Last HOPE conference (Hackers on Planet Earth) Part 7

Last HOPE conference (Hackers on Planet Earth) in NYC 2008

Part 7 (Sunday)

July 20, 2008:

After spending the previous evening lounging in a 2nd floor hammock drinking Club-Mate for a while and learning how to pick my Masters combination lock when I forget the combination (usually [dumbly] at the gym after showering and wearing just a towel), I made it to Sunday’s 10 AM “A Decade Under the DMCA,” and was so pleased the speaker put in a few plugs for ChillingEffects.org. I wrote a lot of the patent section’s FAQs under my maiden name, Tiffany Strauchs.

Alas…departure day. : ( We all knew this day would come. We waited a year for this conference and then it went by so fast. Another HOPE blogger said that it was the best weekend of his life.

As for me, I was hoping that I’d be able to attend Def Con in a couple of weeks, but due to the fact that this trip kind-of broke my travel budget, I’m not going to Def Con this year unless I win the lottery. I’ll have to forgo meeting up with my west coast hacker friends and I won’t be able to defend my 2nd place title in Coffee Wars. With the Freaky Bean’s French Roast, “Professor Rad,” (that’s my hacker handle!) almost won, but narrowly took 2nd place. I was hoping Foofus would be able to tip the scale in my favor for 1st, but my persuasion didn’t work.

I went to a couple of other talks on Sunday but couldn’t stay until the closing ceremonies because driving back to Maine is at least a 6 hour endeavor. We packed up our computer gear, our new conference acquisitions such as an RFID blocking passport wallet, the requisite black 2600 conference t-shirt, and (literally) packed our 3rd row passenger into the SUV.

With the 97 degree heat beating down upon us and the radiant heat from the pavement, if I closed my eyes, it felt the same as leaving Def Con in Vegas during mid-day. Other weary conference attendees were dragging their Pelican cases toward Penn. Station or taking pictures of the 2600 Bell van (picture from 6 years ago) parked outside of Hotel Penn.

After exiting the Lincoln tunnel and looking in awe at one of the most spectacular views of NYC, I reminded myself that although this may be The Last HOPE, there always is The Next HOPE and I’ll be back.