Packing

From What The Wiki?!

What's the must have items for the average person attending What The Hack?

Contents

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Tickets

  • The pre-sale period is over.
  • You can no longer pay by bank transfer or by Credit Card.
  • You can buy your tickets at the entrance. We will accept cash, creditcard (VISA, Eurocard/Mastercard) or PIN (Maestro).
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What The Hack ID

  • At the entrance you'll get your ticket with the combination of your What The Hack ID and the email (which you should bring).
  • Jacco Kwakkel has send out all confirmations, if you did not receive one, contact him ASAP.
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Passport or other ID

Your Passport or any national identity card that lets you get into the Netherlands (i.e., EU / Schengen-compatible ones) or Dutch driver's license.

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Tent

A place to sleep, be it a tent (+ sleeping bag), a camper, a motorhome or a dome, or share one with fellow hackers.

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Comms

  • Turn your mobile phone's international roaming on before you leave home.
    • Remember to deactivate conditional call forwarding to your voice mailbox if you don't want to pay high roaming charges.
    • Maybe activate a permanent forward instead if you cannot or don't want to answer your phone.
  • If you use pre-pay for you calls you may not be able to put money on your account while in the Netherlands, consider buying a simcard when you arrive just to use at WTH as the calls maybe much cheaper. Note that we only use GSM 900 and 1800Mhz for mobile phones.
  • Locally (in NL) purchased SIM cards can be had for about 10 EUR and can be found at most supermarkets.

Also consider using the free POC system for calling (simply bring a GAP-compliant DECT phone).

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Power

  • If you want power in your tent, bring more cabling and sockets than you think you'll need. Try to bring a reel of 20 or 30 amp three core flexable cord.
  • If you're coming from Great Britain, remember the plugs are different though the voltage & frequency is the same. You could put a Euro plug on a British extension block.
  • No fridges and/or water heaters for personal use please. They use (way) too much power for one... but if you share with your little group of people (think 15-20)... maybe.
  • If you're coming from any other place, bring (plug as well as voltage) converters: We serve 230 V (220-240) 50 Hz only! Better double check to avoid permanent damage to your equipment.

Plug info in the (World Electrical Guide} for the Netherlands:

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Network

  • Don't expect to have a switch outside your tent. If you're going to use cat5, bring at least 10 meters so you can reach the next tent, but 20 meters would be even better..... (or as much as you can carry :) )
  • If you have a small switch or even a hub, bring it along or you may waste alot of time hunting for a free UTP socket.
  • At FHQ there will be tools to make CAT5 and a big roll of cable. For a small fee per meter you can get as many meters as you need.
  • Make sure your email client is NOT sending your password as plain text,
remember you'll be sharing a network with a field full of hackers. :)
  • Will there be support for serial terminals?
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Basic Stuff

Things that were considered essential for camping by most people on similar camps:

  • If you need some kind of medication, you MUST bring it with you - although it should be obvious.
  • Travel insurance. It doesn't cost much (between 1 and 1,50 euro a day) but if anything happens while traveling to or from WTH they will try to solve your problems.
  • First and foremost, as undoubtedly our beloved CERT will tell you: DRINK MORE WATER! For you it means: Either bring enough mineral water or at least an empty bottle you can fill from the taps. In our opinion, bringing a non-breakable thermobottle is usually best, because it keeps the water cool.
  • Also, sunscreen (with high protection factor) is more or less a must. It will get very sunny and you don't want to spend your camp with a nasty sunburn.
  • If you don't like insects, be ready to deal with them accordingly (mosquito net, Insect repellent) and bring the chemicals of your choice to treat bites and stings.
  • It can be quite noisy in the nights (and even quite bright), depending on where you put up your tent, so if you've trouble sleeping with 1000 people around you still awake, you might consider bringing something to plug your ears and eyes.
  • Basic stuff also includes first-aid kit (a car kit is fine), ashtray (please!) if you're smoking, plastic bag for your litter, plastic bag for protecting equipment against dampness, shoes you can run some miles in (you will, trust me...), a flashlight with extra batteries for finding the toilets in the middle of the night, and maybe one or more sources of caffeine.
  • If you plan to bring a computer with you, you're responsible to bring at least 1 long power cable, one power extension cord and as well as 1 long ethernet-cable. If you have a small switch or even a hub, bring it along or you may waste alot of time hunting for a free UTP socket.
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Useful things

  • duct-tape
  • safety-pins
  • string, rope or cable-ties (tie-wraps)
  • paper or notepad
  • pens (lots of them, keep thim in your shirt pocket :)
  • business-cards (hacker introduction cards, easier to give then an e-mail address)
  • cash; paper & coins (keep your money in two places (you may lose your wallet))
  • flash light (bigger is better, LED ++good)
  • spare batteries
  • pen-knife (folding knife)
  • plastic tarps
  • Scanned image of all your documents stored on a shell or gmail account
  • phone charger
  • digital camera
  • folding bicycle (GAMMA is now selling one for <100 euros)
  • back-pack, ruck-sack

If you have any multi-tools that clip on your belt, bring those, but put all knifes in your luggage when crossing borders.

Check your customs regulations very carefully, they seem to change a lot when it comes to store things like multi tools, safety pins and so on. Also read the Customs page.

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General stuff

  • We ordered good weather.. so light clothing.. but don't be suprised by rain (umbrella?)
  • No swimming area so none of that needed/fashion report
  • Since it's near the woods and there is some water.. anti-bug stuff will prove useful. And this does not mean a C++ debugger, but insect repellent.

Ah and Don't forget your towel.

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