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DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

forum.defcon.org

141–150 of 408 posts

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

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, yes, it does? There’s a huge difference between: “if you do X, you will be asked to leave” and “if you do X, the police will arrest you” Like, when I invite someone over to a dinner party, it is against my policy to insult my dog. If you do that I will kick you out (not actually, he’s a dumb klutz, you can insult him all you want), but that doesn’t make it illegal to insult my dog.

True but not relevant. Police and legality do not need to be involved with certain kinds of casino justice. Security may just offer to beat your ass if you won't cease and desist, avoiding the paperwork. Could be bluff but they know where cameras are and have cop friends..

Caesars has a $9.3B market cap. They're not beating anybody up for "casino justice".

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

#142
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they figured they're somehow net negative when they do gamble :D

There are certainly a lot of DefCon attendees who think that this describes them. In my observation they are all very incorrect, usually humorously so fortunately.

Vegas makes a fuckload of money off everyone who thinks they’re smart but doesn’t understand statistics

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

#143

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?

If we wanna be frank: lotta tech is in silicon valley and Vegas is probably the closest "large" hub to travel to (Maybe Los Angeles is closer, but not by much). It's the cheapest option without simply staying in SV.

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

#144

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.

This is me being opportunistic, but I'm an organizer for indie tech conferences [0]. We're not selling tickets with set venue dates yet (although a fundraiser is happening.)

If nothing else, you might join the newsletter to see if it's your cup of tea later in the year.

[0] https://handmadecities.com

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

#145
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simplest explanation is often the correct one. Casinos aren't exactly known for having moral qualms. They are, however, known for caring about their bottom line. They probably analyze every single event they host and then shuffle things around to maximize their expected revenue based on their past experiences with the same type of event.

Put another way, they got a better offer

That’s the weird part. I doubt they’re using the space so this strikes me as “think of the money we’ll save on hours” bean counting

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

#146
post #12
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 doubt they would cancel a contract already in place for that reason. Not renew the contract - sure. But canceling an already scheduled event because of low revenue per guest doesn't seem very likely to me? Or maybe it was some sort of ongoing agreement and canceling it was effectively "not renewing".

Everyone is missing "but now held at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) with workshops and training at the Sahara" part. So this more like they got passed to a different venue. Not "vegas hates them".

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

#147

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?

We also believe in constant air conditioning unlike the East coast and defcon is probably not the group walking around outside the hotels much.

The heat sucks but it’s not like it’s that hard to avoid on a conference trip. It’s when you live here and have to hop in your plasma generating car that makes you wonder what the fuck is wrong with you

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

#148
post #93
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Casinos in Vegas use too many decks and reshuffle frequently enough that there is no edge gained over the house when card counting.

This is not true. Besides continuous shuffler machines, most casinos have 6 or 8 deck games that have plenty of 'penetration' (card counter term for depth into the deck that the cut card is placed) to offer an edge if you properly card count. There's also a big game to be played where rubes think they can card count and instead lose tons of money attempting to do so. The problem with card counting generally is that t…

The book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich explains in layman's terms how card counting works for blackjack.

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

#149

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?

[deleted]

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

#150

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?

Mumbai will be raining buckets in August, I'd avoid that city like a plague
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