Tag: hacking

  1. Poking through the contents of a BART card.

    10 September 2024

    "Check your ego at the door. No gods, no rockstars. Only n00bs." --thegibson

    I try to go off the grid every couple of months to get away from everything and free up compute cycles for messing around with stuff. For whatever reason I find it helpful to go off to someplace quiet, possibly because it means that I can be nonverbal for a while. It definitely helps with my ADD. At any rate, that's my opportunity to teach myself some new things without having to multitask. When last I did this a couple of weeks back I brought with me …

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  2. The Circle of HOPE.

    31 July 2018

    Last weekend the twelfth Hackers On Planet Earth conference, subtitled The Circle of HOPE was held at the Hotel Pennsylvania by 2600 Magazine.  As with most years, I made my cross-country pilgrimage to New York City to attend.  I flew out on Thursday morning with the eventual goal of making it to my hotel early enough that I could order in, relax a bit, and get to sleep early to shake the inevitable jet lag so I could be somewhat functional the next day.  Modulo the usual difficulty in catching a ride from JFK, I made good time and accomplished …

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  3. Defcon 25.

    03 August 2017

    Well, I'm finally back from Defcon 25 and writing up my notes while in the throes of con drop before too much of the experience fades from memory.  Suffice it to say that I have opinions about last weekend, which I will attempt to write as concisely as I can.  I don't like being negative about things because my experience is my own, and I much prefer that people have their own experiences and make up their own minds about things.  However, I would be lying if I painted a rosy picture of my attendence of the largest hacker convention …

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  4. Back from Defcon 25.

    01 August 2017

    Back from Defcon 25.

    Exhausted.

    Dealt with multiple crises at home.

    Didn't spend as much money as I usually do, which isn't a bad thing.

    Spent quality time with some old friends.  I hope I made a few new ones.

    I have opinions.  They'll have to wait until I get some sleep.

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  5. 'twas the week before DefCon.

    17 July 2017

    UPDATE - 20170902 - Typos, finding emergency exits.

    So, after many years I've decided that it's my turn to write a first-timer's guide to Defcon.  There are many like it, so I'll try to be as frank as I can about the topic.  I'm going to try to write for people who've never been to Defcon before (but may have been to other hacker cons).  I'm not going to lie or joke around (which some of the guides tend to do) and give as much personal advice as I can.  I'm also going to try to not sound like your parents, because …

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  6. A toast.

    03 January 2017

    Here's to the sysadmins, who fight to keep everything up and running.  And reboot printers along the way.

    Here's to tier-1 tech support, who know the answers but are only allowed to recite from their scripts.

    Here's to the pen testers, who keep plugging away.

    Here's to desktop support, who occasionally see things they can never unsee.

    Here's to the red team, who throw everything from Devo costumes to pork chops to ballroom gowns to the kitchen sink at the mission.

    Here's to the hacktivists, who toil endlessly to make the world a better place.

    Here's to the open source …

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  9. HOPE XI - This one went to eleven!

    02 August 2016

    It's mostly been radio silence for the past couple of days. If you're reading this you've no doubt noticed that Switchboard (one of my constructs) posted the slides from my talk earlier this week. As sophisticated and helpful as she is, Switchboard can't yet pick thoughts out of my wetware to write blog posts. And so, here I am, my primary organic terminal sitting at Windbringer's console keying in notes, saving them, and then going back to turn them into something approaching prose. I've just now had the time to sit down and start writing stuff about HOPE XI, largely …

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  10. I will be presenting at The Eleventh HOPE.

    27 June 2016

    UPDATE: Now that the official HOPE schedule has been published I can say that I'll be speaking in the Noether room on Sunday, 24 July 2016 at 2:00pm EST4EDT.

    UPDATE: The Internet Society will be livestreaming video of the talks as they happen. Here's the page listing all of the livestreams.

    I found out last weekend (yes, I've been sitting on this - timed posts are the busy blogger's friend) that the talk I submitted for The Eleventh HOPE in July of 2016 was accepted. I will be giving a presentation on Exocortex, my latest work (of mad science), entitled …

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