Hack Day Weirdness

Wow. Pretty weird start to Hack Day.

We were in the West Hall of Alexandra Palace. A talk had just finished and there was lots of general milling about going on. All of a sudden there was an almighty bang followed by some loud crackling. It sounded like it was coming from the roof.

Then there was a whirring sound and about twenty flaps opened in the roof. And letting the rain in. Luckily it was light rain and it soon stopped.

The organisers took the stage to explain what had happened. The building had been struck by lightning. And that had set off some of the fire prevention systems, which is why the ceiling flaps had opened. And the systems had fused so that it seemed to be impossible to close the flaps.

All of which was ok (ish!) but there was another storm approaching and the roof was still open. And then the rain arrived. So everyone buggered off into the next room – one that didn’t have gaping holes in the ceiling.

Time passed. Lunch was serve. And at some point in the next couple of hours the ceiling was sealed and the room was dried out.

We’re now back in the main room. And the main hacking of the weekend has started. Not sure what I’ll be hacking on. I’m now just waiting for the wireless network to come back so I can post this.

Never been in a building when it was struck by lightning before though. It was all very exciting.