MacHack 2003 Coming Up

Carlos Finque writes "MacHack: The Annual Conference for Leading Edge Developers2003 is coming up! The conference run by developers for the benefit of developers will be held in Dearborn, Michigan from June 19th through the 21st. And 'through' is meant literally: 72 hours of a non-stop mixture of hacking (on keyboards not networks), sessions, and lots of superb people. The session topics range from programming to security-related issues. The keynote starts one minute after midnight on the 19th and is held by Ken Arnold."

Meh

[dogzilla]

Now that MacHack's started charging for downloads of the Machack contest entrants it's really hard to give a shit about a bunch of caffeine-crazed geeks coding all night, eating pizza out of the boxes and smelling sweaty. I mean, without public access to the downloads, MacHack is basically just the same thing you can find on any college campus computer room any given Friday night.

I'll dutifully read the articles after the show's over to see if anyone did something really interesting - I doubt they will - but I can easily do without the buildup and blow-by-blow descriptions. Who gives a crap, really?

Re:Meh

[SandSpider]

I'm sorry, you're on which site for nerds? Oh, I know, many in the slashdot crowd want everything for free, but remember, bandwidth costs money now.

The point behind MacHack isn't really getting the hacks (though that's fun), nor is reading about the caffeine-crazed geeks. It's about getting a bunch of the most talented programmers in the Mac universe and gathering them together for a weekend. It's pretty much the same as your college campus friday night, except for the scale. It's about fun and learning and trying new things in an atmosphere you don't have access to all the time.

=Brian

I can't wait

[theIG]

I just registered couple of weeks ago. This year will be my first time. Me and NilObject [slashdot.org] are going. At first, I thought, "Well, there must be a lot of regualar attendees that are /. members, why hasn't anyone posted?, but then I realized, there isn't much to say after what was said on the front page. [slashdot.org] Anyway, I have been checking out the machack cd's from nilObject, getting all psyched. Are any of you ./ers out there going? I know you are?

Re:I can't wait

[jonjohnson]

I wonder how many other PMD'ers there are reading /. that are going to MacHack ;) Nil, Finlay Dobbie [slashdot.org], me (I'm not newsworthy), and a lot of other people form the regular crowd at PMD. For the uninitiated, PMD is a host of a hotline macintosh programming community at the address pmd.cc. If you feel like checking it out, use "leet" as the username with no password. I didn't chose the login, and our intelligence is somewhat higher than is reflected by the username (Well, some of us anyway...)

One of the best Mac Hacks...

[thatguywhoiam]

... was that guy who wrote an app to use the Dock zooming icons as a graphic equalizer for iTunes. [versiontracker.com] It was just so stunningly retarded in execution (hint: you didn't get to use your mouse while it was running... yup, that's what it did).. and yet such a funny idea, I had to give the guy credit.

Plus I think he wrote it in something like 6 hours, while high on Code Red.

Re:One of the best Mac Hacks...

[edbarrett]

Check out 1998's [hax.com] winner:

The title of Best Hack and the coveted Victor A-Trap trophy went to asciiMac, the hands-down favorite hack. Written by a team of first-time MacHackers, Alexandra Ellwood and Miro Jurisic's hack wowwed and amazed the late night crowd. This retro-hack renders the entire screen in ASCII art in real time. The crowd thrilled to demonstrations of the hack's artistic prowess as it ASCII-converted running QuickTime movies and Windows 95 under PC emulation.

Re:One of the best Mac Hacks...

[ihatewinXP]

Was Macjive [http://www.hax.com/MacHack/hacks99.html] - A control panel for OS9, that tunred not only what you typed into striaght 70's jive but all of the menus as well. (Imagine the Apple menu with items such as "Stash Exchange" and "Locashun Managa" - truly odd). The week after i installed it I recieved so many replies to my email first asking me if I had lost my mind, then asking me how my PC using buddies could use it (sorry guys, you're just not 'down').

And now this post in macjive

A control panel fo' OS9 dat turned not only what ya' typed in straight 70's JIBE but all of de menus as well. (Imagine da Apple menu with such as "Stash Exchange" and "Locashun Managa" - truly odd). De week afta' I installed it I recieved so many replies t' my email fust askin' me if I had lost my mind, den askin' me how my PC using buddies could use it (sorry guys, ya''re just not 'down'). What it is, mama. Sheeeiit.

SushiPlot

[yroJJory]

I want SushiPlot for OS X. C'mon, MacHackers!!!