Three-wheeled Wireless Internet

An anonymous reader writes "I just found this article which describes how a group of people in the UK built a 3 wheeled trike-type rickshaw to give visitors to a festival mobile Internet access. An interesting read for those /.ers into wireless networks, it also gives good information about the use of satellite for net connectivity and renewable energy sources. They do a good job of lightening a dry subject with a dash of humour." (The festival here is The Big Green Gathering, which sounds like a low-key, English version of Burning Man.)

Comments

l33t

[Anonymous Coward]

I am teh l33t!

FP

[Anonymous Coward]

I SUCED IT FAGSZz11 LOL!1

Whatever

[SpanishInquisition]

With the Cubs and Red Sox going in the world series, you have to go a long way to impress me.

pretty cool

[mOoZik]

All of this is doable by the average slashdotter, except of course for the sattelite link, which is probably expensive. Still, very, very cool.

Portability perhaps?

[commie_pig]

I don't know if I'm too keen to rent a little bike with an internet connection. I'd much rather have wireless connection points scattered over the festival terrain which would allow a PDA to connect - that way, I can even walk.

One day, when technology is dirt cheap (if that ever happens), then I wouldn't mind having a little computer loaded on a little bike like that.

Until then, I first need personal connectivity

Save the whales! - collect the whole set

Re:Portability perhaps?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh... but you actually *have* a PDA with which to access a wireless connection point. They're not as common as you're probably assuming they are, since you seem to own one. The average festival goer sure as hell won't have one.

Until then, I first need personal connectivity

I consider the wireless PDA and such to largely be technology looking for a problem to solve. Particularly when it comes to public access points. For specialist applications they make sense, otherwise they're pointless to 99% of the population.

Nobody NEEDS to be wired to the net 24/7.

Re:Portability perhaps?

[semaj]

I don't know if I'm too keen to rent a little bike with an internet connection. I'd much rather have wireless connection points scattered over the festival terrain which would allow a PDA to connect - that way, I can even walk.

Did you actually read the article?

They describe setting up a number of wireless base stations using 802.11b to "ensure that the majority of wireless clients could connect to our network". They built the rickshaw as a moving terminal so that people without laptops/PDAs could have a chance to use the network.

Re:Portability perhaps?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd much rather have wireless connection points scattered over the festival terrain which would allow a PDA to connect - that way, I can even walk.

Geee.. I wonder if you would even bother to stop and converse with people at the festival if you were able to walk around freely, grab your porn, and go masturbate under a shady tree somewhere off in the shroud of the underbrush.

Hmm.. I wonder if I would do that?

Re:Portability perhaps?

[mr_nba]

Did you actually read the article?

You must be new here :)

Goodness

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't live my life like this, tied to wires, strapped down to the train track, blinded by the light of a thousand TV sets. It's not time to change the channel yet. Oh, but it is. It certainly is. It's time to change the channel, turn off the TV, unplug the everything, close your eyes and SCREAM. Scream at everything they sell you. Scream at the "have you seen me" flyers you get in the mail. "Hey... I haven't seen you." Stop mailing me guilt. Stop making me pale. Stop complaining to me about your failure. If you make yourself a slave tied to everything you hate, who do you think is to blame? When you make your life a cage you can live in it. And you can sit there and shut your mouth and be the vegetable you turned yourself into. But back to the turned-off TV. Back to fake art and real art and heart attacks and overdoses and the good dying young. "NO THEY DON'T" she said as she pounded on his chest while he lay wheezing on the sidewalk outside the trendy Hollywood club. No they don't. Indeed. They live on and get FAT and OLD and do lots of endorsements for miracle products and limited edition garbage and family theme parks and all-you-can-eat restaurants. They let their belly grow as big as their bank account and then they puke on their legend. They let their suctioned fat drown everything sacred about the art they once made. They become part of the pop art fake art mass-produced cookie-cutter machine of miracle products and Las Vegas comebacks. They become a heart attack that never happened. They become 75 years-old and bored. They fall asleep during interviews. They authorize commemorative plates and figurines of themselves. They become a child's toy. They get buried in the sandbox and everyone forgets about them.

Re:Goodness

[SMOC]

That was surreal. Thank you very much for that.

Next time, though, try formatting your text.

Cost

[Max Romantschuk]

This looks like a very cool project indeed... I didn't find mention on the cost though. Estimates? Educated guesses?

Re:Cost

[Anonymous Coward]

from the wireless dot psand dot net website (who seems to have supplied the satalite access):

http://wireless.psand.net/index.php?section=pric in g

Connection to Internet via satellite

Using our mobile satellite unit, we can facilitate connection at your event for as many computers as you wish using a local area network connection.

1,200 (1,800) for one day or the first day of a longer event
1,000 (1,500) per day thereafter

This price is all-inclusive, and covers the cost of 2 qualified engineers onsite for the duration of the event, as well as the satellite license fee.

Uhh...

[Anonymous Coward]

They're not in the world series yet.

uh

[DNS-and-BIND]

Do you think maybe you can go to a freaking festival, and not have to check your freaking email? How about just chilling out and having fun for a few hours? And I'm not even going to mention the demeaning aspects of the rickshaw. Its shameful history should not be resurrected under any circumstances.

Re:uh

[Urkki]

• Do you think maybe you can go to a freaking festival, and not have to check your freaking email?

Uh... Is this a trick question?

Re:uh

[Anonymous Coward]

do you have the same attitude about the taxi as you do the rickshaw?

Re:uh

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, because as we all know, illegally imported slaves were once used to pull new york taxis around town. it was cheaper than filling up the gas tank and actually using the engine.

Re:uh

[TomV]

Bear in mind that the BGG was always had a very strong contingent of the activist community, and a lot of these people have ongoing campaigns to run Commitment doesn't necessarily stop just becasue you're at a festival.

Also, it wasn't just a few hours, it was five full (and very fabulous) days for the punters, and a lot of the workers were there for a week beforehand and a week afterwards.

The rickshaw technology is not demeaning. For that matter, the opportunity it gives to grindingly poor people to feed their families rather than starving is not in itself demeaning either. Now, the culture which allows this to happen, that's another matter. And it's not a matter of history so it's not really a case of resurrection.

tomV

Re:uh

[Anonymous Coward]

From the lessons learned near the end:
"People who live in rural areas or who travel around (such as many performers) are much more appreciative of Internet access being available in the middle of the field than their more blase counterparts who live in cities and take it much more for granted."

[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[Anonymous Coward]

This has nothing to do with anything remotely Slashdot related, but I need to do something before my head explodes...

As I type this, my roomate and my best friend/recent lover are fucking in the next room over. WHAT THE FUCK. After 10 years of friendship and built-up sexual tension, we finally hooked up and now less than a week later she's banging my roomate. I am so fucking incensed right now I can't think straight. I wouldn't mind if they went to a hotel or otherwise didn't make it known, but she just FUCKING WALKED PAST MY ROOM TOPLESS AND SHUT THE DOOR IN MY FUCKING FACE. How fucking insensitive can you be?!

This sucks. It's 3AM and I'm telling strangers (GEEK strangers, no less) about my personal problems. I am a big pussy and will most likely not say anything to either one of them so I expect this to go on for a while. Fuck.

Feeling low? There's someone else out there that's having a worse day than you. Trust me.

Boring stuff, let's talk HTML

[Anonymous Coward]

Why aren't web pages from popular sites like Google declaring what HTML version they're using? Is it because the W3C is a bunch of freaks we shouldn't listen to?

Maybe because they ask me to start documents with crap like

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

instead of something simple like

<html version="4.01">

Or maybe because according to them, comments can't contain say </b> when the engine is supposed not to care until it sees -->

Who's right?

Re:Boring stuff, let's talk HTML

[Anonymous Coward]

W3C is of course. Would you rather M$ create the standards? The same people who came up with ? Didn't think so.

misleading header

[polaar]

I already had this mental image of people riding around, delivering paper printouts of http-requests and...
eh, nevermind...

Just took my laptop ....

[taniwha]

at least to Burningman this year, turned it on, grabbed a wifi lease and hey presto I was connected. Thanks to the playanet folks.

Then I realized "I'm in the middle of the desert I don't want my email to find me", quickly checked slashdot and turned it off ....

Re:Just took my laptop ....

[binarybum]

quickly checked slashdot and turned it off ....

how?

" There will be NO internet connectivity via PlayaNet, we feel that during the event, the internet can survive without us."

Cue 'logging on' joke.

[Channard]

Mind you, they did apparently have some stiff competition from InterDump Inc, the company responsible for the festivals internet-enabled portaloos.

Re:Cue 'logging on' joke.

[adelayde]

http://www.computertorture.com/portaloo/

How Ironic

[turgid]

A bunch of smelly, unwashed, unkempt, ignorant Luddites convulsing all day and night to techno-handbag-disco-music while completely bombed out of their skulls on extacy, speed, LSD, mushrooms, heroin, cocaine etc., with an Internet connection? Have you looked at the hocus-pocus chalatanry they are peddling? I bet there's not a scientist or engineer amongst them. I garantee the best "education" any of them's had is a Liberal Arts degree. Bloody commies.

Re:How Ironic

[Anonymous Coward]

No kidding. What is it with these nouveau-hippie-raver types? On the one hand, they are, as you say, luddites, anti-science and anti-rationalist, "back to nature" types; on the other hand, they listen to music that would not be possible without computer technology, take drugs invented in laboratories, and now are setting up computer networks at their events. WTF?

Too bad the driver doesn't have internet access

[teledyne]

or otherwise he'd be able to PM his boss his iTrike got jacked!

Oh man

[cca93014]

The Big Green Gathering is similar to the Burning Man with the exception of a total lack of 14 year old Californians off their heads on mescaline.

Whether this is a plus or a minus depends entirely on your age.

Re:Oh man

[TomV]

In fairness, there was no shortage of 14 year old kids out of their heads on vodka and shrooms. for better or worse.

tV

Re:Oh man

[Anonymous Coward]

... well as an attendee of the Big Green Gathering, I'm a bit incensed at the comparison to Burning Man :(

It's a GREEN festival, promoting green living through the use of solar/wind/non-fossil fuels. It is AMAZING what you can achieve with NO connection to the national grid.

Besides learning how to build green living structures and generally a better way to live in this world, a full entertainment bill with the likes of Hawkwind and members of Gong blasting our minds live.

I haven't been to B/M so I can't truly compare, but they do sound very different.

And if you want to argue about who was first with Internet enabled prota-loo's, that was the basis of their "tech-demo" at last years BGG ...

Very cool :)

But yes, having the Internet and access to e-mail at a festival may seem a bit much ... but to see the kids faces light up when they can go on-line in a field in Somerset is something to behold.

Re:Oh man

[taniwha]

Burning Man is very much off the grid - but while there are enclaves of solar much of the power is generators (center camp has it's own actual grid) or by (mostly) doing without.

My camp typically runs a generator a few hours each day to charge batteries (we have art projects that need recharging during the day, and for our music) and to run soldering irons, other than that we do without.

In some sense it's probably more a test of individual self reliance since it's a relatively extreme environment and you have to bring everything you need to survive for a week - no in/out passes, no where to buy stuff etc etc.

Burning Man's lots of things, and very big - it's easy to label - "bunch of stoners" "wierdo hippies" "geeks at play" "artists" "crazy people in the desert" - of course it's all those things, and more - depends of what you go for and what appeals to you when you get there - it's so big there's something for everyone.

Probably the one thing it isn't is an organized concert or venue for selling stuff - there's an ongoing ethic of noncommercialism - the only things you can buy are ice and coffee (ice is practical, coffee is historical) - try and set your self up selling stuff (crafts, drugs, food, anything) chances are every other person who passes you will stop to lambast you raw ... on the other hand there's also a culture of 'gifting' giving complete strangers stuff

Low-key burning man?

[cliffy2000]

Sounds like the premise for a bad Kids in the Hall sketch, with one of the gang on fire and acting totally low-key about it. Either that, or I'm amazingly sleep deprived.
Mod with your heart, not your intellect!

Three-Legged Reasoning More Like

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen some of the absolute bull crap these people believe in? What the hell is a Tree Energy Workshop?

Yeah! It's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap

[bad_fx]

"Hippies, hippies... they want to save the world but all they do is smoke pot and play frisbee!"

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[Anonymous Coward]

She probably dumped you because you have a small cock.

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well what are you waiting for? Quick run in there and take an end!

Lessons learnt

[aardwolf204]

Article has heading "Lessons learnt". Dont they mean "Lessons Learned"? Or is this some weird cultural Center/Centre thing I dont know about?

Re:Lessons learnt

[Anonymous Coward]

Either is acceptable, at least in International (British) English, not sure about US English.

Re:Lessons learnt

[boogy nightmare]

Hmm very similar although there might be some cross Pacific grammar differences.

a) I learnt how to X (speaking of past learnings)

b) I have learned how to X (speaking of present learning)

But both can be switched around to personal preference, I would use A but hey, im English so i would naturally use the way i was taught at school..

Simon

Re:Lessons learnt

[adelayde]

Either are acceptable forms in English for the past participle of 'to learn'. However, in British English the form 'learnt' is used and American English, the form 'learned'. Another lesson learnt or learned.

Re:Lessons learnt

[Dun Malg]

Hmm very similar although there might be some cross Pacific grammar differences.

You should cross the Atlantic instead. It's quicker. :)

Re:Lessons learnt

[Anonymous Coward]

Cross Atlantic numbnuts. Even I, an uneducated Yank know the difference.

A 3 wheeled trike-type rickshaw? No shit!

[WIAKywbfatw]

...a 3 wheeled trike-type rickshaw...

It's a sad, sad day when the stories contain two levels of redundancy. Would you say a 2-wheeled, bike-type mountain bike? A four-wheeled, 4x4-like Land Rover? Sheesh.

Exactly

[turgid]

They are a bunch of ignorant hypocrites.

Re:Exactly

[nmoog]

Um, I looked all over their site a few time searching for the hypocrisy you speak of. I can't say it jumped out at me.

Now, a slashdotter blindly judging a large group of people without bothering to research their claims... that sounds a little on the hypocritical side I'd say.

Re:Exactly

[adelayde]

How do you either of you know what they are like, have you ever met them? How can you say they are hypocrites? Have you ever spoken to them and asked them what their beliefs are?

Aren't you being just slightly judgemental here? You've made an assumption between the plethorer of different things going on at this festival and what they did, without knowing what they do and how this all fits together. Perhaps you ought to presume less and appreciate that you are not being preached to, just presented with some information.

So far as I can made out, they're cider drinking lunatics! (organic cider that is).

Re:Exactly

[turgid]

They are using high-technology (i.e. the computer and wireless satellite network) whilest simultaneously advocating all this New Age mumbo-jumbo for which there isn't the slightest shred of scientific evidence and criticising the whole methodology that brought about the very technological and scientific innovations they are using.

That, my friend, is either sheer hypocracy, or stupidity and ignorance.

Re:Exactly

[six025]

Slightly off topic, but ... It might surprise you to know that the key to all this "new age mumbo-jumbo" is to experience first hand. Ever tried a shamanic ritual? You WILL be pleasantly surprised I think! It may not work first time (but it did for me) and I was gob-smacked. I, as you, was once of the mind set that "it doesn't work." "it's not science" ... all the usual stuff. As others are getting towards in all the threads here ... this festival and the fact that new age hippies are may be contradicting themselves by introducing a Internet connection - when their "dogma" would seem to be totally against science and technology - are missing the point. I think the "modern hippie/activist" would be sane and educated enough to realise that technology is a necessary part of evolution, almost guaranteed to happen if you will ... but at the same time it is being fully mis-used in this world at present ... and hence are striving for a better more peaceful co-existence. It is this individualistic society that we are bought up in that causes so many problems and they are trying to get away from that.

Re:Exactly

[Anonymous Coward]

ps. I personally know some of the people who are running this festivla Internet thing-a-my-jig and they DEFINITELY have their hearts and minds in the right place. Which is why I've bothered to get this /. account and set some of you straight. Not a hint of hypocrisy in place I'm afraid. Perhaps some of the most honest, hard working altruisting people I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with ...

Re:Exactly

[Anonymous Coward]

You sir, are a loony. If you want to indulge in hocus-pocus, that's up to you, but you're the kind of folks that would have us all living in mud huts and having smelly armpits. Rituals my foot.

Re:Exactly

[Anonymous Coward]

their hearts and minds in the right place

That part of the mind we call the heart might be in the right place, but the rest of it is on its way into outer-space. All the good will and wishing very hard for peace and harmony etc. doesn't produce tangible results. You have to do stuff.

Re:Exactly

[amembleton]

You got a /. account, but decided to post as an AC!

Well I don't have a problem if ppl want to practise "mumbo-jumbo", just so long as it doesn't interfere with my life which it doesnt.

WiFi Chick

[aardwolf204]

For those who are too lazy to read the entire article, I'll point you to the good stuff: Wifi Chick, complete with iBook.

Re:WiFi Chick

[alastairm]

ObGeek - Its a TiBook ;-)

Re:WiFi Chick

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you guys so horny and desperate that you'll ogle at anyone with tits?

Re:WiFi Chick

[SpacePunk]

It's not that, it's a man thing. Something you wouldn't understand. Human males look at human females tits, asses, and other body parts. I don't expect you to understand it being that you are either female, a eunich, or gay. It's as natural for men to look at tits as it's natural for women to bitch about it while wearing the most revealing/tight clothes they can legally wear.

Re:WiFi Chick

[CrAlt]

Yes...

Hey is that a iBook?

Sorry.

[turgid]

I feel so sorry for you. You're obviosuly quite young and earnest, and probably a very Nice Guy(TM). You've made the fundamental mistake that many young men make (myself included), amd that is that everyone else is just like you. Bitter experience will tech you otherwise. Go out, chat up loads of other young women and have a good time. Don't take things so seriously jsut now. I know, it's easier said than done, but this is advice from someone who's been there and done it. If only I'd known 10 years ago what I know now. In a few years' time, you'll probably meet someone you love much more and in a different way and it will all become moot.

Re:Sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

she just FUCKING WALKED PAST MY ROOM TOPLESS AND SHUT THE DOOR IN MY FUCKING FACE.

Yuck. She doesn't sound worth it to me. Cut the whore out of your life and move on!

Re:Sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

Cut the whore out of your life and move on

That might be a little difficult if she's shagging his roommate. I don't think getting over her is the issue here, he said he doesn't mind them having sex in a hotel or something.

On the bright side, this whore is probably not going to stay with his roommate for long either.

Star Trek triangulation for the masses

[GerbilSocks]

Wi-Fi networks essentially accomplish the same feat using a sub-pairing of ultra-banding technologies similiar to cell phone towers. It is an interesting technique that should make wireless networking available to the masses and at a much sweeter price point than currently available. Are we soon to see a Star Tre-like array with their triangulation of their tricorders?

Green Gathering

[BeCre8iv]

This is on my doorstep, its my local culture and the the comparison with burning-man is a little off the mark.

the BGG is an activists gathering, while there is music at night, by day it is not a hedonists paradise like Burning-Man but more a massive sustainability workshop where you can learn about non-violent resistance through to how to get web without a mains socket.

People on /. tend to see the iTrike as a festival gimmik that is less than practical, when it is realy a high profile proof of concept with a little humour thrown in.

I am realy glad the BGG got slashdotted because it rarely gets a mention in the UK, let alone internationally.

BTW - Heds from overseas looking for a Burningman Type experience should try Glastonbury festival - the BGG is for serious activists, travelers and the free-festival harcore, the first thing you notice is that there is no branding or commercialism on site which is wierd to say the least in this day and age.

As for cost... its difficult to know. Short of the tech itself, the iTrike is probably recycled bits and bobs from...

Rinky-Dink
http://www.baka.co.uk/rinky/

Raymundo's Renewable Lounge
http://www.ray-mundo.co.uk/

and some road protest site somewhere.

Re:Green Gathering

[DNS-and-BIND]

"There will be healers offering Cranio Sacral Therapy, Kinesiology, Bowen Technique, Inversion Therapy, Sound Healing, Colour Healing and Hopi Ear Candles"

And anyway, I thought Burning Man had the patent on "no branding or commercialism on site". Anyway, what about this?

Tree Energy Workshop - Friday Morning
Dave Bradshaw has lived and worked in the woods for many years. He now creates beautiful and inspirational furniture and wooden jewellery.

Hahahah....he loves the trees so much he chops up their rotting corpses and sells them for profit. Nice.

Re:Green Gathering

[TomV]

Sure there were healers. And sure they took payment. But there's a big difference between Katrina from Oxford getting in for free because she was offering Shiatsu for whatever amount seemed affordable (or in several cases for free) and fair rather than the 30 an hour she charges me as a regular client outside the festival, and huge Coke, Vodaphone and Carlsberg logos everywhere. There were plenty of small stallholders doing business. There were no major listed companies doing business. I think that's the distinction which was being drawn.

Hahahah....he loves the trees so much he chops up their rotting corpses and sells them for profit. Nice.

Trees have been known to benefit from pruning. trees have been known to drop branches in storms. And knowledge about woodwork can enable people to become more self-sufficient to a greater extent than knowledge about metalwork (also on offer at the BGG) or how plastic factories work.)

What's so evil about making some money? Making money isn't evil, it's essential. Certain approaches to making money are more or less unpleasant than others, that's all.

tV

Re:Green Gathering

[DNS-and-BIND]

Making money isn't evil, it's essential.

WHAT!!??? Please turn in your Green Party membership card immediately. You will shortly be receiving a visit from the People's Commissariat, after which you will be relocated to a re-education camp for further indoctrination.

Re:Yeah! It's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie c

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, terrorism is much more efficient.

OPEN SORES + 5 USERS == RAMPANT SODOMY

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot Stats
time: 02:40:09
uptime: 13 days, 5:14, 5 users,
load average: 0.19, 0.34, 0.30
processes: 87
totalhits: 684865910

T4C0'5 455pu55y i5 pwn3d.

No, do not try Glastonbury

[Anonymous Coward]

Glastonbury (actually Pilton) is constantly under harassment by the local Conservatives (read Republicans) who try to shut it down. It is now costing a fortune to maintain security and the quality of life around the area is suffering for several weeks in summer. It is also very difficult to get tickets outside the UK. The last thing we need is ticketless foreign stoners wandering around and giving the right-wingers on the council an excuse to stop it for good.

Re:No, do not try Glastonbury

[adelayde]

Conservatives (read Republicans)

I would say for our US readers, Conversatives (read somewhat left of Democrats). ;)

Re:No, do not try Glastonbury

[BeCre8iv]

all true... but its still the nearest thing to Burning-Man in the UK - much closer than the BGG which would dissapoint the politically inactive fun seeker.

Back in the day - Glasto was very international, you would meet people from every continent, this year was very much lacking. There has always been some local objection, which has made the situation worse but the further people travel, the more likely they are to take in the more traditional tourist sites in the area which is holding the local economy up at the moment.

Re:No, do not try Glastonbury

[Library Spoff]

>> Back in the day - Glasto was very international

hmm. if i remember it was mostly americans trying to sell you `sunshine` acid. When you pointed out they hadn't been available since about 1967 they tended to go away quite quickly.

mind you I did buy a piece of playing card the first time I went. *ahem*

Re:No, do not try Glastonbury

[binarybum]

Conversatives (read somewhat left of Democrats).

I would say for our English speaking readers, Conversatives (read with a confused tone due to lack of recognition of the word).

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[Anonymous Coward]

Cup your ear to the door, and wank like you've never wanked before. Then at climax, barge in and cum on your roommate's ass. That'll show who's boss.

Feeping Creaturism?

[inode_buddha]

well, this is pretty nifty, wireless and all. My friends 1982 Cadilac doesn't have that, but he *swears* it has a power ass-scratcher...

hmmm chicks

[muyuubyou]

The average slashdotter must be now drooling at the sexy chicks . Whatever keeps women within 10ft and can be built from spare hardware in their parents' basement is OK for the average slashdotter.

NOT BurningMan

[ynohoo]

Burning Man was based on the likes of Stonehenge Free Festival (1973-84) which got closed down by Maggie Thatcher for having too much fun.

This is more like a church picnic for eco-types.

I prefer...

[Anonymous Coward]

...a foor-hooved wireless access.

MARES RULE!

What if you couldn't go to the festival otherwise?

[LouisvilleDebugger]

Can't I just go to my favorite coffee shop in town to have some real java and run into a friend or two when I feel like it, and just chill out and have fun? Often, the answer is, not if I don't have my email-enabled cell phone so my server or my boss can call me if there's a problem.

The 'net can indeed encroach on our busy lifestyles, but it can be liberating, too.

Then again, one of my primary hobby is cave exploration, and they ain't made the cell phone that will work down there (though it is technically possible using extreme low frequency RF.)

Costs.

[adelayde]

Here are the costs for this (in Euros):

- Satellite terminal and dish: 5,000
- Buffalo Tech Base stations x 5: 750
- Assorted cabling: 50
- Home made wireless bits: 150
- Home built rack-mount firewall: 1,000
- Dodge D50 s/h: 3,5000
- Rickshaw: 1,000 (guessed)
- Speakers and Amp, Mixer, Batteries: 1,000
- Solar+Wind+Batteries: 10,000 (guess)
- Other bits and bobs: 100

So quite expensive really, obviously you could this for a lot cheaper.

Re:Costs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like your livng for your hardware MAN, simplify....

Too expensive, MAN. Yeah pretty abacus made out
of woodland nuts Man yeah, fight the pigs yeah! Hug the trees. Not have a bath for two weeks.

Big Green Gathering != Burning Man

[GusCubed]

It's a lot more laid back, much more of a family affair.

However I'm not too sure how popular people tapping away on laptops would be - my experience of the Big Green Gathering would lend me to expect they would get lots of pitying looks from most of the crusties.

I went to one outside Leeds a couple of years back, and it was great fun. All electricity used is generated on site, using solar panels, windmills and pedal power - which means that unless a band has lots of energetic fans, they tend not to get too loud.

On a side note, some Greenpeace reps were trying to get donations to get their vehicles back after they'd been impounded at an anti-GM protest the week before. They didn't seem to take too kindly to the suggestion that they should use public transport, cycle or walk instead of ride around in clapped-out diesel-guzzling second-hand ambulances and buses.

Re:Big Green Gathering != Burning Man

[Anonymous Coward]

On a side note, some Greenpeace reps were trying to get donations to get their vehicles back after they'd been impounded at an anti-GM protest the week before. They didn't seem to take too kindly to the suggestion that they should use public transport, cycle or walk instead of ride around in clapped-out diesel-guzzling second-hand ambulances and buses.

Wow. I bet you are the kind of person who makes fun of vegetarians who wear leather shoes.

Yeah, Greenpeace actions sometimes use cars, even busses and lorries. That's because we generally have to use a big pile of gear, and a huge number of people who have come from all across the country by train and bus to some meeting point miles away from where the action takes place. These people and this gear has to be shifted, secretly, from London or wherever they meet to the place to the action, without drawing any attention to them.

Sure, they could cycle or walk, or use public transport. The problem is that if 150 people try to take the bus, out to the country, to a field full of GM maize, people tend to get rather suspicious. If 100 people try to cycle through London, carrying high strength chains and banners and climbing gear, the police tend to take notice.

On the other hand, Greenpeace could use a few cars, and hired mini=busses etc. Considering 80 or 90% of the people on a Greenpeace action don't own a car, I think that using a car a few times a year to take action against environmental crimes is fair enough.

You see, the reason he didn't like your suggestion, was because you were giving smart-arse advice about something you know nothing about,

And I'm sure you weren't the only person who did that to him that day. I've done a fair amount of voluntary public engagement work on environmental issues. Without fail, you always get people who have to come and try and find ways to "catch you out". They'll quiz you about your lifestyle and your house trying to find something they can say "Ha! That's not very environmentally friendly is it? Your such a hypocrit!!"

Guess what, dude? Greenpeace activists aren't holding themselves up as perfect examples of people leading completely sustainable and perfectly Green lives. We are people like everyone else. We have to get to work, heat our houses and enjoy our lives like anyone else. I am fully aware that my lifestyle is not entirely sustainable and environmentally friendly. But that's not the point. I am making a big effort to lead the most sustainable and environmental lifestyle I can. I've still got a long way to go, but I think I'm already pretty far ahead of your average UK citizen, and I'm improving all the time.

In fact, and I know this might be a shocking revelation, Greenpeace itself even owns a few cars, because, for example, it wants to send representatives to festivals all over the country, and they generally have to take a tent, a table, a bunch of campaign materials and a whole load of other stuff which would be impossible to move by pulic transport. But then, Greenpeace NEVER said people shouldn't own or use cars. They might have said people should avoid using them as much as they can. But that's a totally different message.

I find it quite bizarre, that people see someone who is trying to live an environmentally friendly life and they find it necessary to criticize them, when they wouldn't try to criticize someone who wasn't making any effort at all.

Disclaimer: Yes, I am a Greenpeace activist.

Re:Big Green Gathering != Burning Man

[GusCubed]

Well I guess you or anyone else will never get to read this but..

No I don't make fun of leather-wearing vegetarians, just the ones who eat fish (and even chicken) and claim they are still vegetarian.

But I don't find it necessary to criticise people who lead an environmental life, I think it is highly laudable and I think that the environmental damage we are wreaking on this planet is probably the single greatest danger mankind as a whole is facing.

I'm not about to get into a pissing contest about who has the best eco-friendly credentials, but I'm sure I'm not as bad as you think I am.

Maybe you haven't realised this but nearly everyone is concerned about the state of the planet and the damage we are doing to it, but given the chance they will point the finger at hypocritical, impractical, eco-evangelists and laugh, mainly because the whole holier-than-thou attitude is really grating.

You, my freind, seem to be a typical example of the humourless, do-as-I-say hypocrite that makes it easy for Joe Public to feel better about being environmentally lazy, simply because they don't want to be like you.

Disclaimer: Yes I am a Friend of the Earth

Hippies

[lewko]

"The Big Green Gathering is a annual get together of people attempting to provide inspiration and education on alternative approaches to daily living

Uh huh... Next year's challenge: A rickshaw mounted solar powered shower and soap.

Re:Hippies

[TomV]

The solar-powered showers were admittedly fantastic again this year (and there was a lot more water available at Cheddar than used to be the case at Upper Pertwood (the old site for the BGG).

But for serious cleanliness, the various on-site saunas were even better. Big shout out to all at Sam's Magic Hat sauna - built in a converted old caravan capable of holing maybe 20 people if you *really* crammed those sweaty bods together ;-), with a woodburning stove, cold showers in the entrance and a full-blown cold plungepool. All funded from optional donations, and founded on the rather fab principle that everyone deserves the opportunity to be clean.

tV

Re:Hippies

[six025]

Ah, cheers for reminding me about the best way to get clean. Soap free and loving it ... Was introduced to Sam's Magic Hat sauna this year, lovely lovely people :) And this is getting towards the whole point of these festivals isn't it? We don't need all this c*rporate sh*te to exist - just to be clean for example. It is unnecessary and just plain evil in so many ways.

Flamebait?

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't flamebait, it's the truth.

Odd, is it really useful?

[Daath]

We have had rickshaws/bicycle taxis in Copenhagen (Denmark) with wireless access since the beginning of this year (some call them mobile net cafes). I wonder how many actually use this?!

Re:Odd, is it really useful?

[adelayde]

I know that there have been taxis with Internet access in them for a while. I presume that if they are popular, then why not the greener, peddal-powered variety? Do you know how they are powered (the terminal and connexion I mean) and how they achieve their connexion? Do you have a link to some information about them?

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[Anonymous Coward]

English is not my first language, so I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Are you suggesting he should fuck the first hole he encounters?

Use a dictionary

[Anonymous Coward]

Look up hypocrite
YAW. HTH. HAND.

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh God! This is the funniest thing I have read in so long. You sir, I doff my cap to you, are a bl00dy comic genius. How I am going to cope with this terrible fit of the giggles here in my very staid office block is beyond me.

Bravo!

Hmm

[t_allardyce]

Sounds alot like something freeserve would do to tie in with their hippie-style tv ads. :P

Re:Hmm

[adelayde]

Funnily enough we were asked by Glastonbury to do live streaming from the main stage. Freeserve was apparently to provide the distribution capacity (as they were also going to do for the Stop the War demonstrations in London). On both instances, they flaked out on the deal.

We ended up doing Glastonbury, but not with the main stage, as their were too many people taking their cuts to actually page for a 36 hour continuous 200Kb/s video stream (which is what they wanted). Funnily enough the company that were involved (Tornado) seemed to still manage to claim they had a satellite terminal to do it, when in reality they were using a load of BT ISDN lines.

On the cutting edge.

Burning Man

[Anonymous Coward]

The festival here is The Big Green Gathering, which sounds like a low-key, English version of Burning Man

...which sounds like a low-key, Californian version of Glastonbury.

Cool demo, needs some revision in the implement.n

[agentk]

Conventional distributed mains and fossil fuel generated power are disallowed, leading to a demonstration of inventive technologies that are hopefully less harmful to the planet.

Unfortunately the rocket that put the sattellites in orbit was a tad less than "earth-friendly" :) (Never mind all the messy heavy manufacturing processes that produced all of the gear)

Next time it might be fun to try something more decentralized, and owe more step away from the military-industrial complex (which admittedly is bringing us lots of this great tech). E.g. an ad-hoc network of stations routing back to the main uplink, or a bunch of shortwave transmitters.

reed

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I'm suggesting he should fuck the hole that is most distant from the currently occupied hole i.e. the other end. Either that or go the nutcracker, I'll let you work that one out yourself.

Stats of a /.

[adelayde]

Anyone interested in seeing what the stats look like for a page being slashdotted can visit this URL:
http://mirror.us.psand.net/cgi-bin/awstats.p l?conf ig=mirror.us.psand.net

It's interesting to see what browsers and platforms /.'ers use as well as where they come from.

Re:Cool demo, needs some revision in the implement

[adelayde]

"Unfortunately the rocket that put the sattellites in orbit was a tad less than "earth-friendly""

While a good point, if you read the text, it refers to 'Conventional distributed mains and fossil fuel generated power', so we are discussing sources of power here, not communications equipment. It's true that it's not at all perfect, whilst it's generally agreed that BP make the best solar panels, they are also a petrochemical company that a party to the industry that is ruining the environment and heating up our planet.

I guess the answer is, if you are not preaching, and this article is not preaching I hope, then any little you do to help, helps. Better to do something in the right direction than nothing at all I reckon.

Interestingly enough, one of the manufacturers of satellite internet terminals is Rayceon. Yes the very same whose missiles the US military used to kill innocent people in a Bahgdad market earlier this year and the same whose military vehicle appeared on the front of September's Linux Journal as an example of how great Linux is. It's a really strange world out there full of contrasts and contradictions.

Incidentally, I shall be cancelling my LJ subscription.

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[adelayde]

I reckon this was one of the best responses to the article, at least the comments arising from it were some of the most enlightening, better than simply calling people tree-hugging hippies etc.

Shame it got moderated to -1

Reminds me of MagicBike

[minitrue]

If you're in New York, you should check out magicbike.

No, I'm New Here

[New Here]

No, I'm New Here

Ignore that relay truck

[Teahouse]

Yes, they magically use a 3-wheel cart as a magical internet kiosk. Let's just ignore the 6 ton equipment truck they had nearby with the actual uplink and all the real equipment.

BakSCII

[Anonymous Coward]

Mobile Wireless Internet Access Point

"The BAkSCII is a wireless internet cafe, ready for instant deployment whereever and whenever the need arises. Constructed around 4 Open Brick computers, 4 TFT flatscreens, one hub, a 12 V battery and a wireless network station, the BAkSCII was originally intended to be mobilized on a Bakfiets ["Box-bike", i.e. a bicycle with a large cargo box on the front] during the N5M4 TML. Since ASCII's relocation due to an unreasonable rent increase on their space, the BakSCII has been the core component of their internet cafe at the squatted EasyCityspace."

More info:
http://www.scii.nl/ascii/projects/bakscii

I should add ....

[taniwha]

Despite the upthread comment about '14 yearolds on drugs' I have to point out that people under about 20 are pretty rare at BM - I bring my kids (including a 12 yr old) and finding other kids for them to hang out with is pretty hard (even with 30,000 people there) - partly it's because it is a very adult crowd (14 yr old kids really don't have the wherewithall to rent a truck, fill it with food and water and drive it 100s of miles from anywhere), and partly because it's the week before the labor day holiday weekend and in the US most kids (not mine) start school before or during that week

Re:[OT] Feeling Low? Read this!

[metalligoth]

Ten years of friendship? Obviously her friendship didn't mean much if she's already banging your best buddy. Sounds like it may be time to find some new friends. Easier said than done, I know. Listen to me, I've been there... If you want to hear about some of the crazy shit I have to put up with, I link to my site above. Oh, and just so I don't get modded offtopic, I like connecting to the Net over my cell phone using Sprint PCS, which is usually at about dual ISDN speed. If my friends and I are ever at a coffee shop or park with no Wi-Fi, I turn on Ad Hoc sharing over my 802.11b card, and everyone is able to get online! Funfunfun. I plan on doing it at PSG next Summer, which is a fun Pagan festival held in the middle of nowhere. (aka Ohio)

Beep beep boop *whistle*

[Oshuma.Shiroki]

"Three-wheeled Wireless Internet"

They're called R2 units.