We’re hosting one day of hacking in New York City next week. Stretch your skills with the power of deadlines and you can be immortalized in Hackaday history. If that kind of cred doesn’t do it for you, Hackaday is bringing along $1500 in prizes and there’s another $5000 cash prize at stake as well.
Only Hackaday can bring hardware to the TechCrunch NYC Hackathon on May 2nd. We need you to make it happen. Get your free ticket now (UPDATE: Our special tickets are all sold out but you might still be able to get some in the last few ticket releases. Check back often.). From there join the comment thread on our events page to connect with the rest of us who will be there.
Break the Hardware and Software Divide
Check out these pictures of last year’s TechCrunch hackathon. There’s a ton of people, they all seem to be having fun, but when it comes down to the end, they’re pointing to the screens of their Macbooks. This year you need to break that mold and and rise to the top with a hardware product to hold up as you are awarded TechCrunch’s comically large $5000 check.
Holding a hunk of hardware with electrons running through its veins is way more hardcore than software alone. We will end the segregation of software-only and hardware-only hackathons. After all, most hardware hacks these days are also software hacks. Team up with one of the iOS/Android app groups and add hardware to the mix. We want to see at least twenty of those tables strewn with jumper wires, breakout boards, and soldering irons. And we want to see someone from the Hackaday Community win this thing. So here’s the agreement — we’ll get you in, we’ll bring the hardware, you bring the awesome.
All Work and No Play (yeah right)
Ha! Like that has ever been our mantra. This is going to be a blast and because of it the Hackaday crew is flocking to town from all over the country. Confirmed so far are [Adam], [Alek], [Amar], [Brian], [Chris], [Jasmine], [Matt], [Mike], [Rob], [Sophi], and [Theodora]. We’re there to have fun, and you’re invited.
Most of the crew will arrive in town on Thursday night and we’ll definitely be meeting up. Anyone who registers for the Hackathon is invited for these pre-game festivities. Drop a comment on the events page and we’ll PM you details about where and when. But at the event our collective skills will be available to get your project past the sticking points. Of course we also need many hands to distribute all the swag we’re bringing along.
woohoo! looking forward to NYC hacking!
I went through the pictures and there isn’t a single circuit, chip, jumper cable, or breadboard. ANYWHERE.
I have no idea how these kinds of events work. You guys sure they’re gonna open up for hardware peeps like us? Cuz that would suck to get there with my kit, and then the announcer says, “So, all of you are going to make an APP for a PHONE. Something that sends a “Yo” to your friends, and will get funded a million bucks (to add insult to injury!)”
Oh that would suck (cuz I hate, HATE app/computer programming. Get me to a coke machine/bot/car to hack!)
If that happens, who’s up for a night in NYC falafel/pizza hunting?
No worries, we have us hardware peeps covered ;)
Now DaveN, what you need to build is a box that sits on your desk and audibly shouts “Yo” when that app pushes a message to your phone. Poof, hardware hack and a million buck in backing. Hahaha!
I’ve never been to NYC before so I’m definitely looking for the perfect slice of pie. You’re on!
Dude, I’m down! Asking my younger bro, who’s a food photographer and food reviewer in the area for tips too! See you there!
How does something like this even work? Without reward money, it makes perfect sense, but as soon as it is competitive, it raises all sorts of issues..
How does one determine if a competitor brought partially or totally finished code?
How does someone determine what components to bring if they havent designed their project already?
Are large, feature rich software libraries cheating? Who really wrote a webserver if a HTTP server library is used?
If a person brings and populates a PCB, they designed it before, correct? Then they can use development boards, but not their own hardware, but what if they designed their own “development board” which has a lot of peripherals on it and their own existing libraries?
Simply: the only way this can be remotely “a competition” is if all competitors have hardware provided and work on computers without internet, and are not allowed to bring in USB flash drives, etc..
Otherwise its like the ‘open’ portion of a racing competition – IE – not meaningful.
If you read the rules, some sort of version control is required, which lets the organizers track who actually wrote code at the event. Open libraries (written more than thirty days ago) are allowed. There is no mention of bringing hardware; the rules only apply to software.
You can literally build an anthropomorphic robot, complete with hands, feet, a head – a full on android. That’s allowed. The only requirement is that you write all the code for the android at the event.
If anyone spends the time to read the rules, a hardware project will win, simply because that allows for more development time. OSHPark has a rush option, you know…
Thank you for the response. I didnt actually read the rules, might get around to it.. I still dont fully understand. I thought the timeframe of the hackathon was 12 or 24 hours or some other very-short (for development) time span.
Version control helps.. Except it really just provides the point at which unscrupulous code use gets obfuscated.
Where would the androids body come from? Built on premises at the web-software conference? Provided by hackaday?
Maybe I will just read the rules!
Damn, now I have to break out the development boards I got way back. Think man, think!!! Nope, got nothing. If anything, I would probably hang out with all the cool kids at the software table. I might just finally learn how to understand OOP or the more useful BASH programming. Wait, stupid question, will there be Linux stations to play with?
Broken promo code gang. What else is wrong here?
Oh and it insists they are sold out. What is involved in claiming one?
When you click through to the eventbrite page you’ll see a second line under “sold out” where you can get a “Hackers – Friends of TC” ticket.
I tried that one. It insisted that the code was invalid.
A follow up. Its still insists it is not valid. Not that I have a valid anything to work on.
I just clicked the link shown in the post and it worked fine for me. The code was automatically populated into the coupon field and once I clicked to apply it, the new ticket option showed allowing me to pick up to 2 of them.
Most interesting….. It seems that the enclosed event code, that is the one shown when clicking on it is the correct one. The one your showing Mike is what it describes itself as….. Fascinating.
So… if I’m not mistaken, we’re probably going to be the only ones hardware hacking the hackathon. That makes us the Hard Hack Crashers? And given what you guys said about what we can bring, I’m bringing my body sensor stuff. Shoot, we can just code new code and transit the data to, who knows!
Perhaps you’ll have a timelord along to kibitz.