Status update:
Category: Soapbox
Soapbox style rants
art, Culture, games, hardware, Photography, Recreation, revolution, Security, Soapbox, Software, technology, Travel
Back from Defcon 32 with knowledge swag but no voice
I had a great time this year. i went deep into the sticker game and spent WAY too much time playing with the badge. Playing with the badge allowed me to meet and work with some incredible people with whom we learned, laughed, and lamented the badge’s terrible supplied SD cards. This year i brought flyers to promote my phone adventure game and joined in #StickerLife with a supply of stickers of my own. unfortunately the printers gave me too many flyers, but not enough stickers.
My game did get some traction this year for the first time. Still no winners, but i did get this incredible voicemail from one of the players. I appreciated more ridiculous phone stuff. great job whoever you are! EDIT: i think i found you Foxbox!
The Badge had a lot of problems. only some of which were patched with updates. I excitedly made changes, but then the SD card would fail and be unable change back. currently mine is stuck as a Mario Game, which is not so terrible. i can finish the Defcon GameBoy game on an emulator.
Bird Platform kills off 3rd party development!
And with it, the last of my engagement. Tapbots makes incredible software for interacting with twitter. Despite it’s already limited API integration, chief twit killed the integration completely with no word or warning. You had incredible developers working for your users, but now you have pissed them off. I cannot wait to see the incredible work that comes out of spite.
be3n is now completely carbon neutral thanks to offsets!*
Thank you Jon Oliver for putting the dream of carbon neutrality only $1 away. https://www.oliversoffsets.org/
*We think. Given the uncertainties of carbon math, this claim cannot be guaranteed.
Mail in ballots are great!
i posted my ballot for the gubernatorial recall election. No thanks, we can wait for the general to replace him. the whole process took 5 minutes.
doing my civic duty!
VOTE!
@defcon just retweeted me!
In a tweet by @todayininfosec we were all reminded of this day in 1999 when @Dildog and the cDc crew presented Back Orifice 2000 (BO2K) to a delighted crowd at Defcon 7. It was quite a show complete with music, projectors, lights, lasers, and even a Speak-n-Spell. It was a lot of fun, and i was elated to be there. i replied early with my memories, but then i remembered that i had found some photos while cleaning. . .so i posted them. These were film prints from an instamatic (as was the style at the time), so they didn’t come out great! they do offer a tiny keyhole through which we may peer into the past. i am glad it is bringing joy. Then @defcon (the official conference account) retweeted. *blush*
I just filled out my 2020 Census. Have you?
It was much quicker and less painful then I expected. It’s important to be counted. See you in 10 years!
I am joining the largest super computer in the world to help fight COVID-19!
The amazing people behind Folding@home have set their sights on COVID-19. Their efforts are to better understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 can be targeted with small molecule and antibody therapeutics. Got any computers that aren’t doing anything? join up.
The Mac client needs work to support GPUs, but my stats are rising!
I hope everyone is having a Super Tuesday!
I got out to vote a little later than i hoped and encountered a longer line than i have ever before (at least from voting). Only 55 minutes, nothing like some lines i have heard about. I got to play with the new electronic voting system. “It’s not connected to the internet” was the response that i received when inquiring into the device security. I have high confidence of the paper trail on these units, but I imagine that these machines do some sort of tabulation. Unless we actually count the paper ballets, it is those tabulations that we are expected to trust. These tabulation are trivial to manipulate if the devices are tampered with. “Don’t worry, it’s offline” dissuades none of these fears. Here are some pictures i took. Not pictured are the 2 broken units that were taped off at my precinct. Also, i was told that they should not have allowed me to take these pictures. i don’t know if that is true, but they did not seem to mind at the time. (i wasn’t wearing that shirt at the time)
