DEFCON: The Documentary Page #6

of the day, we'll take your money."

They weren't as concerned about the

lights around the pool getting destroyed,

any things of that nature, so it was a

little bit easier to deal with, you know,

destruction in that way.

I go to check in, and they hand me a

list, "Ok, let me explain this to you."

And it's a list of all of the objects

in the room at the Alexis Park

with a dollar amount next to it. "If you would

like to destroy this object in your room"

this is how much it will cost you."

You could just get insane and you weren't

waking anyone up, you didn't have to

worry about security coming and telling

you to stop doing something because

usually you were doing it to

somebody who wanted you to.

The Alexis Park, we were much

more hands-on because they didn't

have a security staff that a casino has

So I was arrested at DEF CON in 2002 by

the hotel security guards, but I don't

know who ordered it, I guess a goon,

probably Priest ordered it, and I ended

up in the Alexis Park jail, which is very

roomy, it was kind of a Bacchanalian,

Mediterranean motif, there were grape

leaves on the walls and things like that.

There's no bars or anything like that.

And since it was a non-gambling hotel you

could do whatever you want, wherever

you want, because you

didn't have to be an adult.

You used to make announcements at DEF

CON that, "So and so's parents are"

"looking for their runaway child," you

know, who was 17 and was off at the con

It was a different experience, everybody

says "I wish it was the Alexis Park again."

"Oh, I wish we were back at the Alexis Park."

Honestly, I do too. I really liked the

environment, the pool parties, the open

atmosphere, we had the whole hotel.

But then everybody forgets that, oh, the lines

are ridiculous, all the rooms were overcrowded

Oh, I couldn't do

anything, it was awful.

There was no room for speaking. I mean,

people would make t-shirts about how

terrible it was to get into

the tent in the parking lot.

So, it's better, it's more organized, yeah

It's a little different, I wouldn't go back.

For us to go back there now, we would

have to cut this conference by 2/3.

And, nostalgically, yes I look back on

that time, and it was a great time.

But we need a venue the size of the Rio,

now, to support the size that we've become.

But, that's probably the time,

when, things seemed to settle in.

That, you know, we've going something going here,

and it's probably going to continue for a while.

Well, and that's one the things. Obviously, the Alexis

Park is near and dear to a lot of people because,

this is, you know, how many years have

we been away from the Alexis Park?

And still, every year, somebody drives over

there, walks into the front of the hotel,

and steals the giant floor mat in the

front, and brings it back to con.

A conference badge has three purposes.

The first purpose is to show that you've paid

for the conference. It's a security token.

Number 2, it sets the level of your security,

when you're within the conference.

Third, I wanted the badges, that I created, to be

something that helped brought people together.

I intentionally designed the badges to cause people to

have to look at each other, and talk to each other.

To get to know somebody that they

might not otherwise have known.

It really is the interaction with the other

people at DEF CON that makes DEF CON what it is.

It's not the "oh, I have this uber, awesome,

electronic circuit badge that does such and such."

It's the people wearing the badge that matter.

And, I think a lot of people miss that.

The years where we've had an electronic badge, people

show up wanting to do something with this awesome

little piece of tech that they were

just given for their entry fee.

This is, we're helping... This is

like an open badge solder session.

We're helping people complete adding

the connectors to their badges.

We're not doing it for them, we're assisting them, and letting

them do it themselves. Because that way they learn how to solder.

So far, no one's done anything

that hasn't been able to be fixed.

So it's more of just learning, and, community

learning project, I guess. Just doing the badges.

Yes. First DEF CON. First time soldering.

A lot of firsts this weekend.

I really like to help other people

just get better at what they do.

Or to find an inspiration, something

they're passionate about.

And I like to help them

progress along that path.

Pretty much 90% of the people here

have never soldered in their life.

This is their first time.

And that's the goal.

It lets people, introduce people.

Hey, it's not that scary. It's okay.

We're here to guide you, and maybe, you'll do it in the future. And if

not, you'll know you've done it. So it's one of those skills you'll have.

I know a lot of guys, who are like, collecting badge firmwares, and

flashing stuff, and have no idea what they're supposed to be solving.

Usually, the only people that are really getting it, are

sequestered in their hotel room, just, going crazy on it.

There are some people that

counterfeit the badges every year.

And we try to make the badges hard to counterfeit. And there are

some people that spend a lot of time counterfeiting the badges.

And, I think that's cool.

If you can counterfeit the badge, and you can get past the guards,

repeatedly, good for you. You probably deserve to get in. Right?

That's what a hacking

convention is all about.

If you're good enough to fool everybody, you've put more energy

into hacking that badge than we did, probably, producing it.

So, good for you.

They had the smiley face, you know, skull

and crossbones, the basic logo for the con.

And I think their first design flaw

was, same PCB board, different colors.

So you had people that went out and spray

painted them. And things like that.

Well, the absolute worst thing to do is to step into the goon SOC

with your cute, little red badge, and claim that you're a goon.

Because we all know who we are. And

once the door closes, you're ours.

And so it was a space where I felt more at home,

where I didn't have to explain anything to anybody

than any other context I'd ever been in.

Real hackers are incredible.

They take nothing for granted, and they look at things

to see how they can be combined to make something new.

And hackers really have a interesting,

innovative, creative way, the best of them,

of looking at all sorts of problems.. that

a normal person wouldn't know how to do.

And being fearless in

the face of ambiguity;

Holding multiple representations of

reality simultaneously, in their minds,

even though they may be

contradictory, and conflicting...

And holding them there, lightly, while you

explore which ones are a best fit for now,

to the sensory data

coming into society...

You know, Feynman, great physicist, he said

"The interesting fact is the anomalous fact."

Emphasize both fact, and anomaly.

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