DefCon Ninja Badges Let Hackers Do Battle

eecue writes "The folks at DefCon, the world's largest hacker convention [previously on Slashdot], have been making awesome badges for years. Last year along with the convention badge, a group of hackers known as the Ninjas created an electronic badge for their exclusive party. This year the Ninjas have taken the whole electronic badge thing to the next level with an interactive, wireless, encrypted ninja battle video game badge. I convinced the Ninjas to give Wired.com an exclusive sneak peek, and let me tell you, this thing is awesome."

Re:Ninjas win

[Drakkenmensch]

And if you read even more carefully, you learn that these were MADE by a group called "The Ninjas". Not "the ninjas and the pirates".

It's the Ninja from Bruce Lee!

[beej]

It's from the game Bruce Lee for the C64. That I recognized it has to be worth at least one geek point. ;-)

http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Bruce_Lee [c64-wiki.com]

Re:Wireless is cheap, why so unpopular?

[tlhIngan]

Now that wireless hardware is so cheap I'm surprised we don't see more of these made commercially. Why are there so few of those little handheld electronic games that have wireless connectivity? They could sell like 4 of em together in one package.

They're too expensive.

If we take a BOM cost of maybe $15 for all those parts and assembly and such, you're looking at a toy that'll sell for $60+. Which is a super-expensive toy - parents balk at paying that much. The ideal toy price is around $20 - $10 is great, $30 is tops, and $50 is expensive.

Those little electronic handheld games that sell for $10 probably cost $1 in total cost to the manufacturer, and the retailer probably paid $5 for it (probably $6-7 after warehouse and shipping and such). $20 game may probably cost $3 to manufacture.

If the manufacturer was making low margins, that $15 badge would probably sell for $25 wholesale and maybe $50 MSRP.

If you think those margins are high, remember they include store overhead, defect overhead (many of these things are just thrown away if a customer returns it as defective, and the manufacturer and retailer look at those return rates to determine how much will be paid), plus shipping from manufacturer to retailer warehouse to retailer. Plus, when the retailer starts discounting as well...

Re:News for nerds, stuff that matters

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, a conference badge?

If you clicky on the story, you'll see that this is fucking hard-core nerd rampage material. You'd be hard-pressed to find anything more nerdy than this, you ignorant fuck. Know of any other conference badges that let you wirelessly play Ninja attack games with others who have the same badge? No? Then shut your fucking pie hole, and go back to Kansas and teach about Intelligent Dipshit to all the retards.

Re:Wireless is cheap, why so unpopular?

[Anonymous Coward]

i believe that game you speak of was Hasbro's Pox.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-O-X
http://www.streettech.com/archives_gadget/pox.html

Re:Somebody give these guys a job

[CohibaVancouver]

please provide some backup for your claim of what "every sleep scientist on the planet" will tell me

A good source for this stuff is the National Sleep Foundation - Lots of good science. To cut to the chase -

http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need [sleepfoundation.org]

See "How much sleep do you really need" table 2/3s of the way down.

Quote: Though research cannot pinpoint an exact amount of sleep need by people at different ages, the table identifies the "rule-of-thumb" amounts most experts have agreed upon.

I personally fall within the majority on the bell curve - I need around 8 hours per night. Sounds like you're in the minority and do well with less.