[SecurityRatty] tag: nerd

Links for 2008-09-15 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Quest grabs NetPro to strengthen Windows management wares - Network World
NetPro’s lineup includes tools focused on security/compliance, infrastructure administration and identity/access. Those tools include auditing, backup/recovery, policy enforcement, event log management, Exchange migration, group policy management, health/performance and user self-service password management
Are common logging and audit standards emerging? :: SearchSecurity.com.au
SaaS market will 'collapse' in two years | Tech News on ZDNet
Q: Won't people avoid the mistakes of "previous" SaaS incarnations, as you mentioned? A: People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes.
CRM Outsiders » Blog Archive » Lawson CEO: SaaS Will “Collapse” In Two Years
I couldn’t disagree more, but than again it was also Harry Debes that predicted that many of today’s Web 2.0, cell phone gadgets would never catch on either. SaaS is certainly here to say. I
Nerd News: Eventlog to Syslog
(ISC)2 Blog: Event Correlation
Speaking of Security... | Blog Entry: Paul Stamp | Correlation is no silver bullet: 1301
So, when deploying SIEM to improve your security operations, remember that correlation only really works when backed up by real data about what is the biggest problem in your environment, and how that problem manifests itself in the event logs. I call it "working out what type of needles you'll find in your haystack."
Systems log analytics offers operators performance insights that set stage for IT transformation | Dana Gardner’s BriefingsDirect | ZDNet.com
Sharpening Stones and Walking on Coals | Nemertes Research
When hunting for a needle in a haystack, after all, making the haystack larger is not an obviously productive course; getting a tool that can assist in the hunt - a magnet, or a metal detector - makes more sense!
Search or Destroy | Nemertes Research
It's not all about security, it's not all about events, it's not all about compliance. All those things are critically important to IT, of course, but even more fundamental is the task of keeping things running.
jdm's Blog: How worthwhile is logging?
Logs are like a warm blanket; verbose logging means you can know what's happening on your systems if you keep up with the logs. At the same time, logs become a burden very very easily, and they are easy to ignore.
Rainer's Blog: What is an Event? And what an Event Log?
Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight...: Taming the Documentum Audit Trail
First and foremost, it is a good security principle to separate log data from the system.
Log management is a pain | Thomas Nicholson
So for an administrator to not care about logs was a shock.
thebaumblog » Blog Archive » Life after SIEM. Situational Awareness is next.
Life after SIEM. Situational Awareness is next.

What do you think of Zemanta?

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:22:43 +0000

I am such a nerd/geek (for a good discussion on what the difference is, check out Brad Feld's article here), that I read this post in Fred Wilson's blog on Zemanta and had to check it out for myself. I am using it on this post and the previous one on Starbucks being sued by T-Mobile.

So far I am really impressed with how Zemanta works. It gives you a whole bunch of content related that you can use on your blog. Pictures, related articles, links and tags. It also makes it easy to reblog. It works right in my Typepad blog editor. The only thing I can think of is that I would like to see it work in Windows LiveWriter and Scribefire, the two blog editor that I use for most of my stuff. But Zemanta is good enough that I don't mind using the Typepad editor to get this functionality!

So what do you think? It is more noise or does it add value? Leave a comment and let me know

What do you think of Zemanta?

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:22:43 +0000

I am such a nerd/geek (for a good discussion on what the difference is, check out Brad Felds article here), that I read this post in Fred Wilson's blog on Zemanta and had to check it out for myself. I am using it on this post and the previous one on Starbucks being sued by T-Mobile.

So far I am really impressed with how Zemanta works. It gives you a whole bunch of content related that you can use on your blog. Pictures, related articles, links and tags. It also makes it easy to reblog. It works right in my Typepad blog editor. The only thing I can think of is that I would like to see it work in Windows LiveWriter and Sribefire, the two blog editor that I use for most of my stuff. But Zemanta is good enough that I don't mind using the Typepad editor to get this functionality!

So what do you think? It is more noise or does it add value? Leave a comment and let me know

Links for 2008-05-14 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 14 May 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Vendors aren't changing focus, you were just blissfully unaware

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:09:41 +0000

My friend Michael Farnum besides being a comic book nerd, blogs over at ComputerWorld. Michael writes today about his opinion that vendors have changed focus from concentrating on the tech geeks to focusing on the business decision maker. Michael's proof is rather subjective, but revolve around the fact that when he was a geek not in management, vendors use to wine and dine him to influence him to support their technology and tell his boss to buy their products. As he moved up to become a geek in management, he noticed the vendors shifting focus away from the technical stakeholder to the business stakeholder. Michael has a theory on some of the reasons for this shift of focus. The dotcom bubble, the evolution of IT, people making decisions on sound business principles, not on what technology is cool.

Michael I say rubbish! I think that sales techniques haven't really changed that much from the 90's. Good selling always involved courting the three stakeholders - technical, business and financial. It is just as a green (meaning new, not environmentally friendly) geek, you were not even aware of the vendors courting you, also reaching out to your management team and the business and economic stakeholder. You were blissfully unaware that the vendors you were dealing with had a full court press going on. Instead you went to a nice dinner, a ball game and got some t-shirts and other swag and thought you were making it happen for them. In the meantime your boss was getting tickets to the game too (I bet even better tickets) and nicer schwag than you were! As you started to move up the chain, you just assumed that everyone must be moving up with you. That Ptolemaic or geocentric model of the sales process, with you at the center is just your view from the inside, but sales people have been multi-threading into accounts for a long time.

Yes during the dotcom era and even before that sales teams used to spend a lot more on wining and dining. I still remember fondly the EMC sales teams of the mid to late 90's partying with their customers like it was 1999 (it was 1999). I was on the receiving end of many of those great dinners and other perks. With new economic times, it became less fashionable to lavish money in trying to buy business. But that more economically austere model did fundamentally shift the focus in sales from the technical to the business stakeholder.

Some companies like Symantec for instance have always concentrated on the business stakeholder more than the technical stakeholder. But Michael in sales there is little new under the sun. Just because you have begun to become aware of it, don't assume it has not always been so.

Heroes, the (Fall TV) Legacy

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:00:26 +0000

I was a big fan of Heroes last year and, to my surprise, it was a big hit even outside of the sci-fi, superhero, geek space. The combination of the good stories, the new revelations each week and the soap-opera-like connections between the different characters appeared to a bit wider audience than might've been expected.

As Season 2 kicks off tonight, I'm jazzed to watch, but even more jazzed about the Fall TV legacy of Heroes! What do I mean by that? Well, when a show is popular and starts getting good ratings, what does it mean? You can bet that TV executives will come up with shows in the same genre, shows that are similar, shows that try to change very part of the show to keep it similar, but make it just different enough to attract other viewers... how else to explain the thousands of reality shows that bombard us?

So the legacy of Heroes that excites me is some of the shows in the fall lineup that might not have got the green light without the Heroes success last year. Here are some I'm looking forward to, including the NBC Super Monday line-up (that is up against my wife's shows - Dancing with the Stars and the Bachelor - thank goodness for Media Center / DVRs). This is premiere week and here is my lineup:

Chuck - Monday 8pm / NBC - A Geek Squad, er Nerd Herd, manager teamed with a hot government agent to protect the nation. Woot!
Heroes - Monday 9pm / NBC
Journeyman - Monday 10pm / NBC - about a guy who travels back in time and, presumably, makes changes that affect his life (and the plot) in the current time.
Reaper - Tuesday 9pm / CW - What if your parents sold your soul to the devil before you were born? I think its a comedy ... ;-)
Pushing Daisies - Wednesday 8pm / ABC - Ned can bring folks back to life with a touch. Of course, the downside is a second touch sends them back the embrace of death. While teaming with a detective, Ned brings back his childhood sweetheart, who he can never touch or she'll die again...
The Bionic Woman - Wednesday 9pm / NBC - A new Jaime Sommers hits the screen. They should have cast Lindsay Wagner as the "Goldman" role...
Smallville - Thursday 8pm / CW - Okay, it predates Heroes and probably paved the way for Heroes in the first place...
Moonlight - Friday 9pm / CBS - Detective gets bitten by his Vampire bride 60 years ago, now fighting the good fight as undead detective Mick St. John.

At the same time, I'd like to have a moment of silence for Day Break and The Dresden Files, two excellent series from last year that didn't get renewed... and recognize that probably 5 of the 6 new shows I listed above will not make it into Season 2.