So far, my trip has been solid and injury-free. By that, I mean my flight from Moline to Las Vegas went off without a hitch, other than the Ginger Ale a stewardess spilled on me… and, it seems that my trip back will also leave on time. I am sitting in the Las Vegas airport, waiting for my United flight to arrive. (I checked a bag, so I hope it gets to Moline the same time I do.) If I get bored, I can always wander down to the glass room, filled with slot machines and stare at the caged smokers.

I’ve been in Las Vegas since Monday night. (Haven’t you been following my sporadic Twitters, you n00b? Just follow “Nullsession”.) It has been hot here, but not as bad as it was a week ago. I arrived at 10:30 pm, and stayed at the Imperial Palace. It is right across from Caesar’s Palace, on the main drag, where the Black Hat conference is being held. My typical early morning walk across the street, and then through the casino at the Palace to get to the convention area took about 20 minutes on average. (All the casinos make you walk past rows and rows of slot machines, attended by smoking grannies, and blackjack tables serving middle aged men in flip flops….)

On Tuesday, I was part of the Executive Briefing session organized by Echelon One. I’m just a manager of security projects, and everyone else was a CSO or CISO for a Fortune 500 company, or government agency. The briefings were excellent, and I was even asked in advance to be a speaker for a panel. Once the sessions ended, we wound up at Nero’s bar, and drank and eventually decided to just order a meal there instead of going anywhere else. The bartender recommended the prawns, and they were excellent! After that, we spent a couple hours at the speakers party in the (huge) penthouse.

Wednesday was the first official day of the Black Hat briefings. It is interesting now how IT conferences serve a lot of fruit. Ten years ago, the food was much less healthy, and fruit was unheard of. I met up with Joseph, a friend I usually see at the RSA conference, and we attended the keynote and a few seconds until I lost track of him at lunch. The keynote speaker, Ian Angell, was a professor from the London School of Economics. He spoke about complexity in computer systems. He had also given a talk on intellectual property rights the day before at the Executive Briefings. He was a very engaging speaker, and peppered his talk with interesting stories, quotes and his dark British sense of humor. (Did I mention he has a talking cat?)

Lunch was served in a huge tent, and it was excellent. The rich sauce and bread and chicken and dessert fully compensated for the overly healthy breakfast. I attended some sessions in the afternoon and visited the vendor booths. The talks I enjoyed included (1) Reverse Engineering, (2) Dan Kaminsky’s talk on the DNS Vulnerability, (3) Google Exploits and (4) Meet the Feds.

The Black Hat reception was at 6 pm, and after that we had an excellent dinner at Spago with the keynote speakers and some other speakers and organizers of the conference. [I must congratulate Bob on his ability to be such a social "connector" (as I believe Malcolm Gladwell would classify him).] We heard stories from some of the “feds”, and dinner took about three hours before we broke up around midnight. On the way back to our rooms, I mentioned to Ian that I was staying at the Imperial Palace and that they had booked me into a handicapped room without any furniture. He replied simply that the last time he stayed there, he returned home infested with bedbugs. After two wonderful nights of sleep on a comfortable bed, my last night consisted of tossing and turning as I felt imaginary bedbugs and scratched phantom itches.

Thursday, I attended a few sessions and touched base with Ed, George and other friends. I had lunch with Bob, and we were joined by the Thursday keynote speaker, Rod Beckstrom (the new director of the National Cyber Security Center) and Jeff Moss (the Black Hat founder). Rod was actually at the dinner on Wednesday, but our table had broken up into smaller conversations and I didn’t get a chance to meet him. Since I had to leave on an early flight, one of the organizers (Nico) promised to snag me one of the (metal) Defcon badges and mail it to me (Thanks!). I would have liked to have seen some of Defcon 16, but alas, my sister is getting married and I have to travel to Michigan tomorrow. We have to have priorities!

My flight is boarding. It’s been a busy week. I’ve tried to keep up on some phone meetings and email from work. I should get into Moline after midnight, and tomorrow morning at about 6 am, I am hoping to hit the road with the boys, two dogs and maybe some motorcycles in the Titan. This weekend will be fun, celebrating my sister’s marriage (tomorrow on 8/8/8). I won’t be checking email, however… I don’t get reception at her house!!

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