DEFCON 23: Putting the Confidence in "Con"

I left DEFCON last year wondering how I could give back. This year, I realized that I've always been giving back.

I almost skipped DEFCON 23. I lost my means of support in May and my savings is running out. The wise thing would have been to stay home. But I justified how I should throw caution to the wind and find the means to go, and I'm so glad I did. DEFCON never disappoints.

Highlights of my DC23 experience: 

• Brought my own phonograph so I could listen to the badge
• Helped run the first-year Biohacking Village
• Socialized and made new friends and contacts
• Networked and pursued job opportunities (this is how I justified the expense)
• Enjoyed Queercon 12 events and Queercon's sweet badge
• Attended the Telephreak party

But the real highlight wasn't any single event; it was something I carried within me through the series of mind-blowing events that made up DEFCON. It really is all about "what you bring to the party." This is such a huge ridiculous lifecoachy cliché… but you don't really grok these tidbits of wisdom until you've experienced certain angles of life and succeeded at taking the right kinds of risks.

For the last few years, I've been developing social confidence. These are skills I've been trying to learn my whole life, but confidence cannot be taught. It can only be learned. There is no secret recipe, and describing my path to this point would fill it's own blog post. But I can distill the core of what I've learned into simple phrase:

You have something to give.

Once you grok this concept, not just on the surface, but on a deep level, it becomes easily to have faith in your strengths and talents. Then the social confidence just follows. 

I've come a long way since my first DEFCON in the Riv eight years ago (technically the linked write-up is from my second DEFCON), from my "I'm not worthy to be here!" outlook to the spunk and swagger I have today. 

I couldn't talk myself out of the fear of being a poser. I had to learn by doing.

One way to convince yourself that you have something to give is to start giving. Take a leap of faith and do things, make stuff, help people. Don't be down on yourself about how you're not smart enough or your efforts aren't good enough. You'd be amazed at how little you have to do or know to get involved. It's a lot of work to do all the cool things that happen in the world, and as I learned, even contributing a couple of hours of menial labor is far more than most people contribute, and even small gestures will make you stand out and open up new opportunities for learning, growth, and connection.

My big project this year, which took very little time or effort, was helping put on the first Biohacking Village. 

Similar to computer hacking, "biohacking" is subverting biology to do something other than what was originally "intended." Which is a pretty broad umbrella that includes implantables, biomolecular computing, bioinformatics, gene hacking, nootropics, transhumanism, medical device hacking, sense hacking, neurodiversity, bioethics, and lots more. 

And a "village" at DEFCON is an area set aside for a focused topic, where attendees can hear talks and get hands on. Other villages include the Lockpicking Village, Tamper Evident Village, Social Engineering Village, Hardware Hacking Village, etc.

Example village: Car hacking!
(Near Biohacking Village)

Why is biohacking important and why does it belong at DEFCON? Because biohacking is now where the Homebrew Computer Club was in 1975. Right now the future Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of the biotech world are sitting in their garages splicing genes to make bioluminescent e. coli. They are designing injectable RFID chips. They are building prosthetics with 3D printers. They are trying to clone dinosaurs. In 10, 20, or 30 years, this question will sound as ignorant as, "What's the point in building an Altair 8800? It doesn't even do anything." (Historical fact: It didn't even do anything.)

Biohacking belongs at DEFCON for three reasons:

1. The intersection of computer tech and biotech is pretty vast. And that intersection will grow. 
2. Securing biotech ought to be a huge concern to hackers of all kinds. 
3. There are of course other cons dedicated to biohacking, like Body Hax Con. But they're brand new. We've learned a lot about technology ethics in the last 40 years. Youngsters who are starting biotech exclusively from the biology side really need our guidance so they don't accidentally destroy all of mankind with their magical wizard powers.

Awkward Diagram
Note: It's not just "computer hacking"
DEFCON is traditionally about all kinds of hacking on electrons.

I myself am not a biohacker (unless you count the work I've done to reverse engineer mind control). I just have a strong interest in what is going on in the field. But that's my point – don't disqualify yourself because you haven't done the thing or don't know the stuff. You still have something to give. 

Even with my lack of experience, I contributed by giving input on the BHV mailing list over the year, and at DEFCON, and I stood at the booth for a few hours answering low-level questions for the hundreds of people that stopped by. I don't have to grow human ears on mice or give myself nightvision to contribute much-needed efforts towards bringing people together and getting DEFCON attendees excited about biohacking. 

Presence can earn some pretty sweet cred. Fangirl or fanboy enthusiasm can itself be a superpower. 

The village was a huge success. We just had the one small booth in the contest room, a handful of demos, and nine talks. Oh, and a pretty sweet logo! WTF on that amazing logo?? It was enough to get the word out and get tons of people introduced to and excited about this grand new thing called biohacking.

One of the most frequently asked questions I got at the booth was, "What about implants?" We had one speaker, Alex Smith, who performed an RFID implant right at our table. I caught it on video:

And as an example of where tech meets bio, Scott Novich had his vibrovest there. It takes sound input and converts it to tactile sensations along the torso, with the primary purpose of helping deaf people sense sound kinetically. But it could be put to many other sense-hacking uses, for instance, it could transform other information, like direction, weather patterns, or wifi signal strength, into a tactile sense. Our brains are extremely robust and can wire to understand any sense we give it, so we're just dipping our toes into the ocean of potential with these kinds of devices.

We've got huge plans for the village for next year, including the possibility of creating a living badge. I'll be even more involved, heading up the CFP process to select speakers for talks, demos, and labs. (Just so you know who to buy beer for. (Just kidding bribery is bad kids! (Plus I don't like beer, but I do like Chartreuse…))) I'm really excited.

Stay safe, kids!

I missed all but three talks. In the beginning, I caught one on hiring in infosec, and two biohacking talks at the end.  (All Biohacking Village talks will be available on video in the near future.) This was somewhat due to the massive crowding on the Paris side of the venue, and somewhat due to a conscious decision to watch the talks online later so I could spend more time doing what can only be done at DEFCON: Socializing.

Since I avoided the Paris-side, I missed seeing a lot of familiar faces, which, in addition to the new venue, made it kind of weirdly not-DEFCON. But I have no regrets. 

My complete review of the new venue:
Paris came equipped with these sweet internet telephones!

Troubleshooting The Broken Meritocracy

In my writeup last year, I promised I'd do a separate writeup of the problems that occurred during the Diversity Panel at DC22. I still have the notes for this post, and I even had a very long and productive email conversation with Priest, who was involved in that panel. Because of the huge upheavals in my life this year, I never got around to writing it, which is too bad, because it's probably too late now. That ship has perhaps sailed. However, the entire experience was illustrative of many of the dynamics in our community, of how well-meaning attempts to help women and minorities to feel welcome and safe can backfire, and some of the reasons why. Priest was really cool about everything, open to listening, and sincerely concerned. I think our community has much to learn from all aspects of the experience. 

I may still do that writeup, even though at this point, the whole thing might be moot. 

My own personal experience of being a woman at DEFCON this year was awesome. Much improved. I personally had no issues. I felt treated well and respected for my intelligence. I never once felt like I had to prove that I belonged there, even to total strangers I had just met at parties. I never felt mansplained to. Flirtation occurred, but in the right venues (parties) and with an air of respect and equal footing, and not to the exclusion of interest in my actual intelligence. A few men expressed concern and awareness of the difficulties I might be facing, saying things like, "I hope you've been treated okay at this con." 

Education campaigns and social justice activism clearly seem to be helping. 

Equality, at long last!

Huge kudos to Dark Tangent, and to specific Goons I've spoken with who have expressed concern and willingness to change DEFCON for the better. (I would name them but I'm not sure they want to be named.) I've said all along that, unlike certain other cons *cough*PAX*cough* DEFCON has handled the various controversies incredibly well: Rather than making public shows of issues and getting defensive, they've been receptive to complaints and even proactively reached out for feedback. All conversations about the incidents occur in private, and then the following year, those incidents do not recur. No public drama, no firestorms, no hurtful pseudo-apologies. 

That said, this was just my own experience, my perception of a general trend towards improvement, and that doesn't necessarily mean everything is fixed. If you did have an issue, I encourage you to reach out to DEFCON Goons privately and let them know. They really will handle it well. If they are ignorant of why a thing is an issue, they will listen. It may take some patience in explaining it to them, but they honestly and legit want to know how to improve. And reach out to me personally if you're uncertain. I'm not a goon, but I'll encourage and support you and give you advice. I know how scary it can be.

At least through my little lens, it feels like DEFCON culture is improving in how it treats women, and hopefully in how it treats other marginalized classes. Way to go and more of this!

<soapbox> 

I did have one quibble however on the social justice front: just one more little way our community can improve. This is a cultural issue, involving a word I heard over and over, coming from a wide variety of really nice and smart people. I winced each time I heard it, but I didn't have the courage to argue with anyone. (The "You're too sensitive!" backlash does have a cost, which I am sometimes unwilling to pay.) I realize it's a bit passive aggressive to mention it here without saying it to people's faces, especially since I personally know some of the people who used it, but I'm a big chicken IRL. So here goes: 

This word is "retarded" or variants thereof. I know it's a cool edgy way to talk about how unintelligent something or someone is, but those who use it do not understand its history or realize that the person they're talking to (me) falls into a class that is, to this day, marginalized, bullied, and institutionally abused through the use of this word. I have Asperger's, which is a type of autism. And before you say, "Well, we don't mean that kind of autism!"... just stop. You're digging your hole deeper. You're smart. Go educate yourself. If you don't, you basically sound like this guy, only about autism rather than computers. I've got some links in this paragraph, and you know how google works. Or ask me. (I don't want to make this post too long explaining on this rant.) There are lots of sources of why this word is hurtful. And FYI? Yes, I do feel hurt when I hear this word, and no, I'm not being too sensitive. And no, my request is not censorship.

Ancient history, at this point,
according to the Washington Post.

We're not 14 anymore and this isn't IRC. We can prove our intelligence by the words we say and the things we do, not by using slurs to put others down. We've ended the flippant use of the word "gay" at DEFCON as a pejorative. Now can we stop saying the "R" word? 

</soapbox>

DEFCON Badge, Badge, Badge, Badge MUSHROOM MUSHROOM!

I didn't get very involved in the badge challenge this year. I did, however, bring a record player. I'd seen on Twitter Wednesday that the badge was a record (yes, a record), and my housemate happened to have a portable USB-compatible phonograph, so I brought it on my Thursday morning flight. This made a wonderful icebreaker for me on the first day. (After that, no one cared.) Using my phonograph, I was able to upload the audio to YouTube for your convenience, so you can listen right now. (Side B's track was a recording of the ever-hot DualCore singing Hack All the Things)

It's just like streaming.. only.. more groovy.

A brief mention of the ultra-hot über badge this year.  Rather than re-describe it, I'll link to someone else's description. I grew up in Richland, WA, with a chem engineer dad who worked for a government contractor, and I worked as an intern on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and my favorite con (DEFCON is my second) is RadCon, so all this radiation stuff is basically comfort food for me. 

Photo credit: Japan Times
Because I fail at taking pix when I'm chatting with LoST.

Warm, so warm.

I fiddled with the badge challenge as I had time Thursday, but I really didn't want to go too far down the rabbit trail, because I needed to focus on being social. Solving things and chatting confidently with people about a wide range of topics takes a different spline set, so I resisted the call.

I'm pretty sure this has something to do with the badge challenge.

But if you'd like to see the solution, here is a write up. And another. (There was a wiki but it appears to have been deleted.) 

Queue the Flava Flave jokes.

A lot of people complained about the unwieldiness of this year's badge, but I enjoyed hacking the lanyard, and eventually eschewing the lanyard altogether. I also enjoyed seeing other people's badge hacks. And counterfeit badges were hilarious, like the guy with a paper plate with "HUMAN" written on it. Kids these days don't know what old tech looks like, and this record gave them some exposure to the ancient roots of the hacking community...

The famed "gauntlet hack"
(spotted at barcon)

...Like the Telephreak Badge

Q: How do you tell a phreak?
A: By all the telepwns!

I think at this point, I can officially qualify as a DEFCON Badge Fangirl (is there a badge for that?)

Last year I scored a sweet Telephreak pager, 

...and then wrote about it, which means this year I scored a l33t Telephreak press badge. This orange piece of plastic has little plastic coins in denominations of 25, 10, and 5, and a working rotary dial. To those kids who didn't know what a "record" was, you might also love to learn that this badge is fashioned after an archaic device we once called a "payphone," into which one placed quarters so we could "call someone who cares," as the flamers put it. Now get off my lawn.

This plastic replica represents a significant piece of hacker history, so if you want to be truly l33t, go google Captain Crunch with your advanced "search engine."

Authentic voice-only "phone"
used by nomads in prehistoric times.

It would be truly sweet if someone could hack this badge into a working phone, but I settled for my own little badge hack. The manufacturer's plan for the coin drawer was a literal gaping hole, through which the coins would simply fall out under the force of gravity. Hard to make money from a payphone with that design! Ever one to defy "laws" like "gravity," I violated the EULA and improved on the original by adding a door using found materials. I even added an authentic easy-to-pick tubular lock, just like a real payphone! (And just about as secure!)

"Press" *69

Sadly, this did not protect my coins well enough, because both dimes got shaken out in the flight home, and they seem to be lost forever. Lessons learned.

The Telephreak pager also operated this year, and for some reason, the battery seemed to have more life over last year, even though, to my knowledge, I received no firmware updates. Not really sure what was up with that insane magic! 

Swanky.
(Faces digitally blurred to protect the "innocent.")

Telephreak party was pretty sweet, as usual. I listened to a couple of lightning talks, but mostly I wanted to talk to people, and talk I did. I met new people, reacquainted myself with people I already knew, and even got a little emotional support from someone I'd met last year. (Thanks, man!) The Telephreak party is a great environment for me, because I want just enough alcohol to make me socially fluid, and I want relatively quiet rooms packed with cool, intelligent, talkative people who want to listen to me rant on esoteric topics. Telephreak provides all of this in a swanky environment that makes me feel like I paid a million bucks to be there.

Queercon 12

Thanks to the larger DEFCON venue, Queercon made it's way back onsite, with a constant presence during the whole con. In addition to their kickin' Friday night pool party with the bright lights and body-throbbing music we've come to expect, they had a suite in the Jubilee tower, for packed afternoon mixer parties, and a Saturday night low-key sit-and-chat party. The rest of the time, the suite was open as a safe space to relax and chill out for a little peace and quiet. They provided free coffee and breakfast munchies daily. 

I kind of wish there'd been more women and gender non-binaries like myself there, but I've got no problem with hanging out with cis gay men. They're so adorbs. I took refuge in there a couple of times when I needed an introvert's recharge, and I enjoyed the parties as well.

They also had a few talks in the suite, though I only attended one. Which brings us to the Queercon badge… 

Badges? We don't need no stinkin...
Ok yeah, this joke is too old.

…did I mention I'm a badge fangirl?

So first, I had a badge reserved for me because of my writeup last year. Honestly, one of the reasons I decided to splurge and go to DEFCON against the wishes of the financial advisor who lives in my brain was the personal invite from both Queercon and Telephreak prior to the con, and their mutual expressed disappointment that I could not make it. Never underestimate how small gestures of inclusion can make people feel appreciated and important, and again, never underestimate the value of your contributions, however small, to help build community. These actions and reactions create a virtuous cycle that uplifts everyone involved.

"Press" any key to continue.
As long as it's L, G, B, T, Q, A, I, or +!

At any case, I had a personal invite to the Queercon kickoff party Thursday night. I arrived at their offsite location at Palms Place, to discover I was not only on the invite list, but as a VIP! Flattered and honored. The kickoff party was a great way to spend my first night at DEFCON, with good drinks, friends, and conversations with new folk in a beautiful setting. 

Pix. Cos it happened.

And the badge. Oh this badge. Last year's QC badge astounded as a feat of modern engineering, but this year's topped even that! 

As you can see, it is an egg-shaped pair of circuit boards, separated by spacers, with a living digital creature dancing on a 0.96" OLED display. If that's not colorful enough for you, there are five multicolored LEDs around the inside, to generate eye-dazzling effects at various times.

How is babby formed?

The creature on the badge starts out as a "baby," an adorable blob that dances and plays. (The baby grows up after a rumored 12-hours.) Three buttons allow you to cycle through the functions, which include, "Play," "Set Name," and "ASL?"

Also works in "upside down" mode,
shown here.*
(*image not to scale)

The badge communicates with other badges via a RF chip which is an improvement on last year's IR interface. Line-of-sight interactions were difficult previously, and in contrast, this badge picked up easily on the presence of other badges. 

In the spirit of "badge sex" featured in previous badges, the "Play" function sets off all nearby badges, forcing them to also "play," causing their lights to blink and their character to dance around. Babies could not play with adults, thus preventing any interactions of questionable legality.

By day two, all of our badges had grown up. Each badge had been programmed with six different heads, torsos, and feet, which could be combined in 80 different character designs. Mine was a octo-robo-bear, with lovely wonderful tentacles for feet. They couldn't have picked a better character to give me. 

The Über Badges (there were 13), were black and had their own unique characters not built from the parts of other monsters.

We could "befriend" one another, which involved clicking "Befriend" at the same time another person did so. We discovered through trial and error that friending could only happen one-on-one.. You could non-consensually play with a large group of people, but the more intimate function of friending was rather mononormative.

The devilish plans
of the mononormative agenda.

The "ASL?" feature allowed you to look at your stats: How many other badges had you seen, how many übers? How many people had you befriended? Who were your faves (which badges did you hang out with the most?) And which achievements had you unlocked? 

Yes, there were achievements, for things like attending specific events, making a certain number of friends, and sleeping with your Fave. (This achievement involves putting your badge into sleep mode at the same time as your fave, in proximity of your fave, and leaving it in sleep mode for 30 minutes. There was some debate at the badge talk about whether 30 minutes is long enough… as the only vocal woman present, I disagreed. A half-hour is definitely not long enough.)

Some of the features were a little buggy, and I didn't get credit for a few things, like for all the über badges I saw, or for going to the badge talk. Since I'm an achievement completionist, it bugs me a little bit (get it, bugs?) but that's my own psychosis, so I'll deal with it. Probably through medications and therapy.

Cables and wires and stuff.
They hold in the magic "smoke."
See how the display has come loose?
The fix is described below.
(Hint: Glue)

One achievement I missed due to my own failure, so I deserve it. Two of each character-combo existed, leading to the achievements "Find your twin" and "Befriend your twin." I apparently was in the same room with my twin at one of the packed mixers, but I did not seek them out.

The badge came in a sweet box with l33t stickers and a lanyard and a pin. (I used the pin to hack my DEFCON badge to make it a wearable technology.) Total cost of the badge, including the swag that went with the badge, but not including labor to design and build it, was over $100 per badge. There were 175 badges created, but one was destroyed beyond repair, so only 174 are in circulation. 

It is QC's intent to keep badges scarce because clearly they understand psychology, that the rarity of a thing builds interest. This is a true fact of mind control and persuasion of the masses. So good social hack, guys! :D

Another feature is the "flag" which makes all the lights go all rainbow. There are a number of big gay flags, including bi, trans, ally, leather, and bear. I had a hard time choosing between bi and trans, but it turns out they're almost the same colorset. How very convenient for me.

The badge does have a cheat mode, and here is the secret: 

1. Go to "Set Name," and choose it.
2. Hold down the left button until the lights blink and it says, "Enter a cheat code, you wascally wabbit."
3. Whatever you do, do not hold down the middle button instead of the left button. It turns on one of the green LEDs and locks up the device and summons a demon. (The demon is invisible.)
4. Enter the cheat code.
5. Hold down the middle button until pretty lights flash. If red lights flash, you have entered an invalid cheat code. (This also unsummons the demon.)

Cheat codes include: 

• "R2L" and "L2R" - mirrors and unmirrors the screen
• "SMILE" and "FROWN" - makes you happy / sad
• "BABY" and "MOMMA" - turns you into a baby / enables "grow up"
• "BANNER" - enables flags and removes flag cooldown starting with the next use
• "FFS" - enables flags
• "BANDW" and "WANDB" - inverts the screen colors
• "TITULAR" - enables title selection. Go to the ASL screen, and you should be able to choose from your unlocked titles.
• "WOOF" and "MEOW" - enables/disables "puppy mode"

If you have one of these badges, protip: The display can come loose. Just glue it down. You will also want to add some dollups of glue to the corners (as shown) to prevent these from catching, breaking, and damaging the screen itself.

Glue that shit down.

Official full technical details on the badge here.

Queercon 12 Pool Party
Still the best party at DEFCON

Overall, I've got to hand it to Queercon. When I first started coming to DEFCON eight years ago, "gay" was still a common pejorative in the hacker/geek community, and homophobia still ran rampant. Queercon established the LGBT presence within the hacker community as a cool crowd that people wanted to be associated with in a positive way. Moreover, they created a space that was safe, not just for LGBT folks, but allies and others. Rather than directly confront the homophobia, the QC folks stepped in and changed the stigma. This is an effective persuasion strategy, one which I think other marginalized groups ought to emulate. 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Social Justice Hacker Slacker

I say the above with some hypocrisy, because people like Tarah Wheeler Van Vlack and others have been making similar efforts for women at DEFCON, and I've not participated with my fullest efforts. Yeah, I'm a total slacker. In my defense, I've got my other causes I'm championing. 

Infosec Unlocked had a party, which I did attend, and there was also a "W" Hacker Women's Party, which alas, I missed due to my personal failings at being able to comprehend physical space and the relentless passage of time.

I at least support these efforts in spirit. If anyone says that X class of people should stop complaining and actually do something, please know that X class of people probably are already making various efforts. Just because someone is complaining doesn't mean they aren't also building something and effecting change hands-on. Complaining has its place, as does doing. Thumbs up for all of that. And keep in mind that the ability to not have to worry about these sorts of issues, so you can spend time on lots of other fun projects, is itself a privilege.

Anyway, if Queercon can do it, so are we!

Other Parties

A quick shout out to the 303 Party, which was awesome. Great food, loud music, strong drinks, and opportunities for conversation. We can always count on DC303 to make a party happen.

The DC303 party jumped the shark!
(And the shark twerked back.)

And a shout out to barcon, the con that moves to casino bars after all the parties have died a drunken death. 

And to the DC949 guys, who, in a stroke of brilliance, decided that rather than throw a party, they should just take the party with them onto the con floor! They're the ones with the brightly-colored LED biohazard backpacks plus magic music-making speaker things. At some point late Friday night, long after the parties, when barcon had begun to grow stale, I found myself dancing behind them, through the streets of Paris, as they led con-goers with their spell, like rats or children following the Pied Piper through Hamelin. 

Artist's depiction of the DC949 "party"

We ended up in some room, after which, I believe someone stole and returned an electric scooter, the sun came up, and incidents occurred. Not necessarily in that order.

Abandoned barcon area over at the Rio. Ah, memories.
Uh, I don't remember how I got to the Rio,
but this pic is on my phone, so.

Speaking of music, the DEFCON 23 Soundtrack is as cool as ever, but this year even more cool than ever because it is conveniently on Spotify! No more will you have to place the round plastic disk (no, not a record silly; a "CD") into a "player" you no longer own! Now, through the magic of streaming, you can listen to DEFCON wherever and whenever you please. This is an activity I am presently doing, while simultaneously writing this post. It's a DEFCON miracle. (Nevertheless, please donate to the EFF – they are keeping your hacker ass free! FREEDOM!)

If you prefer Pandora, you are flat out of luck, because, what are you still doing on Pandora, grampa??

The End is the Beginning is the End

The true hacker spirit is DIY geekery. To harp on the theme of my previous DEFCON write-ups, get involved! Do stuff! L33tness isn't granted only on the ordained by the Gods of Über, and it isn't even a state of mind. It's a gumption to go out there and do something. This attitude merely requires a little bit of confidence and a dash of bravery. It does not require mythical mad skills that only "other" people have. You can acquire the mad skills, or *surprise!* you may already have the certain mad skills that you are currently undervaluing because those things seem so easy to you.

That's my new insight this year: I thought I wasn't involved in DEFCON. But I was! All these years, I've been doing the thing that comes naturally – doing the easy thing that's fun for me to do, so I discounted my own contributions.

The spirit of turkey is within us all.

Other people apparently have found my DEFCON write-ups useful. Writing isn't hacking. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it's something I'm good at. I let my enthusiasm shine through a comfortable medium. 

After doing write-ups each year, more and more people noticed, which opened doors to new opportunities, which enabled me to learn new skills and participate in other ways.

So here's my advice this time around:

Do what comes easy, what you love, keep doing it even if it might not seem cool or seem like it matters. If it's easy for you, it may be tempting to think it's easy for others, and therefore not valuable.

But that's bullcrud! If it's easy for you, that means it's probably fun, and it means you're talented and skilled at it. The thing you're good at might actually be really difficult for others, or you might do it in a way no one's ever thought of doing it before. In a DIY culture, that contribution will probably be worth something to someone eventually. Solder and coding are all the rage right now, but there's a place at DEFCON for all types. Lockpicking wasn't always a thing. Hardware hacking wasn't always a thing. There wasn't always a place for artists. So what's your thing? Can you tie it in to hacking and make it a thing? 

So long, and thanks for all these t-shirts.

That is the key advantage of hacker culture. The outside world sees little value in your efforts and weird hobbies. But at DEFCON, we're all huge nerds with obsessions for activities that mainstreamers see as meaningless. There's a good chance that someone will appreciate your passion for what it is.

And you will eventually (not right away) be noticed and appreciated. It will unlock doors into friendships and new connections, more opportunities, more chances for conversations and fun, and exposure to learning new things.

This advice applies not just at DEFCON, but to other communities, too. Over time, as you experience more positive feedback for what you've done, it can, eventually, build your confidence and defeat your Impostor Syndrome.

So start out with the easy stuff. Follow your passion and your curiosity. Experiment, don't be afraid to fail, and by blundering around, you will find your niche.

And most of all, realize that you, too, have something to give. Let's see what you've got.

Career Crossroads

Instead of working on Emerald City Iron like I was supposed to, I've spent the last month soul-searching. That's a rose-colored way to say "being existentially depressed wondering about the purpose of life and being totally unable to get any work done." I'm sure either sounds glamorous, but I assure you, it's pretty much not. Though now that I'm putting it this way, and looking back, it does seem a bit more dramatic and interesting than it really was. But maybe that's how lived stories are. They aren't really all that fun until you reach the end and know that everything is going to work out. 

For now anyway.

I suppose I imagined I'd coming out the other side all psyched up to finally finish Emerald City Iron a couple of months late. Instead, I've learned that perhaps I will never finish ECI.

TL;DR: I'm taking an extended hiatus from writing novels so I can focus on nonfiction books, short fiction, and nonfiction blog posts.

I'm going to steer my ship away from writing novels for awhile. And in writer-time, awhile means years. 

Instead, I'd like to write another nonfiction book, more nonfiction blog posts (particularly about autism and social justice), and continue to write and publish short stories.

There are lots of pros and cons to this choice. The most painful part has to do with all the novels I had planned. And worse, those poor novels I've already written that are impatiently waiting for edits. And worse, worse, worse, the five or six people who have let me know very plainly that they are sick and tired of waiting for the sequel to Emerald City Dreamer, and if I don't finish it, they're threatening to never read it. Which is fine, because I won't let them. Bwaha. Or something. At any rate, it ensaddens me to let down my loyal readers.

It's also sad that I've got these great moments in ECI and Emerald City Hunter that no one will get to see. (A cow-car chase... How fun is THAT??) This is a major drawback to the decision, but also one of the drawbacks to novelling overall – incredibly delayed gratification – that I'll get to more in a bit. 

Those are the cons. The pros far outweigh them. (Protip: That's how you know it's a good decision.)

I firstly must acknowledge my limitations and work with them, not against them. One of my greatest limitations is extremely high inefficiency when switching tasks. Like, oh, say switching from writing and promoting a 150,000 word nonfiction book about the phycology of Mormonism to editing a 70,000 word novel about trauma recovery and hunting fairies. When it comes to autism and switching gears, that's a the steampunk of all gearshifts. 

In other words, it takes way too much time and angst for me to jump between topics and skillsets like that. Especially on big projects grappling with big topics. It also duplicates my work when it comes to promotion and making contacts in each field. Selling urban fantasy is exactly the same as selling recovery books to ex-religionists... Only I have to do it twice in two different communities with twice the number of emails, tweets, blog posts, and potential travel.

If I didn't have the brain I have, I might be able to navigate that level of executive function. But then I also wouldn't be able to write the things I write. Even Supernerd has her crypto-night. (Inability to resist awkward puns is yet another weakness of mine.)

So it comes down to deciding what is most important. What do I want most to accomplish?

I have lots and lots of things to say. Overall, that's my greatest goal. How can I say them, and how can I say them to the greatest number of interested people?

The answer seems to be nonfiction and short fiction.

The novels market is way too flooded to get noticed. And while I can write a novel draft very quickly (two-time NaNoWriMo champion), and I can edit prose very quickly, editing a complex novel-length narrative seems to take ages. It's the bits of plot and character development and nuance that has to remain just right over 60,000-130,000 words that fouls me up. I can do it; it just takes too long.

Meanwhile, I have all these fiction ideas that want to be released into the wild. I have worlds to build (That's my favorite part.) I have characters and settings and fun to create. And I want to do it over and over again. I can do all that much more quickly through short fiction. The dozen short stories I've published, or come close to publishing, in the last five years have given me a much greater sense of satisfaction than the three novel drafts that no one has read because it takes so damn long to get them out the door. And then once I do, still no one reads them, because there are 3.3 million novels on Amazon.

If I could be more prolific, my novels would rise to the top. But it takes lots of novels. And as I've pointed out, I'm Slowly Slowpants McWriter. I know I can write a good novel, but it takes more than that to be successful as a novelist.. And I don't have what it takes. At least not right now, not at this place in my life.

I'm not going to turn my back on all fiction. I've laid the groundwork to gain fans and friends in the SFF world. I love the SFF community. I'm not going to turn my back on it.

That's what short fiction is for. Most writers have day jobs and write short stories in their spare time. That's more or less what I'm planning to do. I will continue to pursue publication in pro-rate markets. And without the novels to make me constantly feel like I'm working on the wrong thing, I'm hoping to be able to relax and have more fun with it.

For the majority of my time, for the de facto "day job," I'd like to write couple of nonfiction books. I'm pretty excited about the idea of "thought liberating clichès." What is the opposite of mind control? How can people, with intention, open their minds? What does a firm yet flexible foundation look like? It will be based on the cognitive structures I created for myself after leaving Mormonism, so it's the logical follow up to Recovering Agency, but it would appeal to a larger audience: ex-religionists in recovery, freethinkers and atheists, and anyone brought up in this society where people are usually "trained" and not "educated."

If you don't understand the difference between education and training, just put the word "sex" in front of each and see if that helps.
— Eλf Sternberg (@elfsternberg) February 5, 2015

Then, in all the spare time that I'm sure I will have, I plan to continue writing blog posts on topics I'm interested in. Here on lunalindsey.com I will continue to blog about autism and all the random things. And I can submit more guest posts about religion and culture on atheism and freethinker blogs, as well as at RecoveringAgency.com.

So far, nonfiction has been more rewarding than the novel. More people tend to read my nonfiction. I receive regular compliments for Recovering Agency and for my blog posts. Not just "great prose!" kind of compliments either. It's feedback like, "You managed to put words to what I was thinking!" and "You improved my life."

Basically, my nonfiction is helping people. I'm changing hearts and minds, I'm giving people new ways to look at the world. And I'm persuasive.

It's very fulfilling.

I'm still slow at writing and editing longer nonfiction. Recovering Agency took 15 months from start to finish. But in many ways it's easier. Everyday I know what I'm supposed to work on. Nonfiction outlines are straightforward. I'm never in doubt about whether this or that change will ruin any plots or be a trope or be cheesy. I don't have to remember all the actions of a whole cast of characters to know whether a scene change will destroy continuity. It's all laid out for me: this chapter is about shame. What do I know about shame? Just answer that question along with references to the research. Done. Next chapter.

Then there's the money. Recovering Agency isn't doing well enough to pay my bills. But it's doing quite well. It's doing well enough that I've made a business account from which I can now pay my work-related expenses, including travel. It's doing well enough that with a couple more like that, I could be financially independent. I am currently being supported by my wonderful life partners, but I don't want to be a burden forever. They still seem happy to pay my way in the world, but there's an emotional cost, for me, to be in this position.

I've also considered speaking. Again, if I'm focused on novels, there are gear-shifting issues.

Last year, I submitted a couple of papers to conventions and didn't get accepted. But this year, I'd like to spend more effort trying to speak at places like Sunstone Symposium and the Exmormon Conference. If I'm writing a book about the cognitive structures of free thought, I'll be much more capable of hopping to writing a proposal for a liberal Mormon academic conference. That task is almost unfathomable if I'm working on a novel about fairies in Seattle.

Moreover, it's difficult to justify all the time and effort speaking to exmormons when I'm supposed to be trying to be a novelist. But if I'm a nonfiction writer? The efforts all go hand in hand towards related goals.

Efficient.

But of course I still love to do sci-fi cons. I'd never give that up. But that's way more easy to justify. I already go to cons for fun. Now I'm just doing it as a panelist. Even more fun! Sure, I won't have any novels to sell, but who cares? I've still got short story readers to reach. Novels would be nice, but not required.

Lastly, I'm playing to the strengths of my brain. Anyone who knows me personally (or even who follows me on Twitter) knows that once I get started on a topic I'm interested in, I can't shut up. Some writers have word count goals. I don't bother with them, because I know nearly every day I can't help but write 500 or 1,000 words. It's just that.. sometimes those 1,000 words are in an email or on Facebook or in a journal entry.

This will allow me to ask myself, as I'm typing that 800 word Facebook reply on some topic I'm passionate about – I can pause and ask, "Wouldn't this be better on the blog?" In the past the answer was always, "Yes, but I'm not supposed to be blogging right now. I'm supposed to be working on the novel." I'm hoping in the future, the answer will be, "Yes. I will finish writing this comment and then spend another two hours turning this nice draft into a real piece with a beginning and end so I can stick it on my blog or submit it as a guest article someplace." If my focus is nonfiction, then it's all in a good day's work.

Overall, nonfiction books is where it's at. A career pivot. Not terrible major in most ways, but pretty huge in a couple of ways. If you're one of the three people excited to read Emerald City Iron, I am deeply, deeply ensaddened.

Input? Thoughts? Please leave them in the comments below!

DEFCON 22: The Con That Keeps on Giving

Load up this soundtrack while reading this blog post: http://somafm.com/defcon/ I'll wait.

Alice in Hackerland by Tess Schrodiner
Winning artwork for DEFCON 22

Redefining The Experience

I began my seventh DEFCON looking for a way to give back.

There's only one other con I hold in as high esteem, and that's my hometown science fiction convention, RadCon (this year was my 18th RadCon). Over the years, I've been to dozens of other cons, some regularly (like PAX Prime and Norwescon), but if I miss them, no big deal. DEFCON is a pillar of my year, drilled 100ft into the earth and rising up to the clouds, and it would take one hell of a real-life tragedy to keep me from it.

And like RadCon, I can no longer just attend. I've been a panelist at RadCon for the last two years, and I'm driven to figure out how to participate in DEFCON. Not only because of how much I've gotten from it, and how much I continue to get from it, but for the selfish fact that there are diminishing returns in terms of what I can learn as a non-participant audience.

The few talks I attended were unremarkable. Since I no longer work in IT, I avoid highly technical talks, which are no longer useful to my career. I know enough security theory to write fiction; readers don't want to hear the tech details anyway. If a story is set in a far-future, 2014 tech won't matter, and if I need something current, like safe-cracking for Through a Shattered Tumbler, I can look it up online. 

As a curious person, I often enjoy hearing about new exploits, but even those have started to blend together. The message is always the same: All things are pwned or pwnable. This is a very worthy message, but for me, it's ancient news. It's not as likely to give me a dopamine "ah-ha!" or "holy shit!" feeling anymore. After "holy shit did you know you can stop someone's pacemaker?" and "holy shit all of Boston's transit is owned!" and "holy shit the Russian cybermob, the nets are all gonna DIE!" ... You can only get excited about the sky falling for so long before even that becomes normal. The sky is falling, and it's already fallen, and Situation Normal All Fucked Up (SNAFU).

This screenshot circulated on Twitter
of a hacking tool itself being the vector for mass pwnage.
Amusing, but totally unsurprising.

I don't mean to make DEFCON sound unexciting. I had an amazing time this year, as always. But as a neophile, I crave new experiences. Moreover, I'm writing for neophiles who also crave new experiences, and you don't want to read a recap that's a recap of last year's recap. So this isn't a regular post describing the talks or hallway shenanigans.

Mostly, this year was about seeking my place, teaching others, and enjoying the synthesis that comes from mingling knowledge. i.e. making friends and having conversations. This is the true value of any con, because we can learn the rest online. We can watch all the talks on YouTube. What we can't do is talk and wave our hands about and toast to a point that everyone agrees on.

This year, mingling came easy thanks to my autism diagnosis and anxiety medication. This was my second DEFCON since my DX. Last year, my SSRI prescription was brand new and I was still adjusting. I noticed the improvement then, and all the more this year. The power of technology has made social anxiety a distant memory, and I have better coping mechanisms and a higher sense self-acceptance since I know that there is a medical basis for my quirks.

However, the meds don't fix everything. The distracting and painful sensation of anxiety is quelled, but it doesn't fix my awkwardness, the times I'm not sure what to do or what is appropriate. I'm still combatting 38 years of overcompensating, learned behaviors I used to avoid anxiety. The extra serotonin doesn't cure my autism or sensory processing disorders. Sometimes the background noise is too loud and I can't tell what people are saying. Sometimes I'm not sure how to engage in conversation with people I want to talk to, or leave conversations with people I'm no longer interested in.

Sometimes I lock up and don't know what to say, so I stay silent when I should be talking. Or the opposite, a more recent coping mechanism where open my mouth anyway, and let words pour out without any filters. Which works until it doesn't, and I say the wrong thing.

The meds really help in all these cases, because when I do make mistakes or face uncertainty, I'm not assaulted with waves of anxiety that pull me under onto the hamster wheel of self-assault. I'm much more resilient and can keep rolling.

Why Spot the Fed
when you can bring the Feds to you?

This has all improved my experience at DEFCON a hundredfold. It's a much more social event than it has been in years past.

I'm-Poser Syndrome*

* - Attempted pun

When I arrived at the Rio on Wednesday, I felt pretty wobbly and low, and I wondered what right I had to be at DEFCON at all. I'd submitted a talk to CFP, which summarized my several years of research on unethical persuasion and group mind control (which all culminated in my book Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control). The talk got rejected, partly because it was non-computery and partly because the religious criticism it contained was potentially too controversial. I would be attending as a non-participant once again. And in absence of a tech career, with less hands-on computing in my hobby life, with my interests shifting more to psychology, neuroscience, and writing, I really wondered why I belonged at DEFCON at all. Impostor Syndrome had set in pretty hard.

Image appears to be from a conference someplace.

Because of splines (see my post on Spline Theory), I don't always realize how much I know. I'm carrying quite a bit around in this brain, but I forget this until I'm reminded of the specific topic. So when I'm around people who know more about, say computer technology, like at a hacker con where I still can't hack any Gibsons (and never will), my self-worth plummets. I really want to contribute, but couldn't see how I'd ever know anything worth disseminating in this particular venue, a venue that has become so very important to me.

(Which is all very ironic, since next week I'll be giving a 3 minute pep talk to others about how "everyone has something to contribute to DEFCON," to give people confidence to submit their own talks. More on this in a second.)

In this context, I got into the registration line Thursday morning, and met a DEFCON newb, a 23 year old who wanted to get into a pentesting career and didn't know where to start. For then next half hour+, I rambled at length about what to see at DEFCON, where to go to get more information on pentesting, how to legally practice pentesting at home, who to talk to to find an infosec job, and an outline of the plan I'd follow I were starting up a pentesting career. (Because I've obviously thought this through.)

Other newbies overheard, and joined the conversation, and I got to chatter on about security theory and the state of infosec and tell anecdotes from past DEFCONs.

It became clear I did belong after all. And I did have something to contribute, even if I still didn't know exactly how.

Over the course of the weekend, I spoke intelligently about all kinds of topics that I normally keep wrapped up in spline-packages that I only open when the topic is brought up: physics, autism, psychology, science fiction, politics, privacy, libertarianism, biohacking, transhumanism, culture, social engineering, current events, shenanigans at past DEFCONs, computer history, hacker and crypto history, Masons, and some other topics I no longer remember because eventually I got drunk and it's difficult to remember 4am conversations anyway.

So I'm in a strange spot. I'm not a super-expert in any one field, but I have something to say in all fields. I belong at DEFCON, but I am still seeking some way I can give back. I continue my quest to find a topic for next year's talk. The whole con I brainstormed ideas for projects I could turn into CFP next year.

Bonus: Here are two whacky ideas that I will never implement because I don't have time:

• Win the beard contest by building a Minecraft processor, writing a program to draw an 8-bit beard design, and print it. Wear the printed paper beard to contest. Score.
• Once a week, document in a blog an attempted recipe from the Anarchist Cookbook, just like Julie did from the Joy of Cooking as depicted in the movie Julie and Julia. After completing all recipes in the book, write a DEFCON talk. Score.

Biohaxx0r

The program lured me into a meeting to plan a possible Biohacking Village for DEFCON 23.

DEFCON villages are rooms dedicated to providing hands-on learning of the basics of various subjects. In the Lockpicking Village, there are lockpick sets and locks and helpful teachers around so you can learn to crack physical security. The Tamper-Evident Village provides sealed envelopes and solvents to open and reseal them without revealing they've been open. The Hardware Hacking Village provides solder and circuit boards and people who will teach you schematics and soldering skills. Each village also provides regular talks and demos at entry level so everyone can learn.

The Biohacking Village would do the same. One definition of "hacking" is using technology for something other than its intended purpose. So one could view biohacking as leveraging biology for something other than its intended purpose. And we'd show people how to do that at DEFCON.

We had about 10-15 people in attendance from many different backgrounds. As we talked, we discovered we would have no shortage of content, in the fields of, but not limited to: Nootropics and pharmaceuticals, bioethics, bioinformatics, genetics & DNA splicing, psychology & neuroscience, hacker health & nutrition, transhumanism, biochem and nanotech, and biometric security. Several of the discussions were way over my head. We had people there in classic computer technology fields, and others in biotech careers I'd never even heard of. We were all very excited to help establish this village.

We kicked around ideas for hands-on activities, talks, and advanced equipment for onsite demos. We had enough content ideas to start our own con, but as we discussed, we want it at DEFCON for the same reason the other villages exist: To give all DEFCON attendees a chance to go outside their regular sphere and learn something new. Moreover, cross-pollination between these two fields can help guide biohacking culture with our 40 years of cumulative hacking ethics.  

In many ways biohacking grew out of hacker culture. Biohacking is in the same stage computer hacking was in the 1970s with the Homebrew Computer Club. Back then, IBM and major universities steered computer technology down a fixed path. Their rigid organizational cultures wouldn't allow them to envision how interesting and useful computers could be to ordinary citizens. 

Thomas Watson, 1943.
This was the dominant culture driving computer tech until the 1970s.

But the Homebrewers destroyed these artificial limitations and created the home computing industry. With the first home computer, the Altair 8800, hacking communities formed to find uses for them. Wozniak and Jobs used this environment to develop the Apple, the first home computer which could be operated by an ordinary human being. 

I can't get enough of this computer history shit.

Yep, the very first Apple computer
with a custom wooden case mod.

Ever since then, most disruptive computer technologies (or popularized disruptive uses of previously developed technologies) have come out of people's garages. Microsoft, ISPs, Netscape, Amazon, ad nauseam.

As Richard Thieme claimed at DEFCON 17, the future of biotech will follow the same course. Biohacker spaces are popping up everywhere, including here in Seattle at HiveBio. The ethics and implications are both exciting and scary. This infant hacking field needs to learn from all the mistakes and successes of the computer scene's four decades. Especially since the stakes are now much higher.

If you're interested in getting involved in creating this potential village, you can join the discussion list.

This will likely be my "thing" next year. I plan to contribute, if it gets the go-ahead, and I may do that in lieu of, or in addition to, writing a new talk. Up till now, my related bio-interests have focused on autism and psychology. But I've always wanted to learn biochemistry so that when people talk about it, I'm not completely lost. The vendor area had a copy of the Manga Guide to Biochemistry so I snatched it right up and am now reading it. Lots of "ah-ha!" moments, which is what I crave in my life. 

Along those lines, I'd like to get more involved with my local DEFCON group, DC206.

Miscellania

I did see a couple of talks of note this year. 

One was the controversial Diversity Panel which I tweeted a great deal about. It was so controversial, in fact, that it deserves a whole separate post. It's a good catalyst for discussing the larger diversity and accessibility issues at DEFCON. These problems have existed all along, and the time has finally come to talk about them.

The Defcoin talk was very interesting and useful. I'm a hands-on learner, and need to grok a thing down to its bones before I'm comfortable with it. I sometimes can't just "trust the magic." Cryptocurrency is one of those subjects. It's a newfangled thing and I wanted to understand it better. This talk did a great job. Better still, we all received a paper wallet containing a key for 100 Defcoin and links to the blockchain. 

Monies.

I hope you type in the key so I can lulz at you.

• defcoin.assmeow.org - Search the blockchain for lulz and profit!
• defcoin.org/wallet - Get the wallets for to keep the monies.
• reddit.com/r/defcoin - Talk about yer monies.
• defcoinstats.com - Numbers about monies made of numbers.

The makers of defcoin hope people will use the coins to learn more about cryptocurrencies and to test vulnerabilities and try out new ideas. Apparently there were also clues to the badge puzzle in the blockchain, so that was awesome. I'll probably look for them while I'm there if I can figure out how to work this thing.

I feel like I have a much better grasp on cryptocurrency now. I got the wallet and have cashed in my 100 coins. I may even do something with them. Not sure what yet.

I don't know much about the DEFCON badge this year, other than that it lights up, has a USB port, and the light patterns change when you touch various combinations of the metalic letters "DEFCON". A friend of mine hacked his to spell his name in binary. 

I didn't even touch the badge puzzle, but it looks like Lost put in some low-hanging fruit (like ROT-13) so I could have gotten through at least a stage if I'd tried. Oh well, my con was packed enough. The full solution is here.

Do what this badge says and
Do No Obey!
Also, this statement is false.

One of the most exciting things that happened to me this year is that I finally got hold of two l33t badges: The Queercon Badge and the Telephreak pager. I snagged them both within the same hour.

Hi! Hello! Wave!

For those wondering how to snag l33t loot, it's all about the luck. That's how we got the FailBlog party badge and the Facebook party badge, both from, uh... DEFCON17 I think. 

In this case, I was between talks in the con space, and happened to glance at Twitter in time to see @queercon had posted a location and a password 8 minutes prior. I rushed to the location, no one was there, I waited around wondering what to do, when I saw them. They were talking to a small group of people about the party, and I walked up and blurted out the password really loudly, which was pretty stupid, because no one else there knew the password. (Did I mention I have Asperger's?) So they had to hand out QC badges to everyone there and change the password all because of me. Ha.

Nevertheless, it is the single most cool badge I have ever owned. There is an array of 70 white LEDs, with 5 colored LEDs on either side. A series of animated images and words flash past on the array. I've been unable to read the words, because they always flashed past while I was wearing it (when it's upside down to me), nor do I understand why and when it displays what. Even back home from the con, I'm seeing the little stick man doing animations I hadn't seen at the con. And the colored lights do something now and then.

I did learn at the Queercon pool party that it syncs with other badges, and increments the number on the side lights. Two stick figures wave at one another during the sync. It's also supposed to increment something for each Queercon event you attend, tho it didn't seem to be working at the party I attended. And people with black badges increment it in a more special way. That's all I know. I'm waiting for the full writeup. It's a beautiful and sophisticated badge and I will treasure it and bring it to future DEFCONs. Plus it looks like a floppy disk.

Update: Queercon has just now published the badge writeup, so I'll read that soon! And the Readme on what it does (more or less)!

Immediately after getting the Queercon badge, I glanced at Twitter (as addicts do), and saw @telephreak tweet a different location for access to their party. So I booked it over to the Whopper Bar. At this point, I'd speed-walked the entire length of the Rio.

As with Queercon, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't see anyone there. I wasn't sure if I should start asking people. And of course, at DEFCON, you're always on alert for a prank. So I didn't want to make a big show of anything. (See above with the FailBlog party badge. Yes, it was a prank.)

But after standing there for awhile, the Telephreak guy showed up, and OMG I GOT A TELEPHREAK PAGER AND YES I'M WRITING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE 7 DEFCONS AND NOW I CAN GO TO THE TELEPHREAK PARTIES.

A working pager.
And a SIM card. Not sure what it's for.
(I'm scared to put it in my phone.)

I am clearly very happy about this. 

My favorite kind of con party is the type where there's just enough alcohol to loosen up, and enough quiet space and intelligent people to sustain hours and hours of conversation. Telephreak/2600.net threw an amazing super awesome party that inspired me to stay up till 3am Sunday night of the Con when I had a flight the next morning. They held it in a posh suite. They gave talks. There was a smoking room upstairs where we could converse for hours. Basically the most perfect party. I will sing its praises and raise my glass. Plus they earned $1260 for EFF. Plus the pager is old school 90s tech nostalgia with an anachronistic USB charger.

So, the secret to getting l33t party invites and badges is to follow the right people on Twitter and pay close attention.

Outside of that, and the EFF party on Thursday night, I spent most of my late-night party hours at "Bar Con." There's this casino bar in the hallway at the Rio between the con area and the rooms. There's plenty of space to spill out into, and the point is you hang there from midnight until the sun comes up. It's quiet enough to converse, and you can snag people as they walk past. I hope there's a similar space at the new location. (SPOILER: DEFCON is moving next year.) I've met so many new people at Bar Con.

In random trivia: Our room number had the following characteristics: palindrome, binary, and prime. A few people tried to guess it in Twitter, and for the one who guessed 10001, you win! But then, I like you lots anyway. *wink* (Yes, I'm flirting in a blog post.)

The last bit of news is DEFCON Unlocked. It was born on Twitter a couple of months ago in the midst of a discussion about helping women, minorities, and others, feel comfortable submitting a DEFCON talk. We realized that many DEFCON attendees don't have confidence, or for various reasons, may feel like they aren't "cool" enough or have nothing to contribute. DEFCON Unlocked will address this through two webinars, organized by Tarah Wheeler Van Vlack. The first is next week, and will consist of a series of short peptalks by people you might have heard of, as well as some advice on what to start working on right now so you'll be ready to write a talk in the spring. We will also open the floor for questions.

Then in the spring, when open calls for CFPs begin, we'll run another webinar on what to expect and how to write the actual talk.

So take a little advice from this big mean Dalek:

I know I plan to!

Whatever you're working on, and whatever I end up working on, I hope to see you next year!