Hmm, Trump just departed LAX en route Las Vegas. I wonder if he's planning to crash the Voting Village.

The Voting Village at will return to #defcon34 in W219-W220 this Friday-Sunday! In addition to the voting machine lab, we have some terrific, and newsworthy, talks this year. Come hear about de-anonymizing ballots in Georgia, and the inside scoop on the (unpublished) Puerto Rican election […]

Smithsonian "Castle", National Mall, Washington, DC, 2021 All the pixels, many of which make the administration nervous, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51221570481 #photography

My hotel room has a very nice table that's perfect for setting up with my laptop. Except it appears to have been placed at the geometrically farthest point from any power outlet. I thwarted them by traveling with an extension cord.

If hackers are so smart, what are we doing in Las Vegas in August?

To be fair, Trump's tax returns *were* leaked, and it's only fair he get the same compensation any American would under the circumstances: a year of free credit monitoring. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/business/trump-irs-todd-blanche.html?unlocked_article_code=1.21A.i6E1.ATX5VHWk_MEP

Ground stop at DEN. Just heard them deliver the news to a plane about to start its takeoff roll at LAS “just taxi down the runway and call in when you reach the end as if you just landed” […]

The Voting Village at will return to #defcon34 in W219-W220 this Friday-Sunday! In addition to the voting machine lab, we have some terrific, and newsworthy, talks this year. Come hear about de-anonymizing ballots in Georgia, and the inside scoop on the (unpublished) Puerto Rican election […]

Captured with a DSLR and a 105mm lens during a brief break in a blizzard. This snow-encrusted eagle watches over Market Street at the Schuylkill River during a February, 2010 blizzard. The large granite eagle is a New York City transplant, part of a set sculpted in 1910 by Adolph Weinman to […]

Eagle, Philadelphia, PA, 2010 All the pixels, but no actual snow, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4347068091/ #photography

Eagle, Philadelphia, PA, 2010 All the pixels, but no actual snow, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4347068091/ #photography

This was a three second exposure (with about 10 stops of neutral density). The sun was behind the clouds and just above the center of the frame; the lens required careful flagging to avoid glare. The rendering of water, especially in the sea, differs greatly with exposure. 30 seconds looks […]

Edge of Pacific Ocean, 2014 Additional pixels, each made of sand, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/14820439752 #photography

We cannot rule out the possibility that in addition to attacking his own state's water supply, Gov. Walz vandalized the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/us/politics/trump-minnesota-iran-cyberattack-walz.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2FA.Sekv.MJrZSFpOacpb

Edge of Pacific Ocean, 2014 Additional pixels, each made of sand, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/14820439752 #photography

One of the things I'm looking forward to heading to Las Vegas next week is seeing less gaudy, flashy, gold-leaf encrusted crap than in DC.

Captured with the Rodenstock 40mm/4.0 HR-Digaron-W lens (@ f/6.3), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50), Cambo 1250 Camera. This humble, somewhat dilapidated shelter, a few miles south of SFO airport, once housed a medium wave aviation beacon (NDB). It currently hosts a variety of aviation […]

FAA "BRIJJ" Station, Foster City, CA, 2024 All the pixels, cleared for landing, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54128020212 #photography

Had my physical today, for the first time involving a cardiac stress test. Was worried it would wear me out, but reaching a gate at Dulles airport is definitely much harder.

FAA "BRIJJ" Station, Foster City, CA, 2024 All the pixels, cleared for landing, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54128020212 #photography

The Voting Village talks (with abstracts and speaker bios) are up on HackerTracker and the DEF CON site: https://info.defcon.org/defcon34/schedule/?tag_group=49845 Hope to see you there!

There should be some kind of medal for fully completing the Black Hat, BSidesLV, DEFCON, Usenix Security, HOPE, Crypto conference marathon. (I will not be receiving this medal)

My enthusiasm for assembling my camera kit in anticipation of stealing some time to photograph the Las Vegas urban landscape is not being helped by the temperature forecast.

With a few exceptions (mostly towers atop downtown switching offices in populated areas), no one was trying to make any of this utilitarian communications infrastructure beautiful. It was form strictly following function, built to be reliable and rugged. But there was, I think, quite a bit of […]

The San Jose Oak Hill Tower is unique in a number of ways. This particular concrete brutalist design appears not to have been exactly replicated elsewhere; it was site-specific. It sits atop an underground switching center (that was partly used for a military contract), which explains the […]

For much of the 20th century, the backbone of the AT&T "Long Lines" long distance telephone network consisted primarily of terrestrial microwave links (rather than copper or fiber cables). Towers with distinctive KS-15676 "horn" antennas could be seen on hilltops and atop switching center […]

Captured with the Rodenstock 50mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/4.5) on a Cambo WRS-1600 camera (with about 15mm of vertical shift to preserve the geometry), the Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50) in dual exposure mode (which preserves a couple stops of additional dynamic range into the shadows) […]

AT&T Long Lines "Oak Hill" Tower, San Jose, CA. 2021 All the pixels, but none of the long-distance charges, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51261791084/ #photography

RE: https://mastodon.social/@andreamm/117010585163840329 Welcome to the future, where the TV volume is controlled by "the corporate office".

AT&T Long Lines "Oak Hill" Tower, San Jose, CA. 2021 All the pixels, but none of the long-distance charges, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51261791084/ #photography