In the second weekend of August 2005, we have held the second IWM (international wisclub meeting). This IWM gave local, interlocal and foreign members the chance to meet and chat about their motivations. A 'meet & greet' meeting.

The participants:

The following people have taken part in the IWM 2005: Picture Also known as Acknowledgement Ben Zijlstra TCP/IP guru Ben is a busy man. Still, he managed to pop in on Friday afternoon to bring some liquid supplies (two crates of Grolsch beer), some bottles of soda and lots of pringles. That's our Ben! Ben also appeared on the saturday, with his eldest son and provided transport for visiting the dungeon of Hatesmurf. Later, he contacted the members of the 'Satellite Club' so we could meet at a rendez-vous point just prior to launching the first WISclub intercontinental missile. A big hand for Ben! He's been a great help and a hell of guy! Klaus de Jong Process logger Klaus mainly attended the barbeque on Saturday. He told us about his projects and we showed him some non volatile data carriers which used to be known under the old fashioned name 'databook'. After some food and drink, he had to leave for home. A big hand for Klaus. We now know who's behind the Grumblesmurf! Jan de Beer model trains guru Jan returned from his holiday late on Friday, so he couldn't come that evening. On Saturday he missed the first round of 'worstenbrood' when we met at IWM HQ. But to all of our surprises, he appeared at the place of hatesmurf (SBProjects HQ). With his son who carried a missile launcher, being it only a toy... At the saturday evening barbeque, Jan showed that he doesn't work at Miele for nothing. His skills as a BB-cook were unmatched. The smoke was terrible, but the taste was out of this world. On Sunday, we spoke Jan in Turnhout, where the IWM was officially concluded. A big hand for Jan! He showed us what cooking on a gas powered grill should look like! San Bergmans microcontroller guru The dungeonmaster of SB-Projects has been assisting in the preparations for the latest IWM a lot. San popped up at IWM HQ around 6 PM. Eager to get Maarten at the railway station, we had to admit that our youngest member already arrived some minutes before. San has been around for the full time the IWM ran. He gave a nice demonstration in his dungeon, in two shifts. And we got a great lunch as well. It was San, who thought of the grand finale of the 2005 IWM: lets visit the city park of Turnhout (Belgium) to conclude the event. A big hand for San! With members like him, the 2006 IWM will be easy to organize. With his friendlyness, every party has to end with success. Maarten Blomme rocket scientist Maarten arrived by car, with his parents, instead of by train as he thought before the IWM started. That was good: now we could settle the issue of sleeping places before the start of the IWM. Maarten has grown since 2003. The face was the same. But the computer novice has turned into a hacker, the kind that we adore in the WISclub sense. He has been around the full 48 hours, armed with his laptop, his humour and enthusiasm. And his rocket ofcourse. We succesfully launched the first test rocket of the WISclub. A big hand for Maarten, who was at the foundation of this IWM. His enthusiasm and actions have made a significant contribution to the success of this event! Ronald van Aalst Submarine engineer Ronald was our newest member. Weeks before the IWM took place, he joined the mailinglist, yet he immediately agreed to participate. Ronald was on our doorstep on saturday morning at 10 AM sharp. From the moment he stepped inside it was clear that this man is one of us. Definitely. I showed him in, he shook hands and from that moment, it was as if we already knew eachother for years. He ate some worstenbroodjes and some more, since he left early that morning. Then we visited SB-projects HQ, ate lunch and we commenced with launching the first WISclub ballistic missile. In the evening, Ronald mingled with the rest of us and acted like us: hackers of the positive kind. When he left, late that evening, he looked kind of touched. And so were we: one of us went home. One that we care to keep on this list for a long while. A big hand for Ronald! He is member since few weeks but already placed a clear stamp on this community. Thanks a lot Ronald! Fiffi QNX expert Fiffi arrived in his hotel around noon on the Friday. Two hours later he was at the IWM. Apparently my road descriptions are good enough. From moment one, Fiffi has been our kind of guy. Open minded. Friendly. With respect for other opinions. Since he was the only really foreign member, we had to speak either german or english. In a sense we let him down a bit, although it was already better than IWM 2003. Still, Fiffi kept cheerful and we all had a good time. Fiffi told us about his special name. And he brought some german food as well: three packages of pork. We prepared it on the BBQ and it tasted very fine. During one of the discussions, we agreed to try to start some WISclub related webservers, preferably the low power kind. We settled on using Linux and the 2.6 kernel. By coincidence, Fiffi scored a low power Siemens Media computer, running a 200 MHz WinChip and 64 MB of RAM. A big hand for Fiffi! He's the kind of guy I like to call 'friend'. The more we see him, the more we like him. He has been one of the driving forces behind IWM 2003 and 2005. We owe him our thanks for this. His drive, makes our lives richer. Jan Wagemakers Debian guru Jan took half a day off at his work and used my roadmap to arrive at IWM HQ. Apparently, this roadmap was too clear, since Jan drove straight up to the doorstep, whereas normal roadmaps force him to get lost at least once. Jan arrived at 2 PM. He was the first member to arrive. Moments later he came with a cardboard box with a collection of beerbottles. Filled ones. He prefers belgian beers over dutch and who doesn't? Jan has been around for the full 52 hours of the IWM 2005. We had pleasant talks with him. He showed us his good moods and it was fun to go along with the funsmurf. I cannot come up with finer friends (not counting other WISclub members). In the evenings, we shared beers. Jan put his markings on many discussions when he showed his professionalism and knowledge. And his sense of humour. A big hand for Jan! The more I know of Jan, the more I like him. We know eachother since 1995, through BBS and E-mail. And he is the proof that succesful relations can be built upon the internet. Thanks a lot Jan! Ad and Theo The reps from the satellite club. Ad and Theo were the representatives from the Tilburg Satellite Club. This club isn't active on the web yet, but soon they will be, if Ad and Theo are right. Perhaps we can join forces, but the SatMen like to smoke a heavy pipe and the majority of smurfs do not like to smoke at all. Still, who knows what the future will bring? A big hand for Ad and Theo, the SatMen, who helped us in setting up the rocket launcher platform and when searching the cornfield. Jan Verhoeven He thinks, so he is. He thinks. I'm just the guy that supplies the infrastructure for the IWM's... I've been around for the full time of the event, but this event is made by the group. This year, I forgot to bring my camera, so I don't have much pictures yet. I want to thank all the participants for making this IWM to such a great event. I gained a lot of real friends through computer hobby clubs and the internet. What a wonderful world this is.

Agenda for the IWM 2005

What follows was the original agenda for this event. In the remainder of this webpage, you can find out how close we followed this agenda thing at all. Remember: this is the WISclub. We like to plan, but if things go wrong, we switch plans immediately. For some reasons, we're all quite good in this. Friday 12th august 2005: After 3 PM: get together in Tilburg, at Brillie's place. eat and drink some. Rest a bit. visit Brillie's dungeon. After 5 PM: Fire up the Weber Baby Q gas powered grill Char some meat, open some bottles and start the chat around 7 PM we will pick up Maarten from the railway station around midnight go to the guest addresses Saturday 13th august 2005: Morning: wake up, wash and shine breakfast at the guesthouse regroup at IWM HQ. Wherever that will be. Between 10 and 11 AM: The interlocal members will arrive The local members will arrive because they promised to be here before the others. We will meet and greet under the joy of some hot drinks. After 11 AM: Arrive at Sbprojects headquarters Introduction by dungeonmaster Guided exposition and explanation (possibly in two groups) Around 2 PM: We will go to the launchsite for a swim After one or two dives we call it a day Possibly visit a real dutch machine After 4 PM: Use the right to assemble to get back to IWM HQ Light the Barbeque Eat, drink and talk Sunday 14th august 2005: Morning: get out of bed and have breakfast. If desired: visit one or more smurf dungeons or perhaps a walk through the neighborhood. Another option is to inflate the boats and go for a trip Afternoon: since some of our visitors come from quite a distance, we must allow them to reach home before dark. Therefore the closure will be not after 3 PM.

What follows below, is my impression of what happened in the 52 hours the IWM 2005 lasted. In total, we spent 52 - 18 = 34 hours in eachothers company. That's quite a lot of time. In these 34 hours many conversations were started, stopped, aborted and changed. It is impossible to make a full report about this. So I suffice to mention the parts that made the biggest impressions on me. If you like the contents of these pages, consider taking part in one of the upcoming IWM events. Our 'club' comes close to how the HCC Usergroups were organised and running in the early 1980's, before the HCC went commercial. Probably that's our strength: we're not commercial and we don't want to be. So we remain free to change our subject or interest over night, without prior warning or possible consequences.

Day 1: Arrival at IWM HQ.

Friday the 12th of August. This is the great day. The day we've been waiting for for almost two full years. IWM 2005 is approaching. At 2 PM, the first member arrives: Funsmurf. After an exchange of greets and some handshaking, we head for the garden. Funsmurf had a good journey. The road map was accurate enough and he found the address in one try. We put the luggage in his sleeping room (our living room) and Funsmurf goes to fetch his participation for this IWM: a box full of belgian beers. He brings some strong monastary brews and some fine belgian canned beers. The brands he brings along are: Hoegaarden verboden vrucht Hoegaarden grand cru Trapist Achelse kluis blond Leffe Triple Bush Amber 12% Kasteelbier Ingelmunster Blond Hoegaarden Jupiler This made a fine addition to the beers I bought the other day: Grolsch (ploppers) Grolsch 2.5% Dommels All signs are that this IWM is going to be just fine! The weather forecast is 'some rain, and later some sun'. Apparently we're not yet in the 'later' part. In the mean time we either sit in the open, under the big parasol (the floating kind, without a centerpole) or inside my dungeon. But the weather is clearing and the sun appears more and more. At 3 PM, Fiffi arrives. He's had a good journey as well and he likes the hotel we arranged for him (Hotel Wilshof in Udenhout, see picture on the right). After our handshakes, he takes out some food he brought along for the BBQ's in the evenings. And then it's off to the garden as well to meet Funsmurf. Suddenly the bell rings. It's Websmurf. He pops in to drop two more crates of Grolsch beer. And some lemonade. And some crisps. He promises to be back around 7. Around 4 PM we decided to explore the neighbourhood. I show our guests where we live and tell about our ridiculous house prices. We head for the Wagner shopping mall, where Fiffi gets some packs of cigarettes. When we arrive home, at 5:15 PM, Ria mentions that Maarten has called from Venlo, in the car of his parents. In two conversations I talk them in and at 5:45 Maarten arrives in his second home. More than an hour sooner as expected. And easier: now we won't have to go to the railway station to pick him up. Moments later, Hatesmurf arrives. That makes us rather complete, since Soldersmurf is till on his holiday and Websmurf will come later. So it's time to fire up the barbeque. I roll out extension cords, UTP cable and an ethernet switch. One of our neighbours has an unprotected WLAN so we gladly accept his generosity for surfing the worldwide webwaves. This is the real start of the IWM: the local members plus the foreign members have all arrived and we eat and drink and chat and browse and hack. We see how Maarten has evolved from a kid interested in computers, to the hacker he is right now. With few keystrokes he manages to make the web and computers act in the way he needs them. It's a sight for sore eyes to see that there are still ICT students you can really appreciate. I cannot replicate all conversations of this evening. It's just too much. And sometimes too personal. This is a community of friends. We've been longing for two years in re-meeting. At 10 PM, Websmurf joins again. He had to visit a special shop with his wife, so he could not join sooner. Still, now we are complete. Ben tasted some of the beers, ate some food and we had a pleasant talk. An uninvited guest popped in to deliver some old equipment to Maarten (the nice aspect) and invited himself to stay. Then he started to rave against Linux, in dutch, which was not what we wanted. All of us adore Linux, especially its stability, so don't start this subject just to show how stupid you are. Fiffi broke this ranting rave by standing up and asking us to continue in english. A good initiative that disrupted the rant and brought us back to friendly conversations. The guest took a belgian beer and stayed calm for the rest of the evening. Around midnight, we called it a day and decided to meet again around 10 AM the next morning. Jan and Maarten stayed at my place. Fiffi went back to his hotel and the rest went home. San would not join the initial assembly so as to have some more preparation time for the excursion on Saturday.

Day 2.00: Assembly at IWM HQ

The guests were awake at 8 AM. I was a little bit more sleepy. I had this dream about a killer rabbit that set it's sights on me. It made me a bit dizzy... Luckily I managed to get myself together and commence as a host. After some cups of coffee and some food, we sat down to await the first guests. The first to arrive was Fiffi. Which was good since it offered the opportunity to have some more talks of where we left the evening before. Just after 10 AM, the bell rang. There was a car in front of the house that didn't ring any bells... When I opened the door, there was a (for me) new face. The face said "You must be 'Jan'!". Whereas I replied: "U Smurf!". The ice was broken, if the water had ever frozen at all. Not sure. This U smurf was clearly one of our species. He rushed in, went upstairs with his box of redundant spares and interesting books, and before I knew it, he was getting aquainted with the lot of us. Yes, Ronald is a nice guy to have around. At this moment I popped some worstebroodjes into the oven and we made some green tea for the guests. New coffee was being made and when the worstebroodjes were hot enough, they found eager mouths, waiting to receive them. Everybody likes worstebroodjes. Especially if you're not from around here. Ben and his eldest son arrived shortly before 11 AM. We had some chats, the kids met and I handed out a gyro-ball to the new kid, to get him at ease a bit.

Day 2.25: Excursion to Hatesmurf

Just after 11, we mounted the cars and went for San's place. It's a 10 km ride, so it took only few minutes. Fiffi and Ben offered their cars, which was enough to carry 7 adults and 2 children. San's place is a nice place. He lives in a quiet neighbourhood and his garden is big enough for all the members. As usual, we started with something to drink, eat and talk. And then, suddenly, Soldersmurf showed up! That was a pleasant surprise. This made us complete. Everyone who promised to come, was present. San showed us his lab, his projects and his machines. Since the group was too big, he did it in two shifts. The topics covered included: Traffic light simulator Electronic dice Converted Fluke 8010 tabletop DMM SB Bus SMD soldering at home EPROM simulator Converted frequency counter And much more... The local members kept the shift busy that was not being guided around. And there was the lunch, on the table. Anyway, it kept the conversations going. As can be seen in this picture of the Fiffi smurf... Not just between IWM members, but also among the three children that were by now attending the meeting. Cornee brought his air powered rocket launcher. Of course the rocket ultimately ended on the roof.

And a good time was had by all.

Day 2.50: Launching a modelrocket

After this interesting event (it was close to 3 PM already) Websmurf called his friends of the 'sattelite club' since we were about to launch a model rocket. It was a 30 cm long and 4 cm diameter paper rocket with a solid fuel rocket engine. Maarten is a rocketry hobbyist and brought one along. I knew a nice field near Cafe 'De Hemeltjes' so we rendez-voused with the satellite builders at the end of Sludgeroad. We commenced our trip with four cars to Kluytmans. The last 500 meters we walked. The launchsite was a deserted stretch of pasture. Old grass. Rough. And surrounded by cornfields. The corn stood over 2.5 meters high. We set up the launcher, fitted the wires of the ignition and the count down sequence was started. Maarten used his home built launcher, running off a 7.2 Volts NiCd racing pack. That was enough. One second after ignition, we had a burnout and the rocket lifted itself off the ground. Within few seconds, the rocket was out of sight. We don't know if it went 1000 or 2000 meters straight up. Just couldn't see where the thing was going. Some of the kids and one of the SatMen claimed to have seen the spacecraft go down into a cornfield. We went to the particular field and tried to find the rocket chassis, but we failed. Inside the cornfield, it's easy to get completely lost, so I urged people to be careful and to have no children in the field. I almost succeeded. This was a bit of a pitty since now we would not be able to fit the rocket with another engine and fire again. Still, it was a great event and I really understand why people find this a magnificent hobby. After the launch and the failed recovery, we walked back to the cars. I asked the SatMen to join us for a while at IWM HQ. I was glad they accepted. So with four cars we rode back to IWM HQ gardens and when everyone was seated, we poured some drinks and fed the guests some small food. Unpacking and assembling the missile. Assembled rocket being put on the launch pad. Almost ready to fire. Around 5 PM, Bromsmurf (Grumble smurf) suddenly appeared. He couldn't come sooner, but now he was here.

Day 2.75: The main IWM barbeque

Now that everyone was here, the main IWM BBQ could start. We heated the remainder of the Worstebroodjes. Yes, they were appreciated by most of the guests from the north, as much as by the local members. The picture to the right shows what the IWM is about: use the stuff on the table to get the brains working. The food is a tool. Not a target. This picture shows the starting position of the IWM after we returned from the rocket science experiment. Just before we lit the BBQ, the SatMen decided to go home. I would have preferred if they stayed a little bit longer, but this is a free country, so people can take their own decisions. I hope we will have some more contacts, since both groups have some things in common and we might be able to help eachother out in the future. Sometimes, things can be too difficult for some of the one-time members as will be clear. With Theo and Ad gone (too early, if you ask me), we had some more room in the garden. The kids were playing with a laptop and playing games on my Fluorine computer (running SuSE 9.2). The adults were chatting again about their hobbies and computers in general. Time for the IWM surprise. I managed to lay my hands on some T-shirts with funny Linux related texts and drawings. They arrived just days before, but still in time. Every one was given the opportunity to select one shirt. I hope they will be worn on future IWM's, as a kind of family clothing. Or they may be used by other family members as a piyama. Might be interesting to see some pictures of that, eventually. Klaus told us about a few of his projects and some things he wasn't sure about yet. So we could try to influence him by telling how either one of us had done a similar thing before. He will be looking around for an SN 75176 RS 485 driver chip real soon now.... Here, you can see how San explains about a rather rare computer, the Jupiter Ace which he keeps in his hands. It's all very impressive. As long as there are pringles on the table! And some fine bottles of beer poured into suitable glasses. On the table is our favorite kind of magazine: Nuts & Volts, Servo Magazine, and Linux magazine. We are hackers and we like to stay up to date. Unlike crackers, who are just interested in exploiting security leaks. When the BBQ was hot, Soldersmurf put on the apron and started operating the grill. Wow, can this guy cook! He knows how hot or cold a particular piece of meet should be cooked. This gave us ample food for everyone. The essence was to have a common diner, not to eat as much as possible. We started with something easy: grilled burgers! Prepared by our own swedish chef! Plus a remnant of the mountain of worstenbrood that remained of the morning session. The members with german sounding names flocked together for some while, until Klaus found a sparring partner in Hatesmurf, who has more experience in very small microcontrollers. Together with the grill being fired, the first beerbottles were opened. This also loosened the tongues and before we knew it, it was 9 PM. Nobody got drunk, just pleasant company. Suddenly, the uninvited guest of Friday came in to ask if anyone wanted to join him watch a cult film. Luckily nobody agreed so he went home again, accompanied by Fiffi who reminded him about a promise to donate him an old Siemens computer with a 200 MHz WinChip processor and rather low energy consumption. By the time Fiffi returned it was time for Klaus to join his spouse again, so he went home. The empty seat was quickly taken by San's wife Aimee who volunteered to empty a few bottles of belgian beer. The rest of the evening was spent with the usual chats, dicussions and points of interest. One of the main topics was the WISclub website. This was such a topic, that we made a seperate chapter about it. Around 11, Ronald had to leave since he had another 100 km drive ahead of him. When he left, all of us felt like somone very close to us was leaving, and judging the words he spoke to us, he felt something similar. Minutes later, Fiffi followed his example and drove back to his hotel. When the clock struck 12, it was time to call it a day again. It was the end of a very relaxed evening, filled with good talks, laughter and some food and drinks. By this time, San came up with the idea to collect the lot of us on Sunday (around 11 AM) and drive to Turnhout (Belgium) for the closing ceremony. Soldersmurf would be there as well, so that would be a nice exit.

Day 3: Last day of IWM 2005.

The day started as usual: the sun rose and we awakened. The weather forecast however was terrible. So the canoe trips on the canal that I had anticipated, could not go on. When in a rainstorm, the boats can take in quite an amount of water and there's no fun in boating under these conditions. So we had to cancel that possibillity, which was a bit of a pitty. When Fiffi was in we told him about this and our new intention to go to Turnhout to close the IWM with Soldersmurf. It would be just a small detour for him, but Fiffi preferred to go home via the way he came to Tilburg. A bit of a pitty, but understandable. To make the most of the remaining IWM, we decided to try and put a Linux on his newly aquired Siemens computer. The problem with that kind of computer, is that there are no drivebays apart from the one for the 3.5" HDD, so you need an external Floppy Disk Drive and ditto CD-ROM player. This caused some problems, especially when we inserted my new Compact Flash to IDE connector in the Primary IDE connector on the mainboard. The Siemens system started to behave erratically and after half an hour, we gave up. Later, it turned out that the Siemens needs to be reset with TWO commands, not just one, as in most other computers. Around 11, San arrived, with his wife (so she must have liked it, in a way) to collect the lot of us for the ride to Turnhout. Maarten and Jan would be going to Belgium anyway and the detour was modest. We made arrangements with Fiffi how to go to the A58 highway. After a touching 'Goodbye' we boarded the cars and drove off. On the highway, we gave Fiffi the secret signal and he went right to Eindhoven, where we went straight on towards Turnhout.

In Turnhout is the city park. It's on the outskirts of the town, close to the tungsten mill of Philips and the Elizabeth hospital. In the park is a complete model railroad with 5" and 7.25" tracks. The tracks are fixed in the soil and there are some railway related buildings: a big station and a signal post. I never saw something like this before. On the tracks were model trains (proportional to the width of the tracks) and each locomotive pulled a series of cars. The engineer sat on top of the loc and passengers (children AND adults) took seats in the pulled cars. This was a magnificent sight. Fiffi would have enjoyed it. Like all of us did. Soldersmurf, who works on a 'Track Zero' model of a loc, was in the tent where the Model Zero stuff was riding around. Together with his son Cornee who was in charge of the speed regulator of his current electrical powered model. When Cornee spotted Marjanne, the both of them started explaining eachother about trains and they made several rides on the big models running through the permanent tracks outside. If ever you are around Turnhout on a Sunday in the train-ing season, pay a visit to the trains. You won't believe your eyes. A great ending of a great IWM. Around 3 PM, we decided it was enough. Maarten was getting quite tired and he had still a big journey ahead of him, with a lot of luggage. We tried to find a place to eat some fries (a 'frietkot') but they were all closed on a sunday. So we said goodbye to eachother in the streets of Turnhout and each went his way. And arrived home safely, although quite tired. On the way back, we passed through Ravels (Belgium) where our driver spotted a very modern frietkot which was being protected by a policeman in a patrol car. This gave us a secure feeling, so we went in and ordered something to eat and drink. A good meal was had by all. The policeman happened to be there, not for our protection, but to shut down traffic when a lot of bicycle racers passed. Lots of motorcycles in front. Then some riders and again a plethora of motorbikes and cars with empty bicycles on their roofs. When the road was clear, we continued our journey home. Around 5 PM we arrived at the by now deserted IWM HQ, which will remain quiet for another twelve months.

The WISclub website.

Fiffi and Maarten have been the driving forces behind this topic. We have been talking a lot about it in the past. And Fiffi and I had some plans. My plan was ambitious and silly: Make a one-off computer based on the Zilog Z-80 chip and a lot of auxilliary circuits. Mount a networkcard for the ISA bus to this system Write an Oberon or Modula-2 compiler for this system Run it with a Smart Media card for data storage Mount it near an ethernet switch and let it run 24/7 Have it host the WISclub website As Fiffi told, this would probably be very much fun, but it would take me years to get it stable if I would succeed at all. A better solution was, he told, to use a small Linux system and have that run Apache and some other proven and stable services. In my dungeon I dug up some old 386 boards. Slow, but very low power. So for a webserver that doesn't have to serve a lot of pages, it would do. That was the way we would do things. But then the uninvited neighbour popped up and overheared our conversation. He offered to Fiffi one of his surplus Siemens media computers: small case with separate power supply 200 MHz IDT WinChip low power CPU 64 MB of RAM 10 GB HDD 10/100 Mb network card integrated VGA controller integrated Now, that was better for Fiffi, so he immediately agreed to take it with him. So he ended up with the Siemens to be used for his part of our webserver project. Later I concluded that a 386 would be quite underpowered for the job so I decided to change my old fashioned 486 DX-2 (50 MHz) with some more modern hardware. I changed the old Multi I/O card for an Enhanced IDE Multi I/O card, removed the two small IDE disks and put one bigger disk (4 GB) instead. More on this on Fruttenboel in the related sections. During the IWM we agreed upon the following: Use a computer with as low power usage as possible Run the computer 24/7 on a broadband ADSL or cable system Use a 2.6 kernel based Linux for the operating system Use Apache and other tools for the webserver If possible use Compact Flash on the IDE bus instead of HDD's If HDD's were to be used, conserve power by putting unused disk asleep As mentioned, the target is to host the WISclub website on one or more of these webservers. We will go for a domain name of our own, something like www.wisclub.org. Even if it will cost some money for renting the domain name. It turns out to be www.wisclub.net and it is hosted in my fruttenboel webspace.

The WISkids foundation.

This year, there were three children attending the IWM: From left to right: Nour (9), Marjanne (10) and Cornee (5). No smurf names taken yet. They have been around the whole day long. At some moment, one of them proposed to start a WisKids club. Sounds good to me. If I can be of help, just let me know. In the evening section, prior to the real barbeque, the kids have been showing us that they know a lot about computers already. Here are some more moments of joy... Nour commands his notebook while the others watch. Marjanne and Cornee releasing frozen bubbles. Nour on his own, working on B=mc^3. The future Mrs and Mr de Beer?

What does it cost?

Well, let me assure you: not much. But you know that I like to be concrete. This whole IWM cost me less than EUR 40 on food. We already had the Weber BabyQ grill. And the sunshield that also acted as a rainshield. And the garden. So we only count the amount of consumables. My 40 euro's, plus Ben's addition (another 10 euro's) plus the meal that San and Aimee prepared (another 5 euro's) which brings the grand total to slightly over 50 euro for the local members. There are days that I spend more money on subjects I like less. The foreign members have their travelling expenses. And Jan brought a lot of beer. I cannot estimate the cost. For the organisers, the cost of a two day IWM-like event will not be more than EUR 60 in North-West Europe. A comparison: we went to an amusement park the other day, called De Efteling. This was a rather obligatory event and I went along mostly for my daughter. This trip cost us: Admission: 3 times EUR 24 Additional food and drinks: around EUR 40 Travelling cost: Zero, since we went on bicycle Grand total of one day to a park with three people: EUR 110. Compare that with the IWM that cost us around half of it, but which covered 50 hours with a maximum of 10 people. So an IWM is dirt cheap compared to a day out with the family. And it gives you and your friends a good time.

Future IWM's.

It's quite sure we will have more IWM's in the future. In good WISclub traditions, it is customary to wait for the last moment to arrange things, but an IWM needs some more consideration and preparation. As time has proven us... The first IWM was good, although not for all. We were enthusiastic and in this mood, we (the dutch and belgian members, who share a common language) forgot about our german member, who did not speak dutch... This was an event we learned from. So the IWM 2005 was almost completely english spoken. Evenb at moments Fiffi was already in his hotel... The third IWM will probably be better as well. It might be that there will be more foreign members. Perhaps also more dutch speaking members. If that is the case we will have to take measures for accomodating people and perhaps move from a garden setting to a small scale campingsite. Therefore we will need to know a few months in advance if people would like to participate in the upcoming IWM.

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