Last weekend I attended The Next Hope (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference, held at the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. It is held every 2 years and this is the 4th time I attended since 1998.

This is the badge-

this is the schematic for the badge designed by Travis Goodspeed-

“These badges are active RFID tags which beacon the position of each attendee a few times a second, so that the god damned devil army of lies–by which I mean the Next HOPE badge committee–can track each attendee around the Hotel Pennsylvania.”

There were alot of other cool things to check out such as this USB Typewriter setup and a working EASY button

Here are some topics to some of the talks I attended-

• Circuitbending
• Keeping Your Job While Being a Hacker
• Examining Costs, Benefits, and Economics in Malware and Carding Markets
• Arse Elektronika: Sex, Tech, and the Future of Screw-It-Yourself
• How Hacking is Both the Death and Future of Traditional and Interactive Publishing, Journalism, and the Media
• Reach Out And Touch Face: A Rant About Failing
• Sita Sings the Blues: A Free Culture Success Story

A keynote was scheduled to be given by Julian Assange of Wikileaks , he did not show for obvious reasons, but his partner Jacob Appelbaum and developer of TOR gave a great talk,cover past, present and future developments of the project and showed the much talked about a videotape showing a U.S. Army Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. for more information check out CollateralMurder.com

I got to ride a Segway (video on that later) and got put on to Etherape!-is a packet sniffer/network traffic monitoring tool, developed for Unix (thank you AngelXIII!)

I met threat analyst and journalist, known as a former grey hat hacker, Adrian Lamo  (we now follow each other on foursquare)

He also informed the authorities of the identity of a US Army Intelligence Specialist who is alleged to be the source of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike video leak to Wikileaks.

Which shows guts and balls and I am in his corner no matter what his reputation may now be in the hacker community.

I also enjoyed 2 greats talk and got a pic with Johannes Grenzfurthner

(No-I do not work for @cafebustelo)

He is the founder of monochrom, an internationally acting art and theory group.

I shot an interview with a teacher from The Hacktory, a Philidelphia-based group that promotes the use of technolog in the arts.

(look for that video to be posted soon)

Overall, it was a good time of learning and unlearning.

Note: Most of the videos of the talks can be downloaded at Hattorents.com

Young Members Party at the Metropolitan Museum

Wizard of Oz Screening at Pier 46

French Connection screening at Bryant Park

On Monday June 21, 2010 I did yoga practice in Times Square-It was held by Times Square Alliance as a search for peace and tranquility in the midst of the urban energy of the world’s most frenetic place.

The exact location was held on Duffy Square at the intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue at 46th Street.

The is my view when everything concluded-Namaste!

After that I sttod in line for the Key to the City Project-

Its a citywide public art project that allows every New Yorker and visitor to open spaces in all five boroughs.

There is even a pretty cool free Iphone App that contains information about the project and artist, an interactive list of lock sites with photos and descriptions of what your key will unlock, and a location-based map to help guide you on an exploration of public and private space across all five boroughs.

Download it for free from the App store.

Presented by Creative Time in cooperation with the City of New York.

Kiosk open June 3 to 27, 2010
Times Square, Broadway
Between 43rd & 44th Sts
Open M–F 2p–8p; Sa–Su 12p–8p

Here is a video of the Key Exchange ceremony with the project creator/artist Paul Ramirez Jonas

Later that night I screened GOLDFINGER in Bryant Park as part of HBO’s summer film festival

After the film-I used my Key to the City to unlock a lamp in Bryant Park

Last week I attended the sneak preview of the new exhibit

“American High Fashion” at the Brooklyn Musuem

Halston

Hat with gold encrusted Crows Feet-as worn by Vivian Leigh in the film

Gone With the Wind

This episode was shot on location at :
Madison Cigar Lounge- Harlem NYC

This event features:

* Tony McFadden of Madison Cigar Lounge
* Paul Scipioni of Atlantic Cigar Company
* Spanish Galleon Cigar The Miami Cigar.
* Brothers of the Leaf

*Music by VICELOUNGE

I had a great time doing this episode-despite the numerous problems we had getting it out which involved a broken camera, broken computer, etc

We are going back to do another episode where I will be interviews John Starks formerly of the New York Knicks-

He is coming out with his own cigar-here are the details:

MADISON CIGAR AND LOUNGE

Cordially invites you to a cigar tasting with
NEW YORK KNICKS LEGEND JOHN STARKS FEATURING
JOHN STARKS’ DOMINICAN LEGENDS CIGAR
By E. Zarzuela

Friday, March 12, 2010, from 6pm to 10pm

E. Zarzuela, the newest creation from the Dominican Republic, is a rich blend of Cuban seed Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco aged to the highest standards for the connoisseur who enjoys the best blended CAFÉ HABANO wrapper in the market.

Founders Eddy Fontana and John Starks have teamed up to create an intriguing Dominican blend with a Cameroon Wrapper that will entice any smoker’s palette with a clear philosophy, passion, dedication and admiration for those who have made the industry what it is. E. Zarzuela has arrived to bring new life to a legendary tradition.

SPACE IS LIMITED.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Episodes 6 &7- Cigar Inn 12/12/2009 NYC-ended up editing so much footage into 2 episodes to end 2009.

Cigarfilms Episode 6: Cigar Inn Miami Cigars & Don Pepin –

Shot on location at Cigar Inn Lounge NYC on December 12, 2009.

This event features discussions with:

• Don Pepin Garcia, Jaime Garcia of  El Rey De Los Habanos Cigars
• Nestor Miranda of The Miami Cigar & Company
• Edde Ortega & Erik Espinosa of United Tobacco Inc

Cigarfilms Episode 7: Cigar Inn Miami Cigars & Don Pepin –

Shot on location at Cigar Inn Lounge NYC on December 12, 2009.
This episode features discussions with:

• Eddie Ortega of United Tobacco Inc.,
• Ray Dawson, Creator of the Nocturnal Peacock Cigar
• Gus Fahik Owner of the Cigar Inn
• Nestor Miranda of The Miami Cigar

This show is dedicated to Avelino Lara ( March 20, 1921-October 27, 2009)

Check out more episodes at cigarfilms.com