Notacon: Geeks, Community, and Technology

jgoeke writes "I attended Notacon last year and was impressed how cool it was for a first-year event. This year the organizers seem to be outdoing themselves and have quite an impressive speaker list, including Fark.com's Drew Curtis, Richard Thieme and CSS guru Eric Meyer. Presentation topics range from community radio to network security to MUDs. For events, the 'Anything but Ethernet' contest looks equally promising (essentially, create the most convolunted network set-up you can NOT using Ethernet). Notacon runs from April 8th through the 10th, so thankfully there's plenty of time for me to put it on my calendar!"

Comments

Anything But Ethernet

[dolphinling]

(essentially, create the most convolunted network set-up you can NOT using Ethernet).

Can you say "Carrier Pigeons"?

Re:Anything But Ethernet

[dolphinling]

Replying to myself now that I've read the article... (w00t, first and second posts, and they're both ontopic!)

Slowest: No artificial slowdowns allowed! Scrounge up the most decrepit, pathetic, but awesome-in-its-heyday gear you can find. 300 baud modems are a good starting point, but never underestimate the possibilities of paper tape streaming between the punch and the reader. Scoring in this category is purely at the judges' discretion, and coolness points will be awarded for anything involving Morse code, acoustic couplers, or tin cans. Input and output need not be computerized. (A daisywheel printout of the transmission is fine.)

This one seems really easy: Feed the data to the pigeons, and wait for... um... digestion.

City

[SafteyMan]

Cleveland, Ohio?!?! I would go if it weren't so far away.

Re:City

[Anonymous Coward]

*Cue shot of Hullabalooza bus coming to fork in road with the options of Cleveland and Cinncinnati, then turning around and heading back the way they came.* :)

Radio broadcast

[Cthefuture]

Jason Scott (BBS Documentary) announced his Notacon radio project. It is, as he classifies it, "63 hours of who the hell knows" and will run the entirety of Notacon.

It would be totally excellent if they would broadcast some or all of the speakers. I can't attend the event but I would love to listen in.

It's all about community, right? Let everyone hear the speakers. ;)

Re:Radio broadcast

[sinnergy]

I don't know if he's going to do that. However, we have a number of mp3s from the speakers last year on the website.

Re:Radio broadcast

[Jason Scott]

The way that it's going to work is that the radio station will incorporate some of the talks, depending on a number of factors. The priority schedule works this way:

1. Content created for or by Notacon
2. Content created for NotaconRadio
3. Pre-recorded content created for NotaconRadio
4.

We're not going to do music shows, but otherwise it will be a wide variety of stuff, going for 63 straight hours. Write me for more details.

Submission

[Anonymous Coward]

"(essentially, create the most convolunted network set-up you can NOT using Ethernet)

• Ever try to make sense of anything on the UPN network? I'd say that's about as convoluted as it gets.

Acoustic couplers and tin cans

[a.koepke]

They mentioned both of these in the article, I think combining them might work well.

Get a couple of tin cans with an acoustic coupler in each one. Have some good wire between them for transmitting the information. I don't think normal string would work well since the volume drop would be a bit much but maybe some thin steel cable or something like that would give better results.

I dunno really, but something like that would be a really cool way to reuse old gear

Re:Acoustic couplers and tin cans

[k_187]

that's what I thought of too, but it would be soooooo much better if you displayed the data, and had a guy at each end, one saying one, zero, zero, one.... and the other typing it in.

Re:Acoustic couplers and tin cans

[a.koepke]

Or you can maybe use morse code :)

Tap out the morse code on the tin can and the other guy then has to decode it and type out the message

Re:Acoustic couplers and tin cans

[Myself]

Normal string should work fine, it's the membranes on each end that you want to improve. Tin cans only resonate on a narrow band of frequencies. Paper cups are a good start.

Anyway, you've suggested a good first hop, but what do you do with the data once it comes out over the other coupler's serial port? I know you've got some old Lantronix rs232-over-token-ring gear sitting around, don't you?

Now keep going..

(BTW, I'm planning a "jam session" after the contest judging, where everyone can graft their entries together into the world's weirdest data transmission setup.)

Re:Acoustic couplers and tin cans

[joto]

that's what I thought of too, but it would be soooooo much better if you displayed the data, and had a guy at each end, one saying one, zero, zero, one.... and the other typing it in.

And of course, the guy listening to this on the other end, will morse 0 or 1 with a flashlight to someone on a mountain that will in turn use semaphore flags to relay them to a guy that will throw pies at either a man or a woman (depending on zero or one). A blindfolded guy will listen to the them and put zeros or ones down on notes which will be transported by carrier pigeons to a fax-machine that will send them to a computer fax-modem that will send them over a quantum-encrypted line to a bunker where it will detonate small or large bombs that will be recorded by some seismic equipment that will write the data in standard seismic data-files on tape-reels, which will be transported by courier on a plane to a laboratory that will interpret the tapes and send the decoded message to the final destination as uuencoded mime email.

Re:Acoustic couplers and tin cans

[DarthStrydre]

Nope, but there's always... no, never mind...

BTW, I think I've finally found Myself.

place your bets now

[bersl2]

How much beer will Drew consume? There isn't an official over/under, but IIRC the headline announcing his appearance at Notacon had something about the hotel bar needing to quadruple its usual keg count.

Re:Who gives a fuck.

[sinnergy]

Actually, Drew's not running it and I'm not ring-wing. Fat, well, yeah. Balding, well, kinda. I hardly make my money with boobies, that's for sure.

Penguicon

[Eil]

Don't forget Penguicon in Novi, MI (near Detroit. It's a Linux/Sci-Fi con that's just a whole lot of fun with plenty of games, celebrities, panels, parties, and so on. Check it out if you're in the midwest.

Brief doubletake, but:

[David McBride]

Notacon is not notcon.

Speakers

[stephthegeek]

I'll also be speaking in case anyone wants to see lil ol' me! I've never actually met Drew, or been to Cleveland. I'm definitely looking forward to this.