Friday is once again the day of our monthly 2600 meetings all around the world. To see if there’s a meeting in your area, check out http://www.2600.com/meetings/mtg.html.
We’re less than two months away from HOPE Number Six (July 21, 22, 23, 2006) and we’d like to get a record amount of participation from 2600 meetings all around the world.
What does this mean? On any given “meeting day,” there are thousands of people throughout the world gathering, trading information, planning projects, and in general really getting the authorities in their respective locales into an uproar. This is what we’re all about and it’s inspired everything from Hollywood blockbuster movies to security systems, as well as all kinds of cool software, art projects, and hardware design. (It may have also helped to inspire the Patriot Act but we can’t take credit for everything.)
So among all of you meeting attendees there are some really cool things going on. We think it’s about time this was shared in a bigger arena than just your local meeting space. Assuming you will be at HOPE this summer, why not also let the rest of us in on some of the cool stuff your local 2600 gathering has been up to?
We’ll be providing free table space to any 2600 group that is currently listed in our meeting section. You can use that space to show off some of your projects, reach out to the public, and meet a whole lot of people from other 2600 meetings all around the world.
If this is something you’d be interested in, let us know by emailing vendors@2600.com and telling us which group you represent, how many of you there are, and what kinds of cool things we can expect from you.
NOTE: This is NOT vendor space despite the email address - we will be making an announcement shortly for people interested in selling stuff at the conference.
We have a lot of space but even that will eventually be limited so let us know as soon as possible. And don’t forget to register for HOPE while preregistration is still open. It’s only $60 for the weekend if you do it now. Those who wait will pay $75 at the door. Visit http://www.hope.net for more info on the conference, how to get rooms, etc.
June 1st, 2006
emmanuel
There will be a HOPE coordination meeting this Friday, June 2nd, at the 2600 Meeting in the Citigroup Center in New York City. It’ll be a great opportunity to get involved with the conference, or to talk about things with which you’re already involved.
Further meetings will be happening the first Friday of every month (as part of the 2600 Meetings) and the third Frinday of every month (as “special” HOPE-coordination-only meetings) from now until the conference. For those of you who could use a little bit more advance notice, mark your calendars now!
May 30th, 2006
mlc
As with previous years, HOPE will be a 24×7 affair… well 24×3 anyhow.
Plans call for movies to run in a new and improved Movie Room (on the 18th floor) all night, and of course we’ve scheduled some talks with the ability to go far over time… some die-hards may remember Agent Steele keeping it interesting in the 4th hour of his 1-hour timeslot.
The 2nd floor will be open to all manner of off-hours activities. There are electronics and lockpicking workshops in the works. There’s a project in motion to make all the talks from all the previous HOPE conferences available on-demand from video stations. The network is there, all kinds of people from all over are there, and there are projects we haven’t publicly discussed much yet…like something to keep the phreaks happy I’d think…
There’s always room for more. More workshops, more video, more projects. If you have an idea or think you can pull something off, let us know by emailing speakers@2600.com.
May 22nd, 2006
porkchop
Congratulations to Kevin of 914 for being the first to get the answer to the mystery contest and win a pair of HOPE tickets.
Here is the solution. In the Spring issue on page 3 in really tiny type you will see “iwtftfto@2600.” Anyone who sent an email to iwtftfto@2600.com would have gotten a reply which simply said “What does my username mean?” The answer? I Was The First To Figure This Out.
Watch for future contests, indicated by a flashing icon of George W. Bush near the HOPE logo on the main 2600 page If you see him, there is a contest underway. Finding the contest is half the fun. We plant them in recent events, such as a just released issue, a news story, or a current radio show. Oftentimes you can find hints here on the blog as people beg for help.
May 6th, 2006
emmanuel
Just wanted to remind folks that this Friday, May 5, there will be some HOPE planning and volunteer coordination at the 2600 meeting in New York City. If you have some ideas for the conference, are interested in volunteering, or just want to get more info, it’d be great if you could come by.
The meeting is from 5-8 PM, in the atrium of the Citigroup Center, 601 Lexington Avenue (at 53rd Street), in Manhattan. Hope to see some of you there!
May 4th, 2006
mlc
For those of you in town during HOPE who feel like taking part in a really intensive seminar in investigative tactics, we’re pleased to announce that there will be just such an event on the 6th floor of the Hotel Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 22. HOPE attendees will receive a discounted admission to the PallTech Seminars on High Tech and Hardcore Investigative Tactics and Training. Full registration info is available here. There is very limited space for this event so move fast if you’re interested.
Talks and speakers for this seminar are as follows:
- “Military Records and Military Investigations” - Gerard “Jerry” Keenan
- “The Polygraph as an Investigative Tool” - R.J. “Reggie” Montgomery
- “DNA - Overview and Use as an Investigative Tool” - Kevin Noppinger
- “International and Multi-Jurisdictional Investigations” - Steve Rambam
- “Surveillance - Tips, Tricks, and Real World Case Studies” - Kelly Riddle
A two hour presentation for the main HOPE conference will take place at 5 pm on Saturday, July 22 with all of the above speakers. But if you have a really keen interest in investigative techniques, consider registering for the seminar. More detailed information on the speakers and their talks can be found at the PallTech Seminars page.
May 1st, 2006
emmanuel
If you see a flashing George W. Bush icon behind the HOPE logo on the main 2600 page that means you can win a pair of free HOPE tickets by figuring something out before anyone else does. What exactly does this mean? Well, we can’t tell you too much but since this is the first time we’ve done this, we’ll give you a couple of hints. It’s something from the brand new issue (Spring 2006) now in stores and subscriber hands. And no, it’s not the puzzle.
April 27th, 2006
emmanuel
We’re thrilled to announce that free software movement/GNU project founder Richard Stallman will be giving the Friday keynote at HOPE Number Six, scheduled for July 21-23 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. To register for the conference, head over to our registration page.
In addition to Stallman, an ever-growing list of speakers is being compiled with a very wide range of subject matter. As always, we will do our best to cram it all into the three days that we have.
If you have a talk you’d like to give, are interested in assembling a panel of speakers, or know of someone who we really should get, send an email over to speakers@2600.com. The deadline for speaker submissions is May 15 but the earlier we hear from you the better. In order to improve your chances of being accepted, go into as much detail as you can about what you would like to speak about, how your talk will be of interest to our attendees, and something about yourself that tells us why you would be a good person to give this presentation.
Here’s a sampling of some of the talks we’re already working with:
Friday Keynote: Richard Stallman
Privacy Through Technology Hands On
Pirate Radio
Vulnerabilities in a Connected Future:
Dangers with Smarthomes, Smartcars, IPv6, and Biometrics
Network Monitoring and the Law
Weird Technology
Exploring Dusty Corners of the Web
Hackers in Prison
Alienation and Engagement
Law Enforcement Wiretaps: Background and Vulnerabilities
Making an Underground Documentary and Dealing with Large Corporations
TrackSploits
Hacking the Physical World
2600 Meetings: A Valuable Resource or a Waste of Time?
How to Manage Your Company’s Data
Consumer Electronics Hacking
Miscellaneous Phone Phreaking Talk
Wireless Security Flaws
RFID Privacy - Old Threats and New Attacks
The Life and Times of Alan Turing, Father of the Computer
Pro-actively Secure Programming Techniques
Quantum Cryptography/Computation
MD5Lookup
Hijacking the Air: Acoustic Keylogging
Again, this is just the beginning. More topics will be posted soon. The deadline for submitting your proposals is May 15.
April 22nd, 2006
emmanuel
We’ve got some interesting things happening in the Networking area. One of the topics of big discussion, the uplink, might be fixed firehose-style, but I don’t want to go talking any more about it until we have that all worked out. Longtime supporter NAC is offering to push as many bits as we can hand them; the issue is the actual layer-1 connection.
Wireless this year of course is handled by Dragorn, known best for his work on Kismet. Last year, with the help of almost a dozen people, we built the APs out of micro atx boards, 1U power supplies, pcmcia bridges, duct tape, and bailing wire. This year, they’re real enterprise access points from Aruba, which dragorn is writing the software for.
Other network folk are talking about and working on voip, video streaming, and of course the public terminal cluster. We’ll be needing volunteers to help staff the NOC and PTC. In fact, we still need volunteers for a lot of places. AV/Stage Management comes to mind, that’s actually one of the best places to directly impact the quality of the conference. Those guys get a lot of credit. Anyone wanting to help out for any department should drop a line to volunteers@2600.com.
April 21st, 2006
porkchop
One thing that folks are curious about is where they can stay during the HOPE conference. There are a number of options.
The most obvious place is, of course, the Hotel Pennsylvania, home to the HOPE conference and to one of the most famous phone numbers in the world. A block of rooms is reserved for HOPE Number Six attendees at the rate of $145 per night. These rooms (unlike most of the others in the hotel) have in-room Ethernet ports for accessing the Internet. To reserve, call that famous phone number — PEnnsylvania 6-5000 (if you live in an area with modern telephones, it’s +1 (212) 736-5000) — and ask for the HOPE Number Six conference rate.
If you don’t want to stay at the Hotel Pennsylvania for whatever reason, two other hotels, each located just a couple of blocks away, are now also offering special discount rates for HOPE attendees.
The Hotel Wolcott is offering a rate of $150 weekend / $130 midweek. To reserve, visit their website, click on “Corporate Reservations”, and enter the password 2600.
The New Yorker Hotel is offering a rate of $142 per night. To reserve, visit their special HOPE Number Six reservations page.
Of course, if none of these options is to your liking, there are lots of other places to stay in New York City. We’re collecting information about many of these places (including some very inexpensive youth hostel options) in the Where to stay section of the wiki. Be sure also to add any information you find which isn’t already there!
April 19th, 2006
mlc
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