Welcome Back, Supercon!

November 12, 2022 by Elliot Williams 7 Comments

The last two Novembers, Hackaday’s annual gathering was held in remote mode: Remoticon instead of Supercon. While still recovering from jetlag, I’m reflecting on the pros and cons of live versus virtual events. And wondering how we can combine the virtues of both for next year. Come brainstorm with me!

The blatantly obvious pros of having a live Supercon is the ease of talking to everyone who is there, trading code tips, life experience, and must-see projects. In person, you can physically trade badge add-ons in real time, without waiting for customs to clear the packages. Simply hanging out has a real charm to it, and doing so over shared tacos is even better. Spontaneous collaborations were easy and natural. And finally, while you can watch someone electrocute a twinkie with a neon sign transformer on YouTube, you can’t smell the ozone.

Against this, all of the expensive travel, the aforementioned jetlag for some, and the real-world limitations that only so many people can fit in a given physical space at once.

The best part of Remoticon was hearing from people who wouldn’t have been able to make it to an in-person con, whether it’s because it’s of geography or money. Since everything is online, there’s no missing out, and anyone can freely dip in to one talk or another. The online chat channels were better attended during Remoticon as well – perhaps because they were the only game in town – but that was a more global community.

There’s probably nothing that can be done about the tacos, but what could we do about incorporating the benefits of Remoticon? We did stream one stage live, and we had two chat channels open for commentary the whole time. If you took part remotely in Supercon, let us know how it went, and if you have any suggestions to improve our remote experience for next time. Because in the end, we want Hackaday to be as inclusive and as global as the hacker community itself.

Banner Photo by Poyu Chen.

Supercon Sunday: Check The Live Stream

November 6, 2022 by Elliot Williams 1 Comment

Supercon is entering the final phase: it’s Sunday! But it’s not over yet: there is a phenomenal lineup of talks today, starting at 9:30 AM PST, and we’re streaming the main stage live from the very beginning until the badge-hacking awards ceremony at 5:30 pm. And if you’d like to join in the conversation, head over to the Hack Chat or the Discord.

We kicked off Friday with a full day of badge hacking, workshops, food, drink, and music. What used to be a late-afternoon pre-registration has grown into the early morning hours, and gave people a great opportunity to catch up after two years of remote mode.

Saturday was full-on Supercon, and the talks were phenomenal. We recorded interviews, took tons of photos, and of course recorded the talks given on the DesignLab stage, and we’ll be getting those out to you over the next weeks. (It’s a lot.)

In addition to all the talks, we announced the winners of the 2022 Hackaday Prize! It was a big year for small-scale energy generation and recycling, and all of the winning projects were clever, well tested, and easily replicable. Check them out.

So now that you’re all caught up, settle in for a jam-packed Sunday. See you in the livestream if not in real life!

Supercon Is On! Join Us!

November 5, 2022 by Elliot Williams 4 Comments

Supercon is in high gear, after a full day of badge hacking that went well into the midnight hour. Now it’s time for the talks!

If you’re not here in person, you can still get in on the talks by following the 2022 Hackaday Supercon Livestream, which will be covering all the LACM stage action. We have a great lineup of speakers starting off with a keynote by Joe [Kingpin] Grand at 10:00 AM PDT and ending with the 2022 Hackaday Prize Awards at 7:00 PM — come see who won live!

Of course, talks are only one component of Supercon. The secret sauce has always been the people at the con. If you’re not joining us, we still need you to take part. There is a conference chat on Hackaday.io and on the Hackaday Discord server and all are welcome. Pop in and visit with people at the con, and others around the globe who wish they could have made it in person.

Make sure you’re on the live stream Saturday evening to watch as the Grand Prize is presented on stage during the Hackaday Prize Ceremony. Pop into the chat and ask for updates on badge hacking, the SMD Soldering Challenge, and all of the other shenanigans that make Supercon super.

Hackaday Supercon: Back At Last!

October 29, 2022 by Elliot Williams 7 Comments

I’m unashamed to admit that I’ve really missed in-person hacker conferences over the last two and a half years. And while we’re not out of the water yet, COVID-wise, things are controlled and controllable enough that we felt we could safely hold our smallish, halfway out in the back-alley conference safely. It’s going to be so nice to see all the familiar faces, and meet the first-time Superconnisti as well. Welcome! You’re going to have fun.

For health, money, or other reasons, a lot of people who would like to go still can’t, and that bums me out. Of course there’s no substitute for being there live, but we’re trying our best to spread the Supercon love to everyone out there. If the two years of Remoticon were different, I’m not willing to say they were worse. It was awesome to be able to share live talks on some fantastic hacky topics, typing amongst ourselves instead of chatting in person, and it spanned the globe. There were no borders.

We’re still working on our remote plans – yes, a week before the con – because I don’t think things can ever fully go back to the before-times. That said, we will be streaming the main stage live as always, and you can pretend it’s Remoticon all over again by hanging out in our Discord, or over at the Supercon Hack Chat.

So to those of you attending, it’ll be great to see you in person. The rest of you out there – join us virtually. We’ve been working on this for the last five months now, and next week, it’s go time!

2022 Supercon: Schedule Released, And [Odd Jayy]

October 26, 2022 by Elliot Williams 14 Comments

It’s finally time! We’ve put together the 2022 Supercon Schedule, and you can check out all the talks, workshops, and events in one place – right now.

Badge hacking heating up (photo by @hackerwarehouse)

It all starts off with breakfast on Friday morning to power you up for a full day of badge hacking, workshops, and general mixing and mingling before the Friday night party. Fridays are significantly less formal, but swing by Supplyframe HQ any time to get registered, get your badge, and get a mellow head start on Supercon.

Saturday morning, the talks begin! After a brief introduction and welcome, keynote speaker Joe Grand takes the stage to kick things off. And from then on, it’s two tracks of talks on two stages until your brain explodes. Or at least until the Hackaday Prize Awards ceremony at 7:00 PM, followed by the awards after-party.

Pull yourself out of bed Sunday morning for another full day of stellar talks. And squeeze in some more last minute badge-hacking time somehow, because we close up Sunday evening with the always entertaining badge hacking contest and awards.

Jorvon [Odd Jayy] Moss to Speak

Plus, we’ve got one last bit of great news: Jorvon [Odd Jayy] Moss is giving a talk on his adventures in making companion robots, and his latest forays into adding more intelligence into his animatronic and artistic creations.

So if you haven’t bought your tickets yet, do it. ‘Nuff said. See you at Supercon!

And if you’re not able to make it live, all of the talks on the LACM Stage will be streamed live on our YouTube channel, and you can join in the discussion over at the Hackaday Discord server or on Hackaday.io’s Supercon Chat channel. And all the talks that we can’t stream, we’re recording for later release, so you can always catch up later.

2022 Hackaday Supercon: Joe [Kingpin] Grand Keynote And Workshops Galore

October 25, 2022 by Elliot Williams 5 Comments

It’s our great pleasure to announce that Joe [Kingpin] Grand is going to be our keynote speaker at the 2022 Supercon!

If you don’t know Joe, he’s a hacker’s hacker. He’s behind the earliest DEFCON electronic badges, to which we can trace our modern #badgelife creative culture. He was at the l0pht when it became the most publicly visible hackerspace in the USA, at the dawn of what we now think of as cybersecurity. And moreover, he’s a tireless teacher of the art of hardware hacking.

Joe’s talk at DEFCON 22 about reverse engineering PCBs on a hacker budget is on our top-10 must watch playlist, and his JTAGulator debug-port enumeration device has been present at the start of countless hacking sessions. But again, it’s his enthusiasm for creating, his inspiring “what if I poke at this thing this way?” attitude, and overwhelming hacker spirit that make Joe a long-overdue speaker at Supercon! Continue reading “2022 Hackaday Supercon: Joe [Kingpin] Grand Keynote And Workshops Galore” →

“Reversing Shorts” Demystify Phone Security

October 24, 2022 by Elliot Williams 3 Comments

Ever wonder what makes a cellphone’s operating system secure, or what that app you just installed is saying about you behind your back? In a brand new video series, [Jiska] gives us a peek into different topics in smartphone software reverse engineering.

For instance, her latest video, embedded below takes us through some steps to poke at Apple’s RTKit OS, which is the realtime OS that runs inside most of their peripheral devices, including AirPods, but also on their bigger devices too. We don’t know much about RTKit OS, but [Jiska]’s trick in this video is to get a foothold by looking through two different RTKit OS versions and noting which symbols are common — these are probably OS function names. Now you’ve got something to look for.

Each of the videos is short, to the point, and contains nice tips for perhaps the intermediate-to-advanced reverser who is looking to get into phones. Heck, even if you’re not, her demonstrations of the Frida dynamic tracing tool are worth your time.

And if you want a longer introduction into the internals of cellphones, we heartily recommend her talk, “All Wireless Stacks Are Broken“.

Continue reading ““Reversing Shorts” Demystify Phone Security” →