notacon 7

New for Notacon 6 wil be a room dedicated to games of all sorts. From console games old and new to board games of all types, we hope the gaming lounge will provide a social gathering place where gamers of all stripes can come, relax and play together.

The Rock Band competition will be a full band, 4player competition. It will be a single song of your choice from a pre-set list (all with similar score ranges). Each instrument can be any difficulty. There will be three prizes available, and the bands that win must be present at the end to accept their award:

Highest Score

Simple enough, just get the highest combined score. Harder difficulties have more notes available, long streaks and combined Overdrives push scores into the stratosphere. **

Rockingest Band

Rockingest Band is in the true spirit of Rock Band - having fun and rocking out! Windmills, freestyle vocals, and drumstick twirling are encouraged. The band that impresses the panel of Notacon judges the most will win this award, and crowd reaction will be considered. Show us your inner rock star!

** The band that wins Highest score will NOT be eligible for Rockingest Band, so come compete and have fun, even if you know you're not the best.

Best Band Name

In addition, we'll be giving a small prize to the band with the name that amuses us the most, subject to the whims of the Notacon judges. All bands are eligible, including winners of the previous two prizes.

The Rock Band competition will start 1pm on Saturday. Signup sheets will be available in the game room, and players MUST sign up by noon. You can signup as a full 4person band, or as a subset/single person, and we'll do our best to do matchups, with no guarantees (it's best to talk to your fellow Notaconers before-hand and get a group together).

Signup space WILL be limited, so get in quickly!

Too many kids, and a fair share of old farts, think the world runs on cat-5. It just ain't so! From the first smoke-signals and drumbeats of prehistory, to modern muti-gigabit optical links, there's a lot more to communication than just Ethernet frames riding twisted pair. This contest aims to celebrate the long and varied history of communication.

For up to date rules and information, see the Notacon Wiki AbE page.

What happens when a good time goes bad? Imagine you are traveling south of the border and are kidnapped by criminals intent on extortion. Could you use your wits, stealth, and a hidden set of lockpicks to escape to freedom?

This year at Notacon, The Open Organization of Lockpickers will be running a scenario-based game in which contestants must use picking skills to free themselves from evil captors in under five minutes.

The course will offer a variety of locks representing a range of difficulty, allowing participation by people of all skill levels. Points will be awarded based on the time of completion as well as the difficulty of locks attempted. Big fun for all involved and a super-kickass prize for the winner.... come and have fun being a Gringo Warrior!

Picture yourself about to give a presentation in front of hundreds of people... lights shining in your eyes, microphones tuned to amplify your every utterance, video and audio recordings to prove that you in fact did just say that. Imagine that your audience is itching to heckle you or otherwise make your life difficult. Realize you have never before seen the slide show you are about to present on, nor know anything about the topic!

Sound like your worst nightmare? NO! This is "Whose Slide is it Anyway?" Borrowed from the Chaos Computer Club's "Powerpoint Karaoke", and loosely from the show of a similar name, where the points don't matter!

Random personalities, presenters, and maybe even YOU (if you are brave enough), will be put on stage and have 5 minutes to successfully present a small random PowerPoint slide show on a randomly chosen topic. Audience members will vote via boos, hisses, claps, shouts and other utterances.

Come for the laughs! Stay for the embarrassment! We have no idea if this is going to work, but it's worth a shot. Hey, if the CCC can do it, why can't we?

Notacon will again be hosting an offical Fark party in the hotel bar, Friday night at 8. Drew will be there! Those not attending Notacon are welcome to join us! Please check the Hotel & Travel page for directions.

All attendees of Notacon are welcomed to join in as we see how many people and instruments we can cram into one mixer, all performing live.

Some instruments will be provided (guitars, keyboards, turntables and who knows what else). However feel free to bring your own instruments, voice, weird electronic toy, bongo drum or whatever else you have lying around that could theoretically play music of some sort. It will be our goal to provide a MIDI sync for digital instrumentation. Please bring extra cables, mixers, etc. and make sure to label everything if you expect it to be returned!

We intend to break the session into different parts to allow each session to have it's own time and space and, hopefully, its own unique feel.

After the jam session, we will open the stage and turntables to DJs wishing to spin records or perform a live set. A sign-up sheet will be provided.

The Notacon Radio project is back for another year. We hit the airwaves on Friday and we don't stop until the ball drops on Closing Ceremonies.

This is a great chance to have some fun while you mingle and BS with your fellow Notaconners. We are looking for people who are interested in doing a live (or even pre-recorded) show. It can be art or tech themed, or just consist of random thoughts about life and the universe in general--it's entirely up to you! The only caveat is: NO MUSIC. Our goal is 48+ hours of solid Notacon-interest radio.

Questions? Ideas? A burning desire to ramble for an hour about the elegance of the CPU scheduling algorithm for the MULTIX operating system? Please email the the Notacon radio station manager at krnlpanik@notacon.org or jason@textfiles.com and they will be happy to help.

Also, check out the website: http://www.notaconradio.org/

Lock picking is a safe and fun sport that can be shared by anyone. The Fraternal Order of Locksport (FOOLS) will be hosting a lock picking arena where people can buy lock picks, learn how to use them, and witness various bypass and decoding methods. Several locks will be available to test your skills or learn new techniques. We will also have a mounted Group 2 Sargent and Greenleaf safe dial for people to inspect and try their hand at safe cracking.

This year we will also have several sport challenges. Gringo Warrior (presented by TOOOL US) will be here again, along with speed picking towers, and a special contest involving several aspects of security and hacking. We have worked to guarantee that the displays, lectures, and techniques will be unlike any other venue that you may have visited in the past.

This event is for demonstration and educational purposes only. FTS Conventures and Notacon do not condone breaking state or federal law.

This year Notacon will have it's own special event Ham Radio station, N6C. Please see the Notacon Wiki Ham Radio page for more information on the station and how to get involved.

The station will run the entire weekend of Notacon. Anyone interested in Ham Radio or already licensed is invited to participate.

Amateur Radio License Exam Session - Sunday 9:00 AM

Notacon will feature a amateur radio license exam in the N6C room on the second floor. The exact room is yet to be determined. Walk-ins are welcome. Please register for your FRN the FCC website before coming to the VE exam session, so that you do not have to provide your social secuirty number when registering.

More information is available from arrl.org

How did your Notacon and Blockparty go? This is your chance to give input directly to those running the event! Without it, we really have no idea what it is you want nor how better to run the event so that everyone can get more out of it! We encourage questions and suggestions. What event was the most fun? What presentation made you think the most? Which demo did you think really deserved top honors? Did you learn anything new this year?

This event wrap-up will include a breakdown of Notacon costs and go over some of the numbers that make Notacon happen.

Make your voice heard! There will also be written feedback forms that will help us to plan for next year.

After many intense days of competition, including untold hours spent before Blockparty to compose and develop the various compo submissions, find out who is top dog. Come support the artists, musicians and programmers who put in so much hard work into their entries!

Many awesome prizes will be awarded.

After three tireless days working the event and 362 days of planning, Froggy will clutch the podium for dear life and give Notacon and Blockparty a final farewell for the year

If he is in the mood, he may hand out awards to the remaining Notacon attendees for whatever categories he comes up with at the last minute. Traveled the furthest to get here? Had the funniest hack of Notacon? You name it, he'll likely think of it. If he's still awake and sane. Prizes will be handed out at his discretion.