Going to Defcon is an experience that is very difficult to transfer in words. It is hard to explain to someone the feel of walking the line between legal and illegal while being surrounded by law enforcement officers. It is tough to convey what it is like to watch presentations on things that are made to harm and destroy everything from personal computers to corporate servers. However, I will try to give an overview of my weekend at Defcon.

For those of you that do not know, Defcon is a confrence for computer security professionals, hobbiest and scholars. It takes place every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. I decided to go to Defcon this year to see what it was all about.

As a disclaimer: I am not a hacker, I am a gamer. I was way over my head during many of the technichal talks so do not expect excellent information from me, I am just giving you an over view of my expereince.

When I arrived at Defcon (thursday night) there was a certain party atmosphere going on. It was the weekend so there was something to celebrate. That all changed when the confrence truely kicked in Friday morning.

When I finally got a chance to buy my entrance badge I realized that they only take cash, and they do not ask any patrons for any personal information. It does not stop there either, because people with cameras are not allowed to take pictures of crowds or anyone without their consent. This gave me a slight uneasy feeling.

I bounced around to several different talks throughout the next couple of days but only 2 really stood out in my mind. I will give you the websites and that will be explanation enough:

Real Meme, which is about using meme mining for profit. The idea is very interesting and anyone interested in pyschology will love it

Google Hacking, this one is self-explanatory and very eye opening for anyone that runs a website or webservice.

As a final note, I did try to dunk Patrick Norton at the dunktank but unfortunately I missed the target.

As always more information can be found at Defcon.org. Be sure to check out the Defcon forum and see my pictures posted below.

-Seth (08-Aug-2005)

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