Hallway - klint

### Overview This interview takes place in the hallway at SAINTCON in Provo, where the host interviews Clint (also referred to by the handle atticus88). Clint reflects on his long history with the conference, beginning with his first attendance in 2014 at Weber State, his multi-year involvement with building conference badges, and his ongoing role mentoring attendees in the Hardware Hacking Village.

### Key Topics - **SAINTCON Origins and First Attendance:** Clint discusses attending his first SAINTCON in 2014 at Weber State, which coincided with the host's first year as well. - **Badge Engineering and Volunteering:** Clint describes how he got commandeered by Luke into contributing to the conference badge in 2014 by writing software, ultimately helping build badges for around four years. - **Hardware Hacking Village:** After stepping back from the intensive badge-building process, Clint transitioned to volunteering in the Hardware Hacking Village, assisting participants with soldering and hardware projects. - **Conference Challenges and Activities:** Clint shares his favorite events to watch and join, including tamper-evident tape contests, default challenges, and escape-and-evasion style challenges such as escaping zip ties. - **Handle Origin:** Clint reveals the story behind his handle, `atticus88`, explaining that it combines his birth year with his favorite character from *To Kill a Mockingbird*.

### Technical Details - **Badge Features:** Clint worked on badge software development over roughly four years. His favorite project was the second badge he worked on, designed like a gamepad, where he incorporated map rendering and localization software to pinpoint attendee locations (the "parking lot GPS"). - **Hardware Village Safety & Soldering:** In the Hardware Hacking Village, Clint helps attendees solder. He notes that while soldering burns and minor injuries happen commonly—mentioning he burned himself in his hotel room and caught a bag on fire the previous night—serious blister-causing burns have been rare, with only about one severe incident involving a younger participant.

### Takeaways - Community-driven efforts like badge creation often start on a whim ("we could do a thing") and require hundreds of hours of volunteer software and hardware development. - Transitioning from high-intensity badge engineering to the Hardware Hacking Village allows experienced makers to mentor new attendees and share soldering skills in a hands-on environment. - Interactive spectator and participatory challenges like tamper-evident and restraint escapes highlight the culture and hands-on learning at hacker conferences.