Campus' computer shop will have extra stock for CDR's (extra superplus
stock), power cables, UTP cables and power distribution thingies. There'll
be a moderate supply of hubs and networking cards. It is advisable to bring
your own cards and hubs as much as possible. The shop is located in the TW
building and will have limited opening hours. When the shop is closed, you
can buy stuff at the HAL main tent. Main tent?

MAIN TENT
Yes there will be a main tent with chairs & tables for approx 400 people, a
bar, chairs & tables for relaxation purposes, the HAL shop, music, video 
screens, and other perceptory input feeds. Loudspeakers are not allowed
in this tent. The info desk and HAL shop will be manned/womanned 24hrs/day.

PUBLICITY
A press release announcing the coming of HAL has been sent out yesterday.
If you know news channels, mailing lists, underground magazines, contact
persons or other means through which we can make HAL known to the right
people, then please notify me so that we can send them the press release.
Of course you can also cut & paste (parts of) the website. No we have not
been on slashdot yet, my submissions got rejected. Perhaps my contribution
was not juicy enough. Anybody else care to try?
We are preparing a selection of banners for you to put whereever you
think is appropriate. We're also preparing a pile of flyers; if you know
of a good event to spread some, please drop us a line.

ACTIVITIES
Please notify us if you have ideas, suggestions, or questions about
activities during HAL. HAL is a "do it yourself" event: you have to organise
your own HAL. We will try to facilitate your activities and provide you
with anything you need: electricity, network, space, PA, equipment, etc.
But to do so, we need you to inform us what you're planning to do. If you
have special electricity needs, *this* is the time to tell us because we're
currently designing the electricity plan.
Also, if you need a lot of space please inform us so that we can take this
into account when making the campsite plan. It's better to know these 
things in advance...

PROGRAMME
Now that HAL is on, the programme needs attention. As "Content Encryption"
is a development that needs our attention (under the DMCA you're not allowed
to use LiViD to view your legitimately bought DVD disc, or to make a backup
copy) we're thinking about doing some presentations on this subject; we
already have some good people in mind for doing a talk. 

SPONSORS
Our basic financial needs are covered by sponsorships, but of course if we
can raise more funds we can do more activities that would otherwise be too
costly. So please keep looking for fundraising opportunities and inform us
if you've found one :)

EQUIPMENT
There are some things that we're going to need during HAL. If you know to 
find a certain piece of equipment, then please contact us. This is the 
stuff we currently need:
* 10 kms of UTP cable
* 2 kms of glassfiber
* video camera's
* several MPEG video encoder boards (PC) or standalone devices
* video projectors
* a Huge Fileserver for storing the videostreams
* networking equipment
* and of course tents, toilets, generators, etcetera. 

We will have to hire the stuff we cannot obtain otherwise.. so please 
be on the lookout for these gadgets.

VOLUNTEERS
I've written a few times "there will be a ... crew" and "will be manned".
This is a promise that only has meaning if there are sufficient people willing
to help us out before and during HAL.
On the short term, you can help us with the following:
* help building the website (we're going to use a Content Management System
  so only basic HTML knowledge is needed: basic text formatting & simple
  tables).
* finding equipment and money..
* notify us if you know people that have a good and important story to tell
  regarding the subjects mentioned in the programme
* think of neat activities or subevents that you & your friends can organize
* think of more neat activities or subevents 

DISCLAIMER 
As HAL is still five months away, many things can change. So please note
that what you have read above is *not* written in stone; if we have good
reasons to do things differently, we will :)

Hey this mail suspiciously looks like a newsletter. You know what, I'm gonna
call it "Newsletter 1". So there.

Take care & see you on HAL,

Grit

_______________________________________________
Announce mailing list
Announce at hal2001.org
http://www.hal2001.org/mailman/listinfo/announce


----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Florian Lohoff                  flo at rfc822.org             +49-5201-669912
     Why is it called "common sense" when nobody seems to have any?