Greetings

[kasethnic]

Hi Everyone,

I just thought I would make a quick post, due apologies if this is not an allowed thing. I've been a long time watcher and I have decided to make Defcon 26 my first. I am a Sysadmin and biohacker based in New Zealand so I will be making the world trip in 2018 to the freedom land.

I am currently in the planning phase, although I have already booked flights. Any tips for a Defcon newbie are much appreciated and I look forward to meeting a bunch of you in 2018.

[TheCotMan]

Hi Everyone,

I just thought I would make a quick post, due apologies if this is not an allowed thing. I've been a long time watcher and I have decided to make Defcon 26 my first. I am a Sysadmin and biohacker based in New Zealand so I will be making the world trip in 2018 to the freedom land.

I am currently in the planning phase, although I have already booked flights. Any tips for a Defcon newbie are much appreciated and I look forward to meeting a bunch of you in 2018.

Check out a few FAQ:
* https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-faq/dc-faq.html (Official FAQ)
* http://defcon.stotan.org/faq/ (Unofficial FAQ, and a little old)

Thursday it a bit lighter on content, but for first time-attendees, consider the Thursday "DC101" track and intro to DEF CON. It provides a lot of helpful information for first-time attendees.

Check out any DEF CON Groups in your area or near you, and join mailing lists with DEF CON groups. Get to know the members, and ask people that have been to DEF CON questions and for advice. https://defcongroups.org/index.html can be checked to see if there are any near you. If not, then you can look to form one. There are directions/information on how to form one and become a PoC.

If you are on mailing lists of facebook or G+ groups , check with people that know you and you know on these lists for people attending DEF CON to make arrangements to meet with them.

As new DEF CON scheduling information becomes available, check out the official DEF CON 26 web pages.

Separate from the official scheduling and DEF CON information on the website, there are two other sources for helping people to plan DEF CON:
* Forum user qumqats ( https://twitter.com/qumqats ) has historically made an ebook and html format document with aggregated scheduling. Here is an announcement for *LAST* DEF CON : https://forum.defcon.org/forum/defco...tml-and-ebooks : It has the advantage of being simple content, available for direct audit, and with HTML, no javascript so no executable content on devices loading text.
* InfoBooth members from DEF CON have worked on an app called "Hacker Tracker" , but it is executable content which runs on your device. If you trust that, then it offers more interactive feature only possible if you trust code made by others to run on your own device(s): https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...rtracker&hl=en IIRC, the person that created that ( https://twitter.com/shortxstack ) handed over development to someone else.

Both of those have a really nice feature of aggregating schedules, and both have had support from developers to keep them up-to-date as schedules change, and include schedules for unofficial things that are not necessarily mentioned on the main defcon website like parties.

There are people on twitter to follow, to get latest updates on many things about con, but this requires you have an use a device at con. There are a few classes of thought on this:
* Do not bring devices, for reasons of security, or forcing socializing with other people not not tethering yourself to your device.
* Bring devices to see what is available and/or participate in contests/events that require devices.

Some people buy an "extra phone/device" and use it just for con. Some trust the security on their devices and use the same devices they use in life and purge before con, then purge after con. Some just use their own devices and do not purge before or after, but they use ACL and MAC with really good audit trails and integrity checks, and rely on experience with all of these to check before, during and after con, for unexpected results. This can be a good learning opportunity if you believe yourself to be skilled with defense.

People on twitter to consider following while at DEF CON:
* https://twitter.com/defcon the official DEF CON twitter feed
* https://twitter.com/dcib The DEF CON Information Booth feed
* https://twitter.com/thedarktangent The guy that has been running DEF CON for over 25 years
* https://twitter.com/DEFCON_NOC The DEF CON NOC which has also been the source for DCTV updates, like channels used, and network details for using the DEF CON network
* https://twitter.com/Niki7a Nikita is one of the first staff hired to work at DEF CON. She works administration, and frequently has updates on CFP and official notices on changes at DEF CON
* https://twitter.com/defcon101 Has been a twitter feed for the historical "DEF CON 101" "DC101" track
* https://twitter.com/defconparties An unofficial feed which included work to aggregate party information for all sorts of parties from exclusive invite only, to pay-to-enter, to "elitism" (you are known to be somebody "worthy" of attendance according to the people hosting the party, to corporate parties for DEF CON or BlackHat, to official parties open to anone with a DEF CON badge, to ....
* https://twitter.com/dcskytalks Updates on "SkyTalks" : These are generally run by the "303" group and not recorded like the other DEF CON talks.
* https://twitter.com/v3rtig0 RussR Retired from DEF CON, then came back, the retired again, but is still a good source
* https://twitter.com/1o57 If you like puzzles, or playing with electronic badges, Lost / Lostboy / "1057" has historiclaly made many of the recent DEF CON badges (except for the last one) and he may provide clues for his puzzles if he has them

In addition to all of the above, you can check out https://twitter.com/defcon/lists for lists of users on twitter to follow based on how the defcon account has classified them.

[CryptoJones]

Hi Everyone,

I just thought I would make a quick post, due apologies if this is not an allowed thing. I've been a long time watcher and I have decided to make Defcon 26 my first. I am a Sysadmin and biohacker based in New Zealand so I will be making the world trip in 2018 to the freedom land.

I am currently in the planning phase, although I have already booked flights. Any tips for a Defcon newbie are much appreciated and I look forward to meeting a bunch of you in 2018.

Hey kasethnic,

I'm American and DEFCON 26 will by my first time too! I'm a Software Engineer and looking forward to all the drinking. Have you ever been to the US/Las Vegas before?

CryptoJones