CAFe'99 report from ANTARES

Hello All! This is, in fact, what was promised. Don’t judge strictly, this is my first essay of this kind. === cut === (C) Marianna Abrosimova/Sister/ANTARES A story about ANTARES' trip to Kazan at CAFe'99. We decided to go to CAFe'99 almost immediately as soon as found out about him. We purchased tickets in advance, but already there were very few tickets left at that time, and we only got top places in the reserved seat. And then August 27th arrived. EA and I arrived at the Kazansky station for the train, Fil was already there and one of those accompanying us is Boris Sharapov/Oper, who gave us an advertisement for KAY 1024 and SPECTRATOR so that we spread it to the party. Then, about two minutes before As the train was about to depart, Konex and a second attendant came up with him - Vladimir Bulchukei/Wlodek Black. Having said goodbye, we briskly climbed into the carriage and drove off... We didn’t have time to get through and several kilometers from the station, like a Konex broke a bag that couldn't handle a lot of full beer bottles bought at the station. But it didn't spoil it Konex was in a good mood (and so were the others :)) and we continued banquet in the vestibule. After a few hours of driving, we ran out of beer. And on I had to do some shopping at the nearest stop. It was Vehovka, and the city is called Gus Khrustalny, where the annoying sellers the crystal was not allowed to leave the train. But still we managedbuy more beer there and we moved on. Since there are places We were on top, we had to hang out with the conductors. Phil was already asleep in his place. And we met the conductors. These were young girls, students from Yekaterinburg. I remember the name of one of them, her name was Olympias. :-O In short, that night on the Konex train with EA we drank for two near a box of beer. Day one. So, we arrived in Kazan. 7 o'clock in the morning. We are joyfully Having disembarked from the locomotive, we headed to the station to buy return tickets. Crossing the bridge over the rails, EA was stopped by local law enforcement officers and fined him for smoking on the bridge costs as much as 10 rubles. :) In general, we bought tickets to Moscow, and on a branded train, since others there were no tickets to the capital. From the station we took two trams to the bus stop, indicated on the map. We had a printout of the map with us, provided by the organizers. We found it without difficulty the same Palace of Culture named after. Mayakovsky. And so we found ourselves in a hall located on the third floor. Hall large, without windows, in front there is a stage and a screen (like in a cinema). There were speakers on the sides, and between them near the stage there were tables with computers, and organiza- nizers. Well, we said hello and got to know them. Find out Is it possible that our work safely reached the network and passed theselect. We also learned that Brainwave has already arrived in Kazan from Yoshkar-Ola and should arrive soon. And we went outside them meet at the entrance. After some time a crowd of eight people. The long-awaited meeting of Antares took place with Brainwave, joy knew no bounds. :) There was still time before the party started. The four of us (Antares), let's go for a walk around the neighborhood. We came across some kind of dumplings. There were no dumplings there... In general, the prices there were very low and amounted to 10 rubles It was possible to eat quite normally, which is what we did. For comparison: tea with sugar cost only 43 kopecks. We returned to the recreation center, buying beer on the way. By this time already signs with arrows with symbols were hung everywhere CAFe'99. In front of the entrance to the hall there was a table where visitors paid entrance and received votelists (2 pieces, one per every day). Pleasant surprise: we passed unhindered with beer into the hall, although this was prohibited in the CAFe'99 rules. ;) The start of the party was a little delayed for some reason, but it didn’t spoil anyone’s mood and didn’t lead to no consequences ;). People were arriving, the hall was filling up... We took seats on the right, closer to the center, somewhere in the third row. Brainwaiv settled in about five rows behind us. And so, the Computer Art Festival was solemnly announcedopen. Welcoming words were heard from the organizers the festival itself, and also gave the floor to the leaders, those present at the party, creative teams. The demonstration of works has begun... What did votelists look like? Simple, but tasteful. On a small piece of paper listed from top to bottom all compo one day, and after each name were numbered 15 cells (5*3). And in these very cells it was necessary to put ratings of the demonstrated works on a ten-point scale. Works on Spectrum and BC were shown in color TV, and everything else through the projector on the big screen. The work numbers were announced into the microphone. In between competitions showed the best demos, all kinds of videos, animations, etc. Showing hits of all times about Bill Gates received a storm of thunderous applause. Also the people of the party I was outside, fortunately the weather was excellent. People are familiar they made fun of each other, exchanged addresses, drank beer, and took pictures. In short, this part of the party can be called “cultural communication”. A little about Kazan beer... Well, what can you say? Beer is not It's bad, it's made by the Krasny Vostok plant. Many varieties, we tried about five of them. Beer prices relatively low. Konex liked Bayern, we EA drank Zhigulevskoye, Fil doesn’t drink. :) And I’m talking about other varieties I'd better not say anything. ;)Wild compo. It was somewhat reminiscent of the "Weak" competition. More I really liked the performance of MAV/BW, the way he spoke into the microphone played well-known melodies on his teeth. So, the first day of the festival has come to an end. Everyone handed in theirs completed votelists for the first day. And a cheerful crowd people (approximate composition of which: Brainwave, Excess [partially :)], Antares) headed home to Alexander Levin/Lasoft. On the way to Lasoft in the tram, a stamped Moscow- A Chinese transport voucher signed by Konex was appreciated Hacker's GRI of $100 (who wants to buy please contact Hacker's GRI :)) We arrived at Lasoft's apartment, there were about 15 of us, then a bunch of people arrived there (almost as many more), and the apartment is one-room. In the end, BW&ATS (12 people) century) were planning to go spend the night with Vladimir Sheftel, before thereby depleting a little of their food reserves for kitchen in 3 sessions for 4 people. :) We arrived at the bus stop, there were a lot of people there. B We didn't get on the first bus, so we went on the next one. Bus drove "packed", did not stop for some stops, which caused indignation among passengers. And another plus an impudent conductor who, despite the crowd, managed move around the bus, pushing everyone with your butt, and "extort" money from passengers. :) But we still got thereto the desired stop, where V. Sheftel, the owner, already met us cozy two-room apartment, from the balcony of which An amazingly beautiful view opens up - Kazan at night... By the way, we brought a videotape with us to Kazan with a recording film about FunTop'98 as a gift for Excess Team. That night this cassette was still in our possession and we arranged watching this film together with BW. Then it took place drinking cognac, which, as it turned out later, was self- efficient :), and Den/BW brought it. Everyone was in excellent condition mood. "Burping compo" was carried out :) at the very savory and prolonged belching. :) In the same room the attraction was a computer, and in another - a huge bed, on which five could easily fit across man. In this room, 6 people joked around half the night and laughed together, and also sang songs such as “Titanic”, "Blue Moon", the USSR anthem and much more. And all this was recorded on a tape recorder. Everyone fell asleep around 4 am. 6 slept in one room people - five on the bed and one - somewhere under the bed or near her. And the remaining 7 people settled down in the next room. Thus ended the first day of the party and the first hidden part. Day two. In the morning we stopped by Lasoft to pick up forgotten things, from there we sentcarried their bags in the car and lightly made it to the cultural center, went to We ate that same free canteen. The second day of CAFe has begun. About the works themselves and their demonstration I won't tell you. I'll only stick to Coca-Cola Dinking compo. Five volunteer participants were given two-liter bottle of this drink, and their task was to to be the fastest to drink the contents of the bottle. [skip] All components are out. The votes were being counted... Antares said "a few words" to the camera. Behind the scenes on the piano played music by Manwe. Watching on the big screen "freshly taken" photographs. And so the ceremony began awards. The names of the winners were announced into the microphone. And after Upon presentation of the diploma, each winner was given the floor. Then the winners went to the first floor to receive their money prizes. The diplomas are somewhat similar in appearance to FunTop's, A4 format. The winner's name and surname are printed, but their names are not included. The diploma has two seals and two signatures. One chair State Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan for Affairs children and youth M.M. Barieva, and the other director Vysokogorsk Computer Center by L.V.Bikmullina. In general, the party ended, and the second hidden part began. Everyone left their bags in the car and walked to Lasoft in the rain. On the way we stopped at a cafe and tasted localshashlik. We arrived at the apartment, a lot of people were already hanging out there. About 20 people spent the night in the one-room apartment. Someone I was surfing the Internet, someone was drinking vodka in the kitchen, someone was sleeping. Konex and EA went to the Intel store for beer :). By the middle of the night there were no beds even on the floor and it was impossible to walk across the room was extremely problematic. Everything in the morning woke up and again some began to torment the computers. We hung out there for half a day, then went for a walk around the city for holiday and, as luck would have it, it started to rain. Walked along the famous Bauman street (local Arbat). Photographed against the background a recently opened monument (I don’t remember to whom). The most The main thing is that they didn’t lose any of their own in the crowd. Then ate in some cafe (prices there were 5 times higher than in that dining room, but significantly lower than in Moscow) and set off walk to the station. They walked us straight to our carriage branded train Tatarstan-Moscow. We boarded the train, and another hour laughed continuously, remembering everything that had happened in the past the last three days. We thank all the organizers of CAFe'99. And also a separate thanks to Vladimir Sheftel and Alexander Levin for hospitality and provided overnight accommodation. And thanks to everyone who read this to the end. (It’s not for nothing that I tried - las. ;)) === cut === Marianna aka Sister from ANTARES.