robotech_master (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
robotech_master) wrote2004-05-29 11:19 am
robotech_master) wrote2004-05-29 11:19 am
Con Report, Day One
After ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tbutler arrived, we hit the road, heading north on 29 to get to the airport where the convention hotel was. We were delayed for 15 or 20 minutes by an accident on the southbound lane just south of the bridge over the Missouri River—apparently someone had run into a USPS 18-wheeler, as there was one sitting at the side of the road with its driver-side fuel tank bashed in. There didn't seem to be any reason for the northbound lane to be delayed...perhaps it was just people slowing to rubberneck. Anyway, traffic in the southbound lane was backed up for miles and miles.
At first, I had no real idea of where the airport was, but as we approached closer, it hit me: I had been here before. A number of years ago, probably about a decade, I caught a plane from K.C. out to Seatttle to visitdemiurgent and friends in Seattle, and foomf in Portland. My brother had driven me up to catch the plane out, but had been unwilling to drive up again to pick me up for the return trip. Rather than take a bus (as there wasn't one leaving until the next day), I rented a car one-way and drove down to Springfield. It was the first time I ever got to drive "solo" for any great distance, and it was a marvelous adventure for me. And it all started at that very airport.
Got to the 'con just after 7, in time to catch the opening ceremonies. John Ringo, the toastmaster, was quite witty and incisive as he introduced the guests, including Jennifer Roberson, whom he chastized for having more bookshelf coverage than he in his hometown bookstore, Jody Lee, whose art he indicated he admired, and Steve & Sue Francis, who hosted a very famous and well-respected convention, Rivercon, for many years.
After that, he read off the names of each of the guests—and it became a running gag that anyone who was not present to hear his name called off was "in the bar." "I feel like a high school teacher calling roll on the last day of school," Ringo said at one point.
About an hour later, the reception was held. A handful of people and I hung around near the entrance, chatting with John about this and that, sometimes having to yell to be heard over the saxophone player on the bandstand who was doing his best to drown out all intelligent conversation anywhere in the room. We all went our separate ways, and ended up in the screening room at 11:10 to watch Bubba Hotep. It was a great flick, and great fun seeing it with an enthusiastic audience—even if sometimes the laughter and applause drowned out the dialogue. I can buy the DVD and watch it again for the dialogue.
One thing that struck me about the convention hotel, the Airport Hilton, was how totally computer un-savvy the staff seemed. When Travis and I first got there, Travis brought his computer in and we checked to see if we could get onto the hotel's network, hilton. We couldn't; it turned out to be for the use of people staying at the hotel, and that for $10 per day. There was one public use Internet terminal sitting in the lobby—a 567-MHz Coppermine Celeron running Windows 98. With absolutely no user restrictions on it, the way the Internet terminals at MCI have. So, anybody could do anything to it, put whatever viruses on it he wanted, install things that messed everything up, and so on. Predictably, it didn't work very well...until I went out to my car and got my Knoppix 3.2 CD. Booted like a charm, browsed the Internet like a champ. I was even able to log onto my home Linux box using ssh.
And at the point I did that, and got onto the chatserver where Travis and I (among others) hang out...I found Travis (who was sitting on a sofa right behind me) was already there. I turned around to go, "What the—?" and Travis told me that he'd found another wireless network, aircore.hilton, that was entirely open. (Actually, I had spotted it from the car when I pulled in, but had assumed that it was the network Travis was talking about when he tried to access it earlier and found it didn't work.) Subsequently, I was able to bring my laptop computer in, sign it on...and it worked. My guess is that aircore.hilton is a separate wireless network for airline staff, the "air corps," staying at the hotel. Naturally, they wouldn't have to mess around with $10 a day for wireless...they're not even staying on their own dime. Anyway, for those savvy enough to detect and use it, the Hilton is cheerfully undercutting their own pay-for-use network—and I couldn't be happier. But that, plus the unsecured computer out front, leads me to believe that these people don't know (or care) much about computers.
About 1 a.m., I brought my computer out, connected to MapQuest, and worked out the route back to Travis's house. (He'd gone back in his own car earlier.) I also worked on the first draft of this journal entry, but lost it entirely when my computer's battery ran out of juice and put it into sleep mode. Since my commputer doesn't wake up properly from sleep, that meant it was basically gone. I shrugged and decided it could wait 'til this morning, then headed on back. Didn't have any problem hitting the right exits on the highways, but got a bit lost in the warren of streets with identical rows of houses where Travis lives before finally finding the right one.
Got back, showered, slept, and just woke up. In a few minutes, I'm going to shave, and then we're going to hit the road again. Going to be meetingdvandom at the con today; haven't met him in person in several years and rather looking forward to it.
More later.
May or may not be available from iTMS...
Gheorghe Zamfir, Harry van Hoof & Harry van Hoof Orkest - Violin Romance No.2 in F Major, Op.50
tbutler arrived, we hit the road, heading north on 29 to get to the airport where the convention hotel was. We were delayed for 15 or 20 minutes by an accident on the southbound lane just south of the bridge over the Missouri River—apparently someone had run into a USPS 18-wheeler, as there was one sitting at the side of the road with its driver-side fuel tank bashed in. There didn't seem to be any reason for the northbound lane to be delayed...perhaps it was just people slowing to rubberneck. Anyway, traffic in the southbound lane was backed up for miles and miles.At first, I had no real idea of where the airport was, but as we approached closer, it hit me: I had been here before. A number of years ago, probably about a decade, I caught a plane from K.C. out to Seatttle to visit
demiurgent and friends in Seattle, and foomf in Portland. My brother had driven me up to catch the plane out, but had been unwilling to drive up again to pick me up for the return trip. Rather than take a bus (as there wasn't one leaving until the next day), I rented a car one-way and drove down to Springfield. It was the first time I ever got to drive "solo" for any great distance, and it was a marvelous adventure for me. And it all started at that very airport.Got to the 'con just after 7, in time to catch the opening ceremonies. John Ringo, the toastmaster, was quite witty and incisive as he introduced the guests, including Jennifer Roberson, whom he chastized for having more bookshelf coverage than he in his hometown bookstore, Jody Lee, whose art he indicated he admired, and Steve & Sue Francis, who hosted a very famous and well-respected convention, Rivercon, for many years.
After that, he read off the names of each of the guests—and it became a running gag that anyone who was not present to hear his name called off was "in the bar." "I feel like a high school teacher calling roll on the last day of school," Ringo said at one point.
About an hour later, the reception was held. A handful of people and I hung around near the entrance, chatting with John about this and that, sometimes having to yell to be heard over the saxophone player on the bandstand who was doing his best to drown out all intelligent conversation anywhere in the room. We all went our separate ways, and ended up in the screening room at 11:10 to watch Bubba Hotep. It was a great flick, and great fun seeing it with an enthusiastic audience—even if sometimes the laughter and applause drowned out the dialogue. I can buy the DVD and watch it again for the dialogue.
One thing that struck me about the convention hotel, the Airport Hilton, was how totally computer un-savvy the staff seemed. When Travis and I first got there, Travis brought his computer in and we checked to see if we could get onto the hotel's network, hilton. We couldn't; it turned out to be for the use of people staying at the hotel, and that for $10 per day. There was one public use Internet terminal sitting in the lobby—a 567-MHz Coppermine Celeron running Windows 98. With absolutely no user restrictions on it, the way the Internet terminals at MCI have. So, anybody could do anything to it, put whatever viruses on it he wanted, install things that messed everything up, and so on. Predictably, it didn't work very well...until I went out to my car and got my Knoppix 3.2 CD. Booted like a charm, browsed the Internet like a champ. I was even able to log onto my home Linux box using ssh.
And at the point I did that, and got onto the chatserver where Travis and I (among others) hang out...I found Travis (who was sitting on a sofa right behind me) was already there. I turned around to go, "What the—?" and Travis told me that he'd found another wireless network, aircore.hilton, that was entirely open. (Actually, I had spotted it from the car when I pulled in, but had assumed that it was the network Travis was talking about when he tried to access it earlier and found it didn't work.) Subsequently, I was able to bring my laptop computer in, sign it on...and it worked. My guess is that aircore.hilton is a separate wireless network for airline staff, the "air corps," staying at the hotel. Naturally, they wouldn't have to mess around with $10 a day for wireless...they're not even staying on their own dime. Anyway, for those savvy enough to detect and use it, the Hilton is cheerfully undercutting their own pay-for-use network—and I couldn't be happier. But that, plus the unsecured computer out front, leads me to believe that these people don't know (or care) much about computers.
About 1 a.m., I brought my computer out, connected to MapQuest, and worked out the route back to Travis's house. (He'd gone back in his own car earlier.) I also worked on the first draft of this journal entry, but lost it entirely when my computer's battery ran out of juice and put it into sleep mode. Since my commputer doesn't wake up properly from sleep, that meant it was basically gone. I shrugged and decided it could wait 'til this morning, then headed on back. Didn't have any problem hitting the right exits on the highways, but got a bit lost in the warren of streets with identical rows of houses where Travis lives before finally finding the right one.
Got back, showered, slept, and just woke up. In a few minutes, I'm going to shave, and then we're going to hit the road again. Going to be meeting
dvandom at the con today; haven't met him in person in several years and rather looking forward to it.More later.
May or may not be available from iTMS...
Gheorghe Zamfir, Harry van Hoof & Harry van Hoof Orkest - Violin Romance No.2 in F Major, Op.50