After a mostly sleepless bus journey and “some” waiting, we’ve finally made it to the already quite busy Hackcenter, where we met a few people we know from previous years. About half an hour ago the queue at the ticket counter was way too long, so we’re trying our luck a little later. Since we’re getting up quite early tomorrow (around 9am) to see the keynote, I’ll try to catch a few more hours of sleep tonight.
See also:
arrived @ 23c3 (red667)
Setting Orange, The Aftermath 68, 3172 YOLD
In a little less than four hours, berq, lippi, red667, and me will leave for Berlin where we’re going to attend the 23C3. Since the ÖBB still sucks, we’re once again going by bus, arriving tomorrow at around 6:30am. Judging from last year the time between our arrival until we can check into our hostel at around noon will be spent drinking beer, which definitely isn’t a recommended breakfast option. Kids, don’t try this at home!
I’m pretty sure we’ll once again have loads of fun, and unlike the last years I plan on regularly blogging and posting pics from the event, so stay tuned! Anyone interested in meeting up at the 23C3 either post a comment here or send a mail to my GMail account.
Prickle-Prickle, The Aftermath 67, 3172 YOLD
Jethro Tull, Christmas song
Once in Royal David’s City
Stood a lonely cattle shed
Where a mother held her baby
You’d do well to remember the things He later said
When you’re stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties
You’ll just laugh when I tell you to take a running jump
You’re missing the point I’m sure does not need making
That Christmas spirit is not what you drink
So how can you laugh when your own mother’s hungry
And how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong?
And if I just messed up your thoughtless pleasures
Remember, if you wish, this is just a Christmas song
(Hey, Santa! Pass us that bottle, will you?)_
Pungenday, The Aftermath 66, 3172 YOLD
A few days ago I’ve blogged about me being uncertain whether to get myself a Nintento Wii or an Xbox 360 (please don’t tell me to get both, that thought is too tempting already!). Currently Big N’s latest offering is a slight favorite again, since – after an exhausting few days partying – I spent the late afternoon and early evening playing Paper Mario: The Thounsand-Year Door, which is one of the most entertaining and funny games I’ve ever played. Later on I decided to finally try out the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection with Mario Kart DS (friend code: 197655187733), and I have to say that I just love it, which means that now I really have to get myself a copy of Metroid Prime Hunters as soon as possible.
Sweetmorn, The Aftermath 59, 3172 YOLD
As you may know I’m a big fan of video game consoles. I currently own two NES, a SNES, a Mega Drive (aka Genesis), a PS1, a Dreamcast, a Game Cube and loads of games. I also played quite a lot on the other systems common in Europe (Saturn, N64, PS2, Xbox). Among the listed systems, the Dreamcast is probably still my favorite for being really innovative and having lots of great games, with the GC coming in a close second. But I’ve had great times with all of them – the original Mario Kart on the SNES and most Square titles on the PS1 come to mind. Of course I also love handhelds and own an original Game Boy (which is unfortunately broken), a GBA and a black Nintendo DS LIte, which IMHO is the coolest portable gaming system I’ve ever seen (with honorable mentions for the Sega Nomad and the Turbo Express).
As you can see I own everything Nintendo ever made except for the N64, which too had a lot of great games but which I somehow never bought. And I really love their products. But I also was always very fond of Sega’s systems, and when the company announced that they wouldn’t produce any more consoles after the DC, I was pretty sure that I won’t buy another game console ever. That held true for a surprisingly long time, until I got myself a GC at the beginning of this year, because (1) the console fever got me again and (2) it was ridiculously cheap because it was already close to the end of it’s life cycle. And although I currently hardly take the time to play with the systems I already own, I’m considering buying a seventh generation console.
Ladies and gentleman, it’s Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs. Wii. I’m definitely not going to get myself a PS3. First off I’m not interested in Blu-ray, HDMI and the other fancy stuff, and secondly I think Sony sucks. Besides that at least two of my friends will get one, so I can play the newest PES or GTA with them. So of course the Wii would be an obvious choice: it has Twilight Princess, is made by Nintendo and features this incredibly cool controller. And did I mention Twilight Princess? Besides that it offers wireless, the option to play my GC games (I could save a little room by storing the GC someplace else), a cool download feature and I’m sure there will be interesting possibilities to use it in conjunction with the DS. But yesterday I suddenly realized that I never considered the Xbox 360. None of my friends has one, and nobody mentioned any plans to buy it. So I read up on it a little, and somehow I started to like the system. Sure, it’s made by the big evil company and it doesn’t exactly offer original games. But it has Gears of War, F.E.A.R, Prey and a lot more good shooters. And I really like playing shooters. Then there’s Oblivion, which by itself may justify getting a 360. Considering the upcoming Halo 3 and Star Trek Legacy, the system might well be worth its money for me. Plus I’ve never owned a Microsoft console. Actually I was pretty sure I never will, but since colo mentioned that he’s interested in a PSP, I’m surprised by anything anymore.
Anyway, I’m still pondering wether to buy a new console or not, but if I do, I’m not sure anymore that I will be a Wii.
Sweetmorn, The Aftermath 54, 3172 YOLD
As always December turns out to be the busiest month of the year: Last Monday I met up with berq and colo for beer, dinner and nerd talk, which I really enjoyed. On Thursday the ominous [[:bbs:]] had its Christmas party, which as expected led to loads of consumed alcohol and a headache on the next day. Nonetheless I joined the Viennese Pardus meeting on Friday after having dinner with Silvia and a friend of hers. Yesterday Steve came to Vienna, so we and some other friends went to have dinner (best Sushi I ever enjoyed outside of Asia) and some drinks afterwards. Since this week’s schedule didn’t leave me enough time to attend my Taekwondo classes, I got up after ~6h of sleep this morning to attend the class at 10:00am.
But that’s not all, as next week will be equally busy: On Wednesday I’m going to see Placebo at the Wiener Stadthalle. Yes, that’s quite different from the rather small punk and hardcore concerts I usually go to, but I somehow like them and want to see if they’ll live up to their good reputation as a live band. On Thursday yours truly will attend the Christmas party of his former employer, while on Friday my current company will have one. Saturday I’ll meet up with a friend of mine who’s visiting from Beijing, while I plan on spending a relaxing day at the spa on Sunday.
As far as I can tell now the week before Christmas will also be full with dinners, parties and other appointments, and the week after that I’m in Berlin for the 23C3. To cut a long story short: if you’re interested in a meeting either join me for one of the activities listed above or you’ll probably have to wait until 2007. Wow, I feel important now.
Prickle-Prickle, The Aftermath 52, 3172 YOLD
This evening I found some time to work on my blog again, so here’s a quick rundown of things that changed:
I haven’t come around to do any more CSS changes yet, but that’s next on my list.
Prickle-Prickle, The Aftermath 52, 3172 YOLD
I just lost the game.
RULE 1: You are playing The Game.
RULE 2: Whenever you think about The Game, you lose.
RULE 3: Loss must be announced.
Pungenday, The Aftermath 31, 3172 YOLD
On nearly every system I use, my ~/.bashrc calls “fortune -se”. When I logged in right now I just got the following:
“You will be successful in love.”
I won’t go into any details, but getting this exact quote today is about as ironic as it gets. Or maybe fortune just has a very strange interpretation of “succesful”.
Sweetmorn, The Aftermath 29, 3172 YOLD
After my two private lessons last week I had my first full Taekwondo training session today. Here’s what I learned: My overall lifestyle and sports don’t really mix. Sex, drugs and Rock’n’Roll – unfortunately I’m doing way better in some categories than in others – definitely took a beating (pun intended) from martial arts. My lungs declared war on me (damn you cheap Chinese cigarettes!), my pulse was going so fast that I was afraid an 8bit counter might not suffice for counting it and various other parts of my body just seemed very surprised to get used again. But once this painful first 15 minutes were over, the following 50 minutes were actually pretty cool and I’m looking forward to Thursday’s session.
Boomtime, The Aftermath 25, 3172 YOLD