This weekend at The Next HOPE conference Michael “theprez98” Schearer, a security researcher, gave a very interesting talk about SHODAN. SHODAN is a search engine which searches “banners” of systems. This means it’s basically a search engine of services on the internet. For example, with SHODAN you can find all servers running a specific version of Apache in a specific country. You also have the ability to export results in XML for a nominal fee. Check out the video of theprez98′s talk below. You can also find the slide-deck for theprez’s talk here. Please check your ethics before misusing SHODAN.

SHODAN for Penetration Testers (The Next Hope) from theprez98 on Vimeo.

This past weekend was The Next HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference presented by 2600 Magazine. I myself am an avid lock enthusiast and enjoy the challenge of manipulating locks. Below is a video of the Lockpick Wizard competition sponsored by Locksport International. The object of the competition was to pick as many locks as possible in 8 minutes, while unable to see the locks and tools. Contestants had to place their tools and locks inside the burlap sack and pick away. The second round was done blindfolded. In hindsight I wish I’d have joined in the fun, but alas I chose to be a spectator on this one and record the spectacle. (Please forgive the blue tint in the video… apparently Qik is broken on the iPhone 4 at this time. I hope they fix it soon.)

“The Next H.O.P.E.” is the next installment in the biennial H.O.P.E. (Hackers on Planet Earth) series of conferences. H.O.P.E. takes place every 2 years at the Hotel Pennsylvania in the heart of New York City. HOPE is sponsored by the magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. There have been seven conferences to date: HOPE, Beyond HOPE, H2K, H2K2, The Fifth HOPE, HOPE Number Six, and The Last HOPE. This year’s event takes place from July 16th – 18th, 2010.

I tried to find a Google Calendar format of the schedule for this year’s talks. However I was unable to find such a format. I’ve painstakingly created the following calendar based on my interests and talks that I would like to attend. This is not a complete schedule of the conference. I’m too lazy to turn the whole schedule in to a Google Calendar, however I may do so before the actual conference… we shall see. Use as you will if you wish.

You can view the full schedule by visiting: The Next Hope schedule

Last month I was fortunate enough to attend the George Clinton and P-Funk All Stars concert at the B.B. King Blues Club in midtown Manhattan. It was an early birthday gift from my Fiancé, quite possibly the best birthday gift I’ve received in quite some time (if ever). Because of George Clinton’s policy of allowing fan recordings (much like the Grateful Dead’s policies), I was able to shoot some video at the concert. It isn’t the best video as it was shot on my iPhone 3G, but still not horrible. I figured I would share it for all those true funk fans out there. Already looking forward to my next George Clinton concert (this one was my 5th).
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Last night I had the opportunity to visit the Gizmodo Gallery in NYC and check out all the cool exhibits. By far the coolest was the Singing Tesla Coils by ArcAttack. The Tesla coils are programmed to emit various tones and pitches to make music, mostly video game music. The Tesla Coils are backed up by a robotic drum kit too. Check out the videos below for an example. If you ever have the chance to see ArcAttack live, I highly suggest you do, you wont regret it.





(Apologies for the crappy audio and sub-par video… I shot this with my digital camera.)

Last week I attended the “computer security” conference HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth), held every two years in NYC. The title of this year’s event was “The Last Hope”, but it may not be the last. Unfortunately I had to work Friday and was not able to get to the convention until about 4pm, luckily it was being held only 2 avenues away from my workplace. I had never attended HOPE in the past, although I have gone to Las Vegas for DEFCON several times in the past 10 years. HOPE is organized by the crew over at 2600: The Hacker Quarterly.

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I’ve made the last minute decision to attend HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) in NYC this weekend. I will post some photos and information about the convention sometime soon. To follow the action you can search twitter for #thelastHOPE . If you are at the event, you can track attendees via the RFID tags embedded in the badges. More to follow…

Unfortunately I was too late to get an RFID badge for The Last HOPE. Oh Well.