He's one lucky lad, Fred! Its so neat to see how old electro / mechanical systems work. At his age we were visiting tips to find old TV's to rip out the transformers so we could make huge arcs and flashes in our secret shed (kept well hidden from our fathers)
"Josh was curious if he could hack into Facebook but we quickly realized that the hacking rich internet apps talk was way above both of us."
The sad part is 'hacking' into these types of applications is not above either of you or your average 13 year with lots of time on their hands.
(posting this using an facebook link at an attempt at irony)
fredwilson
· 12 months ago
I realize that but the talk was about browser security holes and such. Fascinating stuff, but we didn't really grok it
jtyost2
· 12 months ago
Sounds like a great conference, hope I can go sometime.
Loic Lemeur
· 12 months ago
Hi Fred, it may help me tremendously if you try to find out their wifi supplier: how many participants? who is their wifi supplier? Thanks! I am trying to find a solution for next years' LeWeb. Talk to you soon.
@JoeHobot
· 12 months ago
Well berlin and france I bet it's a bit different Loic. My guess is to do bit research on wifi supliers in Paris or you might just build your own untill then, it will cost you 50% less! With few net switches some good highspeed ISP (possibly fiberoptic) wifi will work just fine.....
Loic Lemeur
· 12 months ago
Livecrunch, it is less about the pipe supplier than the network settings. And that can be made by a team coming from anywhere.
fredwilson
· 12 months ago
Loic - almost everyone was using a wired connection. There were tons of jacks with ethernet wires everywhere. And people bring switches with them and share the connections
Not ideal, for sure, but more reliable
Loic Lemeur
· 12 months ago
thanks Fred, interesting. Happy new year to you.
fredwilson
· 12 months ago
Same to you Loic. I'm writing this from paris where I'm spending new years with my family. I'm really wondering how you could leave this place!!
Loic Lemeur
· 12 months ago
Fred, me too, sometimes I am wondering :)
@JoeHobot
· 12 months ago
I build VOIP with 2 other guys in Midwest .Took us 4 months to test, buy equipment, configure and market it.
You think few guys that can be paid 5K to do the job can't do it? :) If I were you, that succesfull...my strategy would be not to depend on others but your self.
It minimizes your cost and less stress + you have professionals do the job for less what other companies would change you.
PS: Equipment you (borrow, buy) can be reused! so next year cost would be even less because you don't need another wiring.
@JoeHobot
· 12 months ago
That;s great that you took your son out to conference like that, wish I had that opportunity when I was his age. Well at that time I could only hack with Comodore 64? lol.
Great post, I think every tech person as I am...starts with newbee hacking and than advances into networking, software developing etc....at least that is my story.
fredwilson
· 12 months ago
I am sure some of this will rub off on him. At this point, he's more into writing video games than hacking into facebook, thankfully ;)
@JoeHobot
· 12 months ago
If he is interested let him use computer knowledge for advance, I hate seing kids using pc only to chat via FB or MSpace... :)
U good u!
CLaRGe
· 12 months ago
I'm inspired. My children, especially my oldest son, never get enough of my talk about being part of "The Scene" back in the day. I tell them about Tran and the guys who now make the most powerful consumer software on the planet now (PayPal, Amazon, Gears of War) and how the cool stuff we used to do "just for fun".
Might even plan a trip for next year.
Mark
· 12 months ago
I am very jelouse.. I was stuck out in the freezing cold of minnesota myself.
All Comments
At his age we were visiting tips to find old TV's to rip out the transformers so we could make huge arcs and flashes in our secret shed (kept well hidden from our fathers)
I've written some thoughts on the subject as well http://lightlycaffeinated.com/post/67155956/soc... and simply wanted to share
The sad part is 'hacking' into these types of applications is not above either of you or your average 13 year with lots of time on their hands.
(posting this using an facebook link at an attempt at irony)
And that can be made by a team coming from anywhere.
Not ideal, for sure, but more reliable
You think few guys that can be paid 5K to do the job can't do it? :) If I were you, that succesfull...my strategy would be not to depend on others but your self.
It minimizes your cost and less stress + you have professionals do the job for less what other companies would change you.
PS: Equipment you (borrow, buy) can be reused! so next year cost would be even less because you don't need another wiring.
Great post, I think every tech person as I am...starts with newbee hacking and than advances into networking, software developing etc....at least that is my story.
U good u!
Might even plan a trip for next year.
Ive compiled a list of as many as the conference videos as possible.. hopefully the last few will be online soon.
http://hackerblog.net/papers/25c3-videos