The world's first nanotech CAD/CAE software is developed locally to Penguicon, runs on Linux, and is open source under the GPL. And Mark Sims, president of Nanorex, will present about it at Penguicon!

Nanorex is a company based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan that employs K. Eric Drexler, the Father of Molecular Nanotechnology, as Chief Technical Advisor. (Dr. Drexler telecommutes from his home in California.) Other advisors include names I recognize from frequent mentions on Nanodot, the blog of Penguicon's 2007 Science Guest of Honor Christine Peterson-- names such as Ralph Merkle, J. Storrs Hall, and Robert Freitas, Jr.

Their product is Nanoengineer-1, which uses a detailed and accurate model of the laws of physics to simulate atomic interactions in 3D. Engineers can design and test nanosystems in this software rather than use trial and error with the expensive and slow mechanosynthesis process of one real, physical molecule at a time. It is for Windows, Mac and Linux. It is open source under the GPL.

Again: the world's first nanotech CAD/CAE software is developed locally to Penguicon, runs on Linux, and is open source under the GPL! And you get to see it at Penguicon 5.0!

BoingBoing has an entry about a capsule vending machine at Foo Camp which sold little gears, motors, switches, and other spare parts.

Hmm, what might Penguicon do if we had one of those vending machines? It would be neat to fill the capsules with iButtons. That's a cheap uniquely identified computer chip, which can hold a smidgen of data, enclosed in a tiny stainless steel can. You touch it to a contact to transfer the data.

But what to do with it? Would purchasing an iButton for $.50 at Penguicon...
Grant entry into some kind of alternate reality game or scavenger hunt, which requires you to find the contact points around the convention, and touch the chip to them?
Operate a beer-dispensing Keg Bot like they did at DefCon?
Let you register your head-count presence at a panel or other event?
What do you think?

"Bruce Schneier's secure handshake is so strong, you won't be able to exchange keys with anyone else for days."

"Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes."

"Quantum cryptography exchanged the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for the Schneier Dead Moral Certainty Principle when Bruce Schneier came to town."

... and so on. More Bruce Schneier Facts are added every day, and they now number in the hundreds!

-Matt Arnold

P.S. The reason why it's funny (for anyone who might not already know), is that it is a parody of another parody, "Chuck Norris Facts".