June 2011 Archives

(Note: I'm catching-up on a backlog after my little biking accident last week...)

There's been some silliness floating around the industry echo chamber lately. I saw one comment where someone attending a BSides event felt it was nice hanging out with a bunch of other security people who "weren't in it for a paycheck." Well, I'm here to break the bad news... most of us are getting paid to do this work. And, I highly doubt that you'd see many - if any - of us slogging it out day after day after day if we weren't somehow being compensated. Why else would anybody put up with the insanity and inanity that is this industry?

A friend of mine mentioned the other day that they're starting to see trending away from outsourced clouds, with enterprises choosing their own data centers and "private clouds" over those from major providers. This trend has been further corroborated by at least one other colleague in the industry, which leads me to speculate... what in the world are people thinking?

I have no real evidence to back any of this up, but since that's never stopped me before, I'll continue...

You want good results.
You do what you can to produce good results, while holding weeds and pests at bay.
However, there are limits on what you can do (time, energy, weather).
You must be both reactive and proactive (soil prep, fertilizer, weed preventers, weeding).
There are no silver bullets (weeds grow despite weed preventers).
There are a myriad of threats (weeds, bugs, critters).

I had an unfortunate bicycle accident last week (yep, that's me below - if you think the right side of my face looks rough - and it is, with non-displacement fractures - consider that I primarily landed on my right shoulder). I was riding on a paved trail, standing up to pump uphill, when the chain jumped and locked up the rear tire. At 7-10mph, I couldn't control the sudden and unexpected deceleration, causing me to fly over the handlebars at an awkward angle. Yes, I was wearing a helmet, though it appears to have only sustained a glancing blow.