Time of Reckoning?

07. May 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: computing, daily life, frowns, frustration, geek, incongruities, information, internet, irritants, rants, struggles, technology

I’ve been a long time subscriber to SANS news letters.  Most days I have too much to do to really read them, but today as I was wrapping up the day I came across this nugget:

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A fascinating battle is taking place today in the struggle between those

who recognize the need to move quickly to continuous security monitoring

(of critical controls) and those who are clinging to the now discredited

practice of preparing out-of-date, paper-based reports about security.

A US Office-of-Management-and-Budget-led initiative to improve the

metrics by which agencies assessed cyber threats was 50% successful and

50% hijacked by the report writers. All the federal CISOs were asked

this morning to help shape the metrics.  We’ll let you know week by week

how the battle goes.  It matters because billions of dollars were thrown

away (according to sworn Congressional testimony) on the discredited

reports. Once the federal government makes the transition to automation,

the defense industrial base, and then the rest of the US critical

infrastructure will shift quickly. And that will radically improve the

job prospects for people who can reduce risk vs. those who just write

about risk.

<snip>

TOP OF THE NEWS

–FISMA 2.0 Advances in the US House of Representatives

A bill that transforms FISMA from encouraging paper-pushing to automated

monitoring of security advanced in the House. The bill also calls for

the jobs of the White House Cyber Czar and Chief Technology Officer to

be permanent and subject to Senate Confirmation.

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100505_8690.php?oref=topnews

Oh, how I would love to see the day come when Information Security wasn’t dominated by people who can’t do a damn thing to mitigate risk but do a great job talking the talk and writing the copy about it.  I cannot count how many times I’ve run into a supposed “expert” who couldn’t even begin to pull apart a packet capture or tell me the difference between a Layer2 address and a Layer3 address.  It is, as they say, Frustrating.

Ubuntu

20. April 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: computing, daily life, frustration, geek, good things, smiles

I’ve been threatening to load a Linux variant on the main computer in the house for a few years now.  It is a 5-year-old Dell that was running XP.  I reloaded XP on the thing at least three times.  Every time it eventually crawled to a halt.   Windows profile corruption most likely. Finally, I am free of Windows on this machine.  I installed Ubuntu on it tonight.  Good things to come from that – like running the box for another 5 years and being able to do everything I need to on it (except listen to my DRM iTunes tunes…).

Can I live with Cloud Computing?

29. December 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: computing, creativity, daily life, geek, good things, internet, media, sidetracks, thoughts, work

Increasingly, I spend most of my time on the computer in a browser.  Okay, almost all of my time is in a browser, and even when it’s not, I usually wish it was.  (I’m saddled with Lotus Notes at the office, and I really would love to just have a good webmail interface in its place.)  Aside from Notes, I use Visio frequently and occasionally Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.  Of course, in my personal computing world, I need iTunes for my iPod.  I also use Picassa for my photos.

Word, Excel and Powerpoint could easily be replaced by google docs.  Easily, except for concerns about corporate security.  Visio, that’s a challenge, and the iTunes/iPod issue could not be replaced – though pandora streamed to the blackberry is an alternative.

I’ve been following the development of Chromium OS/ChromeOS since I first heard about it.  Only a year ago, I was starting to think, I really just need a computer that boots into a browser.  As this becomes a very real possibility, I’m beginning to wonder if I actually could do most of my computing with a browser-based OS?

I’m not sure if I will be able to live with cloud computing, but I’m very interested to see what happens in the space, and how it changes the way we compute.

RFC 1855 – Learn it, Love it, Live it…or at least put a signature on your emails

14. December 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: business lunacy, cultural failure, culture, daily life, disgust, frowns, frustration, geek, incongruities, intelligence, internet, irritants, struggles, stupidity, technology, thoughts, work

If there’s one thing that annoys me, it’s when people fail to put a signature on their email.  This is especially annoying when the said person is in a sales capacity.  How much time have I wasted searching for an email from someone so that I can find their phone number, only to find that they didn’t include a signature?  And yet, these same schmucks are the first ones in a meeting to walk around the room diligently handing out their business cards…

If you don’t have a signature on your email, you probably do a lot of other irritating and stupid things like play facebook games.  Please read RFC1855.  Among other things it recommends the following:

Make things easy for the recipient. Many mailers strip header information which includes your return address. In order to ensure that people know who you are, be sure to include a line or two at the end of your message with contact information. You can create this file ahead of time and add it to the end of your messages. (Some mailers do this automatically.) In Internet parlance, this is known as a “.sig” or “signature” file. Your .sig file takes the place of your business card. (And you can have more than one to apply in different circumstances.)

Still Amazed by Technology

20. November 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: daily life, geek, good things, internet, media, nostalgia, smiles, social networking, technology, thoughts, time, work

I should not be amazed by technology because I am part of the technology world.  But I am.

My first web browsing experience was with a text based browser called “lynx.”  I was in my early twenties when Netscape 1.1 was released.  I survived “the browser wars” my favorite browser of the time didn’t, but was re-incarnated.Cebit Technology Fair

I’ve seen a lot change in the past 12 years.  My first technology job was working in a call center, helping people with dial-up connections on Macs.  We were all excited when 33.6 kbps modems came out and even more so when the v.90 standard was still called 56K.  Dial-up essentially died before v.90 was ratified.  We could only imagine web based video being delivered to the home at those speeds.

I had one of the first generation palm pilots made by US Robotics.  It was highly useful, but had no way to sync-up with content unless it was in a cradle.  WAP became the rage, but it was very limited.  The first Palm VII released in 1999 had wireless service that was highly limited and the device retailed for $600 for a monochrome screen!   Now, I’ve got a device that delivers well formatted content (including video and streaming audio) to my hand.  It synchronizes over the air with my work and personal email and calendars. 

It is stunning. It is useful. It feels like technology nirvana.

It’s taken me a long time to get one (lots of politics associated with it at the office) but I’m truly addicted to the blackberry.

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