In a field somewhere north of Berlin right now, around 5,500 hackers and their family members are blinking, coding, building, giving talks, and simply hanging out. Once every four years, the German hacker scene gathers and gets burned by the day star, despite the ample warnings to apply copious sunscreen.
CCCamp is a must-attend-it-to-get-it type event, but it’s also chock-full of talks on numerous stages, and these you can see from the comfort of your own home without even getting a mosquito bite! We loved [Harald Welte]’s complete guide to the mysterious world of eSIMS, for instance.
What’s most amazing about Camp, though, is that it brings together hackers of all ages and interests. Someone with a tape-measure direction-finding radio, probably participating in the foxhunt, just walked behind another group learning yoga. There is UV tape art and a stinky diesel train. Old greybeards mingle with kids, all playing with the bubble machines. Two folks are playing bocce with old hard drives. I think one camp was working on an autonomous model boat.
Everyone brings what they’re interested in, shares it, and helps anyone else get started if they’re interested. It’s a hacker paradise, even if just for a few days every four years.
Do not forget the mch or Sha in Denmark, which is also every 4 years but exactly opposite timing to cccamp :) that’s how you can have his awesomeness every 2 years.
How do I even find all these magical events I keep hearing about? I’m here all alone breathing solder fumes at home when suddenly I read about people gathering and doing cool stuff but I only ever read about it when everything is over.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security_conference
https://10times.com/usa/electronics-electricals/tradeshows
Both of these are missing some classics like hackaday supercon.
I’d recommend trying some podcasts out. They will frequently talk about upcoming conferences where they may have a meetup or a talk.
Thanks for recommendations, found some interesting things worth investing further! <3
Sadly nothing comparable to this so I will have to save up for a trip down to Denmark or Germany.
You’re confused. BornHack is the annual Danish hacker camp, the quadrennial Dutch hacker camps have a new name every time. MCH was in 2023 and SHA was in 2017. Those camps do indeed have the opposite timing to CCCamp.
I think that kind of Denmark is called the Netherlands 😉
Pretty sure those are in the Netherlands the last time I went there :P
Somebody teaching bump firing?
Biggest boom contests?
Mini-guns?
I doubt they want everybody to ‘bring what they’re interest in’.
Anti-fun brigade is everywhere.
Even Tennessee. This was the last ‘hacker meetup’ there. :-(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGT7IDQF5HU
I’m pretty sure the Reno one is still going, was always smaller.
Any way to get all you/those gun-****** into biological warfare instead?
Please do the same show just with SARS, anthrax, the black plague, the Spanish flu and whatever deadly virus you want instead of the guns.
And don’t call them “hackers” please. Not even in ” or “”.
Maybe read up on “ethical hacking” or https://handbook.mit.edu/hacking instead.
“bring what they’re interested in” of course means what’s allowed under common sense and the law.
Not bring your “mass murder bio-weapons” – ooops did I say bio-weapons? I meant military warfare weaponry of course. :-)
Srlsl?! I get celebrating something with an awesome fireworks display – what where they celebrating there?
– The fact they can own and use wartime weapons?
– The fact that more weapons in a society makes it more dangerous for everyone (accidents, “stand your ground”-law abuse & what not) and less civilized (if you (feel the misguided) need for more guns because you think “your” society can’t work without everyone being able to threaten anyone with death-by-gunshots, then your “society” is not very civilized…)?
No. You don’t want those guys building bioweapons. They aren’t dumb hippies.
They are hackers, too bad you don’t like it. Good at what they do.
The best bet for getting people into biohacking is ‘The Anarchist’s Cookbook’.
But it was written by a CIA operative, if you follow the instruction included you will likely kill yourself, as many have already done. :-) Evolution in action!
Remember: ‘You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows’, but you can determine the wind direction at them moment of detonation by mapping where the weatherman gibs landed.
There is nothing unethical about blowing/shooting stuff up. Good fun for young and old.
I mean this respectfully: this is a site about hacking, not guns. They’re kinda two completely separate hobbies, even with hacking being such a huge field. Plus, this article’s about a hacker camp in Germany, where gun laws are much more strict than those in the US. (at least, that’s what I can tell from a quick search)
Respectfully back…
You don’t get to define what hacking is.
They are in fact, gun hackers.
The line in TFA was ‘Everyone brings what they’re interested in.’, which is a lie.
Look at the quad mount mini-gun, tell me that isn’t a great hack.
One of my German cousins has more guns than me. Granted he also owns a bank grade safe.
That is the coolest thing ever.
I’m going to give some of our more confused and grumpy commenters the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he or she is just salty about not being there.
The thing my son learned during camp: If everyone is putting in a little bit of work, and everyone shares openly, you CAN have nice things and you won’t have to worry about leaving your laptop/expensive equipment laying around. There were so many awesome workshops, and so much cool stuff given away cheaply just to have fun, it was tons of fun.