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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
While it might not be illegal, you would be foolish to think that you wouldn't be put on a "list" for attending.
Now would this list make you less likely to get a higher level govt job? Would it get you a different color for the homeland's flight database? Will it not allow you to attend the next presidential visit in your area? Will it get you a phone/internet tap?
Who can say for sure, but it is a lot more likely than if you didn't go.
I am not encouraging people NOT to attend. It IS your right to go. But don't think they aren't taking a laundry list of those attending/facial records, ect.
I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, but its shocking to see the parent modded up as funny and not interesting.
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.