DEF CON Badge Maker Pulled Off Stage Amid Claims of Non-Payment and Failed Work - "They (DEFCON) expressed that they specifically wanted to work with us as a woman-owned, queer- and POC-driven engineering firm to develop an electronic badge with a gaming element for this year’s conference."

[clipartfan92]

https://x.com/dmitrygr/status/1822124650547257637 (archive.ph)

https://x.com/dmitrygr/status/1822126826606739678 (archive.ph)

DEF CON Badge Maker Pulled Off Stage Amid Claims of Non-Payment and Failed Work
404 Media (archive.ph)
By Joseph Cox
2024-08-10 21:56:18GMT

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Entropic Engineering DEFCON 32 Statement
Entropic Engineering (archive.ph)
By M Pang
2024-08-10 19:27:59GMT

This private information is unavailable to guests due to policies enforced by third-parties.

If you're wondering what DEFCON is up to these days...

https://preservetube.com/watch?v=Mdqh2n8f_uQ

 

[clipartfan92]

I know nothing about Dmitry, the firmware guy, but from this tweet alone, he seems ok:

https://x.com/dmitrygr/status/1820879330127352036 (archive.ph)

 

[Grim_Autismo]

kek, they injected malicious donationware into the code to demand reparations. based.

Okay now I know people that work over in The Wall of Sheep and there is ALWAYS some kind of fuckery afoot at DefCon. It has gone to hell in a handbasket since I'd say the last 5-10 years or so, become a bit like Comicon has for actual nerds; very commercialized. Prior to COVID, but especially after COVID.

This year was particularly a shitshow. They canceled it, and then they uncanceled it because they had an issue with Caesar's. So many of the people who work the event are unpaid volunteers, and it's a total cash grab by the people running it. But I love that they basically had these fucks prototype it and when they became difficult/couldn't solve the impossible riddle, they then went to Vietnam and had someone else get the job done. But if you can't do a project, don't bid on it. That's just fucking basic, right there. I've never heard of Entropic before so I won't shit on them. I will shit on the admins of DefCon. They are garbage.

If you want a real hacker con (at least in NA, there are some great ones all over!), HOPE is where it's at. Sure they don't do it yearly, and you never know where it's going to be or if it will happen at all, but that's part of its charm. You can't escape the hokey bullshit of someone READING ALOUD ABOUT WHO ONCE OWNED THE LAND wherever you go now (that person has since lost their job at Microsoft HQ, lol, big sad. Reading aloud who once owned the land doesn't do jack shit for the people who once held that land, techlibs are fucking nuts.)

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

Reading aloud who once owned the land doesn't do jack shit for the people who once held that land, techlibs are fucking nuts.)

You could easily interpret it as bragging if it comes from the conqueror.

 

[Grim_Autismo]

You could easily interpret it as bragging if it comes from the conqueror.

They're just "holding space" for the indigenous people, mang. And they're enjoying the slight discount on fruit in the commissary now that the industry is going through a massive wood chopping.

I recently saw a cool little short on the NYT called "Luxury Beliefs" by an Asian PhD who started as a foster kid who served in the military, then made it to the Ivy League and Cambridge. It's pretty telling.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

I recently saw a cool little short on the NYT called "Luxury Beliefs" by an Asian PhD who started as a foster kid who served in the military, then made it to the Ivy League and Cambridge. It's pretty telling.

This is excellent, I have been looking for a term for beliefs like these and that fits perfectly. It's the left-wing version of the white man's burden of the 19th century. Arguably you could say that concept itself was left-wing during its time, most colonial ventures before were based on settlement or on extracting resources.

 

[vanta pilled]

It has gone to hell in a handbasket since I'd say the last 5-10 years or so, become a bit like Comicon has for actual nerds; very commercialized.

Spot on about the commercialization of DefCon and how it's become the comicon for hackers. Kinda sad seeing old Defcon videos and seeing how it used to be. It was a grassroots conference made up of actual hackers, whereas other conferences were more professional oriented and targeted professionals and feds.

If you want a real hacker con (at least in NA, there are some great ones all over!), HOPE is where it's at. Sure they don't do it yearly, and you never know where it's going to be or if it will happen at all, but that's part of its charm.

Do you have any recommendations for other cons? The only other cons I know are the more professional/fed oriented ones.

 

[Grim_Autismo]

Spot on about the commercialization of DefCon and how it's become the comicon for hackers. Kinda sad seeing old Defcon videos and seeing how it used to be. It was a grassroots conference made up of actual hackers, whereas other conferences were more professional oriented and targeted professionals and feds.


Do you have any recommendations for other cons? The only other cons I know are the more professional/fed oriented ones.

Not really, not these days. Everything in the tech sector, in general, has changed significantly, and many ways you meet people are accidental versus intentional. Any time you meet a bunch of other "network enthusiasts" at traditional conferences now in meatspace, it will be a glowfest. HOPE has always been a bit of my "happy place" because you still have a lot of people who are actually interested and enthusiastic about their projects and not just a bunch of soulless fucks trying to buy Lambos. They are there too, but not as many as at DefCon. (Word is that's why DefCon isn't allowed back at Caesar's btw; hackers had access to the network and fucked them up really good months later. People refuse to believe it though because omg we're all whitehat goodboys who dindu nuffin!")

I would just strongly encourage you to get involved in GitHub projects that you enjoy, avoid people who try to recruit you for their corporate dead-end jobs, and find weird events that way. There are lots of strange pop-up hackathons in college towns, people prototyping stuff, and CTF events; just remember to leave your main phone at home if you go to one of those so your life doesn't get destroyed. Good times!