I attended Defcon 18 at the Riviera and can say it was interesting. I was a bit put back by all the attendees on the first day, friday, in such a small venue. By Saturday afternoon, I was completely exhausted by sitting in all the lines for the popular talks. Fast forward one year to Defcon 19 at the Rio: When I plucked down my 150 clams, I was rewarded with a laminated piece of paper that said Defcon 19 - no hackable circuit board badge as was in Defcon 18, nor the Titanium sheriff's badge as was this year's. After speaking to some goons I had met the previous year, the Defcon coordinators chose to only make 10K titanium badges for this year's conference, obviously wanting to capitalize even more (There was over 10K in attendance at Defcon 18 and the show was at the tiny Riviera, plus, growing astronomically year over year, so why only 10k?). Anyway, I really liked the Rio, but registration for the badge was still a mess. The swag line was a gajillion people long. The talks were meh. I was really hoping the conference being held this year at the Rio would make it more exciting and cool for me, but can honestly say it was a total waste of time. The admission price is tiny compared to what my time was worth when I can easily learn about anything offered at Defcon using a simple Google search, sans the Defcon attitude and introverted freaks of nature that have attended these events. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me and FU to your future events.