I've been pretty bad this last few weeks, and I haven't recorded any updates
here at all. July has been a busy month, between holdays, personal and work
travel I've hardly had time to sit down and think, let alone write. I would like
to complain, but in truth I'm busy doing awesome stuff! Summer schedules fill up
quickly. With no more children returning to school this year, I have to wonder
if this is our new normal?
Eat right, sleep more, get some exercise.
Travel is bad for all three, I'm going to have to try a bit harder. Use that gym
membership, and I've got some kettle bells around here somewhere...
Mission completed, prepare for re-entry
Hands down, I had more fun at DEFCON than I've ever had at
any convention, ever. While I did manage to attend a few of the talks and
panels, I was really there for the Villages, the events and the spectacle.
At one time or another I managed to walk through just about all of the villages.
I was in particular interested in the Red Team and AppSec villages, but both of
these were in a narrow and crowded part of the Flamingo and kind of hard to get
in to. I saw a couple of AppSec talks and scored a free t-shirt.
A cat from HackerBoxes was handing out free badge
kits, so I scored one and took it to the Soldering Skills village to put it
together. Somewhere I found the Corn Totem! PCB by @JamesDietle, which I'm
hoping to play with and have ready for next year. Found out about SOA's (shitty
add-ons) that apparently work pretty well with this one. I didn't get to do much
with my con badge beyond clicking badges as much as I could with fellow
attendees, though members of my team did read through the source code. I expect
we'll hack on these here and there through the winter.
In a random moment I got to meet Bruce Schneier, shake his hand and help him
find the Crypto & Privacy Village. I seriously wish I'd asked for a photo. Later
I caught his talk on InfoSec in the Public Interest. Anywhere you look would be
hacker luminaries, it was kind of a trip. I sat in on a panel on Right to Repair
which included Tarah Wheeler (@Tarah), then later an EFF panel with @evacide. I
would have liked to see more talks in the AppSec village but for lack of time.
As for the spectacle, that will have to be left to the imagination. We trolled
along the gorgeously filthy Fremont St. Experience; I was momentarily,
temporarily dislodged as I chatted with folks from EFnet under the throbbing
light of a homegrown music visualization. We danced for hours to Rabbit in the
Moon.
In the mountains, in the dirt
Before Vegas I rode down to Montrose, Colorado for this year's Rocky Mountain
RAT Rally, which I'd attended once the year before. This is a very small
gathering of folks from the Denver area with whom I'm only somewhat acquanted.
Montrose is hot this time of year, but is central to some of the best mountain
riding around, both on and off road. I rode solo, taking the long way down
through Park county and the San Luis Valley before heading back north over
Slumgullion Pass and on in to Montrose, all told about 430 miles.
The first day of the rally we put together a group of six riders to head
off-road onto some fairly well-maintained gravel and more narrow dirt service
roads. This was a first for me, I'd just put 50/50 tires on my Triumph Tiger the
week before. We had a great time, doing about 50 miles before I decided to peel
off and blast canyons for the rest of the day. Riding off-road was fantastic,
and I learned to spend a lot of time standing on my pegs. For the next several
days my legs were on fire! Time to start doing more squats.
Now what?
So, I'm home for a couple of weeks. Still more travel planned for the year,
including another great hacking con, the Wild West Hackin' Fest,
for the third year running. In the meantime I'm trying to focus on home. The
bees need to be treated for mites and guided into the fall, there's stuff around
the house to be done. I'd like to volunteer with some local affair, perhaps
OWASP or DENHAC - something to keep the vibe going.
More coming, ĝis la revido...