pancakescon 2025

published: 2025-09-21

Today I attended the sixth annual PancakesCon, a fully remote, community-focused hacker conference. This was only my second hacker con, the first of which was CactusCon 9 during the height of the pandemic when it went fully virtual. Today's event was a great reminder of why I wish I were more involved in the hacker community.

The Lockpick Village was absolutely a highlight for me, which is funny because I almost didn't go until I was reminded that the presentations were being recorded and will be available later, while the villages were not. The Lockpick Village offered a welcoming and informative overview of how various types of locks work, and it was full of people excited to learn. I pulled out my old lockpick set and a padlock; although I struggled at first, I was able to pop my No. 3 Master Lock several times. It was fun and marked the first time I’d picked a lock in a few years. Someone shared a photo in the chat of their practice board covered in various locks, which gave me ideas for a future project. I really should get more lock practice and look into connecting with the local TOOOL chapter one day.

Because of the time zone difference (resulting from being a joint effort with ComfyCon in Austrailia), I missed several talks, but I caught Amristar Wickramaratna's session, *What Hiking Taught Me About Building Privacy Programs*, which I really enjoyed. I also popped into the Hardware Hacking Village hosted by the always amazing Blenster and watched the keynote with Alyssa Miller. I’m looking forward to watching the recordings of the talks I missed.

I'm incredibly grateful to the organizers and volunteers that made this year's PancakesCon happen, and to a friend who I won't mention by name since I don't have their consent to do so, for talking me into attending.

Attending PancakesCon also reminded me that I still need to figure out a way to join ISC2 and officially receive my Certified in Cybersecurity credential. I’ve emailed them asking if there’s a way to waive the membership fee given my current circumstances, and now I’ll wait to see what they say.