DEF CON – Upgrading your mom’s basement

If Black Hat is becoming the new RSA, then DEF CON is oozing toward Black Hat, it seems, and B-Sides is the new DEF CON. This year it got some Ikea furniture to spruce up its mom’s basement.Not totally commercial, but definitely more – first apartment folding furniture – chic; the basement just got upgraded.

Now the vendor area is larger and it seems more, um, commercial. While blue-haired-mohawks were installed and adorned proudly as per normal, the venue changed. It’s now more structured than the more free-for-all vibe of yesteryear, and you can feel it. Maybe it’s an outgrowth of just being larger, but the herds felt more herd-like, and less non-conforming than the DEF CON of years back. People might even be drinking less.

DEF CON – Upgrading your mom’s basement