The winning hacks included creations like a mobile application built on Yahoo! Blueprint that lets you look up government information and laws that apply to the region you’re standing in at that moment, a BOSS hack that lets you find information about your favorite bands, a Flickr app that alerts you when the copyright status of a photo you are using has changed (to keep you out of trouble), a SearchMonkey hack that adds category links in Yahoo! search results for Wikipedia, and a great green hack that lets you track your fuel consumption and mileage via your mobile device.

And while hacking is serious business, there’s always time for comic relief (as fans of Mo Kakwan, hacker-cum-standup-comedian, can attest — he had our Sunnyvale crowd crying with laughter at two consecutive open hacks). For what little sleeping and relaxing there was, the Yahoo! Brazil team provided large purple beanbag “puffs.” And two opportunistic Brazilian hackers decided to make them the centerpiece of a video that showcased 18 highly-inventive uses for said puffs. This included turning them into kayaks, race cars, mechanical bulls, recycling bins, stone circles, TV sets, soccer goals, beer steins, and more. Their puff hackery won them a “”Using the Environment” award. Watch their video here:

Puff Hacking from fczuardi on Vimeo.

For that “just like being there” feeling, check out the brhackday08 Flickr tags and read about it on Twitter (Portuguese recommended). Till the next open hack!

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor