Defcon X
This past weekend was Defcon X in Las Vegas, and it was (as always) a mix of great fun, and sheer stupidity. Defcon is always a lot of fun, because I get to hang out with old friends, geek out, and generally re-live the good days of Cnation. Unfortunately, Las Vegas is home to some of the worst parts of humanity - casinos and strippers can make people do some amazingly stupid shit. Also, the very nature of Defcon attracts a lot of really stupid people.
Despite all of this though, Defcon also has lots of really great talks, and opportunities to meet some very intelligent people. One of the best talks this year was completely non-technical. Skroo and Grifter presented “Hacker Meetings,” discussing the challenges and strategies of keeping geek meetings relavent, on-topic, and loser-free. They each shared their experiences in keeping the 2600 meetings in LA and SLC running, both coming off as very intelligent and well-meaning guys.
One great thing about this year was that between our group there were six digital cameras. By the end of the weekend, we had amassed almost 600 megs of photos. And thanks to Colin’s ubercool (and super-small) firewire burner, we burned a photos collection cd for everyone on custom printed “Defcon X” CDR media. (Photos will be up here shortly.)