RSA Conference, San Francisco
Day 3: Thursday, April 10th
Thursday was a little different, I got up early and got a few ‘real’ work things done (you know, those things) before heading off to meet Mike Fratto for a project he’s working on. More on that later.
I made it back to the show around lunch-ish but didn’t stop for lunch yet, since the show floor was closing at 4:00pm- I still had some browsing and chatting to do. Starting around 3:45, I took a ‘Last 15 on the Floor’ series of shots from the expo floor.
At some point Thursday or Wednesday, I did stop by the Security Smackdown challenge they had running- pretty neato- bunch of hackers beatin’ each other down for the ultimate Smackdown Title. WWCF: World Wide Crypto Fighting…. or… something like that. There was a guy sporting an overtly over-sized gold WWF-style belt… hence the joke… nevermind.
Anyway, I also stopped by the ‘official’ RSA Bookstore and picked up a little book on 802.1X. When I say little, I mean little… and it was $60. Yes, seriously. To top it off, it’s probably the most poorly-written book I’ve ever read. You’ll see a book review on that later. I want to give it a fair shake and read the whole thing, but I’m not entirely sure I can submit myself to much more of the torture… we’ll see.
Thursday evening was the big RSA Codebreakers Bash and they really did it up right! There were several rooms full of 
fun, regardless of your taste. One room had a really good cover band and lots of music and dancing, another room had a huge bar area and light display I could have watched for hours. In one area, they had Guitar Hero full band playoffs, and in another yet bubble-head karaoke. Across the hall was a little more subdued, with more quiet sitting areas, perfect for chatting over a glass of wine. They also had crazy looking costumed ladies applying barcode tattoos to whomever was drunk enough to let them paste them on their forehead or face…. yeah… I have no clue about that one. I stopped in for about an hour before calling it a night. Thursday was day 6 in San Fran for me and I was exhausted. I did get some photos for you to try and capture the chaos. View photos from the Bash.
That pretty much sums up my day, and I left the hooplah on a Friday morning flight back to the East Coast. That’s about all I have from RSA 2008, but you’ll be hearing about some fun new projects and events that have grown out of this trip.
Next stop: Interop Las Vegas (yee-haw!)
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