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Enchroma Sunglasses
If you didn't know already: I'm colorblind. Unlike other disabilities, being colorblind is mostly just randomly frustrating, but it does have real consequences (RIP all those Game Boy Advanced game saves). Fortunately, there are people working on cool stuff like the Enchroma Sunglasses to help people like me out! They're a bit pricey for sunglasses, but that's apparently what family is for: I got a pair for Christmas!
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The Pwn Adventure Z Soundtrack
As I mentioned earlier, I worked with the Vector 35 guys this year on an incredibly awesome video game titled Pwn Adventure Z. This being my first time truly scoring a video game, it was quite the experience. Also, since PWNZ is an NES game, this meant me and my music production hobby had to time-travel 30 years in the past, too!
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Mists of Pandaria Raid Content Cleared
We made it! Against the odds, Blackfathom Deep Dish has finally finished all but present-day raid content. Back when Mists of Pandaria was released, I started and quit playing (again) within the first two month or so. Having now been back through it all, I kinda wish I had stuck it out. This was easily the best expansion after Wrath of the Lich King.
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Pwn Adventure Z
I'm pleased to announce the release of Vector 35's newest game - Pwn Adventure Z: Bearly Alive! I teased its release a few weeks ago. Now that CSAW 2015 Finals are over, Jordan, Rusty, and Peter have made the decision to not only release the game, but open-source the entire thing!
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Coming Soon: Pwn Adventure Z
For the CSAW 2015 CTF Finals this year, myself and the guys over at Vector 35 have been collaborating on an awesome set of challenges for all the students: A custom, hackable NES game! Before you ask: Yes, we have real cartridges. And yes, they work on a real NES (we're testing builds with my [second] childhood NES, actually).
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HITCON 2015 Qualifiers: Risky
The qualifiers for HITCON's 2015 CTF were held this weekend and featured 36 hours of all the web, crypto, RE, pwnable, and weird BASH/Ruby trivia challenges you could hope for. As an added bonus, the finals were announced as a qualifying event for the DEFCON 24 CTF finals next year! Unfortunately, the announcement came way too late for me. I'd already scheduled something else for this weekend. As a result, I missed the vast majority of what appeared to be a fairly challenging competition.
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My Herbal Adventure
I've always enjoyed the idea of being a "Renaissance Man". In today's hyper-specialized world, it seems the best way to stand out is to be good at a number of things. It's also a great way to be able to relate to people of different professions, cultures, and walks of life. So, every year, I try to pick something I haven't done before and spend the year learning about it. I may never go back to the subject after that year and I may never truly become knowledgeable about or good at it. But, I feel it's important for my own ongoing education. This year, I decided to take up a gardening. Specifically, I wanted to see what it'd be like to grow a bunch of herbs.
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Input Analysis: ZeRo vs. MVD
I'm a scrub-tier Smash player. I learned a ton of bad habits growing up because I was the absolute best Smash player in my local area and never needed to improve. I simply wasn't aware of the greater Smash scene in 2000-2007. With Smash 4 being released last year, I've finally found my way back into the scene. It's huge! And I suck.
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Cataclysm Raid Content Cleared
Fresh from our successes with Herald of the Titans and Wrath of the Lich King content, Blackfathom Deep Dish continued onward toward Cataclysm raid content. Widely heralded as the worst expansion World of WarCraft has had to date (aside from maybe the current one, Warlords of Draenor), we spent as little time here as we could.
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CTF is Dead, Long Live CTF
At DEFCON 23 this weekend, it was announced that next year's DEFCON CTF will feature the winning cyber reasoning system (CRS) from the Cyber Grand Challenge finals playing alongside the human teams. This will be a watershed moment, but I'm not convinced it's a positive one for the CTF scene (and, specifically, the DEFCON CTF).