Yesterday, I put together a computer security capture the flag event for people in the Harrisburg area. It got off to a slow start because the finger daemon that I wrote in python was inadvertently single-threaded. After fixing that by switching to a SocketServer.ForkingTCPServer, people could maintain much better access to the box, which they needed for the challenges (decrypt, disassemble, root).

Perhaps the next one, we could run something pot-luck, where everyone uploads a puzzle and we race to hack them. As long as it's not a remote hack puzzle, we could probably host it on some box and meet via IRC or something. Naturally, I'd be interested in hearing other feedback as to possible future improvements.

I'm sitting in Seattle now, enjoying the nice cool weather. I have to admit that it was nice to fly in and see snow on the mountains out here. Nothing like stifling humid heat back home to make you appreciate the cool of the Pacific.

I thought the CTF was a blast. I liked the tutorial style. I think we would need at least one or two more following a similar style before everyone was ready to do a free for all (or at least before I would be ready). -- David W

Good deal. Part of the preparedness lies in being comfortable hacking together things, so I can hack out more puzzles, tutorials that emphasize that. -- Patrick.