Find Mitch Altman (@maltman23) in The Hackerspace Village to purchase OpenAMD expansion kits! Hack your badge!

Hacker cartoonist Ed Piskor has created custom QSL cards for The Next HOPE. The weekend of July 16-18, if we establish radio contact with you, from HOPE, you will be getting one of these in the mail.

Read the full story and see the art development process here: http://www.wizzywigcomics.com/?p=162

The OpenAMD/Badge team has another exciting announcement:  The Next HOPE iPhone App is now available for download and it’s totally FREE! 

Just like the Android App released last week, this app contains the whole schedule, which we’ll continually update before and during the conference.  The app also has full details on each talk, a favorites feature to mark the talks you want to attend, full search capabilities and a gateway for sending out vital information to attendees!

Please test it out and leave a comment in the forums to let the badge team know what you think!  Good feedback in the iTunes app store doesn’t hurt either.

For those of you without iPhones or Androids, longtime 2600 contributor Cheshire Catalyst has put together a .mobi site at http://thenexthope.mobi

If these efforts inspire a need for last minute coding, check out the public API for the conference badge.

Now is also a good time to remind you that pre-registering is the only way to guarantee getting a hackable badge of your own.  Supplies are very limited, and we’ll be closing pre-registration on Sunday, July 11.  So pre-register now, save $15 and be sure to get the best badge to hit a con yet!

As we get closer to the event, be sure to stay tuned here and via @thenexthope on Twitter.

The OpenAMD/Badge team is proud to announce that the Next HOPE mobile app is now available in the Android Market!

The Android app has the full schedule available now, and we’ll be pushing out live updates during the conference.  Please test it out and leave a comment to let the badge team know what you think!

If you’re wondering about all the fuss with badge itself, you can view the teaser video on OpenAMD.  If you want to get a head start on developing software to be used on the system at the conference, download the public API.  We’ll be posting more information on cool apps on the blog before and during the conference.

If you’re a hardware hacker, don’t forget about the Badge Hacking workshop taking place during the conference.

The only way to guarantee that you’ll get the cool hackable badge is by pre-registering.  Supplies are very limited, and at the present rate, it looks unlikely we will have badges for attendees purchasing their ticket at the door.  So pre-register now, save $15 and get the awesome hackable badge!

And don’t worry iPhone users, we have an iPhone app that’s currently in the approval process as well.  We’ll post more news on that as soon as we have it!

Stay tuned here and via @thenexthope on Twitter.

The Prometheus Radio Project, in collaboration with Hive 76, will host a hands-on electronics workshop for HOPE attendees to build their own low-power FM radio transmitter on Sunday July 18th at Noon in the Hardware Hacking Village.

This simple FM transmitter design by Tetsuo Kogawa uses only 14 components, so in just a couple of hours you can seize the public airwaves! This is a great introduction to RF circuits. Beginners welcome! Everyone can have their own radio station!

Also, on Saturday at 4pm check out the Prometheus Radio Project’s panel discussion about building LPFM community radio stations around the country and around the world.

Are you curious about how locks work and how to open them without keys? Maybe you’re an experienced lockpicker and want to show off your skills? Stop by the Lockpick Village to learn, practice, or show off!

The Lockpick Village is a fun physical security demo and workshop area run by The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers (TOOOL) and Locksport International. Workshops and talks will be held throughout the conference covering topics for novices and experts alike. Learn about the history of mechanical locks, experiment with exotic lock designs, test your skills against your friends, and compete head to head in a multitude of exciting contests! Plus meet some very interesting people.

TOOOL, Locksport International, and other community members will be on hand with numerous trial locks, picks, shims, and other devices. By exploring the construction and flaws of mechanical locks, you can learn how to apply your hacker mindset to manipulate them open in non-destructive ways, or even how to build better locks. Fun for hackers, tinkerers, and professionals alike, The Lockpick Village is the place to gain a stronger understanding about the role locks play in our physical security today, and learn how to improve your own security.

Here is a Lockpick Village video from Hope Number 6, back in 2006:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAwYjKuOolM

Stop by The Lockpick Village to check out the workshop schedule and contest times!

! Saturday July 17th Only !

MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists) will demonstrate several working examples of computers important to hacker culture, from an Altair 8800 to the ZX-80 from Clive Sinclair, and many in between. There will be at least one actual minicomputer and the world’s first smartphone will be on display.

Continue Reading…

There will be a Badge-Hacking Workshop on Sunday at 3pm in the Hardware Hacking Village on the Expo Floor.

The Next HOPE’s electronic admission badge and the new and improved Open Attendee Meta-Data system are the result of a year’s US collaboration on top of several years of CCC work among dedicated hardware/software hackers to develop an amazing wearable RFID-based tool for you to explore the possibilities of new human tracking technology. It’s about more than just others knowing where you are—it’s about tracking your social interactivity. Powerful stuff in the hands of governments and corporations, but at HOPE it represents opportunities for learning and fun as well! At this hands-on workshop you’ll learn fundamentals of RFID technology, how it can be used and abused, and gain insights on what it means to us and privacy in our society.

Travis Goodspeed’s (no experience required) badge-hacking workshop will help you modify your HOPE badge with a USB port to connect it to your laptop for use as a wireless computer and badge network adapter. You’ll then make firmware modifications to install apps like wireless games, packet sniffers, Morse code beacons, radio jammers and more. Fifty hardware kits will be available for these workshops for a nominal fee (first come, first served) courtesy of Mitch Altman’s Cornfield Electronics. A second, advanced workshop will be offered Sunday for a limited few who want to reverse-engineer the firmware and learn cryptographic key extraction techniques. RSVP to travis@tnbelt.com to save your spot.

Related information:
OpenAMD Panel – Friday at 6:00pm in Lovelace
Badge-Hacking Seminar – Saturday at 10:00pm in Tesla

Amateur Radio operators, or “Hams” have been developing and hacking wireless electronic communications systems for over a century. Their work gave birth to the DIY electronics and hacker movements.

The FCC has granted The Next HOPE a special-event amateur radio station
license to demonstrate the radio arts. Check out radio station N2H on the 18th floor near the Tesla room, and see free global voice/data communication in action– without infrastructure! It’s lots of fun and a great worldwide community to belong to– and it always works when your phone and Internet connection fails! Visit the HOPE wiki to get involved http://wiki.hope.net/TNH/Amateur_Radio_Projects

On Sunday July 18th from 10am-1pm, FCC amateur radio exams will be administered on the 6th floor of the Hotel Pennsylvania. You don’t have to know Morse code anymore, you don’t have to be a conference attendee, and the entry-level license exam is pretty easy. Bring a state-issued photo ID or U.S. Passport. You can prepare in just a few hours by taking free sample practice exams at http://www.qrz.com/ham/

Are you crazy enough to drag a production server to Manhattan for the weekend? Then we’ve got a parking spot for it in the Not Our Concern Network Operations Center.

FTP server? Game server? CTF target?

We’ll provide the cage, the padlock, the power, and an ethernet connection. All you have to do is bring your box. We’ll also post connection information for you here on thenexthope.org so everyone can find it on the network. NOC staff and the projects coordinator will have keys.

The padlock was provided by US TOOOL and the cage is line of sight from the main Security station.

Just email projects@hope.net to make a reservation.