Defcon 14 Information at DC 13 Closing ceremonies?

[big chopper]

Granted talk of DEFCON 14 may be premature--but for the benefit of us regulars, who could not make it to DEFCON 13, was there any mention of DEFCON 14 during DT's closing comments on Sunday? (Where, When, If)

--bc,

[klepto]

I'm curious as well since one of the members on this forum keeps saying defcon next year won't be at the alexis park.

[Deviant Ollam]

I'm curious as well since one of the members on this forum keeps saying defcon next year won't be at the alexis park.i've actually heard conflicting info about defcon's contract with the AP. a few people had been saying that this was possibly the last year since our contract was up and whether or not DT et. al. would renew there (or whether the new management would have us back) was uncertain. however, at dinner on sunday night Roamer indicated that we still have two years remaining on our contract with them. (think it was he who said this... i was/am pretty ragged and worn out so i may be wrong)

for all the things that irritate the shit out of me at the alexis, there is still a very long list of reasons why it's a great location for defcon.

[klepto]

I don't really care where it's held at as long as the rooms aren't that pricey.

[big chopper]

My DEFCON experiences are divided into the Alexis Park era and the rest

I long for the old days. Attending DEFCON in a beat up casino had a certain vibe that cannot be had at Alexis Park.

I'd love to see DC14 held at The Frontier, The Sahara or The Riviera.
--bc,

[noid]

Sorry to break it to you....................wait for it......................





but Defcon 14 is canceled :)

[big chopper]

I don't really care where it's held at as long as the rooms aren't that pricey.

For reference, here are prices for area hotels for the last weekend in August (26, 27, 28)

Riviera $99, $99, $64
Frontier $32, $32, $32
Stardust $135, $109, $52
Sahara $109, $109, $52

Also cheaper food and cheaper games.
--bc,

[Zhym]

Defcon 14 is canceled :)
Of course it is. But where won't it be held next year? Will it not be at the AP, where it wasn't this year, or will it not be at another hotel?

If nothing was said at the end of DC13, that's cool. But if DT said something, impatient minds want to know.

Personally, I think we're due for another old doomed hotel. Which do you think will be imploded first -- the Frontier, Stardust, or Riviera?

[Voltage Spike]

was there any mention of DEFCON 14 during DT's closing comments on Sunday?

No, The Dark Tangent did not make any public statements about the status of the next Defcon. He strongly implied that there would be one, but nothing more specific than that.

As for the Alexis Park, I actually thought the new management did an excellent job. My only complaint this year was that people were getting keycards to my room without my permission (or even my name) ... not cool. They seemed very accepting of the pool situation (e.g., waiting for people to leave to drain the colored water), and I didn't catch the hired security harassing anyone.

[Abby_Normal]

As for the Alexis Park, I actually thought the new management did an excellent job. My only complaint this year was that people were getting keycards to my room without my permission (or even my name) ... not cool. They seemed very accepting of the pool situation (e.g., waiting for people to leave to drain the colored water), and I didn't catch the hired security harassing anyone.
That's very interesting, the last time anyone saw my wallet is was in my room, and I know I didn't have it on me, my dress was lacking in pockets.

[Deviant Ollam]

My only complaint this year was that people were getting keycards to my room without my permission (or even my name) ... not cool. yeah, when i checked in on wednesday i had already heard stories about that happening and actually pulled the manager aside and explained, politely but very forcefully, that my room (which had a mythtv box, laptops, the locks and picks for my talk, and was a point of gear storage for my wi-fi team) was going to be home to thousands of dollars of equipment and that if there was even the slightest foul-up with people being issued keys i was going to have somebody's ass on a platter with a side of fries. he not only gave me assurances that everything was ok, but he also claimed to make a call to the head of security to "let him know the situation". well, i don't know what that means, but no one was issued a key to my room improperly. now, when my roommate arrived thursday evening whilst i was at the EFF summit, he was issued a key to the room two doors down eventhough i left explicit and detailed instructions at the desk about how to handle his arrival. ah well, let's chalk this year up to the new management (sorry to hear about things like abby's wallet and camera, tho) and hope for better next year.

however, the whole "incorrect keys" thing will be going in a letter that i'm writing to the AP which will also mention matters like: absence of chairs and tables poolside, a broken TV i had the whole time, and an invasion of ants in our bathroom at one point which all added up to me deserving either a partial refund or a discount next time, imho.

[skroo]

Personally, I think we're due for another old doomed hotel. Which do you think will be imploded first -- the Frontier, Stardust, or Riviera?

Out of any of those three, I'll take the Stardust. Fuckers gave me a case of food poisoning on an unrelated trip there six years ago and I still haven't forgiven them for it.

[kallahar]

Tuesday: Check in, no problems
Tuesday night: some guy shows up at our room with a key to our room, AP sold him our room.
Wednesday morning: A family shows up with keys to our room, AP sold them our room. We try our keys, our keys no longer work. Front desk can't figure it out, so they re-issue me my keys.
Wednesday night: Some australians show up, AP sold our room *again*, this time they kill the keys and dispatch security, but no other problems.
Thursday morning: I demand to talk to the manager. She finally figures out that they put me in the computer as a different room number.

So, for three days they kept giving me keys to a room that I wasn't assigned to, and it took the manager to realize that the room I was requesting wasn't the room I was in the computer under.

[bascule]

As somone who stayed in the San Tropez, I was pretty amazed how packed it was this year with Defcon overflow.

Defcon seems to have outgrown the AP... err, uhh, "AV"

(OT: WTF were they thinking trying to make the whole AP look like a big cheap cheesy mexican restaurant then trying to pawn the whole thing off as being "Italian"? As an Italian I'm offended...)

[Dutch]

(OT: WTF were they thinking trying to make the whole AP look like a big cheap cheesy mexican restaurant then trying to pawn the whole thing off as being "Italian"? As an Italian I'm offended...)
If no one found a chopped off horse head under the bed spreads, the AP can't have been serious about their italian decor.. But being DC, I wouldn't be amazed if somebody actually FOUND such an item in the bed, and just left it at the scavenger hunt table... :smile:

Dutch

[big chopper]

Tuesday: Check in, no problems

So, for three days they kept giving me keys to a room that I wasn't assigned to, and it took the manager to realize that the room I was requesting wasn't the room I was in the computer under.

My opinion is that hotels with casinos take security more seriously because the Nevada Gaming Commission makes them have trained security presonnel, policies and procedures. Casino security is typically better than what one would find in a bank.

BTW: I was reading their web site and saw that the Nevada Gaming Commision has a job opening for a opensource network admin (http://gaming.nv.gov/documents/pdf/recruit_network_specialist_2005_05.pdf)
--bc,

[astcell]

That was supposed to be ITALIAN? Holy cow someone needs geography lessons. It looked like Tijuana after a firestorm.

[skroo]

It looked like Tijuana after a firestorm.

By that I assume you mean 'vastly improved'? :)

[vect0rx]

Sante Fe Vomit was what we dubbed it.

Also re: room key problems. It might come as a relief to some that the same thing was happening at hotels all over vegas as well. At the super 8 we ended up getting a key to a room that had people sleeping in it already.

That was supposed to be ITALIAN? Holy cow someone needs geography lessons. It looked like Tijuana after a firestorm.

[big chopper]

<SNIP> At the super 8 we ended up getting a key to a room that had people sleeping in it already.

This also happened to me with a recent trip to Denver--given a key to a room with a young woman fast asleep--bad situation. From that point on, I ALWAYS use the internal chain lock and put the "Do Not Disturb" sign up, just to let people know that the room is occupied.

Is hotel management software that bad? Are there opportunities here?
--bc,

[Adrenaline]

There were some good numbers for defcon this year, not only did the st tropez have a lot of overflow, but the comfort inn around the corner had a lot of defcon overflow as well.

[[Syntax]]

I arrived thursday, and I was given a key to a room already occupied. Ive either talked to of heard of 6+ people now that this happened to. Im wondering how many times they made the same screwup..

I imagine there were alot of people with non-working keys. Because after they issue new keys to people, the old keys quit working. So all of you that had key cards that suddenly crapped out.. Chances are someone walked into your room while you were'nt there.

[Voltage Spike]

']I arrived thursday, and I was given a key to a room already occupied. Ive either talked to of heard of 6+ people now that this happened to.

Well I've already inserted my complaint into this thread, but your comment would explain why I got a phone call from the front desk confirming that I had "successfully moved from room x to room y". I was rather confused since I had never been in room x which just seemed to confuse the person at the front desk.

My wild-assed theory is to blame the fact that the hotel now outsources their reservations during off-peak hours, and, from personal experience, they don't share reservation information with each other. This behavior is made worse by the fact that the convention is treated seperately from normal bookings. :doubt:

[TheCotMan]

My wild-assed theory is to blame the fact that the hotel now outsources their reservations during off-peak hours, and, from personal experience, they don't share reservation information with each other. This behavior is made worse by the fact that the convention is treated seperately from normal bookings. :doubt:

Many hotels do not pre-block rooms at the time of reservation.

What has been done with many hotels is to only pre-block *long* reservations, or group reservations, or long-time customers, and then allow dynamic blocking at registration for everyone else. People are always extending stays, checking out late, or shortening stays-- it make little sense to pre-block most roms, and it's "better" to just assign rooms as they are available and as needed at check-in.

During slow times, confirmed reservations are pre-blocked on the day of the expected arrival, but unconfirmed reservations are left dangling.

Hotels will frequently oversell their rooms, with the assumption there will be no-shows. When I worked a front desk, we had from 1-5% noshows on unconfirmed reservations, but less than 1% on confirmed reservations.. Reservations would frequently over book by 2-3%.

Overbooking sucks for front desk people since running the odds eventually ends up with the customer as the loser.

I suspect they had new people and/or new software and/or "hacking" attempts and/or dataloss. Hotels with problems like this don't keep using software if the results are like this.

[roninmonkey]

Yeah, so back to the topic at hand...W[here]TF is DC14?!?!?!

[astcell]

Since I know I am going to miss it can we just postpone it for a year?

[mindstorm]

Out of any of those three, I'll take the Stardust. Fuckers gave me a case of food poisoning on an unrelated trip there six years ago and I still haven't forgiven them for it.
I get sick every time I go there, but its more frm the bill then the food. :)

[digital_dreamer]

I hope they pick a place by January, I'm trying to get my job to pay for me to go this time.

[astcell]

I have never seen anyone go homeless at Defcon.

[Shatter]

I hope they pick a place by January, I'm trying to get my job to pay for me to go this time.

I can assure you it is picked.

We're waiting on DT to make the "Official" announcement about it.

--S

[warken]

I have never seen anyone go homeless at Defcon.


Maybe after they get back, but not during :)

[Vyrus]

lol well i guess if we dont count the people who live poolside, THEY could be considered homeless :P

[enigma]

I stayed in the Westin Hotel, and I was extremely satisfied. As a matter of fact we ended up getting plane tickets at the last minute that put us in Vegas a whole day earlier than we expected, and they let us check into our room at 2 A.M. without charging us for an extra night... :)