Fridaynight, 22:09. It's getting dark, the midges are awful. Sitting before our tent I type the last part of my diary today. MJ (my gf) is away, showing the campsite to friends who have just arrived. They put their tent on a square meter of free space between our tent, Marianne's tent and the neighbours. No herrings needed any more, we can just tie the tents together. Hardly any walking space either. There's still people coming in. I wonder where they'll put up their tent. The organization expects people to come in tomorrow, hopefully everybody will find a place.
When I was typing this afternoon, I got to talk to Igor. He's the bf of a friend, and he's kind of an inventor, like me. We both like to think of new devices and new technologies, or combinations of technologies. I think he holds some patents, like me. He is looking for an expert in some very specialist field. I know many people in many different fields, so I wondered if there's someone I know who could possibly help him. Then I called Remco. Remco is one of the first persons I met on the internet and who I met irl soon after, in 1993 or 1994. He has a PhD in Chemistry, he's a radio expert as well as an internet pioneer. I would have expected him at HIP. He's been at HEU, four years ago, and he told wonderful stories about that. I haven't been to HEU, unfortunately. When HEU was announced in the papers I wanted to go, but I didn't know anyone who'd be there so eventually I didn't go, something I regretted only a month later. Remco says he didn't believe HEU could do what they promised: giving people internet access in the middle of nowhere. In Lelystad that is. For those of you who don't know Holland: Lelystad is a town in the middle of the polder, which was Zuiderzee a long time ago. Lelystad was built from scratch in uhm, the fifties? Or before ww2? It's not a nice town, like any town that has gradually evolved from an ancient village or a medival town. It's visibly planned and built by the planners and builders of this age. Furthermore, it's in the middle of this polder, between the fields and grasslands. Rop said that if they could give internet access at a camping site in Lelystad, they could do it anywhere. Which of course is true. So, quoting Remco, "There we were, on my motorbike, a friend and I, approaching Lelystad, thinking we'd see some nerds in tents trying the impossible. Halfway to Lelystad, we considered going back. We did go. We got to the camping place, and we didn't believe what we saw. There was tents all over the place, and from every tent there was cables and wires, and from every tent you could see the light of the monitors. In every tent there was people with computers, connected to the internet. They were hacking. They were having fun. We couldn't believe what we saw. There was workshops on lockpicking, on security, on hacking, on everything you could think of."
When Remco first told me this, I even more regretted I hadn't been there. Later, several people confirmed Remco's story. DDS was invented at HEU. Many more groups have their roots in HEU. Even now, at HIP, I seem to be one of the few people who haven't been at HEU. Wish I could travel backwards in time and make up for missing HEU. Hang on, I have to get the computers back into the tent, I wouldn't want the morning dew to damage them. What would be worse, if a computer gets wet inside and you switch it on, the camping field looses it's electricity.
When the HIP organizers figured how to connect HIP to the net, Remco suggested microwaves. The way it's done now, is not the same as what he suggested, but it is done with microwaves, by PTT.
I would have expected him to be here. He's got a new house though, and a new job, and when I called him today he wasn't sure if he'd be here. But, knowing him, I'm pretty sure he'll show up for at least a short time.
The Webgrrls do have computers, now. It seems that one of the grrls knows how to hook them up to the net. Haven't talked to them yet.
I did see the girl again. Remember I talked about this strange woman who came in? I knew I should know her, but I still don't really know. However, she talked to me. I suspect it's someone I've met on IRC, ages ago. The way she talked to me, the way she knows things about me, the only way she can know is that we met on irc. Or somewhere else on the net, maybe.
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