Pre-game
For the first half of June I attended NaClCON and then drove through five states and the District of Columbia. The trip began with a rare flight that required a layover as Wilmington, North Carolina is a small regional airport. That put me through O’Hare which I despise due to past trips that left me stranded there overnight. Fortunately the flight was uneventful other than having to wake up at 4:30am to catch an early flight. From Wilmington it is about 40 minutes to Carolina Beach and the Courtyard by Marriott Carolina Beach Oceanfront where the convention was held. One nice part about the hotel is that every room is ocean facing.
I flew in on Friday which allowed all of Saturday to explore the area, enjoy the beach, and help with any setup needed. It turned out we didn’t get access to the convention space until Sunday morning due to another conference running. Oh no, an entire day at the beach! Carolina Beach is a relaxed town that gives off vibes of chilling and enjoying life. I spent time walking the beach and around the boardwalk area.
The murals and stickers around town were great and something I look for anywhere I go.
The Convention – Day One
This was the inaugural year for NaClCON (pronounced ‘Salt Con’) and attendance was just over 100 people. Given the theme of the conference being the history of hacking it was attended by many people that have been in the scene for a long time. One of the two founders, Luke, opened up the convention and set the tone for a relaxed event meant to enjoy and share our collective history.
That night we started the ‘fireside’ chats which regrettably could not be actual fireside chats on the beach. It was turtle mating season which meant strict regulations were in place regarding any form of light near the water as it can confuse turtles and interfere with breeding. Instead we did it on stage and had several people share incredible stories about their history with hacking and security work.
Day Two
The first full day started with a keynote talk by Lee Felsenstein who was an original member of the Homebrew Computer Club. Largely thanks to Lee and others of that era and organization we have the personal computers we continue to (mostly) enjoy. Lee shared stories about his time in the club and gave us insights as to how it all started. From there he gave his thoughts about what is to come in the so-called AI era.
As a volunteer to NaClCON, originally to help with the Call For Papers (CFP) review, I ended up helping most of the time with speaker ops. Basically ensuring that speakers were ready and sometimes introducing them along with general convention information and reminders. The first day saw great talks from Josh Corman, Heidi & Bruce Potter, Andrew Brandt, Johnny Shaieb, and “Hack Beer’d” who stood in when Richard Thieme was not available.
Along with the people we also got to see some of the old hardware from the past and in some cases get to use them. Having the devices along with people that knew all about them in detail was fascinating and a great bit of nostalgia.
Thanks to the organizers and volunteers the convention went smoothly. While most talks were only viewed by up to half of attendees, a lot of side conversations and catching up happened. More day one highlights:
Day Three
The second day of talks were just as wonderful with some talks being more ‘meta’, some about specific historical projects or context, and some just fun stories. B.K. Delong (McIntyre) gave a talk about the Attrition.org Defacement Mirror, which I was the founder and active contributor to until its end. Despite that, his talk taught me a lot about events since then including the subsequent use of our collected data in academic works. James Arlen gave a fascinating talk based on his extensive career and applied it in a bigger picture as helpful guidance navigating our industry. Oh, he did his entire presentation on a modified, but original Osborne 1 computer! The very computer that our keynote, Lee, helped design.
Another thing this conference did that was incredible was put up a memorial wall to honor and remember the friends that have passed. This is the same purpose as the Rest in Code project, which I am a contributor to. Many of us are getting up there in the years and we’re starting to see more pass on for a variety of reasons.
For the con I brought several old items to auction for charity including a couple lineman handsets (including one rotary!), Radio Shack dialers, and an original copy of the Hack FAQ by Voyager. Others kicked in a few items and we managed to raise over $1,000 for Freedom Sailing and the National Pancreas Foundation.
After closing remarks, the second night of Hacker Jeopardy took place. Those of us from 303 (Denver metro) got together for a picture, and then Jae took a picture of a majority of the attendees in one shot. Jae was our volunteer photographer to document the event and I look forward to his pictures soon!
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