I would guess that every one of you reading this blog have a stock portfolio with 5 to 10 individual stocks or mutual funds. There are more than 5,000 publicly listed companies to choose from, and another 5,000 mutual funds. But, out of 10,000 possible companies you chose 10 to invest in. Why? Why did you reject the other 9,990 companies? Obviously there are more than 10 good companies to invest in. Other investors chose to invest their money in the other 9,990 companies…why not you?

I suppose the difference must be that many investors aren’t actively involved in their investments (maybe entrepreneurs are more so, since they have to know a certain investment space quite well)…

It sounds to me a lot like the editorial selection process for book manuscripts, articles, and so forth — editors receive a ton of submissions and they have to be choosy. Sometimes they don’t pick winners; sometimes they pick losers. More importantly, each has a personal style, opinions, preferences, and they are trying to appeal to a certain audience. It’s interesting to think that VCs are similar but makes sense–the end question of “What will be successful” really depends on the consumer base and industry, and VCs are just people who probably know and prefer to interact with a certain type of consumer base or audience.

I have written before about what a joke I think it is when people write that Microsoft???s best days are behind it and that their corporate grave is already being dug.  Google is going to usher in a new age of net centric computing and topple the once and future king. Yeah sure.  Don Dodge had a good article up the other day about Microsoft???s recent end of FY numbers.  The Redmond rockets racked up over 60 billion (yeah with a b) in revenue last year, an 18% increase over the year before!  They dropped 17.6 billion (again with a b) to the bottom line.  To give it some perspective, Yahoo all told only does about 7 or 8 billion in gross revenue a year.  Microsoft grew 9 billion in revenue last year.  That is they grew organically more than a whole Yahoo.  You can check out Don???s article for more financial facts and figures.

I ask you ladies and gentlemen, does this sound like the numbers of a company on the way down?  If you were a betting person, would you be betting against this monster?  I would not be.  Do you think by 2011 things are going to fundamentally change? Next time someone tells you how open source, Linux, Google or anyone else is going to kill Microsoft try to put some of these numbers in prospective.

I have written before about what a joke I think it is when people write that Microsoft’s best days are behind it and that their corporate grave is already being dug.  Google is going to usher in a new age of net centric computing and topple the once and future king. Yeah sure.  Don Dodge had a good article up the other day about Microsoft’s recent end of FY numbers.  The Redmond rockets racked up over 60 billion (yeah with a b) in revenue last year, an 18% increase over the year before!  They dropped 17.6 billion (again with a b) to the bottom line.  To give it some perspective, Yahoo all told only does about 7 or 8 billion in gross revenue a year.  Microsoft grew 9 billion in revenue last year.  That is they grew organically more than a whole Yahoo.  You can check out Don’s article for more financial facts and figures.

I ask you ladies and gentlemen, does this sound like the numbers of a company on the way down?  If you were a betting person, would you be betting against this monster?  I would not be.  Do you think by 2011 things are going to fundamentally change? Next time someone tells you how open source, Linux, Google or anyone else is going to kill Microsoft try to put some of these numbers in prospective.

One of the questions asked of the panel by moderator Michael Fitzgerald (who did a kick-ass job) was, “What scares you the most these days?”. My answer was the proliferation of of inexpensive digital devices made in China that we plug into our computers. The malware problem is getting tricky to dodge. First you couldn’t open email attachments you weren’t expecting. Then you had to worry about surfing even trusted websites with JavaScript turned on, even with the latest patched browsers. Now you have to worry about plugging in the shiny new digital toy you got as a gift. Perhaps its a digital picture frame, digital camera, music player or silly programmable gizmo. Welcome to the age of factory installed malware –the age of devices coming Certified Pre-0wned.

The Associated Press writes:

Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by Target and Best Buy stores and TomTom navigation gear.

In most cases, Chinese factories — where many companies have turned to keep prices low — are the source.

We all know malware is starting to fly under the radar of black list style detection. Low volume malware is flooding the AV labs’ capability to build detection for it. The digital picture frame sold at Sam’s club was infected with previously unknown malware that stole passwords and turned off AV software.

An additional threat that has been reported is devices have been found infecting the flash memory cards that are often inserted to upload photos.  From SANS:

“Recently I found a virus on it called Troj_Agent.SAO, which is what Trend Micro named it.  Anytime you plug a removable device into it, it would create two files Autorun.inf and autorun.exe.  The exe would place itself in the recycler\recycler folder and the .inf would place itself on the root of the removable drive as a hidden file.  At first I thought this virus came in on one of our employee’s pen drive but after further investigation I discovered that the files that the virus uses were created on the kiosk the day it was shipped out to us.  Also our vendor is using this kiosk in some of their stores at the moment and there have been reports that the kiosks have given their customers a virus. “ 

We are back to the days of the floppy or “sneaker net” attack vector. Do you know who has touched your SD card or USB drive? Don’t use it in public.  Don’t share it with multiple machines. Dan Geer told me he once tossed a USB drive into an audience with the slides for a presentation he just delivered on it.  About 10 people passed it around and copied off the slides.  It came back with a virus on it.  And this was at a security conference.