Go home, & see y'all in six months for PhreakNIC v4.1 (03.31.00 - 04.02.00), assuming civilization hasn't collapsed & the crows aren't feasting upon our rotting skulls...

Yes, folks, a weekend-long extravaganza that involves anyone who wants to participate, and even some who don't. It combines the best and worst aspects of a scavenger hunt, a popularity contest, sports competitions and being a nosey gossip. "Medals" will be awarded in the following catagories:

• Best and/or most-tasteless background or theme; this may be one or two awards - depends on the bg/theme (will be available via local FTP)
• Best use for a computer that doesn't involve turning it on
• Most k-rad laptop (think decorated)
• Coolest geek toy
• Members of the Hung-Over Insomniacs Club: those who didn't sleep the entire con (extra bonus points if they have a long drive home)
• The Golden Boot: first person to puke
• Best pr0n collection (will be available via local FTP); the winner of this catagory gets a keyboard cover and some monitor wipes.
• Best juarez collection (will be available via local FTP)
• Oldest juarez collection (will be available via local FTP)
• Oldest working computer, defined below: It powers up without catching on fire, it boots, you can type stuff on it, and it responds correctly. Extra points if you can play some sort of game on it. Mega extra points if you can network it.
• Most hacked computer, with honorable mention to first r00ted
• Best hack/prank at PhreakNIC; this may be one or two awards - depends on the hack/prank
• First to streak the con room; extra points if someone streaks in front of a tv crew
• First skinnydipper
• Most distance travelled to attend the con
• Most harrowing trip
• Biggest carvan
• Most insane contraption brought to/built at the con
• First to spot a fed
• First fed to give/trade us an agency coffee mug
• Most creative picture/graphic (see http://www.phreaknic.org/pix98/tubbie4.jpg for an example)
• Best costume (see Saturday Night Costume Party, below)
• The Official Dagmar-inspired "Biggest Pants" competition
• Best media hoax perpetrated during PhreakNIC
• The Most Unbelievably Mind-Numbing Award, for the most unbelievably mind-numbing event/story/thing to happen at PhreakNIC
• Most interesting catagory invented during PhreakNIC
• Best domain name registered at PhreakNIC
• Honorable mentions: the "shit we didn't think of" spare awards

In case of disputes and/or rules interpretations, the drunkest conscious staff member's decision will be final.
Feel free to suggest additional catagories/awards

I, Decius, will buy one bottle of Captain Morgan for the best original technical project presented at the con. If you are twelve, a recovering alcoholic, or someone else who is simply a bad candidate for free liquour, I will buy you something else agreeable for a similar price. Maybe I'll just give you cash. Although this is called a "coding" competition, hardware is more than welcome.

1. Project must be original. Its ok to build something that has been build before as long as you have a unique prespective on how it should be done or you have used it to preform original scientific or artistic investigations.
2. Project must be physically implemented. That means actual code or actual wires... no "paper" projects.
3. Project must be open source. You WILL post source code/schematics for the project to the se2600 list. You will allow others to improve upon your work and integrate it with other peices. The project may include material that is copyrighted or techniques that are patented as long as YOU don't care what WE do with it. We strongly support appropriation. The project may include code and hardware developed by others. It may build upon other's work. (Jello, did you post your code last year? I'm not sure I remmember reading it. (It has been a while...))
4. You need not have developed this project just for the con. If this was done for work or school or its just something you've been doing, bring it too the con and show it off! Why not? We're talking about free drinks here!
5. The winner will be judged by consensus of the audience. This is not intended to prove technical supremecy. The purpose of this is to promote project work and to get people to share what they are working on. However, I can only afford one bottle of Captain Morgan and so we have to pick someone to give it too. If you really really want it, try to figure out how to impress the crowd.
6. Projects will be presented immediately after the highly anticipated "Decius Rants" portion of the conference programming. Please try to keep your discussion brief but technically fulfilling.
7. This is a hacker con. Expect rules to be broken, ignored, and possibly maligned.
   

Please do not let stage fright, lack of confidence, or a feeling that your project isn't "cool" or "hard" enough prevent you from presenting it to the group. Last year we only had one submission. It was a very interesting project. Many of you will remmember that the bottle of Captian Morgan did materialize and was provided to the presenter. I would like to see more this year.

Technology is the art of the hacker. Silicon and Software, her paint and brushes. A streamlined future of burning chrome, her muse. You all seem to think you are hackers. Doing original technical projects is part and parcel of wearing that badge. This is about pushing the edge of the envelope toward an easier and more beautiful life for us all. Get out the soldering irons and build your dreams.

Each should run about 45 minutes, with audience Q&A sessions and a 15 minute break between panels. They start at noon on Saturday the 30th.

12:00hrs - A Springer-esque Threesome:
  "The State of Sex in the Hacking Scene" 
     - Rattle goes over the origins and current status of the Official Sex
       Chart(tm). If any new links are made at PhreakNIC, please let us know.
  "The Hacker Widows Rant" 
     - Antimony & Karezza bitch about the typical hacker/geek guy.
       Boy do we suck.
  "Fabric Staircase" 
     - Wanna know how to get banned from speaking in Jersey?

13:00hrs 
    "Dagmar's Third Annual Unix Security Speech" has been replaced with
    "FEAR!" - That's all Dagmar will say; now you know as much as I do...

14:00hrs 
    "How to Build and Run Your Own Data-Haven for Fun and Profit - pt1"
     James discusses the gory details of setting up and using Big Storage for
     high end UNIX servers (500GB to 6TB), and the unique challenges therein,
     especially regarding the performance of large databases. Keywords here
     are RAID, LVM, SANs, Fibre Channel, Storage Consolidation, Storage-
     Centric Architecture, Disaster Recovery, Remote Mirroring, Electronic
     Vaulting, Vendors and Costs, and Performance. Next, Chris ties Big
     Storage to cryptography and cryptanalysis (codebreaking), with a focus
     on security.

15:00hrs 
    "How to Build and Run Your Own Data-Haven for Fun and Profit - pt2"
     Rattle covers outband caching; Vorteqs covers power systems, reliability,
     and what they mean to the SysOp; Decius has developed an architecture for
     doing it, including a pricing system, tied loosely to OpenPGP.

16:00hrs 
    "Open Sources"
     Linux and BSD compared, stuff about the Nashville Linux Users Group and
     the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (and their Expo), GNU and other open source
     software. Be afraid, Micro$soft; be very afraid.

17:00hrs 
    "Radio Free Nashville"
     The local free/community radio folks about their movement, why it is
     important to a democratic society, and their progress (and setbacks) in
     setting up a true community radio station in Nashville.

18:00hrs 
    "Micropower Internet Radio Stations: The RIAA, the Digital Millennium
     Copyright Act, and dark clouds on the horizon."
     Our beloved founder rants yet again. Watch the hands and heed the 
     message.

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