Glacetarium 2011

View from balcony from one of the apartments we've rented.

The glacetarium is the Acetarium's 2011 winter retreat. Please join #glacetarium on oftc on irssi.

Destination: Reykjavik.
Dates: December 30 - January 13. (We'll be back in time for the Mystery Hunt.)

Key people:

Program Chair: Molly de Blanc (not software)
Spirits Chair: Alex Ose (not ghosts)
Quartermaster: Sarvodaya (not coins)

Description

The glacetarium is designed so that the friends and inhabitants of the Acetarium can gather, relax and enjoy good company, often in geothermal pools, in Iceland. We'll cook meals, present talks, work on projects, and try to enjoy ourselves.

Participants are encouraged to bring their project ideas, books, games, and bottles of fine duty free whiskey. We will be trying to working with a local hacker space to hold a series of talks and presentations -- open to the public!

Useful Information

• Be aware of the huldufólk, the hidden people. Skepticism can appear rude.
• Tipping is considered rude.
• The flats will most likely have wireless Internet there.
• Rent/hostel fees seem to be between $20-30 (US) per night.
• 1000ISK is about 5.5USD.
• Apparently, New Year's Eve in Rekyjavik is crazy awesome.
• Mystery Hunt will start at noon on 2011/01/14 (Friday).

Useful links

• WikiTravel page for Reykjavik
• A popular tour route in Southern Iceland
• A more expensive man-made spa
• A cheap geothermal pool
• All the geothermal swimming pools in Iceland
• The town of Húsavík has Icelandic Phallological Museum.
• An official tour guide
• Hakkavélin is a hacker space that seems to be just a few block from where we'll be staying!
• The Ice Bar (made of real ice) is also just a few blocks away!
• We're thinking of going out to to the Vestmannaeyjar Fab Lab on the island of Heimaey
• Data safety when crossing the U.S. border
• Get a flu shot before you go, since flu activity is increasing in Europe

Getting There

There seem to be two real options for folks flying to Iceland from the United States:

• Iceland Air which flies direct from Boston for $500 and up for a round trip ticket.
• Iceland Express which flies from Newark and can be as low at $300 for two one-way tickets.

There may be other options from Europe.

Attendees

Please let us know if you want to come as soon as you find out!

Name	IRC	Arriving	Departing	Status
Benjamin Mako Hill	mako	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Mika Matsuzaki	mika	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Seth Schoen	schoen	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Dafydd Harries	daf	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Christine Spang	christine	12/30	1/10	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Avital Kelman	fiendish	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Molly de Blanc	mollydb	12/31	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Danny Piccirillo	DPic	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Matt Zimmerman	mdz	12/30	1/08	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Calyx Clagg	N/A	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Erik Garrison	erikg	12/27	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Hilary DelaBruere	??	12/27	1/1	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Alex Ose	maalox	12/30	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Niko Kern	nike	1/02	1/13	TICKETED / ROOM MARKED BELOW
Paula Aguilera	??	12/30	1/08	TICKETED/ ROOM MARKED BELOW
Jonathan Williams	??	12/30	1/08	TICKETED/ ROOM MARKED BELOW
Jaime Clagg	N/A	1/08?	1/13	ROOM MARKED BELOW
Nathan Trachimowicz	??	12/30	1/13	TICKETED/ ROOM MARKED BELOW
Christine Corbett Moran	corbett	1/3	1/7?	TICKETED/ ROOM MARKED BELOW

Possible attendees: Joris, Adriana

Money and Costs

We will divide our rent and food costs by person days at the end of the trip.

Mako and Mika are paying for the two apartments completely up front. We will use the exchange rates at the time of payment to our landlord.

We don't have room for everybody during the whole period of time. This is especially the case before 1/3 when we get the second apartment. For those who are renting rooms the guest house will be in charge of their own payment during that period. You can directly coordinate with our landlord Fridrik Magnusson.

Rent

For rent, the current plan is going to be to pool the total cost, split by the number of total person nights, and then charge people by the number of nights they stay. We're basically full. At the current exchange rate, the price will be under USD 22 per person per night.

• Flat 73: The cost is 1380GBP (~2200USD) from 12/30 through 1/13.
• Flat 71: The price is 1150GBP (~1780USD) from 1/3 through 1/13.

Additionally, the Guest house will be 25USD/person/night for those who need a place to stay before their houses become available.

Food

We are planning to cook most of our meals together including dinner each night. We plan to buy all our food in Iceland. BONUS is the local discount supermarket. We will keep receipts and split costs similarly to the way we divide costs for rent (see the section on rent above).

There are at least 4 vegans and a large majority of people attending are vegetarian. The current plan is to cook primarily vegan and exclusively vegetarian to simplify things and to keep costs low.

We're planning on share the cost for vegan items among all people and sharing the costs of explicitly non-vegan items among non-vegans unless the costs are trivially small.

If folks feel a strong desire to cook meat we can try arrange for one kitchen to be meaty.

Folks who don't help cook meals should help clean.

Rooms

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="64.15194574030187" lon="-21.955747604370117" type="map" zoom="14" width="700" height="300" selector="no" controls="small"> 64.15194574030187, -21.955747604370117 Flat 71/73 </googlemap>

We have found one landlord (Fridrik Magnusson) with a good deal of space in Reykjavik (Vesturgata Unit 71 and Unit 73). He's trying to give us a good deal and seems pretty flexible. Currently the rundown includes three places:

• Flat 73: Can hold between 6-8 people in two bedrooms with a living room. One of the bedroom will have a few comfy mattresses in it.[1]
• Flat 71: Immediately next to Flat 71. It can hold up to 8 people. But it's only available between the 3rd and the 11th.
• Guest house: Although it's about a 20 minute walk away, there is also a guest house we can use to hold overflow. He'll rent it for the same per-person price if we can get at least 6 people. Otherwise, it should be a little more, but still affordable..

In both places, the landlord can provide a same day laundry service for an extra fee. Alternatively, you can bring enough clothes or wash by hands.

Please only add your name here after you have purchased your tickets.

Flat 73

We are reserving one apartment place that can hold a maximum 8 people from December 30th through January 13th. The house has 2 bedrooms and the landlord will be put 2 more mattresses in the bigger bedroom. There is a sofa bed in the living for 2 people as well. Ideally, we'll get two places and sleep 6 or 7 in this apartment.

Slot	12/30	12/31	1/1	1/2	1/3	1/4	1/5	1/6	1/7	1/8	1/9	1/10	1/11	1/12
1	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako	Mako
2	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika	Mika
3	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth	Seth
4	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi	Avi
5	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine	Christine
6	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf	Daf
7	maalox	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb	mollydb
8(couch)	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny

Flat 71

There is an apartment next door from the same landlord that can hold 10 people that will be available from the 3rd of January through the 13th. As soon as we get 4-5 people who've signed up for this, we'll put a deposit down to reserve the space for the whole period. Please sign up quickly so we can make sure we get it before someone else does!

Since the house is not available until 1/3, the owner said that we can stay at his other guest house (20-25mins away) until the 3rd for the same price. Let Mika or Mako know if you want to rent the place. Please add your name to the list in the next box if you'll need this.

Please only add your name here after you have purchased your tickets.

Slot	1/3	1/4	1/5	1/6	1/7	1/8	1/9	1/10	1/11	1/12
1	Matt	Matt	Matt	Matt	Matt	Matt	Jaime	Jaime	Jaime	Jaime
2	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx	Calyx
3	Erik	Erik	Erik	Erik	Erik	Erik	Erik	Erik	Erik	Erik
4	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny	Danny
5	maalox	maalox	maalox	maalox	maalox	maalox	maalox	maalox	maalox	maalox
6	Niko	Niko	Niko	Niko	Niko	Niko	Niko	Niko	Niko	Niko
7	jdub	jdub	jdub	jdub	jdub
8	Paula	Paula	Paula	Paula	Paula
9	Nate	Nate	Nate	Nate	Nate	Nate	Nate	Nate	Nate	Nate
10	Corbett	Corbett	Corbett	Corbett

Guest House/Other Options

If you need a room in the guest house, put requests down here. We'll try to aggregate these and get these to the landlord and will let folks know. We're currently under the impression that we will have plenty of space. The cost of the guest house will be 25USD/person/night:

• Hillary: 12/28 -> 1/1
• Erik: 12/28 -> /1/3
• Maalox: 12/31 ->1/3
• Niko: Night of the 2nd, would sleep on floor or on couch if it is easier/cheaper
• Paula and Jdub 12/31 -> 1/2
• Nate 12/30 -> 1/3
• Christine Corbett 1/3 -> 1/7?

There are hostels and are other apartments for people that want to come for period from December 30 through January 1st. Folks can expect to pay between US $20-35 per night in shared apartment or hostel. Mako and Mika will not arrange these other accommodation though. Obviously, the bigger the place, the cheaper the per-person/per-night cost.

Packing list!

Some suggested items to bring for the trip:

Individual

Things that would make sense for you to bring your own of:

• swimsuits
• layers
• hats/gloves
• soap/shampoo/lotion
• razors
• snow boots, hiking shoes
• whiskey
• computers/phones/chargers
• electricity things? They use 220V/50Hz (European plug)
• monies?
• camera
• books
• multivitamins
• passports

Communal

Stuff that we'd want as a group, but only one or two people need to bring:

• projector (mako/mika)
• games (molly will ask her roommates about borrowing taboo)
• movies
• power strips

Activities

Folks should brainstorm ideas of things they might like to coordinate while there.

• I want to read and talk about a few academic papers about free software! (Mako)
• Fish Fillets and other puzzles -- maybe we can solve some Fish Fillets levels as a group
• I want to write an academic paper about public health, computer security, quarantine, and compulsory vaccination (with a focus on the use of public health metaphors in computer security and Zittrain-style examination of the effects of these metaphors on computer users' freedom). I would be interested in collaborating with anyone who's interested. I also want to work on other writing projects. (schoen)
• I'd like to write a draft of an academic (or non-academic!) law-review style paper about how the porn industry has moved from highly centralized to largely decentralized personality-based economics models that employ many more people due, at least in part, to a lack of ability to enforce copyright claims. I want to suggest that this is a model that other cultural industries (e.g., music) might follow. (Mako)
  • But you should know that some porn companies have filed large-scale copyright infringement actions against individuals recently, so there are at least parts of the porn industry that are interested in the litigation tactics pioneered by the recording and film industries. See, e.g., Every Inch Counts: Porn Filesharing Lawsuits Crest 30K Defendants and Porn Industry Lawyer is New Copyright King with 16700 Lawsuits Filed. ZDNet also mentioned a large porn industry copyright enforcement conference that took place in Tucson in October.
    • I had no idea. I think I'm going to withdraw this idea in favor of something else. -- Benjamin Mako Hill 23:08, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
      • Hm, i've heard similar things about companies that produce anime in Japan. There are always the big companies that'll bring out the copyright guns and stick to the "old" ways, but that doesn't necessarily discredit the idea, i don't think. DPic 07:06, 16 December 2010 (UTC)
• I want to do some sort of experiment with narrative and storytelling forms through film, pictures, words, or something else entirely. There will be some cool visuals, as Maalox pointed out, with the lighting that might be fun to play with. I have nothing beyond that. (Molly)
• Mako and I are thinking of writing an essay about abandonware as an example of waste and risk due to proprietary software licensing. (schoen)
• Listen to Sigur Rós, Björk, and Seabear DPic 07:06, 16 December 2010 (UTC)
  • And (credit to Daf for the suggestions) Múm, Amiina, and Jóhann Jóhannsson DPic 07:28, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
• Film project? I have a camcorder and can record talks, crazy fireworks, random discussions, and good times, but mayhaps a film-project would be cool as well. Lip dub? Story (Molly)? Simple music video? DPic 07:06, 16 December 2010 (UTC)
• Celebrating the final day of Christmas on the 6th! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AkCi4pbflc
• I plan to spend a lot of time hacking on SD. Fellow hackers welcome! (spang)
  • Looks interesting, I'd like to learn more about this (User:Mdz)
• I might go caving/hiking. (Mika)
• I intend to bring a guitar and would enjoy playing music and singing with other people (User:Mdz)
• Calyx and I are interested in ignoring all of the scary tourist warnings about driving in Iceland and renting a car to travel someplace off the beaten path (User:Mdz)
• I want to talk about the intersection of free software and the web, why it isn't bigger and better, and how to make it so (User:Mdz)
• One word: snowmobiles (User:Mdz)
• I want to explore distributed wikis and Semantic Mediawiki-like relational data extraction as a basis for alternatives to proprietary online social tools such as Google Reader, Library Thing and Facebook. (User:Daf)
• Using Glitch to make interactive graphical environments, and maybe some live coding. (User:Daf)
• I want to learn more about digital music, perhaps through this FLOSS Manuals manual for Pure Data or Miller S. Puckette's The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music. (User:Daf)

Talks

We're going to be running a series of talks during the trip. We're going to coordinate with a local hacker space so that these talks are also open to the general public and maybe in a local hacker space (currently only two blocks away) wherever possible.

Molly de Blanc will be the program chair and will be coordinating and scheduling talks and helping select among the suggestions here.

• Try out some new talk about When Free Software Isn't Better about social science on free software and how we can use it (Mako)
• Geek nutrition (report on a survey of geek eating habits). (Mika)
• Reprising HTTPS Ubiquitous and Fragile from HOPE (schoen)
• Someone should maybe give an overview of the Acetarium if we're giving a talk at the hack space?