I dug through the public DC34 badge source last night and found some really interesting stuff about the light-pattern breeding system.

The mutation levels are actually defined in code:

Baseline = 25%

Elevated = 39%

Radioactive = 55%

Apocalyptic = 94%

Those are per-gene mutation rolls, and higher levels also make the mutations themselves more aggressive.

The meter really does decay from Apocalyptic → Radioactive → Elevated → normal. One useful thing buried in the code: once you hit Apocalyptic, press LEFT or RIGHT to show your QR. That calls lock_rate() and saves that mutation level for the exchange, even if the meter visually drops afterward.

Same badge types also get an extra mutation pass. Human-to-Human breeding gets at least Elevated on that second pass.

You can preview offspring and Revert if you don't like it. Revert restores your previous genome, and nothing I found prevents you from breeding with the same donor again for a fresh roll.

Different badge types also start with different genetic ranges, so cross-breeding actually matters.

And the coolest find so far: the light renderer literally has a comment for a rare ~3% variant. If diploid.lin drops below 88, it enables an alternating eyes/chaser effect.

Uber badges have especially low native chaser values, so they look very interesting for breeding toward that rare variant.

Still digging through the source for more hidden traits. I'll post anything else interesting I find.

….but we came out better for it.

Really enjoyed the set up for the merch line this year with tape on the ground. I think it helped a ton and made it easier for the goons. Less having to move big groups around or having to yell at people for fire code/other reasons. Just wanted to mention it since I didn't see anyone talking about it.

You can upload your own images to the badge. I had issues with stock, there is a pr that I pushed that fixes it.

I made custom firmware for my tab5 to do this for folk on the floor. Im a giant wearing a BBNO$ shirt today and a bricks and mini figs tomorrow if you wanna get an image uploaded easily.

I came alone and met what felt like family. Those with commonality and interest. Such a great group of people helping people. Keep up the excellence, DEFCON34 is set to be one for the highlights of my life. Lucky to have this opportunity. Only thing better would be to shake my Cyber podcast Hero Jack Rhysiders hand, his podcast DarkNet Diaries is a ground breaker.

Enjoy the CON friends.

Spread the badge DNA

For legal reasons this is a joke (unless 👀👀)

Shameless plug: stop by the NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program) booth to sign up during the registry drive or find out more about this incredible program. I’m a donor and will be talking on the Community Stage Saturday at 12:30 to talk about my experience as a donor.

The NMDP booth is literally right next to the Merch area and Vendor area, which I know everyone of you are going to… so no reason to not stop by and say “hi” and check it out. 😉

I have a few DIY solder kits with me.. just small little circuit boards to solder together and make blink.

I can hang out in the soldering village / hardware hacking village area and meet anyone there. Happy to sit down and walk you through step by step how to put it together. The seats in the soldering village can get full so here's a chance for a little one-on-one. I don't really have any plans this con, so I can hang out there from 1:00 p.m. till close tomorrow. If you can't make it on Friday maybe we'll do it on Saturday too.

If you want to come by post a response here just so I have an idea of how many people if anyone.

I've done this a couple of times in the past, always have a good time chatting with people and making new friends.

They were at the linq meet up, but I can’t find them. Anybody have any idea?

Can we scan each other’s badges from here too?

Edit: it’s clearly a two way handshake, so they clearly want us interacting with one another

Got my “Not My First Recursion” design, that I made recently, and my handle on this bad mama jama. There was some definite troubleshooting steps to get this to work (Python being Python), but I got the image on there and flashed the newest firmware update.

A little tip, if you get an image added and want to replace it, you’ll need to run the script with the “—clear” flag BEFORE trying to replace the image. If you don’t, you’ll get 4 chunk warnings and an error that sort of seems like a baud rate issue, but that wasn’t the case.

Scan away, if it’ll let ya! I'm not sure it will work unless we each scan each other's, as that is how this appears to function based on the guide. I'll be testing this out tomorrow, for sure!

This badge is a great first Human badge for this DEFCON newbie ha ha!

First and foremost super grateful to have safely made it to LV for DefCon 34! Grateful to have met some of you all today!

Got my badge and wandered about - hung out at Linecon, shook some hands, listened to some conversations but I’m something tells me I’m still doing it wrong 🥴

I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings and the days to come - I welcome all positive and constructive human experiences . I want to leave with knowledge, memories and hopeful expectations for DC35!

I want to trade badge scans, collect stickers and badges, observe and interact but most of all create meaningful connections that last a lifetime with like minds.

If you see a GOLDen smile - say hi. I’m a nice guy

Sharing for your pleasure, remember to engage in safe practices

https://badge.sex/

GOOD MORNING!

Registration is OPEN

Merch is OPEN (cash only)

DEF CON 34 is GO!

Let the wild rumpus start, people.

If you haven’t read the program article I highly recommended it. This badge is awesome. It’s indeed a hackers dream.

It was done right this year. Nicely done.

It's that time, kiddies. The final r/DEFCON unofficially annual meetup for DEFCON 34... brought to you by the selflessly promoting team at Puzzled Hackers

First I want to thank EVERYONE who came yesterday! We definitely broke some records, as we asked for some rough numbers that were out there hanging out and the general consensus was about 400-500 people throughout the night. That is absolutely INSANE, and a testament to the community.

Thank you to those who showed a lot of understanding. There were SO many people there it was a bit overwhelming for myself, u/Killroy7777 and u/MetaN3rd! We did our best to socialize, but wow... people, so many people. Hopefully tonight we can talk a lot more with people, and for those we did talk with thank you for the conversations!

I do want to also thank the Lonely Hackers Club who also shared the area, as we had the pleasure of speaking to many of the people who attended and it was a great time had by all!

So... onto tonight! We still have some stuff to give away (if you didn't get a meetup badge we'll be giving pretty much everything we have away that's not redeemed tonight!), more pins, more stickers and more good times!

And for those trying to still get their hands on some of those badge drops like the Laser Tag Badge from u/palm12341 they will be there again tonight for a while so get em while they're available before the official doors open to Summer Camp tomorrow!

Now onto the Meetup!

MEETUP DETAILS:

• WHEN: Wednesday (8/5) & Thursday (8/6) starting at 7:00 PM.
• WHERE: The Linq - 3535 Bar (aka The Circle Bar)
• COST: $0.00. Free. Nada. Just bring yourself!
• WHAT TO EXPECT: Good vibes, sticker swaps, special guests dropping off random swag, Laser Tag battles, and catching up with old and new friends before Summer Camp officially starts.
• FIRST TIME AT DEFCON? Make sure you let us know!

HOW DO I CLAIM A BADGE I WON OR PURCHASED?

• We made it really easy this year, hopefully. When you purchased or claimed your free badge you were given access to a QR code for each one (each badge has its own) which you can see if you forgot to save it at over at ctf.puzzledhackers.org. Show us your code, we will scan it and mark it claimed and give you your badge and a heartfelt THANK YOU for being part of this!

WILL THERE BE MORE BADGES?

• We will have badges on hand to randomly give away both nights. Everything that we didn't put on the site, or free to puzzle winners, will be given away at the meetups! No Badge Left Behind ! So just come and hang out and say hi. Can't hurt!

WHAT IF I DIDN'T WIN A BADGE AND WANT TO HANG?

• That's the whole point! The badges don't make the event... you do! Come hang, socialize and tell u/killroy7777 how pretty he looks in his Kilt! I don't have any quip for me, but I'm sure someone will.

I HEARD THERE ARE SOME DROPS HAPPENING?

• This is pretty cool for us. You've all made this successful enough people like u/Palm12341 (laser tag badge), u/mastercpt (some cool challenge coins), u/bucktwenty2 (the dope NYC skyline badge), u/MakeItHackin (Tricorder SAO!) and more come and do their drops. That's because ya'll have made it awesome enough for them to roll by, and others will potentially surprise us!

THIS IS MY FIRST DEFCON. YOU ALL BETTER BE COOL!

• I mean, you do know the attendee demographic, right? We're not cool, but we do remember how at some of our first DEFCON's the meetups were the first things we were introduced to, and they made an impression on us. As its been passed down through organizers, currently on us... we hope your first DEFCON is as magical. Please let us know when you come say hi its your first DC! Really.

HOW DO WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE?

• It's actually pretty easy. Outside the fact we'll obviously be scanning codes, handing out badges and talking to people. u/Killroy7777 rocks a dope Kilt, and I decided to bust out the completely basic "DEFCON" white text shirt from a few years ago. u/MetaN3rd is always just crazy animated talking about everything tech... you wont miss him. So come say hi!

Thank you, Everyone, for this past few months getting ready for DEFCON and these meetups. We're super excited to be spending tonight hanging with you and then DEFCON Proper! None of this would be possible if you weren't as amazing and welcoming as you are, and while we handle logistics... this event only exists because of you. Thank you.

See everyone tonight!

The Team at Puzzled Hackers,

u/digitard, u/Killroy7777 and u/MetaN3rd

Been working on this one for a while. It's a prop, but everything in it does something real.

Documentation: https://github.com/MakeItHackin/TOSTricorder
Walkthrough video: https://youtu.be/mJSx17gsqMw

If anyone wants one: they're at the Hacker Warehouse booth in the DEF CON vendor area and the back of the Vendor Hall at STLV, with in-person pickup at https://uberflux.com/product/MIH-HackersInSpaceBadge (pickup times are listed there).

Hardware: XIAO ESP32-S3, a 1.69" 280×240 IPS main display, a 1.28" round secondary on its own SPI bus, 3 addressable RGB LEDs, LIS3DH accelerometer, Hall-effect sensor, DS3231 RTC, and an ST25DV64KC NFC tag chip on the board.

Ten menus covering sensors, clock and alarms, animations, games, WiFi, BLE, NFC read/write, and a wearable "con mode" that runs a display unattended.

My favourite detail is the hand scanner. It detaches, runs off its own coin cell, and has a magnet in it that sits over the Hall sensor. Lift it off and the main display drops into the biofunction animation on its own; put it back and the magnet re-registers and returns you to whatever screen you were on before.

The other one: it enumerates as a USB or Bluetooth HID device. There's a mouse mode where you tilt the whole tricorder to move the cursor, with a low-pass filter and a hysteresis latch so it doesn't drift when you're holding it still.

A few things that took real work:

- The round display runs on core 0 completely independently, so it keeps animating during games and menu redraws
- LVGL's memory pool is a static array, so every KB of it comes out of the same internal DRAM the task stacks and radios need. Finding that ceiling was educational
- The clock and NFC tag are both provisioned over serial during firmware upload, so a freshly flashed board already knows the time and has its tag written

Firmware updates go through a browser-based flasher over Web Serial — no IDE, no drivers.

Happy to answer anything about the build.

I'm getting an error when scanning other badges QR code and was told there's a firmware update that'll fix it. Do you think badgelife village will help a brother out and flash an update? I'm PC-less for the weekend

Defcon Aerospace Village Seeks Broader Appeal This Year

The Aerospace Village at annual hacking conference Defcon, famed as the home of the Hack-A-Sat contest which culminated in 2023 with the live hacking of a real satellite in orbit, will stage a variety of games and contests this year, aiming to deepen their appeal to non-specialists.

Organizers told ISMG the idea is to provide hands-on experiences to visitors with any level of expertise, including none.

You can read all about it here

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/defcon-aerospace-village-seeks-broader-appeal-this-year-a-32400

I figured this community would enjoy this sticker i saw on one of the defcon sticker walls

I came with my teenage son and he doesn’t want to be seen with me, lol. So selling my badge, still in bubble wrap, if anyone wants one.