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A New HOPE on the Horizon
double-oh three writes "It's an even numbered year, and that means that 2600 is holding the party again this summer. The 5th HOPE conference has been announced and scheduled for July 9th to 11th(a Friday-Sunday weekend), again at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. This year's 'theme' for the conference is Propaganda, and if this is anything like H2k2, it'll be by the phone companies. And for
those of you who are clueless, here's a roundup of the last HOPE con."
My favorite thing about 2600 was their use of bart system, put in bart ticket, meet in the station underground, go back home, and go out the same terminal you came in, pay no fare total because you "travelled no distance". I thought that was slick.
Count me in. I'll be bringing Circus Atari and Night Driver. Just can't find those damn paddle controllers.
These sorts of things are illegal under the current anti-terrorism laws.
How long do you think it will take the Dept. of Home Land Insecurity to declare HOPE a gathering of terrorists?
1) 2-4 Hours
2) 24-48 Hours
3) 1 Week
4) Sometime before the USA lands on Mars
5) As soon as Dubya has his mourning coffee
6) Time is a man made concept you insensitive clod!
I was 99% sure this was going to be a Star Wars thread...
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
There is an abstract class called Terrorism(Object o). 2600 points out that with propaganda all marginals are passed into the Abstract. It is the job of the Hope conference to instill Honor in all the OOP spin doctors in the world: Beware of Reckless OOP. There goal of a good hacker is to overload Terrorism(Object o) with something a bit more easy rider, while still properly passing deadly free radicals, with something a little more easy rider like Freedom(Object o). Are you with me on this????
The Custom Mary
What the hell is ReadHat? Sounds like some flunky on from the "The Electric Company" kid's show.
And I thought that we were all screwed.
Look for your friends, but don't trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Beer-stained straight-edges? I think you're confused. Confused and angry, and a little bit pathetic.
HOPE is little more than a get together for criminals. For those who don't know, HOPE stands for Hackers on Planet Earth. Thats right, folks, hackers.
I'm getting really tired of this "wink and a nod" attitude towards hackers. They are dangerous scofflaws.
Any how, I hope the feds will be in attendance and taking notes on who shows up at this "conference".
By far, the biggest draw of the HOPE conventions over the years is the Social Engineering panel.
Just watching illustrating what Mitnick wrote about in Art of Deception displayed before a live audience is well worth the price of admission.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Public displays of "hacker" culture have been overwhelmed by script kiddies, wannabees, media morons (disclaimer: I worked in the biz myself for 20 years) and intelligence/law enforcement types. DEFCON has become a joke; 2600 is even worse, catering to the average alienated junior high school student who still thinks anarchy rocks. Nearly all real analysis and argument take place on line these days.
It mean that several friends of mine working for the FBI have to do extended service and our pub evening is chancelled again.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
- Gentlemen, start your hybrids!
And for those of you who are over 14, it's time to start applying your meager skills towards doing something useful with your life instead of writing "manifestos" denouncing the phone companies for stifling your creativity and fawning over some relic who exploited a default root password in 1986.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Before this happens, SCO will set up a booth to collect the $699 payment required for entry (thanks to some sap displaying Linux code as part of his presentation)
I think the raised it to $6
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I was on security at H2K2, was an interesting experience but I did not get to see many panels.
Word of warning: Jello Biafra is perpetual motion. If he is there this time multiply his scheduled speaking time by 3 or 4 to get an estimate of how long he will talk/yell/rant/etc.
If I go this time it will be as just a face in the mob and attend the panels.
Actually, I did have a panel for H2K (Parents of Hackers I think was the title we agreed on) but could not go due to a last min. thing.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
No way man! It sounds way more like something Lavar Burton came up with on Reading Rainbow.
"C'mon kids, put on your readhats and lets get started"
~Would it save you alot of time if I gave up and just went mad now?~
[ Don't reply to this ]
I even previewed that and still missed my screw up...
[ Don't reply to this ]
Yeah professionals, thats why the security in washington let a guy with bullets in his pocket on a plane to London the other day.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
It was the left-wingers (the Democrats) who in fact pushed the Homeland Security department idea before Bush got on board with it.
Bush only agreed to it once his demands to protect worker rights were met (the Democrats wanted to force Homeland Security workers to join and give money to non-job-related political organizations).
"And the dept. is no assorting of ultra jerks who put kids into prison who live in their parents basements"
The whackos are now claiming that the Bush administration is targeting "anyone who criticizes it" and putting them in Gitmo.
I guess Michael Moore and Howard Dean are really in Camp X-ray right now, and look-alike robots roam American to fool us that they are still free.
oh my. talk about giant flame bait. you want to protect the air space, put freaking military patrol on each and every plane. where are we going to get that type of military patrol? how about the millions of troops that are deployed over seas protecting american "interests". american government has no constitutional right to deploy forces over seas except to protect our borders.
american government does have a responsibility to protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens. using american forces abroad while they could be deployed here is an absolute abuse of power. infringing on any americans freedoms and rights (privacy inspections boarding plane) is an absolute abuse of power. armed military across the country would protect americans rights and keep the country safe from the jihad.
I had the pleasure of seeing Jello at a performance talk he gave at UMass sometime around the late 80's. It was about the Iraq war V1.0 and the Challenger disaster (covered a lot of ground, eh?). Jello wasn't the debacle that night though, it was the mass of students who couldn't get in to see him due high demand for tickets (first come first served). They pushed so hard on the doors they broke the glass and fell through. The state police took a bunch away and covered the door, then they put speakers outside so the mob could hear Jello also. It was loads of anarchistic fun.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
And what, precisely, has the DoHS done that was worth the millions spent in restructuring? How have they changed anything, besides occasionally shifting the useless "terror alert" from Ernie to Bert and back again?
Living it up at the Hotel Pennsylvania...
Warning people ("potential terrorists") that these kinds of things are illegal under the current anti-terrorism laws will get you locked up in Guantanimo ba...
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"no! you've got it all wrong.
"HOPE. What is it all about... is it good, or is it whack?"
Imagemap that can't be rendered in Moz 1.3?
Move along, nothing to see here, not worth the effort.
Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha
With episodes 7, 8, and 9 on the way, I need a new hope : (
--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?
American Weblog in London
I wonder why it is, once again, 2600 has chosen to host hope directly before defcon? not enough months in the year to host a convention without attempting to compete directly? Why is it that 2600 seems to feel the need to compete? They can't even play nice, two defcons ago several 2600 lackeys we're caught distributing flyers with some funny stuff like inturupt a talke and some really messed up stuff like stab a goon, all this under the header, "FUCK DEFCON UP"
Doesn't matter, if I have to choose, hands down, defcon is the destination, given the attendance numbers at defcon it seems I'm not along.
A marketing tip mr corley: schedual you're con after people have saved some vacation time back up after defcon, then it wont be just east coast people that go. I'd sure like to check out hope but it's not going to come at the cost of the week I spend in vegas that july...
Sorry, that was really bad. I'll do it right next time.
I was working for the New York Transit Authority back when a fellow by the name of Red Balaklava claimed he would reveal "secrets" about the MetroCard system. I got sent as an "undercover agent" along with a few people from the contractor that produced all the MetroCard equipment. It was a big waste of time. Nothing was revealed other than a talk about how doors were designed on token booths and how it's a safety issue. As a matter of fact, he advised people at the conference that trying to hack the system to save a $1.50 (the fare at the time), is a waste of time.
I had to sit through other equally useless presentations, like how html code needs to be designed so it's compatible in lynx in order for libraries and poor people who can only afford 386 computers can surf the Internet. (I shit you not!) What I learned from the HOPE conference is that most "hackers" (if we can agree these were hackers) are paranoid and generally misinformed about a great many things. The successful ones are those that had access to equipment and inside information. This Red Balaklava guy was a token booth clerk in disguise (our security people recognized him under his ridiculous mask). However, he had no real knowledge of how the system worked other than what he gleaned from the patent office's description and his own speculation...which was inaccurate to say the least.
Rex Banner: Does anyone have any questions?
Comic Book Guy: Yes. I'd like to kno...
Rex Banner: Don't crack wise with me tubby
Comic Book Guy: Tubby? (looks down) Oh yes... Tubby
--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?
American Weblog in London
Dude... skip them both and hit GrammarCon '04 this year. I guarantee they'll have all sorts of stuff you've never *heard* of.
On the Information Desk, for well.. most of it, I guess... we wound up providing some light entertainment as well, in the end.
Anyone there, might well remember me as 'The British Guy'
Join the Free Software Foundation
$6?! For nothing but "how to be 1337 like me" stories, and rants? I can get that for free just by chatting in IRC.
Judging by your grammar, I deduce that you stole it.
I was under the impression 2600 were still talking about how awesome it WAS back in the day.
International visitors currently don't have their fingerprints recorded when entering the Netherlands.
they shored up their webservers, because i'm already not making it past page 5 in the Book of Hope....
... and which election would that be? The one in Tanzania? I have news for you, there's going to be elephant meat on the BBQ this November. Look at all the good things that have happened since Bush took office: Enron, 09/11, a 4 year long job drought, Iraq, a massive federal deficit, all the kinds of things that pretty much guarantee re-election especially since the GOP didn't even win the popular vote last time around.
"It's funny how as we grow old
We cling to the past as we cling to the air
and feel nostalgia for things that were
maybe never there..."
- The The, "Jealous of Youth"
"All planet leave is cancelled! I've just had an unhappy love affair, so I don't see why anyone else should have a good time."
- Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz
The only thing that's changed is your perspective. Public displays of "hacker" culture have always been overwhelmed by script kiddies, wannabes, media morons and LEOs. DEFCON was always a joke as far as being a real security conference goes, but it's always been a heck of an excuse for a great big geek party. 2600 has never done anything but cater to the average junior high school student who still thinks anarchy rocks. And nearly all real analysis and argument have always taken place in private settings or online.
I personally hope that many feds are there. At previous HOPE conferences I attended, it was a pleasure to be able to sit down with law enforcement agents from various three-letter-organizations and chat it up with them. They learned from me. I learned from them. And, overall, they're pretty cool guys. Besides, my file is filled with good stuff, so it doesn't really matter to me.
PepperHacks - Hacking the Pepper Pad
1994? 1997? 2000? 2004?
I dunno, I thought it was every 3 years, but I guess they're skipping a year...
PepperHacks - Hacking the Pepper Pad
Hacker culture really does suck. A bunch of pasty-faced smelling fat t-shirt wearing beer stained straight edge libertarian or obnoxious green pedophiles come together to explore how many ways they can produce the same buffer overflow and call it brilliance.
Yeah, DefCon is just like that. A bunch of guys in a conference room.. gang-raping children, tossing beer all about, but not actually drinking it, for moral reasons.. and then having a big circle jerk when they discover new buffer overflows. They might all be dressed up like Adolf Hitler.. just for good measure.
Seriously.. what the hell are you talking about?
2600, the pedophile quarterly
Folks, just remember, the hijackers were neither liberal or atheist. Something to think about.
I went to H2K2 and found it to be fairly dull. Some things to point out:
There were two things that I did enjoy while I was there. One was the lockpicking session: I've never seen someone so good at picking locks before. The other was this hysterical documentary about script kiddies called Owned, which I'd like to have a copy of but can't seem to find anywhere.
But just being in Manhattan alone is worth the trip. That's one hell of an amazing city.
==========
I thought that Lucas finally said "The hell with it" and had decided to completly reshoot episode IV
Technoli
I went to H2K figureing what the heck, I think its needless to say, but at 22 I was well past the median age at the time :) of attendees at least. And most of the criticism here is valid, a lot of the talks were by people who thought they knew far more than they did, and a lot of the guys are paranoid.
Around the same time I saw a 2600 panel at ICON (a sci-fi con on LI) and I forget the guys name but one of the little lackies that was on Off The Hook all the time was going on about how they track Metrocards, I got in an arguement with him because I said that it was possible they tracked them so they could get a better idea of traffic flow, not so they would know what a bunch of 16 year old script kiddies were up to (I put it nicer)
But H2K was around the time of the MPAA v 2600 trial and RMS showed up, and I have to say after watching him speak I haven't used a proprietary OS since (except when working with someone elses computer of course) I am even the only one in my office running GNU/Linux for all my work. I always believed in free software but I found his talk very enjoyable and it was enough to push me over the edge.
And of course there was the "Freedom Downtime" showing with long delays (nothings more fun than sitting in an over crouded room full of tennage 'hackers' while they can figure out how to project a movie) while the film was amatuerish and basically a large Michael Moore derivation it was none-the-less enjoyable.
I think the Mitnick by phone (couldn't get permission to leave the state of california at the time) social engineering panel was very good. Eric called Verizon or AT&T to enquire about a memo about hope, and they bought that he was an employee hook line and sinker (till the croud yelled.
Cult of the Dead cow was retarded, and enlighting because I learned how much I actually completely disagree with a lot of what they stand for when they arent acting like buffoons on stage.
Jello was entertaining, of course it was a typical left-wing political "they're are fucking us" speech.
I think the best part was the MPAA v 2600 Mock trial in which I manged to get a good portion of the crowd to boo and hiss at eric when he walked in (in hannabal lecter garb no less). - it was a delightful mix of real lawyer speak, and really fun jabs.
yeah well, this was to be expected, I REALLY should avoid trying to write in english after being awake for 24+ hours
:)
I highly reccomend snotty-nazi-con for you btw
I was in attendance in 2002 at H2K2.
I didn't attend a ton of panels. I picked out some of the interesting ones, to me, and thought most of them were worth my time.
I wasn't terribly interested in all the politics, or Jello Biafra. I'd like to see more technical stuff, but I know that politics are part of what 2600 is all about.
The entertainment was okay. The show put on by Cult of the Dead Cow was very boring. I hope they never do it again. On the other hand, I really liked some of the DJ's who composed all of their own music. Some of it was excellent.
None-the-less, I plan to return to New York in July and hope this year's HOPE conference is even better than 2002's.
ENRON was a Clinton problem, actually. It started and flourished under his administration. It was exposed under the Bush administration, and shut down.
Yes, you are right that Bush stopping the terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere will help guarantee that he get elected a 2nd time.
The "a massive federal deficit"? The Democrats keep complaining that Bush is not spending ENOUGH money.
The Democrats look likely to lose later this year. The Dean message of hatred and lying will turn off the middle entirely. If things stay as they are domestically and internationally, Bush will surely win.
The alternatives do not make the chances of a Democrat victory look good either: Gephardt's courting of the 10% union workers ends up turning off the 90% who say "union no!". Clark is a joke candidate, much like Perot's Admiral running mate. Kerry, like Dean, is given to lying about everything and comes across as rather mean.
"armed military across the country would protect americans rights and keep the country safe from the jihad."
Someone actually modded this insightful? You've got to be joking. Many of the founding fathers saw a standing military, in and of itself, as a major threat to liberty. Standing armies have historically been used to oppress the population in both times of war and peace. This nation, in an attempt to protect the people from a corrupt regime using the military as a weapon against the people, enacted the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. It restricts the military from engaging in any law enforcement, except where provided for by act of Congress or the US Constitution. This followed the Supreme Court decision of Ex Parte Milligan(1866), which stated that Martial rule (military law) cannot exist or be enforced within the borders of the United States except where it is necessitated by a situation (such as rebellion) in which the courts cease to function, and thus, civilian authority no longer exists. The Supreme Court, like just about everyone else who's ever taken 10 seconds to look at a history book, recognized military forces policing civilians as a grave and dire threat to the liberties guaranteed by our Constitution.
The threat posed by the military to the liberties of the American people has been recognized since this country was formed. To say that we should now reverse more than 200 years of historically-based common fucking sense is absolutely insane.
What part of this did someone find "insightful"?
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
When you use acronyms in an article that some readers may not be familiar with, take the time to explain them.
Wow, a new definition for "clueless" - someone who's unfamiliar with an acrynym which refers to some hacker meeting. (I don't want to sound pissy lest I get moderated down for being a crank, but hey, you're either extending the "clueless" label to a ridiculously large proportion of the world's population, or you're diluting its effectiveness and impact when applied to genuine idiots... let's not lose this expressive word to overuse like we lost "dork" or "geek"!)
Perfectly Normal Industries
i can't speak to the mods. they typically get the insightful mod wrong.
you give a lot of informative statements to back up the laws regarding a standing militia.
you also mention that the military can be used when "it is necessitated by a situation (such as a rebellion)". i would assume this to include a direct attack on the states. if canada rolls down into the US and launches an attack on the US, on US soil, I assume that military forces have a responsiblity to exist in the area that the attack occurs. and that they will use martial law to attempt to protect the rights of the american (u.s.) citizens.
why is it that we can spend our money to send troops abroad to police other nations, but we can't keep troops at the borders (that could include air space) to protect our citizens from attack? what is it that gives us the right, responsibility or obligation to send troops abroad to police other parts of the world? is that a responsiblity that was recogonized when this country was formed or something we accquired in the last 80 years? common fucking sense indeed...
Oh, you mean something like the National Guard?
Amazing. Almost 100 words in the article on HOPE, without once managing to mention that it stands for "Hackers On Planet Earth", or give us "clueless" the slightest idea what it's about (a sort of social-minded hackers' conference with some relation to 2600 Magazine).
Until I started clicking on slow links, I assumed it stood for "HOtel PEnnsylvania", where it was being held...
For those who don't know, HOPE stands for Hackers on Planet Earth. Thats right, folks, hackers.
I'm getting really tired of this "wink and a nod" attitude towards hackers. They are dangerous scofflaws.
And I am sick to death of people like you who continually misuse "hacker" to mean "computer criminal".
A "Hacker" is an exceptionally skilled programmer, who is able to achieve exceptional results and solve difficult problems through the application of his skills, especially in the absense of adequate software tools. (Indeed, most of the tools used by non-hackers to sove mundane problems were writting as hacks by hackers.)
People who break into systems are "(computer) crackers". (Be sure to include the "computer" when in or near Georgia.)
People who abscond with other people's data, converting it to other use (either their own or sold for profit) are "(comptuter) pirates".
People who damage systems for fun are "(computer) vandals", for political reasons are "(comptuer) terrorists" or "(information) warriors".
Calling a (computer) pirate a "hacker" is exactly the same mistake as calling a cattle ruslter a "cowboy", a truck thief a "trucker", or a sea-pirate a "sailor". Yes, many cattle rustlers are cowboys (though some are not). But most cowboys are NOT cattle rustlers.
Two sorts of people make this mistake:
- Those who are largely ignorant of the subject (getting their information from the mainstream/establishment press, politicians, or "security consultants" marketing themselves to upper management.
- (computer) crackers, vandals, or pirates of limited skill who are trying to puff up their reputations.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
He must have ment Menso.
"I assume that military forces have a responsiblity to exist in the area that the attack occurs. and that they will use martial law to attempt to protect the rights of the american (u.s.) citizens."
The litmus test for legality of martial law was set in Ex Parte Milligan. To quote the Supremes in Milligan:
"Martial law cannot arise from a threatened invasion. The necessity must be actual and present; the invasion real, such as effectually closes the courts and deposes the civil administration."
Also:
"It follows, from what has been said on this subject, that there are occasions when martial rule can be properly applied. If, in foreign invasion or civil war, the courts are actually closed, and it is impossible to administer criminal justice according to law, then, on the theatre of active military operations, where war really prevails, there is a necessity to furnish a substitute for the civil authority, thus overthrown, to preserve the safety of the army and society; and as no power is left but the military, it is allowed to govern by martial rule until the laws can have their free course. As necessity creates the rule, so it limits its duration; for, if this government is continued after the courts are reinstated, it is a gross usurpation of power. Martial rule can never exist where the courts are open, and in the proper and unobstructed exercise of their jurisdiction. It is also confined to the locality of actual war." [Emph Mine]
"why is it that we can spend our money to send troops abroad to police other nations, but we can't keep troops at the borders (that could include air space) to protect our citizens from attack?"
Well, for one thing, we face no enemy at any land border. As for the oceans, we have the Coast Guard. Local protection for the border states would be provided by National Guard, police, and other law enforcement. If Canada were to (suicidally) invade Maine, the local smokeys and National Guard would be mobilzed for defense while military resources were gathered. Martial law could not be legally declared in Maine unless the Canadian military ran right over the immediate defenses and overthrew the soverign state authority of Maine. At that point, US military forces could declare the entire battle zone (and probably a small buffer zone surrounding immediate combat areas) to be under martial law. The Commander in Chief (President) would have to make the determination as to whether martial law was necessary.
In terms of deploying US troops as a deterrant, there's really nothing to stop anyone from having the military sit a bunch of guys all around our borders fully armed. If, however, a couple soldiers watched one civilian beat the hell out of another civilian, they could not arrest anyone, nor do anything other than protect the guy getting his ass kicked and call the police. That being said, there is little that's more demoralizing to a people than to feel as though they're under the control of cold, heartless military forces. Similarly, there is nothing more demoralizing to a military force than to be forced to police its own citizens. Who signs up to the US Army because they want to drive a tank down Main St in Smalltown, USA while pointing an M-16 at the Americans watching them pass? To sum it all up, there's no need to deploy US military forces to our borders, as there's no known threat with which our civilian forces are incapable of dealing.
"what is it that gives us the right, responsibility or obligation to send troops abroad to police other parts of the world?"
That depends on who you ask. If you ask an isolationist, nothing. If you ask a neocon, then we have to do it to maintain American power and change the world so it's more US-friendly. Outside of that, there are number of arguments, centered around morality, legality, and humanity. How do we, as a people blessed with success, ignore a suffering people's cries as an unelected military force slau
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Except no-one uses this. It is like the trekkies who insist on being called "Trekkers": no one cars.
Or better, yet, the realtors who insist that "Realtor" only applies to some Realtors, it is a trademark.
Outside of the geek world, "hacker" means computer crook. "Cracker" means Georgia redneck, and what you are calling a "Cracker" the public calls a computer-nerd or -geek.
" Your liberterian left wing propaganda"
Actually, Libertarians tend to be more right-wing oriented. They're basically conservatives whose main issue is reducing the size and power of government. Conservatives and Republicans used to talk at length about how smaller government and more individual freedom were good things. The current crop sees government as an instrument to wield power. Sounds a bit like how the left used to be described.
"Proud owner of a Mensa membership card."
Thank goodness that membership card didn't require more than basic knowledge of the English language to obtain.
You're a moron and a troll. In other words, you'll fit right in with the First Post, GNAA, and Goatse.cx '-1' posters.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
am I just a conspiracy theorist, or is there something very weird and significant going on with the number '2600'? I mean, you've got the hacker group, you've got the venerable Atari, and now you've got Windows XP... as soon as I saw that my copy of XP (and almost everyone else's) was build number 2600, I started scratching my head and looking for correlations! (for fun, mind you)
Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
At first it was every three years.
1994
1997
2000
Then it switched to every two years.
2002
2004
2006 *
Next, it will be every year
2007*
2008*
2009*
and then twice a year
spring and fall 2010 *
spring and fall 2011 *
spring and fall 2012 *
Then once a quarter, once a month, twice a month, and so on.
I expect that by 2020 we should be having these once a day.
* anticipated future date.
Great civilizations have lived and died on false theories. Don't mess up mine with a few facts.
The owners of the means of production have blocked many people from "applying their skills" with their permission in order to try to generate profit for those owners
This is not socialism, where government owns everything (incuding the means of production) and everyone is slave.
This is, instead, a situation where a programmer having the "means of production" is as simple as having a $599 Dell box with a CD burner, a stack of free-after-rebate CD's, and a Borland programming language.
What harm could occur without a gun? Did he threaten to insert the bullets by hand?
The latest Slashdot meme.
I sent a fax to the feds (there's a cross-agency public relations department I can't remember the name of right now). I mentioned I was a planner for H2K2, and we would LOVE them to show up and give a talk to hackers. I told them it might not be a very friendly audience, but it would be a great opportunity for the feds to present their points of view, and gather feedback.
I'm still waiting for a response....
I am posting this anonymously, because I deal with several, 'high level' members of 2600 on a regular basis. I have found that these members, including Emmanuel Goldstein (aka Eric Corley) are a bunch of self important people, who think their opinion is always correct. I also, have not had one good experience with other members. Again, they refuse to believe they could ever be wrong, and speak in a condescending manner to all those not in the 2600 'clique'. Mod me down if you want, but this is a true synopsis of my experiences with the 2600 'hackers'.
A whole bunch of us on the left coast [see: Los Angeles] have been working on getting our own convention off the ground. We're calling it LayerOne and it's a bit more for the Slashdot set then it is for the h4x0rs.
We're currently taking papers until March 14th from any interested parties who would like to speak on a broad range of topics. Anything from copyright issues to social software to VoIP is fair game.
gomi no sensei
What harm can a gun without bullets do?
It can be used for making a credible threat.