Due to the Department of Homeland Security sending some operatives to The Next HOPE to question Julian Assange of Wikileaks about the release of a certain piece of video footage from Iraq he did not come to the con to give the keynote address this afternoon. The guy who was spotted here and there around the con yesterday afternoon was, in fact, not Julian Assange (a few other people made the same mistake, I'm given to understand). In his stead a man with balls made of pure neutronium, Jacob Appelbaum of the Tor Project gave the keynote address. I've only …
While I try to figure out what to write about, here are two press releases which will probably be of interest.
First of all, 2600 Magazine has has announced that pre-registration for The Next HOPE has opened. Held every two years at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan, the Hackers On Planet Earth conference draws hackers, crackers, cypherpunks, makers feds, and as many other sorts of people as you care to mention to present, attend presentations, get in trouble, and bounce ideas off of one another. The cost to attend HOPE is $75us in advance (paid through Yahoo's online store …
As you'll recall from a couple of months ago, I presided over the wedding of Elwing and Irregular Expression in exchange for going out to dinner at some point in the future. Because Elwing was presenting at The Last HOPE and I was there as a guest, we arranged to go out for dinner while in New York City. Elwing had organized an outing to a restaurant called Ninja New York (25 Hudson Street; New York, NY 10013; phone 212-274-8500; open 1745-2300 EST5EDT). With a name like that, I just had to go to see what it was all about …
Got back from The Last HOPE about two and a half hours ago. Dead tired. Lots went on. Even had a couple of "No shit, there I was" adventures. I'm going to go to bed shortly.
Just a few scant minutes ago I boarded the Acela express train out of Union Station in Washington, DC destined for the city that never sleeps. Yes, once again New York City is my destination, and I sincerely hope that it's prepared for the advent of Hackers On Planet Earth, the biannual convention held by 2600 Magazine at the Hotel Pennsylvania.
Taking the train is probably one of my favorite ways to travel. It's quiet, it's fast, and the scenery is something that you don't often get to see in the DC …
For those of you who weren't able to attend The Last HOPE this year, they've put a net.radio station called Radio Statler online for everyone to listen to. During the con, they've been net.casting live interviews with attendees and presenters, the odd spot of music, and best of all audio from the panels themselves.
You can listen to them live here with either the high or low quality streams with any web browser and just about any audio application, like Winamp, VLC, or Windows Media Player.
Running between work, home, and the bed to sleep, mostly. It's been an unusually long week (and it's not even Friday yet), and rather than write incoherent posts in the evening I've decided to catch up on sleep where and when I can. Consequently, there hasn't been much to write about in the past few days, but I can authoritatively state that there are no pin-holes in my eyelids. Battling highway traffic in southern Virginia is tiring work, though ultimately rewarding.
I've just pre-registered for The Last HOPE conference in New York City later this year (18-20 July 2008, to …
