> get report.chaos@strange.net - retrieving... ######################################################## - done. === begin ==== = Rubi Con 2001 Report = Author: Andrew Hobgood ============== [ prologue ] rubi-con 2001 was an incredibly entertaining experience, involving drunken debauchery, senseless destruction, skr|pt k|dd|3z, and some damned interesting talks from all kinds of neat people. this is my account of what i can remember, with times as close as i can recall. i'm probably wrong with a lot of them. i don't care. [ /prologue ] thursday 2001.04.05 0900 - friday 2001.04.06 1030: wakefulness, classes, and working on a paper. no sleep. friday 2001.04.06: 1030 simba shows up at my building, as he is giving me a ride to rubicon to alleviate the boredom of his friday. we stop at audible's place, where he has just awakened a mere 10 minutes prior. i wait for audible to get his act together, and we then proceed to detroit via best buy, to purchase mini-DV tapes for documentation of debauchery. 1200 so, we miss cass multiple times, and have to loop around the shady underworld of downtown detroit. thank god it's daytime. finally, we arrive at the ramada, and simba returns to ann arbor. 1215 i check in, audible and i haul our shit up, and pause to admire the view of the michigan bell building through the grimy brown slime coating our sixteenth floor window. 1220 realize that soap and shampoo are nonexistent in hotel room. 1225 notify front desk that we desire soap and shampoo. 1230 we check out the network room, and the power breakout is still offline. aaron continues hacking on electrical. ground path is seriously compromised. 1245 i wander to the speaker room, where nff is attempting to set up the Officially Sanctioned Projector. it appears that his grasp of simple physics is lacking as he describes a method of attaching cat5 to various supports of the drop-ceiling and hanging the projector in midair. my suggestion is vetoed, despite popular opinion. 1315 nff realizes that hanging the projector will not work. 1330 nff suggests creating a tower of chairs at the back of the room upon which to seat the projector. 1345 the tower of chairs is vetoed by unknown member of core. 1355 finally, the projector is placed in a sane position on a table. 1400 knightfall begins his NT speech. i grow disenchanted and depart for the lush excesses of the network room. 1445 i search for a soldering iron, and nobody has one. i decide to wait for myself to arrive later in the evening, as he will definitely have at least one, if not many soldering irons. 1515 i begin chatting with richard theime about cognition, perception, technology, trust, sensory augmentation, misinformation, philosophy, psychology, and various other topics. 1555 while still chatting with richard, jim approaches me to inform me that amanda l. will not be attending for personal reasons, and that he is left without a speaker for ai speech. apparently, i agree to participate and/or lead a panel discussion on the topic. 1600 i report to the speaker room to find myself speaking alone on the topic of artificial intelligence. i use m4d h4rdc0r3 sp33k|ng sK|11z to make the audience believe that i know what i'm talking about. 1700 i chat with various individuals about topics covered in my impromptu talk, and realize that people are generally idiots when it comes to seeing how certain technologies may or may not apply to their own lives. 1730 finally, i am able to rid myself of the intellectual remoras, and proceed to greektown with jesus, audible, the reverend, and others. enjoy quality deep dish pizza. 1900 we return to ramada, and i collapse into bed. 2200 i wake up and wander back downstairs to the lobby. 2230 i wander about network room and lobby, eventually encountering myself, and proceed to retrieve soldering iron and associated equipment from his car. we then begin hacking around with the power supply to my MaxiLAN DX embedded DOS machine. saturday 2001.04.07: 0000 still hacking on power supply. i check out "win nff's tee shirts", and see that nick is thoroughly trashed on vast amounts of alcohol. 0100 fiddle with MaxiLAN, try and get a serial console working for it. i realize that sshdos.exe doesn't like to use the console set by 'ctty' and am out of luck for a serial setup. 0300 (ish)... see flashing lights outside. upon asking a volunteer about the nature of the flashing lights, i am informed that nff has passed out and is being picked up by EMS. i proceed upstairs to the room in which they have him. he is passed out in a stair chair with EMS personnel performing medical aid. i assist with some personal information matters regarding nff, and wish him and all of those who were going along my best wishes. i remain behind to assist if core needs any help. 0400 random interactions with people. late hours. sleep deprivation setting in once again. 0800 i wander upstairs to find audible sleeping in the bed. i curl up on the floor with a spare pillow and fall into deep sleep. 1200 awake, shower, dress, and wander down to the lobby. i meet nff as he returns from detroit receiving, say hi to his parents, and find out that his BAL was 1.93%. this is equivalent to having almost eight shots of Absolut 100 directly in his bloodstream. seems highly doubtful, but after consulting medical personnel, this is indeed possible in those with a history of high alcohol consumption. wow. 1230 mess around in the network room. 1400 hunt down a laptop. adminx offers to let me use his laptop for my presentation. feer. 1430 obtain large chef salad and lukewarm breadsticks. eat. watch dumb and dumber on hotel tv. 1615 get laptop from adminx, and begin attempting to install magicpoint, my presentation, and other required bits to do my talk at 17:00. 1700 network is utterly fucked. DoS attacks and other nastiness makes obtaining my slides nigh on impossible. 1705 adminx, c0rr, and i proceed to phone room to disconnect the network room from the dsl line, and connect the laptop directly into the router. 1715 people bitch about lack of connectivity in the network room. 1720 magicpoint refuses to render fonts properly on adminx's laptop. i finally tar up a copy of my html/jpg version of the talk and copy it down for use in netscape. no fullscreen -- poop. oh well. 1740 finally, my talk begins. i present, answer questions, help fill space, and generally do a lot of talking until 19:00. 1900 matrix gives a baffling talk on elliptical curve crypto. his hodgepodge style is difficult to follow, but still interesting. 2000 chat with zombie, litch, tristan (sp?), and rick forno. 2100 sit in on crypto's talk on ids, and chat with him and phillipe langlois about interesting ideas in ids standardization. 2200 panel discussion delayed one hour, but i missed going out for a bite with crypto and phillipe. damn. end up going to lindell's with myself for a burger and banter. 2315 return for panel discussion. i proceed to take the conversation over from nff, and rick forno and i exchange ideas with the audience with the rambling interjections of bubonic. nobody knows what he's talking about. myself, sim0n, and others provide more useful commentary. sunday 2001.04.08: 0000 reverend george, swamptrot, and i 0wn nff's wardrobe. extensively. and with extreme prejudice. 0230 s.e. demo begins. degrades into cheap prank calls on ron ulko's mom and a war of cancelling PCS phones between nff and darkcube. soon, though, an entertaining call with microsoft tech support results in the discovery that ziff-davis publishing's support contract expired last june. comedy gold: "what the fuck is a japanese video game doing on my webserver?" 0430 s.e. demo breaks up. congratulations and compliments are given. darkcube begins setting up his decks. instead of partying, i sit and discuss ai, conciousness, philosophy, irc, relationships, and other minutae with espionage. 0745 dear god. i'm still talking with espionage? time for sleep. 0800 sleep. oh sleep. happy sleep. 1100 alarm supposed to go off. it doesn't. 1200 supposed to be checked out by now. i'm not. 1300 i wake up. i accidentally set my alarm for 11pm, not 11am. damned (mod 12) + 1 timekeeping. 1330 check out, front desk doesn't care. gather all equipment and belongings. 1345 attend remainder of nff's speech. make old men eat their words. and my shorts. 1400 closing ceremonies. props. bald bouncer dude from city club wins the scavenger hunt while weilding a shiny katana. 1500 lounge around waiting for xdr and crypto to be ready to go. 1520 depart ramada, attempt to get crypto to airport in time for his flight at 17:00. 1615 xdr's car is overheating, and we're in a parking lot somewhere in greenfield. the interstates are fucked up with traffic, and we have to take backroads to romulus. 1650 arrive at DTW. hope that crypto catches his flight. 1730 get back to ann arbor, get some pizza with xdr, and begin the long, slow road to sleep and recuperation. fond memories will live forever. === end report.chaos@strange.net === > quit - exiting. rubi-con:~# ^D