I've lurked at /. without posting for ages, mostly because I just don't have the time to interact like I used to.

But I've been clicking through the old RSS feed more and more lately, and when I saw the PAX Plague thread today, I came over to comment, since I'm kind of affected by the whole damn thing. I thought I'd take a look around since I haven't been here in awhile, and I saw that there are freaking ACHIEVEMENTS associated with our accounts. It's silly, and I'm sure it's been here forever, but I thought it was awesome and I was delighted when I read it.

I didn't realize how much I missed Slashdot until I spent some time here today, and I bet that anyone who joined in the last 2 years doesn't even give a shit about my stupid comments or anything, but it felt good to come back here, and feel safely among my people again.

So, with some trepidation given the media focus surrounding the new 3GS and pointing out how expensive it is over time, I decided to "donate" my iphone 2G to my fiancée and go for a 3GS. Since it's another 2 year contract, I figured I'd go for the top-of-the-range and wait it out again. To my (pleasant) surprise, my needs are relatively cheap...

Initial costs are a bit steep at $415 including tax, shipping. But the monthly charges are $56 (including the data-plan) for my particular needs. I don't use the phone much for talking (450 minutes a month is overkill for me) and I rarely text people (an average of 25/month is (again) overkill, and this corresponds with the '200' dollar amount I'd otherwise have to pay for in bulk). What I *do* use on the phone is the data service. A *lot*. And that's built in as unlimited - it breaks down as $32 for the Nation 450 w/rollover, and $24 for the unlimited data plan.

That comes to a total of $1759 over two years. ($415 + 24 * $56), and I can comfortably afford that. That's also a *lot* less expensive than the $3000+ (over 2 years) that people have been bandying around. It's worth looking at the options, and seeing what suits you before coming to a decision...

Simon

Yes.

On behalf of the show and myself, I'd like to thank the Off the Hook listeners among you.

For one thing, so many of you are coming through with an awesome show of support during the current WBAI fundraiser, allowing us to thunder past our pledge goals like a crazed herd of sweaty community-radio-supporting buffalo. Some of us had to leave the studio partway through last night's broadcast and help out the volunteers taking pledges in the phone bank, it was that busy. :-)

Even if you aren't among those willing or able to pledge, thank you for listening. Were it not for you, we would all just be a bunch of strange people closed up in a soundproof room talking to ourselves, which wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Among other things on last night's Off the Hook, we had the privilege of speaking with Michelle Kempner, wife of James Powderly. There wasn't all that much new info to report, but it's well worth a listen to anyone interested in the story. You can listen to the segment here or the entire show here.

Updates on James and his situation will be posted to his Free Art & Technology blog.

Off the Hook will be off the air for the next couple of weeks, making way for WBAI's coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions. The show will return on September 10.

Not sure if anyone got any pictures or video of me during the closing ceremonies at The Last HOPE, but I just so happened to be wearing my beloved Slashdot 10th Anniversary t-shirt during it.

This clip of the closing ceremonies is worth watching because A) I'm covered by some guys big head in the shot, and 2) Emmanuel finally answers the burning question "is this really The Last HOPE?"

You are on a generic city street.
There are pedestrians here.
There is a car here.

> STEAL CAR

You force open the door of the car, pull out the protesting owner,
and sit in his place. The victim gesticulates angrily at you from
outside the car.

You are in a car. There is a rap song playing on the stereo.
There are pedestrians here.
There is an angry car-theft victim here.

> DRIV CAR

I don't know how to DRIV.

> DRIVE CAR

You put your foot on the gas pedal, and the car moves forward.

You are in a moving car. There is rap music playing on the stereo.

There is traffic here.
There are pedestrians here.

> CHANGE STATION

You change the radio station.

You are in a moving car. There is country/western music playing on
the stereo.

There is traffic here.
There are pedestrians here.

> KILL PEDESTRIANS

What would you like to kill the pedestrians with?

> KILL PEDESTRIANS WITH CAR

You deliberately drive over some of the pedestrians. Their horrific
screams of panic and anguish drown out the radio. Their broken
bodies fly off in various amusing directions. Other pedestrians flee
in terror at the carnage-laden sight, while still others ignore the
situation entirely.

You are in a moving car. There is country/western music playing on
the stereo.

There is traffic here.
There are pedestrians here.

> CHANGE STATION

You change the radio station.

You are in a moving car. There is talk radio loaded with subtle
social commentary playing on the stereo.

There is traffic here.
There are pedestrians here.

> _

Four days, motherbitches!

If you're going to be there, please track me down and say hello!

We've posted the full schedule of talks which will be featured at The Last HOPE.

The conference will feature an unprecedented 100 talks, squeezed into three tracks over three days. There will also be an unscheduled track, where anyone who shows up and claims a timeslot can speak about anything they wish, and various ongoing activities and presentations in other areas of the con space. I think it's safe to say there will be a far broader and more eclectic spectrum of things to see and do at this hacker con than ever before.

The Last HOPE will take place from July 18-20, 2008, at New York City's Hotel Pennsylvania.

As a social experiment, attendees to The Last HOPE hacker conference will be issued with RFID badges, which will track their movements throughout the event.

As discussed by HOPE staff on last night's episode of Off The Hook, the badges will serve as the entry point to a series of multilayered games which will run throughout the conference. Players will be able to connect with participants with similar interests, find and exploit vulnerabilities in the tracking system, negotiate with an artificial intelligence for clues via SMS, and more, all while deciding how much of their own privacy to protect and/or violate in pursuit of their goals. The results will be publicly displayed in real time throughout the conference.

The RFID badges and participation in the game will be limited to the first 1500 preregistrants. The Last HOPE will take place July 18-20 in New York City.

IF you_eat_meat = FALSE
THEN you_can_have_pudding = FALSE

Read more, from Rifftrax's Conor...

Another round of NYC2600'S photo captioning contest has come to a close, and Slashdot's own eldavojohn has emerged victorious.

With every ending comes a new beginning. Proceed immediately to What You Say!! and caption our next photo!

Journalist and author Steven Levy is our first confirmed keynote speaker for The Last HOPE. As a fan of his work, I'm pretty excited about that.

According to a top-secret inside source on the HOPE staff (myself) there is lots of other neat stuff in the works. For instance, check out these projects we've announced so far.

Stay glued to the con's website for updates, and check out the various ways in which you can participate. Additionally, please join in our discussions at the HOPE forums.

Hope to see you there!

I know some Slashdotters will get a kick out of this.. among other classics, "Snow Crash" made the AV Club's list of fictional drugs. (article / printer-friendly version)

From its entry, #16 in their list: "In Neal Stephenson's breakthrough novel Snow Crash, the titular substance is both a drug and a computer virus, as well as an ancient Sumerian curse of sorts -- in fact, it's practically a floor wax and a candy mint too."

The World's Worst Webcomic educates its readers on TCP/IP.