Last weekend had me at Shmooconwith a few friends.  Shmoocon is one of my favorite cons, as it’s a strange mix of hackers, geeks, security goons and just interesting people and topics.

Friday had us doing the check in thing and catching a few opening talks, none of which were “wow” talks or anything, but all were pretty good.  We then ended the day with a somewhat unofficial party.  The odd part was that the party was in a church.  It’s a bit weird to have thumping rave music and laser pointers amongst pews.  Still, a good time was had by all, new friends were met and we barely avoided freezing on the way back to the hotel.

Saturday was a basic “don’t get mugged” class called “Cuong Shmoo”.  Rob promptly used a demo as an excuse to smash me in the arm, which is currently a nice shade of sickly yellow with nice purple highlights.  It was also our first exposure to the lockpick village and our attempt at escaping the mock Tijuana Jail.  Rob and I both got cocky and started with cuffs behind our backs.  Rob had to get “rescued” from the cuffs and lost 2.5 minutes in the process.  But, he managed to get through everything else (basically taking out an inflatable guard and picking 4 more locks).  His time was smthng like 4:58 – just barely under the 5 minute cut off.  I got out of the cuffs myself at around 2:40 minutes, but got destroyed by the next lock.  But, I was not to be completely stymied (more on that later).

An excellent talk by the creator of a tool called “Fast Track” convinced me that I’m really glad I’m not responsible for SQL servers in our environment.  This thing will pretty much pwn any SQL server you point it at.  :S

Saturday night started with us at the official party at Chloe’s club.  Good times with new friends were had, but a freak texting accident had someone do a full plant on the back steps.  Initial assessment was that no harm was done, so a small batch of us headed over to Brickskeller’swhen the open bar ran out.  Good drinking and more lock picking shenanigans ensued.  A couple could easily manage a Master padlock someone brought along (with a nice set of Southern Ordinance picks), while myself and another had a really hard time with it until we figured out “the knack”.  Returning to the hotel after last call had more social hilarity ensuing until we had to crash.

Sunday was pretty much wrapping up, saying goodbye, helping take care of the previous night’s texting accident (probably severely strained ligaments), and another attempt at the Tijuana Jail.  It was “unofficial” as timing and scoring were already shut down, but Rob and I wanted a whack at it for our own satisfaction.  This time we kept the cuffs in front.  I was out of the cuffs in 17 seconds and through all the other locks in under 2 minutes total. :)  Rob did much better on the cuffs than previously, but got stymied by the first lock (same one that got me the day before).  The locks were all pretty shot at this point, so I’m not surprised.  I’m amazed I managed it at all.

All in all, it was a great con and I met some really cool people.  Picked up a new minor interest in Locksports and have already determined that I need slightly better picks and that poorly made locks are bad to learn on (I can pop a Master No. 3 in about 15 seconds, but an unnumbered Master is a complete crap shoot).