Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More

Well, it’s Sunday night and the Last HOPE Conference has concluded. It’s hard for me to reflect back, seeing as I never attended HOPE before. I noticed the place was dead today as vendors packed up and groups gathered to finish activities and chat. It really makes me think that the hacking of yesteryear is dead and that a new ...

Colombian fashion designer Miguel Caballero has been described as the “Armani of bulletproof clothing.” Caballero, pictured above with action movie star and guitar enthusiast Steven Seagal modeling one of his leather jackets, makes ultra-lightweight bulletproof gear using a top secret material. Though Caballero won’t reveal exactly how he makes the lining in his high security duds, he says it involves ...

Remember that carbon fiber Element Push deck? We were impressed by the craftsmanship of the board, so the folks at Element sent us one to check out. Specifically, the Atchley Stealth. The precise manufacturing that goes into making this deck is incredible and I’m glad we got our chance to take it for a test ride. We’ve even got a ...

Furniture designer Dylan Gold of San Francisco’s Link Studios made this cubed shelving unit that features a cool “understated twist.” Perhaps Gold got his inspiration for the shelves, appropriately named the Twist, from the San Andreas fault since because they look like they’ve survived an earthquake. Gold made the rotated cube effect using computer modeling and a CNC router. Perhaps ...

On Sunday, nearly all the LEGOs were gone. Needless to say, we were heartbroken, but then we came upon this redeeming build. A construct of White Castle slider boxes. What do you think it is? We have no idea. One thing is for certain, we’re getting a Crave Case for dinner tonight.

The Netherlands-based locksporting group Toool held a panel at HOPE discussing new and advanced opening techniques for high security locks. We sat in on this two hour discussion with Barry Wels and Han Fey commenting on some unorthodox approaches to key copying. The speakers mentioned how easy it is to copy even the most exclusive of key profiles, which in ...

Get ready robot sports fans, Robocup 2009 will be held next year in the Austrian city of Graz. The robotic soccer tournament was first held in 1997 with the goal of encouraging research and one day building a team of bots that’s capable of taking on the human World Cup champions by 2050. Try Robocup has five divisions including a ...

Get real: this is a hacker conference. There’s no coat room, silly! But check out this server coat room! That’s right, a “coat check” for live servers. Bring your own, get set up and don’t forget to check out the Telehacking across the way. We wrote one of our friend’s cell number on the table near the payphones. We hope ...

What was I doing during the conference? Drinking Club-Mate and playing a Galaga rip-off. Hit the jump to see my look of disappointment:

PacketWars had its own project going on the expo floor. Complete with a referee who was ready to smack any hacker who steps out of the line with any shenanigans that violate the terms of service. It’s competitive network combat, no holds barred. Bring your own laptop, plug in and defend your territory. .