Stay Off the Grid, Win $10,000

DariusD writes "Last summer, Wired writer Evan Ratliff wrote a story about how people erase their identities and start over. After it ran, he tried to disappear — spending 25 days on the lam until a few enterprising Wired readers tracked him down through some brilliant hacking and sleuthing. Now we're going to try the experiment again. Evan, Wired, Loneshark Games and I are working with Universal Pictures to do another, similar contest connected to the new film Repo Men, and this time we want you to go on the run. We need four applicants willing to disappear from their lives from late February to late March. If they can stay hidden for that time period, they'll end up with $10,000 each."

If only I were still Unemployed...

[RemusX2]

This is a great opportunity for those unemployed to ,well, still be unemployed!

Dear Boss,

[boneglorious]

I'll be out of the office for a month. Please ignore the anonymous person checking stuff into the svn repo, I swear it isn't me...

Re:Dear Employee,

[DeadDecoy]

That's fine, I'll also ignore sending pay-checks to this anonymous fellow as well, as he clearly isn't you.

Don't do it!

[lupinstel]

I have seen this setup many times before. Once you sign up you are soon hunted for sport by wealthy businessmen and heads of state. You will disappear forever and "win" the $10,000, but your stuffed and mounted corpse won't be able to spend it from the underground chamber it is displayed in. I have seen this happen; beware.

Obligatory

[PPH]

1. Create a phony identity.
2. Apply for the Wired "Off The Grid" contest.
3. Stop using that identity for the duration of the contest.
4. ?????
5. Profit!

Re:I'm in !

[cayenne8]

Looks like the website has learned how to disappear!!

:)

Maybe it knows the importance of not being seen... [youtube.com]

How to win

[Anonymous Coward]

First, Slashdot the grid...

Re:Bin Laden comes to mind...

[tibman]

Congratulations on winning 10k$ !! Please come down to our office and collect it anytime.. day or night.. we'll wait.

Re:Uh, but you can't drop off the grid...

[noidentity]

Yeah, I too was disappointed on reading the rules. I was thinking, "yes, living in the basement and rarely going out will finally pay off!"

web server

[commodoresloat]

"If you are the owner or webmaster for this web site please contact your web site hosting company's support department."

It looks like the webserver for this story entered the contest.

Re:Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

This time of year, you'd probably want to choose a park in the southern parts of the country -- the accompanying Deliverance joke is left as an exercise to the reader -- but that's about it. Even if you're the governor of South Carolina -- the Appalachian Trail is the last place they'd look for you.

Take a battery-operated boom box with a CD full of some banjo music just in case anyone from civilization gets too close for comfort. Turn on the banjo music and watch them run.

Re:Easy

[JackieBrown]

I'd love 10 grand to go on a month long backpacking trip, and you better believe a lot of other people would too!

The problem is that you will eventually run across mutant wilderness hillbillies.

Re:Easy

[EchaniDrgn]

... no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.