- 115 1534 IMG
Getting on the plane Location: Austin-Bergstrom Int'l Airport George and I had tickets together all the way out to Las Vegas. Here we are taking an evening flight out. We were scheduled to arrive at 9:30 PM, but actually made it in a little earlier. - 115 1536 IMG
Location: Austin-Bergstrom Int'l Airport Julie recoils after a sneak tongue attack from George. - 115 1537 IMG
On the plane Location: Austin-Bergstrom International Airport - 115 1538 IMG
Stopping in Houston Location: Houston International Airport We stopped in Houston, and changed planes. The next leg had us on the same plane as Doug and Ali. - 115 1539 IMG
On the plane to Vegas Location: Houston International Airport - 115 1540 IMG
Regrouping Location: Las Vegas Airport Here we discuss plans for getting to the hotel. I suggested that we stay and wait for Drew, who, I thought, was arriving at 10:30. It turns out that waiting for him would have been a bad idea. - 115 1541 IMG
Our first celebrity Location: Las Vegas Airport George meets the first celebrity of the trip, Angelina Jolie. Funny, she always seemed looser and more natural in the movies. - 115 1542 IMG
Our first slot machines Location: Las Vegas Airport Literally the first thing you see when you step off the plane are slot machines. These were a few spotted further into the terminal. - 115 1543 IMG
A limo? Location: Outside Las Vegas Airport As we stepped out of the airport, Ali and I started looking for the MGM Grand hotel shuttle. Before we could find it, though, we discovered that George and Doug were already having there things loaded into a limo. I guess they decided we should get the trip off on the right foot. - 115 1544 IMG
Location: En route to MGM Grand - 115 1545 IMG
Location: En route to MGM Grand - 115 1546 IMG
Location: En route to MGM Grand - 115 1547 IMG
Location: En route to MGM Grand - 115 1566 IMG
The Limo driver's card Location: En route to MGM Grand Apparently the driver offered more than just transportation services. - 115 1548 IMG
The lobby Location: MGM Grand When we entered the lobby of the MGM grand, I immediately got the impression that it was a place for normal, boring people to think they were somewhere glamorous. The marble colums were painted drywall, and the velvet curtains were wood. The place was saturated by the smell of cheap cigar smoke from the cigars they sold tourists to make them feel like they were living the high life while the casino was extracting their money from them. - 115 1549 IMG
The interminable hallway Location: MGM Grand The wings of the MGM Grand seemed at least a quarter of a mile long. We were near the end of the wing. - 115 1554 IMG
Big M&Ms Location: Las Vegas Strip We went out to see the sights on the strip after we got to the hotel. We still hadn't seen or heard from Drew, whom I was expecting at 10:45 or so. It was about 11:00 at this point. - 115 1555 IMG
Too Cool Location: New York New York Hotel They had a whole downtown NY set up in this hotel, complete with steaming manhole covers. - 115 1556 IMG
Late night Ad hoc wireless network Location: MGM Grand Drew finally showed up at about 1:15am. It turns out his plane *left* at 10:30. Oh well. We all gathered in my hotel room with a bunch of wireless cards and did a bit of hacking on each other. It was a great chance to practice playing with my new iBook. - 115 1557 IMG
Late night Ad hoc wireless network Location: MGM Grand - 115 1558 IMG
On the way to the Alexis Park Location: Las Vegas Strip In the morning, we made our way toward the Alexis Park and DefCon 9. - 115 1559 IMG
Nice place to live Location: Off the Las Vegas Strip I'm sure I would feel very secure about my living arrangements at a place like this. - 115 1560 IMG
Bruce Schneier pimps Secrets and Lies Location: Alexis Park Hotel After a really boring talk about hacker profiling from some guy who used to work at the FBI, the real fun began. Bruce Schneier got up and delivered on long slashdot comment, in response to many questions from the audience. Of course, not before he told us about his new book. - 115 1561 IMG
More Bruce Location: Alexis Park Hotel I'm currently working through another of his books, Applied Cryptography I got interested in it after reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, in which one of Schneier's algorithms is used. Schneier also submitted a proposal to use his own encryption, TwoFish, as the new national standard ("AES"). It didn't make it. - 115 1562 IMG
Pirate radio gear Location: Alexis Park Hotel The FCC who? - 115 1563 IMG
File sharing Location: Alexis Park Hotel There was no love for copyright law on the DC9 LAN, that is for sure. - 115 1565 IMG
Ford Excrement Location: On the way back to the MGM Grand Sometimes people take the SUV thing too far. - 115 1567 IMG
Getting ready for more hacking Location: MGM Grand Morning comes to our intrepid group. - 115 1568 IMG
Wireless heaven Location: Alexis Park Hotel Who needs to pay attention to the talk on renegade wireless networks when we've got our own right here? - 115 1571 IMG
Bastille Linux Talk Location: Alexis Park Hotel Turns out the head programmer for Bastille (Jay Beale) is Drew's running partner out east. He gave one of the better talks. It's hard to find geeks who can speak.