Def Con 14 Location Discussion

[Siviak]

As Tacitus pointed out we did EXTINSIVE recon this weekend;

Pro's;

Food court has about 8 places to munch and from what I saw the prices were reasonable.
A SHITLOAD of convention space; we should be good for years to come.
Parking is not an issue
Location is great for the people that want to go play on the strip.
Finding something to do shoudl NOT prove an issue.

Con's;

The pool area sucks, it seemd smaller than pool 1 at the AP in my view.
Hijinks might not be quite as easy to get away with
"They let us do t last year" no longer works
Unless we are all in the same tower (which is a great option for crowd contol) it is going to be a pain in the ass to walk around and find parties.


those are just the things that come to me off the top of my head...all in all I think it's going to be a great move.

[Tacitus]

.all in all I think it's going to be a great move.

Yeah, I had my doubts at first but after walking around the place it looks like this is a good move.

[[Syntax]]

A couple other things, If its still there, there used to be a Circle K about 1/2 block away. Since I went to it last they built condos, so it might be gone. There is deffinately a Walgreens about 1/2 block south on the same side as Riviera and a decent Thai resturaunt about 1 block north near the Sahara. Riviera is also 1 block from Quarks Bar at the Hilton.

Riviera also features "Nickle Heaven & Nickle Town", 1 huge room and 1 section of all nickel slots, they are pretty good about bringing the drinks there too..

Theres also an arcade at the hotel and a Korean resturaunt with cyber cafe 1 building south.

The biggest thing I see is probably the loss of the pool areas, and the freely wandering enviroment.

[kallahar]

Oh yes, and there is a nice food court inside the riv. we took pictures, there were many choices there such as KFC and a mexican fast food place. I will try to post all the photos tonight.

Security was also pretty lax, we walked around for quite a while taking pictures of security cameras and such and no one hassled us. We even talked with a maintenance guy while in an area we definately weren't supposed to be in.

Heh heh, and the "Internet center and more". They really do mean "and more".

[allentrace]

Hijinks might not be quite as easy to get away with
"They let us do t last year" no longer works

I am wondering how exactly the Riviera will respond to normal DC pranks. And I think until 2008 when the option for the entire hotel is available other guests are not going to really appreciate swimming in a dyed pool or not being able to use an ATM for fear of what is done to it. Not to mention the gratuitous nudity and public drunkenness. And the list can go on and on it just seems to me the example of the Trojans letting in the Wooden Horse is fitting here.... sans (w/out) all the rape, killing and looting. I am not sure the Riviera knows what they are getting them selves into. Actually I think most of the forum members here are the most responsible people here as it is something they care about as for the other 90 +/- percent that attend Con I am not so sure. I do have a question though to any Goon as to whether or not security will be beefed up this year in any way and how Riviera security will play a role in Con. (AP security in mind)

[Siviak]

I am wondering how exactly the Riviera will respond to normal DC pranks..... swimming in a dyed pool... not being able to use an ATM.... gratuitous nudity and public drunkenness.... all the rape, killing and looting....

in all honesty after having thought about these things and taking a look at The Riv I think we can avoid most of it with limiting our rooms to one tower. if it were possible to get them to arrange for us to be the only people in any one of the given towers (I think the Monte Carlo tower is the closest to the convention area, largest, and newest), this would solve all the issues of being able to have our parties with a limited number of people geting all butt hurt about it, the random "ok, now that he's drunk lets take all his clothes and put him in the hallway" gag would sill be ammusing to passersby and not ruin someone's entire vegas vacation.

Now to address the security issues that are a concern with doing such a thing; I would say instead of putting the 'GoonRooms' on ay one floor you simply split them up per floor. Idealy you would have 3 rooms per floor (one at each fire exit and one near the elevators). Now I am not sure how many goons we have used in the past but my numbers come out to about 45 rooms. That seems like a lot to me thinking about it now, so lets go with just the two end rooms (if that seems reasonable). I figure that in the case of a fire Goons would be able to better arrange for the escape of con goers than normal security (if for no other reason DefCon atandee's understand that while a normal security gurad will hesitate before hiting them in the head with say a 10 pund sap Goons are lacking in that area of 'restaint'). so that cuts it to 30ish rooms. 2 goons per room works out to be 60 goons JUST for room/general security.

I also consider that we (for the most part) are all of age to goto jail/prison for our stupid mistakes, which means that a 24 hour goon presence would no longer be needed in this type of enviroment.

having said all of that , if it turns out that we need more goons for this move, Noid you know how to find me. I got free time. and if not, does anyone know what the minimum hight for a base jump is?

[allentrace]

in all honesty after having thought about these things and taking a look at The Riv I think we can avoid most of it with limiting our rooms to one tower. if it were possible to get them to arrange for us to be the only people in any one of the given towers (I think the Monte Carlo tower is the closest to the convention area, largest, and newest), this would solve all the issues of being able to have our parties with a limited number of people geting all butt hurt about it, the random "ok, now that he's drunk lets take all his clothes and put him in the hallway" gag would sill be ammusing to passersby and not ruin someone's entire vegas vacation.

Now to address the security issues that are a concern with doing such a thing; I would say instead of putting the 'GoonRooms' on ay one floor you simply split them up per floor. Idealy you would have 3 rooms per floor (one at each fire exit and one near the elevators). Now I am not sure how many goons we have used in the past but my numbers come out to about 45 rooms. That seems like a lot to me thinking about it now, so lets go with just the two end rooms (if that seems reasonable). I figure that in the case of a fire Goons would be able to better arrange for the escape of con goers than normal security (if for no other reason DefCon atandee's understand that while a normal security gurad will hesitate before hiting them in the head with say a 10 pund sap Goons are lacking in that area of 'restaint'). so that cuts it to 30ish rooms. 2 goons per room works out to be 60 goons JUST for room/general security.

I also consider that we (for the most part) are all of age to goto jail/prison for our stupid mistakes, which means that a 24 hour goon presence would no longer be needed in this type of enviroment.

Thanks for the response it was very informative.

having said all of that , if it turns out that we need more goons for this move, Noid you know how to find me. I got free time.

Ditto: 6'3" 269lbs prison name: Jenny hehe j/k on the last fact.

does anyone know what the minimum hight for a base jump is?

whatever it is it better be 50 or so feet higher than the length of the cord... heh.

All this being said I fully intend to enjoy Con this year. I am planning on bringing my own blend to coffee wars myself being a Master Barista and all here in KY, I would really like to do the scavenger hunt at DC14 which I imagine being right on the strip will help immensely and bring up the competitive level. All in all I think this will be a really good con.

[Siviak]

whatever it is it better be 50 or so feet higher than the length of the cord... heh.

you're thinking about bungee jumping and what I was speaking of was base jumping

P.S. we looked for a place to bungee... no dice

[allentrace]

you're thinking about bungee jumping and what I was speaking of was base jumping

P.S. we looked for a place to bungee... no dice

your right I was even looking at the Wikipedia page on Base Jumping when I posted..... little mental lapse on my part, wont happen again.

[erehwon]

does anyone know what the minimum hight for a base jump is?

Well... you can do jumps of less than 200 feet, but none of my friends would do it, you all might enjoy Aerial Extreme's video page where there's video of BASE Jumping the Las Vegas Stratosphere.

[[Syntax]]

FYI, Bungy Jumping across the street from the Riviera.
http://www.aj-hackett.com/lasvegas/p...es/prices.html

Someone want to organize a Defcon Bungy Jump?
$59 per person
10 people or more $49

The company is well known, have locations world wide, open since 1988.

[astcell]

FYI, Bungy Jumping across the street from the Riviera.

Be sure to bring your wardriving kit with you on the jump.

[allentrace]

Be sure to bring your wardriving kit with you on the jump.

Wargliding perhaps? How many APs can you get before you fall to your death.

[kallahar]

Recon Gallery up!

http://23b.org/gallery/RivieraRecon/

Some pictures of the menu prices there too.

[TheCotMan]

Recon Gallery up!

http://23b.org/gallery/RivieraRecon/

Some pictures of the menu prices there too.

Thanks man. I'll still get astcell a beer, but since you are first with the batch of recon posts, you are on my list of people owed beer.