It's a very good course, I recently some most of it, he knows his stuff (and beyond), no questions about that 

Give him some time, he usually responds within a week as all access is manually set up, and Grendel is usually extremely busy, be patient 

There's no measurement, but it's the best way to learn the basics of pentesting when it comes to courseware. The Labs, may be very tough if you're very new to pentesting. I suggest you become familiar with linux and the console a bit, before diving into OSCP/PWB.
It's also useful to have a good working knowledge about computers and networks in general (just the basics), despite the course covers much of this.
What you must be willing to do, is to never give up during the PWB/OSCP course and certification, and if you don't understand something, try harder on your own, use the student forums, google, etc.
I took OSCE a couple of years ago, it was awesome, despite it was quite tough for me back then, after all, it was my first certification  If you're motivated enough, you can do OSCP.

We didn't determine anything. We only shared the truth.

I've done most of the Shodan course, however I failed at cracking some passwords. Despite that I tried idunno, 50-100'000 relevant variations of the mentioned topic, and 165 million random different passwords. Did any of them crack? Nope.

You should consider posting your message on one forum first, and then wait a bit, before posting it across multiple forums. I've already replied on InterN0T.

What kind of practical experience do you have with security? Your resume and certifications doesn't tell if you know about penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, etc.

The course I recommended from BackTrack, is not that expensive:
http://www.offensive-security.com/information-security-training/penetration-testing-with-backtrack/ (750$, I recommend 60 days lab time)
and this: http://www.offensive-security.com/information-security-training/cracking-the-perimeter/ (1200$)

Don't do OSCE without knowing quite a bit about hacking first, as it's really a killer if you don't know a sufficient amount of hacking.

A degree in computer science is good if you're in Austraila, and as you are doing a masters in Computer Security that's also very good. You should however look into Offensive Security certifications as well, as they are valued at some companies in Australia. CREST certifications are quickly gaining popularity at the moment, but they are very costly, and, extremely overpriced. I suggest you do OSCP first before you even attempt CRT if you got the money.

Employers here, will look at your education, but also certifications as they can be merit (but seriously, finish your education), however some of them will most likely test your technical skills in a theoretical and/or practical test, so make sure you know what you're talking about.

Having the right education and certifications is one thing, but knowing your stuff is even better, and having a combination of both is the best.  

GIAC certifications and SANS courses are known, but not as highly valued as OffSec certs.

So look into getting OffSec certs for starters.

I guess it's just money for checking the papers and perhaps your linkedin profile  Even though, I think those 500$ for the exam voucher, should cover that hilarious 100$ administration fee. On the other side, GIAC certifications does not have this fee, but they are like priced at 899$. On a third side, CEH is waste of time, unless it's a job requirement.

All what mrvore said is truth, even though the term script kiddie (and the acronym skiddie) is still widely used 

A lot of OSCPs and especially OSCEs fall the first time. Recognize your weakness as you did, and make sure you won't fail the second time 

Well, it's cool you're hosting this event for free. But common questions are not "all you wanted to know" for most hackers  But I am still glad you do this for free and for e.g. newbies in the community / industry.

I like how you wrote "Recruiting Security Experts Worldwide!!" while it's not really true, as a lot of US-based companies won't even consider hiring you unless you got a green card already and if you pay for your own relocation, then they might hire you. At least, that is how I have seen it was not long ago.

In Sydney on the other hand, they do recruit security experts worldwide, but they also pay for relocation a few of them. (The companies)

Plus, most of these events are almost always in the US too, flying there from Europe, Australia and many other countries costs quite a lot of money, especially for someone in non-security related job or any other job that doesn't pay well.

Just sayin' my thoughts out loud  

Thanks for posting about this event Don, not ranting about you, only the event  

Edit: Didn't see they're also hosting this event in France, The UK (I guess I saw that too?), Italy (well, they got some hackers down there), Belgium (cool, but why? There's a lot more hackers in Germany), and a few other places in the US.

Havij is a script kiddie tool just like Pangolin is, except Havij is more widely used by script kiddies especially in the middle east. A pro tool, which can do a lot more, but is also a lot harder to use is sqlmap.

However, using a tool only, without knowing what causes SQL Injection, how to fix it (in the code!) and how to test manually will not teach you anything, and thus you will always be a script kiddie unless you know  the cause, remediation and how to test all types of SQL Injection vulnerabilities manually.

Sometimes the tools simply won't work, and then you have to test manually as a penetration tester.