Fanboys and stalkers: rejoice!
I’m speaking twice at HOPE this weekend, Saturday and Sunday morning. So don’t drink too much the night before…

More info about HOPE is at the website, it’s already started so I have to pick up my badge now.

Citizen Engineer – Consumer Electronics Hacking and Open Source Hardware

Phillip Torrone
Ladyada

This is a hands-on session on all the things you’re not supposed to do (but want to) with the gadgets that fill our drawers and shelves: transform an old VCR into an automatic cat feeder, use open interfaces to control Roomba robotic vacuums. Projects like these (and others, such as WRT54G hacking, iPod Linux, car-computer hacking, etc.) are part of a growing trend where consumers are going back and hacking what they buy. Just as computer hacking is closely tied to the Open Source software movement, so can such embedded gadget-hacking lead to an Open Source hardware movement.

Saturday 1200
Area A

The Geeky, Personal, and Social Impact Sides of Creating Defensive Technology

Mitch Altman
Ladyada

Ever wish you had the power to turn off a TV in a restaurant or disable an intrusive cell phone? Social defensive technologies are “reality hacking” devices that give us the sort of sociopathic control we’ve come to enjoy on the Internet alone. Three years ago, Mitch decided he’d had enough of televisions and designed the TV-B-Gone, a universal “off” keychain remote. Around the same time, Ladyada designed a personal RF jammer. Together they will discuss these projects in the context of reclaiming personal space, culture-jamming, and how we can design technologies that do what we really want. Don’t expect good WiFi/cell reception.

Sunday 1000
Area A