Chaos Computer Club - archive feed

A talk about how I set up a local CoderDojo club in my small market town; how I gathered together a group of like-minded people to become mentors; how I persuaded the 7-16 year olds of the town to give coding a whirl; how we won over the pensioners' gardening club, who thought children should be seen and not heard; and how over 5 years the kids became mentors and the mentors became lasting friends.

about this event: https://c3voc.de

A demonstration and discussion around amateur paging. This year I will be providing a pager transmitter at EMF that primarily will announce the talk/event schedule (amongst other things yet to be dreamt up over a pint).

This talk will give an overview of the specific flavour of pagers used for this system, the hardware used to build the transmitter, the amateur paging network trying to keep this relic of communication alive and some of the more interesting ways of receiving pages (e.g. turning a badge into a pager).

Of course this assume everything goes to plan and works as expected, there is a non-zero probability some parts of talk will change from "this is how this works" to "this is how this should work, but this is why it does not".

about this event: https://c3voc.de

An audience interactive event; where willing volunteers collide with GPT-3 AI to present an informative, intellectual and light-hearted presentation to a receptive crowd. Unfortunately, they don't get to see the presentation before they talk about it!

Powerpoint Karaoke will feature a selection of AI titled packs for attendees to present with only a moment to see what they’re about to talk about. The presentations will be interesting but we can't promise they'll be informative!

With the rise of crypto-nonsense, washing machines bricked by ransomware and whatever the metaverse is never has there been a better time for people to take the stage and attempt to convince everyone that they know better than the AI overlord telling them what to talk about.

Winners will be rewarded with a suitably terrible trophy for display in their office cubicle of choice, praised highly for their public speaking skills, and maybe get promotions by listing ‘Ideation and Blue Sky Thinktalking’ on LinkedIn.

about this event: https://c3voc.de

When I first watched Hackers in 1998, the idea of being able to remotely control ships seemed rather fanciful. After working on container ships as an engineer in the mid-2000s, it seemed every more unlikely. We didn't have a full-time Internet connection and all the vital systems were truly air-gapped. But things have changed - ships are becoming more and more connected and complex.

As a result, 15 years later, I found myself sat in my pants on the sofa with the ability to control the steering on one of the world's largest cruise ships. We've been able to brick every PLC across tens of oil rigs, pay for food as the captain, and write rude words on the side of the ship.

To get to this point, we had to go on a learning voyage across tens of different vessels, including offshore support tugs, super yachts, oil rigs and container ships. Join me on a whistle stop tour of what's on a ship, how it's all connected together, what threats there are and how we find the vulnerabilities. Lots of little tips and tricks that can help anyone examine industrial control systems, understand how they work, and then have a lot of fun with them!

Testing work is carried out in my role as Security Consultant at Pen Test Partners

about this event: https://c3voc.de

The most profound change in radio technology in 100 years is happening now. Radios are transforming from the spaghetti of mind-bogglingly complex electronics into simple (but very fast) digitisers, and all the hard work is being done in software. Hence the name Software Defined Radio (SDR).

Gnu Radio is a simple entry point to the world of SDR, and allows you to quickly prototype different kinds of radios by dragging, dropping, and connecting functional blocks.

I'll demonstrate, and show that it's surprising what you can do with a radio receiver.

about this event: https://c3voc.de

In 2009 a TED Talk by David Merrill showed small interactive tiles that talked to each other; an MIT “what if” project from their media lab. Little IoT devices that brought computers, toys and board game pieces together. In 2011(version one) and 2012 (version 2) a commercial version, Sifteo Cubes, was released, but I was unaware, thinking the dream prototype was just that, a dream not a reality. They passed me by…

In 2014, the v2 software was open sourced - the inevitable precursor to failure - and the company bought by Drone/Robotics developer for the obvious design skills of the Sifteo team; they had, after all, reverse engineered and reapplied wireless keyboard controllers into one of the coolest toys ever! So, I came to them late. Too late. By 2015, the server the control software required, along with the online marketplace for the dozen or so games that were made, were long gone. The Sifteo cubes I’d just (re)discovered from a desperate eBay sale were now just useless, battery powered bricks. And they didn’t even click together!

But I was stubborn. I wanted them to work. These little marvels of engineering and educational design. I had some of the software, a couple of the games, and none of the knowledge. Here’s how I managed to resurrect a legend, who I met, what some of them stole from me, and what I learned on the way

about this event: https://c3voc.de

Join the conversation with Professors Rachel Armstrong and Ioannis Ieropoulos, and artist Julie Freeman, to hear about how the ALICE artwork is a springboard for thinking about a new infrastructure that encompasses nomadic lifestyles, smart plumbing, resource autonomy - moving beyond fossil fuels and working with natural energy flows. This technology has global potential to disrupt energy and wastewater systems.

Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment (ALICE) is a "living" installation that communicates with microbes in real time by monitoring their electricity production so we can "respond" to them by feeding them with our liquid waste. Drawing together microbial metabolism, data, bioprocessor systems, artificial intelligence, low power electronics and digital displays, ALICE reveals the inner "life" and naturally-organised, imperceptible realm of microbes around us. To hold these digital "conversations" with microbes, ALICE uses the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) as a communications platform. MFCs are an organic energy source powered by microbes which facilitate contact between humans and microbes through electrical exchanges. The collected and analysed data can tell us about household resources, as microbes can give us information about our consumption, and reveal what we discard in our waste streams—while also powering our homes and, ultimately, cities.

https://alice-interface.eu

Come and see us in Null Sector!

about this event: https://c3voc.de

Interactive talk on anatomy and diagnostic imaging from the perspective of a radiographer. Using powerpoint presentation and anonymised images from real life cases (plus some funny fakes).

- what is diagnostic imaging?

- how to understand CT/xray images + basic anatomy

- 'normal or not' quiz

- Q&A on radiography

Some images will depict injuries/anomalies which may be distressing to some.

There will be talk of injuries and pathology which may be distressing. Its a lighthearted look into radiography, but radiographers are known for gallows humour.

about this event: https://c3voc.de

In recent years automatic machine translation has dramatically improved in performance, with the availability of neural networks and huge amounts of data. Why does it work, and more importantly, when does it break? What kinds of language are machines terrible at translating, and is there anything we can do about it? What might change in the future?

Come along to learn which aspects of a Universal Translator seem relatively plausible, which seem next to impossible at the moment, and some machine learning explanations for why the Enterprise's computer might not convey the gory details when a Klingon is insulting you.

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Over my time in academia, I've endured a number of existential crises whilst learning about the concepts within philosophy that are required in order to undertake academic research. I figured that, if I'm going to spend the rest of my life constantly questioning my existence and reality itself, why not share this experience with others, too? A problem shared is still a problem that keeps you awake at night staring into the abyss unable to function. But hey, at least now I'm not alone.

In order to explain these theories and share my recurrent episodes of screaming WHYYYYYYYY at the universe, I've collected a number of memes and references over the years to convey concepts such as what is it to 'exist', why the scientific method is just as 'made up' as anything else, how we define 'truth' and lots of other tasty things to create a pervasive, disjointed feeling that you just can't seem to shake. Join me in this journey and then we can all go and sit by the lake and have a good cry / scream / rock back and forth because what does it all mean and what even is real anyway and I'm off to go eat a cake because while I can't actually prove if the cake is a lie or not I'm convinced it is damn tasty and I NEED TO FEEL SOMETHING OTHER THAN THIS EXISTENTIAL UNCERTAINTY FOREVER OKAY?

about this event: https://c3voc.de