DEF CON 26 Notes & References

ComboHere are my DEF CON notes from the sessions that I attended in 2018 for DEF CON 26:

Please fell free to do what you want with these notes.  I go to sessions so you don't have to.

Here some quick links to notes from previous years: 25 (2017)24 (2016)23 (2015)22 (2014), 21 (2013), 20 (2012), 19 (2011), & 18 (2010)

I plan on attending DEF CON 27.  Follow along real-time on Twitter @technewsradio.

 


DEF CON 25 Notes & References

Defcon2017Here are my DEF CON notes from the sessions that I attended in 2017 for DEF CON 25:

Please fell free to do what you want with these notes.  I go to sessions so you don't have to.

Here some quick links to notes from previous years: 24 (2016)23 (2015)22 (2014), 21 (2013), 20 (2012), 19 (2011), & 18 (2010)

I plan on attending DEF CON 26.  Follow along real-time on Twitter @technewsradio.

 


DEF CON 24 Notes & References

Defcon2016Here are my DEF CON notes from the sessions that I attended in 2016 for DEF CON 24:

Please feel free to do what you want with these notes.  I go to sessions so you don't have to.

Here some quick links to notes from previous years: 23 (2015)22 (2014), 21 (2013), 20 (2012), 19 (2011), & 18 (2010)

I plan on attending DEF CON 25.  Follow along real-time on Twitter @technewsradio.

 


Solar Power Review - Keeping Your Tech Powered While Camping

I recently picked up from Harbor Freight Tools the following solar power kit: 45W Solar Power Kit (#68751) for just over $150 (including tax).

Solar-kit

Over the course of the last couple of months I've been able to try out the kit on several camping trips were there was no easy electrical grid access.  The camping environment was pretty sunny but not always 100% full sun.  The time of year for all the trips was summer and the location was Southern California.  I ended up setting up the kit on the top of our small camper.

The main reason I picked up the kit was to keep all of my tech gear charged so I could keep tabs on email, news, and any tech issue with my sites.  This was usually less than 1 hour a day which worked out well for my needs, and expectations related to being on a camping trip.

The gear I was able to keep operational using the kit included: cell phone, tablet, WIFI card, and a laptop during trips lasting up to 7 days.

I was suprised during the main daylight hours that the inverter could charge directly: the cell phone, tablet, and WIFI card.  To keep my laptop charged I needed to capture to an emergency car battery system, and then use 3rd party car charger/inverter to get the right power levels to keep the laptop charged.  I was also able to keep charged a USB battery pack so I could run my WIFI card during non-daylight hours when needed.

One other lesson learned, was to turn off all electronics while sleeping.  This helped keep all the devices more readily available the next day then keeping them in standby/sleep mode overnight.

All in all the system worked very well and I'd recommend it.

Updated: 3/16/2014


Twitter Updates - Google, Amazon, Windows, Chrome, TweetDeck, iPad

The following is a summary of tweets posted to TechNewsRadio@Twitter over the last week:

  • This WEEK in GOOGLE42 bit.ly/9SYkfL Check out: Ribbit, Android Kindle app, Google Reader Play, Diaspora, Google Wave open to all
  • Per @LeviathanChrons the podcast novel "Leviathan Chronicles" has a big update on 5/26 http://bit.ly/8ZzfDq
  • Amazon has announced a Asia Pacific Region AWS datacenter in Singapore (EC2 S3 SimpleDB RDS SNS CloudWatch Cloudfront) http://bit.ly/9NMCNc
  • TechPodcast.com Roundtable is today - Sat. May 22nd at 1pm PT / 4pm ET - Stitcher Radio, Green Screen HowTo, 5 Top Windows Utilities
  • standardizing all my computers with Google Chrome as the default browser - it seems to be faster, more reliable, etc than Firefox
  • TweetDeck 0.3.4.1 seems like a nice upgrade: more meaningful icons, location, scheduled updates, translations, etc
  • OpenOffice.org is looking for proposals their 10th year conference in Budapest, Hungary from 08/31- 09/03/2010 http://bit.ly/b6d6cQ
  • Checking out Apple's "iPad : The Missing Manual—New from O'Reilly" - new book $25 - http://oreil.ly/90aNZO
  • Mark/Space has announced Android Calendar Sync Version 1.4 Beta bit.ly/aDLSrX
  • The new Apple OS X Snow Leopard Security Guide is now available online http://bit.ly/9Rm19H via PDF http://bit.ly/cSanMT
  • Slysoft.com has released AnyDVD6.6.4.2 with support for Avatar, more encryption updates & other fixes http://bit.ly/c0tub1
  • Willow Garage has a new open-source initiative for institutions and universities to build upon a robot platform bit.ly/9muTgs
  • OpenBook Specification for ePub (xhtml, css, etc) - some tools: Calibre & Adobe InDesign http://bit.ly/bGryk8
  • Just installed the new VMWARE 3.1 for Mac -- reports about Bootcamp VMs being faster seem true - more info: http://bit.ly/vmware31
  • PhatWare has announced WritePad for iPad - an advanced handwriting recognition software http://bit.ly/aSuNXT
  • Checking out Tweekdeck v0.34.2 (upgrade from v0.34.1) --- I wonder what is new?
  • Checking out PersonalBrain 5.5 (visual information management) for Mac, Windows, Linux http://bit.ly/bpWZ7Y [free 30 day demo]
  • AppleCentral.com is now the new "centralized" home for MacTech, Now Software, MacNews, MacsimumNews, MacMinute, etc
  • Manager Tools Effective Manager Conference at Denver Marriott City Center has been announced for June 7, 2010 http://bit.ly/akUuI3
  • SitePoint's newest book "Create Stunning HTML Email That Just Works!" looks like a good HTML intro: http://bit.ly/cs7ZCk
  • How to Upgrade Your MacBook's Hard Drive bit.ly/benw4m -- Is a good reference!
  • Anyone interest in an Apple iPad meetup in San Diego, CA - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 http://bit.ly/985fSY


TECH NEWS RADIO PODCAST #356 | 091027 | Windows 7 Bitlocker, Cloud Services, HTML 5, & Conference Pointers

Listen! (Size 6.6 MBs, Running Time 9m36s)

This podcast is sponsored by SCOTTEVEST (SeV) - makers of fine tech clothing.

Today's TechNewsRadio.com podcast examines: Windows 7 Bitlocker on XP & Vista, Information Week on a comprehensive Cloud Services matrix, why HTML 5 matters from Dr. Dobbs, and then some conference pointers:
Links mentioned in this podcast includes:

We are giving away a Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer in the Black/Steel color pattern with a 15" laptop compartment to celebrate the start of our 5th year of podcasting.  Listen to the podcast for directions.

Feel free to follow along with Steve Holden at: Twitter, FriendFeed, and/or Delicious.  For tech news only updates follow TechNewsRadio on Twitter.

This podcast is sponsored by SCOTTEVEST (SeV) - makers of fine tech clothing.


TECH NEWS RADIO PODCAST #352 | 090317 | New Specifications, Tom Bihn, Cloud Computing & Conferences

Listen! (Size 9.2 MBs, Running Time 13m15s)

This podcast is sponsored by SCOTTEVEST (SeV) - makers of fine tech clothing.

Today's traditional Tech Rags Tear Out style podcast examines the following four items:

  1. update on four new specifications you should probably be aware of;
  2. some updated news from Tom Bihn;
  3. two pointers to some cloud computing services from 3rd parties utilizing Amazon capabilities; and
  4. five conference pointers.

Links mentioned in this podcast include:

The microbrew recommendation for this podcast was the Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. And the technology podcast recommendation is from GDGT.com.

Feel free to follow along with Steve Holden at: Twitter, FriendFeed, and/or Delicious.

This podcast is sponsored by SCOTTEVEST (SeV) - makers of fine tech clothing.


TECH NEWS RADIO PODCAST #348 | 090120 | Content Management, Network Security, Military Resources, SUN Servers, NAS & Conference Pointers

Listen! (Size 6.7 MBs, Running Time 14m29s)

This podcast is sponsored by SCOTTEVEST (SeV) - makers of fine tech clothing.

Today's TechNewsRadio.com's podcast covers seven topics: Enterprise Content Management (ECM); network security; military how-to guides; Sun's latest SunFire x4150 servers; personal-sized network attached storage (NAS) appliances ; and conference pointers.  After the technical content there is a Tom Bihn  product review update.

Links mentioned in this podcast include:

The microbrew beer recommendation for this podcast is the Fat Weasel Pale Ale by River Trent Brewing in Ukaih, CA.

The recommend podcast resource to checkout for this podcast is the "main feed" at IT Conversations.


LINKS FROM PODCAST #325 - Overview Of eTech 2007 Plus Pointers To Interviews

Links mentioned in TECH NEWS RADIO PODCAST #325 published for March 30, 2007 that covered the topic "Overview of eTech 2007":

Our topic eight technologies that we thought had potential to help IT professionals in the near-term:

  1. Amazon's S3 (Storage), EC2 (Processors), and SQS (Messaging) technologies 
  2. Sun Microsystems Project Blackbox
  3. Yahoo! Pipes
  4. RSS Tools like Attensa Feed Server, RSS Bus, and Newsgator
  5. Zimbra new offline email client
  6. Adobe's Apollo
  7. Scott Berkun new book "The Myths of Innovation" [NOTE: His previous book "The Art of Project Management" is also highly recommend.]
  8. Microsoft's Deepfish

Also don't forget to check out our eTech 2007 OPML format conference notes posted to Grazr.com.

We also conducted four interviews at eTech 2007: Attensia, ThinkFree, Zimbra, and Linspire.