The game tournament has started!

Zondag 3 oktober 2010 vindt in de Stedelijke Bibliotheek van Sint-Niklaas het Biomodd Game Tournament plaats. Het evenement gaat van start op zondag 3 oktober om 10u00 en eindigt diezelfde dag om 18u00. Inkom is vrij en iedereen is welkom, met of zonder game-ervaring.

Als game hebben we gekozen voor Liquid War (http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/v5). Dit is een open source game waarbij het de bedoeling is vloeistoffen door een parcours te leiden, de tegenstander te omsingelen en deze zo uit te schakelen. Andere open source games zijn echter ook welkom! Als besturingssysteem gebruiken we Linux Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (http://www.ubuntu.com/).

Today Ruben - a young WARP collaborator - and myself transformed the industrial looking basement of the library of Sint-Niklaas into a creative space for the Biomodd Workshop. We started with a central composition of tables with different heights, and then added specific work benches along the walls. There's a workbench for more demanding hardware work, there's one for all the biological components, and there's a wall full with stacked monitors, desktops, computer peripherals, and individual computer components. We also installed a lounge corner using the 70s orange benches that were lying around in the library's storage space. Jean-Paul from the library provided us with internet by pulling a long UTP cable through several floors up to the deep basement. Next week on Monday, at the start of workshop, I will bring all plants and algae. Can't wait to get started.

Pro Used Computers just delivered a stack of HP desktop computers at the library in Sint-Niklaas. Ready to be opened up, hacked and reconfigured next week.

Yesterday I scouted the computer shops in Sint-Niklaas for case modding parts. In Blue Sky Computing they still had a dusted box with all sorts of lights and colored cables. We've got a good set of equipment now that will help in creating quite unusual systems: a few blue EL string cables, an LED data flash USB cable, a long blue cold cathode light, an LED tricolor fan grill, and a neon string cable. The EL string cables are like long thin illuminating wires that are plugged in a USB port and then can be bended in any desired shape or pattern. The LED data flash cable does actually flash in accordance with data being sent through the cable. Should be interesting to see what the workshop participants will do with all that.

The algae culture I started on Sunday is already blooming. That's faster than anticipated. I sampled water from the pond of the Walburg Castle in Sint-Niklaas which contains a good starting density of algae. I added liquid plant fertilizer to provide with nitrates and phosphates, a bit of fish tank water both for nutrients and for bacterial inoculation, and 1 crushed multivitamin tablet for trace elements and minerals. In daytime the 1.5 liter culture is illuminated with two 18W Gro-Lux fluorescent tubes and is intensely aerated. By the time the workshop starts we'll definitely have a dense culture. Will be useful for water cooling processors. Still need to find a water cooling rig though. I left the old one in the Philippines where it is now part of the ever-evolving [C]Biomodd.

Mathias and myself met up today at the Kantine cafe to discuss the organization of the workshop. While it was pouring rain outside, all the aspects of the workshop were explored, from all needed materials to reaching out and finding additional partners. A short overview of the stuff we still need: additional secondhand computers (max. 6 years old), a router to set up a LAN, water cooling for at least one of the computers, cold cathode lights, some original objects to mount computers on, plant sponsoring, and different types of lights for the plants. We already have a bunch of used computer parts but hardly any motherboard that can run simple 3D games (like Armagetron Advanced that was being used in Athens, Ohio). But PC Center in Sint-Niklaas has offered to help us out by donating their old surplus. I will have a look at what they have tomorrow.