The MacHack conference website appears to be:

http://www.machack.com/

MacHack takes place in June in Dearborn, Michigan. Macintosh programmers, hackers, kooks, and wonks from all over come to MacHack to hobknob, network, and occasionally write a clever hack to thrill and amuse. MacHack hacks are often the result of intimate knowledge of how Apple’s software systems work, and is a fairly good place to learn obscure and deep details about your favorite software components. Be warned, MacHack features 72 hours of consecutive programming, and is not for the weak.

At the Hack Show, on the third day, MacHackers who chose to write a hack demonstrate them to the rest of the MacHack attendees. On the last day, attendees vote for their 5 favorite hacks, and later that day, awards are given out at a banquet.

The grand prize? The coveted Victor A-Trap, a prestigious and glamorous award: A rat trap with the R and the T scratched off. (If you’re at this site, there’s maybe a 50% chance that you’ll understand the symbolism.) It is given only to the first-place winner (usually). [note1]

http://www.atommic.com/images/ATrap3.jpg

[note1] The one exception, as far as I know, is MacHack 17 (16th annual hack show), at which an A-Trap was given to both first place winner Quinn “The Eskimo” for his FireStarter hack, and also to second place winner, 12 year old AdamAtlas for his News Tracker news program.

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Annoyingly the dates don’t coincide with school holidays for those of us outside the US. I’ll most likely be in the middle of my GCSEs when this year’s MacHack takes place. Grrr!

– FinlayDobbie

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I know its a tad late…but who is attending this year other than MatPeterson and GormanChristian?

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SlavaKarpenko will lurk around for sure. =)

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It’s being renamed AdHoc next year ( http://www.adhocconf.com ).

I hear the name change is due to disputes between the machax group (that owns the name), and the folks who put on the conference.