I'm in Berlin, at 23C3. Day 1 is getting late. So far, it's one of the best conferences I've been to this year. Packed lectures with attentive audiences; thought-provoking talks; good hallway chats.
Today, I heard about a probabilistic trust model for PGP (which is apparently based on theories that deal with reasoning in the face of uncertainty; this looks like one of those cases where the really interesting stuff was left out of the talk); about user interface designs (and what geeks might be tempted to do and rather shouldn't; great talk and an even more packed room); about surveillance in hotel rooms (and why not to use big brandname hotels); about voting machines in Netherlands (and making them play chess; my "best talk of the day" award goes to this one). I got to catch up with some old friends whom I haven't seen in a while (and missed some sessions), and I got to talk to the folks at CAcert.org for a bit.
Right now, Caspar Bowden is giving a nice presentation about Cardspace; unfortunately, I've seen some very similar talks a number of times in the past. During the Q&A, Caspar brings up an interesting question: What implications does Data Retention (more about that later tonight) have for Identity Providers in systems like Cardspace?
