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Marc Merlin's 2014 Burning Man Report For Tech Geeks
marcmerlin writes Haven't been to Burning Man, or missed this year's and would like a summary? Marc Merlin has posted a summary of this year with full GPS map, pictures from the air, and everything neatly categorized, with a track of his 127 miles of biking to visit as many camps as possible. Also, if you plan on going, check out the tips at the bottom of the page.
someone told me that DARPA types test out their latest mind control E-M gadgetry at Burning Man...
but to be more on-topic, Burning Man might be a good experience for a "geek"...
forget all the nonsense 'gift economy' techno-hippie blah blah...it's a bunch of artists, weird academics, ravers, drug experimenters, *rich people* who want to pretend to be those things at a high per-day cost, and of course creepers looking to scam or take advantage of people
it's camping in the desert with 60,000 people
now, in my observation, if you ask a typical burner "What is Burning Man all about?" you'll see an interesting linguistic phenomenon: recursive language ontology
the answer to the question is (all too often) not a fact or statement...the answer to "What is Burning Man all about?" is in part **the act of explaining the experience in a mystical, mysterious way**
it's the status of having been there, to say that you know what it's about, not the act of doing drugs or camping or looking at desert art
behold: http://www.burningman.com/what...
now, that said...if you're curious, GO FOR IT!
just do your thing and enjoy the nonsense for what it is...there is some really cool art and tech on display
Thank you Dave Raggett
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
TFA is great...it's what *I* would want to see...i have burner friends and they always show me 200 pictures of their little group in the same areas...nothing that shows a general survey of what is happening
Thank you Dave Raggett
I don't believe that Burning Man is destructive.
But it is. A lot of energy is consumed just getting people there, resulting in a lot of emissions. A lot of stuff is burned that shouldn't be, in spite of attempts to prevent it. What about a festival that's inherently creative? I guess that's not as fun as setting shit on fire.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Burning Man looks like a tentative near-future where robots work the menial crap for us and as we dip our toes in the waters of Culture-like leisure everyone experiments being a hippie and a DIYer artisan and a stoner and a furry and a badass craftsman all at once, and you know what? I'm glad it exists. Bring along the rabbit ears, I'll bring the swiss army knife, and let's see what we can make work.
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
True enough, but the Burning Man environment has one great advantage for nerds: it's an ultimate test of hardware reliability for your project. If the tech product you're about to introduce will survive BM, it will work in any home or business.