# Set Phasers to Disrupt

2012-09-07

Time for [even more hackathons](https://rog.gy/hackathons). First up this month, I’ll be at the [TechCrunch Disrupt SF Hackathon](https://techcrunch.com/events/disrupt-sf-hackathon-2012/), where I’m planning on building a PSaaS. Just what is a PSaaS? You’ll have to wait and find out (no, Google won’t help). Rest assured it will be [radical, impactful, and not very transparent](https://watch.vooza.com/post/27284828649/radimparency).


Then it’s off to Mozilla’s Ignite [Hackanooga Hack Day](https://hackanooga-2012.eventbrite.com/) in Chattanooga, TN. Attendees will be collaborating on projects that utilize the city-wide gigabit fiber network, which sounds like a very good reason to relocate to Chattanooga. I’m planning on a distributed computation engine along the lines of [Folding@home](https://folding.stanford.edu/) and related projects, but with a focus on what can be done when clients are hyperconnected processors rather than separate workers. I’m not fully decided what exactly that means yet, so [I’m open to suggestions](https://rogerpincombe.com/contact).


Then comes [THack](https://www.tnooz.com/2012/08/02/event/thack-event/thack-developer-hackathon-heads-west-silicon-valley-here-we-come/), a travel industry hackathon culminating in an event at SFO on September 20th. As an avid yet cheapo traveler and a member of the [FlyerTalk community](https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/), I am really excited about all the travel industry API’s that we have access to. They give participants access to a ton of data and API’s that are normally not available to anyone but the largest enterprise companies, tightly guarded under restrictive contracts and astronomically high prices. It’s a treasure trove of official data from airlines, airports, hotels, rental cars, even trains. There is data directly from traditional backend GDS systems (like Amadeus), high-level systems (like Expedia), aggregators that power some of the more powerful travel search engine websites (like TravelPort), and others. Can you tell I’m more than a little excited?


Anyway, since January I’ve been traveling the country competing in hackathons and living off of my [winnings](https://rogerpincombe.com/awards). But flights (especially last-minute flights) cost a lot and I make surprisingly little income off of the hackathon cash prizes (most hackathons don’t have much cash in their prizes). Sometimes companies sponsor my flights, and I want to open an offer to anyone that may be interested: in exchange for you helping pay for my flights, I could use your technology in various hackathons around the country (or even around the world). It would be great exposure for a company that has some awesome new technology. You probably already sponsor hackathons, why not sponsor hackathonners? If that sounds like an idea worth discussing, I encourage you to [get in touch](https://rogerpincombe.com/contact). In the meantime I’m gonna go win some more hackathons.



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**UPDATE**: My Disrupt Hackathon entry, PardonTheDisruption, was a success. Check it out at [PardonTheDisruption.org](https://pardonthedisruption.org/). “What happens when hundreds of conference attendees all get calls at the same time from a system that knows a bit too much? Part public service announcement about privacy, part call to action, and part social experiment. I hope you will Pardon the Disruption as I take internet data collection to a new level.” [Here is the video of my demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7pZlVnP0b4) at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon 2012 at which [I won special mention](https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/09/meet-the-disrupt-sf-2012-hackathon-winners-livebolt-takes-grand-prize-auctopus-and-heatdata-are-runners-up/) (top 7 out of 151).