Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

[Mongo]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

Another Philly one - Mutter Museum - home of medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment. It's awesome.

Wikipedia Entry

[Bbox]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

Well if you can find some time somehow in Vegas around 10:00 in the morning, Check out the Neon museum and bone yard. They say you need to make reservations way in advance, however they often have last minute available spots. It really is a great tour!

http://neonmuseum.org/

[sintax_error]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

Though I've never actually been, I've heard nothing but good things about The Spy Museum in Washington DC.

Near Alamagordo, NM The Trinity Test Site (unofficial page) on the White Sands Missile Range is open to the public twice a year. All I can say is that standing in the room where the "gadget" was assembled, standing on the spot where the world's first nuclear device was detonated is an experience for any science/history geek.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

i haven't been in a little while, but as a kid the Franklin Institute was my favorite place in Philadelphia.

[astcell]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

England:
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ : See the Enigma and Bombe, WWII decoding, and home of the modern computer.

[thejesterrace87]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA

http://www.computerhistory.org/

[Thorn]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

The Museum of Science, Boston. All around geeky goodness.


National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles Airport. Where else are you gonna see the Enterprise, an SR-71 Blackbird, and the Enola Gay? Besides, the Space Shuttle simulator is not to be missed. You may loose your lunch, but you'll be thinking you made orbit.

... or you can order the reindeer stew ...

Well, THAT explains the lack of presents this year!

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

Norwegian Resistance Museum

hear hear... i second that. one of the best spots to check out in Oslo. (along with the Viking Ship museum and dinner at Stortorvets Gjæstgiveri... one of the few places where you can taste whale. or you can order the reindeer stew and you may never want to come home again)

[renderman]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

http://www.mil.no/felles/nhm/start/eng/

The Norwegian Resistance Museum has been a frequent spot I've visited in Olso, Norway. It's amazing how much of the hacker spirit you can see in their creative solutions to fighting in oppressive conditions.

[noid]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

Museum of Communications in Seattle, WA. In addition to being a good telco history museum, they have a functioning crossbar switch.

Also, the Seattle Pinball Museum located in the ID/Chinatown neighborhood.

[theprez98]

Re: Hacker-type games/events, and geekish places to visit around the world...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gam...easure_hunt%29 where I see mention of this game being played in many other places, including Seattle.

Anyone care to comment about this game if you have played it in Seattle? If not, elsewhere?

as the Wikipedia article mentions, the movie Midnight Madness was based on The Game. It's a cheesy 80s movie, but it's fun too.

[TheCotMan]

When I travel to different locations, I often seek out events and spots that interest me. What places have you found in your travels or in locations near you that you like or are interested in seeing?

Some examples:

Bay Area, CA:
* Exploratorium: Many exhibits designed to demonstrate discoveries in science, or properties of systems and the world around us.
* NIKE MIssile Base: SF-88: Docent lead tours with history of how the base was run. Good stories from people that actually worked at Nike Missile bases.

Los Angeles area, CA:
* Discovery Science Center

Las Vegas, NV:
* Atomic Testing Museum: History of nuclear weapons and research.

Fort George G. Meade, MD
* National Cryptologic Museum: Not just crypto, but surveillance, and parallel computing. Best way to go here is see if any Docent are giving tours and walk with them.

Paderborn, Germany:
* Heinz Nixdorf Forum: technical museum with history of mechanical computation, electronic computation, a working "mechanical" PBX (electronic with lots of moving parts and telephones), computers calculators, a small crypto exhibit, "hacking" exhibit featuring commentary on people like Wosniac and the CCC, and more. Very little English. (Their website has more English support than their museum,and the people that run it look at you like you are going to steal or break stuff, but it was one of the better technical museums I've been to in Germany.)

Oranienburg Germany (Northeast, or Southeast of Sachsenhausen Germany):
* Sachsenhausen: Tours of prisons, concentration camps, and places where people face significant resource restrictions can reveal examples of humans providing intelligent, and clever inventions that re-purpose existing tools and technology for other uses. (Sounds like hacking, doesn't it? :: "necessity is the mother of invention.") This takes many forms from weapons to tattoo guns, to fermentation to yield alcohol. Yes, there is more to learn than this narrow focus at these sites, but I am trying to avoid the "no politics" rule we have. (Google Maps) I've visited other prisons, and prison museums to find that inmates/prisoners can be clever and ingenious when it comes to re-purposing what they have into what they need or want.

Denmark:
* Experimentarium: Many exhibits designed to demonstrate discoveries in science, or properties of systems and the world around us. Most exhibits support Danish, German, English and French.

What places can you suggest or recommend to other people as good for geeks/nerds/hackers to visit?

Also, a recent strip from AbstruseGoose mentions both http://www.penn.museum/ and http://www.freekesef.com/ which brought me to visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gam...easure_hunt%29 where I see mention of this game being played in many other places, including Seattle.

Anyone care to comment about this game if you have played it in Seattle? If not, elsewhere?