So there’s been some news regarding Scrabble making some rule changes as of late. I’m not sure I hold with all those rules, but I figured if we’re looking at making scrabble better I’d toss my hat into the ring.

My new scrabble tile set provides game players with a fully international character set through the miracle of character set encoding standards. By using my entirely hexadecimal tile set you can deploy your scrabble words in full unicode, or simple ascii. I think however, I might need a bigger board. The memory space on this bit of antiquity is a bit on the small side.

More on My Flickr

Dear Parker Brothers, this is a parody. Please do not threaten litigation. I mean you no harm. In fact I am quite sure my suggestion of homebrew tile sets can only increase interest in scrabble and scrabble related paraphernalia. I am your friend. Love me as I have loved you. Please.

There are a lot of hacker conferences. Almost as many as there are hackers. Watching my twitter feed I can see someone I know going to a new tech / hack conference almost every weekend. The world is a big place and there seems to just have to be a separate conference for every geographic region and sub culture around.

PHP devs need a conference just for PHP, Python devs need a conference just for Python, Debian needs a conference just for Debian, Yahoo needs a conference just for yahoo APIs, TechCrunch needs a conference just for TechCrunch, Apple needs a conference just for Apple devs, Google needs a conference just for Android devs, the list goes on ETERNAL.

So, on the eve of Summercon, and the beginning of the summer con schedule which will be headlined by The Next HOPE, Black Hat, Defcon, Maker Faire NYC, and Plumbercon, I have to ask myself… why do all these conferences suck?

Now before you start in with the rotting vegetable blitzkrieg let me explain what I mean. No one can recapture those magical times in the early days of Defcon, or the abject anarchy that was Rubicon. These days of old are gone. New days are ahead, with new generations of awesome, but the times have changed. Technology conferences aren’t a couple hundred technical guys getting together at a seedy hotel to party and discuss the latest and greatest anymore. Now it’s about money, politics, culture, and all these things that take away from the culture of hack. They dilute it, and they pervert it, and they market it as something it’s really not.

And that’s not to say I don’t enjoy these events. I do. But like most folks I don’t have a limitless supply of money and free time. I can’t go to more than a couple non local events a year in good conscience. I have other things I want to spend my time and money on. I have commitments to work, family, and actually hacking. So, when I do jump around I want to go to really special events.

HAR was pretty special. I have to say. The novelty of flying to the Netherlands and getting knee deep into the european hack scene was fun in its own right. But the event itself was utterly exceptional. There were amazing projects on display, from electric track cars, to DIY segways, and even open source uav quad copters just to name a very small number of amazing projects. There was a 10 gig fiber line ran to the camp. There was an open source GSM network in place. The dect network was rolled out. Power ran across the site, but the CCC brought their own generators just so they could throw the last party of the event after HAR brought down the camps power. This is an event that involved thousands and thousands of hours of peoples collective contributions. Hacker ran, hacker organized, and every part of it defined by people’s commitment to hacking. This was also, an incredibly fun time.

This year I am going to hit up burning man. Not a hacking conference, but a once in a life time experience I figure. We’ll see. I figure I have to do it once just to try it.

But, so many of the conferences I have been to have been focused around “talks”, “presentations”, and “vendors”. That’s not all bad, but it’s really not the point at all. Hacking, is about HACKING. The talks, the vendors, and the presentations are really just supporting stuff that’s on the periphery of hacking. And that’s where my disillusionment with these events comes into play.

I loved my first hackathon. It wasn’t much at all, just some food, some beverages, and a comfortable place to work. I didn’t complete my hack at my first hackathon. But, in spite of that, I enjoyed every second. Later hackathons I did complete projects, and that was still more rewarding. Getting an acknowledgment at techcrunch hackday was still more rewarding. But, what really was thrilling about these events was the actual hacking.

Mitch Altman has been hosting soldering classes, and hardware hacking villages at conferences across the planet for the past few years. He’s just this nice guy who looks a little bit like the San Francisco type that he is. And he just draws you into his hardware hacking just by showing you the stuff he’s built with all their captivating accents. Leds, tie dye colors, and mischievous but benign purpose. He makes you want to be a part of what he’s doing, and then right then he points you at a kit that you might love and says he’ll help you build it right then and there.

Mitch isn’t making money doing this, or if he is not very much. This is definitely a labor of love. And probably some of the most rewarding work on earth in terms of seeing immediate value in what you are doing. He gets people young and old to learn a new skill, and get excited about being a part of our world. And that’s pretty sweet.

Maker Faire’s do the same thing. Sure they expo a ton of amazing work, but the entire DIY community is built around telling people “you can do this too.” It’s a faire that shops skills around to the visitors. You can choose to just enjoy the fruits of other peoples labors, but you are barraged at every turn by the opportunity and encouragement to get your own hands dirty and be a part of the event in a way that isn’t just a spectator. That’s something I saw at HAR. That’s something I’ve seen at every hacking event that I’ve ever enjoyed. Defcon, and Rubicon in their own perverse way did the same. They reached out to you and said, hey… compete in this CTF, chill this beer, steal the punch clock from the employee lounge for the scavenger hunt ( okay maybe not the best advice on the planet ). Today they still do, but I still see them not quite getting the point.

The Next Hope to their credit is starting to get it. I think Mitch made an impression last hope. They’re setting aside a large part of the main floor to be an open hack area. Mitch, and hackerspaces will be present pushing out kits, and describing their spaces and projects. Just hackers sharing each others trade. But when I think about what I love about all these events, I think we’re just heading somewhere we started out but didn’t quite understand. We’re coming full circle, but this time we know what made the magic.

In that regard, I am looking forward to the hacker conference that like HAR, and toorcon’s desert debacle, that is as more of a group hack than it is an event. I want to see every person who shows up get drawn into the areas of expertise represented. I want to see the vendors, and the sponsors feeding a frenzy of people DOING stuff. Not people in chairs checking their email, or falling asleep. I want to see the presenters saying “hey and in two hours we’ll be building some more of these” or “and our api is available to you for the hackathon”. I want to see the CTFs taking center stage. I want to see the vendors saying “hey our product x would be perfect for your badge hack, here try it out.” I want to see people coming in expecting to work their asses off, expecting to succeed, and expecting to share their work with everyone else.

I love cool down parties, or pre-event parties. But, I don’t want to see vendor sponsored parties. I want to see a vendors team of engineers show up with their own homebrew, or just working the bbq, or maybe even making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. I want to see some folks champion some food / beverage hacking at these events. I want to see people rewarded for best contribution.

This is what I want to see. This is where I think we are headed. And when we get there, we’ll end up with small events that are like block parties in our geographic regions. But when we do major events, once a year or even once every three years… you’ll see PHP devs build a camp, Python Devs build a camp, Arduino Devs build a camp, and so on and so forth. And a major event will just be built by the people who are just plain there to build, destroy, and rebuild into something entirely different.

Anyways. I suppose I am just looking forward to the conferences this summer, but also dreading the inevitable let downs I’ll be hit with. But, there’s one thing I know. We’re learning. We’ll figure it out eventually.

It’s a brave new world we live in. In London a unified network of very powerful surveillance cameras track everything everyone does. People watch the watchers to ensure that the cameras are not being abused. In areas of Colorado and California police officers are now being required to wear camera systems that allow them to video record their interactions with individuals. And, across the world there is sudden war on amateur photography in public being waged by plastic badged security guards. The limitations to recording video have decreased to the point that total universal surveillance is now almost a defacto standard simply through organic growth. The only limiting agent at this point is the quality of video culled by this visum populi. Some argue that the elimination of privacy is the ultimate safeguard against exploitation.

I wonder about that. Mormon missionaries tend to work in teams when in foreign lands, the reason is to watch each other and ensure that neither has a lapse in faith. Or in short, everyone is watching everyone else and ratting anyone out who tries to escape. This has proven pretty damned effective. Even when someone does decide during a crisis of faith to make a run for it, they can be intercepted by a higher ranking missionary and convinced not to do so. Pretty soon the paranoia that is so pervasive in seminal texts such as Orwell’s 1984, become a very real part of ones life. What value is there in curbing crimes if it comes at the expensive of creativity and risk taking? In today’s society, many people are now adopting a somewhat bizarre habit of censor in everything they do. I know many people who simply do not like to be photographed at all. When someone is accused of a crime today, their facebook or other online web presence is suddenly held to the scrutiny of wary hacks looking to sensationalize their stories. Employers regularly use online presence as a vector by which they can gauge whether or not an employee poses a security risk. And of course we are all judged by our peers, our families, and our neighbors based on what actions we are immortalized performing on various sundry sites. We are all at far greater risk today, than ever before in our human history, of having every failure, mistake, and wantonly bizarre action recorded and made available directly to the people we interact with, and rely upon daily. We are now slaves to responsibility, and so much more.

Everyone on this planet has at some point played hooky. Be it in college, or at a job, somewhere we’ve all ended up staying out late during an especially good party, or visiting friends we had not seen in years, or just plain taking a day off to see a ball game or a parade. We’ve all done it. There’s always been a risk you’d be caught, but generally you get away with it. Today, thanks to twitter and facebook and social networks it doesn’t take much to track the comings and goings of co-workers and subordinates. Many people have faced disciplinary actions or lost their jobs based solely on the data culled from these resources. Politicians and famous people have faced the vitriolic hatred of tabloids and fringe lunatics because of photographs taken in public places. Recently the governor of NY was photographed at lunch with an intern sparking speculations of scandalous affairs. And, still more recently an NYPD police officer with all of a few days on the job was caught tackling a bike rider during an activist ride through the city. Officer Pogan is now facing prison time for being caught in a lie in his report, due entirely to the submission of third party video evidence provided to the court.

Yesterday I said on twitter, “Any person that would prosecute someone for filming a police officer in a public area, is not an American.” I still stand by that statement 100%, but there is some grey areas here that I think should concern us all. As I said before, when you are constantly under scrutiny you lose a lot of options. And without a doubt constant video surveillance of police activities would hinder their ability to accomplish their end game objectives. Bad people, will be able to continue to do bad things, and police will fall victim to legislative bureaucracy as lawyers haggle and second guess every frame of every recorded event with 20/20 hindsight. A lens is always a filter, and seeing only the slice of reality available to a camera does not an objective perspective make. Recognizing that in future legislation is essential, not only in protecting the rights of victims, but also in protecting the rights of police officers and other would be defenders of their actions ( mistakes or not ). However, the lens is brutally accurate in recording the things it can record. It provides a degree of certainty to everything it does capture. And that is utterly valuable in protecting police officers and suspected villains alike. Conflicting testimony can be put to rest with the review of video evidence. Accidents, failures, and other catastrophic events can be dissected to prevent future problems and to identify the legitimate causes. And, great moments in history can be preserved for years maybe centuries to come.

And that last one is touching on the real point. In the United States, we have the inalienable right to pursue our happiness free of the oppressive tyranny of our government by default in everything that we do. When laws are enacted they are done so to serve the public interest and protect the rights of the people. Sometimes we limit freedoms of some to avoid infringing upon the rights of all. This happens. But what we don’t do… is we don’t censor the actions of our police. We don’t arrest people for looking on as a man is beaten, or a house burns, or a young girl dies from a gunshot wound inflicted upon her by the police. The freedom of press is clear. And today, our press RELIES HEAVILY on the primary source contributions of people with cell phone cameras, and video recorders. The freedom of anyone to photograph to their hearts content in public is assured. And anyone who would suggest otherwise, simply does not understand what it means to live in this country. They don’t understand the meaning of the constitution, or what our forefathers fought and regularly died for. They don’t understand the basic principles of civility and society upon which all this amazing world is based. They are fools. And, more than anything they are not in any real meaningful way an American. In their world Neda does not have a face, and the violence a world away is nothing more than a fiction.

Certainly I am not comfortable knowing that the next time I go down to park and practice my light saber moves with a sawed off broomstick I could end up famous not for my technical contributions, or kindness, or anything meaningful but merely an extraordinarily entertaining fool. But you know what? If that’s what I am, so be it. I’d rather be judged based on truth than on fiction even if it’s only part of the truth. And everyone dons the the idiots hat at some point in their life. Hell, Shakespeare delivered his best work through the mouths of idiots.