Category: Other nerd pursuits

We had another fun hang on discord this evening. A new hacker joined us, which is what we’re all about. We’re just a bunch of mutants with more energy than sense trying to find other people who think sorta like us. Whoever you are out there, on the fence of whether to engage, come on in, the water’s fine. We’re smart, tolerant, irreverant, sometimes downright insulting but it’s all in good fun. We do this because we enjoy people, and interaction, and we’re looking that X factor. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Non-Profit Status

The paperwork is in — DC540 is hopefully on the way to 501(c)3 status. We want to make it easier to receive donated equipment and money, to participate in community programs and partnerships, and to reflect the non-profit nature of the group. Could be weeks, could be months.

YouTube Channel

I’ve set up a YouTube channel and thrown up a few videos. I picked up a GoPro knockoff a couple of weeks ago (the Dragon Touch), and I plan to record a few videos which make a shitty attempt to pass on the odd bits of wisdom I have collected over the years. I’d like to do a few deep-dives on some of the technology I’m into, and I’ve got one percolating in my head about how to “recover” from tech hoarding without giving up your shit. I feel like that’ll resonate with some people.

Saturday Coffee

We’re setting up a coffee meetup again, Harris Teeter Starbucks in Stone Ridge this Saturday at 8AM.

Hackerspace Meetups

I can’t wait until we can do in-person meetups in the hackerspace again. Actually, I can. I’m using this no-meetup time wisely and improving the space in so many ways. It’s gonna knock your socks off.

We met at the local coffee shop, tried (and failed) to flash a DC26 badge, and held a mini MohawkCon.

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The world of amateur consumer-grade 3D printing is fraught with challenges and opportunities for catastrophic failure.

We were on a pretty good roll for a while, some good large pieces completed nicely, we got the bed leveling procedure down to a science, the system seemed pretty reliable. Unfortunately, purely mechanical systems like this (at its core, 3d printing is just motors and heaters) prefer to revert to chaos. Vibration shakes things loose, and then all bets are off.

In this case, this piece was probably 80% done when the heating element set screw vibrated loose, and then the heating element itself shook itself loose from the extruder block, and then was just dragged around on the bed by its wires until it was discovered about 15 minutes later. You can see the melted areas along the rim where it dragged over those edges repeatedly, and then the melty paths along the floor of the surface where it was simply dragged across the floor. Gorgeous, and not the quickest repair job for the printer either.

I have yet to even absorb the schedule for Def Con 28 Safe Mode. Don’t even get me started on the Million Channels of Discord. But here I am just the same, in addition to all the mental gymnastics to pump me up for this virtual con, having signed on to participate in a dynamic android debugging CTF remotely at work tomorrow afternoon.

In the process of installing all of the prerequisites, I discover/remember that I had Android Studio 3.1 on this laptop 27 months ago, for. a similar CTF, my first one at this job.

Also, installing Android Studio, plugins, SDK, tools, etc., makes a MacBook Pro a bit… WARM.

WOOHOO, I have a working Pixel 3a XL emulator!

My plan is to stay home from work on Thursday the 6th and Friday the 7th, and be as fully immersed in DCSM28 as I can be. It’s been an important part of my life these past few years, and I refuse to just pretend it’s not happening, or “skip a year.” It’s obviously going to be a very different experience this year than in prior years, so I’m staying open to that experience.

To that end, I’m planning on monitoring the DC540 Discord throughout the event, while participating in whatever ways reveal themselves.

Please feel free to join in if you’re so inclined.

https://discord.gg/XsPwt2M

Are y’all playin’ EvilMog’s MUD yet?

https://mog.ninja/

SO the Defcon Badge deep-dive was well-received during tonight’s Zoom, there were some interesting ideas thrown about. For now, we’re collecting everything we figure out about it in the bad decisions discord. If you’re not on that, ask yourself what you’re even doing with your life.

Anybody interested in collaborating to investigate the Defcon 28 tape badge to uncover its secrets? Hit me up if you’ve got ideas and cycles.

I’ve been working on infrastructure quite a bit lately. As a means of allowing people to become more involved in DC540 projects as they arise, I’ve been working on an authentication and information management infrastructure within the hackerspace. For example, I have Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence for collaboration, project management, and knowledge management, Bitbucket for code storage, and shared NFS file storage. The idea was originally that I’d be able to find some people willing to collab on projects, and the infrastructure would be there and ready for them. Since the pandemic has basically put the kibosh on in-person gatherings, I’m now working on opening that up to members via VPN.

I realize that not everyone has time to collab on projects, or even the interest. But when we find those that have the passion and availability to get involved in that way, it will be ready. I have enough information and projects of my own that it needs to be done anyway.

Users will be able to pound on the CTF vulnerable boxes, review and add documentation, upload 3d-printer files and schematics. I will try to integrate everything I have into the environment so there’ll be much to play with. Perhaps I’ll move the citadel into this environment as well.