I’m back from Atlanta and Hacker Halted 2014. I’m also stunned at my reception, and happy to have discovered a new “community” of like-minded folks.
I didn’t know much about EC-Council, C|EH, or Hacker Halted. But I’ve found the EC-Council staff to be consummate professionals, from the instructors to the event staff to the volunteers. The grads I talked to were bright, and enthusiastic geeks, a lot like me. The senior staff was sharp, humble and had a true giving, philanthropic nature. I was impressed with the EC-Council Foundation, and the work they are doing to make the world a better place. All in all, I was warmly accepted by a group I didn’t know much about and I’m glad to have made the trip.
We raised funds through the conference, and this is great, but I’m thrilled to say that the conference was only the beginning. I’ll announce the further benefits of my visit in the days and weeks to come, and I’m so thankful for the many well-wishers and volunteers that I met.
In short, it was a terrific trip, and although my time on US soil is limited, I’m quite sure we’ll do everything we can to fit Hacker Halted into our annual schedule right alongside the “big three”.
Thank you, EC-Council, the EC-Council Foundation, and Hacker Halted for the incredible show of support.
Of course, life got nuts as it always does when I travel. Where to begin..
We got unbelievably sad news about Jen’s mom. The kind of news I feel horrible about not being here for.
We had lost another dog (Kodi, our old friend who accidentally snagged me two weeks ago). I had to write two employee reprimands for “behavior unbecoming”. The Keep flooded and closed this morning because of torrential downpours and leaks the landlord has refused to repair these past four years. I’ve got the con flu.
I brought a laptop back for a long-time employee (who was going to work to pay it off) and this brand-new $250 Dell “Amazon Special” lasted LESS THAN 24 HOURS before it was destroyed. It came loaded with Windows 8.1, and his “tech friend” tried to load (a likely-pirated) Windows 7 on it, failed and obliterated the OS. I’ve fought for weeks to score licenses for the CTC, and just barely succeeded. I can’t say I’m thrilled at the idea of hunting down a low-cost new installation of Windows for a machine that had it legitimately loaded from the factory.
Last but not least, I had a hard drive crash (an SSD no less) and lost my copy of the “Village” Chromebook build I had worked so hard to pull together. I spent a good chunk of the day trying to recreate that. Still no joy. So get this, I have to email Zack, my friend the potato farmer in Kenya to EMAIL ME some missing files and he did. All things said, this makes me happy. This means that Zack’s village build is holding up better in the field in Kenya than mine is in my “safe and sound” Jinja home.
But the good news is, I’m back safely, my WONDERFUL family is safe and sound, and I had a nice hot shower, despite that fact that it was raining. Yes, the power always goes off when it rains because of so many exposed wires. But today was a gracious exception.
I feel like I’ve been traveling FOREVER. It’s good to be.. home.
