Stay Off the Grid, Win $10,000 228
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."
Bin Laden comes to mind... (Score:1, Informative)
I'm guessing he'll be getting the 10 grand.
Better link (Score:3, Informative)
The Instruction Manual (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.howtobeinvisible.com/ [howtobeinvisible.com]
After several months of unemployment, I landed a job a couple weeks ago otherwise this would be a cakewalk.
1. Pay cash for EVERYTHING.
2. If you must use a PC, use a foreign proxy. (To check in by the rules, etc.)
3. If you must use a phone, keep the battery removed unless required by the rules to check in.
4. Don't frequent places you normally do. (If you play tennis a lot, take up bowling, etc.)
5. Head back-country for some extended camping. Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Minnesota or the Dakotas come to mind.
Re:Easy (Score:5, Informative)
In the Wired article, Evan regularly logged in to the internet and even conversed with people involved in the hunt.
Clearly this is not the way to disappear from society, so I wouldn't be surprised if the contest includes rules mandating you to do certain things that make you catchable.
If someone with outdoor experience just walked off in to the wilderness, they would not be found. The Appalachian Trail might as well be an interstate freeway compared to the isolation that's possible if you just wander off cross-country.
I'd love 10 grand to go on a month long backpacking trip, and you better believe a lot of other people would too!
Re:There must be something in the rules... (Score:4, Informative)
The application asks you to list 5 restrictions or activities that you will commit to doing. They will pick people who list interesting things. They will not people who list sleeping, eating and drinking.
Re:Seems easy (Score:3, Informative)
There are giant swaths of canada that are beautiful, until the black flies eat all the flesh from your bones....
Holy crap you guys have some evil bugs.
Re:Seems easy (Score:2, Informative)
You can't, because it's a national park.
Re:Seems easy (Score:3, Informative)
From experience, I also note that while camping in forests may not be exactly allowed by law, it isn't really frowned upon in Germany and Denmark, at least if you try to stay out of the way. At least, nobody bugged me when I was too cheap to make a camp at the backyard of a boarding house (I like to travel carrying a tent on a bike).
In a nutshell; the denser the population, the more likely you are to be bothered (if you camp somewhere without asking permission).
Re:Seems easy (Score:3, Informative)
The EU isn't a country. There are many countries in the EU where you don't have to tell anyone if you don't want to. Of course, if you live in a property pretty much anywhere in the western world you have to register with someone because there will be property taxes of some sort. At least in the UK (an EU country) you don't have to report to the authorities if you're staying somewhere for a while.
Re:Seems easy (Score:3, Informative)
Wow, way to overgeneralize. Having spent 8 years in the EU, I can guarantee that that's not what I lived. France, for instance, required none of that.
Maybe next time you'd like to say the countries you were in, instead of just the blanket "EU"?