drkaos
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Experiences at Defcon 12 - 2004/08/04 19:02
This thread discusses the Content article: Experiences at Defcon 12
digunix and I flew in from Atlanta on Thursday, arriving in LV
around 3pm. After a short ride over to the Riviera to drop off our
bags, we shot over to the AP. When I walked into the AP I spotted
ZenMachine, another 404 native, and several of us sat around in the
lobby b.s.'ing, theorizing, and, with ZenMachine's master guidance,
picking Master locks. 
That night, during registration, I also spotted Alkyloyd standing
in line and stood around smoking and discussing dc404 and upcoming
meeting topics for the better part of an hour as we weaved our way into
the badge/registration room. After that, I caught up with a few friends
out by pool 1, including my friend Jon Callas and his lovely wife,
Tamzen. Still on EST5EDT though, dig and I were both exhausted and
called it a night shortly after.
Friday being the first day of the con, the energy and excitement at
AP was palpable. Across the span of several hours, I weaved in and out
of the lobby and bar, between the Athena room (info booth, coffee wars,
lockpicking contest), the Parthenon (vendor presentations), the CTF and
vendor areas, and the [rather well-air-conditioned] tent outside.
During this time, I ran into several more familiars including friends
from VeriSign, Vigilar, the US Marine Corps, the NSA, Cox, BellSouth,
etc. etc. Indeed, I was actually quite surprised by the number of folks
I knew who made it out this year.
I only managed to catch a couple of Friday's presentations, as
capacity issues once again presented significant challenge, though Jon
Callas' talk about PGP's new initiatives was very good, and the Shmoo's
'Wireless Weaponry' was quite entertaining as well (with a brief intro
session from Robert Morris Sr. and a mostly hilarious Spot the Fed
session with Priest).
Friday night, dig and I got invited to a party hosted by Geoff from
Pivx (a cool cat I met in line for badge registration on Thurs), which
turned out to be in the utterly amazing Penthouse at Bellagio (yep,
capital P). Had a blast, view was amazing and the company was good,
although I apparently threw back a few too many at the party, but dig
finally managed to shove me into a cab and get me back to the hotel by
around 4 without significant incident.
Saturday, I woke up with a nasty hangover and what felt like a
boulder in my eye. I must have tried to remove my left eye in my sleep
(drunken stupor) the night before, and I spent the better part of the
day wearing sunglasses to hide my red, swollen, and excessively
watering eye. Only caught a couple of presentations on Saturday: Morph
by Kath Wang (ok), Advanced Netfilter by Michael Rash (quite
excellent), and Hacking the Media by Dead Addict (ok).
Saturday night brought another party at the Bellagio, this time with the Feds. 
Had a pretty good time despite recovering from a hangover and only
getting to enjoy 1 free beer -- that is, until a particularly
dishonest, untrustworthy and thieving ex-colleague showed up, which
inspired my early departure (see, good thing I didn't get drunk again
after all). Spent a few bucks in the casino at Bellagio (damn, those
slots are tight), then called it a night at about 2am.
Sunday, was mostly uneventful with the exception of a good talk on
Stego by my friend Mike Raggo from VeriSign and the ever-entertaining
j0hnny long with his latest on Google Hacking. Split fromt the AP a
little early to head over to the Boblbee store at the Fashion Mall,
where we ran into several of my Marine pals (who competed in CTF again
this year) and who were also at the party the previous evening. Spent a
couple hours modifying and customizing Boblbees, and just generally
shooting the shit, and then finally called it a day. Spent the rest of
Sunday basically relaxing, trying to get online via dial-up to check my
mail, and watching cheeezy shows on the Riviera's crappy cable
stations. Few more bucks in the Riviera's casino and I called it a
night, ready to get back home to my wife, kid and king-sized bed.
Monday was basically on all-day travel day (left the Riviera at
about 9a, arrived in Atl about 9p, home by 10, bed by 2 -- exhausted),
and yesterday was a bit more catch-up, as I tried to recover from 4
days away from e-mail and normal business.
I think that amounts to a pretty full acount of my Defcon this
year. Had a blast, and I'll do it again next year, although -- as I
tell myself /every/ year -- I think I'll plan things a little farther
in advance next time.
Cheers,
./dr.kaos
Post edited by: drkaos, at: 2004/08/18 13:32
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