rC3 (2020) on CCC Event Blog

rC3 Call for Subtitlers

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 16:18:37 +0000

C3Subtitles?!

Have you been hit by lockdown, you’re bored and you are craving for more chaos event feeling? Are you sitting at home and watching recorded Talks from rC3 and past Chaos events?
Bring a little bit of rC3 to your home and help with improving quality and accessibility of the CCC recordings! You can work on the subtitles from the comfort of your home, as long or as short as you like to!

How does this work?
The transcripts are generated automatically by speech recognition software and improved and corrected by you. Since talks contain lots of domain-specific terms and may have speakers with heavy accents, this is very much necessary. The next step is again automated: aligning the subtitles to the audio. Again, the result of this process is verified by you. Afterwards, the subtitles are finished!

For a more in-depth description and how-tos, take a look at c3subtitles Wiki. You can find the current status of any talk in our database on c3subtitles.de.

If you have any questions, contact us via any of the channels below!

You need subtitles? Let us know which talks you are interested in!

What if I want subtitles for a different stage?

You are part of an organisation / Erfa / Hackerspace (Chaos-West, WikiPaka, ChaosTrawler, Chaoszone, Sendezentrum, Bitwäscherei Zürich, c-base, hacc München, OIO, Chaosstudio – and all the others) which recorded and published videos during rC3?
And you would like to improve accessibility of your talks via subtitles.
Send us a message via Rocket-Chat in #subtitles or another way, see below:
What do you need:

A contact person for us,
A file containing a Fahrplan-File,
Publicly available videos, and
Motivation to take accessibility into your own hands

(Spoiler: the faster you are, the higher the chance for automatically generated transcripts by Trint – we still have credits!)

By the way: With subtitles you can make the video content machines searchable! Search for this query on media: “war das perfekte Argument dabei..”! Media can already do that: Check 14 minutes in on media.ccc.de/v/rc3-11583-rc3_eroffnung.

Contact:

#subtitles in Rocket Chat
#subtitles in IRC
E-Mail: subtitles -!-at-!- die-orga.org
@c3subtitles on Twitter

#rC3: Es war einmal kein Congress …

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 15:45:08 +0000

Once upon a time, the people of the nerds wanted to celebrate their annual festival. But the lands were struck by a pestilence, and it was dangerous to go out and meet other entities. The nerds lamented, for their festival was the highest holiday in their world. But they were all wise creatures, and since wise creatures do not let other creatures come to harm, the committee decided that the celebration would be canceled in the year of the plague.

But the people were strong and wise, and so they pondered. And someone suggested to create an enormous artificial island, which everyone could enter with their avatar, instead of their physical presence.

But the committee was tired, and they asked who would build this island. Many, many words were passed back and forth, responded to, struck through again,and painted in gay colours, because a newly hatched idea needs time to grow.
And, finally, a few princesses stepped ahead, and declared they would lead the journey. They gathered builders and knights, saddled dragons and unicorns, and the committee gave them provisions, a book full of lore and their own stories and experiences, and a magical pigeon (conforming to RFC 2549). And they went forth to find the place where this island could spawn.

They journeyed across hills and mountains, passing the roaring rivers of Stackoverflow, the huge flocks of the green pastures of the comments, the gaudy market places of video jugglers and podcast artisans, and the homely homes of the World Wide Web. After many weeks they reached a small valley, where grass was green, and space was aplenty. and so they agreed to build the island here, in the Land of the Unchartered Internet, in the rC3 Valley.

The princesses sent messengers on unicorns and dragons to the home villages of their hackspaces to bring them the message that a place had been found, but some of their messengers got lost in the thickets of online fora, and their messages never reached their destination.

The builders began to plan, the knights explored the area, to find how it could be secured against Spam, Downtime, and Boring Humans. Jugglers and messengers rode the lands, carrying signal drums, posting announcements to gather more Wizards of System Administration, and Masters of Code Structure, and to inform the people. The land was empty and barren, and so our heroes commenced by creating a lake to separate the island from the realms of the Land of the Unchartered Internet. To cross this lake, they would need boats, one for each guest, and so the shipmasters from the tribe of Tickets&Presale were asked, and they were all delighted to build the boats, and distribute them amongst the guests.

The clan of Eventphone prepared to equip the island with a system that would allow communication over vast distances, and Heaven itself sent their Angels to support the creation and care of the island.
Many creatures and villages contributed, and many small valleys and hills, rivers, pastures and utilities and airports, churches and halls were erected.
Then the day of presale arrived and a big pack came running! They were standing at the shore of the lake and wanted to cross – and nobody could move. The numbers were too high.

But the ship-builders of the clan of Presale and Tickets were untiring! They erected one small ark after another to let as many nerds as possible travel to the island.
They built and drank Mate and built again. They convinced the Knights of Infrastructure, and the Software Mages, to enlarge the island by another bit, just one more acre! (It mitigated that dragons were forbidden to spit fire, so no more computing serfs burned down).
And the Committee sent a pigeon and donned bricks and beams, so a place for even more guests could be made.
Finally the moment came. Wherever they looked, no more bare metal could be found for more boats.

The day of the festival broke, the nerds entered their boats with their avatars, and traveled to the island, so that every so often, the havens could not accept arriving boats, for not a single berth was vacant.

Everyone had come!
The Grand Celebration could begin! In the background, hammers could still be heard, as the opening banner was hoisted in a dignified ceremony. The Mages of Hotpatches and of Software groaned under the rush of Nerds. Luckily the colourful people soon distributed amongst the different villages of the assemblies. But the halls were not sufficiently filled with creatures yet, such that a Dark Magic fell over the land. A magical attack of the dDOS demanded all their prowess, so the islands would not fall to this magical storm. And since this is the way with magical storms, in those times no one could reach the islands. So when night fell, all knights, mages, unicorns, and dragons joined their forces to reinforce the fortress walls, and to kindle more protective fires.

The villages and clans and tribes came together and began to spawn more content. For more content would calm magical attackers, distract them, and also delight the people with their sparkling, blinkenlighting, and beeping, and it would be very useful overall.

A new dawn broke … and wild jubilation filled the islands, and enlightened the data travelers. Gaily and lovely tetris melodies replaced the lamenting sound of hurdy-gurdies, well-known signs on magical tiles, which even made sense as a Tic Tac Toe; well-known ritual buildings like a Silk Road, and even a postal service were created. More amusement was provided, even for those regrettable angels who missed doing many tasks common in previous festivals. The Bottle Collection Simulator was treasured, and so was searching and finding of exits, and filling in forms A38, B38, and C38.

But Peace was not won yet. Another magical attack! The Curse of Invisibility stroke the islands. But our brave heroes of Server Fortress fought the problems of the Demon Name System and prevailed, so the magical guide posts would guide travelers to the island again.

Tired heroes need breaks. Thus, Mate, Talks – and something against Boredom.
Because heroes, when they can not be heroic, get bored. And so in the whole land, quests were announced, to earn a knight’s decoration, and win badges for heroic deeds. As as things so often are, the first heroes found many who followed them, because everyone wanted to gain the grace of the Waving Cat, and the regard of their clans.

Though some of these quests were highly elaborate, and those who sought to win them had to follow confusing paths that were misguiding and led into the deepest dungeons, every Hackspace created their own medals, and there were plenty of them, so every hero could earn theirs if they tried.

And since many of those heroes became thirsty, and hungry for music, more festivities were made. So many that, in the end, you could not find any more room for your celebrations and even rooms of rest became places of celebration. Luckily, this was well known among the long-established population, and the healers of the clans also gave their blessing.

The Festival went on, day and night, for the seventh part of a moon’s revolution. Travelers to the island told the inhabitants of the Land of the Unchartered Internet about their journey and the island, and even though not all areas were easy to find, and some parts even seemed to hide themselves, the nerds were happy, for they had missed dearly their festivities and the opportunities to gather with all their fellow hackerspace-villages. The opportunity to exchange stories and experience, and to learn together, is why this festival was so much desired, why it had to take place!

But the day came when the festival was to end, and everyone was very sad, because it had been a wonderful, magnificent event. As the builders had explained in the beginning: artificial islands are not meant to exist forever, for it would tire the data witches and bit mages too much to keep the barriers stable, and the island afloat. So the celebration had to end.

But the princesses and builders, the masons and mages, they all wanted to make another present to the people. So they discussed what they could give to the people, and at the end, they concluded: The one and only worthy treasure would be the blueprints of the island. Because it had taken many mages and knights, and princesses, and builders, and masons, and so many more to erect this island, it should also be possible to build many small islands, and to connect them with magical guide posts. So every hackspace clan could build their own small island, and you could visit each other, while the pestilence held the land in its claws.

They wrote la large declaration, and sent it with RFC-conforming pigeons into all corners of the land: The mages would rest a while, and then create a place to publish the blueprints. (Everyone agreed that Alpha Centauri would not suffice.)

The villages received the pigeons, and read the plans, and created their own islands. And steady traffic arose between the islands, and clanspeople visited each other and hacked, because this is what these people, also called Chaos, do: They work together for a better world. And they all knew: Only if they would stick together and stand together could these dark ages be survived.

And They All Hacked Happily Ever After!

#rC3: Farewell

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:46 +0000

Sometime on the morning of Day 4, with the core orga-jitsi’s clock showing hour 48, we sat together for the handover. We pondered, mused, nerded, and asked what we could write to conclude. We settled on a well-known popculture-quote that the 2D-world-developers of this event used to describe their internal channel:

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”
— Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

At the end of this event, after 96 hours of remote Chaos Experience, we ourselves cannot put into words what happened. That it really worked!
It started sluggishly, picked up speed, was stopped abruptly – only to pick up again all the more strongly and colorful.
On day 0, Jitsi worked. On day 1, the tickets came online, the central platform was already up and running, while the 2D-world was deployed around it. On the second day, the 2D-world was also up and running – at this point our thanks go again to the sponsor ddos24.net. On the third day one question came up more and more urgently: What will happen to this world? How long will it stand? Can’t we just keep it running, remove the off switch? Just 5 minutes longer, please? We wish so, too! But unfortunately it is not possible. We also let it go only with one and a half crying eyes, but the world will dissolve at 05:00 CET on 31.12.2020.

Dismantling will start as usual after the closing. Please take your chairs with you on your way out.
Also remember to bring your personal souvenirs! You can still download your badges until the platform is dismantled (watch out, that’s soon!). The link is located directly at the badges in your user profile.

And then? What happens with the world? And more important: What happens with the code for the world? We will document it and provide a repository in the near future. Then you can set up your own little world.

Until then and about being lonely together:
The Jitsi rooms will be accessible until the first week of January 2021.
Make a date for New Year’s Eve! Form gangs! Use the Jitsi service! Invite the beings you met, take others with you and be there for each other.

As always, at the end of something great, we are wistful, but it helps to reflect on what we can take away: We learned that persistence pays off. Communication can always be a little better. Chaos beings will always surprise you. It takes incredibly dedicated people to make incredible new things happen. Most of all, we would like to give a lot of fluff to all the beings who have helped.

Stay healthy and have a wonderful new year. So long and thanks for all the fish.

#rC3 Gold Sponsor: DDoS24

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 12:07:25 +0000

This year we further extended our cooperation with ddos24.net as an #rC3 Gold Sponsor. We are pleased about the great demand, which we will be able to fully serve again shortly.

#rC3 Chaos Mentors

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 00:36:28 +0000

It’s that time again – the remote Chaos Experience (rC3) is coming! This time with a new format, with tickets for special virtual extra features – we are not sure how many people will visit this new event, nor what will exactly happen. In a way we are all first time visitors, aren’t we? Some people – you too? – may need some support to have a good start.

Who are the Chaos Mentors for?

Are you a member of an underrepresented group in the hacker community, and unsure if you will feel safe and comfortable at a digital distributed event? Or do you have specific needs that make it more difficult to participate for you? Are you interested in topics such as privacy, security, hardware hacking, or network policies, but have so far had little-to-no connection to the community? Perhaps, you’re visiting rC3, but you have the impression that you are not one of these “hackers” and feel you don’t quite fit in?

Then we would like to welcome you to remote Chaos Experience and make it easier for you to get started! Feel welcome at the rC3 with the Chaos mentors!

How does it work?

You’ve come to the right place, and we would like to help you to have an exciting and beautiful stay. At local events like the Congress last year we assign a “Chaospatenkind” to a godparent and a group that suits them. This will of course not work at new kind events like the rC3. So as a first step into full digitality we will be there for you – before and while the event – on different channels for your questions, concerns, needs, or wishes.

Before Congress, the godparents are available for your questions via email (chaosmentors@lists.ccc.de) or via Twitter (@chaosmentors). During Congress, we also offer a “virtual assembly” in the rc3 World and within that world BigBlueButton rooms, where you can meet other Chaos Mentors or “Chaospatenkinder”. We will do our best to keep this assemblys staffed during the event (assembly = that’s how we call the group related meeting places at the congress).

What do I have to do now?

You have to register as soon as possible (this year we are for various reasons much too late…), you can do this here. Please register as soon as possible as we will begin to create the groups on demand with the incoming registrations. Tell us a bit about yourself, for example, what attracted you to remote Chaos Experience, why you turned to the chaos mentors, what you are interested in, and if you have specific needs. This way, we can find a suitable godparent for you and put together a group with similar interests. Your chaos mentor will contact you and your group before the Congress so you can get to know each other. At remote Chaos Experience you are an affinity group and can explore virtually the remote Chaos Experience together.

Why are we doing this?

We ourselves have had a great time at the Congress for 1, 2, 10, or 30 years. This year our well known Congress will be pure digital for the first time – so we will also have our “first time experience”. But we know from our own experience how difficult the first step can be – many Chaosmentors were Chaosmentees at their first Congress. Thoughts like “A big hacker conference, do I even belong here?” are not foreign to us. But do not worry – once the first step is done, great people and the opportunity to learn a lot about yourself await. But the exchange is not a one-way street: the community at the remote Chaos Experience can learn a lot from you as well and thrives from the diversity of the participants. That’s why we want to encourage those who would otherwise hesitate to come without the Chaospat:innen. We focus on people who are not part of the mainly represented group cis, male and white. Of course, we will not exclude anyone.

Chaospat:innen wanted (Chaos mentors)

Of course, we are again looking for the enthusiastic support from friendly, experienced, and reliable mentors this year.

As Chaospat:innen you can help this time answer questions at RocketChat and at the BigBlueButton rooms, generally find answers to questions from Mentees, or just find creative solutions to welcome newbies. It would be great if you have some experience from past digital events like the DiVoC events for example :)

If you feel like taking on a group of newbies and looking after them, please register here. Tell us something about yourself, your interests, and what you know a lot about, so that we can find suitable godchildren for you. Thank you in advance for your support.

Your Security

Also with moving into digital space it is important for us to have a “save harbour” for all participants. If you need help at the remote Chaos Experience, feel unsafe at any place – at Chaospat:innen or elsewhere there are different places where you can find assistance. You can find them at help.ccc.de.

Please note

Running the Chaospat:innen is great, but also a lot of work. Therefore a few requests:

Sign up as soon as possible. We had troubles with our infrastructure and we are way too late already …
Plan Ahead: Please refrain from spontaneously referring people to us. We do not offer guided tours (Persistent Fake News!) and the program is for those who have registered in advance. If you meet people at Congress who are looking for orientation and connection, please support them! Any hacker can become a Chaos Mentor!
Lost Souls: Please don’t refer people to us who are already well connected to the Chaos, and who also don’t belong to a minority, just because it is their first Congress visit. Become their mentors instead, and re-discover Congress with them!
No Tickets: ChaosPatinnen is only available for guests who already have a ticket to Congress. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide tickets.
Help Us Plan: Please make sure to specify your planned times where you want to attend at remote Chaos Experience. This will help us match you up with the mentor who can assist you when you are there!
Call To Action: Sign up at https://godmother.hackers.org.il/

We are looking forward to seeing you at remote Chaos Experience!

the Chaospat:innen

Twitter: @chaospatinnen
Mastodon: @chaospatinnen@chaos.social

#rC3: Takeoff

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 22:09:24 +0000

This is the final blog post in the series while the last bits and bytes are falling into place: Getting Ready for the remote Chaos Experience.

Today we’ll give you some more information that you should definitely remember for rC3. Let’s get to work!

When and where does it start?

The digital gates of rC3 open tomorrow, 27.12.2020, at 12:20 pm with the intro in the stream rC1 and the ticket content at rc3.world .

How do the tickets work?

Current status: The ticket mails have not been sent yet!

Check your mailbox! You will receive a link to the ticket shop at the e-mail address you entered when purchasing your tickets. There you will find one or more links that allow you to register an account on the rC3 platform.

After registering, you will be able to explore the platform on rc3.world. The 2D World will take a few more hours, but as soon as it is accessible, you will also find the entrance in the logged-in area.

We’re moving the link collection to https://links.rc3.world/

Where is the Fahrplan?

You can now find the rC3 timetable at https://rc3.world/rc3/public_fahrplan/.

Some of you have already found and shared various working versions of the timetable. If you have read such a preliminary version, please check again if your favourite talks have moved, and also look around for more exciting talks! More community content, like the self-organised sessions, can be found behind the login.

Where to find help and answers?

The first place to go if you need help or are looking for answers is the Infodesk – maybe even for the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything!

If you experience or witness discrimination or harassment, or just need a person to talk to, you can contact the Awareness Team.

There will also be reporting buttons at strategic places in the plain UI.

Please conduct yourselves according to the principles, which apply to all Chaos events.

What do I have to watch out for if someone is not excellent, so that my data etc. is safe?

This is the internet …

With all our trust in the Chaos community, we would like to remind you not to become careless with your data and your security at rC3 either.

The rC3 welcomes many very capable hackers, makers, whistleblowers and many more – this not only arouses interest in the realisation of the event, but also in the data of the participants. Therefore, please adhere to the basic security rules of the public internet, even in the family chaos circle. Just because we do not sell your data does not make the platform full of beings magically safe!

So be sceptical in the best sense of the word: don’t give out your real name and other identifying data lightly, and don’t give out other people’s data. Think about where you want your face to be shown and understand if someone doesn’t want to turn on the camera. If you do not want to show yourself: Perhaps your cat or your cuddly shark would like to step in?

For the hackers who are already licking their fingers for pentesting and CTFs, we are planning our own test instance of the 2D world. You have found a security hole and are cool? Get in touch with us.

You help us to fix a particularly exciting hack? You deserve praise and recognition. Maybe you’d like to report on it at the next event?

This not only makes rC3 safer for all participants, but also advances open source software a great deal. We are looking forward to many exciting lessons learned.

6-2-1-10 @home

In old congress tradition, we would like to remind you of the 6-2-1 rule for conventions and introduce it to those who don’t know it.

Allow yourself at least per earth rotation:

6 hours of sleep

2 hot meals

1 shower

Per person!

After three quarters of a year of stay-at-home with few incentives to leave our own four walls, we freely add to the rule:

10 minutes of daylight on your face (sun is best, if available)

This may sound trivial to some of you, but 6-2-1 @home is as important as ever. Experienced hackers know that over time your attention span decreases, your patience decreases with it and your eyes need a break from all the LED light. Take regular breaks and remind your fellow beings to follow suit.

What awaits us tomorrow?

We’ve heard the question “What will rC3 be like?” a lot in the past few months, and finding an answer is about as complicated as asking you what it was like at the Congress. The best answer we can give is:

We can only guess what rC3 will be like, because Chaos events have one major difference to other events: we don’t deliver a finished construct to look and marvel at. That would not sweep very many hackers and makers off their feet. Part of the indescribable Chaos is the feeling of coming to an event where you can touch, improve and help create at any time. And so, we are sure, you will give the rC3 new shapes and colours right up to the last day. We wish you lots of fun!

Icanhaz Fahrplan!

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 20:29:10 +0000

Just in time for the event, the complete #rC3 timetable provides a unified overview of the “main program” and all community streams.

In addition to the virtual halls 1 and 2, appropriately titled “rc1” and “rc2”, the music program of the “rc3 Lounge” may of course not be missing.

In addition, 15 community streams contribute their independently curated program to the decentralized Remote Chaos Experience.

The independently organized and decentralized community streams provide the following “channels:”

c-base mainhall
Chaosstudio Hamburg
Chaostrawler
Chaos-West TV
Chaoszone TV
Franconian.net
Hacc / About:Future
KreaturWorks
Open Infrastructure Orbit / About:Freedom
Remote Rhine Ruhr Stage
Restrealität
Sendezentrum
Wikipaka
X-Hain Berlin

We would like to thank the community studios, who also actively support the production of the main program!

Here’s the complete Fahrplan with rc1, rc2, rc3 Lounge
and all community streams.

For mobile users, we recommend the app you trust.

See you tomorrow at 12:20h for the opening :-)

#rC3 Use more Jitsi!

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:54:50 +0000

Hey!

The load test for our Jitsi infrastructure will take place soon.

We’ll kick off around 18:00 GMT+1 (that’s German local time) / or 17:00 UTC (still 18:00 German local time) at:

https://jitsi.rc3.world

(If any error occurs to you, please send us an email to jitsi@rc3.world)

Open rooms, invite your friends and video-conference as much as you want.

We haven’t set a precise end for the load test, however the server will go offline briefly afterwards, but will then be available for you and your (chosen) family until the end of the event.

Stay distanced but socialize!

Your rC3 Infra Crew

#rC3: Community Highlights

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 23:14:44 +0000

Hello and welcome as we approach the finish line!

Today we have some more important or practical information and a little retrospective of our blogpost series, concluded and garnished with a few thoughts on festivity, elective families and tradition.

First up, a correction to the weekend post: Close proximity conversations in the rC3-World do not run via Jitsi, but are part of the World-software and peer-to-peer. Jitsi is used for larger communication spaces in the rC3 World.
There is now a How-To-Play.

Those of you who carefully read during the weekend can rejoice again:
Today, Wednesday the 23rd, we will have a load test of our Jitsi instances and we’re inviting you to join us! Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement later today and join in large numbers to the location linked in the upcoming blog post from 6pm (GMT+1)! Bring your friends, chat or warble a little song. As a treat, the Jitsi servers will remain open throughout the Christmas period. Feel free to use them to meet your (elective) family in a data-saving way – distance is cool, but being together nevertheless is even better!

Heavenly helpers can join us on 25.12. (aka Day -1) for a small but nice social huddle in heaven. So if you don’t know what’s going on yet, are alone, curious or looking for exchange, you’re welcome to join!

We announced that you don’t have to click tickets for bots. The solution is here:
For bot access, please click an account in the Maschinenraum and then contact us here. Tell us your bot account and your supervising account. Your Maschinenraum account will then be converted into a bot account and linked to your user account on the platform. Please note: Bot accounts will be disabled before other accounts in case of performance issues on the rC3-platform.

Community Submissions

In reaction to our musical-lyrical opener, we received more material from you that we won’t spare you with.
The creature who sent this additional piece wonders why this song is always passed over among the weird classics:
“World Wide Web Girl (Radio Version)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkTjZR77Neo

And if you still require lyrical assist to recite under the Christmas tree, we have something from the submissions on offer:

A bit set to low on a logical gate
where data might flow and change the bit’s state
suddenly flipped to high.
So it carried the date from it’s source to it’s drain
to the next logic gate that was forming the brain
of an overly hyped AI.

– cyriax’ thoughts on emergent intelligence

Our heart goes out to all participants and we hope you enjoy reciting their work as much as we did.

Best of December

We looked at that internetz thingy and found: You’re ready for rC3 and you’re prepared!
You have exchanged a huge amount of stickers. There were build-up leaks from your living rooms – the mate boxes are piling up to unimaginable heights. We even got fanart on mate and beer bottles. <3

Rocket-shaped biscuits were baked and waffling-rehearsals happened. Of course, someone correctly noted that there can never be too many waffles. Nevertheless, the recipe was converted to a manageable trial quantity as a precaution.
For those who want to decorate themselves, fan wrist bands and small rocket badges are an option. You’ve even liberated software and designed creative Angel concepts for access control at one’s own front door!

Unfortunately we cannot answer some hopeful calls, such as the vaccination of all participants by the CERT.
But your keen interest in the many current technical and social topics tagged with #rC3 shows us that it was the right decision to venture into the rC3 experiment.

Buildup During the Holidays

Even if it is kept secular, Christmas has a certain tradition at the Congress. Far away from home and only in the circle of one’s chosen family, Day -2 is the last break before the event begins. For half a day the halls are closed and instead of storage, set-up and material there is food, entertainment and creatures.
It is up to you when you feel you have arrived, when you think you are ready to start, and where you place your individual event start. But the morning after Day -2 is a good candidate to start: “Just a short Christmas, I have to go to the Congress.”

Keeping this in mind, only five more sleeps and it’s rC3! And no arguing, being exhausted in the chaos ain’t fun for anyone. The 6-2-1-rule also applies at home! So take care of yourself and the beings around you. More on this and our last useful tips await you on Saturday.

#rC3: Technicians Are Informed!

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 23:28:42 +0000

Hello and Welcome to post No 6 on our chaotic journey to the remote Chaos Experience 2020.
Like the last few weekends, we bring you helpful, knowable and simple things(TM) that everyone can practically put in their pockets. The information noted here was all screwed up, made possible and gained from volunteers kept in a nerd-appropriate manner.

On that note, mate, unicorn and biscuits packed….

What the FAQ?

For rC3, even more information than usual needs to flow: Everything is new and the swarm knowledge you pass on year after year has to emerge. We have ground to make up in terms of implementation and we are doing our best. Even if we can’t answer every social media post personally: We are listening and try to include the responses here!
We have noticed that some questions that have already been answered continue to be asked here and there. We’re trying to make the answers more accessible – the rC3 calendar blogposts are still worth reading, of course, but difficult to search.
That’s why the Infodesk is getting in on the act earlier this time and preparing a new FAQ section for you at https://rc3.world/infodesk. You can send your questions to infodesk at rc3.world at any time. Questions on other channels such as social media can only be answered when the Infodesk shifts start on day 1.

Machine Room Update

Good news for assemblies: The machine room has seen the light of day!
You can find it via https://maschinenraum.rc3.world. Instructions on how to use it can be found at https://howto.rc3.world/maschinenraum.html.
Please create your assemblies, enter your sessions and make your first badges!

The Technology Thing (aka: “Can you hear me now?)

rC3 uses a variety of communication technologies, including web conferencing, chats and the like. Some core technologies are directly integrated into the world, while others that have evolved historically are also to be served. To help you find your way around and to give all beings as smooth and seamless an introduction as possible, we present the most common and important systems here. For most of you, lots of these should be familiar, and perhaps you will learn a few tricks that will help you to say goodbye to data-guzzling top dogs in the long run – or to get your families to do so.

For workshops, i.e. self-organised sessions, etc. we’re using Big Blue Button. BBB is a web conferencing system with whiteboard, breakout rooms, polls, etc. The documentation is very comprehensive and easy to understand. Reading time for the basic functions is about 15-30 min.
Similar to BBB, but integrated directly into the 2D world is Jitsi. This is intended for ad hoc conversations in close proximity. It’s very easy to use, so it’s not a big deal that there’s no usable documentation for the application area; we can all manage that.
Enough words, let’s click pictures. Here are a few impressions of what it will look like:

entering a room

video conference

General things that might need some preparation:

Consent: If you are used to the usual commercial applications, you might be unsettled by the many consent requests in BBB or even the 2D world. Don’t panic, the requests are normal. Many applications do not explicitly require these consents, or they take place in a very simplified way. During rC3, as well as with Jitsi and BBB in general, you always have the possibility to decide for yourself what is shared and what is not.

Microphone: If possible, use a headset and adjust the settings on your machines/computers to the headset. Have a small session with friends, acquaintances and other beings to check this. But you’ve probably become experts in the last few months anyway and you’re rocking it.

Camera: Even the image quality of the normally over-taped cameras can be improved with a few tricks. Level 1: more light. At least illuminate the face (if it’s a daylight lamp even better; if you want to buy one, you can find some without esoteric gobbledygook in photo supply). If direct lighting is too stark, you can achieve indirect lighting by using a fabric that does not lie directly on the lamp or by bouncing the light off a white wall. Just try out some setups.

So much for the systems used and integrated into the rC3 World. Now to the structures that have grown historically …

IRC

Simply said, not different from the classic online chat rooms of the 00s, simple and fast. As said, not rC3-official, but many teams and spaces are permanent residents here, so it’s worth a visit with a little digging in:
https://www.hackint.org/connect

Voice Chat With Mumble

Apropos “digging in” … Since we do not maintain Mumble servers for rC3, Mumble is not a necessary prerequisite for participation. However, many Spaces do maintain such servers and you might be invited to spend the evening with nice people on one of them. To get the fun started as quickly as possible, you can already install and set up Mumble beforehand.
You can find client downloads in the package manager of your Linux distribution or for all desktop operating systems at https://www.mumble.info/. Many app stores also offer Mumble clients for mobile devices.
Mumble comes with an audio wizard in the configuration settings, i.e. a tool that helps you step by step to set up your microphone and headphones. You should run this once. Pro-tip: Mumble does not adopt the audio settings from the operating system. If something goes wrong, check the Mumble settings to see which microphone or headphones are selected.
You are welcome to use the Push-To-Talk function, which switches your microphone on only when you press a button and prevents the transmission of coughs and loudly knocking over mate bottles.
To join a server, you then only need the server address and port, and a password if necessary.
Mumble may seem like a step backwards for many, but it allows for pretty good communication and latency on bad connections (a shout out goes to the many dead spots of Germany and the eternal bandwidth expansion).

And that brings us to the end of our entry for today. The whole team is working hard to make sure that everything will not only be up and running in eight days, but will also look great. We think we speak for everyone when we say we are looking forward to it and can hardly wait.
Stay healthy, take breaks and be patient with yourself, wherever and whoever you are.

Call for Interpreters: Translate #rC3!

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 11:04:30 +0000

If you are multilingual and fluent in German, English and maybe other languages, please consider joining the translation team.

We want to interpret ALL talks in the two main channels and content from other channels too, live and in real time. Our work is transmitted live in the streams, and recordings are published on CCC sites and YouTube. For each event we have two channels for interpreted content. In the first, German talks are interpreted into English, and vice versa. A second translation channel translates into languages other than English or German – what we do there depends on availability and on the interests of the group, and maybe on the specific event.

That is a lot of material to translate and in order to succeed, we need YOU. With the second channel, you have the chance to contribute in an even more special way if you can interpret into another interesting language (from English or German). We have mostly used French and Spanish up to now, but there were others and we are interested in variety, so let us know what you can offer – especially if you can bring along a few interpreters for the same target language. Sometimes we might even use the second channel for interesting things that are not (strictly) translations.

Don’t be shy. If you are uncertain whether you’re good enough, chances are that you’ll do just fine. We will try to look after you as best we can in these strange times.

Simply send an email to translate-subscribe(at)lists.ccc.de and write a quick intro to the mailing list after you’ve completed your subscription. Also sign up as a translation angel at https://engelsystem.de/rc3 and give the system permission to send you emails. Most importantly, join one of our online meetings.

You need a Mumble client to take part in our meetings and to do the actual work, so set this up as much as you can. Some details can be found at https://wiki.c3lingo.org/divoc. Then follow the mailing list for meeting announcements. This year we recommend that you join a meeting before day 0, but there will be an official kick-off on that day as well

So please, take this chance and help us bring rC3 to an even wider international audience.

Microposts can be found at on Twitter at @c3lingo and #c3t and on Mastodon at chaos.social/@c3lingo – but don’t expect quicker answers there, our social media team is virtually dormant.

We look forward to welcoming you!

#rC3: State of the Art

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 18:26:30 +0000

Hello and welcome to post No 5 of the rC3 calendar!

Note: The second ticket batch is exhausted. Thank you so much for your overwhelming interest in this event! We hope you enjoy rC3.

This post has matured an extra day and comes out steaming hot! Sorry for keeping you hungry and waiting – we’re sure it’s worth it.

Today it’s all about culture, knowledge and their creators feat. the overall situation. We also have two surprise guests with a little something to share for those of you who would like to finally light it all on fire.

The Situation of Artists

As everyone has probably noticed by now, Corona has hit many industries hard. That’s why we would like to remind you that every year, countless artists, creative people and event technicians shape the Congress with us.

Year after year, they enrich the bland technology, electrical installations, trusses and partition walls with socially critical art installations and fascinatingly creative eye-catchers. Without them, Congress would be just a grey mass of cable-packed tables.

Hacking is art and art is hacking – where the two meet, we all learn and broaden our horizons. Whether it’s a VR experience about the experiences of pigs on their way to the slaughterhouse, a typewriter connected to the internet or an installation made of old metro display boards – they are all part of the manifold expressions and embodiments of chaos.

Art is open source, it doesn’t wear out, on the contrary, it gets better the more we engage with it.

If you can – or if you couldn’t buy a supporter ticket due to your location – please consider supporting artists in your area! Technology only ever reaches the state of the art.

Torch everything – with science!

Two people, known for their unique performance, we may bring home to you today. Nicolas Wöhrl and Reinhard Remfort, the producers of the podcast Methodisch inkorrekt! have managed to combine their craft, physics, with a knack for performance. After some iconic appearances at past Congresses, they have gone on tour in Germany with their stage show. Unfortunately, Corona makes no exceptions for people who could vividly instruct how to clean those hands and strap fabric correctly over people’s noses.

In addition to their glittering star career, the two of them still allow themselves a second life in academia, so there’s constantly new content for the old familiar podcasts and their new stream Optisch inkorrekt! For us, they have unpacked their camera to bring four little experiments to your home and to brighten up the darkest season of the year. We are looking forward to finally starting a fire with you – creatively in the spirit of science, of course!

Nicolas und Reinhard also included a short message:

Since “normal people” (TM) obviously light four ritual flames at the end of the year, we wanted to follow suit and did the same for you. Since we were not in Hall 1 this time either, but only in our own study rooms, we were also able to bypass the essential security measures and were thus not restricted in terms of content!
Stay well! See you at rC3 and hopefully next year again in persona.

The fine print: Please only light entities selectively and make sure you are in a fire-safe environment when recreating. No cats were harmed during the production of this video.

The video is in German. It shows

relighting a candle on its own fumes from a short distance
how to start a fire with a bubblegum wrapper and a battery
a tiny fire tornado using air circulation
a DIY fire breathing act using clubmoss spores

Everything is one. Except the 0.

In the coming year, a documentary film called “Alles ist Eins. Außer der 0.” will launch in German cinemas. The film by Klaus Maeck and Tanja Schwerdorf reflects on the (founding) history of the Chaos Computer Club and where we are today.

https://allesisteins.film/ (German content)

If you would like to know more about it, keep an eye out for the Fahrplan. There will certainly be one or two events on this topic ;)

Datenschleuder from the past

Following on from this, there is no cyber content to cringe and marvel at here like the last two weeks. Today’s throwback content is a bit more “analogue”. At least it can be done on standard (non 3D) printers. The Datenschleuder is the club magazine and has been around since 1984.

Observant data travellers will notice how far we have come and yet how little has changed about the topics. Below, and to conclude for today, some of the Datenschleuder covers up to the millennium:

Nr. 43, Juni 1993

Nr. 39

Nr. 34, März 1991

Nr. 31, Nov/Dez 1989

Nr. 30, September 1989

Notausgabe (Nr. 23)

Numero 21, Juni 1987

Nr. 20, 1987

Nr. 19, April 1987

Nr. 17, Dezember 1986

Nr. 15, März 1986

We hope you all get through the week well. Be kind to yourselves and remember to take some rest before the event.

#rC3: How To aktive Teilnahme

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 12:51:14 +0000

Welcome to the middle of the ~~film~~ warm-up blog!

Just like last weekend we bring you more information on how to participate in rC3 – because it all starts in a fortnight!

An appeal regarding the new ticket contingent: Please do _not_ click tickets for bots. Or your toaster, your fridges, or (insert any other IoT things here). Our capacity is limited and we would like to give priority to beings that pass the Turing Test. We will set up a small contingent for bots and, in the coming days, announce here how you can connect your toothbrush or remote-controlled telepresence robot.

But now to the more pressing questions like: How can you help with rC3? What about accessibility at rC3 for you beings with disabilities? And – essential for the pandemic situation – the most important information from our teams c3Gelb (the hygiene task force) and CERT (the medical and fire protection team known from the Congress).

Corona situation and risk minimisation

Please familiarise with the hygiene instructions composed by c3Gelb and keep them in mind – at least for rC3, even longer, it won’t hurt. We recommend reading and following the instructions entirely, especially if you plan to meet fellow nerds in person for the event. Stay responsible, especially with your most important people – we want to see you all again at 37C3!

Now, we hope that this information is not unsettling for some parts of the audience – well, at least it shouldn’t, unless you haven’t had any contact with the outside world since 36C3 or you’ve been following right-wing conspiracy theorists and their consorts. If you are among the latter group: Mask/CoVID deniers, right wingers and the like are not welcome here. We’d rather have the refrigerators. If you are respectful and responsible, and also act in solidarity, you are very much welcome, as every year.

Still with us? Great! Back to the good news.

Angels online

As every year, this event is supported by volunteers of all kinds and skillsets: the Angels. Traditionally, Angels take on more or less specialised tasks before, during and after the event. It is their help that makes the realisation, scope and low entrance fee possible in the first place. Without Angels there would be no Chaos events.

If you are one of the Angels planning the local rC3 Chaos Studios, you are surely already informed. For those and anyone with the itch to get involved online, our Angel coordination centre, the Heaven, looks after the Engelsystem.

Becoming an Angel is easy: You simply register at the Engelsystem (newly for every event, because we like data minimization).

Before the event, you can already keep an eye out for open shifts and requests for the virtual buildup. In the Engelsystem there is also a help-wanted list with different tasks that still need to be done. If you do have tasks, you can put them in a linked pad, and Heaven will push them over into the Engelsystem for you.

Being an Angel during the event is not only worth it for the feeling of having fought the 2020 blues together, but also to get in touch with new people. We don’t let anyone go out on a shift alone! Teams looking for junior staff may advertise mandatory trainee shifts for specialised jobs, so look out in time to secure your favourite tasks and try out cool new things!

Sadly, there’s no delicious food from the Angel Kitchen – we regret that deeply! But do check out PrivacyWeek’s @sternenkueche who faced the same challenge this year. The Sternenküche has shared some of the best-of recipes for angels at home – scaled down to private household quantities and for handy pre-cooking and reheating during the shift.

Because we are also asked time and again whether there will also be Angel goodies as existent at physical events: We are trying. Currently the scaling for more participants has priority, but we really want to make a goodie for our hardworking Angels possible after the event. Please allow email notifications on your account in the Engelsystem so that people can contact you afterwards – hopefully with super great news!

Accessibility at rC3

We consider ourselves lucky to regularly welcome community members with all kinds of of disabilities and needs to our events and learn from your perspectives.

While for some beings an online event makes all the fun accessible in the first place, the new implementation makes it much more difficult for other beings to participate. We are painfully aware that we cannot make rC3 accessible for all beings with the resources we have.

The new Accessibility team is currently collecting and pooling experience and feedback to help us get the best out of it.

If you want help, want to get involved or have any other concerns, please contact c3auti, Accessibility/Integration Operation Center (IOC) or call 2382 via eventphone.

In order to make participation at rC3 as accessible as possible, we have decided to offer two “views”. There is a “PlainUI” for the rC3 platform. You will find all the important content such as the streams, workshops/self-organised sessions, subpages where assemblies present their projects and so on, and you can participate in workshops via this PlainUI. There will be the possibility for direct messaging and video chats. The PlainUI is available in a dark and a light theme and is optimised for assistance systems such as screen readers.

As usual, the talks will be subtitled. Do you want to help? Then follow the Call for Subtitles!

In addition to the stream and the PlainUI, there is also the “rC3 World”, a 2D world that virtually recreates the assembly halls. The assemblies are already working hard to create this view of the rC3. You can walk around in the 2D-world with an avatar and meet other participants and check out a lot of lovingly designed details. There will also be chats and video chats and lots to discover.

As in previous years, there will be the Quiet Qube by c3Auti, this time within the “rC3 World”. Furthermore, c3Auti will also continue the talks from DiVOC featuring strong voices of autistic people.

One more thing: The rC3 World can currently only be controlled via keystrokes. A physical keyboard is therefore necessary, especially for tablets and smartphones. To participate in the video chats, the opt-in of your microphone and, if applicable, your camera is required. And yes, it is perfectly okay to put a friendly plush animal or a running 3d-printer in front of the camera.

CERT online

Of course, CERT can’t be there for you as usual this year, because sticking purely digital plasters just won’t do the thing, and also because real telemedicine is terribly complicated as far as the legal side is concerned.

So that you don’t have to do without your first-aid-angels, we have thought up a few things:

For all those who miss our “CERT Special Isodrink”: We have a recipe.
For all those who always wanted to check first aid cabinets (seriously, checking material makes up half of our job ;-) ) we also have something: First Aid Cabinet (CERT Edition; until now German only, any takers for translation?)
Of course we are available for you on Eventphone via the number 1818. On the digital events we leave 112 (the German equivalent of 911) to the respective local emergency services, for safety’s sake. Please keep that in mind!
And for those who still haven’t had enough, look forward to:
The nerd-mergency-room – the CERT MMORPG (available in the rC3 World): CERT angels with appropriate experience will be the NPCs for you, answering your questions and sending you on quests, if you want. We will even allow you to relive one of the legendary Firewatch shifts from Leipzig!

To make sure everything works properly, we’ll start with a message from CERT for the Assembly architects:

There is a security-tileset! And for all assemblies who want to install it: On the 25th and 26th, CERT will be sending teams around the world to do a “security walk-through”, and if you want your assembly to be #CERTified, take note of the following:

Pay attention to fire safety (fire extinguishers and fire blankets are available. If you want test seals for the fire extinguishers, you can have a link from us to add the graphics).
Pay attention to the emergency exits (signs are also available in the tileset ;-) )
Secure dangerous areas (you guessed it; barrier tape, cones, etc. are ready)
Hang up a first aid kit (available in 2 sizes: DIN 13019 and DIN 13164)

If passed, you will receive a certificate:

(Disclaimer; the inspection is valid only for the virtual rC3 2D world, and has no validity or relevance for any physical, real-existing spaces).

You can register for the inspection of your assembly from Sun, 13.12. under assembly-certificates@cert.CCC.de. Just tell us where to find your map, and we’ll send you a team, as usual. ;-)

All the best and see you on Tuesday – with surprise guests.

#rc3: Call for Subtitles

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 00:44:49 +0000

Hey you, maybe you already know C3Subtitles from previous chaos events. We will also create subtitles for this years rC3! Especially people who are hard of hearing and people that don’t understand and speak the language of the talk perfectly will profit from them. But if that doesn’t apply to you, it doesn’t mean the subtitles can’t be beneficial to you: Just imagine your dad/flatmate/hamster is vacuuming at the very moment you wanted to enjoy a video…

If you want to participate in the subtitles team this year, just become an angel and join the team! We will create subtitles for the recorded videos and do the timing in a subsequent step, so you don’t have to have fast fingers. All the information how all of that is done and how we distribute the workload for the decentralized chaos experience will be shown in the subtitles angel introduction meetings…

Contact Methods

IRC: #subtitles on hackint.org
Rocket Chat: Channel subtitles
Twitter: @c3subtitles
Wiki

#rC3: Stimmung DIY

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 20:39:17 +0000

Welcome to Part Three of this year’s getting in the mood blog posts, today with light hearted throwbacks and participation opportunities in the Tuesday edition.

What can you expect here today? Means and suggestions to get your homely cave, including yourself, in the mood for #rC3. It’s the story of trashy music, beloved merchandise and fine biscuit shapes, rounded off with two suggestions for flashing LED fun.

Grab a Mate and here we go …

COOOOOOOKIES.

Earlier this year during the DiVOC PTT three DIY 3D-printable cookie moulds were introduced by Benjamin-W. A rocket cookie is always a pleasure, hence you can find the the print templates following this link.

For two standard cookie recipes we would suggest the following; one for omnivorous beings and another for completely plant-based beings.

In terms of food safety and hygiene, a minimal spoiler reference to the Frikadellendiplom from c3gelb. (If you are not sure what that means, please get in touch with a fellow German-socialised person who has experience in the waiting business for an explanation.)

We look forward to seeing your creations on the usual channels #CookiesForWorldPeace (open for suggestions #ChaosCookies?)

Binary Blicking

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bausatz-3-scaled.jpg)][2]

We have received the following information from Binary Kitchen in Regensburg and would like to share it with you here:

A heart for rC3

The Binary Kitchen and the BlinkenArea invite you to the first digital soldering workshop online. We meet in a digital room and solder great soldering kits together. In the soldering workshop beginners and experienced solderers can expand their knowledge with kits of different difficulty or learn soldering from scratch. We will send you the kits in advance by snail mail and then meet in a video conference. There will be a short introduction at the beginning and then you can start at your own soldering workstation. The motto is: learning by doing. Experts will be constantly in the conference to help you with questions and problems.

As we do not have much experience with online workshops, we would like to limit the number of participants to 15 per workshop. As we also have to send the kits in advance, we kindly ask you to register early. Further information on registration/kits can be found at

https://www.binary-kitchen.de/wiki/veranstaltungen:loetworkshop_digital (currently only available in German)

For those who are not yet familiar with Binary Kitchen and its projects – here is a gallery of previous workshops:

https://cloud.bluit.de/index.php/s/cDkBB8WFQNQjN2B

And for the more advanced and impatient, Dave’s little Arduino-LED rainbow-project, which has already been made on GPN19, is highly recommended. The tutorial is written in English.

In addition to the parts on the list, you will need a soldering iron and solder, as well as a computer with the Arduino IDE to put the software on the chip. You can then run the finished craftwork with a micro-USB cable, so you can enjoy the original hackcenter atmosphere at home!

Computer No. 3

From binaries and rainbows on to the part which you can send to your friends with a smirk on your face – supposing they don’t know it yet. During the preparations for this calendar, we heard impressively trashy music classics with IT/hacker-references from German history (thus in German as well, send to a German-speaking buddy for your entertainment). And let’s be honest, we didn’t want to keep that from you.

The history of music in Chaos is long with many misunderstandings. Or not – who are we to judge. But it can be said with certainty that it has been a topic for a long time:

If you still have something up your sleeve – from the experience of riding branded tractors, the mating behaviour of excavators in the wild to Systemabsturz – share it #BisDieOhrenBluten (#UntilYourEarsBleed). Maybe show us your favorite non-German examples? Somewhere, torturous, insufferable catchy tunes and laughs for the coming year have to be born.

Showoff!

This year we are going, where no one has gone before. And frankly, we don’t know what to expect, only that we are very keen for it to take off. Before we plunge headlong into the unknown, we would like to look back. We believe it’s important to convey and work on the shared understanding and the ideas of what happened year after year after Christmas since 1984; especially to those of you, for whom this will be their first Chaos-event they will ever have visited. Hence, we call upon you to gather experienced nerds (with the necessary physical distance of course), take the new nerds by the (virtual) hand and show them how the Chaos works with all its old and new, its glitter and blinking. Chaos is what we make of it together.

In this regard: What was the design of your first congress / camp? With which design do you associate the most beautiful memory?