black-hat

BlackHat

The real reason I'm here,
Arriving to the Caesars Palace conferences area which I can't find the words to describe how big this place is, I've completed the registration process to begin my two days nine to six course; 

["IDA Pro Class: Reverse Engineering with IDA Pro"]

The instructor Chris Eagle is the author of "Reversing with IDA", now this guy is amazing the amount of knowledge he posses is beyond impressive, one thing I found amusing about him was that he's capable of  calculating in hex at least as good as in decimal.

Here's a small taste of the course:
For those of you who are up for it try figuring out what the following code dose before looking at the answer:
mov       edx, [ebp+var_4]
mov       eax, edx
add        eax, eax
add        eax, edx
shl          eax, 2
add        eax, edx
mov       [ebp+var_8], eax

Answer: multiplies var_4 by 13.

Between 9:00 to 18:00 we've got breakfast, coffee break, lunch and again another coffee break.  

Lunch is worth spending a few words on; imagine walking in a river of people, all going up stream to feed… no one is in a hurry, no one tries to push through. Once you've entered the dining hall which is divided into many lunch lines you're being guided by the staff to the shorts line, in a few minutes you've got your plate in hand and are ready to pill up. I couldn't imagine how such a thing would have worked back home…

Now remember this is just the training two days from now the briefings will start and the amount of people will at least triple itself.

Which is exactly what happened, sitting at one of the assemblies behind me two very large Americans guys talking to each other; they were planning their evening out when someone sat next to them (I didn't bother to see who that was) so one of them Americans being chatty asked the guy where are you from, and the guy answers Israel, Immediately I've turned around to see Roi whom I happen to know (we kinda work together)…

Being one of the very few Israelis here makes me feel privileged although anyone can put down 1700$ and get here. Still knowing I'm one of the few people sent here by our government is a big deal for me, So I would like to thank Eilon and all the rest who have made this possible.

I'll like to finish up with a funny cab ride I had today, I woke up at around 07:00 to find my inbox yet again full (no complains here, It really means a lot to me to know so may people care about me) I try to respond to as many as I can, I find it useful to wake up early and plan my day ahead from bed. So I've decided to visit CycleGear and get myself that AlpinStars jacket I need, before blackhat starts. Standing in the cab line (everything here has a line) some random cab stops I enter the driver's name as I later found out is Tim. An Italian dude who was very friendly on our way there we passed by Wayn Newton house (I'm not sure the word house is the right one to use), the dude has a private jet in his backyard…

Passing that Tim learned that I'm from Israel so he started quoting some lines he had heard in Hebrew at first I couldn't understand a word he said (he's speaking Hebrew to me) then some Yiddish which immediately popped my grandfather into my mind.
On our way back from CycleGear to Creaser Palace he told me he's a composer and he writes songs, I've passed the next 15 minutes hearing his work…

[badge]

I've recently received word from Lior that he bought a bike (K1200GT) and tomorrow night (04/08) he'll be arriving to Vages!

[certified]

One last thing; I'm sure it's not an easy task to provide wireless internet access to thousand of people but still we're in the US damn it, This gets me extra frustrated when i can't reach the ones i  miss and care about.