/CongressChecklist

A list of things to do, to pack and tips on attending a congress, especially Chaos Communication Congress.

CongressChecklist

===================

This is my personal list of things to do, to pack and so on.

Humans

General considerations to make the congress a worthwhile experience for everyone, humans, robots and aliens alike. You'll also find a list of all the nice humans who have contributed to this list at the bottom.

Manners

  • Be excellent to each other.
  • Help each other out.
  • Take more pictures and videos while applying [liquid privacy]
  • Limit Angel shifts to a healthy level.

Things to do before traveling

  • Charge ALL the batteries!
  • Make backups.
  • bonus points for even testing restore
  • Update all the software on your devices.
  • You DID make backups of all your devices, didn't you? That includes portable computers, servers, mobile phones, tablets, navigation devices, wrist watches and all your other $gadgets.
  • Send a pull request to this list for all the things I did not think of.
  • (optional) Create account in the congress wiki, add your projects and find your assembly.

Things to pack

Documents

  • congress tickets (printed or in iOS passbook)
  • passport or other kind of photo ID (Personalausweis)
  • driver's license (even an international one)
  • hotel booking
  • Hackerspace passport
  • your health insurance card

Payment stuff

  • some cash (€uros)
  • credit card
  • coins (€uros, for automated vending machines, like public transport tickets)
  • Bitcoin wallet (the encrypted fashion with a good passphrase)
  • emergency numbers for your bank: 116 116x

Emergency information

In case of an accident or other emergency condition carry a piece of information whom to contact or any special medical information that might be viable to your survival/first aid/medical staff.

  • I am a loner but have no known allergies. Yay!

Emergency Information for 31C3:

If you're in an emergency shout HELP!

If you need help, just call for help, there are many, many people around to help you.

  • 31C3 Medical Emergency or in case of fire: Call local DECT 112 (CERT)
  • 31C3 Security: Call local DECT 110
  • 31C3 organizers: 31c3-orga@cccv.de

Personal hygiene

  • tooth brush
  • toothpaste
  • shower gel
  • shampoo (to avoid bad hair days)
  • conditioner
  • sanitary towels
  • condoms, dental dams and other protective gear (Make sure the condoms are not beyond their usage date! (Yes, it really happens…))
  • lubricant (water based to be compatible with condoms)
  • disinfectants
  • soap
  • deodorant, antiperspirant
  • hairbrush (to avoid bad hair days)
  • hair-band (Zopfringerl) to tame your mane
  • handkerchiefs
  • towel. Never hitchhike the Galaxy without one.
  • glasses
  • sun glasses
  • spare glasses
  • spectacle case
  • cleaning cloth
  • Oropax or other things to plug into your ears for a good “night”'s sleep.

Cosmetics

  • nail file
  • razor (with spare blades)
  • shaving soap
  • shaving brush
  • lipbalm
  • tweezers
  • skin care

Medication

Generic medication

  • patches (Pflaster, for your webcam or if a MacBook AirFrisbee hit you)
  • Aspirin (If you partied too long …)
  • Paracetamol
  • Ibuprofen
  • contraceptives, prophylactic (contraceptive pill, condoms, etc.)
  • caffeine pills (In case you don't like Mate and nobody knows if you can actually drink the coffee served there.)
  • camomile tea relives hyperacidity very well
  • Bepanthen

Schedule

  • Have a look at the Fahrplan and maybe make a preselection of talks you really "have to", "want to" or "would be nice to" see
  • Be sure to schedule a period of time to get your T-Shirt or pullover(when preordered in the first two days)!
  • Have a sense of how the trains are going from the station near by, enter Dammtor here: http://geofox.de/jsf/stationSchedule.seam direct connections to the airport, enter Dammtor at start and Airport

Clothing

  • at least ONE clean shirt for each day you stay, plus two for traveling to and from congress (nerdy print is always welcome)
  • at least ONE set of clean underwear for each day you stay, plus two for traveling to and from congress (Doesn't necessarily need to be in matching pairs, but that is up to you.)
  • at least ONE pair of clean socks/stockings/tights/overknees for each day you stay, plus two for traveling to and from congress
  • enough pants/skirts/trousers/dresses/etc. so you can wear clean clothes every day you attend congress (even if somebody accidentally (or intentionally) spills a beverage all over you!)
  • sewing set (needle, thread, spare button for your trousers/skirts/shirts/blouses/etc.)
  • long sleeve shirts
  • hoodies, pullovers
  • jacket (wind proof, at least somewhat water resistant)
  • cap, wool cap
  • umbrella
  • comfortable shoes (You'll make a lot of distance-units during your stay)
  • bag to separate laundry from clean clothes in your luggage
  • gloves
  • trunks

Gear

  • MacBook Pro (with a more or less working battery)
  • Mac Pro
  • monitor
  • charger for laptop
    • Mac: small Duck-head and long (Schuko Plug) cord
    • Mac: MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Adapter
    • Mac: There are also cords that you can plug directly into the MagSafe charger (when removing the duck head) that end in a Euro Plug. These cables are also often used on electric shavers
  • 3* or 5* multi-plug power extension (230V≈ @50Hz) with Schuko Plug (and optional switch, hotel rooms usually suffer from severe lack of outlets)
  • simple extension cord (230V @50Hz, Schuko Plug, the power outlet in your hotel room may be far away from your bedside)
  • USB flash drives
    • Put an OWNER.txt file on them with information on how to contact you in case one gets lost accidentally. (Twitter, phone (for example DECT, 31C3 GSM extensions), email, name of the assembly you're well known at, owl, raven)
    • For devices with private information be sure to encrypt them! (TrueCrypt, GPG, FileVault, EncFS, Bitlocker, gbde, geli, dm-crypt, LUKS, eCryptFS)
    • make note of the filesystem used so you know if they will work on the system of the person you want to exchange data with. (FAT32 is a safe bet to work everywhere.)
    • Mac: NTFS, ZFS, Ext can be read, but not written to without 3rd party software. FAT, ExFAT, HFS+(J), HFSX are fine for current OS X versions
  • Ethernet cords (Cat5e) of multiple lengths (Maybe have a spare to tether a friend)
  • torch (Have spare batteries or rechargeables and a matching charger that works with 230V≈ @50Hz)
  • phones
    • mobile phone (GSM) one each
      • for your day-to-day SIM card
      • for an optional SIM card of the country you travel to
      • for a local GSM network at the venue,
    • DECT phone (for the local wireless phone network),
    • Be sure to register your extension number at Eventphone.
  • DVB-T dongle, there might be local DVB-T transmitter for the streams,
  • chargers for all those phones, or at least matching wires if you can charge over USB.
    • iPhone 5 (or newer), iPad 4, iPad mini
      • USB-Lightning (one each)
    • most Android phones
      • USB-micro USB cable
  • SIM cards (your usual one, local german SIM, CCC SIM)
  • Apple certified SIM eject tool (aka bent paperclip) to swap SIM cards
  • a portable battery pack (aka powerbank) so you can charge on the go. (And the necessary cable to recharge that battery pack overnight.)
  • WiFi router/firewall (to connect to the hotel Wifi/network)
  • photo camera
    • batteries
    • charger
    • memory cards (CF, SD, SDHC, xD, memory stick, etc.)
      • freshly formatted
    • card reader to import pictures (if your laptop doesn't have a matching built-in card reader)
    • camera bag
    • camera strap
    • lenses with lens caps
    • lens cleaning cloth
  • Audio recorder and microphonesA
  • Audio cables of all sorts
  • USB <-> RS232 adapter (PL2023, because FTDI sucks balls!)
  • RS232 cable
  • USB A-B cable
  • USB 3.0 A-B cable
  • USB to Lightning cable
  • USB to Dock-Connector cable
  • mini USB cable
  • micro USB cable
  • Firewire 800 cable
  • headphones (so you don't have to talk to other carbon units while traveling)
  • r0ket, fully charged (needs a micro USB cable for charging/programming)
  • monitor adapters (VGA, DVI, mini Displayport; especially for the Mac users. ;-) ), you may need them for your presentation or lightning talk.
  • remote control for your presentation / lightning talk (also check the batteries in the remote)
  • iPad
  • all your devices!!1 (Raspberry Pi, Arduino, FreedomBox, DreamPlug, …)
      • cables + SD-cards (+ GPIO equipment)
      • extra WiFi antenna (USB) and/or extra Ethernet cord

Other gear

  • pocket knife (As required by german law: Blade must not exceed 12cm, must not be able to be opened with one hand.)
    • Swiss knife
    • Victorinox cybertool
  • screw drivers, pit set
  • soldering stations (battery powered)
  • soldering station (magnastat fixed temp for SMD)
  • any other tools you may need (even if unlikely)
  • Moleskin
  • pen, pencil, quill
  • musical instruments (guitar, Korg Triton, gameboy, guitalele)
  • digital mixing console
  • Electronic Tuner (with fresh batteries)
  • Lithium Batteries
  • cable ties
  • duct tape or gaffer tape
  • a blanket

Securing your devices

I will secure my devices

Backups

I will make backups

Full disk encryption

I use full disk encryption

Backups

I will make backups.

Servers

Check that all your server services are using proper TLS. See bettercrypto.org for help on how to properly configure your servers. (Mail, Web, VPN, SSH, etc.)

VPN tunnel

Need to configure iDevices to properly connect to my OpenVPN server.

Also have those tunnels configured on ALL the devices you intend to use, and have it tested. That includes your laptops, phones, tablets, servers, fridge, etc.

Phones

It is not recommended to connect your smartphone to the congress wifi, if you still can't resist, here are a few things to consider:

  • Use a VPN tunnel.
  • Set your GSM network selection to manual or you might end up connected to a rogue GMS network by somebody.

Thanks for being awesome

These people have contributed to improve this list for everyone (in no particular order):

Links