We're happy to announce that one of our keynote addresses at HOPE Number Nine this summer will be given by The Yes Men, in what will surely be a lively, enlightening, and inspirational presentation.

We have the special HOPE rates for Hotel Pennsylvania this July and we're happy to say that the rates are just about the same as they were last time we did this in 2010. Here's the breakdown for the nights of July 10th through July 14th:

$139 - 1 bed (single or double)
$149 - 1 twin bed room
$169 - 2 beds (twins or 2 double beds)

For those staying beyond Sunday, the prices go down even more for July 15th and July 16th:

$99 - 1 bed (single or double)
$119 - 2 beds (twins or 2 double beds)

HOPE Number Nine will be taking place from Friday, July 13th through Sunday, July 15th, 2012 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City.

To take advantage of this discounted rate (which sold out along with the entire hotel last time), call +1 212 736 5000 or ask your operator to connect you to Pennsylvania 6-5000 in New York City. (Go ahead, try it.) When you get to the reception desk, be sure to mention that you want the HOPE rate.

For those of you who'd rather not use a telephone, simply go to http://tinyurl.com/hopehotel and adjust the dates of your stay accordingly within the green squares. (Make sure the Group Code says HOPE.)

We've opened up the submission process for speaker entries at HOPE Number Nine, to be held at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City from July 13th to 15th, 2012.

We have decided to show our solidarity with the opponents of the SOPA and PIPA bills and black out our websites on Wednesday, January 18th.

We have officially opened up preregistration for the latest Hackers On Planet Earth conference: HOPE Number Nine, which will be taking place at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City from July 13th to July 15th, 2012. Just click here to begin the process. These tickets are still priced well below what's charged at the door, a savings of nearly 20 percent. But we believe that the full price is still an incredible bargain, considering all of the talks and fun that are found at a typical HOPE conference.

The brand new Winter issue of 2600 is now officially out in all sorts of different places and versions. Hopefully you won't have much trouble finding us in bookstores. You may have more of a challenge finding bookstores in the first place. While we're still getting over the loss of Borders, you should be able to easily find us in every Barnes and Noble and other chains, along with a whole bunch of independent bookstores and newsstands. If you're a subscriber, an issue may have already arrived at your home, office, or school. If you're more of the electronic bent, you will have already received the Winter issue if you have a Kindle subscription. You can also get a Kindle subscription in the U.K. The Kindle Publications subscription is available for Kindles, Android, and iOS devices. Issues are also available individually in the subscription section. For those of you using Mac and PC devices, individual issues are available in the standalone Kindle Book format. You can also get this version in U.K., France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. We also have an epub version available for the Nook or almost every other ereader. And we intend to keep adding more, as long as there is a demand.

Possibly.

In a story that all of us seem to have missed a couple of weeks ago (possibly because it was in the New York Post), Vornado Realty Trust is having second thoughts about tearing down the Hotel Penn (home of our biennial HOPE conferences), at least in the near future. There are a number of reasons, none of which are a huge surprise: the overall state of the economy, the prospect of new commercial buildings going up in surrounding areas which will make it all the harder to get tenants for yet another office tower, and the fact that the hotel brings in a ton of money.

We never said it would be permanent.

Since January, we have been offering a 60 percent discount on available back issues from the 20th century. We did this in order to help clear out space in our bulging warehouse and it's worked out quite well. So on January 1st, we're going to be putting the price back to where it was.