DeepSec
& MetaLab
Wien, Austria
Travel Through Germany on the way to Austria...
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At
first i thought this was saying something about overclocked desert
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Big
brother is watching you... even in Deutschland
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Heh,
did you know there are still Woolworth's in the world?
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Sitting
by a fountain while Babak tries to score a hard-to-get phone
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Another
street scene
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Hehe...
in German they don't say "Ah-Choo" (at least in print) for
a sneeze... they say "Ha-Tschi!"
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They
take Security more seriously there, too... with actual posters in airports
reminding people of real risks and specific threat actors.
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First impressions of Austria...
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At
first glance this looked like a banner advertising "eHookers"
but sadly i was wrong.
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I
love how i now get hotel reservations and all other official business
under the name Deviant Ollam at cons.
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Our
first breakfast in Austria was very sausage-centric. The food there
fucking rules.
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Street
graffiti. It was really good over there and you'll see more of it below.
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A grow shop. Pot isn't legal outright in Austria, but it was around
a whole lot and the people are generally cool about it.
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Heh,
i though this was just a character in a Simpsons joke.
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Yes,
that is a real web site. The USA doesn't have a monopoly on nutty conspiracy
types.
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Random
cool street poster
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This
release latch can disconnect power to the tram lines far above.
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Here's
the higher up coupler of the power line.
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The
overhead tram power lines.
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Some
random cool looking street sticker. Near as i can tell, this is some
sort of football supporters club. A greek-speaking crew who lives in
Austria and sports lots of Irish symbolism. Beats me, man.
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Another
awesome street sticker. It translates as, "Blue Eyes, Brown Background,
Stupid Pig"
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There
were loads of these "Space Invaders" posters and stickers,
railing against racism, sexism, and other forms of intolerance.
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Right
near the above poster... a banner stating that no person is illegal.
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We
had a good meal at this little place. The food everywhere was amazing
and yet all restaurants looked to be barely solvent, always half-dead
inside.
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I
love that they have a train called the Wiesel.
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Evva Factory...
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Our
dear friends from TOOOL's Netherland chapter pulled a couple strings
and got us a fucking amazing tour of the Evva lock manufacturing
facility in Vienna.
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Much
of the factory floor was off-limits for photography, since this is the
exclusive facility where they make the cores and keys for such models
as the 3KS and the MCS, but here are a few neat shots that would make
decent desktop wallpaper, if you're wicked in to high security locks
or something. ;-)
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Heading back to the hotel...
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Do
you see what happened here? It takes a keen knowledge of world geopolitics
to get the humor. Some guy with an internet cafe wanted a more "international"
look so he printed out lots of flags from around the world. I'm guessing
he just used an inkjet in the back room and did Google Image Searches
because do you see what happened? At some point he did a search for
"Georgia Flag" and wound up with the flag of the US state
of Georgia... not the Balkan nation of Georgia. Heh, and he used
the flag that the state flew in the latter-half of the 20th century
featuring the Confederate emblem as its main element.
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Random
street sign. I don't know why i took a photo of this, other than perhaps
it reminded me of the "No
Rendermen" photo that we took in Canada a while back.
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There's
a small district in Vienna called Philadelphia. I thought that was pretty
neat. Couldn't get a decent pretzel or cheese steak there, however.
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In
train stations and elsewhere, one could find Handy Snack vending machines.
In addition to basic coins, these accept SMS messages from certain phones
as payment.
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Our first time in the MetaLab...
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The
MetaLab's front entrance
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Great
spoof of the Pirate Bay's "home taping" image
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Kitten!
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The
artwork on the wall of their smoker's lounge is pretty badass. There
is video of it way down below.
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This
is a great play on words. In their main entrance, the ceiling and door
have a wicked variable lighting setup, the controls of which are behind
this panel. We were told that läessig can translate as "awesome"
or "very badass" and here it's incorporated with a photo of
Larry Lessig in "Andre Obey" style.
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Some
of the 3D printed objects from the MetaLab's rapid prototype machine.
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Another
3D printed object.
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I
was inspired to make a flash diffuser for my camera in the MetaLab's
3D print shop. The results were fantastic (see directly below) and there
is a video of the entire process down in the videos section at the bottom
of this page.
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Photos
of a bin of 3D rendered objects, with and without the flash diffuser.
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More
photos of a bin of 3D rendered objects, with and without the flash diffuser.
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Photos
of my initial diagram drawing, with and without the flash diffuser.
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The
laptop of Sven, one of our local hosts. His stickers are almost as badass
as mine. ;-)
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A
great poster on the wall at the MetaLab.
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Another
poster on the wall at the MetaLab.
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Walking home...
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Two
rather great signs seen while walking back through the heart of the
city.
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This
is the city hall of Vienna... as you can see in the next photo, they
have it all decorated for Christmas and use the grand windows as an
Advent calendar.
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Advent
calendar windows
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The
People's Theater
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Two
shots of the Heldenplatz as we approached it across the large lawn at
night
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This was perhaps my best photo of the trip... the Heldenplatzat night in a wide-angle shot. Below are links to full-size versions of this image.
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In
Vienna all dogs are welcome on public transport, as long as they are
on a leash and wearing a muzzle. It's neat to see many dog owners with
small, travel size muzzles that they can crumple up into their pockets
but whip out as needed.
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Upon
returning to the hotel we found some friends seated in the lobby having
beers. We joined them, after grabbing some locks from the room to play
with. ;-)
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DeepSec...
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Austria,
being home to the Evva lock company, has some of the most secure citizens
it would seem. The typical individual's keyring has at least one side
dimple key and many times one would see magnetic offerings, as well.
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More
badass local keys.
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Folk
in the Lockpick Village at DeepSec. In the middle there we see the lovely
Jinxx... who totally tore through nearly every lock we had with us.
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More
photos from the Village, as people diligently tackle a wide array of
challenging locks
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When
we announced to the crowd a the Village that we needed more aluminum
cans for shimming, Saumil Shah said he was happy to help and dashed
off somewhere. Were we ever shocked when he returned promptly with a
lot of cans... saying that as soon as we could empty them we'd
have all the shim metal we needed.
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Speaker's Dinner...
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This
amazing delight was some sort of soft sugar dough ball filled with a
nougat center, and the whole affair was drizzled with white chocolate
cream sauce. I fucking told you the food here was wicked awesome.
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Raising
a glass with Morgan, our favorite Kiwi
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Raising
the Shocker with Morgan.
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On
the way to the MetaLab again, via the subway.
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MetaLab & Late Night Party...
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Men's
Room door at the MetaLab
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MetaLab
bathroom fixture
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Women's
Room door at the MetaLab
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They
have some of the coolest fucking artwork on the walls at the
MetaLab... painted by ninnghizidha, one of their very own members.
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A
great sign on the door to one of their workshop labs
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Signs
seen on our way home late that night
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More
signs seen on the streets of Vienna
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We
assumed we might go to bed when we got back to the hotel. After all,
it was about 2 or 3 AM at that time. Boy, were we wrong. The party continued
at the Imperial Club, a special-access area of the hotel that we managed
to get into. As the drinks kept coming, the conversation got more and
more mixed up. See the video down below to observe how the chatter evolved
(or devolved) as the night progressed.
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Street Scenes...
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No
commentary needed here, really. Just lots of great shots of awesome
street art.
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Back to DeepSec...
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This
was one of the creepiest signs we saw out in the streets... the little
girl's expression is just bizarre to me. Hehe.
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This
was one of the more interesting signs we saw as we traveled the
city... because in various incarnations the genders are swapped. The
"pregnant" woman is always female, of course, but the others
vary... even the person holding the baby.
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More
lockpickers on the second day at DeepSec. In the background at the middle
of the photo was René, the head of the conference.
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Again at the MetaLab...
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This
is funny if you know Photoshop. =)
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Kyrah's
terrific boots.
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Can't
have enough kitten. :-)
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More street scenes...
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An
interesting example of public trust... the daily papers there are all
self-serving. They are laid in a plastic bag on a sign post at various
corners and people are just expected to pay the half Euro coin when
they take one.
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A
great "No Parking" sign... the German language is just so
vibrantly emphatic.
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Scenes
from a chocolate shop where i spent over € 100
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Another night at the MetaLab...
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How
to shut down the nuclear core reactor in an emergency
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A
great bit of stock art
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A
mobile version of the rapid prototype 3D printer is in the works
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Marius
& Wizard, the fellows in charge of the 3D printer project
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A
great hand-knit sign on someone's locker
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Videos...
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Pokémon
in German. It doesn't really get any weirder than this.
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The
3D printer generating a flash diffuser that i designed for my camera.
The video shows the process from start to finish along with some great
example shots.
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The
Emergency Nuclear Warning System at the MetaLab
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Some
great footage of their sound-reactive dance floor lights and the very
unique and fun doorway to their fabrication lab
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A
fucking cool as hell ceiling light in the sound works lab that lets
you dial in specific RGB values
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Feli
making the MetaLab's signature drink
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A
late night conversation in the Imperial Club... watch as the evening
progresses and more drinks lead to more and more shambles in our chatter.
And yet, somehow, it all still works.
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The
illuminated artwork on the wall of the MetaLab smoking lounge
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One
of our elevators had this dismally poor bell sound that made it seem
like it was dying every time it arrived on our floor. We just had to
document it on the last day. =)
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