July 2011 Archives

Well, it's finally happened. I've finally given in to the dark side of the force. As of Monday (8/1), I'll be working for a vendor! :)

I've decided to leave Gemini Security Solutions to join LockPath - a next-generation GRC startup - as Principal Consultant, where I'll get to do all sorts of cool stuff. My responsibilities will vary widely, but will include writing, training, consulting, working with our professional services partners, and generally helping out with whatever is needed.

I've been friendly with LockPath for a couple years now. You might remember my blog post about them last October, titled "Not Your Mama's GRC." I am convinced that LockPath is the real deal. They've worked very diligently to address major deficiencies in the GRC platform space. And, best of all, they've come up with a great, flexible framework that provides a degree of extensibility that I've not seen in other products.

All told, this is a very exciting opportunity for me, and one that I hope to see through to tremendous growth and success. It's an opportunity to help redefine the GRC product space, while also furthering the development of and support for the imperative for organizations to have formal GRC programs. If pending legislation is any indicator, then the need for a formal GRC program is only going to increase, while downward pressures continue to contain costs. LockPath is well positioned to meet those needs.

As noted in my last post, I've made the jump to Lion. Overall, it's pretty good. I've already noticed that it's a bit zippier than it's predecessor (Snow Leopard). That said, there are a few quirks that require customizing back to what I consider a bit more sane. I'll try to update this list as I find other options since I've still not discovered how to fix a few things (noted later).

I've had my fair share of stability issues with my 15" MacBook Pro (MBP) since I bought it in late 2009. I've had to replace the RAM, the hard drive, and dealt with all sorts of issues. I recently went on vacation and opted to leave the ol' MBP at home so that it, too, could have a vacation. I even shut it down all the way (how considerate of me!). When I returned home it fired right up, wanted to install a couple patches, and all that good stuff. And then it all started going bad...

After being home a couple days, my laptop started crashing with kernel panics (I call this the "grey screen of death" - OS X says you've crashed and need to hold down the power button to reboot). After a couple days of this nonsense, with it getting progressively worse, I decided to call Apple Support, which, btw, ROCKS. They had me shutdown, do an SMC Reset, then boot into Safe Boot mode (hold down shift before the boot-up chime) to remap drive and directory info. Viola! Problem solved! (or not)

There's been a ground-swell of frustration in the industry the past couple months, and for good reason. The loyal opposition is kicking our tails in the push-me-pull-you world we live in. Moreover, it can often feel like our warnings are falling on deaf ears, and that all our efforts are in vane. After all, "the users are stupid," and businesses don't care, right? Methinks not, and that under calmer conditions many of you would agree.

Instead of feeling despair, which I think is exacerbated by stressful economic conditions and the seemingly slow arrival of Summer vacations, I think we should instead take a step back and consider a couple things. Technology is evolving, and quite rapidly. People are trying to keep up, but it's just not a winning proposition right now. Evolution is not something to beat back, but something to survive and, hopefully, ride out to a new plain of existence. However, we need to bear one crucial fact in mind: it takes at least one human generation to get through such an evolutionary change, and, to make matters worse, our generations are living longer, which lengthens that transition time. Don't believe me? Consider two recent technological evolutions: automobiles and industrialization.