Guys Hi Sorry, Hi from Vegas

Woke up here on Saturday, here all week.  Interent is sub-par, especially because I’m attending a security conference where like, my phone stays in Airplane mode.

Will catch you up here soon, I had news to write today, and a video that’s priority to be edited, look for it online early August.

It’s gonna be a really fun week, so far it is. There’s even, at each conference, talks on auto security; attacking a car’s computer network.

kk back to Final Cut.

TTYS

 

The Galaxy 3 takes better video than the iPhone 5.

I’m cutting in old ‘Canadian Explorer’ footage; things were so grainy 5 years ago, eh.

But I don’t have the hard-drive with me, so I had to download them from YouTube.

If you’re on a Mac, best way I found was use MacX YouTube Downloader.

1 – enter the URL, then download an .MP4 (don’t bother with .FLV)
2 – use the full YouTube URL, not the one beneath the video
3 – download Streamclip to convert the files into whatever (love this program)

This is Black Hat Security Conference 2012

The Black Hat Briefings – the world’s largest computer security conference.  In its 15th year, it’s held each year in Vegas at the end of July.

Me and my press badge.  Proud.

Same as when I attended last year – it’s bad manners to wave your camera about. This conference attracts all kinds.

There’s a little trick:

embedding text in a photo still gets your message out,

but without it being crawled and picked up by the bots.

There are briefings and trainings. Not much point to me attending the latter, I’d be so lost, the biggest brains give these. The briefings are very interesting though, here’s my report on Apple’s first ever talk, where not enough went over my head.

I listened to cyberpunk author Neil Stephenson interviewed by Brian Krebs, who is awesome. If you ever are stuck for security help check his site.

Neil’s book ‘Reamde’ is a neat premise: a virus is unleashed through a popular online game that encrypts the player’s hard drive, and holds it for ransom.

See the yellow * above? I joined the taxi line, oh wait it’s Neil, hi great talk! Know we know he has duct tape on his old-school phone, which he keeps in a pocket I’m not sure is the most secure place.

It’s okay to take photos here, this is the other half of Black Hat – the vendor area.

All the top security merchants selling their wares.

I did the same thing I did last year: started in the far corner and walked up and down every aisle, every booth. This stuff isn’t for us though, it’s for enterprises and large corporations.

Thanks for a great time Black Hat, see ya next year!

 

 

 

GPS Tracking a Vegas Saturday Night

The tracker was the size of a pager, carried in a pocket.

It was a good test: a Saturday night in a busy area, everyone on their phones hammering the cell network, plus imagine all the casino’s communications flying around, and when zoomed in you can see small movements were even recorded.

It’s not perfect though, see where it has me in the middle of the fountains at the Bellagio?  Didn’t happen.

The output is a .log file that opens up in Google Earth beautifully.  Test complete, a successful test!

It was a really fun night.

I did it all in 5″ heels, too.  That’s a good CityGirl.

 

Things from My Week in Vegas

Some outfits.

I always visit the jewellery stores, one of my only material weaknesses.

This line is a favourite.

Check out the lineup to see Batman 5 days after it opened BOOM. Had the theatre to myself. Review: I loved it.

It’s the only superhero story I like, because he is a normal human who turns himself into more.

I gamble on only two games: ‘Wheel of Fortune’ slots, and video poker.  Video Poker has maybe the best odds in the casino.

Look at the purple circle first column, the rule is: you want a 9/6 machine, then an 8/5, don’t bother with anything lower.

I’m good at the latter, but really, it’s just pattern recognition.

I have in my head a whole life-strategy-is-like-video-poker-strategy-there’s-many-parrells-video in my head to make, there really are.

One of my favourite nights was Thursday Night #NotSurprising (if we are just meeting, I say it every week because it is: Thursdasy Night is the best night of the week).

That’s right, silence! It’s ridiculously hard to find here.

This is the penthouse of a casino off the strip, where check THIS out :O

How is that even possible at a casino? Where are the insurance people?

Then, oh THEN there was a pool table. I love to play pool.

And I played some of the best pool of my whole life.

I couldn’t miss. Not even being dramatic, it was Hollywood movie shots I was making happen. After one particularly amazing combo I yelled, “you guys are getting this, right?!”.  I was the zone.

And that’s it, Vegas tada the end.

Never been a fan, but I seem to always end up here; that’s 14-ish times now.  Here’s a post from last year.

Vegas, to me, is: over-the-top-over-stimulating, this shiny delusion that brings out the entitled dbag side of people, and just, excess is gross.  But it’s the world’s conference centre.  See you again soon I’m sure.