The spaceship has landed, a nice gentle coating of fairy dust has fallen on the bcc and the groundwork for the 25C3 is nearing completion! Here are a couple of quick updates and helpful hints:

• The wireless internet is up and running. (We’re blogging from it now!)
• Follow the 25C3 Twitter for the latest news and updates.
• We strongly recommend that you purchase your ticket TODAY. The cash desk is open!
• This year, there are two lines to purchase tickets. If you are purchasing a regular ticket, use the Fast Line. If you are not purchasing a regular ticket, use the Regular Line.
• Become an angel! …

… some already asked for it: The Fahrplan (schedule) as a handy A4-sized PDF for print-outs (fold it in the middle). So you can now use the lonely moments under the Christmas tree to figure out what lectures to attend – even without using a computer.

But there is no need to get your printer-drivers back to working – a print-out will be waiting for you at the entrance of 25C3.

To give you an idea on the “look’n’feel” and the wonderful arrangement of the contents, we compiled a small PDF-Preview of the Proceedings (2,5 MB, Acrobat 4.0). It contains front- & backcover, indexes, lecture-pages and the beginning the paper section.

The Proceedings will be for sale from the day congress starts for 23 Euros at the Information Desk (and via …

Guess who's bringing the Party Mode to the 25C3. You are!

We told you about the great speakers and their incredible talks. We told you about the awesome workshops. It seems like we’re missing something, doesn’t it? Oh! That’s right! Where the parties are! Thanks to your continuing contributions to the 25C3 wiki the parties have nowhere to hide!

Fortunately, the parties at c-base are always easy to find. As usual, the c-base will be hosting the afterparty and throwing an awesome New Year’s event. And as usual, Phonoelit is back to get the 25C3 party mode kicked off correct. Join …

Bre and Astera practicing for their Kartoffelpuffer workshop

In addition to the great talks and scheduled events, there are really great workshops that any person, group, or transnational delegation can host at the 25C3. If you’ve been to a BarCamp, you’ll feel right at home in a workshop. They’re another way to actively participate in the 25C3!

Best of all, there’s still lots of room! Take that talk, project or idea you’ve been thinking about and turn it into a really awesome workshop! There’s lots of prime time space available in Meeting Room C04 and lots of off-hours time …

Runs on open source. Srsly.

There’s very little hiding from participants at the 25C3. They’re even working hard to shed much needed light and openness on something most of us use every day—our mobile phones!

There’s a lot of activity surrounding GSM—the Global System for Mobile communications at the 25C3. While GSM is a well documented standard used by most of the world’s mobile phones, the hardware and software it runs on are largely hidden from public view.

“Nonetheless, in recent years there are a number of different projects working on driving a wedge of openness into this …

It’s time to glam up your lecture-descriptions!

Starting this year, every lecture’s long description will be printed in the Congress’ Proceedings. This was decided in the very last days.
So please try to enhance the abstract and description of your lecture in the particular Pentabarf-Record until:

 Tomorrow, Sunday, 17:23:42 UTC

 (9am PST; 12pm EST; 20pm MSK // 1am CNST; 3am AEST)

The long-description may even be one or two pages long, especially if you don’t submit a paper. Even your short-bio and, if given, a public photo will be printed.

If you are about to make a lightning-talk about your …

Oh look! Cupcakes!

the Paris Hilton of mobile phones” in a recent market study: all buzz, no value. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that it also makes quite a challenge for hackers: maybe it’s not the Holy Grail, but definitely some Candy Mountain to conquer. Why hack it? Because it’s there! And because Apple doesn’t exactly make it easy to use that device in ways you as a hacker may want to use it, e.g. installing stuff that doesn’t come out of their application store or using it with a phone provider other than whoever is the monopolist in …

“We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly – in terms of human life and human rights. But with technological advances – the internet, and cryptography – the risks of …

“Everyone needs to be prepared. The speakers, the moderators and even the audience. The speakers must know what they really want to say, the moderators must ensure a quick change between speakers and they need to set everything up so there’s no pause … the audience must be willing to listen and to forgive possible errors.”

Do you have something to say at the 25C3? Can you say it in 5 minutes or less? Give a lightning talk! These speaker-driven, self organizing collections of short presentations are a great way to get a quick taste of a lot of wonderful topics usually hidden from mainstream …

Christian Heller aka plomlompom self-identifies as an identity and meme machine currently living the future in Berlin so you don’t have to.

His talk Embracing Post-Privacy: Optimism towards a future where there is “Nothing to hide” ponders opportunities of a world we might live in all too soon. The loss of privacy we decry now may very well transform into something very utopian: A society where the borders of “public” and “private” life are blurring and human identity itself must be redefined.

Born and raised in East Berlin, Christian’s life as a media person started early when he became a …

_“Once upon a time, there were two young hackers attending HAL. They brought along their phone switch. As occupants of neighboring tents realized they could participate in yet another means of communication, the phone network expanded rapidly.

Whoever thought hackers were socially isolated nerds would have been contradicted instantly at this point. From here on, numerous European hacker gatherings have benefited from a reliable phone network, both for fun and event organization.”

How can you stay in contact with your friends at the 25C3? Get in touch with a project or workshop? Call back …