RIPE NCC Quinquennial Celebration

[Carol Orange <]

ATTENTION: This is a surprise for Daniel (we've made sure he
won't see this), so please don't respond to the whole list and
spoil it!!! 

Hi Everybody,

In 1992, on this very day (920401), the RIPE NCC started
operations with 1 employee: Daniel Karrenberg.  Today we are a
staff of 12, and ready to celebrate our

		***  Quinquennium ***

That's right folks!  We are happy and running after all this
time and think it's time for a toast.  To this end we are
planning to have a big bash at the 24th RIPE meeting in Berlin
later this month.  Of course we didn't start our preparations
yesterday (that was a Sunday, after all), but have been busy for
quite some time. 

Well, to be honest, we don't get to celebrate in the place of
our choice.  We of course tried to arrange for a dinner in the

		* Palast der Republik *

but they wouldn't renovate in time for us.  They have a lot of
stories about how time consuming it is to remove asbestos, etc.. 
In spite of the numerous financial incentives offered by our
generous sponsors, they wouldn't get it ready in time for our
meeting.  Hard to imagine. 

Anyway, we had to settle for the

	FERNSEHTURN AM ALEXANDERPLATZ (a.k.a. St. ULBRICHT)

This location has the following advantages:

1. Because this is the TV tower, we will have high speed
   connections both locally and to the outside world (see 
   below). This means that we can all bring laptops and don't 
   have to be bothered with talking to one other during the 
   dinner. This has often been complained about in the past. 

2. The price is right.  That's not entirely true.  The dinner
   will cost 1000 ECUs per person. But thanks to our incredibly 
   generous sponsor, namely the:
   
	Federation Internationale Vegetarienne Europeenne

   We will feast for free! Pick up your tickets when you arrive
   at the meeting and give 'em five, folks!

So from the staff of the RIPE NCC, we hope to see you there! 

Chair, Quinquennial Committee

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Connectivity details:

The location on the TV tower will enable us to have excellent
networking connectivity.  We will have an OC-480 (24.889 Gbit/s)
optical MASER link to the Hyper-WIN network sponsored by the
"Bundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und
Technologie" commonly called Zukunftsministerium (Future
Ministry).  This link will have a 64kbit/s X.25 channel for
backwards compatibility reasons.  Just in case the MASERs get
overloaded by all the dinnertime WEB surfing we will have an
OC-3 (155.520 Mbit/s) laser backup directly to The Center of the
Internet in Stockholm via a chain of mirrors and laser repeaters
placed on (soon to be obsolete) microwave towers.  The 7993-type
routers needed for interfacing between the OC-480 link, the
laptop network, as well as the virtual reality gear for the
dinner show, will be sponsored by FRISCO systems Europe.  In the
unlikely event of all this high technology failing we will have
an HF radio link sponsored by Iputs BA which uses the newest
'independent side bands' modulation technology to achieve a
stunning 997 kbit/s data rate using only 4.49 kHz of HF
spectrum.  Please keep quiet about this last backup method as
Iputs usually does not have time to inform local authorities
about their inventive use of the radio spectrum.