When it comes to tracking people's every movement—or "location-aware applications" if you're trying to sound less creepy—nothing beats the badges at hacker conferences.

He's been called a snitch, a traitor, even a war criminal. He's receiving death threats regularly. But Sunday Adrian Lamo took the stage at HOPE 2010 to defend his decisions, and then sat down with Gizmodo.

NYU professor Gabriella Coleman opened this profoundly profanity laced academic talk with a question: why have internet enthusiasts been drawn to denounce Scientology so vehemently for two decades? Scientology, she explained, has provided a perfect nemesis for geekery.

The part of scheduled keynote speaker Julian Assange, the Australian hacker US agents have made it clear they would like to question, was played by Jake Appelbaum today at HOPE.

Jeff Potter plays with his food, and wants to get you to as well. He experiments with equipment, techniques, chemistry, even the psychology and genetics of flavor. Sometimes it's delicious, and sometimes he blows up the kitchen. Sometimes both.

The idea began over beers. Johannes Grenzfurthner (of Monochrom) and friends wondered if the notion that porn drives technology really was true or urban myth. So, they decided, why not organize a public event and find out?