Con kicked off this year with inclement weather; severe rains and floods, the likes of which Vegas hasn't seen in well over 10 years (some say 100, some say 10, so call it what you will). The rains backed off and the heat came back late Thursday, turning piles of mud citywide into piles of fine dust waiting to be kicked up into the air. Lovely.
A plethora of speakers were scheduled, most of which turned up, a few didn't. Mr. Wearable Computer, Steve Mann, was available via a remote link even. What happened to the IPv6 people I'm not sure. Speaker coverage and review will be chronicled far better on the Defcon home page.
Of course, the most intense and loud demo came from the Cult of the Dead Cow who rocked the hell outta the house with their demonstration releasing Back Orifice 2000. Coded by that genius, Dildog, it takes Back Orifice to a whole new level. Realtime video streams of the remote desktop as well as the ability to control the remote mouse and keyboard pushes the abilities of remote administration even further. With source released under the GPL, support for legacy plugins as well as a Software Developer's Kit for new plugin development promises to make this application flexible and fresh for a long time to come.
Sunday, I had the honor of running a BO2K newbie course, which started late, but still ran well over the alotted hour I was given. Questions ranged from the simple and mainstream to more technical than I had first considered. Overall, the response was overwhelming (the course was relocated to the large main hall due to crowd size) with an enthusiastic crowd, many of whom I did have time to answer all questions for, tho I tried to pick up the slack afterwards. It was obvious from the direction many in the audience took the Q&A session that they see the legit administrative potential of this piece of software, and wanna milk it for all they can.
I missed a few names as I was wrapping up, but to make a full recap, I'd like to thank:
For writing such a kickass application:
o Dildog
o Sir Dystic (for the original BO)
For granting me the OK to teach the course, and their support, and all around coolness:
o cDc, of course!
For the use of hardware:
o Bmbr
o Crusader
o Techs & Deco (also for the last minute BO CD)
And again, a big thanks to all those that showed up, tolerated my babble, and showed support
for BO2K.
Shameless self-promotion:
