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DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

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Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#121

Post by mynameisnoone »

rpmisms wrote: post #76
cratermoon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard a joke a tech conference people in Vegas many years ago. It goes something like "people who go to tech conferences in Vegas bring one shirt and a $20 bill and never change either." So yea, programmers generally aren't gamblers because they know enough math to know the house always wins.

In my experience, programmers like poker, but not games of chance. This also describes me. Poker is a data-heavy game of skill and memory, Craps is about the opposite.

I went with a bunch of CS/bioinformatics/MD IITians to Reno, NV once. They were just there to gamble on games of chance. Personally, I think gambling is boring and stupid if the expectation isn't significantly positive. I'd gamble if skill was the dominating factor and the expectation wasn't so abysmal.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#124

Post by wkat4242 »

Too bad. Now I will definitely never go there. My work sometimes gets free tickets for black hat but that's a totally boring business conference. Not worth going to on its own. I hate mingling with sales suits, I'm a real techie.

Def con was something I would be looking forward to and if my work paid for black hat I could have stayed the extra days to go there.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#125

Post by dash488 »

After the impact of the MGM hack this year Cesars probably revisited their insurance on getting compromised. After the auditors and lawyers looked at all the risks they came across DEF CON and said no because of the wording of how DEF CON is marketed. Their choice was probably to drop them or loose coverage.

DEF CON is listed as a "hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada." where Blackhat is "Black Hat is an internationally recognized cybersecurity event series providing the most technical and relevant information security..."

I imagine places like the convention center cant afford or care about insurance at this level.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#126

Post by wkat4242 »

andy800 wrote: post #50
lolinder wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caesar's apparently explicitly said it wasn't related to anything the community did. It's possible that they're lying for some reason, but it's also possible that they're telling the truth. > We don’t know why Caesars canceled us, they won’t say beyond it being a strategy change and it is not related to anything that DEF CON or our community has done. https://www.reddit.com/r/Defcon/comments/1aj6ixn/def_con_was...

> for some reason To avoid any legal liability. Stating a specific reason would open them to possible "breach of contract" depending on whether the act(s) were significant enough or justifiable, based on the contract terms. Just say nothing, part amicably, everyone moves on without drama. With that said, they probably weren't lying. Most likely, months after ponying up $10 million to a sophisticated international hac…

> Most likely, months after ponying up $10 million to a sophisticated international hacking group, Caesars Entertainment probably doesn't want to invite some of the world's best hackers to stay and meet at its flagship resort.

Most Def con visitors would be white hats so that would be a bit disingenious. I would expect most attendees to behave (reporting issues after finding one)

Especially considering they just got hacked, a few pentests would be good for their business.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#127

Post by wkat4242 »

killjoywashere wrote: post #105

You know, why the fuck is DEFCON in August, in Vegas? Like, you know a nice place to visit in August? Kodiak, Alaska. Portsmouth, Maine. Sydney. List of places I would never want to visit in August? Vegas. Houston. Vegas. New Orleans. Vegas. Mumbai? Maybe. Baghdad? Definitely not. Also, Vegas. My friends in Christ, why, does anyone, think Vegas is a good idea in August?

Sydney is pretty cold in August. Definitely not the time of year to be there.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#128

Post by elashri »

weinzierl wrote: post #97
mrandish wrote: post #4

I suspect Caesar's dropped DEF CON because the DEF CON attendees likely have a fairly low "avg revenue per attendee" yield because fewer of them gamble compared to the avg Vegas conference attendee. They also probably spend less on high-end restaurant dining and bar drinking inside the hotel. Since the pandemic Vegas has had a pretty strong resurgence in general and this may be a sign that Caesar's is doing well enou…

"I suspect Caesar's dropped DEF CON because the DEF CON attendees likely have a fairly low "avg revenue per attendee" yield because fewer of them gamble compared to the avg Vegas conference attendee." There is the story that the American Physical Society was not allowed back after in 1986 Vegas supposedly suffered its worst week in history. First of all there is no real evidence that this story is true and secondly i…

I heard this story many times. One of them was froma graduate student who attended this meeting. APS March meeting happened in Las Vegas again last year (2023). While there was no official ban for APS Conferences, there was a little interest in las vegas to host anything for APS for a ~35 years.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#129

Post by mynameisnoone »

I haven't been since DEF CON 19.

Count me out. LVCC is even less cool than Caesars and it's a mile from the strip. It's only selling point is the Loop.[0] In the past, it was convenient to book at Caesars, or nearby at the Bellagio or Venetian-Palazzo.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Convention_Center_Lo...

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