[00:00.000 --> 00:02.820]  And everyone will probably, like, see my passwords and everything, but...
[00:02.820 --> 00:08.540]  Again, everyone online, everyone in this room, and this room looks pretty... we're getting nice and packed in here.
[00:08.760 --> 00:08.940]  Yep.
[00:09.460 --> 00:10.320]  I'm glad to see that.
[00:11.060 --> 00:12.360]  Okay, so files.
[00:12.820 --> 00:13.400]  Here we go.
[00:14.400 --> 00:17.940]  And again, I want to thank everyone in the online chat.
[00:23.680 --> 00:30.480]  Again, for our friends, if you are online in the Matrix chat, please feel free to share your stories in there.
[00:31.260 --> 00:38.520]  If you don't want me to read it out loud, then please put two asterisks in front of it, and it'll just be something for us to read and share.
[00:39.500 --> 00:43.000]  Because obviously there are some stories from the past...
[00:43.000 --> 00:43.340]  Perfect.
[00:44.200 --> 00:49.180]  ...26 years that might not be as good to put online.
[00:51.360 --> 00:54.780]  Yeah, I don't know how much for everyone Statues of Limitations are up.
[00:54.860 --> 01:03.100]  I know for most of my stories there, and even then I'm going to explore like the names and details for Protect the Innocent, the Law and Order, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun.
[01:03.520 --> 01:04.780]  FYI, because you're speaker.
[01:05.060 --> 01:06.600]  While you're speaking, you can take the mask off.
[01:06.800 --> 01:06.980]  Okay.
[01:07.460 --> 01:10.240]  Also, quick heads up for everyone in the audience.
[01:10.240 --> 01:16.420]  We do have a microphone set up there, and we would really, really appreciate it if you'd come up and speak into that mic when you're sharing your stories.
[01:19.570 --> 01:20.570]  Are we copacetic?
[01:21.550 --> 01:23.730]  Because I have everything...
[01:23.730 --> 01:24.290]  Yeah.
[01:26.750 --> 01:29.030]  Is it not set to output correctly?
[01:33.500 --> 01:33.980]  Okay.
[01:34.580 --> 01:34.940]  Finally.
[01:36.400 --> 01:38.000]  Leo has the Zoom line.
[01:38.400 --> 01:38.880]  Excellent.
[01:39.920 --> 01:41.080]  So we'll have Zoom on here.
[01:42.640 --> 01:43.120]  Yeah.
[01:44.400 --> 01:46.360]  We've made it to the end of another day of HOPE.
[01:47.160 --> 01:52.960]  I want to thank everyone for being with us and for being with us through these lovely technical issues.
[01:57.410 --> 01:59.150]  Our final talk for the night.
[01:59.510 --> 01:59.590]  Yeah.
[01:59.870 --> 02:01.070]  Do you remember...
[02:07.740 --> 02:08.460]  I got...
[02:08.460 --> 02:11.220]  The question was, do I remember any HOPE without technical issues?
[02:11.400 --> 02:14.880]  And I am going to refrain from answering that question on advice of counsel.
[02:17.300 --> 02:19.080]  And if you do, how drunk were you?
[02:21.660 --> 02:23.900]  Or were you only drunk?
[02:24.540 --> 02:24.720]  Oh.
[02:30.140 --> 02:31.400]  Look, sometimes the...
[02:31.400 --> 02:33.000]  Wrong spiel.
[02:33.140 --> 02:38.700]  It's like I keep writing these down and it's very easy for me to lose track of the one that I have.
[02:43.050 --> 02:43.850]  When it opened...
[02:43.850 --> 02:45.250]  Let's talk now.
[02:46.230 --> 02:50.330]  When it opened in 1919, it was the largest hotel on earth.
[02:51.090 --> 02:57.530]  And in 2020, we received the cruelest April Fool's joke in its permanent closure.
[02:58.150 --> 03:04.130]  For 24 years and 11 incarnations of HOPE, it was our place where we found community.
[03:04.990 --> 03:15.070]  From the dankness of the sub-basement through the notoriously unreliable elevators to the non-existent rooftop pool, sorry to break the illusion, it was home.
[03:15.990 --> 03:24.530]  Our speakers, Sidepocket and Neil, want to share some of their memories of the place with the memorable phone number, Pennsylvania 6-5000.
[03:32.400 --> 03:38.480]  I feel like taking this mask off is like that scene from Empire Strikes Back with Vader's mask and his little pod.
[03:39.420 --> 03:40.340]  There we go.
[03:40.540 --> 03:40.900]  Oh, God.
[03:41.000 --> 03:42.340]  Now you can see how horrifying I look.
[03:42.760 --> 03:43.320]  Yes.
[03:44.380 --> 03:48.780]  Sidepocket unmasked and needs lots of hair repair.
[03:49.200 --> 03:49.760]  Hi.
[03:49.900 --> 03:52.780]  Welcome to this very...
[03:53.900 --> 04:03.440]  I guess we're all kind of feeling the same way for those who've encountered the hotel, whether you were at it for HOPE or for other reasons, which I will get into in a moment, where it's sort of like a mix of...
[04:03.440 --> 04:06.320]  You know, it's weird, because at the last HOPE, which...
[04:06.320 --> 04:09.780]  Thank you, Emmanuel Goldstein, for making that whole naming convention confusing.
[04:10.640 --> 04:18.420]  But at what was called The Last HOPE, which came after HOPE Number Six, because we're like Microsoft versions.
[04:18.560 --> 04:19.220]  We don't know how to count.
[04:20.700 --> 04:25.080]  We did a mock funeral for the hotel.
[04:25.840 --> 04:30.740]  And because we live in this cursed timeline, Ron Paul arms, it's actually happening.
[04:31.080 --> 04:34.920]  So I'm feeling now the real mix of...
[04:35.460 --> 04:48.460]  Especially with my involvement, which I'll get into in a bit, about how much I strangely miss that place because as Emmanuel has often summed up in the past for that hotel, that it was a dump, but it was our dump.
[04:50.260 --> 04:51.600]  And that's how I felt like that.
[04:51.680 --> 04:52.280]  So thank you for talking.
[04:52.480 --> 04:58.240]  I just want to let you know, as much as it's going to drive Neo crazy, just through the interest of time, this part's, by the way, going to be really quick.
[04:58.480 --> 05:06.500]  I'm going to open the Zoom when I'm done with this portion, so that way he can join in, yell at me, and then start rambling on Cranky Kong style with his stories.
[05:07.840 --> 05:10.580]  So it's going to be fun because I get to introduce him, so this will be great.
[05:10.660 --> 05:11.160]  So let's go.
[05:12.100 --> 05:12.920]  If I can...
[05:14.500 --> 05:15.060]  Technology.
[05:17.500 --> 05:18.260]  In here?
[05:18.440 --> 05:18.540]  Yay.
[05:19.620 --> 05:21.260]  So first up is Neo.
[05:21.800 --> 05:25.260]  He's going to have a talk tomorrow, I believe it's...
[05:25.260 --> 05:26.460]  Is it at 4 p.m., I believe?
[05:26.740 --> 05:26.880]  Yeah.
[05:27.160 --> 05:38.380]  At 4 p.m., I can't remember which room, unfortunately, about working in accessibility for processing books from text to audio.
[05:38.820 --> 05:44.680]  He's most notorious for speaking three times at HOPE about accessibility called Accessibility, Dammit.
[05:45.340 --> 05:54.760]  He's also a long-time HOPE alumni, and by long time, I think we went to HOPE around the same time, which, just as a warning, I started at actually The Last HOPE.
[05:54.840 --> 05:58.980]  I was technically there for the last hour or so of HOPE Number Six because I actually found out the con was happening right when it was closing.
[06:02.600 --> 06:06.680]  So they just let me wander in for free and knew who I was at the time because no one cared.
[06:07.720 --> 06:09.200]  But we've known each other.
[06:09.340 --> 06:10.960]  We met 2600 meetings in New York.
[06:10.960 --> 06:13.660]  We've been around for many years, and I'm happy to call Neo.
[06:13.840 --> 06:14.880]  I was also a long-time friend.
[06:15.080 --> 06:25.700]  We're also both involved in what was called the Safe Hotel Penn organization, back to which I will cover about initially when Vernado tried to take the hotel down for really dumb reasons.
[06:26.080 --> 06:30.380]  He's also a known digital archivist and a huge Animaniacs fan.
[06:30.600 --> 06:31.200]  So, faboo.
[06:32.760 --> 06:33.240]  Faboo.
[06:34.420 --> 06:35.620]  Is he haunting us?
[06:35.900 --> 06:36.200]  Yes.
[06:36.700 --> 06:37.180]  Awesome.
[06:37.980 --> 06:38.660]  Hi, Neo.
[06:38.940 --> 06:40.080]  Hi, I'm from the...
[06:40.920 --> 06:41.560]  I'm from the...
[06:44.840 --> 06:45.400]  Speak...
[06:46.180 --> 06:48.420]  It's like the hotel is here.
[06:52.280 --> 06:53.400]  Hotel Pennsylvania.
[06:53.700 --> 06:56.280]  Everything's half-assed and nothing new there.
[06:57.980 --> 07:09.700]  So, about me, which Neo could probably have a long rant about, I've been around New York City 2600 for multiple years, wearing the same shirt that now has way more holes in it.
[07:10.200 --> 07:16.720]  I also run a group that I'm not supposed to talk about, which is I run a DEFCON group out in Jersey City, New Jersey, so I'm from that hellhole.
[07:17.600 --> 07:30.840]  I've been involved with multiple groups over the years, including the Yes Men tool, the Radio Statler, that used to be there, which I have a lot of fun, fond, and horrifying memories of the con just doing the radio alone, and the Museum of Urban Reclaimed Spaces,
[07:30.860 --> 07:32.140]  if you ever want to check that out in New York.
[07:32.600 --> 07:35.100]  I'm also not just apparently a hacker in person.
[07:35.100 --> 07:36.240]  I played one on TV.
[07:36.280 --> 07:40.840]  If you like the show Mr. Robot, and Neo's like, he'll never shut up about this.
[07:41.500 --> 07:47.960]  I do have a blink-couple-times-and-you-miss-it cameo in Mr. Robot Season 3, the opener.
[07:48.340 --> 07:51.760]  That's a whole different story for a different talk that maybe will come on in the future.
[07:51.900 --> 07:54.220]  Four seconds, and he'll never let you forget about it.
[07:54.220 --> 07:54.940]  Yes, exactly.
[07:55.920 --> 07:56.640]  That's the...
[07:56.640 --> 07:57.800]  Yep, it's like my sex life.
[07:57.980 --> 07:58.620]  You never forget about it.
[07:58.700 --> 07:59.300]  It's four seconds.
[08:00.760 --> 08:08.320]  I also want to say that, because we live in this hellhole, f*ck SCOTUS, and I know this is a really long URL, but I can also share it in the bit in the future.
[08:10.140 --> 08:13.340]  Just as a personal thing, in my organization, up until...
[08:13.340 --> 08:22.620]  I've been live-streaming at HOPE and all the way up until the end of August, so we'll cover that other con, too, with this, but we are trying to raise money for the National Abortion Federation.
[08:23.020 --> 08:29.580]  They're a group that works both legally and in person to help medical doctors for safe and free abortions.
[08:29.760 --> 08:32.960]  They've been working with the ACLU and other people to tackle the legal side.
[08:33.080 --> 08:35.120]  They basically cover that whole arena.
[08:35.640 --> 08:43.440]  There's also many other organizations you can donate to, including, if I remember correctly, the Local Abortion Donation Fund, which, if you are not...
[08:43.440 --> 08:50.580]  If you don't want to do a big organization and you're not from around here, you don't know, they will donate to whatever your local organization is.
[08:50.740 --> 08:53.960]  So without that out of the way, I want to welcome everyone.
[08:54.480 --> 08:56.120]  By the way, real quick, who's...
[08:56.120 --> 08:56.780]  Is this their...
[08:56.780 --> 08:57.240]  Who's...
[08:57.240 --> 08:58.160]  This is their first HOPE?
[09:00.220 --> 09:00.540]  That's...
[09:00.540 --> 09:09.400]  Because that's what I was expecting for this talk, is for old bees to just ramble on like myself, and for new people, it was like, I heard there was this old place, someone got like an STD from a bed bug there.
[09:09.500 --> 09:11.880]  I don't know what happened, so I want to know...
[09:11.880 --> 09:14.400]  First off, it wasn't the bed bug, it was from the Segway.
[09:14.400 --> 09:25.140]  And second off, he was served by EMTs on the very last HOPE, which is the really, really last HOPE at the Hotel Penn, and we don't talk about that in public anymore.
[09:25.560 --> 09:27.660]  The Statue of Limitations has not quite finished.
[09:29.840 --> 09:30.800]  If you ever got...
[09:30.800 --> 09:33.320]  By the way, if you ever got STD from Steve Rembrandt, round of applause.
[09:37.000 --> 09:37.880]  One person.
[09:38.060 --> 09:38.920]  See, they cleaned up.
[09:39.020 --> 09:40.020]  Go check that out.
[09:41.120 --> 09:42.260]  And who's this...
[09:42.260 --> 09:44.560]  Who's this their first time in New York City?
[09:46.360 --> 09:46.720]  Awesome.
[09:47.900 --> 09:48.620]  Really impressive.
[09:48.980 --> 09:49.860]  Round of applause for them.
[09:50.240 --> 09:53.440]  So for all of you people who are new here, if this video actually...
[09:53.440 --> 09:54.120]  No, it's fine.
[09:54.180 --> 10:01.980]  If it actually plays, even though we're in like almost the end of the con, I'd like to introduce you to our great city in the most New Yorker way possible if this plays.
[10:02.660 --> 10:03.660]  With the middle finger, I hope?
[10:03.780 --> 10:04.620]  Or maybe it doesn't play.
[10:05.380 --> 10:05.740]  Hmm.
[10:06.280 --> 10:06.960]  Well, I'll welcome you.
[10:07.040 --> 10:07.800]  Welcome to New York.
[10:12.100 --> 10:15.360]  Actually, I really want to play this video.
[10:15.560 --> 10:15.900]  Hang on.
[10:16.980 --> 10:18.480]  I told you to test ahead of time.
[10:18.660 --> 10:19.520]  Does the man listen to me?
[10:19.700 --> 10:21.020]  Hopefully this won't make everyone deaf.
[10:21.180 --> 10:25.460]  Oh, the mic is off.
[10:27.020 --> 10:27.660]  Let's do it.
[10:28.620 --> 10:29.100]  Up to 11.
[10:29.320 --> 10:29.920]  Up to 11.
[10:30.580 --> 10:31.960]  I'm just going to do that as a great corner.
[10:32.240 --> 10:33.500]  Up to 11, just like HOPE.
[10:34.540 --> 10:36.120]  We'll talk about that con in a moment.
[10:37.860 --> 10:39.280]  Do, do, do, do, do.
[10:39.340 --> 10:40.600]  This is like one or two videos.
[10:41.500 --> 10:43.360]  And it won't play the audio.
[10:45.160 --> 10:45.560]  Technology.
[10:47.000 --> 10:48.940]  Redirect the output over the HDMI port.
[10:49.180 --> 10:50.480]  I'll, no, I'll do it later.
[10:50.620 --> 10:51.320]  We'll do it at the end.
[10:51.420 --> 10:51.860]  I want to get rid of it.
[10:51.860 --> 10:52.700]  Just fill in the blanks.
[10:55.540 --> 10:56.340]  Oh, let me guess.
[10:56.340 --> 10:57.500]  There's an audio jack.
[10:57.780 --> 10:59.340]  What is this mysterious technology?
[11:01.740 --> 11:02.140]  Sure.
[11:03.380 --> 11:05.080]  Plug it in, plug it in.
[11:06.100 --> 11:07.520]  There's very few slides for this.
[11:07.620 --> 11:12.180]  I just thought everything would work, which is hacker folly number one, is that you trust the demo gods.
[11:12.720 --> 11:17.060]  And also a round of applause for our volunteer staff, especially for the AV and info desk.
[11:17.280 --> 11:21.820]  They've been, every year at the con, it's been, probably most of their horror stories come from that.
[11:22.840 --> 11:26.740]  Oh, well, we could tell stories about this info desk, but we're talking about the building.
[11:26.880 --> 11:27.280]  Oh, yeah.
[11:27.820 --> 11:30.260]  We're going to talk about the building in a moment here.
[11:32.160 --> 11:34.840]  In the meantime, I'll do my red dwarf impersonations.
[11:35.040 --> 11:36.240]  Hey, dudes, what's up?
[11:37.100 --> 11:40.140]  Guys, I finally made it to New York City!
[11:40.860 --> 11:42.680]  Ladies, shut the f*ck up!
[11:48.340 --> 11:50.960]  So, welcome to this cursed place.
[11:52.380 --> 11:53.760]  We went through two of these questions.
[11:53.880 --> 11:55.700]  I just want to do the demographic.
[11:56.780 --> 11:59.300]  Quick shout-outs here before we get into the Mia stuff.
[11:59.800 --> 12:03.680]  Whose HOPE was their actual first HOPE in 1994?
[12:04.800 --> 12:05.540]  Anyone in the room?
[12:05.680 --> 12:06.680]  Don't be shy old.
[12:07.520 --> 12:08.180]  I got that.
[12:08.260 --> 12:09.400]  I knew it'd be you, Cheshire.
[12:09.580 --> 12:10.220]  You've been...
[12:10.220 --> 12:11.660]  I'm convinced you're like...
[12:11.660 --> 12:12.820]  Cheshire's as old as the hotel.
[12:13.280 --> 12:13.600]  Yes.
[12:14.420 --> 12:21.220]  Well, I was actually originally introduced to you, Neo, and one of the reasons I brought you on board is that I need at least one other person who was roughly around the same age as the hotel itself.
[12:21.380 --> 12:22.280]  So, thank you for being here.
[12:22.600 --> 12:24.780]  I remember when we got the building permits for it.
[12:25.120 --> 12:25.320]  Yes.
[12:26.660 --> 12:27.380]  It was...
[12:27.380 --> 12:28.560]  What was Shouts?
[12:28.560 --> 12:30.260]  Any of the first HOPEs, names?
[12:31.260 --> 12:31.860]  Last HOPE?
[12:32.200 --> 12:32.860]  Beyond HOPE?
[12:33.160 --> 12:33.240]  No.
[12:33.400 --> 12:33.920]  Beyond HOPE?
[12:34.300 --> 12:35.400]  Back when we were at the f*ck...
[12:35.400 --> 12:36.460]  I mean, puck building, right?
[12:36.920 --> 12:37.380]  I still...
[12:37.380 --> 12:42.000]  That's why I wish Emmanuel would show up because I still want to know two questions of one, why they chose Hotel Penn.
[12:42.260 --> 12:44.320]  I don't know if anyone can answer that if you're an oldie here.
[12:44.400 --> 12:50.220]  And two, what happened with that one weird year where we went over to a building that people barely remember?
[12:50.620 --> 12:53.000]  One price, and then it was unavailable that year.
[12:53.520 --> 12:53.760]  Ah.
[12:54.520 --> 12:56.520]  This is the dog show convention again.
[12:56.860 --> 13:02.680]  No, they used to hold the dog show convention that we're going to get into all the times this has been on film and stuff like that.
[13:04.600 --> 13:10.500]  So, just as I want to quickly recap, trust me, we're going to get into the meat of this, is that this talk's going to be really short.
[13:10.760 --> 13:13.500]  The talk part, it's going to be the beginning and overview of the Hotel Pennsylvania.
[13:13.820 --> 13:19.680]  Then we're going to get right into my own and Neo's own retrospective on Hackers on Planet Earth and our involvement.
[13:19.900 --> 13:22.980]  And then we're opening up to everyone and we're going to tell random stories.
[13:23.100 --> 13:25.500]  And we're basically going to be here until they're sick and tired of us and kick us out.
[13:26.100 --> 13:27.520]  So, I literally told them when they said this...
[13:27.520 --> 13:28.120]  Five minutes, folks.
[13:28.480 --> 13:33.560]  Yep, that we can just agent steal us and put us near the end and we're just going to keep going on until no one likes me anymore.
[13:34.520 --> 13:36.380]  You should have put an H on his forehead.
[13:37.120 --> 13:37.440]  Stuff.
[13:37.880 --> 13:39.840]  That, by the way, the agent steal...
[13:39.840 --> 13:43.180]  So, that room was always interesting because he would literally go on until like six or eight in the morning.
[13:43.280 --> 13:52.580]  Originally, he kept going over on his talks and unlike what we did with Steve Rambram, they put him at the end so he could go on and going in that room, it's like there was like a mist in there and like there was just...
[13:52.580 --> 13:55.520]  everyone was in like the same weight in the same suit.
[13:55.740 --> 13:56.560]  It was like clones.
[13:56.960 --> 13:57.880]  It was just...
[13:57.880 --> 13:59.400]  You felt like you were in a different universe.
[14:00.960 --> 14:02.400]  Like the 18th floor of the hotel.
[14:03.300 --> 14:05.760]  So, what the f*ck was Hotel Penn?
[14:06.060 --> 14:09.300]  So, it was located on 7th Avenue.
[14:09.540 --> 14:12.420]  If you've ever tried to walk that, that's like one of the slowest...
[14:12.420 --> 14:14.000]  Sorry, the fastest light changes.
[14:14.120 --> 14:17.740]  They expect you to cross a street that takes like 14 seconds and 2 seconds.
[14:18.160 --> 14:19.220]  You know, New York minute.
[14:21.220 --> 14:24.520]  And it's been home for Hackers on Planet Earth since 1994.
[14:25.840 --> 14:29.920]  Not too far away from the other conference that starts with a D and ends with a con.
[14:30.740 --> 14:31.900]  Born around the same time.
[14:32.080 --> 14:40.760]  So, I would call it like the silver age of hacker conventions essentially because people don't realize that even before that there was phone phreaking conventions where people wore like domino masks and stuff.
[14:40.880 --> 14:42.180]  We should bring that back, honestly.
[14:42.600 --> 14:44.980]  Both the phone phreaking and the domino mask.
[14:46.720 --> 14:50.500]  So, since the hotel is going to be demolished, what ugly piece of shit are they putting there now?
[14:50.500 --> 14:53.080]  So, it's going to be called 15-Pen Plaza.
[14:53.340 --> 14:55.160]  This was originally Vernado's plan.
[14:55.920 --> 14:59.000]  This was originally Vernado's OG plan from back in the day.
[14:59.060 --> 15:00.720]  It's just a giant box of ads.
[15:01.900 --> 15:02.440]  Here it is.
[15:02.580 --> 15:03.360]  Here's what it looks like.
[15:03.720 --> 15:04.900]  That's exactly what it is.
[15:05.020 --> 15:09.040]  The text kind of goes across the page, but at the end it says you can vomit now.
[15:11.080 --> 15:11.880]  Yeah, I don't know.
[15:11.960 --> 15:16.080]  What's so odd about the timing of this, too, is that they want this to be like the upper...
[15:16.080 --> 15:16.720]  It's supposed to be a...
[15:16.720 --> 15:28.000]  First of all, funny enough, the biggest group that's been bitching about this new building is the Empire State Building because they basically have building envy and they're like, all the new New York buildings are taller than us.
[15:28.000 --> 15:31.000]  Please don't make another one that's like right next to us that is as tall.
[15:31.280 --> 15:32.300]  So, they actually...
[15:32.300 --> 15:32.580]  It's...
[15:34.000 --> 15:45.420]  It's slightly shorter, so it's appeased them, but you're supposed to rent it out to like a bunch of business owners, but it's like, guys, between COVID and Eric Adams, like no one lives in New York City anymore, especially in that zone.
[15:46.160 --> 15:47.800]  So, like, I just like, good luck with that.
[15:48.060 --> 15:48.700]  I just...
[15:49.740 --> 15:50.460]  There's another...
[15:51.700 --> 15:53.860]  I don't know what's going on with these like new designs.
[15:54.080 --> 15:56.160]  Everything looks like it's from the new Deus Ex reboot.
[15:56.340 --> 15:56.780]  I just...
[15:56.780 --> 15:57.140]  I don't know.
[15:59.000 --> 16:00.720]  So, fun thing about this picture.
[16:00.880 --> 16:01.880]  I don't know if most people have seen that.
[16:02.040 --> 16:02.380]  This is...
[16:03.040 --> 16:07.240]  Not 100% sure, but allegedly, you see all the horse and buggies.
[16:07.540 --> 16:14.100]  The scaffolding to the right of the picture is the beginning, supposedly, the foundation of the Hotel Pennsylvania when it was being built.
[16:14.100 --> 16:17.540]  Right across it is what used to be the Pennsylvania Railroad Station.
[16:17.700 --> 16:24.240]  The whole point of having Hotel Pennsylvania there was to be a place where you could crash right after you got off the train.
[16:24.520 --> 16:26.180]  So, basically, they invented the subway.
[16:26.860 --> 16:27.340]  Mm-hmm.
[16:27.620 --> 16:28.020]  Yep.
[16:29.280 --> 16:32.480]  And this is also, speaking of crashing, anything is in New York.
[16:32.620 --> 16:34.560]  This was before the taxi services and everything.
[16:35.980 --> 16:39.900]  But, yeah, eventually, when it finally got built, it was open on January 25th, 1919.
[16:39.900 --> 16:47.000]  At the time, it was the world's largest hotel with 2,200 guest rooms, many that we've stayed at.
[16:48.160 --> 16:50.640]  Weird question that I was actually going to bring up later but I'm going to bring up now.
[16:50.880 --> 16:56.300]  So, how many of the people who attended the convention went to the roof even though they were not supposed to?
[16:56.620 --> 16:57.120]  We don't...
[16:57.120 --> 17:03.080]  Actually, how many people were supposed to be on the roof because they were staff and now how many people were all on the roof in general?
[17:04.380 --> 17:04.740]  Exactly.
[17:04.740 --> 17:04.900]  Exactly.
[17:06.120 --> 17:07.620]  So, I always call that broke.
[17:07.620 --> 17:11.080]  What's woke is who's ever been to the basement of the hotel?
[17:11.720 --> 17:14.200]  And the better question is which one of them?
[17:14.520 --> 17:14.700]  Yes.
[17:15.200 --> 17:16.340]  There's a second one.
[17:16.540 --> 17:17.100]  That's what I was going to bring up.
[17:17.260 --> 17:17.860]  Thank you, Dio.
[17:18.200 --> 17:18.640]  The third one.
[17:18.800 --> 17:19.080]  The second one.
[17:19.180 --> 17:19.820]  Yeah, third one.
[17:19.900 --> 17:20.660]  The fourth one.
[17:20.800 --> 17:21.760]  It keeps going on.
[17:22.120 --> 17:24.140]  It's like Dante's Inferno, literally.
[17:24.780 --> 17:27.960]  But what's so bizarre about it, and I wish we had...
[17:27.960 --> 17:32.020]  I tried to find pictures because there's a picture of mine that's coming up later where I was in those.
[17:32.140 --> 17:35.020]  They let me carte blanche travel through the place and it's literally...
[17:35.440 --> 17:43.000]  It's like its own time book where the further you go through the basements, you actually go back in time to what the hotel used to be like.
[17:43.180 --> 17:48.340]  So I believe the end of the first basement, they have like the original like pink carpeting and doors and stuff.
[17:48.560 --> 17:56.940]  The second basement had the original bathtubs, which are those toe-clawed bathtubs that every shitty New York building used to have.
[17:57.420 --> 18:02.320]  And then there's a really cool picture that's going to be later on that I'm still happy I was able to take that.
[18:02.480 --> 18:06.320]  But yeah, this hotel has been around for a long-ass time even before we showed up.
[18:07.080 --> 18:11.640]  It's also been around so long that everyone kept trying to reinvent it.
[18:11.780 --> 18:14.240]  Again, the text goes across the page because of technology.
[18:14.880 --> 18:16.680]  But it changed multiple names.
[18:16.780 --> 18:17.320]  What were the...
[18:17.320 --> 18:19.140]  Was it three or four names, Neo?
[18:20.080 --> 18:21.200]  It was the Statler.
[18:22.400 --> 18:26.720]  There's the New York Penta, which was the last one before it became Hotel Penn again.
[18:27.220 --> 18:27.380]  Right.
[18:27.740 --> 18:27.900]  Yeah.
[18:28.160 --> 18:28.700]  It's basically...
[18:28.700 --> 18:29.980]  It's in our description thing.
[18:30.120 --> 18:30.900]  It's gone full circle.
[18:31.020 --> 18:32.440]  It has like four different names.
[18:36.480 --> 18:41.900]  It kept being pushed around and sold to different companies.
[18:42.080 --> 18:46.280]  And Stardust Hotel Penn did five different name changes and came back to Hotel Penn again.
[18:46.580 --> 18:50.960]  So probably the reason why we called it Circle of HOPE.
[18:51.080 --> 18:52.640]  But we'll get to that convention when we get there.
[18:53.840 --> 18:56.940]  Lots of strange history at the hotel even before we showed up.
[18:57.040 --> 18:58.020]  There's a bunch on there.
[18:58.020 --> 19:15.300]  Some of the highlights is that Houdini kind of like I'm trying to remember Guy Randy who was kind of his successor in terms of this magicians often debunk like act like people who think try to convince you magic is real and he did a really famous debunking sort of there.
[19:15.580 --> 19:20.000]  So there's kind of the hacker spirit even before we kind of got there doing similar things.
[19:20.180 --> 19:26.040]  William Faulkner wrote stayed there while writing one of his famous novels.
[19:27.000 --> 19:46.780]  Herbert Hoover that failure as a president which now he seems like freaking Caesar by comparison with our current presidents spoke at the Ohio Society of New York in 1935 and the American Russian Institute presented its first annual award to Franklin D.
[19:46.880 --> 20:13.320]  Roosevelt and the last couple things I thought this was like the most weirder stuff in the 1920s a famous crime boss nicknamed Johnny Jack News threw a $40,000 party at the Hotel Pennsylvania and allegedly people were bathing in champagne at the hotel which I think if we knew that it was going to be the last time when we were there at Circle of HOPE I think that's what we would have done.
[20:13.420 --> 20:14.260]  In the clubhouse?
[20:14.260 --> 20:44.840]  We would have spent $50,000 also and $20,000 We want to bathe in luxury not in like imported urine yeah Seltzer and piss yeah I know right we'll get into that whole thing in a bit and the one that got cut off is that Fidel Castro actually visited during a political rally there that's a picture of him at the you can see the square part where it's his Hotel Penn so yes we've always been like leftist
[20:44.840 --> 21:08.220]  heathens even before we showed up at the hotel it's also been even though it's cut off in a lot of different properties and movies there's a little bit of a debate too of like what do you consider because as as Neil pointed out the Hotel Penn with the what we've now known as the Madison Square Garden area that whole pen station that's why they're named that they're supposed to exist as a unit again
[21:08.220 --> 21:15.660]  you're supposed to travel to there And then without going above ground, you would be able to enter in and stay at the hotel.
[21:16.280 --> 21:18.220]  So they both fed off of each other.
[21:18.460 --> 21:23.920]  So there's a lot of films that both featured Hotel Penn, the station...
[21:23.920 --> 21:27.840]  Sorry, Penn Station, as well as Hotel Penn itself throughout history.
[21:27.940 --> 21:30.020]  And probably one of the most famous ones in that project.
[21:30.020 --> 21:31.520]  There's more side reference to Gimbel's.
[21:32.020 --> 21:36.660]  When you look about Gimbel's in The Miracle of 34th Street, that was a reference to Macy's.
[21:36.760 --> 21:38.940]  But Gimbel's was right behind Hotel Penn.
[21:38.940 --> 21:45.420]  What is now currently and probably will no longer be the Manhattan Plaza Mall or whatever the hell it's called.
[21:45.720 --> 21:46.380]  Who cared anyway?
[21:46.600 --> 21:48.260]  It was just a shrine to capitalism.
[21:48.680 --> 22:02.300]  But one of the sub-levels allowed you to go from the one train, from LIRR, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, straight through the hotel and into Gimbel's so you could shop, stay at the hotel, and then get the hell back home.
[22:02.740 --> 22:03.980]  Preferably before rush hour.
[22:04.780 --> 22:06.800]  And what was I going to get with that?
[22:08.500 --> 22:10.580]  Brain freeze, because crazy times of the day.
[22:11.280 --> 22:13.140]  I'm pressing F5 on your brain.
[22:13.240 --> 22:13.380]  Yes.
[22:13.660 --> 22:17.300]  There's also a lot of shows that don't feature the hotel.
[22:17.520 --> 22:19.580]  Like, there was a studio built in the hotel.
[22:19.580 --> 22:20.980]  I've been there multiple times.
[22:21.060 --> 22:22.520]  They would do shows there.
[22:22.660 --> 22:28.000]  And probably the most infamous, in my opinion, is the episodes of the Maury Show used to be filmed there.
[22:28.000 --> 22:32.340]  So all the, you're not the father with breakdancing stuff, that was at Hotel Pennsylvania.
[22:32.600 --> 22:34.080]  And they also did the dog shows there.
[22:34.960 --> 22:35.360]  Crazy.
[22:35.480 --> 22:37.960]  It was the only hotel that had no problem with dogs.
[22:38.220 --> 22:38.400]  Yeah.
[22:38.620 --> 22:40.320]  That's why they were very popular with the Kennel Club.
[22:40.480 --> 22:43.960]  And that's also why there was the phrasing of, we host a dog show every year.
[22:44.040 --> 22:48.540]  And for some reason, it's the hacker conference that usually ends up smelling by the middle of Saturday.
[22:48.540 --> 22:49.260]  I don't know why.
[22:50.420 --> 22:57.500]  So speaking of which, even though one of the images did not load, unfortunately, I'll load it later, is that's a picture of the second, because they left it alone.
[22:57.620 --> 23:01.760]  So it also, that second basement floods the lower basement, so it would rot out.
[23:02.080 --> 23:03.200]  That's one of my photos.
[23:03.340 --> 23:16.860]  There's also another photo that I took that I'll bring up later since it didn't properly load, where the story goes is that when they separated both the Penn Station and the hotel, that they filled the entire tunnel in concrete.
[23:16.860 --> 23:20.000]  And while that was true, they didn't fill it all the way.
[23:20.260 --> 23:29.640]  And so I'm very proud and honored that I have one of the few remaining photos, this one and another one that went off all the way to the left, because I guess we built it in CSS.
[23:32.400 --> 23:37.020]  That they kept part of the tunnel, because it has the mosaic mural.
[23:37.020 --> 23:48.740]  If you've ever gone to an older, not up-kept hotel subway station, you often see these mosaics made out in tile that says, you know, Canal Street, and people cover the sea, so it spells anal.
[23:49.960 --> 23:50.460]  Guilty.
[23:50.840 --> 23:52.660]  And there's, yep, and there's...
[23:54.040 --> 23:55.260]  We've been hacked!
[24:12.340 --> 24:25.700]  I love that it was, like, we're talking about Hotel Penn, and I think this is, like, the entire summary of what it's like to run HOPE in the past years all at one panel, so I'm already happy about this, as it slowly comes back down.
[24:28.540 --> 24:29.600]  Applaud for that, dude.
[24:29.720 --> 24:30.500]  You did some of that.
[24:30.580 --> 24:35.860]  That's the equivalent of that hacker magic, where you just, like, control shift S, and it's like, wait, did you hack NASA?
[24:35.920 --> 24:36.540]  I don't know what you did.
[24:37.220 --> 24:43.500]  But, yeah, um, the mosaic that says to Pennsylvania Station is, they still kept that.
[24:43.660 --> 25:00.520]  Now, here's the crazy part about the new building, their, one of their big plans, which is why it's been taking so long to build the f*cking thing, is that they're going to restore that tunnel to the new one, yeah, and this is a problem because they have to use a combination of drilling and explosives to do that,
[25:00.560 --> 25:08.340]  so one of the reasons it takes forever is because every time you set up an explosive there, it bothers all the blocks underground, a 920 block radius, so...
[25:08.760 --> 25:20.520]  And not only that, but it also interferes with Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak, because that hotel is built on top of all the East River tunnels.
[25:21.000 --> 25:21.140]  Yep.
[25:21.420 --> 25:31.420]  So you have to take extreme caution for that, and also the wiring of the building, I don't think we ever mentioned the fact that it's one of the oldest, still in use, telephone numbers.
[25:31.420 --> 25:31.920]  Yep.
[25:32.000 --> 25:35.480]  All the wiring for the building went down to the sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-basement.
[25:35.660 --> 25:35.820]  Mm-hmm.
[25:36.240 --> 25:39.440]  Hence the famous song, Pennsylvania, six-five-thousand.
[25:39.860 --> 25:39.960]  Five-thousand.
[25:40.080 --> 25:43.800]  Everybody, can we get a cheer of everybody just saying, Pennsylvania, six-five-thousand.
[25:43.900 --> 25:44.060]  Come on.
[25:44.100 --> 25:45.700]  Three, two, one.
[25:46.580 --> 25:48.660]  Pennsylvania, six-five-thousand.
[25:48.900 --> 25:49.960]  Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
[25:50.000 --> 25:51.400]  And then we get the DMCA strike.
[25:52.060 --> 25:52.640]  That's right.
[25:54.220 --> 26:01.220]  So, as I said, this would be the show's presentation on reviewing stuff from the hotel, so I guess we're going to get into HOPE memory time.
[26:02.940 --> 26:04.780]  I'm going to try to go through...
[26:04.780 --> 26:08.120]  I'm going to start off with a bit about myself, and then I'm going to open up to everyone else.
[26:08.300 --> 26:09.480]  And also, I don't know what...
[26:09.480 --> 26:11.660]  Do we have public microphones out here in this room?
[26:11.800 --> 26:11.940]  Yeah.
[26:11.940 --> 26:11.960]  Okay.
[26:12.260 --> 26:17.960]  Okay, because otherwise I'd be like, Stan here, and you get to be the presenter, like cardboard cut out of Sidepocket.
[26:18.340 --> 26:19.060]  You have a microphone.
[26:19.500 --> 26:20.580]  This HOPE is going very well.
[26:20.760 --> 26:21.060]  Yes.
[26:21.200 --> 26:21.540]  They have.
[26:21.780 --> 26:23.820]  So, yeah, that's one of the new...
[26:23.820 --> 26:37.760]  That's the other thing, too, that's going to be interesting is that, you know, it's so weird to see this as past history, but one of the reasons why it's called New HOPE is we get to make new, positive, horrific memories at our new location and turn out.
[26:38.380 --> 26:51.000]  In fact, one of the nervousness about this panel is that I was worried that there would be staff here from St. John's and them not realizing the bottom line they signed just being like, oh, no, we've made a horrible mistake.
[26:52.200 --> 26:53.660]  Have you touched the flame yet?
[26:53.800 --> 26:54.040]  Yeah.
[26:54.700 --> 26:55.220]  Oh, God.
[26:55.480 --> 26:58.040]  Well, is there more googly eyes on the crucifix?
[26:59.520 --> 27:01.780]  I don't know who did that, but great job.
[27:03.300 --> 27:04.880]  The all-seeing eye, you know?
[27:06.240 --> 27:06.860]  Three of them.
[27:07.280 --> 27:09.100]  Oh, there's been so much new stuff.
[27:09.500 --> 27:16.260]  Neil, if you're able to physically come out here tomorrow, because I know you got stuck in the Twilight Zone, you're just going to...
[27:16.260 --> 27:19.720]  I'll be there come hell or high water, or basically Hotel Penn.
[27:19.840 --> 27:20.940]  Yeah, actually, I don't think about it.
[27:21.240 --> 27:25.660]  By the way, that's a picture of one of the earliest pictures of what the rooms look like.
[27:25.660 --> 27:29.000]  I believe it's from late 50s, early 60s, I think.
[27:30.700 --> 27:33.000]  I mean, it looks like that in 20s.
[27:34.660 --> 27:35.060]  Yeah.
[27:36.980 --> 27:41.340]  What's also weird is, like, there were so many different types of rooms, by the way, there.
[27:41.560 --> 27:43.460]  Like, here's a fun random story.
[27:43.460 --> 27:46.180]  This actually happened at The Last HOPE, was...
[27:46.180 --> 27:54.520]  So I have a long-time friend that I'm going to get into later, named Murdoch, who couldn't be here, and fellow phone losers of America.
[27:54.880 --> 28:01.560]  And the boyfriend that he was dating at the time, turns out Render Man is an actual ordained officiator.
[28:01.840 --> 28:06.560]  So under the Canadian flag, we unofficially, officially married them in their hotel room.
[28:06.980 --> 28:08.200]  And that was like a...
[28:08.200 --> 28:09.960]  I remember, I thought originally that was the largest room.
[28:10.020 --> 28:11.040]  They had, like, two bedrooms.
[28:11.040 --> 28:13.680]  It was this long hallway, and I'm like, how'd you rent out a mansion?
[28:13.860 --> 28:16.060]  And I found out there was rooms that were even bigger than that.
[28:16.540 --> 28:23.520]  That, like, you could see the floor dip where they used to have a stove in those rooms and stuff, which I cannot think about.
[28:23.620 --> 28:27.320]  Like, Hotel Penn having this, like, fire, instant fire in your rooms at any time.
[28:28.080 --> 28:28.760]  Oh, boy.
[28:29.100 --> 28:33.960]  All you have to do is go back about three or four months to when they were doing demolition work on the hotel.
[28:33.960 --> 28:37.200]  They did actually set up a fire by accident?
[28:37.420 --> 28:37.640]  Yes.
[28:38.400 --> 28:38.960]  Accident.
[28:39.420 --> 28:41.940]  The day the conference was announced, actually.
[28:42.720 --> 28:46.620]  That was us just, you know, being like, your move, dick weasels.
[28:48.540 --> 28:49.160]  But, yeah.
[28:49.340 --> 28:51.840]  Officially, The Last HOPE was my first one.
[28:52.880 --> 29:06.660]  Things that I remember from that was starting off the tradition that a lot of people don't realize that a frequent keynote speaker we used to have was Jello Biafria from the band that my brain is dying from.
[29:07.200 --> 29:08.080]  Dead Candies.
[29:08.080 --> 29:08.120]  Dead Candies.
[29:08.720 --> 29:09.960]  That's how long I've been...
[29:10.400 --> 29:12.800]  I've been working on The Sun for four hours, among other things.
[29:12.800 --> 29:14.080]  So, fun.
[29:15.200 --> 29:19.780]  And, believe it or not, the room they would usually host him in had really comfortable floors.
[29:20.020 --> 29:25.780]  So, while everyone else was enamored by his talk, I would actually be in there actually catching up on Z's.
[29:26.340 --> 29:28.020]  And I'd like to...
[29:28.020 --> 29:29.340]  Not because his talk was boring or anything.
[29:29.420 --> 29:31.460]  It was just literally a comfy floor and I'd sleep there.
[29:31.800 --> 29:35.980]  And I think enough people slept in there that I hope that...
[29:35.980 --> 29:38.560]  I guess that maybe inspired the hammock area.
[29:38.560 --> 29:38.680]  Yeah?
[29:39.780 --> 29:44.280]  Who slept in the hammocks at HOPE during the multiple years and survived?
[29:44.740 --> 29:47.400]  Who fell out of a hammock at HOPE?
[29:47.580 --> 29:48.040]  Oh, yeah.
[29:49.060 --> 29:49.160]  Yeah.
[29:49.560 --> 29:50.560]  EMTs on scene.
[29:51.080 --> 29:51.220]  Yep.
[29:52.240 --> 29:54.380]  So, funny story about me with the hammocks.
[29:54.740 --> 29:56.040]  And then I'll open it up more.
[29:57.160 --> 29:59.400]  The first year, which I...
[29:59.400 --> 30:01.400]  That was The Last HOPE, if I remember correctly?
[30:01.460 --> 30:02.260]  Or was it The Next HOPE?
[30:02.340 --> 30:03.560]  I think it was...
[30:04.880 --> 30:05.560]  I'm trying to think.
[30:05.560 --> 30:08.340]  Yeah, I think it was The Last HOPE that we had the hammocks for the...
[30:08.340 --> 30:08.460]  No.
[30:08.600 --> 30:10.280]  Next HOPE was the first time.
[30:10.360 --> 30:10.460]  See?
[30:10.540 --> 30:11.280]  The naming convention.
[30:12.360 --> 30:12.720]  Um...
[30:12.720 --> 30:15.140]  The absolute last one.
[30:15.300 --> 30:15.660]  Yes.
[30:16.300 --> 30:17.440]  Yeah, it was Next HOPE.
[30:17.540 --> 30:21.800]  Well, I always thought that if we ever did like a truly last one, it'd either be called No HOPE or F*ck HOPE.
[30:22.160 --> 30:23.380]  So, it'd be one of those two.
[30:24.160 --> 30:27.000]  Not to like f*ck HOPE the convention, but just like general phrase.
[30:27.220 --> 30:28.540]  But anyway, back to the story.
[30:28.540 --> 30:38.600]  So, if you've ever slept in the hammock area, you've noticed that they always put it in like, all the way at the other side of the con, where no one disturbs you and everything.
[30:39.180 --> 30:42.040]  I'm happy they did that, because that's not the way it was the first year.
[30:42.280 --> 30:51.320]  I still want to find who thought this was a great idea, but the first time they had the hammocks, they put it right in front of a giant projection screen area for everyone.
[30:51.720 --> 30:56.160]  Which is not a problem, because they thought, hey, you'd lay in the hammock, watch stuff, the cons and things.
[30:56.160 --> 31:05.880]  The problem was, is that someone had the other brilliant idea, that as long as it wasn't like straight up porn or snuff films, you could play any video you want on that screen.
[31:06.560 --> 31:28.480]  So, as some staff people remember of me complaining about this, I, after a long Friday and Saturday night, Friday night and Saturday day during the daytime at HOPE, fell asleep in a hammock, I woke up to a documentary that exists that I've never seen before in my life called Crackheads Gone Wild.
[31:30.880 --> 31:42.760]  So imagine you're waking up from dreamless sleep and you're like, why are there two crackheads giving oral sex to each other and now just went through a traffic cone?
[31:42.760 --> 31:47.180]  What is, because I thought I was like, I'm like, I didn't do any drugs at this con.
[31:47.920 --> 31:49.640]  Like, for once, I, did I?
[31:49.840 --> 31:54.020]  Yeah, like, I'm like, what am I, like, no, this is actually the front of my face.
[31:54.160 --> 31:54.680]  The soup latte.
[31:55.700 --> 31:55.740]  The soup latte.
[31:55.740 --> 31:56.120]  Oh, man.
[31:57.200 --> 31:58.320]  Oh, geez.
[31:59.360 --> 32:04.480]  That, that was a, that was, so I'm happy that, that's one of the few times I hope that, like, it's like, we learned from our experiences.
[32:05.380 --> 32:10.760]  Um, does anyone, uh, have any interesting stories about, like, dumb spending just, like, time at the hotel?
[32:11.620 --> 32:15.680]  Like, any room stories that, a statute of limitations or you want to throw people under the bus?
[32:15.680 --> 32:17.840]  Uh, I mean, I can follow up with the hammer.
[32:18.100 --> 32:18.600]  Either microphone, I don't care.
[32:19.840 --> 32:20.600]  Uh, it's up to staff.
[32:20.780 --> 32:22.100]  There's one in the back.
[32:24.320 --> 32:26.640]  Follow, follow, follow the, follow the blaming points.
[32:27.720 --> 32:30.120]  Uh, I went to HOPE a lot of times.
[32:30.260 --> 32:30.860]  Is the mic on?
[32:31.480 --> 32:34.700]  I went to, yes, I went to HOPE a lot of times.
[32:34.880 --> 32:35.600]  It's fantastic.
[32:35.860 --> 32:37.420]  The hotel is obviously a dump.
[32:37.720 --> 32:39.500]  Uh, the rooms are terrible.
[32:39.760 --> 32:40.880]  The basement's amazing.
[32:41.380 --> 32:48.460]  Uh, being led around the basement, apparently the hotel had, um, direct current power originally.
[32:48.860 --> 32:49.220]  Uh-huh.
[32:49.560 --> 32:57.800]  And it also had some device in the basement where you could sign a document and it would electronically sign it in Chicago.
[32:58.200 --> 33:01.260]  Like, some sort of pen that you could grab and, like, move it around.
[33:01.580 --> 33:06.180]  So, if you got one of these basement tours, there's just so much amazing shit down there.
[33:06.740 --> 33:18.580]  And one of the things that was nice about the hotel is, especially for a hacker conference, is that it was, there was so much space for exploration because the hotel, they only use parts of the hotel.
[33:18.780 --> 33:21.000]  Like, it seemed like 50% of the hotel was unused.
[33:21.000 --> 33:27.400]  And you would go into the halls and you just find these, like, deserted, like, haunted ballrooms.
[33:27.680 --> 33:29.960]  And you're just like, what the f*ck is in here?
[33:30.040 --> 33:30.140]  Yes.
[33:30.140 --> 33:31.140]  Is there ghosts in here?
[33:31.140 --> 33:35.160]  Literally, Hotel Penn is probably the OG liminal space meme.
[33:36.700 --> 33:37.140]  Yeah.
[33:37.360 --> 33:42.840]  And you'd, and, and, and, and I would find these places because, you know, trying to get to the roof, to party on the roof.
[33:43.180 --> 33:55.580]  And I could never remember the exact way and somebody had shown me and I would try to find it and I would go through and I would go to the stairways and hit a dead end and be like, wait, where, you know, go back some other different way.
[33:55.800 --> 34:00.900]  And you turn around and you get attacked by Barney the dinosaur or Jason Scott dresses Barney the dinosaur.
[34:01.820 --> 34:06.480]  I just want to know who it was who chewed through the cabling that we put up between the 20th.
[34:06.780 --> 34:08.120]  Oh, the switchblade thing?
[34:08.280 --> 34:08.360]  Yeah.
[34:08.480 --> 34:10.560]  Someone cut off the Internet between both floors.
[34:11.560 --> 34:12.180]  And I believe...
[34:12.180 --> 34:20.560]  I'm sure they did it in frustration trying to find their way, climbing up the rope in order to get to the roof and then cutting the line behind them like Pizarro or something, you know, making sure no one else could follow them up.
[34:20.760 --> 34:27.940]  I wouldn't be surprised if like a group of friends like told their friend, their non-technical friend of like, no, if you actually cut open the wire and listen, you can hear the Internet.
[34:28.140 --> 34:30.280]  And like, that's what happened there.
[34:30.280 --> 34:33.100]  And I think the following years after that, it was...
[34:33.100 --> 34:33.620]  We got...
[34:33.620 --> 34:46.660]  I think it was we got permission to use a certain wet wall to run the wire down, which caused like more hell for staff members in the knock to set things up because you're like spelunking through this hotel and there's like a mummified body in the wall and you're like,
[34:46.720 --> 34:47.240]  get out!
[34:48.680 --> 34:50.100]  So that was its own hell.
[34:50.280 --> 34:51.020]  But thank you for that.
[34:51.080 --> 34:55.000]  I also liked that the beginning of your thing there was like the Yelp review of the hotel.
[34:55.000 --> 34:56.860]  It was like obviously a dump.
[34:57.060 --> 34:58.200]  It was awesome for a con.
[34:58.480 --> 34:59.420]  Four and a half stars.
[34:59.620 --> 35:00.200]  Would do again.
[35:00.640 --> 35:04.660]  The cheat code to get up to the roof was there's a service elevator.
[35:04.840 --> 35:07.720]  And if you could find the service elevator, then you could easily get to the roof.
[35:07.860 --> 35:09.000]  Speaking of the elevators...
[35:12.300 --> 35:13.860]  Oh wait, let me just say one more.
[35:13.860 --> 35:14.100]  Sure.
[35:14.360 --> 35:19.600]  So then eventually they said in like 2014, 2016, don't go to roof no more.
[35:19.840 --> 35:22.060]  And I kind of thought I was like not real serious.
[35:22.200 --> 35:25.840]  And so like went to the roof and got turned back and then we went up again.
[35:26.360 --> 35:33.820]  And we got up to the roof and then eventually security kicked us off and then took the badges away and then going down to the security the next...
[35:33.820 --> 35:35.840]  And I'm trying to like see if I can sneak in.
[35:36.200 --> 35:41.140]  And meanwhile, they're going over the PA saying some assholes who didn't listen and went on the roof.
[35:41.140 --> 35:45.500]  The main problem, I remember one year and I can't remember which one it was.
[35:45.640 --> 35:50.140]  It was definitely one of the later ones where it wasn't even just random people going to the roof.
[35:50.260 --> 35:54.440]  The problem is that someone would bring a prominent popular person to the roof.
[35:54.640 --> 35:57.000]  So all of their fan base would follow in.
[35:57.120 --> 36:01.620]  So like it'd be someone like a major person up from the EFF or the keynote and they bring them there.
[36:01.800 --> 36:03.320]  So all of their groupies showed up.
[36:03.580 --> 36:18.780]  And I remember one particular year was horrifying because security like the reason why they were being such assholes on the roof of like get off is because I'd be on the ground floor and I would literally see 20 NYPD officers in full riot gear with like their batons.
[36:19.040 --> 36:21.340]  And that like there's like hackers, full hunting season.
[36:22.040 --> 36:24.660]  And then they get disappointed of like, no, there's no one up there anymore.
[36:24.760 --> 36:27.340]  And they're like, oh, you know, now we have to beat up minorities.
[36:28.660 --> 36:37.400]  And in the meantime, not only was the roof a problem, but also occasionally some special announcement we've made by a major keynote person who I am not going to mention.
[36:37.560 --> 36:43.020]  But I'm just going to say the next time you want to hand out your business card with, you know, lock picks in them.
[36:43.400 --> 36:53.440]  Let security know ahead of time, because I got to tell you, Kevin Mitnick, the whole time I was sitting down there at the front door, I see like hundreds of hackers racing through a glass door.
[36:53.440 --> 36:57.220]  I can't tell who's got the badge on, who doesn't, who has to pay, who doesn't have to pay.
[36:57.500 --> 36:58.940]  All I know is that they're going to break down the building.
[37:00.280 --> 37:05.700]  So I know Johans wants to say something, but right before that, and it's probably going to hit the rest of my time.
[37:06.660 --> 37:12.760]  I particularly want to call out Neo and Liz and anyone who ever worked at what was called the disinformation booth.
[37:12.920 --> 37:16.680]  Is there anything you would want to share about your stories about running that hellhole?
[37:16.680 --> 37:17.680]  I just got one question.
[37:17.820 --> 37:19.040]  What's going on in the fourth track?
[37:20.060 --> 37:20.380]  What?
[37:20.500 --> 37:20.980]  At this con?
[37:21.460 --> 37:22.160]  Any track.
[37:22.320 --> 37:22.880]  We never knew.
[37:24.100 --> 37:30.760]  The disinformation desk was set up basically because nobody had any information and people would come up to security.
[37:31.000 --> 37:35.240]  And I was doing security, I think my second HOPE, and asking, you know, what's going on?
[37:35.320 --> 37:35.760]  What's going on?
[37:35.820 --> 37:38.320]  Because I was apparently the only sober person in all of security.
[37:38.520 --> 37:39.940]  Well, you were the one with all the coffee.
[37:40.160 --> 37:40.660]  So, yeah.
[37:40.660 --> 37:46.040]  I want to just say, anytime I fall asleep during a HOPE, something awful would happen.
[37:46.440 --> 37:47.240]  This is a fact.
[37:47.420 --> 37:49.540]  It was proven the last two or three years.
[37:49.700 --> 37:52.860]  So I made a habit to not sleep at the HOPE conference.
[37:53.500 --> 37:58.500]  And people would crash out and they would join the info desk just to get a place to sleep for like nothing.
[37:58.860 --> 38:03.800]  So Radio Statler was usually right across like diagonally from the disinformation booth.
[38:04.940 --> 38:16.120]  And the two things that I remember particularly from that, and I'll give it up to Johannes, is one is my favorite, aka not favorite thing you guys would do, even though it was completely right, is people would ask you guys questions.
[38:16.380 --> 38:21.140]  And you would just go, do you see the guy with the crazy hair by the radio?
[38:21.300 --> 38:22.160]  That Sidepocket.
[38:22.280 --> 38:22.800]  Ask him.
[38:22.920 --> 38:24.860]  We don't know for some reason if there were info.
[38:25.000 --> 38:25.440]  He'll know.
[38:25.440 --> 38:30.880]  And I felt like, if you've seen South Park, like, when they say, like, token, you're black, you know how to play bass.
[38:31.080 --> 38:31.980]  Like, they go over and it's like...
[38:31.980 --> 38:34.220]  I'm like, f*ck, I actually know the answer to that, too.
[38:35.220 --> 38:40.400]  So, you know, my second, my favorite thing, I don't know if you two had a favorite question you guys got, but my...
[38:40.400 --> 38:41.320]  Yes, I have agreed.
[38:41.460 --> 38:47.760]  My favorite one, and I'm going to let you say it and then I'm going to go to Johannes, is the multiple times where...
[38:47.760 --> 38:52.880]  So you have to understand, usually the entrance where security would be is at the bottom of the escalators.
[38:52.880 --> 38:58.940]  So you have to go up past them to get into the con and go up the escalators, go into the mezzanine for the first half of the convention.
[38:59.300 --> 39:10.020]  So my favorite would be is that some schmuck would go to the information desk and legit be confused and go, Hi, um, yeah, this is my first HOPE, I just show up this, where do you go to register to pick up your badge?
[39:11.180 --> 39:16.120]  And they'd just be like, and then be on the radio and be like, hi, security front desk, are you awake?
[39:16.300 --> 39:18.280]  Like, you know, because it's like, how did you get in here?
[39:18.480 --> 39:19.820]  You're supposed to be down there for the...
[39:19.820 --> 39:23.040]  You actually walked past security to get to this information.
[39:23.300 --> 39:26.980]  Yeah, and that's not to shit on security because they often went through like horror...
[39:26.980 --> 39:32.380]  Like so much horrifying stuff I'd hear that like basically by mid-Saturday they were all dead at that front desk.
[39:32.560 --> 39:34.560]  So yeah, did you want to say your favorite question?
[39:34.580 --> 39:34.760]  Oh, yeah.
[39:35.320 --> 39:37.020]  So, um, in...
[39:37.020 --> 39:37.500]  Wait for the phone.
[39:37.720 --> 39:39.100]  Oh, yeah, I should go to the microphone.
[39:39.320 --> 39:40.420]  Because I'm losing my voice.
[39:41.000 --> 39:42.460]  This is being recorded for...
[39:42.460 --> 39:43.300]  Somebody can lose the mic.
[39:43.300 --> 39:43.900]  I don't want to...
[39:43.900 --> 39:46.060]  It's also being recorded for our posteriors.
[39:46.260 --> 39:46.460]  So yes.
[39:47.440 --> 39:47.800]  Posteriority.
[39:49.460 --> 39:49.820]  Which...
[39:50.240 --> 39:52.140]  I mean, if you want to be the keynote speaker, you can.
[39:54.060 --> 39:55.240]  I would go to that talk.
[39:56.960 --> 39:57.980]  That's not even a joke.
[39:58.100 --> 39:58.960]  I would go to that talk.
[39:58.960 --> 39:59.700]  Yeah.
[40:00.300 --> 40:01.780]  That would be f*ck HOPE.
[40:02.500 --> 40:03.020]  So...
[40:03.020 --> 40:04.660]  And you can drop the microphone.
[40:04.960 --> 40:05.200]  Okay.
[40:05.860 --> 40:10.880]  So, um, in 2018 I had someone approach the disinformation desk.
[40:11.400 --> 40:14.940]  And he was asking me about AV for workshops.
[40:15.220 --> 40:16.520]  Uh, for many of you...
[40:16.520 --> 40:18.260]  I just got a migraine with you saying that.
[40:18.920 --> 40:19.440]  Right?
[40:19.740 --> 40:24.300]  Um, he was running a workshop and he was allegedly told that there would be AV support.
[40:24.300 --> 40:29.520]  For most of you, you already probably know, workshops don't have AV.
[40:29.880 --> 40:30.560]  They're not streamed.
[40:31.140 --> 40:33.280]  Don't ask me anymore about it.
[40:34.680 --> 40:35.240]  Um...
[40:35.240 --> 40:36.900]  That's the best joke you've made.
[40:37.100 --> 40:38.440]  AV support at home.
[40:38.440 --> 40:38.760]  Right?
[40:39.040 --> 40:39.500]  Right?
[40:40.260 --> 40:41.500]  Well, for the workshops.
[40:41.520 --> 40:42.160]  For the workshops.
[40:42.480 --> 40:42.700]  Yes.
[40:42.880 --> 40:45.340]  So, this gentleman, and I'm telling him over...
[40:45.340 --> 40:47.120]  Like, I told him three times, I'm sorry.
[40:47.660 --> 40:50.380]  You know, I understand you're running this workshop.
[40:50.380 --> 40:51.520]  We don't have AV.
[40:51.760 --> 40:53.580]  He's demanding AV support.
[40:53.580 --> 40:54.240]  I'm like, listen.
[40:54.780 --> 40:55.940]  You know, with all due respect.
[40:57.200 --> 40:57.640]  Um...
[40:57.640 --> 40:59.240]  I've told you your answer.
[40:59.660 --> 41:01.020]  There's nothing more I can say.
[41:01.580 --> 41:04.000]  But if you'd like, you could pay me five dollars.
[41:04.660 --> 41:07.440]  And I will tell you whatever you want to hear.
[41:07.740 --> 41:09.340]  Be very happy to do so.
[41:09.500 --> 41:11.360]  But I'm not gonna lie to you for free.
[41:11.540 --> 41:12.300]  You know, that's a service.
[41:12.460 --> 41:13.340]  You gotta pay for that.
[41:14.320 --> 41:16.900]  So you became Black Hat in like five seconds.
[41:17.200 --> 41:17.620]  Of course.
[41:17.920 --> 41:18.420]  Black Hat USA.
[41:18.820 --> 41:20.060]  Of absolute course.
[41:20.200 --> 41:21.080]  That's what I am deep down.
[41:21.080 --> 41:21.740]  We know this.
[41:21.740 --> 41:22.960]  You made a profit...
[41:22.960 --> 41:24.620]  Yet you put me in charge of...
[41:24.620 --> 41:24.860]  What?
[41:25.580 --> 41:27.500]  You charged for bullshit?
[41:28.220 --> 41:28.920]  Uh, that...
[41:28.920 --> 41:29.820]  Because that's a skill.
[41:30.120 --> 41:31.380]  That's a skill, Neo.
[41:31.640 --> 41:32.540]  You know me.
[41:32.860 --> 41:33.640]  That is an art.
[41:33.740 --> 41:34.380]  That's why I'm working off the profits.
[41:34.800 --> 41:35.340]  Yeah, exactly.
[41:36.000 --> 41:39.000]  Um, but there was a little bit of a problem.
[41:39.300 --> 41:40.580]  Because my smart...
[41:40.580 --> 41:40.960]  I was...
[41:40.960 --> 41:45.440]  Not only was I info desk, um, for 2016 and 2018.
[41:45.440 --> 41:47.980]  I was also a member of the Code of Conduct team.
[41:50.180 --> 41:50.700]  Uh...
[41:50.700 --> 41:52.560]  I have a little bit...
[41:52.560 --> 41:53.940]  I actually wrote a whole thing that we're...
[41:53.940 --> 41:55.560]  I'm gonna say if my phone stays alive.
[41:56.980 --> 41:57.500]  Um...
[41:57.500 --> 42:03.680]  And the person asking me about AV support for his workshop was actually the head of the Code of Conduct team.
[42:04.880 --> 42:06.940]  And we didn't meet in person at that point.
[42:07.100 --> 42:08.140]  I didn't know what he'd look like.
[42:09.200 --> 42:16.360]  So, after the train wreck that was 2018, um, Code of Conduct held some...
[42:16.360 --> 42:18.560]  Apparently I just hit 10,000 steps.
[42:18.720 --> 42:18.860]  Cool.
[42:20.240 --> 42:20.700]  Um...
[42:20.700 --> 42:20.960]  Woo!
[42:23.020 --> 42:23.480]  Um...
[42:23.480 --> 42:25.120]  Because I'm Italian, I'm talking with my hands.
[42:27.160 --> 42:27.620]  Um...
[42:27.620 --> 42:32.380]  At one of the post-mortems for Code of Conduct, because 2018 was a shit show on multiple levels.
[42:33.280 --> 42:33.760]  Um...
[42:34.380 --> 42:34.620]  Uh...
[42:34.620 --> 42:35.680]  I can't name him.
[42:35.940 --> 42:36.220]  Uh...
[42:36.220 --> 42:40.720]  But Sergi went off on me in front of a friend who was interested in also joining.
[42:40.960 --> 42:44.500]  And I had to remind him that I told him the answer.
[42:44.720 --> 42:46.380]  I was just charging for the bullshit.
[42:47.660 --> 42:48.380]  Thank you.
[42:51.420 --> 42:51.900]  Um...
[42:51.900 --> 42:56.480]  Before I rimble a bit on my own stories, Johannes, you've been patiently waiting for...
[42:56.480 --> 42:57.780]  By the way, give it up for Johannes.
[42:59.080 --> 42:59.440]  Woo!
[42:59.460 --> 42:59.800]  Woo!
[42:59.800 --> 43:00.660]  He has...
[43:00.660 --> 43:05.340]  Not only is his talks at HOPE every year been amazing, but he is, like, usually the...
[43:05.340 --> 43:10.860]  One of the highlights for our closing ceremonies every year, to the point where I can't wait to see what the closing ceremonies are gonna be like this year.
[43:11.080 --> 43:11.540]  Oh, my.
[43:11.940 --> 43:12.300]  Uh...
[43:12.300 --> 43:20.360]  Well, I don't even know where to start, because there are so many great memories to, like, Hotel Pennsylvania and HOPE in general.
[43:21.640 --> 43:22.200]  Uh...
[43:22.200 --> 43:27.460]  I mean, there's the one night that I can't remember, which is probably the most interesting.
[43:27.460 --> 43:30.600]  So, uh, if you have any information about that, please tell me.
[43:31.080 --> 43:34.960]  If you have any video information, send it to me first, so I have blackmailed, then send it to him.
[43:35.320 --> 43:36.460]  But, but I know, like, one way...
[43:36.460 --> 43:38.600]  Give me 10,000 Bitcoin, and I'll tell you what happened.
[43:38.840 --> 43:39.380]  Okay, cool.
[43:39.820 --> 43:48.020]  Now, but a very special moment was when I and Nick Farr, and we both were, like, on 20 Club-Mates or something like that, and we both were wearing suits.
[43:48.040 --> 43:48.400]  So you had cancer?
[43:48.400 --> 43:52.300]  And we were racing with the Segways on the mezzanine level, yeah?
[43:52.460 --> 43:55.160]  And I cannot believe that we didn't kill ourselves.
[43:55.380 --> 44:00.720]  This is just, like, incredibly lucky for both of us that this did not happen.
[44:01.000 --> 44:13.540]  But, uh, really interesting story concerning the hotel rooms is that, uh, because I stayed, I think, three or four times at Hotel Pennsylvania, and I think then I changed to some other hotels.
[44:13.540 --> 44:19.460]  And the main reason for that was that I dared to take off my socks one time.
[44:19.900 --> 44:20.420]  Oh.
[44:20.420 --> 44:20.900]  Bad idea.
[44:21.500 --> 44:30.100]  And I actually got some interesting growth on my leg, uh, because of the carpet or something like that.
[44:30.260 --> 44:34.020]  And it nearly bankrupted the Austrian social healthcare system.
[44:34.440 --> 44:44.740]  Because it took three and a half months and a variety of different forms of drugs to get the f*cking growth to stop.
[44:45.240 --> 44:46.120]  I still...
[44:46.120 --> 44:47.880]  They still don't know what it was.
[44:48.280 --> 44:49.540]  I can tell you what it was.
[44:49.760 --> 44:51.960]  I luckily didn't have to pay for it, really.
[44:52.240 --> 44:53.320]  I can tell you what it was.
[44:53.320 --> 44:54.700]  It was the American capitalism.
[44:54.940 --> 44:56.200]  It was trying to infect your system.
[44:56.400 --> 44:57.260]  Maybe it was that.
[44:57.420 --> 45:10.720]  But, I mean, my main concern, uh, so, my name is Johannes and I have a problem, uh, is that, that if Hotel Pennsylvania is being demolished right now, I'm fearful of that stuff getting into the...
[45:11.640 --> 45:12.760]  Getting somewhere.
[45:13.260 --> 45:19.200]  So, we should all take measurements there and trying to find out...
[45:20.840 --> 45:21.400]  Danger.
[45:22.840 --> 45:23.400]  So...
[45:23.400 --> 45:23.700]  Danger.
[45:23.960 --> 45:25.700]  So, stopping right here.
[45:25.860 --> 45:28.320]  If you've seen Johannes' um, presentation...
[45:28.860 --> 45:28.900]  Oh, sure.
[45:29.260 --> 45:29.420]  Yep.
[45:29.900 --> 45:30.880]  Yesterday, real quick.
[45:31.380 --> 45:37.240]  Um, he does a lot of both documentaries, interesting movies, and Johannes, I think you found the plot for your next movie.
[45:38.200 --> 45:38.900]  For real.
[45:40.920 --> 45:42.960]  The fungus of Hotel Pennsylvania.
[45:43.800 --> 45:48.160]  So, Aphrodite, I want you to speak because I have a funny story relating to you, but go...
[45:48.160 --> 45:48.780]  What were you gonna say?
[45:49.180 --> 45:53.020]  Undoubtedly, at this point, there are gonna be a bunch of funny stories involving me, but this one...
[45:53.020 --> 45:54.320]  Actually, I have to thank Johannes for this.
[45:54.420 --> 46:00.960]  Back in 2016, during the closing ceremonies, he had his, uh, usual colorful demonstration.
[46:01.880 --> 46:05.440]  And, I don't know if anyone else remember this, but he goatseed everyone.
[46:05.440 --> 46:06.040]  Yes.
[46:07.520 --> 46:08.660]  And, here's where it gets better.
[46:08.780 --> 46:11.840]  That actually was the first time somebody successfully goatseed me.
[46:12.140 --> 46:12.340]  Mm-hmm.
[46:12.700 --> 46:12.860]  Yeah.
[46:13.100 --> 46:16.200]  And after that, I, like, followed him back to the hotel he was at.
[46:16.780 --> 46:16.960]  I...
[46:16.960 --> 46:22.080]  And I basically said, f*ck you, you goatseed me, and gave him a big bottle.
[46:24.100 --> 46:27.440]  Um, so you weren't there for when Jello Biafra mooned the audience?
[46:27.640 --> 46:29.640]  Because when I took one of the naps, I woke up to that.
[46:29.760 --> 46:29.920]  I...
[46:29.920 --> 46:32.440]  I keep waking up to odd sexual deviant behavior.
[46:32.540 --> 46:33.340]  I don't know why.
[46:33.340 --> 46:34.540]  It's just me.
[46:34.940 --> 46:35.400]  It's just me.
[46:35.620 --> 46:36.060]  It's just me.
[46:36.060 --> 46:38.760]  I think that was the year that he had me go at 4 a.m.
[46:38.840 --> 46:48.340]  to find, like, uh, duct tape, post-it notes, and some other weird shit that you could only really conceivably find at 4 a.m.
[46:48.880 --> 46:50.280]  in the middle of Midtown Manhattan.
[46:50.560 --> 46:50.680]  Yep.
[46:51.040 --> 47:05.240]  So, um, I'm glad, Johannes, that you brought up the segues, because most people remember, um, the mark of the beast that I'm wearing, Circle of HOPE, which for some reason is the, uh, vaccine check, so I guess that's even more that the Circle of HOPE was a disease that you...
[47:05.240 --> 47:10.460]  To sum it up, Circle of HOPE was both my third favorite HOPE and was the worst HOPE I've ever been.
[47:10.460 --> 47:16.500]  It was, like, one of those things where it was, like, 97% of it was, like, truly awesome, and the remaining three were just so awful.
[47:16.920 --> 47:25.720]  One is the obvious incident, which we can talk about later, but I keep feeling that everyone else forgets the other incident that I was there to witness, which was...
[47:25.720 --> 47:26.700]  The late night watch?
[47:26.840 --> 47:27.720]  I, yeah, which...
[47:27.720 --> 47:30.500]  The public details have still not been announced about that, so...
[47:30.500 --> 47:30.720]  Okay.
[47:31.460 --> 47:32.160]  But I...
[47:34.780 --> 47:36.060]  Not anymore, it hasn't, no.
[47:36.340 --> 47:39.540]  I mean, they're not here, so I don't give a shit.
[47:39.560 --> 47:45.940]  Well, my whole thing is, I was gonna share the thing that, um, Aphrodite asked me to do about all that, because I don't need to do...
[47:45.940 --> 47:50.040]  I'll just quickly go over, because this is the public thing, so I think this is fine to share.
[47:50.040 --> 48:03.660]  Um, basically, um, this is a little behind-the-scenes thing, I got really bored and worried about the segues after the first two times I saw them at the convention, because I'm just, like, one, like, let's do something new with them, let's replace them with something else,
[48:03.880 --> 48:18.100]  and then over all my feels eventually, you know, 90's PSA, someone's going to get hurt, and unfortunately at Circle of HOPE that did happen, so you probably may have heard the story, if not look it up, of the, uh, there was a Segway that did have a charge in it,
[48:18.280 --> 48:38.880]  and someone who had probably too much pain to go bye-bye juice, um, wrote on one, and essentially, uh, I guess I'll describe what I saw, because I literally looked up and I saw it, um, I don't know if he hit the brake, or it tripped on something, but he basically flew off at full speed backwards straight into the wall,
[48:38.880 --> 48:45.380]  Um, to the point where I didn't even notice, like, blood or anything, I just noticed that he had no top of his head.
[48:46.160 --> 48:59.120]  It was that, that, yeah, and, you know, the amazing volunteers and the, the people were trained EMTs at the time, ran in, did an amazing job, but I'm gonna share this part, and hopefully, unless security runs over and strangles me, I'm gonna share this part.
[48:59.300 --> 49:15.420]  So I'm horrified, I'm trying to help out when I can, and Aphrodite walks over, and she's like, so you saw, yeah, I saw the whole thing, this is like, so you know what's going to happen next, and I'm just like, Final Jeopardy theme playing, and I went,
[49:16.440 --> 49:22.600]  oh yeah, they're sending ambulances, so that means MYPD, our good friends from the roof, are going to show up.
[49:23.580 --> 49:36.520]  And so they're just like, yeah, um, so it's Saturday night, and to give you a perspective of what Saturday night's like, one year that wasn't that year, working at Radio Statler, my boss had three bottles of Jameson's.
[49:36.640 --> 49:45.080]  He gifted the staff one as a communal one for thank you for all the work, and he double fisted, puns am I intended, both Jameson's that entire night.
[49:46.260 --> 49:48.340]  That's how bad it gets with alcohol alone.
[49:48.720 --> 49:49.760]  So I'm glad that...
[49:49.760 --> 49:56.100]  That was also the year where we were given more alcohol than we were capable of hiding...
[49:56.100 --> 50:02.180]  In any shape, manner, or form, from volunteers, from attendees, from...
[50:02.180 --> 50:04.820]  I think one of the speakers actually gifted alcohol.
[50:05.220 --> 50:07.680]  I mean, we were writing the best speakeasy in town.
[50:07.800 --> 50:15.720]  I love that when, particularly when press would come by, they would look at the crates underneath the boots, and they thought that was like extra AV equipment and a cool hat.
[50:15.800 --> 50:19.620]  No, it's just all, all stuff to replace blood with.
[50:19.760 --> 50:20.180]  That's all it was.
[50:20.220 --> 50:21.240]  Alcohol slash vice.
[50:21.360 --> 50:25.060]  So Aphrodite comes over, so she's saying, you know, and I realized, oh, that means police are going to be here.
[50:25.140 --> 50:25.640]  And it's like, yeah.
[50:25.920 --> 50:30.820]  And she's like, I don't want to stereotype you, because background, half black and half Polish.
[50:31.200 --> 50:37.780]  And she's like, but people have been, you know, and could you...
[50:37.780 --> 50:40.680]  And I knew what she was saying, and I was like, we're an emergency.
[50:41.380 --> 50:42.200]  Say no more, fam.
[50:42.320 --> 50:49.440]  So I simply walked around the entire mez, and any bottle that was actually closed, I grabbed, pitted away where I was staying at.
[50:49.960 --> 50:57.200]  Anything that was open, even if they just opened it, I just yanked it out, downed it, and got rid of it.
[50:58.820 --> 51:00.600]  Because I'm known as a...
[51:00.600 --> 51:02.460]  Did that include the Club-Mate, just in case?
[51:02.660 --> 51:03.560]  I think that did.
[51:03.620 --> 51:10.020]  Yeah, I did the proper funeral for it, and because there's pictures of this, I just couldn't find them anymore, is pouring it down the urinals.
[51:10.760 --> 51:11.780]  Oh, I'm so sorry.
[51:11.900 --> 51:11.960]  Because it is...
[51:11.960 --> 51:14.300]  It's like I'm returning it to its natural habitat.
[51:15.800 --> 51:22.000]  So yeah, literally, by the time I got to the last one, that's when the NYPD showed up, and again, they looked disappointed, because they were hoping to, like, find some...
[51:22.000 --> 51:22.800]  It's like, nope, it's all gone.
[51:23.120 --> 51:25.400]  Because the thing is, is that, like, I'm known to...
[51:25.400 --> 51:31.180]  This is not a brag, it's that I'm known to consume alcohol, and no one not realizing that I've consumed tons of alcohol.
[51:31.480 --> 51:32.020]  So I think...
[51:32.020 --> 51:33.200]  Wait, that's...
[51:33.620 --> 51:34.520]  That's the Polish Indian.
[51:34.720 --> 51:35.000]  Yes.
[51:35.520 --> 51:36.080]  That's why...
[51:36.080 --> 51:37.920]  Because I know Aphrodite was like, I didn't want to...
[51:37.920 --> 51:40.960]  Because she said, I didn't want to stereotype you, because you don't...
[51:40.960 --> 51:43.860]  We're in a crisis, so of course I'm going to say yes, you know?
[51:44.760 --> 51:46.040]  But yeah, that's my whole thing about...
[51:46.040 --> 51:46.480]  Did you use the exception?
[51:46.720 --> 51:47.880]  Is to hide the booze.
[51:48.080 --> 51:51.480]  And then it was funny, because I think we got confirmed too, that it's like, we're not going to have the...
[51:51.480 --> 51:54.240]  We're probably not going to have the segues next year, and then 2020 happened.
[51:55.560 --> 51:57.920]  So that was that whole thing, so that's fine.
[51:58.160 --> 51:59.080]  I'm going to open up again.
[51:59.180 --> 52:00.160]  Anyone want to share more stories?
[52:00.220 --> 52:02.040]  Because I can keep rambling about stuff on this.
[52:02.140 --> 52:02.240]  Yes?
[52:03.840 --> 52:05.740]  Stape, my colleague from Radio Statler.
[52:05.740 --> 52:07.420]  There's so much stories by Radio Statler.
[52:08.380 --> 52:09.020]  So much.
[52:11.100 --> 52:25.200]  Well, part of the segues was the first year at Radio Statler, we were the corner of where you would turn around the segway track, so we would be interviewing like Adam Savage and stuff, and just someone, every ten minutes, someone would Kool-Aid man their way through the booth.
[52:26.400 --> 52:28.300]  It's like, surprise guess, this f*cker!
[52:28.440 --> 52:28.880]  Say hi!
[52:29.060 --> 52:30.600]  How many fingers am I holding up?
[52:30.640 --> 52:30.960]  Yes!
[52:32.480 --> 52:33.360]  Go on, Stape.
[52:33.480 --> 52:37.060]  I missed the first bit, but was Steele mentioned at all?
[52:37.060 --> 52:37.720]  Oh!
[52:38.800 --> 52:39.640]  Okay, so...
[52:39.640 --> 52:52.060]  So he was a very polarizing person, but one of my fondest memories of HOPE was, so there was this guy who claimed to be a former spy, and whether he was or wasn't, it didn't really matter.
[52:52.640 --> 53:00.440]  But he would basically take on any question that anyone would ask during the question and answer period, no matter how ridiculous it got.
[53:01.080 --> 53:03.840]  And until they kicked him off stage, he would keep going.
[53:04.220 --> 53:05.080]  Just like me.
[53:05.280 --> 53:05.620]  I'm sorry.
[53:05.820 --> 53:07.560]  Is this Robert Steele?
[53:07.740 --> 53:08.360]  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[53:10.480 --> 53:12.920]  Ignore the late in life craziness.
[53:13.160 --> 53:22.120]  But, so, one of my fondest memories is, it's like four o'clock in the morning, and everyone in one of the ballrooms is literally like hammered out of their mind.
[53:22.300 --> 53:26.720]  You kind of start noticing a common time period between all the interesting stuff happening.
[53:27.360 --> 53:29.580]  Asking him the most ridiculous questions.
[53:29.800 --> 53:34.580]  And I just, like I remember like standing up there, like double fisting and like swaying in front of the microphone.
[53:34.940 --> 53:44.240]  And I'm asking someone who could be my dad or my grandfather to like vividly describe what sexual relations are like between spies of different countries.
[53:44.640 --> 53:50.620]  And whether he made it up or not, the answers were incredibly entertaining.
[53:50.940 --> 53:58.140]  And he field every question that someone brought up until basically a sun came up and like, and like AB was like, we gotta go.
[53:58.220 --> 53:59.780]  We're not, we can't survive anymore.
[53:59.940 --> 54:01.040]  It's like even we need sleep.
[54:01.240 --> 54:01.320]  Yeah.
[54:03.000 --> 54:08.400]  Let me share one of the secrets of HOPE that was, that was never revealed until now.
[54:10.100 --> 54:23.460]  I actually liked going and watching the Steele talks, but at the time I was working security, and we tried really hard to organically convince him to stop talking.
[54:23.800 --> 54:29.780]  And that method involved making sure that his water glass and water pitcher were never empty.
[54:30.880 --> 54:32.900]  And it still didn't work.
[54:33.480 --> 54:41.240]  I still remember the one year when we let him go on and on and on.
[54:41.980 --> 54:43.920]  Then the sun comes up.
[54:44.880 --> 54:46.300]  And he's still talking.
[54:46.700 --> 54:52.000]  At least though, dead serious about steel, at least he was like self-aware that he'd go on.
[54:52.120 --> 54:54.040]  And that's why we scheduled him for that.
[54:54.880 --> 54:58.660]  Steve Rambram, on the other hand, as I like to nickname him as Steve Ramble Bram.
[54:59.820 --> 55:01.940]  You know, I get crops where it was due.
[55:02.300 --> 55:08.020]  He had the classic sort of hacker talk where you're eh, and then all the four later agencies ran over and arrested him.
[55:08.160 --> 55:11.580]  So I get like, okay, giving him like three hours.
[55:11.580 --> 55:28.980]  But every year, he kept taking up more and more time on Saturday to the point where all I could think about was what amazing ass talks that I would have loved to see got booted off the schedule just so that he can ramble about the same topics he's been doing for the past five cons.
[55:28.980 --> 55:31.500]  because that was always interesting.
[55:31.640 --> 55:33.980]  When we talk about the expansion of the universe, we usually...
[55:36.840 --> 55:37.820]  He's impluding!
[55:41.740 --> 55:43.720]  Nice to know that it knocks the same quality.
[55:45.400 --> 55:46.500]  You're breaking up.
[55:49.320 --> 55:50.440]  Never mind, continue.
[55:51.200 --> 55:52.480]  So, what...
[55:52.480 --> 55:53.980]  Why is that clear?
[55:55.000 --> 55:55.520]  What...
[55:56.160 --> 56:00.680]  What was the name of this like crazy private investigator guy?
[56:01.220 --> 56:01.620]  Like...
[56:01.620 --> 56:02.560]  Was it Rambam?
[56:03.000 --> 56:03.600]  Yes, that was...
[56:03.600 --> 56:04.320]  That was Rambam.
[56:04.500 --> 56:05.740]  Have you been mentioned?
[56:06.020 --> 56:06.340]  That guy!
[56:08.160 --> 56:08.680]  F*ck!
[56:11.460 --> 56:15.600]  I think that's going to be the sequel panel for this at the next HOPE is that guy...
[56:15.600 --> 56:16.580]  Insert that guy.
[56:16.780 --> 56:16.880]  F*ck!
[56:16.880 --> 56:17.760]  Is the guy around?
[56:17.980 --> 56:19.620]  Like, is he still doing shit?
[56:19.700 --> 56:20.540]  Half of it would be about me.
[56:20.600 --> 56:21.440]  I don't know, I don't care.
[56:21.720 --> 56:22.820]  Okay, yeah, yeah.
[56:23.880 --> 56:24.540]  Oh my.
[56:25.640 --> 56:26.520]  Speaking of...
[56:26.520 --> 56:29.160]  Let's actually talk about like keynotes and talks that we actually liked.
[56:30.520 --> 56:31.400]  I even...
[56:31.400 --> 56:34.800]  Like, one of my favorite things about HOPE that I'm glad that the...
[56:34.800 --> 56:36.900]  Also, just going back to the hotel.
[56:38.500 --> 56:55.860]  A weird analogy I've realized that we've reached this point now and I hope I can make this analogy, is that Hotel Penn, even though it's getting demolished so that's a different reason, I feel like has become to HOPE as the Alexis Park was to DEFCON now.
[56:56.140 --> 57:02.280]  Where that was the, we were younger and crazier and we can't believe they let us get away with all the stuff we did.
[57:02.460 --> 57:09.500]  And so, we like that it's kind of safer and secure now, but we also just miss being crazy because we have like actual responsibilities now.
[57:10.240 --> 57:11.420]  Growing up sucks.
[57:11.420 --> 57:12.080]  Yes.
[57:12.760 --> 57:14.580]  So, just also a shout out to like the...
[57:14.580 --> 57:16.640]  That's the staff who would just like...
[57:16.640 --> 57:17.300]  It was...
[57:17.300 --> 57:20.880]  Sometimes I almost felt like it was like odd abuse where we would just be like...
[57:20.880 --> 57:22.880]  So, yeah, we have a keynote speaker.
[57:22.960 --> 57:24.080]  He likes painting with his feces.
[57:24.200 --> 57:25.600]  And they'd be like, yes, yes, just...
[57:25.600 --> 57:26.760]  Here's the number for clean up.
[57:26.880 --> 57:28.300]  Yes, you know, like...
[57:28.300 --> 57:30.040]  I'm just shocked of what we would get.
[57:30.040 --> 57:38.860]  It's funny for this clean up because there was one year where someone had volunteered to be the janitor for the three different bathrooms that we had available, dressed as a clown.
[57:41.140 --> 57:52.160]  And I never found out who I could thank for taking on the dirtiest, dingiest, least enjoyable job in all of HOPE and Radio Statler.
[57:52.280 --> 57:52.340]  Yeah.
[57:52.580 --> 58:05.700]  Also, if I remember correctly, Neil, I don't know if you started this or were one of the people who helped, but the later parts of the con, I'm so glad this got made, was called the Underground Shower Network, which was if you did not have a hotel and you needed to shower,
[58:05.880 --> 58:07.780]  there would be people who would offer your rooms where they'd...
[58:07.780 --> 58:09.380]  Obviously, they wouldn't watch you shower.
[58:09.520 --> 58:10.820]  That costs extra, as Liz says.
[58:11.760 --> 58:14.780]  But you could go and take a shower in such room and clean up.
[58:14.980 --> 58:15.800]  I'm so glad because...
[58:15.800 --> 58:16.780]  I can tell you how that started.
[58:17.000 --> 58:18.800]  That actually started because of the hammocks.
[58:19.160 --> 58:19.380]  Yeah.
[58:19.380 --> 58:28.280]  The fact that the hammocks were located in a central area with very poor circulation meant that body odor would continue to increase.
[58:29.240 --> 58:30.100]  You mean reproduce.
[58:30.820 --> 58:39.420]  Nine Owl and I had a great idea one year of just hosing people down while wearing hazmat suits because it was much easier than convincing them to take a shower.
[58:39.560 --> 58:42.620]  So the Underground Shower Network came from that thump.
[58:42.740 --> 58:45.760]  What Spook staff was Gonzo and I used to...
[58:45.760 --> 59:08.220]  another friend of mine, used to pitch every cope that we would do a thing where we would find another third party and all three of us would dress in hazmat suits and we would make a tile drain area of a portion of the mezzanine and basically if someone has too much funk they could like silently report to us like we're the stink secret police and run over like grab them with one of those like
[59:08.220 --> 59:19.540]  extendo collar things drag them over to that and I think it was like high powered hose for soap, high powered hose through water and then a giant leaf blower and then like clear them and set them off.
[59:19.740 --> 59:33.520]  So when they said Underground Shower Network I was like thank you because that was our version of making the dirty joke so bad I'm glad that the least horrifying one that we originally wanted to do would go off so I'm glad that happens to the other thing.
[59:34.140 --> 59:34.480]  Yes?
[59:34.700 --> 59:36.700]  So I've got messages from...
[59:36.700 --> 59:37.580]  I cover up Twitter with right card.
[59:38.380 --> 59:47.880]  I have messages from a HOPE alum friend and they have asked me to remind you of the coin op dong flowers.
[59:48.320 --> 59:49.200]  I miss those.
[59:49.700 --> 59:50.100]  Why?
[59:50.100 --> 59:51.740]  I miss when we had those art displays.
[59:52.000 --> 59:52.980]  We had them at...
[59:52.980 --> 59:54.360]  that was at The Last HOPE itself.
[59:54.580 --> 59:55.000]  I know we keep going.
[59:55.080 --> 59:56.840]  There's other HOPEs we're going to talk about in a second.
[59:57.140 --> 59:58.580]  But yeah, that's one of the things I remember.
[59:58.700 --> 59:59.260]  I have a picture.
[59:59.480 --> 01:00:01.000]  Actually what I can do is...
[01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:03.780]  Wait, was it 2018 or 2000 whatever?
[01:00:04.140 --> 01:00:05.200]  This was 2008.
[01:00:05.480 --> 01:00:05.800]  Okay.
[01:00:06.540 --> 01:00:07.760]  Because I vividly remember...
[01:00:07.760 --> 01:00:10.020]  I mean how can you not remember dong flowers everywhere?
[01:00:12.040 --> 01:00:13.580]  I have the picture of it.
[01:00:14.160 --> 01:00:16.060]  I started drinking early during this talk.
[01:00:16.900 --> 01:00:17.660]  There you go.
[01:00:18.320 --> 01:00:19.060]  Yes, I know.
[01:00:19.180 --> 01:00:20.800]  Four words that don't seem to go together.
[01:00:21.160 --> 01:00:21.680]  Okay then.
[01:00:21.880 --> 01:00:22.040]  Okay.
[01:00:22.380 --> 01:00:22.560]  Yeah.
[01:00:25.840 --> 01:00:30.480]  I don't know how we can convince St. John's or whatever if we could do this, but I would love to have them back.
[01:00:31.140 --> 01:00:31.560]  So...
[01:00:32.020 --> 01:00:34.500]  I mean we're encouraging reproduction, so...
[01:00:34.500 --> 01:00:34.540]  Yes?
[01:00:35.720 --> 01:00:36.140]  The...
[01:00:36.140 --> 01:00:36.300]  The...
[01:00:38.080 --> 01:00:41.040]  The solar powered dildo art sculptures.
[01:00:41.600 --> 01:00:43.420]  Full thanks to Derevan for... curating the hOPE art space in its first incarnation that year.
[01:00:50.040 --> 01:00:53.680]  Derevan pulled that together and a bunch of other things for HOPE.
[01:00:53.820 --> 01:00:56.740]  There's also this project that I was dragged on to.
[01:00:56.880 --> 01:00:57.620]  Oh my God.
[01:00:58.180 --> 01:00:59.080]  The AMD project.
[01:00:59.120 --> 01:01:00.700]  I remember playing that sports code.
[01:01:01.120 --> 01:01:03.780]  So, quick background about like the difference...
[01:01:03.780 --> 01:01:05.180]  You're naming all these projects I created.
[01:01:06.380 --> 01:01:07.480]  This is the lexicon.
[01:01:07.480 --> 01:01:08.200]  You created.
[01:01:09.020 --> 01:01:09.900]  You created.
[01:01:10.260 --> 01:01:10.400]  You created.
[01:01:10.400 --> 01:01:11.220]  We'll talk later.
[01:01:12.000 --> 01:01:12.900]  See, Statues of Limitations.
[01:01:13.060 --> 01:01:13.440]  Now we know.
[01:01:13.600 --> 01:01:13.920]  Get here.
[01:01:14.000 --> 01:01:14.140]  No.
[01:01:14.780 --> 01:01:16.400]  What I wish I could load is...
[01:01:16.400 --> 01:01:18.500]  And you can still find this because it's archived.
[01:01:18.760 --> 01:01:19.200]  I...
[01:01:19.200 --> 01:01:20.760]  It's not by 2600.
[01:01:20.980 --> 01:01:28.700]  There's a separate YouTube channel that HOPE staff have forgotten about that has some of the earlier promo videos and there's still the open AMD.
[01:01:28.700 --> 01:01:29.260]  They moved...
[01:01:29.260 --> 01:01:30.680]  They made like a trailer for it.
[01:01:31.540 --> 01:01:35.340]  To the point where my good friend who I really wish could be here.
[01:01:35.520 --> 01:01:37.080]  They couldn't make it due to multiple reasons.
[01:01:37.200 --> 01:01:37.460]  Rob T. Firefly was in that saying the amazing line.
[01:01:39.500 --> 01:01:40.300]  What is HOPE AMD?
[01:01:40.520 --> 01:01:45.640]  And I literally screenshotted that, printed it out, brought it to HOPE and I forced him to like autographed it.
[01:01:45.780 --> 01:01:48.720]  So like just in case you become famous, I have the first...
[01:01:48.720 --> 01:01:50.640]  But yeah, this was an interesting project.
[01:01:50.940 --> 01:01:59.460]  It was originally for Mez and 18th Floor and basically the electronic badges that year had RFID system with a billion different routers.
[01:01:59.720 --> 01:02:03.320]  I mean, now we can just use Google Voice and Google Map to track where everyone is.
[01:02:03.900 --> 01:02:04.360]  Literally.
[01:02:04.840 --> 01:02:05.260]  But...
[01:02:05.260 --> 01:02:11.040]  And you would be able to see as this map where everyone went on the last day of the...
[01:02:11.040 --> 01:02:14.380]  Last three hours of the last day of the con when everything actually worked.
[01:02:18.860 --> 01:02:20.210]  Then we get DMZ'd.
[01:02:20.300 --> 01:02:20.800]  Hello!
[01:02:21.960 --> 01:02:23.560]  I also love the H2K hat.
[01:02:25.320 --> 01:02:30.760]  We also had some very interesting up and down, up and down, but like badges each year.
[01:02:31.340 --> 01:02:44.360]  Sometimes they were just slate badges, like our current one, which I do have to ask, like I do like this design, but what was it where this badge every time you try to pee out a urinal it blocks your dick?
[01:02:48.980 --> 01:02:52.880]  It's like, you know, the new laptops where they have the little like shutter cover for privacy?
[01:02:53.160 --> 01:02:53.900]  It's like that's...
[01:02:53.900 --> 01:02:59.980]  I have to like move that out of the way, go out of incognito to public mode and then go back...
[01:02:59.980 --> 01:03:01.710]  Just a quick question of the audience.
[01:03:01.900 --> 01:03:04.360]  How many of you have brought your old HOPE badges?
[01:03:05.100 --> 01:03:05.540]  Anyone?
[01:03:06.040 --> 01:03:07.580]  We should have advertised that shit.
[01:03:08.800 --> 01:03:09.800]  Probably the most...
[01:03:09.800 --> 01:03:11.980]  One of the most famous ones was, if I remember correctly, it was...
[01:03:11.980 --> 01:03:13.180]  I think it was H2.
[01:03:13.290 --> 01:03:17.080]  It was either H2K or H2K2 where it was both a SIM card and a mag stripe.
[01:03:17.380 --> 01:03:17.580]  Yes.
[01:03:18.400 --> 01:03:19.770]  That was H2K.
[01:03:19.940 --> 01:03:20.500]  H2K, yep.
[01:03:20.580 --> 01:03:23.850]  Where it was a stripe.
[01:03:24.670 --> 01:03:25.790]  And they were...
[01:03:25.790 --> 01:03:26.890]  Can we turn the mic on?
[01:03:27.630 --> 01:03:28.010]  Or...
[01:03:28.010 --> 01:03:29.070]  Oh, I didn't know if that was...
[01:03:29.070 --> 01:03:30.450]  I thought that was another...
[01:03:30.910 --> 01:03:31.370]  It's okay.
[01:03:33.190 --> 01:03:34.290]  Doo doo doo.
[01:03:34.850 --> 01:03:35.230]  Yeah.
[01:03:39.730 --> 01:03:40.130]  Yep.
[01:03:43.240 --> 01:03:44.720]  So the badges...
[01:03:44.720 --> 01:03:45.940]  Let's see if I can get them right.
[01:03:48.060 --> 01:03:52.920]  H2K and H2K2 both had a mag stripe card with a barcode...
[01:03:52.920 --> 01:03:53.940]  With a chip on.
[01:03:54.100 --> 01:03:54.920]  With a smart card chip.
[01:03:55.020 --> 01:03:57.200]  The first HOPE badges, I think, were just plain stickers.
[01:03:57.840 --> 01:03:58.420]  Yeah, that sounds right.
[01:03:58.480 --> 01:03:58.600]  Yeah.
[01:03:59.020 --> 01:04:06.140]  At H2K, those were all actually printed off of a similar machine to what would be used to have printed old driver's licenses.
[01:04:07.820 --> 01:04:09.980]  H2K2 were all professionally printed.
[01:04:10.400 --> 01:04:11.480]  And for those who don't...
[01:04:11.480 --> 01:04:18.300]  Who weren't there or don't recall it, there was a color scheme that was based on the then-new Homeland Security color coding list.
[01:04:18.740 --> 01:04:18.760]  Mm-hmm.
[01:04:19.060 --> 01:04:22.740]  Regular attendees were low risk at blue.
[01:04:23.000 --> 01:04:25.680]  Then it went to press at orange.
[01:04:26.860 --> 01:04:28.000]  I forget the...
[01:04:28.000 --> 01:04:30.700]  I think it was like volunteers at yellow.
[01:04:31.160 --> 01:04:32.320]  Security had orange.
[01:04:32.320 --> 01:04:35.120]  And then the core team would have red or highest threat.
[01:04:37.200 --> 01:04:40.000]  HOPE number five was the buttons.
[01:04:40.480 --> 01:04:40.760]  Mm-hmm.
[01:04:41.520 --> 01:04:44.760]  HOPE six was the weird armband thing.
[01:04:44.840 --> 01:04:45.500]  Which had a big...
[01:04:45.500 --> 01:04:50.020]  By the way, the buttons had that big thing where everyone had different numbers on there.
[01:04:50.140 --> 01:04:52.260]  And the big question was, who is number one?
[01:04:56.240 --> 01:04:56.640]  Yeah.
[01:04:56.680 --> 01:04:57.460]  I got those backwards.
[01:04:57.720 --> 01:05:02.020]  Five was the printed armband and six was the buttons.
[01:05:03.100 --> 01:05:04.420]  Yeah, are you being strangled?
[01:05:04.480 --> 01:05:05.040]  What's going on?
[01:05:05.600 --> 01:05:06.000]  Yeah.
[01:05:06.860 --> 01:05:09.260]  I'm trying to remember the rest of them right now, but it's...
[01:05:10.140 --> 01:05:13.540]  I was looking for the old badges, but after six, I think I remember them.
[01:05:13.540 --> 01:05:14.220]  Yeah.
[01:05:14.400 --> 01:05:14.860]  I just...
[01:05:14.860 --> 01:05:16.760]  I was looking for my old badges because I...
[01:05:16.760 --> 01:05:22.780]  Out of habit, you know, whenever you show up to these conferences, you bring the old badges and people would ask, oh shit, were you there for this one?
[01:05:22.840 --> 01:05:23.860]  Were you there for that one?
[01:05:24.260 --> 01:05:25.060]  Do you remember the time?
[01:05:25.300 --> 01:05:28.780]  And you would remember things about the hotel through those badges.
[01:05:28.980 --> 01:05:30.220]  They were mementos of the time.
[01:05:30.860 --> 01:05:33.180]  One of them, I want to thank...
[01:05:33.180 --> 01:05:41.960]  I don't know who the hell it was from the EFF who thought it was a great idea to go up to the roof like it was DEFCON because that's how I got a complete set of that year's badges when their badges were taken.
[01:05:42.640 --> 01:05:42.920]  Mm-hmm.
[01:05:44.680 --> 01:05:45.080]  Yeah.
[01:05:46.000 --> 01:05:47.820]  HOPE 9, by the way, was pretty distinctive.
[01:05:47.820 --> 01:05:52.540]  It was a remastered version of the Hackerspace Passport.
[01:05:52.860 --> 01:05:53.160]  Mm-hmm.
[01:05:53.220 --> 01:05:57.460]  HOPE 10 were patches, the kind that you would put on a backpack.
[01:05:57.460 --> 01:06:04.720]  By the way, the Passport one is my favorite badge just because every area and certain people had like stamps like you would go through different.
[01:06:04.820 --> 01:06:06.100]  So it was just a fun Pokemon.
[01:06:06.460 --> 01:06:07.620]  You tried to complete your...
[01:06:07.620 --> 01:06:12.900]  I thought that was a great way to get everyone involved at different levels at the con who would normally not get involved in certain things.
[01:06:13.020 --> 01:06:18.600]  Two Easter eggs in that Passport where you were from was listed as 1-2-7-0-0-1.
[01:06:18.780 --> 01:06:19.000]  Mm-hmm.
[01:06:19.620 --> 01:06:24.640]  And the expiry date was on the day that the 32-bit epoch would end.
[01:06:27.060 --> 01:06:27.460]  Um...
[01:06:27.460 --> 01:06:27.700]  Um...
[01:06:27.700 --> 01:06:28.320]  Then it...
[01:06:28.320 --> 01:06:29.120]  I'm trying to remember.
[01:06:29.340 --> 01:06:29.700]  Um...
[01:06:29.700 --> 01:06:34.800]  Then 11, we had badges like this that looks sort of like what you'd see behind the scenes.
[01:06:34.820 --> 01:06:36.760]  Are you writing this documentation down on the wiki?
[01:06:37.080 --> 01:06:37.100]  Yeah.
[01:06:37.440 --> 01:06:42.120]  From what I understood with the badges for the 11th one was...
[01:06:42.120 --> 01:06:43.580]  Because I was a bit behind the scenes.
[01:06:43.720 --> 01:06:45.380]  We were talking about so much amazing stuff.
[01:06:45.980 --> 01:06:47.680]  And then I didn't hear from them for a while.
[01:06:47.680 --> 01:06:49.000]  And then I saw that badge.
[01:06:49.240 --> 01:06:51.960]  And basically the answer I was told was we ran out of time and gave up.
[01:06:52.140 --> 01:06:53.780]  So we just made these...
[01:06:55.140 --> 01:06:55.540]  Anyway.
[01:06:55.700 --> 01:06:56.060]  It happens.
[01:06:56.740 --> 01:07:00.620]  I just want to share a couple stories real quick that have come in through the Matrix chat.
[01:07:00.780 --> 01:07:01.040]  Sure.
[01:07:01.340 --> 01:07:02.860]  And I want to thank everyone that is here...
[01:07:02.860 --> 01:07:06.000]  That is with us virtually as well for taking part in this.
[01:07:06.160 --> 01:07:07.740]  Obviously, this is a weird year.
[01:07:08.380 --> 01:07:10.020]  And we appreciate...
[01:07:10.020 --> 01:07:11.780]  And we thank you for taking part in this.
[01:07:12.220 --> 01:07:12.340]  Mm-hmm.
[01:07:12.720 --> 01:07:13.660]  One of the stories here.
[01:07:13.760 --> 01:07:15.160]  My first HOPE...
[01:07:15.160 --> 01:07:15.400]  I...
[01:07:15.400 --> 01:07:16.680]  This is by CDJ90.
[01:07:17.660 --> 01:07:18.780]  My first HOPE...
[01:07:18.780 --> 01:07:20.600]  I stayed in an Airbnb an hour away.
[01:07:20.840 --> 01:07:21.560]  First mistake.
[01:07:22.840 --> 01:07:24.640]  Enjoyed the conference all day.
[01:07:24.800 --> 01:07:28.600]  I got back to the Airbnb and realized I had lost the keys to the apartment.
[01:07:29.560 --> 01:07:32.860]  I took the train all the way back, arriving at HOPE at midnight.
[01:07:33.200 --> 01:07:34.840]  And of course, it was still hopping.
[01:07:35.200 --> 01:07:35.360]  Yep.
[01:07:35.740 --> 01:07:36.880]  I got to Lost and Found.
[01:07:37.240 --> 01:07:39.840]  And I found the Airbnb keys were waiting for me.
[01:07:40.680 --> 01:07:42.520]  Thank you to whoever found them.
[01:07:42.900 --> 01:07:43.200]  Aww.
[01:07:43.560 --> 01:07:43.840]  Yeah.
[01:07:44.320 --> 01:07:59.520]  One of the traditions, by the way, at the closing ceremonies is the security coming by with the haunted cardboard box of things people have lost, which include multiple IDs, credit cards, glasses, children, just all sorts of stuff.
[01:08:01.080 --> 01:08:08.200]  There's one particular memory that I'm not going to share, but I'll share another one instead.
[01:08:08.200 --> 01:08:09.320]  I remember that.
[01:08:09.460 --> 01:08:12.180]  And you and I both know that you're not going to talk about it.
[01:08:12.480 --> 01:08:13.860]  We're not going to talk about it.
[01:08:13.920 --> 01:08:15.760]  We're not going to talk about that incident at all.
[01:08:15.940 --> 01:08:20.100]  We're going to talk about a completely different one where security had gone up for the closing ceremonies.
[01:08:20.940 --> 01:08:23.380]  And I was the last person in that security desk.
[01:08:23.880 --> 01:08:29.220]  And we had to call security back because of someone who had been ejected.
[01:08:29.600 --> 01:08:36.580]  You have never seen security come down 18 flights to the mezzanine as pissed off ever.
[01:08:36.840 --> 01:08:39.780]  And I think that was also the year that one of them wanted to retire.
[01:08:39.780 --> 01:08:43.280]  And he was about to retire when he was called back into service.
[01:08:43.540 --> 01:08:43.880]  Yep.
[01:08:45.760 --> 01:08:46.680]  Other stories?
[01:08:47.220 --> 01:08:48.760]  I'm still thinking, look through the chat.
[01:08:48.760 --> 01:08:49.280]  No, that's fine.
[01:08:49.500 --> 01:08:53.580]  Also, I will make a note about security because security really gets the...
[01:08:53.580 --> 01:09:03.840]  Because again, security at a hacker convention and then security at HOPE with all of the different ideas and chemicals going around.
[01:09:07.160 --> 01:09:08.020]  Trying to think.
[01:09:08.020 --> 01:09:09.600]  Oh, so there's a...
[01:09:09.600 --> 01:09:10.260]  Do you have one?
[01:09:10.340 --> 01:09:11.400]  Or can I tell a quick one here?
[01:09:11.620 --> 01:09:12.240]  Tell yours.
[01:09:12.400 --> 01:09:12.980]  I've got one cut up.
[01:09:13.020 --> 01:09:13.240]  Awesome.
[01:09:13.800 --> 01:09:17.880]  So this one, because I don't care about, I guess, how much I dox about myself.
[01:09:18.620 --> 01:09:21.640]  I have a funny story of how I actually got promoted at Radio Statler.
[01:09:22.840 --> 01:09:24.040]  It actually has a real story.
[01:09:24.900 --> 01:09:28.980]  So Radio Statler, for those of you who know, we used to have a pop-up radio station.
[01:09:29.000 --> 01:09:31.520]  We would form it as the mezzanine would develop.
[01:09:32.240 --> 01:09:34.300]  And with Stapha and a bunch of other friends.
[01:09:35.500 --> 01:09:36.680]  And we would...
[01:09:36.680 --> 01:09:40.600]  Basically, if you couldn't be at the con, we were like your ear in the con.
[01:09:40.820 --> 01:09:42.100]  And also, we would just...
[01:09:42.100 --> 01:09:47.540]  Since we were on the ground floor, we would get a lot of like breaking news and odd things that you wouldn't hear from the rest of the convention.
[01:09:48.860 --> 01:09:50.080]  There's also a...
[01:09:50.080 --> 01:09:54.200]  Well, actually, I'll jump into this story and then we'll tell this one because the other one...
[01:09:54.200 --> 01:09:55.100]  I think this one's more funny.
[01:09:55.700 --> 01:09:58.320]  So before I got the promotion, I think it was the same year.
[01:09:58.860 --> 01:10:02.280]  One of the traditions we would do on Friday, in particular, was...
[01:10:02.280 --> 01:10:06.780]  And I would be asleep during this, was play various card games and odd games in the radio.
[01:10:07.320 --> 01:10:09.080]  This was the beginning of the drinking.
[01:10:09.820 --> 01:10:16.480]  And one year, a person who should not be named after a musical instrument...
[01:10:17.300 --> 01:10:17.900]  Thank you.
[01:10:17.940 --> 01:10:19.820]  I don't know if we should say his name, but...
[01:10:19.820 --> 01:10:21.640]  Because everyone else has said his name, but I'm just gonna...
[01:10:21.640 --> 01:10:23.680]  But he's a good friend of mine and I love him.
[01:10:23.780 --> 01:10:24.700]  He's at the con this year.
[01:10:24.860 --> 01:10:29.420]  But he was basically so much on the Pingo Bye Bye Juice that...
[01:10:29.420 --> 01:10:31.440]  As they were just playing the game, we have the audio of this.
[01:10:31.640 --> 01:10:36.480]  He just sunk back in his chair and fell out of his chair through the wall.
[01:10:36.620 --> 01:10:39.940]  And there was a hole shaped like his body through the wall.
[01:10:39.940 --> 01:10:40.420]  Oh my god.
[01:10:40.420 --> 01:10:42.700]  Which is made out of foam to like reflect sound.
[01:10:43.280 --> 01:10:43.980]  That wasn't even...
[01:10:44.480 --> 01:10:45.240]  Yep, like literally.
[01:10:45.720 --> 01:10:47.940]  That wasn't even the worst part for me though.
[01:10:48.120 --> 01:10:49.840]  So we taped that one up horribly.
[01:10:50.920 --> 01:10:58.800]  The second day, one of the people in charge of the radio also got way too drunk.
[01:10:59.220 --> 01:11:04.060]  And fell through the exact opposite side that the previous guy did making a new hole in the wall.
[01:11:05.600 --> 01:11:06.920]  Because that was that...
[01:11:06.920 --> 01:11:09.360]  It ruined all the graffiti on those walls.
[01:11:09.540 --> 01:11:14.020]  Put in mind, we already installed, and this is true, a glory hole in the booth.
[01:11:14.220 --> 01:11:15.020]  Oh my god.
[01:11:15.040 --> 01:11:16.940]  We don't need any more holes in the wall.
[01:11:17.040 --> 01:11:17.660]  That was the thing.
[01:11:17.660 --> 01:11:20.640]  There was that and people drawing dicks all over the wall.
[01:11:20.920 --> 01:11:25.360]  Which as I brought up in our panel, the majority of the attendees...
[01:11:25.360 --> 01:11:29.500]  We have a lot of amazing femme identifying and they and them hackers.
[01:11:29.900 --> 01:11:31.820]  But a lot of them are still cis dudes.
[01:11:32.000 --> 01:11:33.820]  And I'm like, do you look down at your junk?
[01:11:33.920 --> 01:11:34.780]  Do you know what it looks like?
[01:11:34.880 --> 01:11:37.080]  Because there was just eldritch...
[01:11:37.080 --> 01:11:39.580]  Like there were things that looked like you fought them in Elden Ring.
[01:11:39.700 --> 01:11:40.820]  Where you're like, that's a penis?
[01:11:40.820 --> 01:11:42.920]  Do you know what it looks like?
[01:11:43.940 --> 01:11:45.960]  It makes you start to think.
[01:11:46.800 --> 01:11:47.820]  Or maybe not.
[01:11:48.260 --> 01:11:48.920]  But yeah, I was wondering.
[01:11:49.240 --> 01:11:50.580]  What's the Matrix story?
[01:11:50.700 --> 01:11:51.640]  Hopefully more wholesome than that.
[01:11:51.720 --> 01:11:53.280]  And then I'll tell how I got promoted at the radio.
[01:11:53.720 --> 01:11:54.340]  I forgot which...
[01:11:54.340 --> 01:11:56.180]  This is from Technophobe.
[01:11:56.340 --> 01:11:57.460]  Great name, by the way.
[01:11:57.980 --> 01:11:59.260]  I forgot which HOPE it was.
[01:11:59.380 --> 01:12:02.180]  If I remember, this was H2K2.
[01:12:02.980 --> 01:12:09.480]  After the closing event, folks were invited to tear down by picking up as much Cat6 as they could from the main room as they could carry.
[01:12:09.660 --> 01:12:10.760]  Oh, that's how you get your muscles.
[01:12:11.680 --> 01:12:15.040]  Several folks didn't seem to know the difference between Ethernet and telephone cable.
[01:12:15.160 --> 01:12:18.920]  So a lot of phone cables were pulled off of the walls of the hotel.
[01:12:22.620 --> 01:12:23.000]  Here.
[01:12:24.140 --> 01:12:26.500]  Well, how else are you going to get them to upgrade their infrastructure?
[01:12:29.500 --> 01:12:30.260]  We're Verizon.
[01:12:30.860 --> 01:12:34.900]  We're here to do an upgrade sometime between 2 p.m.
[01:12:35.420 --> 01:12:36.780]  tomorrow and...
[01:12:36.780 --> 01:12:37.740]  Speaking of the...
[01:12:37.740 --> 01:12:45.660]  Speaking of the radio, when it comes to pulling cables and stuff.
[01:12:45.820 --> 01:12:46.860]  And I just forgot where that topic is.
[01:12:46.960 --> 01:12:47.640]  There's just so many...
[01:12:47.640 --> 01:12:48.560]  I have so many stories.
[01:12:48.680 --> 01:12:51.500]  This is probably why I can't remember it, because I should just tell the promotion story thing.
[01:12:51.660 --> 01:12:58.180]  Well, while you try to remember, I'll just point out that one of the best parts about HOPE and the hotel itself, was set up and break down.
[01:12:58.460 --> 01:12:58.740]  Yes.
[01:12:58.740 --> 01:13:01.240]  A lot of people come in early, pitch in.
[01:13:01.400 --> 01:13:03.340]  I remember crimping cables for the knock.
[01:13:03.340 --> 01:13:05.800]  I remember doing it for Radio Statler, running cables.
[01:13:05.980 --> 01:13:21.860]  I remember the one time we had to somehow prevent the smell of frying bacon to get on the foam heads of the microphones, because we were going to return them to the place that we not exactly bought them from.
[01:13:23.060 --> 01:13:24.880]  And it's run by orthodox jews.
[01:13:27.240 --> 01:13:34.060]  And that was the same year that we had the cheese show, and the booth that was so small that if anybody felt cold...
[01:13:34.640 --> 01:13:35.480]  And the welding hour.
[01:13:35.740 --> 01:13:36.860]  The welding hour.
[01:13:37.100 --> 01:13:41.340]  But that booth was so tiny and cold and illuminated by one red light.
[01:13:41.520 --> 01:13:41.820]  Yes.
[01:13:42.560 --> 01:13:54.600]  Then we forgot you're supposed to put the red light on the outside of the booth, and the excuse to go into the mezzanine and see what was going on.
[01:13:54.700 --> 01:14:02.960]  We also had a real door that year at the radio booth, which I think they got rid of because I remember dramatically one time, I wasn't invited to a...
[01:14:02.960 --> 01:14:05.100]  They forgot to invite me to the video game talk.
[01:14:05.240 --> 01:14:06.140]  That was the legit thing.
[01:14:06.220 --> 01:14:08.660]  And I actually kicked the door down as like a...
[01:14:08.660 --> 01:14:13.940]  So all you see in the background is just the door being kicked out and be like, did someone not invite me to the f*cking video game panel?
[01:14:14.060 --> 01:14:15.980]  And I think that's like, we're not having a door anymore.
[01:14:16.940 --> 01:14:17.720]  Yes, Lex?
[01:14:19.040 --> 01:14:25.120]  So people keep mentioning different projects and things, and it's making me think about them.
[01:14:26.080 --> 01:14:28.440]  My first HOPE was H2K2.
[01:14:30.140 --> 01:14:32.020]  And it was amazing.
[01:14:32.280 --> 01:14:33.700]  It was like...
[01:14:33.700 --> 01:14:35.460]  I was in college at the time.
[01:14:35.480 --> 01:14:37.880]  It was like doing a year of college in one weekend.
[01:14:38.920 --> 01:14:40.720]  Like you learned that much...
[01:14:40.720 --> 01:14:42.720]  Both in learning and in substances, yes.
[01:14:47.340 --> 01:14:51.800]  And so I really enjoyed that, and I came back for the next one.
[01:14:52.140 --> 01:14:57.800]  And then I moved to New York, and I helped out a lot on the next one.
[01:14:58.500 --> 01:15:11.360]  And then when it came around time for what would be the fourth HOPE that I would attend, I had a lot of ideas because I'm a person who sees systems that aren't working and says, hey, let's fix that.
[01:15:11.360 --> 01:15:21.320]  And so we didn't have an information desk, and people kept asking security for information.
[01:15:21.320 --> 01:15:26.560]  And security either didn't have the information or didn't want to answer questions.
[01:15:28.120 --> 01:15:45.060]  And then I noticed that you'd go to talks, and there are all these people that are listening because they're interested in a subject, and there's one person talking, and maybe two or three people get to ask questions at the end.
[01:15:45.240 --> 01:15:48.840]  But you don't get to connect with the other people in the room.
[01:15:50.800 --> 01:15:59.840]  And then there was this disconnect between the mezzanine level and the 18th floor.
[01:15:59.840 --> 01:16:00.800]  All the talks, yeah.
[01:16:01.220 --> 01:16:05.080]  And so I had all this stuff in my head.
[01:16:05.200 --> 01:16:17.220]  And also, the big open space with the high ceiling on the mezzanine level kept being used as like a concert space, and the acoustics in there were just awful.
[01:16:19.760 --> 01:16:40.220]  And so I got involved in helping to plan what was The Last HOPE, and got on the course staff, and was involved in...so at one point there wasn't really a map of the mezzanine, and so I drew one, and I inserted some things that included an information desk,
[01:16:40.280 --> 01:16:52.820]  which I labeled the disinformation desk, and it included Radio Statler, which was supposed to be that connection to the 18th floor, that became a completely different thing.
[01:16:53.100 --> 01:16:53.360]  Yep.
[01:16:53.800 --> 01:17:15.540]  Because at the same time, I had the idea for the attendee metadata system, the AMD project, and originally it was going to be like an hour where we'd have like tables, and there'd be different colors of string, and they'd be associated with different subject matter at the conference,
[01:17:15.560 --> 01:17:23.700]  and you'd go and you'd pull the strings, and you'd like tie them to your badge, and you'd walk around, and people would then know, oh, that person's interested in lockpicking, and I can talk to them about lockpicking.
[01:17:23.700 --> 01:17:26.620]  And then everyone was like, how can we make this ridiculously more complicated than it actually is?
[01:17:26.620 --> 01:17:28.580]  Yeah, so I posted this onto...
[01:17:28.580 --> 01:17:29.340]  The BS version.
[01:17:29.340 --> 01:17:31.520]  Yeah, we had a forum for a while.
[01:17:32.180 --> 01:17:33.240]  Thank you, Aesthetics.
[01:17:33.360 --> 01:17:40.740]  And then Pyro, when I proposed the AMD thing, said, well, what about RFID?
[01:17:41.180 --> 01:17:44.120]  And I had to look up RFID.
[01:17:44.240 --> 01:17:44.980]  I didn't know what that was.
[01:17:46.600 --> 01:17:50.680]  And so that seemed like an interesting way of solving the problem.
[01:17:52.000 --> 01:17:53.580]  I'm not an engineer.
[01:17:53.580 --> 01:17:54.300]  I'm an artist.
[01:17:55.360 --> 01:18:03.780]  I understand how technology works, but I have a learning disability where I can't remember strings of information.
[01:18:04.980 --> 01:18:06.260]  So I can't program.
[01:18:08.880 --> 01:18:11.920]  And so I can't copy information from one place to another.
[01:18:12.260 --> 01:18:13.820]  I will give credit where it's due.
[01:18:13.920 --> 01:18:16.120]  I mean, you helped launch a lot of things.
[01:18:16.280 --> 01:18:23.220]  You gave birth to a lot of ideas that started becoming HOPE standards and things that we would build into the conference.
[01:18:23.220 --> 01:18:28.340]  So for Germination, keep at it, because you've been hacking these ideas for years.
[01:18:28.340 --> 01:18:36.340]  I'm glad we finally got the name Pyro out there because he's been medical in the attempt to conserve the hotel.
[01:18:36.880 --> 01:18:42.540]  I mean, I remember one Black Friday just walking up and down Hotel Penn saying, save the hotel, Penn.
[01:18:42.600 --> 01:18:43.900]  We had a whole protest, yeah.
[01:18:44.980 --> 01:18:45.460]  Absolutely.
[01:18:45.800 --> 01:18:47.720]  Remember what happened to Penn Station.
[01:18:48.180 --> 01:18:51.320]  And it was friendships were made that way.
[01:18:51.560 --> 01:18:56.240]  And a lot of philosophy took place at the disinformation desk when there was a lull hour.
[01:18:56.240 --> 01:18:59.140]  People would come up and say, you know, how do I get started in hacking?
[01:18:59.300 --> 01:19:01.960]  I said, you just, you know, sit down, tell me your questions.
[01:19:02.600 --> 01:19:09.160]  And we would have amazing conversations, especially HOPE 10 was just a fantastic back and forth ideas.
[01:19:09.900 --> 01:19:13.040]  HOPE 11, when we held elevensies on HOPE 11.
[01:19:13.240 --> 01:19:14.060]  I have a picture.
[01:19:14.760 --> 01:19:25.760]  It was one of the, really one of the, I think the apex of that whole conference was just sitting down with friends from near, from far, people who you haven't seen in years.
[01:19:25.900 --> 01:19:28.240]  You can't remember their damn name, but you recognize their face.
[01:19:29.120 --> 01:19:34.600]  And coming together at this one building, which was nothing significant.
[01:19:34.700 --> 01:19:37.540]  It was nothing worth saving, you know, on its own.
[01:19:37.660 --> 01:19:39.320]  There was no great significance there.
[01:19:39.320 --> 01:19:45.940]  But when you add it all up, all the little pebbles added up to one gigantic boulder, the size of a boulder.
[01:19:46.500 --> 01:19:47.720]  And we carry it with us.
[01:19:48.340 --> 01:19:54.500]  I think the best way to sum it up right now is also just to, like, give a round of applause for both Lex and Pyro.
[01:19:54.500 --> 01:20:07.600]  Not only Lex for doing a lot of the infrastructure, but, again, Pyro for all of his efforts, as well as for the Save the Hotel Penn, which a lot of the images and stuff that I showed in the short presentation came from those.
[01:20:09.600 --> 01:20:12.820]  So, if I could, are you done?
[01:20:12.980 --> 01:20:13.320]  Do you have more?
[01:20:13.420 --> 01:20:15.420]  Well, I was going to say...
[01:20:15.420 --> 01:20:15.420]  Yeah, that's fine.
[01:20:15.460 --> 01:20:17.780]  I'm going to just load pictures up while you talk.
[01:20:17.780 --> 01:20:24.720]  You know, there's a fairly small core staff that does this every time.
[01:20:25.740 --> 01:20:31.780]  And because it takes place every two years, we have a gap of institutional memory.
[01:20:31.960 --> 01:20:33.580]  We forget what we did last time.
[01:20:34.520 --> 01:20:36.360]  We're starting to get better at that.
[01:20:36.500 --> 01:20:40.000]  There are systems that we've gotten from CCC that seem very helpful.
[01:20:41.220 --> 01:20:46.560]  But everybody who comes to the conference can also participate in the conference and pitch in.
[01:20:46.560 --> 01:20:48.440]  And you can send ideas.
[01:20:48.680 --> 01:20:51.660]  I mean, this is the first time we've had access to this space.
[01:20:51.660 --> 01:20:58.860]  And if we do it again here, we should have learned something about what to do with this space and what didn't work.
[01:20:58.960 --> 01:21:02.420]  And, you know, you should send your ideas into the team.
[01:21:02.720 --> 01:21:06.480]  Maybe not this week because they'll be dead on Monday.
[01:21:07.340 --> 01:21:09.860]  Well, they'll be dead on Tuesday because they still have to break down.
[01:21:12.140 --> 01:21:15.080]  But, yeah, it all comes from the community.
[01:21:15.160 --> 01:21:21.260]  And that's a really important part of HOPE is that it's a make-your-own-conference conference.
[01:21:21.780 --> 01:21:23.500]  I don't see my coffee pot there.
[01:21:23.580 --> 01:21:24.460]  That must have been an early one.
[01:21:24.620 --> 01:21:25.640]  It's a super early one.
[01:21:25.740 --> 01:21:28.800]  And you can also see Night Owl trying to just be like, don't bother me.
[01:21:29.020 --> 01:21:29.500]  I'm just here.
[01:21:29.500 --> 01:21:30.280]  So, yeah.
[01:21:30.680 --> 01:21:35.260]  So, the disinfo desk, which they didn't get the name right on the sign.
[01:21:36.900 --> 01:21:38.400]  That's how you know it's a disinformation desk.
[01:21:38.420 --> 01:21:39.560]  They already screwed up the information.
[01:21:39.700 --> 01:21:39.980]  Great job.
[01:21:40.920 --> 01:21:48.100]  So, we were loading in the tables when we were setting up for the Fifth HOPE for the mezzanine.
[01:21:48.100 --> 01:21:59.880]  And I had changed the map so that the vendor area took up half of that high ceiling space so that it wasn't big enough to have a concert area.
[01:22:00.380 --> 01:22:02.060]  So, the noise level would be down.
[01:22:04.580 --> 01:22:10.400]  And Thurman, who had just started going to the 2600 meetings, walked up to me and said, hey, what can I do?
[01:22:10.560 --> 01:22:13.900]  And I handed him the schematic and said, make this look like this.
[01:22:15.240 --> 01:22:17.120]  And he said, what, me?
[01:22:17.240 --> 01:22:18.640]  No, grab people.
[01:22:19.360 --> 01:22:27.120]  And so, Thurman started grabbing people and then he got the vendor area set up the way the diagram looked.
[01:22:27.160 --> 01:22:28.180]  And he said, what else can I do?
[01:22:28.260 --> 01:22:33.560]  And I said, well, we have an information desk, but we don't really have anybody running it.
[01:22:34.040 --> 01:22:39.500]  And so, Thurman started running the information desk and then people started coming toward Thurman.
[01:22:39.500 --> 01:22:45.220]  And it became this snowball thing where now there's kind of a community around the information desk.
[01:22:46.080 --> 01:22:47.920]  That's really the spirit of HOPE right there.
[01:22:48.040 --> 01:22:49.100]  That is the spirit of HOPE.
[01:22:49.140 --> 01:22:51.760]  Either people just randomly are being like, this is bullshit.
[01:22:51.900 --> 01:22:53.660]  What I would do and, oh, I can actually do it.
[01:22:53.740 --> 01:22:53.920]  Okay.
[01:22:54.080 --> 01:22:56.440]  Or just like, it's like, you, make this pretty.
[01:22:56.640 --> 01:22:56.800]  Go.
[01:22:57.440 --> 01:22:58.440]  It's a lot of who?
[01:22:58.600 --> 01:22:58.900]  Me?
[01:22:59.600 --> 01:23:00.980]  And suddenly you think, yeah.
[01:23:02.420 --> 01:23:02.680]  Yeah.
[01:23:02.900 --> 01:23:04.340]  As I become part of course staff, yeah.
[01:23:06.460 --> 01:23:13.500]  Um, so my, my, uh, statute of limitations is past HOPE story.
[01:23:15.240 --> 01:23:16.680]  Is that...
[01:23:18.830 --> 01:23:20.950]  Shut up, FBI.
[01:23:21.370 --> 01:23:23.270]  The after party is after the show.
[01:23:23.550 --> 01:23:36.590]  Um, I was hanging out with, uh, Redacted in Koreatown and, um, we're having Korean barbecue and, uh, Redacted got a text from, uh, Redacted who was hanging out with Redacted.
[01:23:37.090 --> 01:23:45.430]  Uh, and they were, um, at Hotel Pennsylvania, which if you know where Koreatown is, it's a block from Hotel Pennsylvania.
[01:23:45.630 --> 01:23:53.930]  So we walked over, um, and Redacted, who's from, uh, Philadelphia, and you may know from off the hook.
[01:23:54.170 --> 01:24:10.490]  Um, was interested in some sort of electrical panel, like a, a decommissioned electrical panel that was supposed to be really, like, elegant, like 1919 era electrical panel that was somewhere in the basement.
[01:24:10.590 --> 01:24:17.430]  There was some sort of control system that's completely decommissioned and cut off, but, but wanted to see it and probably get a picture of it.
[01:24:17.430 --> 01:24:31.230]  And so we went down into the bowels of the Hotel Pennsylvania looking for its original power matrix back from when it was really new.
[01:24:31.490 --> 01:24:44.650]  Um, and one of the most interesting things that happened to me during, when we were doing Save Hotel Penn was that Pyro got, uh, digital copies of the original blueprints of the hotel.
[01:24:44.650 --> 01:24:44.890]  Mm-hmm.
[01:24:45.450 --> 01:24:52.170]  And if you look at the original blueprints of the hotel, it's a rectangular shape above ground.
[01:24:52.630 --> 01:24:56.190]  But underground, it's shaped like a ship.
[01:24:57.050 --> 01:24:57.250]  Mm-hmm.
[01:24:57.250 --> 01:24:59.190]  It has a point at one end.
[01:25:00.050 --> 01:25:04.610]  Um, and it also functions a lot like a ship.
[01:25:04.770 --> 01:25:14.250]  In, in that 1920s, 30s era, it was one of those fabulous New York hotels that you see in the old movies.
[01:25:14.710 --> 01:25:17.530]  Um, it, it was the Hotel Statler.
[01:25:17.870 --> 01:25:26.690]  And if you think of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets, it's because the Statler was almost a twin of the Waldorf Astoria.
[01:25:26.930 --> 01:25:31.670]  And, and the Hotel Statler went downhill and the Waldorf Astoria got sold to the Chinese.
[01:25:31.830 --> 01:25:34.430]  It's now condos, but it was a lot more fancy.
[01:25:34.430 --> 01:25:37.450]  Um, but they were very connected.
[01:25:37.710 --> 01:25:38.210]  Mm-hmm.
[01:25:38.330 --> 01:25:47.250]  And they, they had these kind of systems where, um, the, there were all these restaurants in there.
[01:25:47.450 --> 01:25:56.250]  And, and there used to be the Cafe Rouge, which, um, is where the Pennsylvania 65,000 song was played by, uh...
[01:25:56.250 --> 01:25:56.590]  Yep.
[01:25:56.590 --> 01:25:57.070]  Glenn Miller.
[01:25:57.650 --> 01:25:58.370]  Glenn Miller?
[01:25:58.370 --> 01:25:58.510]  Yep.
[01:25:58.770 --> 01:25:59.110]  Yeah.
[01:25:59.370 --> 01:25:59.790]  Glenn Miller.
[01:26:00.770 --> 01:26:01.490]  Glenn Miller.
[01:26:01.490 --> 01:26:11.530]  And, um, so back to the story, um, we went down basically into the bowels of the ship.
[01:26:12.050 --> 01:26:21.950]  And, um, Redacted from Philadelphia, um, was not shy about pushing on doors, including doors that felt a little stuck.
[01:26:22.670 --> 01:26:23.110]  Yeah.
[01:26:23.550 --> 01:26:29.410]  And, uh, at one point we went down a ladder, cause there weren't stairs.
[01:26:29.830 --> 01:26:30.270]  Mm-hmm.
[01:26:30.790 --> 01:26:38.830]  And, um, then at one point we saw a pit, and there was water at the bottom, but we couldn't see it because our flashlights wouldn't reach it.
[01:26:39.070 --> 01:26:40.370]  And that was weird.
[01:26:40.970 --> 01:26:41.290]  Mm-hmm.
[01:26:41.410 --> 01:26:46.790]  Um, and, um, well, we were using the flashlights on our phones, so they aren't that powerful.
[01:26:46.790 --> 01:26:46.970]  Mm-hmm.
[01:26:46.970 --> 01:27:02.830]  But, um, so we, we got down there, and there was this one room, and I'm pretty sure, cause we weren't looking at the schematic while we were down there, but I'm pretty sure it was, like, the, the bow of the ship kind of shaped point on the lowest level,
[01:27:03.130 --> 01:27:05.390]  because the room went into a point.
[01:27:05.570 --> 01:27:05.830]  Yeah.
[01:27:05.890 --> 01:27:06.710]  Like, shrinks.
[01:27:06.830 --> 01:27:07.030]  Yeah.
[01:27:07.210 --> 01:27:12.190]  But it also, the floor went upward.
[01:27:12.190 --> 01:27:13.090]  Mm-hmm.
[01:27:13.090 --> 01:27:20.170]  And so, you walked in, and the room was normal height, but if you went to the other end of the room, it was about three feet high.
[01:27:20.670 --> 01:27:21.890]  And that was weird.
[01:27:22.870 --> 01:27:24.410]  Um, but...
[01:27:24.410 --> 01:27:26.710]  It's been, it's its own universe down there, basically.
[01:27:28.150 --> 01:27:29.290]  It's one of the surface tunnels.
[01:27:29.750 --> 01:27:37.430]  There was a hundred years of, um, decay on paint in rooms that hadn't been painted since 1919.
[01:27:38.310 --> 01:27:42.930]  And that was interesting, just, like, the, the textures of the walls and everything.
[01:27:43.430 --> 01:27:49.810]  Um, and we were using our, our cell phones to see a lot of this stuff, cause the lights weren't on in a lot of the places that we were in.
[01:27:50.190 --> 01:27:57.030]  And so, we rambled around and rambled around, and, um, eventually we got to a door.
[01:27:57.790 --> 01:28:02.810]  We went in, and it was, like, a nightclub out of the 80s.
[01:28:02.910 --> 01:28:03.350]  Mm-hmm.
[01:28:04.170 --> 01:28:08.070]  And there were all these weird color squares on the walls.
[01:28:08.590 --> 01:28:12.050]  Um, but it also looked like it hadn't been used in a while.
[01:28:12.770 --> 01:28:17.110]  But, like, as a club, but it also looked like people had been in there fairly recently.
[01:28:17.110 --> 01:28:21.630]  And we think maybe the staff had, like, used it as a hangout.
[01:28:22.270 --> 01:28:36.250]  Um, and if you want to know where this room actually was, when you went into the, um, the expo area where, where you go up the escalator to the mezzanine, you pass a little staircase that goes down.
[01:28:37.450 --> 01:28:45.930]  And what we realized was that the door to that club was that door at the bottom of the stairs that was always locked and we could never see what was inside.
[01:28:46.070 --> 01:28:47.150]  So we were actually in there.
[01:28:47.950 --> 01:28:52.270]  Um, and then we found another door and we could hear the subway.
[01:28:53.370 --> 01:29:04.150]  And, uh, then Redacted, uh, got very interested in that door and, um, opened it, despite it being nailed shut.
[01:29:06.090 --> 01:29:08.930]  And, uh, a multi-tool was involved.
[01:29:10.730 --> 01:29:17.570]  So we followed Redacted out the door and we were in the subway station.
[01:29:18.310 --> 01:29:26.150]  Um, and then Redacted, who was coming out last, closed the door very carefully behind us.
[01:29:26.700 --> 01:29:28.430]  And the door locked behind us.
[01:29:28.730 --> 01:29:31.490]  And then we realized that we're inside.
[01:29:32.250 --> 01:29:36.470]  You know how at the end of the night sometimes they close sections of the subway?
[01:29:36.470 --> 01:29:37.050]  Mm-hmm.
[01:29:37.230 --> 01:29:38.210]  And there are metal gates.
[01:29:39.110 --> 01:29:39.910]  We're inside.
[01:29:41.070 --> 01:29:44.170]  Um, but...
[01:29:44.170 --> 01:29:45.570]  Found the forbidden escape route.
[01:29:45.950 --> 01:29:50.890]  Then they've got the spinning Iron Maiden kind of things that they lock so they don't spin.
[01:29:51.690 --> 01:29:52.630]  Um, and then they go...
[01:29:52.630 --> 01:29:54.770]  Honestly, with the way the basements were, I wish there was more pictures.
[01:29:54.770 --> 01:29:57.790]  I wouldn't be surprised to find an actual Iron Maiden down there.
[01:29:57.950 --> 01:29:58.150]  Yes.
[01:29:58.270 --> 01:30:00.310]  I'm amazed they haven't find corpses down there yet.
[01:30:00.310 --> 01:30:00.490]  Yeah.
[01:30:01.030 --> 01:30:11.870]  So, um, what we realized was that you can actually climb the bars of the Iron Maiden style, turnstiles.
[01:30:12.190 --> 01:30:17.770]  Um, and so we climbed over it in view of like 40 NYPD cameras.
[01:30:18.710 --> 01:30:34.850]  And apparently no one was watching the cameras because we very quickly exited the subway and went to, um, the Blarney Rock which was across the street and had a beer and just kind of decompressed after what was probably two and a half hours in the deep,
[01:30:34.990 --> 01:30:41.230]  deep bowels of Hotel Pennsylvania in places where not only we're not allowed, we really should not have gone.
[01:30:42.750 --> 01:30:54.730]  So, um, I'm going to tell just because that was, that was a great, like, exo, like going down into the, that was almost like a choose your own adventure, I feel like, of the description of what the basement was like.
[01:30:55.250 --> 01:31:00.290]  I'm going to segue over into two of my stories now, open up, and they're kind of related on the same subject.
[01:31:00.510 --> 01:31:09.270]  One which I get to bring up a picture for, so as I said earlier, um, let's see if I can find this one because I think this is like the best description of the man.
[01:31:09.730 --> 01:31:16.970]  Uh, it's my friend Murdoch, um, consensually assaulting, uh, one of my other mutual friends.
[01:31:17.190 --> 01:31:22.450]  And that's kind of a sum up because the whole thing was there was the con and then there was Murdoch's room.
[01:31:24.210 --> 01:31:26.770]  Now this is actually going to be like, there's a lot of stories.
[01:31:27.070 --> 01:31:30.050]  I'm not going to just, even without redacting, I'm not going to embarrass stuff.
[01:31:30.070 --> 01:31:34.870]  I want to tell my fun story of literally the strangest thing I ever saw in Murdoch's room.
[01:31:35.410 --> 01:31:39.270]  Because it involves kind of the infrastructure of the hotel rooms.
[01:31:40.210 --> 01:31:44.650]  So I, it was, he was on the 15th floor at the time and I really needed to pee.
[01:31:45.330 --> 01:31:48.550]  And he always offered the room, gave me the keys and stuff.
[01:31:48.690 --> 01:31:56.570]  So I'm like, I'm on the 13th floor, I'll just go up to the 15th floor, hope the elevator doesn't plummet and kill me because that was also a risk in the hotel.
[01:31:56.570 --> 01:32:07.190]  Sometimes he would go up on the elevator and the crazy one, it wasn't, it was like you would go and then it would drop a foot and then you're like, should I just wait until it falls or should I try to exit and it bisects me?
[01:32:07.310 --> 01:32:07.870]  You just didn't know.
[01:32:09.470 --> 01:32:11.150]  It's the worst game of elevator action ever.
[01:32:13.110 --> 01:32:20.450]  And so I go to the 15th floor, I walk into his room and he is just like seemingly passed out on the bed, like face up.
[01:32:20.630 --> 01:32:23.290]  And I take no mind for it because I'm used to seeing him like that.
[01:32:23.630 --> 01:32:24.230]  Don't ask me why.
[01:32:24.970 --> 01:32:32.590]  Walking over past him, as soon as I'm right about to go past him, he snaps instantly awake as if possessed and he goes, don't go in the bathroom.
[01:32:34.590 --> 01:32:45.250]  And so my brain, because I'm nuts and he's nuts, started to think, what could possibly be in the bathroom that Murdoch, of all people, does not want anyone to see?
[01:32:45.750 --> 01:32:46.690]  Dun, dun, dun!
[01:32:47.310 --> 01:32:52.890]  And you know, I had all these crazy ideas, because now I'm like, now I want to, so I'm going to walk to the bathroom.
[01:32:53.210 --> 01:33:03.790]  And believe it or not, it wasn't any of the crazy ideas that I had, but it really, I should have expected it, but it came so out of nowhere that it shocked me even more.
[01:33:03.890 --> 01:33:08.270]  Like, I was expecting like a gay orgy in there or just something, right?
[01:33:08.410 --> 01:33:11.850]  But this honestly just shocked me and scared the crap out of me, okay?
[01:33:12.070 --> 01:33:13.690]  And it's nothing truly scandalous.
[01:33:13.990 --> 01:33:14.850]  Open the door.
[01:33:16.350 --> 01:33:27.150]  There are two fully dressed con attendees in the bathroom, kneeling in front of the tub, because, I shit you not, they converted the entire tub into a bong.
[01:33:30.250 --> 01:33:31.070]  This is true.
[01:33:32.050 --> 01:33:43.010]  They saran wrapped the top of it, and they added a bunch of other PCV stuff to the pipes, so you could hit like a giant, and when they would do it, the whole tub would vibrate underneath the saran.
[01:33:44.030 --> 01:33:51.110]  So imagine me opening the door, and there's two guys, oh, you hear, and I just slam the door, I'm like, no, I'm just going to shit downstairs.
[01:33:51.330 --> 01:33:52.370]  I'll just shit right in the middle of that.
[01:33:52.610 --> 01:33:54.090]  Bye, Murdoch, thank you for warning me.
[01:33:54.830 --> 01:33:56.350]  So that was just the weirdest thing.
[01:33:56.490 --> 01:34:05.210]  And so speaking of drug-related paraphernalia, I'm going to tell, honestly, the weirdest, best, most awesome HOPE story, besides all the friends, and there's Nick Farr.
[01:34:07.270 --> 01:34:09.170]  Collection of friends.
[01:34:09.170 --> 01:34:10.390]  I'm so used to not...
[01:34:10.390 --> 01:34:11.790]  I was wearing a helmet in that picture.
[01:34:11.970 --> 01:34:12.770]  Yes, for once.
[01:34:13.090 --> 01:34:15.670]  And this is before the stuff of the segments.
[01:34:16.430 --> 01:34:22.310]  That was taken the year that we told him he was no longer allowed to stand on anything taller than a stick of chewing gum.
[01:34:22.450 --> 01:34:24.910]  Yeah, because he fell off and he had this giant...
[01:34:24.910 --> 01:34:29.750]  His propensity for encountering gravity unexpectedly is legendary.
[01:34:30.510 --> 01:34:31.530]  Speaking of friends...
[01:34:31.530 --> 01:34:31.830]  And his institution.
[01:34:32.290 --> 01:34:33.730]  Yeah, and he had a giant band-aid.
[01:34:33.850 --> 01:34:34.250]  That's funny.
[01:34:34.930 --> 01:34:39.790]  A giant band-aid on the back of his head, which he couldn't stand me.
[01:34:40.450 --> 01:34:43.010]  Nick Farr couldn't stand me making jokes about...
[01:34:44.230 --> 01:34:44.890]  What was it?
[01:34:44.990 --> 01:34:53.070]  Yeah, Pulp Fiction all night, because the guy who gives the two hit guys the mission, you only saw the back of his bald head with a band-aid, and that's all.
[01:34:53.170 --> 01:34:54.890]  He was like, can you stop bringing those references up?
[01:34:55.650 --> 01:34:59.750]  So anyhow, back to this story, because then I'm almost done with stories.
[01:34:59.750 --> 01:35:00.850]  This is like the big one I could tell.
[01:35:01.430 --> 01:35:05.850]  So this was HOPE X, if I remember correctly.
[01:35:05.910 --> 01:35:06.790]  Yeah, this was HOPE X.
[01:35:07.170 --> 01:35:08.170]  It was HOPE X.
[01:35:08.350 --> 01:35:08.470]  Yep.
[01:35:09.470 --> 01:35:19.090]  And I decided that, okay, besides drinking, I have never done any of the other stuff that happens at the con.
[01:35:20.070 --> 01:35:26.110]  So I decided, and I'm free to tell this, just note that this was years ago, and I have not done this since.
[01:35:27.010 --> 01:35:31.990]  I was like, as long as it's not like a super, like I'm not going to do anything that people like to do in Florida.
[01:35:32.130 --> 01:35:32.850]  Let's put it that way.
[01:35:33.410 --> 01:35:39.450]  And as long as you didn't like inject it in you or something, I was like, I'm going to do all the substances.
[01:35:40.770 --> 01:35:43.950]  He was studying hard for a drug test, so he had to test every drug.
[01:35:44.190 --> 01:35:44.410]  Yep.
[01:35:45.070 --> 01:35:46.830]  And two things happened with that.
[01:35:46.830 --> 01:35:52.310]  One was that all my other friends in New York pre-gamed me harder than any of the people at HOPE.
[01:35:53.250 --> 01:36:02.410]  Because I have a bad mix of gamer friends and drag queen friends, and they just gave me stuff where I would honestly want to list them, but I actually can't remember all of them.
[01:36:03.010 --> 01:36:14.050]  And then I showed up, and then there was the big thing, which was still a friend of mine, I'm not going to name him at the time, had the thing I wanted to do at HOPE, which is he had a connection for acid.
[01:36:15.230 --> 01:36:19.850]  And the problem was, is that he screwed up the doses.
[01:36:20.330 --> 01:36:23.170]  So I'm already screwed up from alcohol and a bunch of other things.
[01:36:23.550 --> 01:36:31.110]  And he was supposed to give me my beginner thing of 1.3, and instead I got his dose of 2.8.
[01:36:34.110 --> 01:36:36.450]  And, yeah, I was not there.
[01:36:36.750 --> 01:36:53.510]  And the reason I'm saying this was, Stop A is, he's the only other person at Radio Statler, he's dead asleep, and I'm walking back and forth like, what, I know it's a mess in the booth, but I'm cleaning the booth, it's almost 9 a.m.
[01:36:54.030 --> 01:36:54.550]  on Sunday.
[01:36:54.810 --> 01:36:56.170]  Why am I cleaning the booth?
[01:36:56.450 --> 01:36:58.490]  I feel like something's going to happen.
[01:36:58.950 --> 01:37:04.390]  And I look up, and here are all the members of the FreeBSD organization.
[01:37:05.090 --> 01:37:10.770]  And I almost forgot that I scheduled to interview them at 9:30 in the morning.
[01:37:13.250 --> 01:37:16.010]  So I'm in the booth all by myself, Stop A is asleep.
[01:37:16.050 --> 01:37:19.390]  I didn't want to wake him up because I felt bad, because he makes the website and was running around crazy.
[01:37:19.390 --> 01:37:22.450]  Like, he deserves to sleep, I'm a big boy, I can attempt to do this.
[01:37:22.910 --> 01:37:36.310]  So now imagine answering questions about FreeBSD and FreeSoft, like coding to the metal level, while I'm seeing blue butterflies trying to creep into my side vision and talking heads that aren't there and crap like that.
[01:37:37.930 --> 01:37:46.330]  And when the whole thing was done, I set it to music, and I'm like, guys, I don't know how that turned out, I'm so sorry, because I had this plan, and I did this, this, that.
[01:37:46.450 --> 01:37:49.230]  And they were like, wait, you were blasted?
[01:37:49.230 --> 01:37:51.530]  And I was like, yeah, why?
[01:37:51.610 --> 01:37:54.390]  And they were like, we did not know until you...
[01:37:54.390 --> 01:37:55.730]  I thought you just didn't...
[01:37:55.730 --> 01:37:58.730]  Like, we thought maybe you lacked coffee, but we didn't...
[01:37:58.730 --> 01:38:00.250]  I'm like, I don't drink coffee, it gives me the runs.
[01:38:00.390 --> 01:38:00.950]  They were like...
[01:38:00.950 --> 01:38:06.450]  And I listened back, and I was like, oh my God, I sound completely normal, and this scares me.
[01:38:18.390 --> 01:38:19.190]  And then...
[01:38:19.190 --> 01:38:22.550]  So I heard you did the interview at FreeBSD, right?
[01:38:22.650 --> 01:38:24.510]  And he's like, I'm gonna go listen to it now.
[01:38:24.690 --> 01:38:26.010]  And I'm thinking, like, I'm in big trouble.
[01:38:26.330 --> 01:38:31.510]  And he has the headphones on, and he sits there, and he listens to all one hour and 20 minutes of it.
[01:38:32.270 --> 01:38:36.010]  Takes the headphones off, and he's like, you've been a volunteer for the past couple of things.
[01:38:36.050 --> 01:38:36.690]  I'm like, yeah.
[01:38:36.910 --> 01:38:42.430]  And he goes, would you like to do all the interviews and help curate the content next year?
[01:38:42.430 --> 01:38:44.970]  And that's how I got promoted at Radio Statler.
[01:38:45.110 --> 01:38:52.930]  Basically, his argument was, if I could be completely blasted and sound completely normal on the radio, manning it myself, yay for that.
[01:38:53.290 --> 01:38:55.810]  It is my least proudest, proudest moment at HOPE.
[01:38:56.770 --> 01:38:57.570]  By far.
[01:38:57.910 --> 01:38:59.550]  Any other stories going around?
[01:38:59.730 --> 01:39:05.470]  I do have another story from the Matrix chat that looked pretty interesting.
[01:39:05.750 --> 01:39:05.950]  Okay.
[01:39:06.310 --> 01:39:07.590]  If only the Matrix chat...
[01:39:07.590 --> 01:39:11.570]  I'm not kidding when I say we're gonna run this until everyone gets tired and I'm a skeleton and stuff.
[01:39:11.570 --> 01:39:12.450]  Okay.
[01:39:12.890 --> 01:39:20.350]  This is from a person whose name is pronounced Elix and whose handle is written in a very cursed way.
[01:39:22.030 --> 01:39:27.390]  At H2K2, we made a fake Wi-Fi antenna out of a soda cup, yogurt, and a couple of straws.
[01:39:28.390 --> 01:39:34.650]  We plugged an audio jack into the bottom to a laptop running X-Radar and an X-Term scrolling hex dump.
[01:39:36.290 --> 01:39:40.470]  Some reporter tried to schedule a follow-up interview with one of the co-creators.
[01:39:40.470 --> 01:39:45.870]  We had a whole story about how the bacteria from the yogurt helped it refract the Wi-Fi signal.
[01:39:47.130 --> 01:39:52.430]  I remember an old lady on the street freaking out and yelling that it was a bomb and we had to calm her down.
[01:39:54.930 --> 01:39:59.590]  The pranks at HOPE conferences, they've always been kind of good.
[01:39:59.830 --> 01:40:01.670]  That one I did not know about.
[01:40:01.670 --> 01:40:14.050]  I want to thank everybody who's online who's sharing these stories because H2K2 was before my time and that is very much the spirit of the HOPE kind of folks.
[01:40:14.550 --> 01:40:15.690]  We're going to goof off.
[01:40:15.830 --> 01:40:16.690]  We're going to have fun.
[01:40:16.690 --> 01:40:24.310]  It's a family homecoming for a hacker conference that's not as technical as, say, DEFCON or RSA or anything else.
[01:40:24.550 --> 01:40:28.190]  We have a hell of a damn good time and that was our place to hang out.
[01:40:28.190 --> 01:40:41.150]  One of the things I like about HOPE, which you definitely see the spirit carried over here, is just the sheer variety of inviting stuff that we're all interested of as hackers but you wouldn't really consider like a hacker security sort of thing, hence why we had like Adam Savage there.
[01:40:41.210 --> 01:40:47.370]  I remember one year, I can't remember his name, but we had the comic creator of the Boondocks there just because we all loved the show.
[01:40:47.370 --> 01:40:50.130]  And he had some very interesting social political stuff.
[01:40:50.270 --> 01:40:50.790]  Yes, McGregor.
[01:40:50.950 --> 01:41:02.770]  I bring up this image again because one of the other things I like about HOPE is that you can, like a lot of other hacker conferences, but especially HOPE, you can come here and just be like, I need yellow cake and some shoelaces.
[01:41:03.190 --> 01:41:09.030]  And someone inevitably is like, I bring the yellow cake every year and no one asked for it and finally someone did.
[01:41:11.070 --> 01:41:16.310]  I gotta include one of the things since we have, we're talking about, you know, what people would bring in.
[01:41:16.890 --> 01:41:30.210]  Someone, and I don't know who it was, I don't remember what they even look like at this point, brought in a plotted out, complete flow chart, DIY, welcome to HOPE, what's your problem?
[01:41:30.210 --> 01:41:33.390]  And I'm glad to say that...
[01:41:33.390 --> 01:41:37.270]  Sorry, it was a security self-service flow chart.
[01:41:37.930 --> 01:41:43.650]  Corey Doctorow even featured it on Boing Boing after the event that he was the keynote.
[01:41:44.990 --> 01:41:52.290]  I'm glad to say to everybody in attendance, that copy has been preserved, updated, we have it safe.
[01:41:53.370 --> 01:41:53.730]  Nice.
[01:41:53.730 --> 01:41:56.210]  So, a little bit of history is sticking with us.
[01:41:57.590 --> 01:42:00.590]  I need a copy of that for tomorrow.
[01:42:01.470 --> 01:42:02.270]  That's impossible.
[01:42:02.870 --> 01:42:03.990]  I'm losing my voice.
[01:42:04.270 --> 01:42:07.130]  No, that sounds like the con today of like, can you have the thing yesterday?
[01:42:07.570 --> 01:42:08.070]  Yeah, right?
[01:42:08.990 --> 01:42:11.270]  Well, nobody tell me these things in memoranda.
[01:42:11.410 --> 01:42:12.730]  I could have had it for you all weeks ago.
[01:42:13.010 --> 01:42:14.370]  That's an example of the roof.
[01:42:14.470 --> 01:42:18.550]  Fun fact, I also want to throw out there about the hotel, literally the hotel itself.
[01:42:20.090 --> 01:42:24.050]  Because, like, so, odd thing, don't ask me how I know this.
[01:42:29.130 --> 01:42:43.610]  So, New York hotels, if you ever wonder why they're so obsessed with the whole, you have to have your room key card to access the elevator, it's because they want to curb normal parties, as well as very exciting thrusting motion parties.
[01:42:44.450 --> 01:42:51.530]  And because the Hotel Penn never, ever had that system, it became a hotspot destination for both of those type of events.
[01:42:52.210 --> 01:42:57.870]  So, if you ever had friends that just randomly disappeared during the con, it might have been because of that.
[01:42:57.970 --> 01:42:59.350]  And again, don't ask me how I know this.
[01:43:00.010 --> 01:43:03.910]  The better question is, why did you never share this information to the people who might want it?
[01:43:05.850 --> 01:43:23.950]  So, I'm not going to name names here, but someone who actually also spoke earlier, I'm going to let you guess who, he, that's the only hint you're going to get is he, he, oh, here's an earlier picture of the radio booth that we used to have, back when we thought making out of wood was a great idea.
[01:43:26.310 --> 01:43:33.190]  He, so years ago, I think this was, I think this actually was H2K, apparently this happened.
[01:43:33.950 --> 01:43:38.650]  A major con attendee was trying to organize like an official HOPE orgy.
[01:43:39.550 --> 01:43:44.150]  And it, like, it was a legit thing, and it almost got off the ground.
[01:43:44.150 --> 01:44:01.050]  And the thing that apparently prevented it from happening is the knowledge that it's a hacker convention, especially back in the 90s, people were really good at faking all forms of identification, so there was no way they could confirm that no one was not underage there.
[01:44:01.210 --> 01:44:03.230]  And that's why they responsibly killed it.
[01:44:03.730 --> 01:44:03.870]  Mm-hmm.
[01:44:04.930 --> 01:44:06.170]  Wait, responsibly?
[01:44:06.610 --> 01:44:10.050]  I think that was one of the few times we've ever been responsible.
[01:44:10.470 --> 01:44:10.790]  So...
[01:44:10.790 --> 01:44:19.070]  There were incidents regarding entertainment after hours that did occasionally overlap into the con.
[01:44:19.070 --> 01:44:21.510]  And I don't think I want to go any further than that.
[01:44:21.950 --> 01:44:22.890]  This is New York.
[01:44:23.450 --> 01:44:24.070]  I'll put...
[01:44:24.070 --> 01:44:25.990]  I'll share one minor story without naming names.
[01:44:26.050 --> 01:44:34.090]  There was one year where I aggressively, with consent, made out with now a really good friend of mine in the...
[01:44:34.090 --> 01:44:37.830]  Not the service elevators, but it's like the service area we went going.
[01:44:37.970 --> 01:44:38.810]  They had stairs there.
[01:44:38.970 --> 01:44:42.530]  There was like the normal stairs that you can go up through the hotel, and then there was the service stairs and elevators.
[01:44:43.510 --> 01:44:45.830]  And apparently when I was doing that, I missed out.
[01:44:45.950 --> 01:44:47.790]  That was the year where we had...
[01:44:47.790 --> 01:44:48.670]  I think that was the first...
[01:44:48.670 --> 01:44:55.490]  Second year we truly had sponsors, which was a whole big escapade thing about like, HOPE, like why do we have sponsors?
[01:44:55.690 --> 01:44:56.570]  Like, we're getting crazy.
[01:44:56.690 --> 01:44:58.310]  It's gonna turn into DEFCON the next con.
[01:44:58.430 --> 01:44:58.650]  No.
[01:44:59.970 --> 01:45:08.310]  And that sponsor bought coasters, which was a bad idea, because essentially everyone divided into two teams and had a giant coaster war between the Mez.
[01:45:09.390 --> 01:45:16.910]  So there was like one group at large, like 50 plus on one side, and 50 plus all the way on the other side, and they were trying to hit each other with all the coasters that were handed out.
[01:45:17.010 --> 01:45:18.770]  And I think that was the last year we had coasters that year.
[01:45:19.550 --> 01:45:19.910]  Throwies.
[01:45:20.310 --> 01:45:20.590]  Yes.
[01:45:20.890 --> 01:45:25.930]  So I was like mad, because I was like, my friend was, hi, it was cool, but oh, I missed this.
[01:45:25.930 --> 01:45:33.990]  Like it was like the one, now I felt like everyone else where it's like, I'm usually the one that's there when like crazy stuff, good or bad happens, and everyone's like, I can't believe I missed that.
[01:45:34.070 --> 01:45:35.930]  So that was my version of missing something at the con.
[01:45:36.810 --> 01:45:39.590]  Does anyone have any other stories to tell?
[01:45:39.730 --> 01:45:41.150]  Or are we starting to get pooped out?
[01:45:42.690 --> 01:45:43.050]  Or...
[01:45:43.050 --> 01:45:44.610]  It's one of my friend's stories.
[01:45:44.930 --> 01:45:45.190]  Hold on, hold on.
[01:45:45.390 --> 01:45:45.950]  Microphone, please.
[01:45:47.430 --> 01:45:47.790]  Microphone.
[01:45:48.050 --> 01:45:48.410]  Sure.
[01:45:48.630 --> 01:45:50.470]  We wanna make sure everyone's online here too.
[01:45:51.350 --> 01:45:57.090]  Yeah, we wanna make sure we can content trace all of the blackmailing.
[01:45:58.590 --> 01:46:02.610]  Well, let me make one last attempt to get his butt on Google Duo.
[01:46:04.990 --> 01:46:07.330]  Oh, we're like full in, dialing in on this shit.
[01:46:07.610 --> 01:46:17.930]  Did you know one year, and I think it might have been Beyond HOPE, even though it wasn't at the hotel, what there was a direct phone connection to like, I think Nick was either on the run or in jail, or something like that.
[01:46:17.930 --> 01:46:21.570]  And we called through that on an actual dedicated line.
[01:46:22.690 --> 01:46:24.170]  Okay, never mind that.
[01:46:24.770 --> 01:46:30.690]  My friend just disappeared for about an hour, and we've...
[01:46:30.690 --> 01:46:35.990]  And when we came back, he's like, there's a completely empty floor in this hotel.
[01:46:36.210 --> 01:46:36.510]  Yeah.
[01:46:37.150 --> 01:46:55.430]  Because apparently he got off at the wrong elevator, went through a one-way door without realizing it, and proceeded to go on his own merry little escape room adventure for the next hour trying to find a way out.
[01:46:56.850 --> 01:47:00.890]  It's like the unofficial escape the room that you never wanted to play, yes.
[01:47:01.310 --> 01:47:01.950]  Yes, yes.
[01:47:04.850 --> 01:47:06.230]  And now we have this gentleman.
[01:47:07.350 --> 01:47:18.050]  Okay, well I just remembered, I was actually allowed on the roof, because I think it was H2K, that we had the special event amateur radio station, and helped set up that and the HF.
[01:47:18.210 --> 01:47:19.550]  And then I was a little bit disappointed.
[01:47:19.790 --> 01:47:24.710]  You know, should I have gone to HOPE, or should I have stayed home, and tried to work the special event station.
[01:47:25.170 --> 01:47:27.550]  And so, well you got your hand held with you.
[01:47:27.710 --> 01:47:27.950]  Yeah.
[01:47:28.110 --> 01:47:29.190]  And I said, we're on 440.
[01:47:29.570 --> 01:47:30.550]  Tune it to this frequency.
[01:47:30.950 --> 01:47:45.690]  And I literally worked the special event station standing like three feet away from the station, and worked it and got my QSL card and all that stuff, and sort of, it was the opposite of the old days of the phone phreak, where you call yourself around the world with the blue box,
[01:47:45.790 --> 01:48:00.190]  setting up connections to, you know, from New York to the UK, and then to go to India, and then to go to China, and then go across the Pacific, and then call yourself to the phone booth next to you, and hear the echo as it propagates through all that delay around the world.
[01:48:00.750 --> 01:48:02.890]  And that was just a little short comment I had.
[01:48:03.510 --> 01:48:03.870]  Awesome.
[01:48:04.170 --> 01:48:13.110]  You know, you just made me realize that like, one of the things, because there's been little things I've realized that haven't happened this year, because we've had such a huge gap that's happened at previous HOPEs.
[01:48:13.330 --> 01:48:21.550]  And one of the things that I realized is that, ever since it started, I think this is the first year since it started, that we, there was no social engineering panel.
[01:48:22.070 --> 01:48:28.010]  Like, there was a workshop about social engineering, but there was, that was the staple panel by Core Staff and Emanuel, and we just didn't have one this year.
[01:48:28.010 --> 01:48:29.630]  That's what I was just about to bring up.
[01:48:29.850 --> 01:48:35.730]  Some of the most memorable things was the social engineering, can't call it a class.
[01:48:36.230 --> 01:48:45.030]  The experience that you would have is, they would, you know, call two dominoes and let them talk, or, you know, just all kinds of little things up to the side.
[01:48:45.050 --> 01:48:51.870]  If I remember correctly, my favorite social engineering one, was the one where they managed to get a hold remotely.
[01:48:52.250 --> 01:48:56.150]  They convinced people to connect them to a PA system at a Walmart.
[01:48:57.170 --> 01:48:57.510]  And...
[01:48:57.510 --> 01:48:57.890]  Kmart.
[01:48:58.350 --> 01:48:59.090]  Kmart, yeah.
[01:48:59.310 --> 01:49:02.170]  And I think this is the, like, what's the most chaos?
[01:49:02.650 --> 01:49:14.510]  I've, this is such a classic hacker thing where they patched it, and basically someone did the voice, and I'm gonna paraphrase here, but it basically, we're like, attention Kmart customers, we are having a flash special.
[01:49:14.510 --> 01:49:17.430]  So everything in aisle eight is now free.
[01:49:17.830 --> 01:49:19.430]  I repeat, everything...
[01:49:19.430 --> 01:49:29.990]  And apparently that we had, like, act, like, some viewer of, like, someone was monitoring the camera, so there, we saw, like, every attendee saw a dying laughing, like, everyone trying to bum rush the thing, and all the employees going nuts.
[01:49:30.150 --> 01:49:31.630]  So that was one thing I remember.
[01:49:31.710 --> 01:49:39.130]  I also remember the time where they called a rival hotel that was, like, five stars or whatever, basically to see if they had bed bugs and accidentally confirmed that they did.
[01:49:40.330 --> 01:49:45.490]  It's like a, like, you know, it's like, USA Hotel Penn has bed bugs, and even though we have the best bed bugs, all the other... because we're in New York.
[01:49:45.730 --> 01:49:47.170]  It literally was it this year.
[01:49:47.470 --> 01:49:51.070]  New York is now considered the second dirtiest city in all of America.
[01:49:52.090 --> 01:49:52.210]  So...
[01:49:52.210 --> 01:49:53.430]  Right behind Jersey City, right?
[01:49:53.950 --> 01:49:54.470]  Pretty much.
[01:49:54.670 --> 01:49:56.930]  Well, the whole state itself is a city.
[01:49:57.130 --> 01:49:58.790]  We're just happy that it's New Jersey.
[01:49:58.930 --> 01:49:59.850]  Thank God we're not Staten Island.
[01:50:00.150 --> 01:50:00.530]  I'm sorry, sir.
[01:50:01.150 --> 01:50:09.530]  The other thing that comes to mind that will probably stay with me until life is I found out what happens if you catch air on a Segway.
[01:50:11.410 --> 01:50:15.690]  Because my mind thought the wheels would continue to go like a bicycle.
[01:50:16.190 --> 01:50:19.630]  Apparently, when a Segway gets off the ground, the wheels stop.
[01:50:19.990 --> 01:50:20.170]  Mm-hmm.
[01:50:20.650 --> 01:50:22.830]  And when you hit the ground, they don't go immediately.
[01:50:23.750 --> 01:50:25.430]  It's a balancing act.
[01:50:25.950 --> 01:50:26.770]  I, you know...
[01:50:26.770 --> 01:50:30.150]  I survived, but didn't know that was gonna happen.
[01:50:30.170 --> 01:50:32.690]  Tony Hawk, Pro Segway 2, Hotel Penn Edition.
[01:50:32.690 --> 01:50:35.910]  And I thought I was the only one who was ever thrown off those things sober.
[01:50:36.230 --> 01:50:36.330]  Yep.
[01:50:36.850 --> 01:50:39.910]  So, uh, I guess we're gonna sort of semi...
[01:50:39.910 --> 01:50:45.270]  Yeah, we're gonna, like, wrap things up, but we're gonna still talk because I feel, because I'm getting tired because I'm old and sad now.
[01:50:45.630 --> 01:50:46.930]  Um, go ahead and stop in.
[01:50:47.570 --> 01:50:48.510]  I have a quick thing to say.
[01:50:49.110 --> 01:50:49.770]  Yeah, one more.
[01:50:50.210 --> 01:51:01.710]  Um, I, like, so, with Radio Stellar, what we'd, what we'd do is, like, sometimes it'd, I don't know, it'd be, like, 7 or 8 in the morning, and, like, we'd be the only people up, and you'd see people walking on the con floor, and you'd just, uh, pull people in.
[01:51:02.310 --> 01:51:12.530]  And, uh, I remember, uh, uh, one year, you know, it was, like, like, 7 or 8 in the morning, and, uh, we see, like, a, like, a, a super famous phone phreak.
[01:51:12.670 --> 01:51:15.130]  Like, if you Googled phreak in his name, it would come up.
[01:51:15.650 --> 01:51:18.610]  And, um, we're, we're interviewing just about, like, computers and stuff.
[01:51:18.750 --> 01:51:21.890]  Like, we don't like to talk about their talks, but, like, about their lives in general.
[01:51:22.530 --> 01:51:31.370]  And he gets a phone call, and he answers it, and it's someone from an Indian call center saying that he's having, like, his computer was hacked, and they need to help him fix it.
[01:51:32.090 --> 01:51:41.250]  And he was generally concerned that his computer was hacked and entertained this guy on the phone for, like, 30 minutes while we interviewed him.
[01:51:41.410 --> 01:51:41.530]  Yeah.
[01:51:41.690 --> 01:51:47.930]  The beginning of days of Statler, we actually had a phone you could dial in, which was the best, worst mistake from multiple cons.
[01:51:47.930 --> 01:51:48.170]  Oh, yeah.
[01:51:48.250 --> 01:51:50.350]  We had, like, a whole audit system for a while, yeah.
[01:51:50.350 --> 01:51:54.650]  And at five o'clock in the morning, we would entertain people who were listening from Australia, New Zealand.
[01:51:55.030 --> 01:51:59.550]  Uh, I think we had one person from Japan, one person from an unknown location.
[01:51:59.910 --> 01:52:01.210]  We never got Antarctica.
[01:52:01.490 --> 01:52:03.190]  Yeah, no, that was the goal, to get somewhere from Antarctica.
[01:52:03.190 --> 01:52:03.710]  That was the goal.
[01:52:03.810 --> 01:52:04.950]  We never quite achieved it.
[01:52:05.090 --> 01:52:07.590]  But it also goes to show what HOPE was.
[01:52:07.590 --> 01:52:14.970]  I mean, even people who were, you know, before COVID, people were remoting in and joining the conference, even if they couldn't be there physically.
[01:52:15.670 --> 01:52:16.690]  Yeah, we got every continent.
[01:52:17.330 --> 01:52:17.630]  Mm-hmm.
[01:52:18.110 --> 01:52:19.210]  Well, except for Antarctica.
[01:52:19.810 --> 01:52:19.930]  Yeah.
[01:52:20.430 --> 01:52:23.010]  I was still waiting for, like, a penguin or something to dial in for that.
[01:52:23.210 --> 01:52:33.330]  Um, I'm not going to go into too many details, but I will bring up another factoid, and if we want to do some details, because I'm just concerned about saying stories even without names, and then people run over and strangle me.
[01:52:34.170 --> 01:52:47.330]  One of the most interesting things, apparently, about the con was that, allegedly, at the first HOPE, like, the actual first one in 1994, they, by design, basically started the con with no rules, to some degree.
[01:52:47.570 --> 01:52:53.370]  So that way, every time a rule was made, there was always a horrific story about why that rule was made.
[01:52:53.630 --> 01:53:02.490]  I think the public one that everyone knows about, because it's been said publicly, I've seen them say it publicly so many times, was the first ever rule was no explosives at the con.
[01:53:02.770 --> 01:53:12.690]  And that was apparently from some asshole, because it's HOPE, had roaming candles, and was throwing them off the roof, because everything goes to the roof.
[01:53:12.890 --> 01:53:14.450]  And it wasn't even just that.
[01:53:14.830 --> 01:53:25.430]  One of the candles exploded and either cracked or shattered the window of the then girlfriend, now wife, who was the head of security at the time.
[01:53:26.910 --> 01:53:36.730]  So that, that's basically, so instead of just the usual, we're going to murder you, that was an extra, like, it wasn't just you pissed off, you pissed off like the big person who's now going to kick your ass.
[01:53:37.450 --> 01:53:43.610]  Um, I also, I don't know if I want to go into details of this, even though I could say it in a very non-detail way.
[01:53:44.510 --> 01:53:57.350]  I was not involved in the way you think, but I got to unfortunately witness a very famous rule, uh, that was announced at the con, which is that, um, all cons, including this one, were not allowed to bring any prostitutes at the con.
[01:53:58.650 --> 01:53:59.370]  And that has...
[01:53:59.370 --> 01:54:01.410]  Oh, God, I need therapy again.
[01:54:01.710 --> 01:54:01.970]  And that has...
[01:54:01.970 --> 01:54:04.230]  I have to ask, was Tim involved with them?
[01:54:04.650 --> 01:54:06.170]  No, from what I understand, no.
[01:54:06.570 --> 01:54:13.670]  Um, I guess I'll, I guess I'll try to summarize and go into it a little bit about what happened, and I'll leave the end part up to interpretation.
[01:54:14.050 --> 01:54:15.250]  Uh, cause it's not what you think.
[01:54:15.310 --> 01:54:18.110]  It's not that we, you know, we're hacks and planners, we had...
[01:54:18.110 --> 01:54:23.050]  Another person I remember who I dearly miss speaking here is Cable Flame speaking about hacking sex.
[01:54:23.250 --> 01:54:26.790]  We've had many of those along with Kit Stubbs and the rest of them.
[01:54:26.790 --> 01:54:29.230]  Um, uh, so it wasn't that we were against sex work or anything.
[01:54:29.430 --> 01:54:45.210]  What essentially happened was there was a, I believe they were a first-time attendee, and they were lonely, so they thought they'd bring a prostitute to the con to have someone there, both for that and just personal stuff.
[01:54:45.430 --> 01:54:50.770]  Which is normally, like, fine, as long as you're not breaking everything like the rest of the staff is breaking everything.
[01:54:50.910 --> 01:54:51.170]  We're good.
[01:54:52.330 --> 01:54:52.810]  Yeah.
[01:54:53.110 --> 01:54:54.530]  And that was the problem.
[01:54:54.530 --> 01:55:11.930]  The problem was, this guy, we've had this thing at hacker cons where a lot of people are coming in from no-name towns where they were, like, the elitest hacker there, and then they go to a con like HOPE or DEFCON or B-Sides and get a horrible rude awakening about,
[01:55:11.950 --> 01:55:14.510]  like, how big the knowledge pool is and stuff.
[01:55:14.510 --> 01:55:24.870]  So this bastard thought that he was such an amazing social engineer that he could somehow manipulate the pimp so that he could have the prostitute for free.
[01:55:24.970 --> 01:55:25.370]  He couldn't.
[01:55:27.090 --> 01:55:31.930]  That is actually one of the two top reasons why I stopped doing security.
[01:55:32.190 --> 01:55:32.450]  Yeah.
[01:55:32.930 --> 01:55:36.290]  And this is also the, like, absolute heroics of the security team.
[01:55:36.290 --> 01:55:40.150]  I mean, the AV staff looks like they're going to throw dives at me, so this might be the last thing.
[01:55:40.610 --> 01:55:42.210]  So I guess we're going to end with a bang here.
[01:55:42.390 --> 01:55:52.470]  So I got to witness this across because essentially I saw security, like, essentially dragging a dude over to essentially being interrogated by security.
[01:55:52.470 --> 01:56:09.270]  And this poor lady, who was forced to roped into this because I was informed, and I looked outside to see this, the pimp was there with two people who you could tell if you look were part of his group, where by the way they were dressed, we knew they were concealing weapons,
[01:56:09.430 --> 01:56:16.870]  and he wants this prostitute back and was willing to essentially fight the hotel and con in the worst way possible to do that.
[01:56:17.890 --> 01:56:20.250]  And that was the whole scandal thing.
[01:56:20.250 --> 01:56:23.470]  And I got to witness that whole thing going down.
[01:56:23.470 --> 01:56:25.190]  They also needed me to talk to some people.
[01:56:25.290 --> 01:56:36.510]  And then there was a revelation that I don't want to go into that was a surprise to apparently including the guy who initiated all of this that just made the whole situation even more worse.
[01:56:36.550 --> 01:56:43.970]  But the end of the story essentially was that guy, never saw again, probably got yeeted into the sun or worse from what I understood.
[01:56:44.270 --> 01:56:54.210]  The girl, we managed to contact one of her trusted friends and basically someone paid for a train ticket to go to some place to just get away from all of that.
[01:56:54.790 --> 01:56:56.130]  And then I was...
[01:56:56.130 --> 01:56:57.430]  Statue of limitations are over on this.
[01:56:57.630 --> 01:57:03.770]  I was part of what was called Team Distraction, where we literally Looney Tude styled the pimp of just like, we don't know, he went that way.
[01:57:03.850 --> 01:57:04.690]  I think I saw him.
[01:57:04.830 --> 01:57:07.430]  And he just went to a place that was nowhere.
[01:57:07.530 --> 01:57:09.730]  And we never saw any of them ever again.
[01:57:10.170 --> 01:57:15.390]  It was the most critical and best use of social engineering ever at a hacker conference.
[01:57:15.390 --> 01:57:17.750]  And there are people alive today thanks to it.
[01:57:17.870 --> 01:57:19.230]  Unlike what the other guy thought of.
[01:57:19.430 --> 01:57:23.490]  So I guess unless there's any more stories, because there's so much history that unfortunately...
[01:57:23.950 --> 01:57:32.490]  And then this is the key here, is that even if we have more stuff to tell right now, the hotel is gone.
[01:57:32.970 --> 01:57:35.630]  It's still being demolished, but like we can't access it anymore.
[01:57:35.630 --> 01:57:39.450]  Is there going to be an archive of all this, or are you guys just going to let people off?
[01:57:39.450 --> 01:57:42.010]  So save the hotel, so save Hotel Penn.
[01:57:42.250 --> 01:57:46.530]  There's still a bunch of stuff on there, which is where I got a lot from, from Pyro and the team.
[01:57:47.910 --> 01:57:49.850]  There's stuff on Facebook or YouTube.
[01:57:50.530 --> 01:57:53.410]  Neo's YouTube, which unfortunately I couldn't rip in time.
[01:57:54.210 --> 01:58:03.590]  He has videos when the Vernado was having a hearing about whether they should tear it down or not, which is actually one of the few videos because she passed away in 2016.
[01:58:03.590 --> 01:58:07.510]  I couldn't make that one, so I had my mom go over and read the whole thing I wrote.
[01:58:07.710 --> 01:58:14.170]  Which is, I lived in Massachusetts for many years, and Plymouth Rock is voted every year as the worst landmark.
[01:58:14.390 --> 01:58:15.890]  Like the lamest one in the United States.
[01:58:16.050 --> 01:58:19.770]  So we're like, why is this f*cking thing a landmark if somehow the hotel isn't?
[01:58:20.650 --> 01:58:25.470]  So there's all videos about that with former staff and everything all there.
[01:58:25.550 --> 01:58:27.570]  Do you have a historical society?
[01:58:27.750 --> 01:58:28.290]  What is this hotel?
[01:58:30.550 --> 01:58:32.270]  So there is a small one.
[01:58:32.270 --> 01:58:38.290]  They haven't just been really active because for a while, especially now, it's literally kind of just pyro after a while.
[01:58:38.370 --> 01:58:39.330]  More than anybody else.
[01:58:39.510 --> 01:58:39.810]  Right.
[01:58:40.110 --> 01:58:43.070]  What I am hoping for, and I'm actually going to...
[01:58:43.070 --> 01:58:46.390]  We don't need the audio for this, so I am going to mute this temporarily.
[01:58:48.110 --> 01:58:50.350]  Is I did see that...
[01:58:50.350 --> 01:59:01.070]  So before they decided to like just finally tear the whole thing down, there was this whole video about how they wanted to like celebrate one of its birthday.
[01:59:01.230 --> 01:59:05.150]  I think it was like its 90th birthday or whatever, and like renovate it and stuff.
[01:59:05.150 --> 01:59:11.150]  And one of the things that they made, if I can skip to it, is there was like a little museum area.
[01:59:12.090 --> 01:59:15.930]  And it would be... I know someone has a door from the original hotel.
[01:59:15.930 --> 01:59:18.230]  I don't know how they got it, but it's in their storage unit.
[01:59:18.390 --> 01:59:20.710]  But I would like to create like a...
[01:59:20.710 --> 01:59:28.570]  Maybe we could have a village every year at HOPE where it's just like a little like this sort of thing where it's a chunk of like all the stuff we were able to like save them from the hotel.
[01:59:28.690 --> 01:59:33.610]  Because I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this is like on eBay or in people's personal collections and stuff like that.
[01:59:33.610 --> 01:59:36.050]  So that would be a thing I would love to see.
[01:59:36.170 --> 01:59:47.650]  And just following up on the videos, if you do any search, whether it's DuckDuckGo or Google for Safe Hotel Pennsylvania Community Board 5, and look through the videos, you will find all those videos and all those hearings.
[01:59:49.730 --> 01:59:53.630]  So yeah, and the key I was going to get to is that we don't have access to the hotel.
[01:59:53.970 --> 01:59:58.050]  And again, it was a dump in its later years, but it was our dump.
[01:59:59.690 --> 02:00:01.830]  And now we're in Queens.
[02:00:01.830 --> 02:00:03.310]  I don't know why.
[02:00:03.650 --> 02:00:05.330]  But we are...
[02:00:05.330 --> 02:00:07.230]  No, I'm not saying it's the worst...
[02:00:07.230 --> 02:00:08.190]  It's been nowhere else to go.
[02:00:08.370 --> 02:00:08.770]  I mean...
[02:00:08.770 --> 02:00:08.950]  I know.
[02:00:09.290 --> 02:00:16.290]  Who else would put up with like thousands of hackers every two years, running rampant, going up to the roof, going down to the sub-sub-sub-sub-basement.
[02:00:16.690 --> 02:00:19.610]  And we've been placed as well as we found it.
[02:00:19.710 --> 02:00:24.590]  So we're going to be creating new memories here, but basically even the hotel is gone.
[02:00:24.830 --> 02:00:26.330]  That's the reason I want to do this panel.
[02:00:26.490 --> 02:00:27.410]  Is the hotel still there?
[02:00:27.570 --> 02:00:28.650]  It's just closed door.
[02:00:28.670 --> 02:00:30.810]  Yeah, there's demoing it in...
[02:00:30.810 --> 02:00:33.350]  Yeah, taking it down from the inside out.
[02:00:33.530 --> 02:00:34.030]  Yeah.
[02:00:34.530 --> 02:00:36.750]  But it's more of that...
[02:00:37.410 --> 02:00:42.090]  As sappy as it sounds, our memories of the hotel live with us.
[02:00:42.090 --> 02:00:45.390]  It lives with all the stuff that we said tonight and every person that attend...
[02:00:45.390 --> 02:00:46.530]  Is it going now like tonight, right now?
[02:00:46.590 --> 02:00:48.790]  Well, maybe we can organize that later.
[02:00:49.750 --> 02:00:55.010]  But the point I want to make is that like, you know, this is a new HOPE.
[02:00:55.130 --> 02:00:55.790]  So it's a new beginning.
[02:00:56.050 --> 02:01:03.470]  So we're kind of creating new memories and that the hotel for all of us who've attended all live with us.
[02:01:06.210 --> 02:01:12.110]  We just got here and it's literally being run by the man-man upstairs.
[02:01:14.250 --> 02:01:16.530]  Unless we can somehow get the dildo sculptures back.
[02:01:16.650 --> 02:01:16.890]  But yeah.
[02:01:17.650 --> 02:01:20.370]  So I'd like to thank, I know there's a ton of people.
[02:01:20.450 --> 02:01:23.570]  There's still a bunch of people in here, but thank you for all physically attending here.
[02:01:23.630 --> 02:01:27.270]  And thank you for everyone watching on the stream for this sort of retrospective.
[02:01:27.270 --> 02:01:30.170]  Thanks for being patient as we were setting up at the last minute.
[02:01:30.350 --> 02:01:32.830]  It was really hard to make this a funeral, but not a funeral.
[02:01:33.130 --> 02:01:36.090]  And I guess the way I'm going to close this out because I haven't been able to rip this.
[02:01:36.250 --> 02:01:39.430]  So this is going to be a fun adventure where I'm probably going to blue screen the computer.
[02:01:40.110 --> 02:01:41.290]  But if you were there...
[02:01:41.290 --> 02:01:42.510]  Oh, you're not using Edge.
[02:01:42.650 --> 02:01:43.810]  Oh, he's using Edge.
[02:01:44.730 --> 02:01:46.010]  It's the first thing I saw.
[02:01:46.850 --> 02:01:48.230]  I live on the Edge, man.
[02:01:48.950 --> 02:01:51.510]  So if I've entered this incorrectly...
[02:01:51.510 --> 02:01:55.430]  Now you think we're going to do the hotel, the Pennsylvania 65,000.
[02:01:55.430 --> 02:01:56.970]  And if I got here on time, we would do that.
[02:01:57.070 --> 02:01:59.430]  But there was a really famous way that The Last HOPE ended.
[02:01:59.530 --> 02:02:00.750]  I wanted to start the beginning of.
[02:02:00.930 --> 02:02:02.070]  So I think it's...
[02:02:04.470 --> 02:02:05.410]  This should bring it up.
[02:02:06.630 --> 02:02:10.310]  You can thank Johannes for this song that we all dance to.
[02:02:10.430 --> 02:02:12.350]  And it's up to you if you want to dance to it.
[02:02:13.250 --> 02:02:14.690]  But I am going to play it.
[02:02:20.390 --> 02:02:20.790]  Thank you.
[02:02:20.790 --> 02:02:24.990]  So I figured when we had the fake funeral at HOPE that this is kind of the...
[02:02:24.990 --> 02:02:36.250]  As much as I love Pennsylvania 65,000, it's kind of the great way to end it with the original way we ended The Last HOPE with this strange Eurovision song that Johanna has introduced us to on our mind.
[02:02:36.430 --> 02:02:37.150]  Thank you very much.
[02:02:37.370 --> 02:02:38.870]  Have a great rest of the con.
[02:02:39.090 --> 02:02:42.210]  Enjoy everything on Sunday, including Neo's talk tomorrow at 4pm.
[02:02:42.210 --> 02:02:44.090]  Thank you, fellow staff members.
[02:02:44.270 --> 02:02:46.090]  I hope to see you at the closing ceremonies.
[02:02:46.390 --> 02:02:47.990]  And have a great rest of the time.
[02:02:49.010 --> 02:02:52.550]  Let's go start new horrible memories so I can do another retrospective in 10 years.
[02:02:53.690 --> 02:02:55.330]  We just did it for the last two hours.
[02:02:58.070 --> 02:02:59.530]  Alright, I can't say this anymore.
[02:03:00.110 --> 02:03:02.990]  I don't remember what the thing was with Del.
[02:03:03.090 --> 02:03:04.290]  We were also moaning the audience.
[02:03:04.510 --> 02:03:07.990]  He was actually moaning the FBI agents that were spying on us.
[02:03:08.170 --> 02:03:08.750]  Yes, yes, yes.
[02:03:09.470 --> 02:03:10.070]  I'm gonna...