The Queercon 11 Badge

The badge from Queercon 11 at Defcon

DEFCON is known for its unique badge designs, which have featured displays, radios, and tons of LEDs in the past. This year, there was another digital badge at DEFCON. The Queercon 11 badge featured an MSP430, a LED display, an IR interface, and an ISM band radio.

Queercon started off as a DEFCON party for LGBT hackers. Over the past eleven years they’ve run events at DEFCON including parties, mixers, and networking events. Over time the group has grown, become a non-profit, and provided a social network for LGBT people in tech. We must admit that they throw quite a good pool party.

This badge gave you points for meeting other people. When held near another QC11 badge, the IR link sends the identifier for each person. Both badges light up and display the other person’s name, and store the event. This process became known by a variety of colloquialisms, and “badginal intercourse” was a common occurrence at events.

The reader for Queercon 11 badges
The QC11 Badge Reader

The RF radio, implemented using a HopeRF RF69 module, shows how many people with QC11 badges are near you. A base station at events sends out data to give badges points for attendance. As points are accumulated, the rainbow LEDs on either side of the display light up.

At Queercon parties, a reader connected to a dumb terminal read data off the badges. It then shows who the badge has paired with, and what events its been to.

The hardware design and source code have all been released on the Queercon website. The full functionality is discussed in the README.

49 thoughts on “The Queercon 11 Badge

  1. I don’t see what being LGBT has got to do with hacking and making, why combine the 2?
    Imagine if someone had started a “straight” DEFCON party. All hell would break loose.
    It’s like when they had black makers month over on MAKE. That was the last time I went there. What you are has no bearing on making and hacking.

    1. > I don’t see what being LGBT has got to do with hacking and making

      Nothing, but if you’re going to have a LGBTQ/whatever thing at Defcon, you might as well have a badge

      > black makers month over on MAKE

      That is the most ill-conceived thing I’ve ever heard of. It was february, right? It has to be february /insert relevant chris rock quote here

    2. See, the thing about LGBT events is not to be exclusive to straight people, or to somehow say we’re special or whatever. The idea is that you’re in a large group of people who are interested in the same things you are (like hacking), and you know that everyone either is gay, or don’t give a damn if you are.

      It can actually be really stressful trying to decide if you should tell someone you’re gay. They could not care at all, or they could start screaming and try to kill you. We have LGBT events because it’s a good experience to be around lots of other people who are like you, and have gone through all the same bullshit you have.

      We have LGBT events like Queercon because gay people are still people; we do like to have the sense of security and camaraderie that other people get at places like DEFCON.

      1. You imply that you can’t have camaraderie like everyone else at Deacon because you’re gay. Have you ever considered that if you didn’t make a point of telling people you’re gay you would be treated the same? After all, you don’t see straight people running around telling everyone they’re straight. Making a separate event for something that is totally unrelated just makes you less part of the community than ever before.

        1. “Have you ever considered that if you didn’t make a point of telling people you’re gay you would be treated the same?”

          Yeah the military tried “don’t ask don’t tell” and it was an ABJECT FAILURE

        2. “you don’t see straight people running around telling everyone they’re straight”
          Yes you do, straight people come out *all* the time without even noticing, it’s part of every day conversation. These same conversations can be stressful for queer people because there are homophobic people out there. LGBT+ events are both a chance for us to feel as safe as you and to promote equality, so that one day they won’t be needed. So no, staying closeted is NOT a solution, it is *the* problem.

        3. @Mik
          Think real hard about your day. How often do you indirectly or directly acknowledge the existence of a significant other in your life?

          “Where’d you get that?”
          “Oh, it was a birthday present from my girlfriend”

          There are countless ways to accidentally out yourself, and straight people never notice when they do it because they have nothing to hide. If you’re gay, or god forbid trans, you’re potentially one slip away from a VERY bad day every time you talk to someone you don’t know well. I’m not even talking about just violence here; being yelled at by a venomous asshat can ruin your day. You have to be on your guard literally all the time when you’re out in public, and even if nothing serious ever happens to you that’s a hell of a shadow to live under. Don’t you think people would like to, every once in a while, enjoy their hobby in an environment where they can just relax? Sure, this shit shouldn’t make any difference, but we do not yet live in a world where it ACTUALLY doesn’t make a difference.

          But lets step back and get a little meta with this. What does this conversation show us? Like, the fact that it’s happening. You accuse others of causing their own problems, you question shit that doesn’t affect you (why do you care if they exclude themselves?), and you basically demand justification for things you, as a straight person, never need to think about. *This is exactly the shit the conference is intended to avoid.*

        4. No, it’s actually very hard for queer people to feel welcome and safe in crowds of unknown people *specifically because people like you are there*

          This is the point of LGBT events and meetups. There is a guarantee that there aren’t going to be any judgmental pricks, and no one gives a single shit about your gender or sexuality.

          It’s an immense relief to me that I work in a place where I can just casually say “oh my boyfriend did so and so”. In all other contexts, I usually have to refer to him as my roommate, which is actually very distressing to me.

          Having a stranger at a con or something ask you a question that you have to dodge and lie about is not a pleasant experience!

          You try to go a week without using the word ‘girlfriend’ (or boyfriend). You can call them by name, sure, but then you have to explain who that person is. Describing your partner without revealing your sexuality is not exactly easy, and is a very unpleasant thing to have to do.

          1. Surely it only guarantees that judgemental pricks will be in a minority, not that there won’t be any? if anything this must increase your chances of meeting judgemental pricks, including the most venomous kind who would seek to stand at the doors or a convention like this specifically to target LGBT people.

            Anyway, what I always find a bit weird about the must stay closet must hide argument is…
            If you tried hiding yourself less you’d probably find more that people don’t really care who or how or where you’re getting your kicks from.
            It’s actually the people who would attack and shout at people for their ways of life who are in the minority and looked down upon by most “civilised” people.

        5. One other thing: Most gay people don’t want to “make it a point” that they’re gay. All we want is to be able to casually talk about our partners without lying, and to hold hands or kiss our partners in public without *fear of death*.

          Y’know, sort of how straight people “make it a point” that they’re straight.

          And you may think I’m hyperbolizing about fearing for our lives, and you would be very, very wrong.

          1. I’m sure you were emotionally charged when you wrote all this, but you pontificate as if hiding the fact that you’re gay is somehow unique only to the LGBT community. It’s not. Straight people hide shit from each other all the time too, like where they work, their religion, their ethnicity (try being a puerto rican or a Jew in the wrong place), women hide their inability to have children, men hide having less than 2 testicles or short dicks. So seriously buddy, everybody’s got their own problems.

          2. @NotArduino those comments are neither emotionally charged nor pontificated, but are trying to explain the issue with perpective. Being gay isn’t someone’s problem, it is how they were born, hearing the word gay is a problem for some apparently. You make @rexxar’s point by saying that everyone has things they want/need to hide, just because you shouldn’t discuss politics or religion at a dinner party doesn’t also mean you have to act straight if you are gay. How is this any different than nerds hanging out at lunch in high school to discuss/play D&D, or gay nerds doing so?

            BTW, I’m done with my testicles, keep sitting on them in narrow movie theater and airline seats, and after producing enough kids I don’t think I’d trust a vasectomy, so I’d be proud of being ball-less for comfort and population control if it is medically possible.

          3. (Replying to NotArduino)
            While it’s certainly true that people hide stuff from each other all the time, and if you want to have a group for people who work at your company (oh wait, loads of people already do that?), or religion (you say there are groups for that too?), then thats totally fine. I just dont get why acknowledging that LGBT people have problems doesnt mean that other people have problems too. Some of your examples are a bit trivialising though. Having one testicle, vs 4x higher suicide attempt rate and 5x more likely to self harm. If you have a small penis or an inability to bear children, does that make someone more likely to attack you?
            Everybody does have problems, and we should be trying to solve them together, like these people are, instead of suffering in silence and trying to ignore it, like you seem to want to.

          4. It seems as though most of those groups are able to congregate in a group-specific settings without setting of ire. It’s even (usually) an inclusive group-specific setting. Try being goyim and going to temple … it …. won’t be a problem. Just like I’d feel pretty safe going to queercon even though I’m straight.

          5. Ah, the good old “starving kids in africa” fallacy.

            Just because someone else has more or worse problems doesn’t magically make mine go away. The fact that men have this irrational fixation with penis size doesn’t make gay kids less dead by suicide.

            Did I say that straight people and other groups don’t have problems? Nope. I was trying to illustrate the problems that LGBT people have that are dismissed and ignored in *exactly* the way you’re doing.

            No, my previous statement wasn’t emotionally charged, but I am well and truly pissed off now. You want pontification? Sure thing.

            You’re trying to equate the fact that some men feel insecure about the size of their penis with the fact that kids– KIDS kill themselves or are MURDERED because someone thought they might be gay. They probably weren’t even gay in many of those cases, but we’ll never know.

            Excuse me if I’m a bit dismissive about penis shame, I’m a bit busy fearing for my life when I go out at night. Worrying about people being self-conscious of their genitals is a bit low on my priority list, I’d rather talk to LGBT youths about bullying and suicide.

            Maybe I’m being a bit unclear. Here’s the tl;dr

            People are brutally murdered every day because someone perceives they’re gay.

            Locker room teasing seems a bit less important in the face of hate crime, no?

            It’s true that lots of people have things to hide for various reasons. Like you said, religion or infertility are common ones, but someone finding out those secrets don’t usually get you raped, beaten, or murdered.

            Have I made it clear enough yet that LGBT people get killed frequently?

            I’ll say this, and maybe it will lodge somewhere in the back of your brain:

            Next time you hug, or kiss, or even just hold your partner’s hand in public, just know that there are thousands of people who can’t do that because they’re afraid someone will beat them to death then and there.

          6. get killed there and then?

            Not in America, at least highly unlikely in America in Vegas, where there is a lot more “weird things” than just being gay.., Highly unlikely at defcon, which leaves us with you at least hugely exaggerating, if not outright lying about the reason for a specific and segregated event!

            You’re not likely to get killed, and in such a liberal place, especially a place you’re likely to travel to, meet new people and possibly never see them again. this “I need to hid my identity in my everyday life” excuse doesn’t work either. -because you’re unlikely to be killed, you’re unlikely to be judged in that environment, and even if you were. you get to go home and go back to hiding.

            (you’d happily go as a gay couple to San Francisco or Holland or other extraordinarily liberal communities and hold hands? talk to the locals?, discuss how your significant other bought you your “whatever”? why would this holiday to Vegas for defcon be any different?
            (I completely understand how a gay holiday to Saudi is a bad idea!)

            In fact EVERYONE who attends queercon at defcon are pretty much automatically “coming out” either as Gay/Les/Bi/trans or in support of said community, so if you really feel that coming out as gay or supporting that community marks a target on your back, then you wouldn’t walk through the door, – let alone get a specific badge to mark your attendance!
            And if you say “well it’s different in Vegas” then you prove the point that defcon IS an inclusive environment, and people SHOULD be happy to “come out” and feel safe at the same time, without a specifically targeted event.

            I guess that the point is, to answer the original thing that started this off, is the commenter was right there is no “need” for queercon…

            The only excuse that can be thought up for this is to make a particular community feel safe, but in order to travel/signup and attend a specifically LGBT orientated event you MUST feel safe in the environment, where the environment is the wider convention!

            in simple terms events such as queercon can ONLY be held in liberal and inclusive places regardless of the running of queercon, defcon IS a place where a man could say that his boyfriend got him his watch. if defcon wasn’t a place like that queercon simply couldn’t happen!

            The idea of tolerance is a broad one. how much would you tolerate a bible thumper who tells you that your way of life is wrong? -what most people (from what you said here I include you) mean by tolerance is that they want to live in their particular chosen way, and want everyone else to bend their life and beliefs in order to suit your needs.
            The idea of Christian badges was floated as something that would be supported (or at least receive no negative comments) earlier. I’m sure that if said Christian badges swapped the more extreme/non inclusive messages of the old testament they wouldn’t get coverage here, AND not only that but this same community would come out to pour scorn on such a backwards message contained in a project.

            At least black maker month, and women makers month had a point.
            (that point was that whilst in the UK at least black people make up 12% of the population, they make up 0% of British makers/hackers covered on sites such as this… there is a similar dismal showing for female makers also (who make up 50% of the world population… -the problem is where make really fucked up is that they had a month of featuring really mediocre projects seemingly “just” because the creators were either black or female, which left this feeling that those featured that month needed some kind of “special measures” programme to get featured, rather than getting featured on their own merit…)

            or in other words, when you feature something other than “the project”, then you’ll invite criticism. people such as Dino (Hack a week) Colin Furze and David Jones (eeblog) etc get featured, is because they know their stuff and make great projects.
            not because their are white, male, living in first world countries, who may or may not be straight, (I’m not casting aspersions here, I don’t know or care about their sexuality)…

            That is why anything featured in this way is destined to invite criticisms.
            AND why anyone who says that straight white men get it easy in life are going to get criticised for ignoring any and all problems that everyone else but them have in life.

            for you to ignore that anyone else has problems, and especially to call out other people’s insecurities, and even reasons why young people may commit suicide etc as not important, or nothing compared to your own problems is insensitive at best, if not rude, and in the worst case actually increasing the feeling of isolation that those people feel. (as I said earlier, you don’t want tolerance or harmony in society, YOU want YOUR needs and special requirements to be addressed. fuck everyone else.)

            It is quite literally like saying as a man you couldn’t care about the rape of women because it doesn’t affect you.

            tl;dr -you sir are a cunt.

          7. Ok, to start, your last paragraph is complete bollocks. It’s just a more extreme version of what you were saying before, which was already countered. Maybe you didn’t understand it, so let me say it in a clearer way: *caring about one thing doesn’t mean you dont care about others*. Also: *some issues can be more important than other issues*. I’m sure a lot of men are insecure about their penis size. Societally, that is an important issue. Do they get discriminated against for it? Unlikely, unless theyve been displaying it. Do they need to actively hide their penis when going about their normal life? Does not expressing their penis size make them feel like they can’t be who they are? Ummm… unlikely. However, if you are LGBT, then these issues are what you face.

            Are you seriously going to go down the suicide route? You are literally saying: “yes, LGBT people are 4x more likely to commit suicide, but what about those non lgbt people who do? Does nobody care about them??” Its like all those guys who say “yes, women are 10 times more likely to be raped than men… but what about those poor men??” but then in your second last but you directly say the opposite! You’re whole post seems to be weirdly hypocritical.

            It is also completely true that other groups face discrimination. No-one is saying they dont. However, that doesnt mean that LGBT people cant also care about their own discrimination. People are allowed to care about issues which affect them. Just like you would probably care more if your electricity bill suddenly doubled than if three people died in ukraine, even though the latter is clearly worse.

            This is how debates get screwed up. Here, we are clearly talking about one issue. LGBT people and defcon. But then you say “hey, what about women being raped?” Clearly, that is an important issue. Discrimination against minorities is also important. Russia’s proxy war against ukraine is important. Third world poverty is important. We could easily talk about those. But we arent. The question is simply, is having a queercon at defcon good?

            I would say yes, because of all the reasons mentioned above. The only question is, why do you think this is bad? Does it actually affect you? Do you really think that someone being LGBT is the same as a bible thumper telling you that your way of life is wrong? Most LGBT people, certainly the ones I know, dont go around telling straight people that they should be LGBT. Why does having a queercon mean that ” YOU want YOUR needs and special requirements to be addressed. fuck everyone else”? Cant we address everyones needs?

          8. Let me ‘try’ to make this very clear. (I know I can often get lost whilst making a point)
            REXXARR> “Excuse me if I’m a bit dismissive about penis shame, I’m a bit busy fearing for my life when I go out at night. Worrying about people being self-conscious of their genitals is a bit low on my priority list, I’d rather talk to LGBT youths about bullying and suicide.”

            that is what I was responding to.

            Acknowledgement, yes, other people have problems but fuck it, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t want to talk about it. and will be dismissive of it.

            REXXAR>”It’s true that lots of people have things to hide for various reasons. Like you said, religion or infertility are common ones, but someone finding out those secrets don’t usually get you raped, beaten, or murdered.”

            In the kind of countries where you get raped and killed for being gay, the need to hide your religion if it is anything but militantly what the kind of people actively “queer bashing” are following: is also the kind of thing that can get you killed.
            So you could be equally likely to be killed for being gay as being Christian in some places.
            Some places in the world would assume that a person who was infertile was cursed and would bring bad luck and bad harvests. -weirdly enough this can be the case in rural places in Thailand, where going to the city to live as a trans-gender “ladyboy” will not bat an eyelid, yet being infertile may get you driven from where you live!
            (note: Thailand is not some kind of transgender mecca, there are still plenty of problems and discrimination in the law there)

            but back to what I said before, that (religion or infertility and discrimination therein) is not Rexxars particular field of interest, it’s not something that he’s come across. so he will be dismissive of it, and will belittle it. and will actively not care. but then say that everyone should care deeply about his cause/worries.

            i’m not sure where you get that I said or made point earlier that were countered?
            you BB said
            “Everybody does have problems, and we should be trying to solve them together, like these people are, instead of suffering in silence and trying to ignore it, like you seem to want to.”

            which is exactly what I was saying (or at least trying to) “we” as a society should do. not say that one person’s problems are more deserving than anyone else’s (will come back to this point in a second) I’m not the one saying anyone should suffer in silence. or saying people should be ignored -that was the guy that I was replying to!

            you then said:
            *some issues can be more important than other issues*

            Which I completely agree with.
            you then went on a bit of a gibberish rant about how of course you can care about multiple things. (well duh)
            then you said:
            “Just like you would probably care more if your electricity bill suddenly doubled than if three people died in Ukraine, even though the latter is clearly worse. ”

            which is actually the complete point of my argument!
            Yes, Of COURSE in “my life” a large bill, would affect my life a lot more than a whole load of people whom I don’t know dying in the Ukraine.
            that’s exactly why plenty of people all over the world are sitting complaining about their own problems whilst people DO die all over the world (though with greater than normal frequency in the Ukraine right now.)

            My point is that of course “people dying” is more serious than “less beer money”, but I’m not going online and writing that my problems are significantly worse than another persons. I’m not saying bollocks to your problems mate, who cares what russia is doing, we should let them, then my gas bill may fall! because I can see a bigger picture, I can divide my problems from other peoples and see them at the level in the big picture that they are!
            You’ll see from my quotes in this post that Rexxar WAS saying exactly that. (that his problems having to hide his sexuality were significantly worse than someone elses’ such as having to hide your religion.-even though both could get you beaten to death where you stand in various places in the world!) he did not care about other people’s problems because his were more important, there is no clue about a bigger picture in the world. only an egocentric view. his problems must be discussed, must be understood. others should be ignored.
            -which is exactly why I say that you have a gibberish rant. -I already know that many people can have many problems, and that whilst there perhaps are some problems more serious than others (money vs life) I’m not telling people that their problems are “low on my priority list” -it’s exactly that type of comment that gets people’s backs up

            Rhetorical question: how would you feel if I said that I didn’t care that in some societies gay people are being killed because they are gay (note because you’re really understanding what I’m saying – I’m not actually saying that).
            Would you be annoyed? -probably. but likely otherwise fine? -you seem comfortable in “who you are”

            How would a person actually near the edge of committing suicide feel? -it may drive them over the edge. how about someone considering coming out? They may see that there are still people who tolerate ignorance in the world and decide it is better to stay in the closet and live a life of misery!

            This is exactly the problem with comments like made earlier (that my original post responded to). if you say that you just don’t care about a person’s discrimination I believe that you actively encourage ALL discrimination, or at the very least a specific type. you possibly affect on persons life in a negative way -what right would you have to do that?

            “Or to put it another way first they came for the Jews…”

            BB >”This is how debates get screwed up. Here, we are clearly talking about one issue. LGBT people and defcon. But then you say “hey, what about women being raped?””
            Actually, I only responded to points above, what previous people had said, and made a point that saying that you have your own problems and don’t care about anyone else’s is a slippery slope of being narrow minded… it’s not focussed it’s inattentive and pretty rude. -whilst the reference was lost on you, it’s exactly what the leader of an awareness cause about male rape victims said, having an attitude that you are most important, your problems are most severe and require immediate attention without reference to anything else, belittling other causes, and saying that they cannot/should not be discussed only serves to portray the person as an idiot (or worse) and actually does their cause a disservice!

            or simply, – I understand that saying “what about black people”, “what about wome”n,” what about Christians living in Saudi”is getting away from the point of “what about LGBT”, but it’s not right to say “we’re not talking about that and don’t care about that” -remember that the topic at the top of this page is about a badge!

            Or are you saying is that the thread can derail, but only far enough to discuss your specific buzz words!
            -discussing LGBT discrimination is already derailed from talking about the badge. talking about discrimination “in general” is no more of a derailment. -especially since the comment that started all this off ALSO mentioned black maker month at Make… (so how about you stop getting off the point, or trying to make the whole and only point about your specific problems?

            i.e follow up the chain, the first comment mentioned many forms of discrimination. you;re trying to say that the conversation should ONLY be inclusive of the particular kind that you care about (homophobia). -kind of ironic no?

            to go back to what I did actually say earlier.
            “It’s actually the people who would attack and shout at people for their ways of life who are in the minority and looked down upon by most “civilised” people.”

            That is to say, I fully support gay people, lesbian people, trans-gender, transvestite, bi sexual, pan sexual (even though they just seem greedy). living their life exactly as they like, I would be no more disturbed by seeing two men or two women kissing or holding hands as I would two straight people.
            I am work alongside, and am friends with gay men, and bisexual women.
            I would hate to see them be discriminated against, just as I personally would hate to see anyone discriminated against based on the gender of the person that “did it for them” and I would look upon a person who would discriminate against a person with as much disdain as I would anyone who would discriminate against race, religion or gender.

            Weirdly. If you really do feel that you are discriminated against or scared to come out then you should really take people saying “I don’t get it why hide it” not as a sign that they don’t care about discrimination, but as a sign that being gay is just not an issue for a lot of people, seeing gay people would be no more troubling than seeing a black person in a restaurant, no more troubling than seeing a woman vote. – i.e in “western society” at least your particular war is being won. -notably it is not just gay people outraged about and actively criticising laws in Russia regarding homosexuality.

            does that perhaps make more sense?

            We are finally starting to living in a society where being gay just doesn’t matter, not because people have or should learn to hide it, but because the majority of people simply don’t discriminate any more. -whilst this is not true everywhere in the world it is a theme that is spreading.

          9. dan> “We are finally starting to living in a society where being gay just doesn’t matter, not because people have or should learn to hide it, but because the majority of people simply don’t discriminate any more. -whilst this is not true everywhere in the world it is a theme that is spreading.”

            I’m from the UK, and I’ve actually never had problems being out, I’ve been amazingly lucky, I have always been open and honest about it, but equally it’s just been one facet of who I am and most people would never know it to look at me. I came to Vegas for Defcon, and everyone there was just fine with it, no big deal. During a conversation I was having there though, it became clear to me that, in America at least, I’d been expecting my own experiences and views on tolerance to be universal and that “the majority of people simply don’t discriminate any more”. Sadly, I met people from Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio, and a bunch of other states that all had different levels of tolerance. For some, coming to Vegas, for Defcon, is one of their only chances to be who they are without fear of retribution.

            So please don’t make the mistake I did, and assume that because some parts of America are absolutely awesome about being gay, that there aren’t still places where people have to fear being themselves.

            Having Queercon is a great way of giving them a safe place they can be themselves, introducing them to other people who can show them that there are places where it just doesn’t matter and people who’ve been lucky enough never to face discrimination. Best of all it is a party where being gay is NOT the only commonality, everybody’s there because they’re interested in security too! At least half of the conversations I was involved in were about satellite hacking, or SQL injection, or about the absolutely awesome badges, and how they were situation aware (and time-based this year!) through their 900Mhz transmitters, but used the infrared comms for interacting directly with the other badges, how the bugs from last year’s badge had been solved, and thinking of all the cool components and ideas you could use for next year’s badge!

            So in answer to the larger question, badges are awesome, every subgroup should have their own badge, no matter what the subgroup stands for! Oh, and we could define a Defcon interface and have them all talking to each other!… and maybe we should create secure comms between them!… and allow for different transport layers!… and… and… and…

  2. Shit.

    Totally unsurprised at the fedora-tipping privilege show over here in the HaD comments, but as always, incredibly disappointed.

    Goddamn but our whole community is one of tremendous assholes.

    Which is why this continues to be a keynote talk at every serious Oen Source event, from YAPC to OSHWS. Because a vocal group of white male assholes whines whenever anybody talks about NOT THEM.

    Fuck.

    I hate you all.

    1. This discussion gives me some real insight to LGBT folks trying to function in various venues, and even more sympathy for women in tech… they (most of them) can’t hide their gender even if they wanted to. Seriously folks, we’ve got a lot of growing up to do, and it starts with carefully examining our own responses to posts like this one. This is a learning experience… we should learn from it.

    2. Here we go with the tumblr “straight white male” privelege bs again. HAD should start adding “trigger warning” hash-tags to their posts, so as not to offend sensitive snowflakes

      Soon it won’t be enough to be gay, you’ll have to be a gay transsexual autistic midget, otherwise you’ll rate too low on the “oppression index” to vote or attend cons

      Straight white males are the devil, you all know what you have done, and you should all be ashamed of yourselves!

      1. Let’s be clear:
        I’m a straight white male. I’m about as privileged as it gets.

        But it’s important to me to recognize that the myth of a meritocracy in tech is exactly that: a myth. If you want to continue to live inside of your particular fantasy that somehow straight white males are “more equal” than everybody else, and that’s why they get the best jobs, the best pay, and the loudest voices, you’re welcome to do so. But just as we afford all people the freedom to believe whatever religion they want, we ask that they get their religion out of the way when we try to make policy decisions that affect all people regardless of race, creed, or other minority identifier.

        Believing in the myth of a meritocracy in tech is a religion.

        It certainly isn’t evidence-based.

        So either get your religion out of the way, and let those of us who believe strongly in inclusiveness get on with it, or prepare to be shamed, again and again and again, until you choke on your own fucking fedora.

        1. Oh what-the-fuck-ever man. I’m not white. Nobody gives a shit if you’re gay or lesbian, all they care about is the gear that’s created, I couldn’t care less if the gear was showed off at a bronycon by hermaphrodite.

          You want equality? Identify yourself as a hacker or maker WITHOUT prefixing it with “Gay” hacker or maker. Nobody cares about your gender preference, it’s rammed down peoples throats. You want the community to accept you as a person, then don’t act like you’re like everyone else “but more specialer”

          And fuck you, by the way, for the fedora comment. You’re just as big an asshole as those you deem to be assholes. Jesus, I’m surprised you haven’t strained your back while trying to suck your own cock already.

  3. The badge was awesome, it’s the second year running they’ve had badges that effectively reward socializing, whilst still allowing for hardware hacking for those that know how, which is exactly what a badge at a conference like Defcon should do! This year’s Defcon badges tried to do that a little (they had patterns and the goon badges could control the human badges), but nowhere near as fun or pleasing as the little stick figures waving to each other this year! Last year I didn’t know how they could top the badge, but they did. This year, I still don’t know, but I’m looking forward to finding out!

    1. QC.11 badge isn’t very hardware-hacker friendly. Source also was not released until a while after DEFCON was over. The DC badge proper was far more hackable. The QC.11 badge is a neat badge though. The biggest wish I had was for better / automatic brightness control for the event.

      If you are interested, our group is working on our second badge (this year’s badge was a big hit but only 20 made). We aim to have about twice the amount of badges out there compared to the QC.11 badge. We are self-funded, not sponsored by private or external corporations, and the badges aren’t for sale so it’s a bit rough but we hope to achieve this :)

      I really don’t like “forced” socialization – I am a geek/nerd after all – but there will be some neat stuff regarding RF comms, games and other hopefully fun shit rather than making badges kiss sort of shit. It’ll also do things to stock QC.11 and DC22 badges. And it will be hackable from day 1. =)

  4. Let’s just segregate everyone into there perfect little groups so everyone can enjoy life while they have it. Why should anyone care what other people are doing as long as they are not harming you. Let’s just start filtering had to have different websites for different groups of people. Straight.had.com lgbt.had.com bestiality.had.com I think everyone posting would be happier. Can wet get troll.had.com add well.

    P.s. cool badges. Guess I will never see one in person.

    P.p.s. when did nerds start having sex? Lbgt or s? Are they all gay?

    P.p.p.s. Guess I will get reemed for this post.

  5. If the story had been about a Christian group that decided to make a badge that showed Bible quotes on e-paper and remembered IDs of other similar badges in proximity, I’d bet some of the people here would have said, “cool idea– it allows attending Christians to meet each other and maybe they can go to a local church and hack the wireless mics or something.” But because this was a LGBT group, we see messages from people wondering why queerfolk don’t sublimate their sexual identity and just pretend that aspect of themselves doesn’t exist.

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