HOPE X

A few months ago some friends of mine asked if I wanted to head to NYC for a conference. At the time, I knew very little of HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth), the biennial hacker conference put on by 2600. Honestly, I had no idea what to really expect, I was just told to show up at the Hotel Pennsylvania and prepare for a long weekend.

Midway through the first day, I'd already decided that this would not be my only HOPE.

It's exactly what you want out of a Con: an eclectic mix of people from all over, brought to one place by their love of hacking, here to share what they love with each other. There are panels for Makers, panels on web security, panels on telecommunications, panels on whistleblowing, and even some cool "look what I made!" panels. Given the recent revelations about government surveillance, much of this year is devoted on how to properly maintain confidentiality and privacy in communications. And of course, topical as ever, the keynote began with Daniel Ellsberg and finished with a teleconference with Edward Snowden.

So far, the panels I've seen have been interesting and enlightening. The people have been open and friendly, always excited to share and learn from each other. The one complaint I would have is the hotel itself; while it's historic, it seems barely maintained.

The best part? If you'd like to play along at home, all the panels are available online via live streams. I highyly recommend them.

Chromecast: Google + TV = Win

Full disclosure: I'm a Google employee. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to be late to the game and talk about the new Chromecast.

So, what if I told you that you no longer have to buy a Smart TV to have the capabilities of a SmartTV? You'd say "Well duh! We've all already heard about the Chromecast! It launched a week ago!" And you'd get angry at me for being behind the times and whatnot. And I wouldn't listen because that's not something I do.

But think about it: SmartTVs have been around for a while now but they still aren't supplying good user experiences. All of the last generation of game consoles had some SmartTV features and they've been around since 2006-2007. Samsung introduced its initial line of "Internet TV"s in 2007. AppleTV is originally from 2007 as well. Heck, TiVo's existed since 1999 and even the GoogleTV itself has had 3 years to get better. Given all this time and all these people vying for the market, you'd hope something really wonderful would come out of it. But nothing so far has been all that great of an experience. Yes, they're usable, but they're not fun to use.

Let's talk about the Google TV. I think it was a good thing, but I feel it wasn't taken far enough. It was expensive and bulky, yet it still managed to be slow and clunky. Setting it up took forever: sign in, adjust for overscan, figure out the audio, yada yada yada. The users had to navigate it with a keyboard and touchpad mouse, either using a decent Logitech keyboard or the dreaded Sony label maker. But it was still a good thing; it was Google trying out the TV space, making mistakes and learning.

And look at that, now we have the Chromecast! Instead yet-another-set-top-box or TV itself, here's a small and simple dongle usable with any TV with HDMI. How do you set it up? Just quickly tell it your wifi network and bam, you're ready. How do you interact with it? Use your phone, tablet, or desktop, a.k.a. things you know how to use. I got mine in the mail the other day and it was ready to go within literally two minutes after plugging it up. And it's cheap! Just $35! This will sell insanely well at the holidays assuming the supply will hold out.

I've had plenty of time to play with it and there's something great about quickly finding some video on YouTube or Netflix and instantly watching it on your TV. While you're watching YouTube, find some more and queue them up. Or feel like just working around the house and need a soundtrack? Send music to the TV instead.

But wait, there's more! Google's already published the Cast SDK used to get the content to the TV, so now anyone can make their website or app work with it. Imagine playing Scrabble where the TV's the board and your phone/tablet is your tile rack. Or how about some asymmetrical gameplay like the Wii U has with its gamepad? Or something simpler like a killer photo share app or getting webcam to work with it as well and use Google Hangouts or Skype with your TV? There are so many awesome possibilities. I, for one, welcome our new multi-device experience overlords.

Long story short? Get  a Chromecast, or find a friend with one and play with theirs. You're gonna like the way it works, I guarantee it.

Most influential indeed.

I know it's kind of old news, but it's also hilarious. moot wins.

I read a fun article about how it was pulled off, which was highly entertaining. Who knew web-based applications could be so susceptible to such simple attacks? *cough*

Who is moot? The most influential person in the world, obviously.

Hope.

This post is not Obama.

This post is not a direct response to the previous post, that's just coincidence.

This post *is* about the coolest thing I have seen today, and makes me kind of regret not doing more with AI, which was technically my degree specialization.

GENTLEMEN, I give you...

The Stupid Filter

The only way this could be better is if it caused:

A) Physical Pain
B) Sterility
C) Loss of Fingers
D) All of the above