kkop

The biggest change probably isn't that you are renting things, even from companies (which tends to be a bad thing to do long term). But that the people, or companies, you rent from doesn't even own their stuff. Banks i.e. capital increasingly owns everything. They are the record companies of reality. Takes little of the risk, does little of the work, but profits handsomely and makes everything more expensive.

That is certainly part of it, but it is also about capability. They don't know how to make it work, maybe especially not in their own heads. The same is true for developers. Seniority is largely measured in how good you are at delivering what is fundamentally correct without compromising. While lesser programmers will convince themselves that it is unnecessary or that their own solution is good enough.

I have been once a few years ago. Some of it is certainly enjoyable, like meeting people you know from the Internet or wouldn't have meet otherwise. And overall the organizers are doing a good job. But it feels like a lot people go year after year no matter what, in a bad way. Thousands of similar people talking about the same things year after year. Add to that the cost and logistics of it all, and don't feel much of a need of going again.

So I might be worth it for people who haven't experienced that sort of thing. But otherwise I would recommend watching online with some friends and travelling someplace else for new experiences.

I wouldn't necessarily hold it against anyone working in porn so much as working in the porn industry. The porn industry is violently against even basic things like condom use (and the list continues). Such resistance tends to mean justifying things with excuses. Since compromising would be to admit to responsibility. So why should I trust that someone working in such an environment isn't going to treat private data, important infrastructure or financial software the same? Random programmers from overall mediocre environments are quite easy to find whether it is porn or something else.

Edit: It is always funny how when you claim that people are biased and don't have arguments on Hacker News, they downvote you. People really can't get out of their heads. My point still stands. Good programmers doesn't have to go into controversial industries. They don't need excuses to justify how things "actually really are". The article says that the porn industry is "leading" in technology. That is bullshit. They might be leading in commercialization of certain technologies for a brief second, but that is all. How many programming languages did they invent? Zero.

Don't go into mediocre industry where people accept problems as a feature. All the people around will be there because they don't care about certain things and so won't you. You might not like it, that is up to you, but don't come complaining when you can't find a job after 40 because you haven't developed the skills companies are looking for at that age. Like identifying, solving and taking responsibility for larger problems.

Much of the "we stand up to authority" hubbub of US security researchers and developers is mostly an act. The sentiment is there to comfort the participants and validate their existence, just like in many other industries. While I hope I am wrong I wouldn't expect people not to fold when it matters. Somewhat understandably so since the current alternative is arguably, or at least ultimately, exile.

Just look at this situation. Unless hotel security have been breaking the law, which is unlikely, staying at these hotels means they can legally search your room and possibly your things. The only thing standing in the way of this is the reaction from the organizers and attendees. So if you care about your rights you don't really have much of a choice than to react and moving, at least out of Las Vegas, shouldn't be a hard decision.

And this would be illegal in at least part of Europe since a hotel room is categorized as a temporary residence.