2600 In 2004

Tomorrow night I’ll be in the Pentagon City Mall at the first 2600 meeting of the new year. I’ve attended these meetings intermittently for years, six or more. There are a few regular members but there’s been a lot of turnover. I’ve made some interesting acquaintances, even a couple friends. The people who attend are what you would expect of a bunch of hackers who bother to leave their parent’s basements (cough), systems administration jobs, Defense Department contract positions, et cetera.

Rarely have I learned anything from the meetings. No secret knowledge is imparted just because you emerge from your cave to face your fellows. People mostly just talk tech, and anybody talking business isn’t worth their salt because any infosec business in DC worth doing is classified.

The one thing I learned, a lesson and not a fact, was to listen and to then teach myself. I came to the meetings years ago as a know-nothing kid who had found 2600, then in its last days of usefulness and legitimacy as a publication, tucked behind more respectable computer magazines on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. I had nothing to contribute, then, other than to be the butt of good-natured jokes suggesting I looked more than a little like a young Bill Gates with my dorky middle school haircut. So, if for nothing more than to avoid more jokes, I stayed quiet and listened. I took away the names of pieces of software, websites, and individuals that the smarter people at the meetings discussed when not just shooting their personal shit. I went home, found those things, and learned about them. And now, for what it’s worth, there are new kids at those meetings with dorky haircuts who are putting up with listening to me. The hacker wheel of life comes full circle, and on ’Net time, no less.

Drop in if you’re in the DC/VA/MD area. You don’t have to listen to me if you read me.