What is Not The Fed?

March 5, 2007 4:46 PM

What is the significance of "NOT THE FED"? Where have I seen this before and what does it mean?
posted by tev to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

It's a reference to the "Spot the Fed" contests at Defcon, Summercon, and other hacker gatherings.
posted by toxic at 4:51 PM on March 5, 2007

Check out the comment in the view source of that webpage:

"!-- so you may have a clue, but the main thing is I like your style.--"

posted by ericb at 4:56 PM on March 5, 2007

There was never a Spot the Fed contest (at least not formally) at Summercon, but otherwise toxic is right. Fed-spotters at Defcon get a t-shirt that says "I spotted the Fed" & spotted Feds get one saying "I am the Fed". I'm not exactly sure what the point of the website is but its design is clearly derived from Defcon graphics.
posted by scalefree at 6:43 PM on March 5, 2007

We had spot the fed at 2600 meetings long before this newfangled defcon stuff.
posted by Mid at 8:21 PM on March 5, 2007

To elaborate:

DefCon is the big hacker conference, held annually in Las Vegas. In the earlier days of the con, the FBI / CIA and other government types would try to attend the con "incognito" and fail miserably. Most of the attendees would be wearing black t-shirts and jeans or shorts, while the feds would show up in khakis and polos. The Spot The Fed game arose from this as good natured ribbing between the hackers and the feds.
posted by falconred at 8:21 PM on March 5, 2007