Defcon 18 and Las Vegas

Today is all about DEFCON. I went to the Keynote, which was Max Kelly the former facebook CSO; Open Public Sensors and Trend Monitoring; FOE, the release of Feed over email (a tool to combat censorship); a Meet the Feds Panel; DCFluX In: Moon Bouncer; Psychosonic Attacks; and Getting Root. The Moon Bounce talk was really good. The Psychosonic one was just the right amount of crazy and Getting Root was *all* crazy.

Between talks I finished completes some scholarship documents and have an official offer letter now. Still have a few details up in the air though.

After the Defcon goodness we went to the Hilton Buffet. Its close by and has free beer and wine. Pretty good! Then we headed downtown, where I hadn’t been before. There the casinos are older and closer together. Everything is cheaper, too. We played $5 craps all night.

[Edit] Link to Las Vegas Photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20100729Vegas#

Leaving San Francisco

I’ve started my gypsy adventure. Tuesday was my last day at work and Wednesday I moved out of San Francisco. Wednesday morning I still had a lot to get rid of, so I rented a man, named Rick, with a pick-up truck for the morning. He brought me to Adobe to ship the last of my stuff and to Out of the Closet to donate the rest. Then I packed up my suitcases and headed to the airport. There was a little issue with United. Unlike most airports that measure carry on bags at the gate, they measure them at the entrance to Security. Mine was too big. I knew that it was pushing it, but I figured I would gate check. Instead I had to pay for a third bad at $100. Not too happy with United right now. Schuyler got into Las Vegas 40 minutes before me and was waiting for me when I got there. We took the shuttle together to the Riviera and met up with Danny, Nick, and Dave there. The three of them have already been adventuring in LA and Baha, Mexico. We drank in the hotel and shared stories for the night.

Today we picked up our Defcon badges. Then we got breakfast at the Blueberry Hill Dinner and went to the Pinball Hall of Fame. We stayed there for hours. It was pretty awesome, both new and old machines. Nick and I went to the Smithsonian Atomic Testing Museum for a some time while the others, who had already been there, played more pinball.

After a little break in the room we headed out for the night. We got dinner at Beijing Noodle #9 in Caesar Palace. Then walked to the MGM Grand where Danny and Dave played craps, and the rest of us walked around. We had nice cocktails at the Nob Hill Tavern before heading back.