Grant Gochnauer - Blog : Technology : Foundation

Defcon 14 was, well, AWESOME. Quite a few of my buddies all grouped up to take on Defcon 14. This was the second year I have gone and I have to say, this year was better than the last. There were nine of us that all stayed together at the Hilton which allowed easy access to the convention which was at the Riveria across the street. The group included: John Hering, Patrick Norton, Laurence Harjte, Kris Morton, Kevin Mahaffey, James Burgess, Marc Chung, Preston Lee, and myself.

The first night, Thursday, we all went out to dinner at this American Grill, had a few drinks, and then went back to the casinos to gamble. It was a great night. Within minutes we were all nerding it up about the latest technological news, ideas, or security vulnerabilities. Since we were staying at the Hilton, we clearly had to visit the Star Trek experience where we could drink at Quark’s bar and order drinks called: “The Warp Core“.

The next night, we ended up going to Freemont street in Vegas which apparently is the older strip. It was a lot of fun. We walked around through the casinos and bars, and just had a good time seeing all the sites. There was this SWEET ceiling that covered the outside area between the casinos which was a super big TV.

Saturday night the whole gang went to Bucco de Peppo for dinner and we walked away with only one party foul (that’s right Marc!). After dinner, we hit up the Riveria for the Defcon parties at the hotel there. It was a good time for all.

This year’s Defcon was definitely better than last years. Everything was inside which meant air conditioning which meant happy people. The talks were also excellent. As always, most had a great mix of nerdy humor with amazing intellectual insight.

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