DefCon 16: This was my first DefCon and I must say that I was very overwhelmed! The hacker community is by far the most 'intense' crowd I have been around from a technology standpoint. There is a certain level of expertise that is expected before going into any of the talks. All this discussion about hijacking border gateway protocols and poisoned DNS cache put my brain into overheat mode. I think I almost committed hari-kari after hearing Mati Aharoni talk about how he exploited a bug in a windows process to make a 0-day. I had to dig way back to my computer science days as he walked us step by step in his debugger how he manipulated the stack and injected scripts to work his 'foo'. I was nearly in a state of drool, when I was immediately snapped back to reality by the cheers of 1000s of hackers rejoicing at the end result, a basic command prompt.
Aside from the talks, there was lots of hacker culture to take in as well. There was wall to wall black t-shirts and cargo shorts/pants. Anti-establishment was abound everywhere. In fact, I remember seeing one guy at the vendor booths selling anti-Christianity bumper stickers. I suppose Christianity is the ultimate establishment.
I did go to a party or two while I was there. Definitely a flashback to my college days. One party had the theme of 'freakshow'. There was a pregnant fortune teller, a contortionist, a man-baby, DJ, and beer...lots of beer (did I mention lots of beer?). Lets just say that it was all an excuse to consume said mass quatities of beer and act stupid. I probably spent too much time at the parties, but, hey, I was there for the experience right? All that being said, I saw pictures of some of the other parties I wasn't invited to and the ones I made it to were VERY tame in comparison.
Overall, I learned how to (among other things):
- hack internet kiosks (in less than 120 seconds)
- pick locks
- exploit facebook and other social networking sites
and
- turn off tvs using the conference badge.
Ill post some pics once I get them off the camera.
mmm...breakfast at the Peppermill
Me and Jo waiting for the next talk. There was a lot of floor sitting that weekend. btw, I think DefCon is one of the few times where I felt out of place wearing athletic apparel. *shrug*
Buzzword Survivor. These poor souls sat in a chair listening to 36 hours (straight) of vendor talks for a chance to win $10,000. They could not leave or fall asleep. The bad part is that they were smack dab in the middle of the room that had all kinds of other interesting things going on. Looking at this made me wonder if hell is anything like Buzzword Survivor...except without the chance to win money.W@rk:
Unfortunately, my mini vacation in Vegas had to end and now its back to work. I am hip deep in, well, w@rk. I have a major project coming up that has me all stressed out. It will be my first major project since working for this company. One of my co-workers was asking me when I was going to take down the network. Apparently everyone else on the team has taken down the network at one time or another. I suppose this is my first opportunity...Im due.
Last friday was another Grill Friday. My boss and partner grill cook was out on vacation, so I got to man the grill solo. Lots of burgers this time. We raised about $150 for charity this time. I think there were a lot of people out of the office, but everyone again had a great time!
Today, Im going to head into Ft Worth for an ISSA lunch and learn meeting. They are going to be demoing some technologies that is relevant to one of my other projects. The ISSA chapter in Dallas had great food. I hope the Ft Worth chapter doesn't disappoint :p
Family:
This past sunday, I finally made it back to church after a couple weeks of world traveling and volleyball tournaments. It felt so nice to be back at church. I think my soul was calling for it. Lisa and I went to the college service at Denton Bible, called The Well. Its a more 'intimate' service aimed at the college aged crowd. We really enjoyed it as the morning service atmosphere seems so 'mechanical'. At the Well, they have a smaller audience, but do a really good job of creating a really intimate atmosphere. I suppose this will change now that school is back in, but we really enjoyed it.
Alycea is getting bigger and bigger by the minute. She has learned how to balance herself on the edge of the sink so that she can play in the water. I guess as long as she turns the water off after she is done...
She has also taken an interest in chopsticks. In fact, she likes the idea of eating with chopsticks so much that it doesn't matter what is on the chopstick, she just likes eating from them. Lisa and I use this to our advantage to feed her things she wouldn't otherwise eat. I put together a set of 'beginner' chopsticks (using a wad of paper and a rubber band) so she can practice.
Speaking of chopsticks, we have been watching way too much olympics lately. I, of course, love the volleyball matches and Lisa enjoys the swimming and gymnastics. Alycea even tries to imitate some of the gymnasts. If she weren't so clumsy, I would consider putting her into gymnastics...maybe gymnastics is what she needs (but she has some serious clumsy genes to overcome...she gets them from her daddy).
Volleyball:
I haven't had much time to play volleyball much. I did meet with a couple of guys in Frisco that are interested in creating a USAV team. I have been toying with the idea of playing again, but I have been so out of the scene, that I don't know many people that I would want (or would even want to have me) on their team. I feel a bit lucky as 2 of them are actual setters. Finding setters and middles has always been a problem. The problem with volleyball around here is that it is so 'click-ish'. I have played for a long time in this area that I know pretty much everyone in some sort or fashion, but I have come to a realization that I really don't feel at home with any of them. There is just something about volleyball people that is not 'compatible' with me. Maybe because I don't like to drink. Maybe I have different priorities *shrug*...but I digress. Because of this, I have to work extra hard to find the right people to play. Sometimes I feel like the Mavericks when they were going all over the globe looking for players because it was just so hard to get people to play in Dallas. I think that if the stars align correctly, I might be able to go into this coming season with a really good middle (I'm trying to keep him a secret until the season starts) and at least 1 setter. I just need to find a really consistent outside hitter now.
Other:
Weighed in at 197 this morning. Lisa is complaining that my booty doesn't fill my pants anymore. I may have to go shopping (I hate shopping for clothes).
Haven't cooked anything significant in a while. Im kinda missing it. Although Lisa is enjoying not having to clean the kitchen up after me. Im thinking Labor Day may see a brisket or two.
Game day was also this past weekend. I got to play a lot of lighter games. Considering what has been going on in my life in the past couple of weeks, I was quite ok with that.
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