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ToorCamp: Adventures In an American Hacker Camp
jcatcw writes "While a tech camping event might sound like an oxymoron, hackers, makers, breakers and shakers assembled at the northwestern tip of the USA for ToorCamp and dispelled the notion that all hackers avoid sunshine and the great outdoors. As you would expect from a hacker conference, there were workshops like the one for lock picking and a plethora of presentations from "hacking computers to brain hacking, from brewing soda to fighting robots, from civil rights to lightning guns." Then unique aspects of this cool hacker camp get more bizarre . . like the laser that was so bright it required FAA clearance to deploy it, the ShadyTel community 'payphone,' the Temple of Robotron, an RFID implantation station, bike jousting, dancing robots and of course campfires. Need an even stranger adventure that's also in the ToorCon family of hacking conferences? There's the upcoming WorldToor, the first ever hacker conference in Antarctica."
It was soo epic!
Do members of a group really need to be told they don't necessarily conform to the stereotype? Imagine telling a crowd of women that they aren't all irrational and overly emotional because some subset of them joined the debate club. It's still insulting, because of the presumption.
They have a whole cooking class devoted to making dishes with foot cheese! Mmmm mmm!
Foot cheese is really the only completely free cheese since you make it yourself.
Get an implant, and then bash Facebook for lack of privacy.
There's an obligatory Doonesbury comic about when the daughter goes to camp, but I can't seem to find it because everything past the last 1 1/2 years is paywalled.
it started off knocking windows and then listed the cabins as Mac, Linux, and the kids who wrote their own OS. It's interesting how the sentiments (fanboyism) still hold true to this day.
No shaggers, then?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
See you all there (or on 29c3 in Hamburg)!
You can have my lightning gun when you pry it from my charred, tetanized hands!
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
Pekka Himanen (The Hacker Ethic) articulates how hackers represent a new, opposing ethos for the information age. That there are values underneath their actions and creations that challenge us all. They share a spirit that they can discover and create great things in imaginative ways. They questions cultural "norms" in a society that is often overly focused on outcomes at the expense of privacy and equality.
The cost and potential profit motives of such adventures (and lack of universal access) seem to be very oxymoronic given the audience and ideals. I question the motives of the sponsors. I also worry that the sensational aspects overwhelm or drown out the very real risks in young, impressionable minds. Additionally, there is the potential "Big Brother" list generating opportunity for government [shudder].
On the whole, I think this is a wonderful idea. It is something I would have enjoyed. But in the absence of any guiding principles or philosophical grounding, I am concerned that we are nurturing western-style martyrs. Every action has consequences...
https://plus.google.com/events/cs8qqqn96f2ktfvm66s3sb2cpes/103112149634414554669
That salmon was caught fresh that day. Also pics of the laser near the bottom.
We had welding classes too!
Oh, and the ShadyTel guys ran a cell phone system! They used 2 (or more?) "big building" Nokia cell phone radios, they gave us each a sim card, and we could connect to their network from other cell phones if we were white-listed... but it was unencrypted if we didn't have their sim card.
They re-wrote the GSM stack. (I think they had to go with an existing one because the "optional" features of GSM are not so optional)
If you're in the UK and want to go to a hacker camp EMFCamp is weekend after next!
Since when is Washington state, and not Alaska, the northwestern tip of the United States?
Hanging out in Neah Bay is a *good* way to avoid sunshine.
I recently attended a givecamp (http://givecamp.org/) and it was quite a satisfying experience.
It was great to get out and be a part of a greater good, especially on centered around programming.
In fact, it was probably the hardest i've ever worked on a computer in a 60 hour period in my life
Couldn't say I learned much though, just got really frustrated at Drupal!:)