Stupid? Why? Because it doesn't open a beer bottle?

Stupid because they're sharp and jagged so they stab and snag on things.

Last year's was fun because you could program them with your fingers. This year's didn't do anything without extra equipment. Next year I'll probably just request a paper badge if this trend continues.

I actually liked this years badges better than last years. Sure, the LCD display last year was fun and easy to program, but this badge was much easier to hack than last years due to the usb leads on the board.

Materials to hack this years badge and add a USB port were provided in the hardware hacking village, and all of the development tools were available as well.

At that point the only tools needed to modify the badge were a computer, and a mini USB cable that most people have for their cell phones, digital cameras, etc.

Going through the source code, seeing how it worked and trying to think of new things to do with the badge was fun, for me at least.