``For me,'' recalled one old hand, ``the best part of Def Con I (besides the drinking) was the socialising. Hours were spent in the Holy Cow (a great bar if you're in Vegas) getting wasted androving through rows of slot machines looking for creative ways to cause trouble. It was a blast. Meeting people face-to-face whom you'd only known by reputation or from hanging out on underground BBSs (Bulletin Boards) like Lunatic Labs.'' Now Def Con has grown up. The programme (www.defcon.org/html/defcon-7-pre.html) encourages the party game of `Spot the Feds' and includes the usual incendiary stuff calculated to terrify readers of the Daily Mail, but also schedules talks by Responsible Adults on serious subjects like `Firewalls: Trends and Problems'. For my money, the incendiary stuff is still the great attraction. The Cult of the Dead Cow, for instance, is using Def Con 7.0 to launch the latest edition of its `Back Orifice' software, which enables one to take remote control of Windows machines. The new version `Back Orifice 2000' is designed to handle Windows 2000, on which many corporations will rely for their `back office' operations. The Cult's press release announcing their product spoofs the bilgethat mainstream software companies churn out. ``Back Orifice 2000,'' it burbles, ``puts the administrator solidly in control of any Microsoft network''. Back Orifice 2000 was written by two `code monsters' known as Dildog and Sir Dystic. ``Now we've enhanced the Windows administration experience,'' says Dildog, ``we hope Microsoft will do its best to ensure its operating systems are robust enough to handle the control we've given to them.'' Bet it goes down a bomb in Seattle.

--The Observer News Service