I'm in the lobby/bar area of DEFCON, a big ole security/hacker/cracker/white hat-black-hat type conference. Black t-shirts, goatees, pony tails, as far as the eye can see. I am already regretting packing only white t-shirts. I stopped off to have my hair cut on the way here--perhaps I should have had it shaved.
I'm feeling quite the fish out of water. It's weird to be at a conference and not know everyone--a sign, I suspect, that I've attended too few Perl conferences and spent too little time with the rest of the world's population. I'd like to meet people to go to dinner with, but I have no idea how to do it aside from walking up to random people and saying "hi, you don't know me, but I'd like to have dinner with you" which sounds a lot like a come on :-) I wonder whether a designated "hang around here before you go to dinner to meet other people who also want to eat" type place would help that (file that idea away for OSCON next year). God knows I could do with it right now.
They have a wireless network, which hasn't crashed yet. Their web site is cool--someone's running a web bbs on which people can hook up, discuss events, and so on. That's a nifty idea. And there are "radio stations". There's one on an FM band, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to access the radio station on "34". I'll sort it out tomorrow, I'm sure, when my friends who have been here before start to arrive.
Oh well, time to strike out and attempt to Make A New Friend for dinner. Wish me luck! (My boss has already noted that bail is not reimbursable)
--Nat
I've noted that most non-TV jobs have this requirement.(My boss has already noted that bail is not reimbursable)
but not to yapc? Sad, especially when DEFCON is mostly lame anymore. Look around for Wozz and the r00t crowd. Very good, very bright guys.
Re:they'd send you to DEFCON
gnat on 2003-08-01T21:45:23
I'm the security editor, I'm not the Perl editor. Hence DefCon, not YAPC::Europe. I'll look for Wozz, but as nobody has nametags, it'll be rather difficult:-) --Nat
(DefCon's now mostly lame in the same way that Burning Man is now mostly lame--if you were around in the old days then it's a pale shadow of its former self, but if you're new to it then it's still as impressive as all hell)Re:they'd send you to DEFCON
hfb on 2003-08-01T23:03:37
He's one of the amply-sized bald guys..:D is probably close to what he looks like these days and still a lot like he used to look years ago. He's a fun guy and he usually goes every year.
:)
