My names Hugh, and I'm a web developer with a twist of security based in Wellington, NZ. I'm into heaps of stuff, and thought I would get it out there on the internet.

Some hobbies/interests include (in no particular order):

• Security
• Cryptocurrencies
• Walking
• Travel
• Geocaching
• Development
• Beer
• Systems Administration

Some of you may have seen my blogs so far, they were all to do with living off bitcoin for a month, but now this will be used as a personal blog. I will aim for the content to have a focus on technology, but will also cover some non technical stuff as well.

I'll try to use tags for topics on the blog, so far I've got travel, bitcoin, conferences, geocaching. I'll add more when it is suitable.

I've got a few things in the drafts, so hopefully you will come back and check this blog every once and a while!

If you know me, and you have anything in particular you want me to blog about, just let me know, and I'll create a draft to hopefully work on.

Armed with my phone, I checked out of my hotel and walked to town. The locals thought I was crazy to walk that far (around 30 min), but hey, thats how much I usually walk to go to work (usually with more hills as well!). I'd made a plan in the morning to check out the one place in Perth I thought accepted bitcoin (I had seen it on reddit), and then a few breweries around.

First stop was Cafe Biscotti in the CBD, who had posted to reddit saying they now accepted bitcoin. One of the only places in Perth, others being a "Champagne club", and some random investment companies. Not your sort of "walk-in" stores that I would go to. After a bit of getting lost I found the cafe (had no signage), which is in a foyer of a bank building. I went up to the counter, eagerly looking forward to using my bitcoin to get a drink! Only to find that they don't accept anymore :(

Oh well, I tweeted my findings, and mentioned to the folks on the WAHCKon IRC channel that I was talking to throughout the day, then went on my way. I found the train station, confirmed that you could get on a train with only cash (these days and your fancy transport cards...). I jumped on a train for Freemantle. This has a few breweries, and what is known as the cappucino strip (lots and lots of coffee places, pity I don't drink coffee).

First brewery I went to was a nice place called The Monk, where I got a tasting board and a pizza for lunch. Really nice atmosphere, great weather, good food and nice staff! I would recomment to anyone in the area.

Next up was Little Creatures which is a little more well known globally. I signed up for a free tour, and got a pint and found a wall plug to charge my phone. The tour was pretty cool, the guy knew his stuff, and the history. The sheds used to house the brewery used to be a crocodile farm and still had random bite marks where they were trying to get out or something! All started from a tiny brewery, and now has a full restaurant, a garden bar, and an onsite brewery. There was mention of another brewery somewhere else in Perth run by the same guys as well, and one in Melbourne.

I finished the tour, got a tasting, then decided to grab a bite as was dinner time, and who knows what the airplane food was going to be like!

I headed back to the city, and was going to meet up with a new friend from the conference, but everything was closed on a monday, so just taxi'd to the airport. Long flight with many hops ahead!

Back safely in Wellington, til next time.

This post will outline some of the talks that I found interesting. A full list of the is available on the talks page of wahckon's site. If I missed any, it doesn't mean it was bad, more that I can't remember enough details that I can write a good blurb a number of weeks later. I will also blog a bit about my travels in Perth in a follow up post.

Shooting Clay Pidgins - Matt Jones

This talk was all about the speakers experience of hacking some of the popular instant messaging clients out at the moment. Most notably Pidgin (or libpurple), because you know, everyone uses that! He found a few bugs while on a plane trip from memory, reported them, gave patches. Good stuff!

Another client mentioned was BitMessage, which is a bitcoin esq style client, which has many downfalls and not many ups.

There was a third client, but I can't recall that one off the top of my head.

Bitcoin: Or how I almost starved to death - Hugh Davenport

So disclaimer: this was my talk. Based off my month on bitcoin, which I blogged about under the monthonbitcoin tag. Read that, and the summaries to get an idea of what I got up to. I've also made a summary of the month post.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (On the Difficulty of Validating your Legitimacy as a Browser Extension and other Browser Break-dancing) - Christian Fritchot

A talk about BeEF (Browser Exploitation Framework Project). If you haven't seen this before and are into security, have a look. It is pretty scary how much this can do in terms of client side attacks. Christian went over some of the new features. I kind of liked the Metasploit-esq cli interface.

Bending the Light, Optical Trickery in the 21st Century - trogs

A repeat (and renewal) of a Kiwicon 4 talk, all about fibre networks, mainly in NZ. Mentioned some equipment you could get if you want to try it out, and how it all works.

Microsoft Kinect - From Hax to Official Encouragement - Mensly

Man, this was a good talk. Mensly showed us how hackers had gone about getting the Kinect hooked up to a PC and reversing the protocol so it worked. Now Microsoft have released an SDK on it, so you can actually legitimately use it. He had some pretty cool demos, and the demo gods were in the main .. happy.

Sorry about my sexist robot, and how to get frisked at the airport (image recognition and biometrics) - Lexy

I learnt I was a female, I should wear more ties. Apparently airport security software uses a necktie to determine sex. Weird and scary.

Naked Forensics - Chris Courtis

How to do forensics on the cheap. TL;DR. Have a smart phone. Works wonders.

Manipulating Human Minds: The Psychological side of Social Engineering - Christina Camilleri

Good to see females getting up and talking at a hackers conference. Should be a friendly environment, but sadly just isn't... Christina gave a great talk about social engineering. If you are interested in social engineering, or don't know what it is, read it up and learn. It is crazy how much stuff you can do by simply picking up a phone!

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post. You can see all the posts under the monthonbitcoin tag, and weekly summaries under the summary tag.

I should also note, that I wrote a presentation I delivered at WAHCKon[1] in Perth just after the month ended. I have the slides available and a blog post about WAHCKon.

WOOHOO! I actually made it a whole month living only of bitcoin. So first lets just state what the rules were, and what they ended up being...

Original Rules

• I can use existing things I own, as long as I find some way of replacing them within the month
• I can't get a friend to buy all the things for me
• I can't just transfer bitcoin into NZD and use that...
• Health/insurance/pets/rent off the table (unless I find something!!)
• Any more that people suggest which sound reasonable

What I changed rule-wise

• I used a lot of stuff, for the first week I cooked home cooked meals, my intention was to replace most of it, but I couldn't find a butcher to accept, so my meat was breaking the first rule.
• After a while, I did use friends, but only with friends that didn't originally have any bitcoin (apart from one top up while I was in Taupo).
• I didn't transfer into NZD at any point, and the only NZD I spent was rent, cat food, and an accidental Google Play Music Subscription :(
• I should note that I did spend some AUD, but only on touristy things. This caused the internet to just hate. To all those people, have you even done anything close to what I've done? Food for thought..
• I also had a tab with a local pub in Wellington, I tried not to use that, and the tab actually disappeared when I went to pay for it... (kindness of the internet? I paid the guy what I thought it was anyway)

So what did I buy with Bitcoin?

• Limes
• "Pub" food (Pizza, Burger, Chips, etc)
• "Cafe" things (Sandwiches, coffee, juice, smoothies)
• Alcohol (Beer, Wine, Cocktails, Mead)
• Sauces
• Haircut
• Petrol
• Food found at a petrol station (via a petrol voucher shipped to me while in Sydney) ...

I couldn't find any health food, and didn't really have a steady supply...

Who did I meet?

Lots of cool people!

• The man behind bitpos in Australia.
• Friendly people at the Wellington Bitcoin Meetup
• Friendly people at the Beers4Bitcoin Meetup in Sydney
• A few random people off the internet, who turned out to be friendly and not knife weilding :D
• Nice vendors at Crafty Trout Brewery, The Owl House, Kereru Brewery, Mane Salon.

Will I do it again?

Not right away, but hopefully what I've done makes a difference. If not, oh well, I've done something I enjoyed.

Anything noteworthy?

I got around 0.8 BTC worth of donations. I asked in a previous blog where I should donate this to, and noone has responded, so I suggest Electronic Freedom Foundation, but other suggestions welcome!

If you would like to donate to this, either do it directly (link above), or send it via me, and I'll send it on (along with an email to this blog probably). My address is 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

So I completely forgot to blog about the last 2 days, and have forgotten what I did! Sorry if you wanted to know, but go back over the monthonbitcoin tag to see what I got up to. I did summaries on the summary tag. I will aim to post more bitcoin material on the bitcoin tag.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

This is a summary post of the fourth (and basically last) week, detailed posts are covered in day 22, day 23, day 24, day 25, day 26, day 27, and day 28.

Week 1 summary is available here. Week 2 summary is available here. Week 3 summary is available here. After Wednesday, I'll do a month summary of the highlights, and then this blog will turn into my personal blog. Hope you stay round to read that.

Day 22 I gave a bit of an explanation on what bitcoin is, and what some benefits are, and some bad things that could be thought of.

Day 23 I started hopstock, but didn't actually buy any beers :( (apart from Rogue and Vagabond who gave me a month long tab).

Day 24 a bit happened. I got a haircut (from Mane Salon, bought some scones (aptly named "metlscones" after their creator metlstorm who runs kiwicon). Had a few beers bought by my mate in exchange for bitcoin for my hopstock challenge.

Oh, and I asked the hairdresser to do this ... (it should grow out in a few weeks :P)

And the METLSCONES THEMSELVES!!

Day 25 took me to Kereru Brewery around for a tour. Nice place, and they accept bitcoin. They use only locally sourced ingredients, and used to run out of their basement. My friend also blogged about this trip at his blog

The first image shows their old grinder, which they used in their basement.

The next one shows their current grinder. Bit of an upgrade!

Their automated bottling machine.

Their brewery as a whole, and some tastings.

Oh, and I paid in bitcoin!

Day 26 I had a leaving party for a friend, and got a few new people into bitcoin, who then bought me beers.

Day 27 I had a drink with a stranger, got another stamp on my hopstock (even though it finished the day before). Had dinner with my parents, and playe some scrabble.

Day 28 bought some chipotle sauce, some mead, and my friend cooked an amazing dinner!

Thats it for this week, tune in for the month summary!

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

So back at work after another long weekend. One of my workmates was selling home made chipotle sauce, so I wandered over to ask if he would take bitcoin. He was a bit unsure how easy it would be, then another workmate came over who regularily pays me for his curry in bitcoin. We convince him to set up a wallet (simple as google play, bitcoin wallet, done). Will look forward to trying some of that.

I then made the trek to the Wellington Railway Station with some old workmates. I was meeting up with someone off the internet to purchase some mead. Thats basically honey fermented wine, but the wiki article may share more. I bought a few bottles, and some mead schnapps.

After work I went over to my friends place in town. She had offered to cook me dinner at some point in the month way back on my second day in (when I got a pizza from a stranger, and spoke some poetry). Tonight was the night she cooked.

Was a delicious meal, had mashed potato, chicken, corn, veges, cheese sauce. YUM. I shared a bottle of mead for the troubles, as she didn't want bitcoin as she was doing it out of kindness. Second proper meal in a row!

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

So in the evening, I took up an offer from someone on IRC to have a drink. He had flown down to Wellington from Auckland for some work, and saw that I was trying to do hopstock, and suggested paying for my beer at Bru Haus.

I went along, promised my partner that I wouldn't get stabbed or anything, and met up. Did all the classic things like saying what I was wearing so he could recognise me. Turns out we were basically the only ones in the bar, and my drink was already waiting. Pretty good bloke, had a tab and didn't want getting paid back via bitcoin as "someone else was paying".

After having a few drinks and chats with this friendly stranger, I head home to get ready to go to my parents for dinner. I take half a bottle of the Velvet Boot from kereru to share with my dad, otherwise it would go stale. We also take some desert, purchased with my mothers "gift card" for New World she had given me on friday because she thought I was poor :P.

Dinner was a nice roast, and had a game of scrabble afterwards.

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

Tonight I went along to LBQ for a leaving party for my friend and his wife who is leaving for Europe at the end of the month. He owed me a few beers from the ones I bought him up in Taupo at Crafty Trout when I was up there, so he gave me his tab card and I got a few beers :D

After that, I had no way of getting any drinks! Don't want to be a downer. Fortunately, a lot of people had been following what I was doing, so I shared around a lot of my bitcoin. New wallets were created, and beers were bought for me. Hopefully they get them out.

Also, the guy from Bru Haus that I gave a tip to emailed me, wanting to know how to get it out. I linked him to my blog on how to withdraw. Hopefully he redeems!

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

So today I went with a group of friends out to Upper Hutt to Kereru Brewery. One of my friends who is into brewing also wrote a blog post, more aimed at the beer side rather than the bitcoin. You can read his at http://landsharkbrewing.com/trip-to-kereru/.

So Kereru have been up and running for a few years, for the start they were running out of their basement. Now they have a setup out in an industrial area in Upper Hutt.

They've accepted bitcoin since the start, and I have actually bought beer off them before, out at the Greater Wellington Brewday. I had more of a chat about bitcoin then, and Chris the owner accepts it using blockchain.info for just the rate it shows there, and keeps the coins. He transfers them back when needed, and said he taxed on the items sold.

Today we had a small tour around their brewery, took some photos that will appear in the summary, and had a few tastings. I was the driver so I couldn't go nuts on the tastings, but Chris consistently poured too much and everyone had to have seconds :P. They were only tasting glasses though!

Had a couple of favourites, the Coconut Porter, and the Velvet Boot, and some of the others like a Pohutukawa Golden Ale, and the Kumara Brown Ale. I purchased the first two for the nice cost of $10 per litre, along with a glass flaggon. My friends bought a mixture of beers, looking forward to a good BBQ afterwards (though the weather outside wasn't looking flash!).

One thing to note about Kereru is that he sources all his ingredients from local sources, which is great for the environment, and for the NZ economy!

After that, we had a BBQ. I brought beer, and metlscones (that I had bought yesterday). Didn't have meat as haven't had a chance to go to a butcher yet.

Another thing to note, is before I went to the brewery, I went to an ANZAC service with my mother. She has this thought that I am poor, and gave me a $30 New World voucher... Mothers :)

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

So went to get my haircut! Mane Salon has been accepting bitcoin for a month or so it seems. I go in and get a wash and cut, and a bitcoin logo shaved into the back... Yes, I did this, photos to come in the next summary on Tuesday.

Had lunch at fork and brewer where a friend wanted to buy mine and get bitcoin. Got a stamp on my hopstock card.

After work, I went to a local security meetup, called ISIG. While I was there, the organiser of the local security conference kiwicon made me some scones. I had organised this last week, and they were branded "metlscones", named after the man himself, metlstorm. I paid 0.08 BTC (around $50) for a dozen of these goodies. Oh my!

I also gave a brief talk about how my month had been, and got some good advice. I also wanted to share some advice. If you want bitcoin to become more mainstream, ask every time you use NZD! If it is no longer just me being the lonely crazy person, it then becomes several normal people using normal currency! So go ask!

After ISIG, I continued on my Hopstock adventure. My friend bought me a few beers at D4, and at Bin44. Bin44 seemed interested, so I gave my details and a tip. Hopefully they get in touch!
We also went to Hashigo Zake, and the guy there actually got the tablet down from the wall and started setting up! Then he changed his mind and thought he should get the OK from management first. I asked him to ask them, and gave some details and a tip! 5 stamps off now! Quite a few more to go...

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

So I need a haircut, and I decided to find a place. The usual barber I go to didn't want to accept sadly... Google here we come! Seems a salon by the Basin Reserve accepts! Mane Salon is the place I call and make a booking for tomorrow. They confirm they accept bitcoin :D

I'm also running low on bitcoin, so I get some more off the friend I get it from. Purchased at the same price as the start of the month, so price is reasonably stable it seems!

I also started an event called Hop Stock run by Craft Beer Capital. You go to several craft beer bars over a few days and get stamps for trying some beer. Problem is ... most of them only accept NZD! I go along with a friend, and ask if they accept. Asked Fork and Brewer (got told I should get out of bitcoin, it's "dangerous"). Asked Bru Haus, the staff knew what it was, but the manager didn't know enough at the moment. I left a tip. I asked Tap Haus and got a negative response. I asked Goldings Free Dive Bar, and got another negative response. I then went to Rogue and Vagabond and used my month long tab. Cheated! So far only 1 stamp, probably won't get the tshirt this year...

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

So not much happened today, as I was sick at home. To have some content, I will talk a little bit about bitcoin pros and cons.

So first, what is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is an innovative payment network and a new kind of money. It was designed by an anonymous person in a short paper. There is some good questions answered in the FAQ on the bitcoin.org website.

So what is it good for?

• Low transaction fees
• Secure network, distributed around the world
• No single controller (for example, a government)
• Fast international transfers
• No "holidays", money goes when you send it

What are some things that could be seen as bad?

• Volitility, it is still a new system, going to have growing pains. Been reasonably stable this month!
• Not accepted widely (as seen by this blog)
• Not well known
• Yet another system (though POS integration is coming quickly).
• It's mainly used for illegal activities (though not in my month!)
• It's seen as potentially illegal

I've also had people compare it to something like the Barter Card in New Zealand, though I'm not so sure on that. Very loosely similar.

Feel free to leave comments on what you see good or bad about bitcoin!

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

This is a summary post of the third week, detailed posts are covered in day 15, day 16, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 20, and day 21.

Week 1 summary is available here. Week 2 summary is available here.

Day 15 I bought some beer off a workmate, it was labelled ... well ....

Day 16 I went to the Wellington Bitcoin Meetup at Mac's Brew Bar and saw a real life Bitcoin ATM. You put NZD in (cash only), and scan your public bitcoin address, and you get bitcoin back! I tried it out on behalf of someone elses cash, which I then gave back. I also shared some of my stories, and got some good feedback, and some offers for mead/veges/etc etc.

Day 17 I had some steak, gave bitcoin to a busker, and had work drinks and chats. The busker replied a couple of days later wanting to get it out! Awesome, I should do that more. I also bought some wine from Pyramid Valley, and donated to the lifeonbitcoin documentary. I also got some eggs from a workmate that were a bit ... pooey.

Day 18 I drove up to Taupo for a weekend with my partners family. Filled up car with petrol at a Mobil on the way.

Day 19 I gave a tip to a Cafe up in Taupo, and talked about bitcoin with partners family.

Day 20 I went to a local brewery in Taupo, the Crafty Trout and had a tour there. I was actually their first bitcoin customer! Had some tastings, and a pizza for lunch. I came back later and shouted some friends that were leaving for UK shortly some beer as well. Their brewery is well worth a tour if you are in the area. They have a fully automated system, and the brewmaster Anton is good quality!

I also did some geocaching and left a bitcoin tip.

Day 21 I came back to Wellington, went to the WellyLUG social meetup, and got a pizza from Tommy Millions

Thats it for this week, tune in next week!

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.

For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post.

So most of monday was spent travelling back from Taupo, was an accident on the way which delayed things..

At night, I went to a social meeting for the Wellington Linux User Group. We went to LBQ, and had a few beers. People bought me beers in exchange for some private wallets I gave to them. People were interested in Bitcoin.

Disclosure: I run WellyLUG, but you should come if you are interested in linux, or use linux. Meet every month on the 3rd Monday, at 6pm, on Level 3 of Catalyst House (150 Willis St).

After the drinks, I went with my friend to see if I could get a taxi driver to accept. I asked a dozen, no idea what bitcoin is. I then went to see if I could get food, and got some from Tommy Millions which is a pizza place in the middle of courtney place. They accepted by one of the staff taking the bitcoin and using his own EFTPos card. Not so legit, but in my mind, I passed over bitcoin to a shop, and got goods back.

If you can offer assitance, just do it! I'm on twitter as haquaman, on reddit as haquaman, on IRC as aquaman (no h), and email at hugh AT davenport DOT net DOT nz.

Feel free to donate to 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.