Defcon 17 suggestions

[Dallas]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

Appropriate age...

Well, In theory, I think 14-15 for the Con during the day, although at times it can be in appropriate for that age group..

But after 5:00, Id say 18 or over...

Which is the rub as most of the 14+ age will not have that much fun in vegas, and would put many of the adults in more dangerous situation for alcohol to minors among other things...

Personally I like to do a number of things which are frankly 21 or over, and do not want folks younger than that around which can get me or my friends in trouble..we do that well enough ourselves...

But to be fair - there is a lot to offer --and when I was 14+ I tried to do everything our jr hackers will try to do and survived..

I think a "guest" badge could work...for a price of course.

And for the record, I did not pitch a DEFCON babysitting service idea, I was looking for other parents that were interested in splitting the cost of a local bonded service for the week. Others read more into the idea than was actually there (A junior hacker village, etc.) I just know what sitters cost these days and would like to split costs with anyone else who had their kids there, too....and possibly do some family-friendly (non-con) activities during the evening hours. But I am well aware that this is inappropriate conversation for this board and will keep it to private conversation.

Just for kicks, I will ask this....what would you all consider an appropriate age for a kid to attend? I am looking forward to the day we get to take our junior hacker along with us and show him that being a geek is really cool, no matter what the kids at school say.

Deviant, I hope to attend the Shoot next year...I just hope my husband doesn't get shot again. :P

[faye]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

Response to some of the points made earlier:

* The number of IRONS in the HHV were limited to those I brought and those that others brought. For the record two of my expensive irons were stolen.

* I have talked with Russ, and it appears as though we will have a much larger space for the HHV next year, due to the success of it this year.

LosT

Sorry to hear that your equipment got stolen. My suggestion would be to tell everyone that space will be provided for a HHV, but tell everyone if they have an iron of their own to bring it... and reserve the small amount of irons you do have available for people who dont own one or want to learn how to solder before they go out and buy one. You might also want to consider setting up a system where you check out irons to specific people who leave something of importance with you to make sure you get your stuff back. Kinda like how some teachers make you give them your shoe if you want to borrow a pencil. lol


ps. I'll be back!

[Hurricane]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

I was thinking along the same lines, age-wise. To me, the fact that it is Vegas doesn't bother me. I usually just drop in on the ball and then go find something else to do. I have no intention of leaving my child or step children on their own in Vegas. I have found a lot of family-friendly activities to occupy my time outside of the con and invite others to join us if they want (message me).

Def Con is not responsible for entertaining everyone after the talks are over...your after-hour entertainment is up to you.

Plan to see me in the lock picking village next year, but please don't make fun of me...I can't open locks to save my life. :)

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

Plan to see me in the lock picking village next year, but please don't make fun of me...I can't open locks to save my life. :)

we look forward to seeing you there... and believe me, you'll be opening loads of locks with ease once we're done with you. bring the kids along, i'm sure they would get a kick out of things, as well.

[SarperDomain]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

I will be bumping free wifi and free cat6 to anyone who wants it.
I plan on bringing 8000 ft of cat6 and about 40 hot spots.
Also, I plan on bringing a bigger amp for Jackalope to play with. :)

[SarperDomain]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

Jackalope, bad news about the audio equipment. Once I told my friend where I was going with it he asked for a 70k cash deposit. lmao

[valkyrie]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

Just for kicks, I will ask this....what would you all consider an appropriate age for a kid to attend? I am looking forward to the day we get to take our junior hacker along with us and show him that being a geek is really cool, no matter what the kids at school say.

Hurricane, I had a 9 year old accompanied by his grandfather come and play with my Enigma devices at DC15. Smart little guy he was. Asked questions that I had hoped to hear from people vastly older than him, but didn't. I suppose that "appropriate age" determination really has to be up to the junior hackers parents. There are things that are appropriate for some kids and not appropriate for others. If your kid isn't too young to have a basic understanding of how to handle electronics, then I would say, if they truly have expressed an interest and as long as you continually accompany them, kids as young as 7 or 8 could learn something. YMMV.

If there is sufficient interest, I will do anything I possibly can to excite, intrigue, rile up, get agitated, and infuse someone with the glow of what is possible through their own curiosity and creativity. I consider that a continual pay forward for all the teaching, camaraderie, and consideration I have received over the years from this, my community.

Regards,

valkyrie
__________________________________________________ ___________
sapere aude

[ripshy]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

I have to agree with valkyrie. It is ultimately the parents decision.

I can remember the first time I went to Defcon, I was 14 y/o and had the benefit of already living in vegas and being able to take the bus down there each day. Granted, I didnt know anyone and my first Defcon was something of an awkward experience. I was actually considering not coming back the next year because yeah, I was learning a lot with the talks...but I didnt have the social experience...which is core to truly having a good time each year.

By the time my second con rolled around a year later, I had developed local relationships with people who had a similar mindset which made the experience much more rewarding. It was nice to be around people who didn't treat me like a child at such a young age.

I still remember the year my mother required Hackajar to sign a document granting him "legal" control over me for the weekend in order for me to be "allowed" to attend, and stay in the DC702 room. Good times.

Just for kicks, I will ask this....what would you all consider an appropriate age for a kid to attend? I am looking forward to the day we get to take our junior hacker along with us and show him that being a geek is really cool, no matter what the kids at school say.

[SarperDomain]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

Cat6 cables update:
Anyone that knows at this point in time of any specific lengths they will definitely need let me know in advance so that I can make them before hand. I can make cables on the fly, but it is easier to get the one I can do now out of the way.

Just PM your orders.

Thanks,
Sarper

P.S.
Any orders for lengths of 1000+ ft, please consider donating a beer to me in Vegas.
Also, anybody that I have been a rude a~*hole to in the forums can get any and all cables they need first. :)
(No Fiber-Wire requests, I am not that rich.)

[Dallas]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

You let Hackajar have legal control over you? Wow. if she only knew..

I have to agree with valkyrie. It is ultimately the parents decision.

I can remember the first time I went to Defcon, I was 14 y/o and had the benefit of already living in vegas and being able to take the bus down there each day. Granted, I didnt know anyone and my first Defcon was something of an awkward experience. I was actually considering not coming back the next year because yeah, I was learning a lot with the talks...but I didnt have the social experience...which is core to truly having a good time each year.

By the time my second con rolled around a year later, I had developed local relationships with people who had a similar mindset which made the experience much more rewarding. It was nice to be around people who didn't treat me like a child at such a young age.

I still remember the year my mother required Hackajar to sign a document granting him "legal" control over me for the weekend in order for me to be "allowed" to attend, and stay in the DC702 room. Good times.

[sintax_error]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

P.S.
Any orders for lengths of 1000+ ft, please consider donating a beer to me in Vegas.
Also, anybody that I have been a rude a~*hole to in the forums can get any and all cables they need first. :)
(No Fiber-Wire requests, I am not that rich.)

i'll donate a beer to ya regardless man, awesome thing you're doing.

[dataworm]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

[QUOTE=DJ Jackalope;99487]OK:
Dallas: [/B]I didn't mean to go all sexist on the "women and hackers and tech" talk idea to be all girls... but much as I HATE sounding sexist, soooo many chicas are not comfortable with learning new things with a even one guy in the room. Absolutely funny since this is what the thread pretty much boils down to.
/QUOTE]

<sarcasm>
Hum, I wouldn't mean to be sexist but I don't feel comfortable to learn something new with a guy or a girl in the room either... But I do like to learn new stuff, I just hate showing my ignorance!

But just as everyone I want to learn new stuff, so I just have to admit I don't know everything...
</sarcasm>

Why wouldn't the girl at Defcon be the one teaching us stuff? I am sick to see Girl to Girl talk... If you want thing to go forward...

Why this need to isolate gender? Man have has much to learn from Woman than Woman have to learn from Man.

[Z^2]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

So when I came to my first Defcon, I was a huger idiot than I am now. I instinctively knew that if I asked some of the questions I had, people would have asked me, "uh, you're here for defcon?". So I'm throwing some quick suggestions out (no idea if they're do-able):

That being said, how about a newbie-Q&A panel on Friday (maybe unofficial) like some of the other panel-talks? It would be hard because you'd have to know a little about *everything*, but I think satisfying to teach others.

A lot of the talks, for good reason due to cool-ass research, are pretty in-depth about things that are pretty much impenetrable if you have no idea what things like "ping" or "mp3" mean. So I figure if you're coming with the aim to learn, that's awesome. But if you're lacking a good solid background because you're not sure where to start (like you haven't found the main page book suggestions or the sticky about getting into the field) or you need a human to help you with the first couple of topics (like RTFM), you shouldn't leave disappointed if you need a good couple of nudges to get started. I know it took me a while to learn how to teach myself, to the annoyance of a couple more than a couple people.

How about like there are designated goons, having a few people who are designated, "will not eat you alive no matter what question you ask in the field of XXXX"? (or maybe a question a beer ) The people who run the villages are awesome for fielding a bunch of questions, but not everything has a village. There are Q&A sessions after talks, but there is not always time to ask everything without over-imposing on the speakers. Maybe a newbie-village, with a handful of people volunteering a couple minutes or whatnot of time throughout the day? That way people could go ask questions, but also have the support of some other beginning-people to work out their problems and questions together.

Defcon needs to be a week long to fit everything in...how about like some people have blackhat beforehand, there also be a day-long crash course newbie-con pre-Defcon? I've been talking to a couple of people I know lately who would like to approach education in a different way than it is currently being presented in the country, and I think they're motivated to somehow reinstate the old master-apprentice method of education. How about an official mailing-list of defcon mentors for people who come but feel lost, and would benefit from some extra help?

[Dark Tangent]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

One of the ideas we are trying to test-plan for is the idea of DEFCON starting more officially on Thursday. So many people are there already, we may as well have somethings for them to do.. sort of a pre-con con. That sounds like a good time to have one day workshops, 101-level talks, and who knows what else.

Question to everyone: What would you like to see on Thursday?

[facon12]

Re: Defcon 17 suggestions

This year will be my first year attending defcon and I know the idea of workshops and getting started knowledge type courses before the con actually starts sound awesome to me. Im fairly new to the security side of things so having a way to get some groundwork knowledge just so I dont feel like a total idiot while I'm there would be awesome. I also really like the idea of some kind of mailing list of people who dont mind teaching a few of us newbies what we need to know.