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                                Defcon 7 Review
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                                     Day 1

   On my way getting off the plane, some guys looked at me and shout "Hey
   she's here for a HACKER convention!!".. I hadn't even mentioned Defcon
   the  entire  flight, so I thought it was sp00ky that they knew.. but I
   didn't worry about it. I just shouted back "HACKERS? WHERE?!?! HACKERS
   SUCK!!",  and  proceeded to exit the plane, meet Velvet, and hop a cab
   over to Alexis Park.

   The  first  day,  my  local  bank  seemed  to  dislike the fact that I
   deposited  1k into my account 3days before the con, so they decided to
   hold  my  check,  thus  leaving  me without a room except for the very
   first  day  that  I  had already prepaid.. so I borrow $50 from Velvet
   (THANX  CHICLA~)  for  my deposit, and have a room -- at least for the
   first  night.  On  our  way  to  my  room...  I  see  someone  getting
   interviewed..  so  of course to nail down the fact that I'm finally at
   tthe  con..  I  scream  "MEDIAWHORE!!!!" as loud as I possibly can. (I
   later  realize  that  I  had  just  insulted the grand Peter Shipley..
   uhmm...  shit.. more on this later..) So Velvet & I go to room, unpack
   a bit of our stuff, and freshen up before the con. Man it was HOT, and
   my  room  was as far away from the con as possible.. building 28.. the
   highest  number  of the ENTIRE hotel. We survived the heat, however, &
   proceeded to go to the con.

   At  the  con, I actually managed to get in with a check, which I found
   entirely  hilarious..  they  didn't  even  ask for ID with it. Hrmm...
   must've been suprised when it didn't bounce. I just couldn't ripoff DT
   ..  too  many  people  get  into  that  damn thing free in some way or
   another anyways..

   So  Velvie  & I manage to get into the con.. we wander around a bit, &
   get massively bored.. hardly ANYTHING is set up yet, not even Pinguino
   or 2600's table.. and none of the good talks are going on for a couple
   hours. This is about the time we realize that I had emailed two people
   that  were  going to be my roomates at the con, & told them to meet me
   at  the  front  desk  around noonish.. it's already about 11:30, so we
   figure  heck  with  it,  and hang out by the front desk for roughly an
   hour.  12:30  rolls  around, and we figure TechnoDragon -n- pals found
   their own rooms somewhere or something, plus we're hungry.. so we make
   our way over to Hard Rock, to try to track down a friend of Velvie's.

   We  walk  in  the heat over to the Hard Rock, attempt to page Velvie's
   friend  --  but  he's  not  in. So we call him via courtesy phone, and
   leave   a  message;  Then  we  go  back  to  the  con,  where  we  get
   propositioned by some guy passing out condoms. (Long live DoC condoms,
   I've yet to test one out -- but they have cool packaging) Later I find
   out  this is the same B$tring that's on the back of all the "official"
   DC7  shirts. ("You get busted, we split your warez"). So he walks off,
   and  five  seconds  later  this  other dude comes up to talk to us.. I
   think  his  name was Patrick or something.. we all stand there talking
   for a while, then Velvie (help me out here if you're reading this girl
   ..  I'm  getting  a  bit  blurry-headed)  &  Patrick  run off to go do
   sumtin.. and I proceed to harass people at the DoC booth. Next thing I
   know,  I  turn  around,  and who do I see but SELENA KYLE!!! Many hugs
   were transferred, and we hung around going to talks & such together.

  Kevin Poulsen -n- stuff

   While  wandering,  Selena  &  I  realize it's about time for the Kevin
   Poulsen  /  Jennifer whatsername talk. I sit there for a while, then I
   realize  this  Jennifer  chiq was basically telling me shit that I had
   already  read  posted  to  the  DC-stuff  list like months ago .. so I
   wander  off,  harassing  people  at  various  booths.. then I hear the
   America's Most Wanted guy's voice talking about Kevin Poulsen over the
   intercom..  then I suddenly remembered that Kevin Poulsen was going to
   be  talking!! I make my way back through the convention hall, and back
   into  the room with Selena.. just as a big picture of Kevin Poulsen is
   put  on the overhead, and he takes the podium & begins to speak. (Keep
   in  mind  folks,  I  have  NEVER  seen  a  picture of Kevin Poulsen or
   anything aside from cybercrime.net..)

  Phreaking & PBX Tricks

   So now it's finally about time for one of the talks, the first talk of
   the  day,  as  well  as  one  I've been REALLLLLY wanting to see. It's
   nowhere  to  be found!! (Phreaking & PBX) We gather at least 20 people
   trying  to  find this damn talk, but newbie track a, I swear DT hid it
   from  us  just  to  watch us run around like rats. Selena gets sick of
   looking for it, and ditches us for the firewall talk...

   Then  I  get  pulled  aside  by  a  very  pissed  off  Peter Shipley &
   reprimanded  on  how  one  should  not  go  around harassing people if
   they're planning on getting bitten (OK, so I'm paraphrasing -- but the
   general  jist is, Peter seemed to hold some sort of grudge the rest of
   the  con & kept pointing it out every time I passed by him... *sighs*)
   I  have  no  excuse for my action, all I can say is "my bad", and hope
   I'm not remembered next year..

   But  back  to  the talk.. So I finally find it, and worm my way to the
   front row & watch the talk.

   movie, as well as named, so anyone watching would know what those neat
   devices  people  were  using were called.. as for option #2.. come on.
   I'm  not  a  phreaker  by  any  means..  all I've done is cheezy beige
   boxing,  some  carding  in my younger days, and the cocot 800# trick..
   big  whoop..  and  *I*  knew  what  a  coupler  is..  so  that was the
   Phreaking/PBX talk.

   The  talk  itself  was  interesting  for a good while.. aside from the
   annoying   overusage  of  the  word  "hypothetically",  it  was  quite
   informative  as  far  as giving out info on the new millenium payfones
   -n-  such.  However, now here's the kicker.. during the Q&A part, some
   kid  asks  "Hey is there a way I can hook my laptop up to a payfone to
   dialout?"  .. he didn't ask if there was some way to do it via messing
   with wires, he just asked was there any way at all.. this is about the
   point  where  I  ALMOST  bite my tongue.. instead of screaming, I just
   respond  under  my breath .. "yeah hun, it's called a coupler, and was
   invented  most likely before either of us were even BORN..". This gets
   a few chuckles from people sitting near me. But what I'm getting at is
   this: People find out about Defcon mostly through one of two mediums..
   either  1>  They loved the movie hackers, and found the link to defcon
   from  the  "hacked" Hackers site.. or 2> They're in the scene. Now via
   option  #1,  acoustic  couplers were used IN the After Gh0st's talk, I
   leave post-haste trying to get to the Oracle Hacking 101 talk (man, my
   job requires me to setup oracle on dozens of machines a day .. I *had*
   to  learn  more  about  this  shit..)..  and  who  do  I run into, but
   TECHNODRAGON!!!  We converse briefly, then I ditch him while promising
   to talk later so I can get to the Oracle talk. On my way to the Oracle
   talk,  I  run into Selena and I *think* Patrick (it was either patrick
   or  B$tring..  I  kept getting the name/face combo confused..), and we
   all go to the Oracle talk.

  Oracle Hacking 101

   In  a  word:  BORING.  This  guy talked in nothing but a monotone, and
   didn't really tell anything about "hacking" at all. No security holes,
   no neat tricks, nothing. Everything he talked about seemed like it had
   come  directly  out of the INDEX to Oracle for Dummies. About the ONLY
   useful  information  I  managed  to  gather  were a few SQL statements
   pertaining to DBA's, & the default logins..

  The rest of the day ..

   That's  about  all  of the "interesting" talks for the first day. So I
   wander  around.. start walking to my room, and run into .. my favorite
   phreak  from  the  con last year. (If you have no idea who I'm talking
   about,  read my review for DC7) We wander around, and finally scrounge
   up the VCD for American Pie, and go watch it in Velvet's room ..
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   More to come.. until then .. READ THIS!!!

   Selena Kyle -- I love you chicla, thx for the talk re: that guy that's
   not from toronto / my furby.

   Dark Cube -- What can I say? I love you man ...

   B$String  --  Yo  get  back with me, I gotta talk to you about what we
   talked about ..

   Zhixel  --  Did I spell that right? Dude you're quiet, but cool.. drop
   me a line.

   Peter  Shipley -- I'm sorry man, but I suppose I'll always be a k1dd13
   to you now. *sighs*

   TechnoDragon -- Thx for the Afri-Cola. You da man.

   KP2 -- You're a smart kid.. keep it up man.

   Velvet -- I KNEW IT!!! YOU'RE A BOT!!!
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   All  I  can  think  of for the moment.. I'll have a review and mention
   everyone (I know, that is) .. soon. later.
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