I just listened to an older episode of Off The Hook and host Emmanuel Goldstein just explained that The Last HOPE conference is not literally the last HOPE conference ever to occur. It’s more for in conversation. Example: “Did you attend the Last HOPE conference?” “Yup!”
With that cleared up, the next HOPE will be called, oddly enough, the Next HOPE and will be arriving in NYC in 2010.
It’s been a few weeks since we attended the Last HOPE Conference but it’s still fresh in our minds. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to attend or missed some of the great talks, there is good news to be had. 2600 has kindly put up all of the talks on their website, including both streaming and downloadable versions. You can also grab HOPE-related DVDs and a brand spankin’ new t-shirt. Check it out by hitting the link below.
HOPE may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep building things and experimenting. Our good pal Phillip Torrone from MAKE and the famous Ladyada from Adafruit Industries have teamed up to created a video series dubbed “Citizen Engineer.”
In the series (which premiered at HOPE), Torrone and company run through DIY, soldering, hacking, phreaking and more. You’ll learn how to phuck with SIM cards and make payphones work for your benefit. If you love creating new things, you should check the video out.
Oh! And if you check out Freedom Downtime, you’ll see PT and Lazlow make a cameo.
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 era of DIY, eco-hacking and software are going to change the game. It sounds a bit cliche but the Internet has evolved, security has changed and kids are finding new ways to spend their time instead of learning old techniques.
No matter. This year’s conference was a lot of fun. We got to dive into things we’re normally fooling around with and take a different approach to covering the conference. With that said, if you search around or click this particular link right here, you’ll be able to check out all of our coverage. From robot builds to t-shirts to speakers to lockpicking, we saw it all. It’s been real. Keep on hacking and make sure you leave your thoughts on this event in the comments.
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 actuality, only block hardware store copying methods. Noting the classic clay mold approaches to key copying, the speakers quickly alluded to the simplicity of imprinting the key’s marks on your own arm as a form of copying. Go ahead and press your house key into your forearm, the imprint stays there longer than you’d think.
They even challenged attendees to bring their own locks or “impossible to copy” keys, so they can take a crack at it. What daring hackers.
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 people will call it. +1 516-521-5020 Thanks!
Who doesn’t love free stuff? Guitar picks, pins, stickers, and all kinds of shit for the taking! There’s much more stuff you can pick up if you have the cash, including back issues of 2600, HOW TO books from the EFF and MAKE, t-shirts with original designs, CDs, lockpicking sets, microcontrollers and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Trying to call your female escort to let her know you’ll be late? Use one of these payphones hooked up to the Internet via a PBX system. Probably running Asterisk I’m guessing. Check out photos of the setup after the jump.
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Love it or hate it, you gotta admit the Segway intrigues you. If you’ve always wanted to try one out, now’s your chance. At HOPE, they’ll have Segway courses set up so you can race your friend. We watched as several people wiped out in a row and boy was it a gas. Follies!