Without a Traceroute

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Jets to Brazil

June 21st, 2009 · Brazil, Travel

Well, I’m off to São Paulo, Brazil in a few hours. I’m going for the You Sh0t the Sheriff hackmeeting/conference. Unfortunately, due to fire code/occupancy limitations, I probably won’t get to attend many of the presentations in person unless some people don’t show up. But I will get to meet a lot of interesting people, and I’ve been invited to the after-party, which will probably be more fun anyway.

If anyone has suggestions for a crash-course in Portuguese, let me know!

For reasons that make no sense to me, buying a one-way ticket from Santiago to São Paulo on LAN airlines costs almost 650 USD, but buying a round-trip ticket with a return leg on some random date in August cost only 400 USD.

One of my friends claims that this pricing has to do with market variation and flexibility: the airline is better off getting that August ticket sold now, since they don’t know what the airfare market will look like in August. I still say there’s something really screwy going on when two tickets cost less than one ticket.

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A good idea

June 23rd, 2009 · Chile, Photo of the Day

This is a photo taken inside the Baquedano metro station in Santiago. It’s a little library kiosk, where commuters can pick up books to read on their subway ride. I saw them at several of the larger metro stations in Santiago. It seemed like a really smart idea to me, putting libraries in places where people can access them easily. There’s probably many people who would never go out of their way to visit a library, but who’d be happy to pick up something to read on their way to work. Judging from the books they had on display in the window, it wasn’t all Dan Brown’s airport bookstore fare either. They stocked quite a bit of more serious literature (both Spanish-native and translations) as well.

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Helicopter Taxis

June 24th, 2009 · Brazil, Technology

So Sao Paulo is basically like LA in Blade Runner, with fewer androids. Most of the fancy hotels and bars/clubs here have helipads on the roof. The Brazilians tell me that many well-to-do Paulistanos get around the city by helicopter taxi, in order to avoid the atrocious traffic and dangerous streets.

Obviously, this trend is indicative of the city’s tremendous failure to provide adequate transportation and safety for its citizens. On the other hand, it’s also super awesome. I’m told that a heli-taxi ride costs between $40 and $50 USD, and I fully intend to take one before I leave. I’ve never even been in a helicopter before!

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Not helpful

June 25th, 2009 · Brazil, Travel

Sao Paulo is an absolutely enormous city. Luckily, there’s a subway and surface trams you can take to avoid traffic and get around. Unfortunately, the map of the Sao Paulo metro system is a bit…optimistic. Looking closely at the legend above, you’ll see that all of line 4 and half of line 2 are “under construction”. Half of line 5, and chunks of lines E and F, as well as the airport connection are only “in planning”. This can be kind of frustrating when trying to plan a trip:
“Oh, I can just take the…oh wait, that doesn’t exist yet. Oh, then I’ll just have to transfer at…oh, that station isn’t open either. Well, looks like I’m taking the bus.”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that they’re expanding their metro network. I’m sure in 2010-2012, all those lines will be really useful. But right now, their presence on the map is just a tease.

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Cyberstalk me

June 27th, 2009 · Brazil, Chile, Hacker culture

The last week has been pretty cool. There turned out to be enough space, so I did get a chance to attend most of the presentations at the You Shot the Sheriff conference. It was at an Australia/New Zealand-themed bar, which was slightly random. But they had a really delicious catered lunch of crepes, and a pretty extensive open bar. So props for the venue choice. I’ll try to write about some of my favorite presentations later. There were a lot of interesting people in attendance, from both Americas. The crowd did tend toward white-hat/IT security professional types—”we’re the sellout hackers,” one guy told me—rather than more underground people. I discovered one way you can tell when a hacker’s going mainstream: they tuck their t-shirts in. Although, I did meet a guy who started one of the first e-zines about the hacker scene in Brazil back in the early 1990s. There was even an American representative from Microsoft’s Security Response Team at the conference. He seemed pleasantly indulgent about the fact that everyone else in attendance spent all their time breaking his software.

Tuesday, there was an afterparty at a Cuban bar, with similar open bar. Wednesday, I went out for drinks with the conference organizers, I recorded a brief interview I’ll try to type up later. Thursday, I got drinks (again) with a really cool Brazilian hacker/security researcher guy. So basically, my liver probably hates me (I took Friday night off), but I’ve been having an awesome time.

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