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| PAX Prime, 2010, Seattle, WA |
Friday, August 31, 2012
Bathroom Bacon PAX (photo)
Monday, August 20, 2012
DEFCON 20: The Coming Of Age
My first DEFCON began five summers ago, right after I met Roland. He told me in three weeks he'd be flying down to Vegas. I immediately knew what con he was talking about. I'd dreamed of attending since I'd first heard about it in the late 90s. I hadn't gone for two reasons: as a penny-pincher, I didn't like wasting my money on plane tickets, and... I didn't think I had any right to be there.
I couldn't have been more wrong on both counts. That was 2008, DEFCON 16. I flew down and I had a blast.
Now it's 2012, and the 20th DEFCON known to mankind. To put history into perspective, the first Defcon began right about the time the World Wide Web was being invented. It was before Yahoo, before Amazon, before blogs. It started during a time when terms like "email" and "download" were known only to a small minority of people, an extremely niche subculture. I remember that time, even if I do not remember the first Defcon.
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| Awesome Track 1 Stage. Each bit is hanging in 3D. A projector makes this interesting throughout the con. |
Now it's 2012, and the 20th DEFCON known to mankind. To put history into perspective, the first Defcon began right about the time the World Wide Web was being invented. It was before Yahoo, before Amazon, before blogs. It started during a time when terms like "email" and "download" were known only to a small minority of people, an extremely niche subculture. I remember that time, even if I do not remember the first Defcon.
Friday, August 17, 2012
A Hint of Emerald City Hunter (photo)
The below photo is from one of the settings in my work in progress, Emerald City Hunter. Can you guess where in Seattle it is?
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| Somewhere in Seattle, WA |
Friday, August 10, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
DEFCON 20: The Badge Contest
DEFCON 20 = Best Defcon Evar. For me at least.
This post is about the Badge Contest. I have also written about the rest of the con, like how my reading went, the amazing parties, and the surprise talk by Kevin Mitnick I was lucky enough to catch.
Last year Roland and I spent a lot of time distracted by the first annual badge challenge. I wrote about it here. This year, I knew there would be another contest, and I debated whether I wanted to obsess over clues and miss a lot of talks. I figured I'd play it by ear.
We did end up playing around with the badge challenge for a while... and we made zero progress in the first two days. None. Not a budge. We decrypted one very simple newbie puzzle, which was just a clue to a real puzzle, and that's it.
This year's challenge was much, much harder. Not a casual game, but hardcore mode. The bar was frankly too high for amateur solvers. We didn't expect to win this year. After all, we're newbies. But we did expect to get past the first level.
So unfortunately, this post is going to be more of a critique than a write-up of puzzle details. It breaks my heart, because I know Lost puts his soul into giving people a good experience. He's made it clear that he does not want to overly frustrate and that he wants to encourage everyone to participate. Lost fills many, many shoes at the con, and I appreciate all he does. Defcon was truly awesomesauce this year, and I'm sure a lot of that was due to his efforts.
However I'm a big believer in constructive critique, and in transparency, so here is a rundown of the frustrations that we experienced. For actual detailed write-ups of the clues, there are two: 1o57.wikispaces.com and elegin.com.
This post is about the Badge Contest. I have also written about the rest of the con, like how my reading went, the amazing parties, and the surprise talk by Kevin Mitnick I was lucky enough to catch.
Last year Roland and I spent a lot of time distracted by the first annual badge challenge. I wrote about it here. This year, I knew there would be another contest, and I debated whether I wanted to obsess over clues and miss a lot of talks. I figured I'd play it by ear.
We did end up playing around with the badge challenge for a while... and we made zero progress in the first two days. None. Not a budge. We decrypted one very simple newbie puzzle, which was just a clue to a real puzzle, and that's it.
This year's challenge was much, much harder. Not a casual game, but hardcore mode. The bar was frankly too high for amateur solvers. We didn't expect to win this year. After all, we're newbies. But we did expect to get past the first level.
So unfortunately, this post is going to be more of a critique than a write-up of puzzle details. It breaks my heart, because I know Lost puts his soul into giving people a good experience. He's made it clear that he does not want to overly frustrate and that he wants to encourage everyone to participate. Lost fills many, many shoes at the con, and I appreciate all he does. Defcon was truly awesomesauce this year, and I'm sure a lot of that was due to his efforts.
However I'm a big believer in constructive critique, and in transparency, so here is a rundown of the frustrations that we experienced. For actual detailed write-ups of the clues, there are two: 1o57.wikispaces.com and elegin.com.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Institute for Advanced Psychenergetic Studies (photo)
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| Las Vegas, NV 2008 |
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