HOPE X, which took place in New York this past weekend, is one of the premiere events of the hacker calendar. The Cryptosphere correspondent Douglas Lucas was there, presenting on a panel, schmoozing over sushi, sneaking into the press room, and … but that would be telling!

Thursday

On my Thursday flight to the tenth Hackers on Planet Earth convention, half-asleep and writing my part for the Project PM panel, I wondered what this article—which I’m writing on the plane back—would report. Figured the weekend would be a thorny mix of “total surveillance NSA surveillance is a dire emergency wracking ruin on humanity RIGHT NOW” and passing out business cards.

The plane trip back, by the way, is enlivened by an email from an editor, asking why my latest article was doing so well on social media. Turned out WikiLeaks had tweeted the link. So, that was…