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Friday April 28, 2006

When I rule the world...

Ok, whinge time!

Most of you will probably have read the 'If I were an Evil Overlord' stuff. It's great. If you haven't it's here.

This occasionally gets me to thinking... (when I'm in a bad mood) What kind of people would I totally irradicate from the world if I was in charge and having one of my Evil Overlord tempers? A quick blast from a star trek style phaser, no mess, no hassle... ;-)

My list goes thusly so far, please make appropriate suggestions! Let's tidy up this planet! Bwah ha ha ha ;-)

People who pierce bits of their body (exceptions for women with earrings, but only one set allowed)
People with tattoes
People who swear (exceptions for people who almost get run over by a truck or similar near death event or appropriate reason)
People who say "Nufink" instead of Nothing
People who don't understand what is wrong with "I didn't do nothing."
People who don't understand what is wrong with "I could of been there."
People who drive SUVS/4x4s to take their kids to school
People who wear anything from FCUK
People who don't laugh at my jokes (forced laughter not accepted, must be the genuine article)
People who use mobile phones on trains (in fact anywhere near me when I'm in a bad mood)
People who answer their phones when talking to me
People who are late for meetings
People who sit next to me on trains when there is a seat available somewhere else
People who take too damn long using ATMs/Electronic Ticketing Machines
People who are ahead of me in the queue at the supermarket
People who snore on trains/planes/buses etc...

That'll do for starters. Who would you remove? Doesn't have to be fair, equitable or even justifiable, remember, us Evil Overlords have carte blanche!

*** For the humour impaired. THIS ISN'T TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY OK?!! ***

( Apr 28 2006, 05:48:40 PM BST / Apr 28 2006, 05:34:37 PM BST ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/when_i_rule_the_world

Last bit from Infosec 2006

Well, my fingers are back and healed now on my trusty laptop. Thought I'd share a few pics I took on my mobile at the show. Just wilt at the stunning quality of the built in camera. (I use the word camera in a very loose fashion...)

It was madness on the 24th (day before), this pic shows the state of the place during the afternoon before the show. Utter chaos, cables everywhere, bits of debris, paint, nails, screws, hinges, you name it, miraculously transformed for the following day...

Sun didn't have it's own stand (yes I know, we ask the same question), so we were fortunate to be able to piggy back on our bon amies 'ActivIdentity'... Naturally, our EntireID proposition was on display (which contains some ActivIdentity stuff)

It was a big show, virtually all the famous names were about and a bunch of folks I hadn't come across before. Stuff on display included a lot on anti-virus, firewall, VOIP, ethical hacking, server security, card management, encryption, but nothing really new and funky. Looks like a year on consolidate to me..

Coolest piece of technology? Well, nothing really jumped out at me, but these two fellows were quite amusing. Walking around in a moody fashion with dark glasses, struting around like the management, but never saying a word. They had backpacks with big speakers and modified laptops fitted. The screens were on a big pole that came out of the top of the backpack to an LCD panel above their heads... thus they advertised around the halls.

There were also some fluffy bunny girls, but damn, the mobile camera was too slow at reloading! ;-)

( Apr 28 2006, 05:21:44 PM BST / Apr 28 2006, 05:19:29 PM BST ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/last_bit_from_infosec_2006

Thursday April 27, 2006

Report from Infosec 2006

Well I promised you a report from the show if they had wireless access and guess what, they don't - unless you have a credit card.

So, I'm typing this on a kiosk terminal which is about as user friendly as a ZX81. Hence, this will be short. I'm having to jab the space bar so hard my fingers will soon start to bleed...

Some major themes running through the show from an Identity perspective...

Compliance! - Everyone and their dog can help you with this. Nobody can tell you exactly what they're complying with...

Auditing! - See above.

Risk Mitigation - See above.

Too many products and not enough thinking. Everyone agrees there is a big opportunity/problem, but no one can say exactly what it is. Could be worse though, at least I'm not at a labour party conference right now...

( Apr 27 2006, 02:37:46 PM BST / Apr 27 2006, 02:37:46 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/report_from_infosec_2006

Monday April 24, 2006

Infosec 2006

Will be off to this shortly as it runs from Tuesday to Thursday this week (25-27 April). Should be quite interesting this year as they've got everyone from hackers to vendors and everyone in between coming along to speak.

If they are civilised and provide wifi access, I'll give you an update from the showground...

( Apr 24 2006, 09:08:56 AM BST / Apr 24 2006, 09:08:56 AM BST ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/infosec_2006

Wednesday April 19, 2006

Karate!

Took this up as a bit of addition exercise for the new year. My wife and 5 year old son have been doing it a bit longer and have already achieved their orange belts. I recently got my yellow one, so now feel I'm in the club.

In case your interested we're doing a variation of Shotokan and the belts run thusly:

White
Red
Yellow
Orange
Green
Blue
Purple
Brown One Stripe
Brown Two Stripe
Black.

The journey from white to black takes about five years with reasonable commitment, so I've sent myself a target of getting a black belt before I'm 40. Scary thought! It's quite a challenge, as the level of flexibility and fitness is quite a lot higher than most other sports I've attempted. However, I'm pretty fit, and it's fun during the warm up sessions to see all the teenagers collapsing at the side of the Dojo and whinging when old Greybeard is still going... ;-)

I'm under no illusions that I'm going to be a sort of mid life Bruce Lee, more a sort of "Crouching techie, hidden consultant" I suspect.

All I want is to be able to jump into a room and shout "Small Tree!" ;-)

( Jun 21 2006, 11:14:15 AM BST / Apr 19 2006, 05:34:58 PM BST ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/karate

Proud Dad thing...

Big round of applause please!

My 5 year old son Mark has just learnt to cycle without his stabilisers. Very proud of him obviously, cool to see as well as he managed it for the first time, screaming his head off with a curious mix of enthusiasm, excitement, wobbling and downright terror. ;-)

OK, he's still got to master the "starting and stopping without falling off and crashing into passing pedestrians or nearby vegetation" aspects of the task, but significant progress made I feel!

A big milestone in his life!

( Apr 19 2006, 05:18:32 PM BST / Apr 19 2006, 05:17:24 PM BST ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/proud_dad_thing

Thursday April 06, 2006

Office Shenanigans...

Been a bit lax with my whinge of the week (whinge of the last two months!), and the blog in general, but I've been busy, yada yada, excuse, excuse... ;-)

My current pet hate is my wonderful colleagues, can I say that on here? Well, I'm going to. They're not that bad really...

It's just stuff like when you agree to help someone, and you agree to produce a document or similar. Fair enough. Then you read the email summary of the meeting and find that what you agreed has morphed into something much bigger. Grrrr. Solution? Offer to write the minutes. (Evil Grin - Bwah-ha-ha!).

Also the classic non technical evaluation of a technical thing, along the lines of....

"Yes, we can do that!"
"By and large it's straight forward."
"The technical team will be able to give you that immediately."
"Your product has an API does it? Great, no problem then."
"Nothing much has changed, we don't need to retest it."
"How difficult can it be?"

Of course, us techies try to give sensible, intelligible and above all, realistic answers to these questions and attempt to clarify the grey areas, which results in...

"You're being a bit negative aren't you?"
"We all need to be team players."
"I think we're all violently agreeing with each other."
"I don't do detail."

Has anyone got a sure fire way to kill a cliché? I'd love to know!

( Apr 06 2006, 01:37:46 PM BST / Apr 06 2006, 01:37:46 PM BST ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/office_shenanigans

So it's a voluntary ID Card then...

Fascinating to see that the ID Card has finally made it onto the statute books...

More interesting is the government's definition of the word 'Voluntary'. If you were reading this story you wouldn't believe it, truth really is stranger than fiction.

I don't have to have an ID Card though, which is nice, however, if I plan to holiday overseas I'll be signed up for one anyway. Right.

In analysis, then, unless you are a conscientious objector, your info is going on the NIR, regardless. I can't see many of the great British public choosing not to renew their passports. (ID Card brings down Ryanair ;-)

Of course, you could renew your passport before 2008, when the NIR is supposed to be switched on. But they've thought of that. ;-) So, if it's going to happen, what do we have to be concerned about? Are ID Cards really that bad?

Well, IMHO, the card is a bit of a red herring. It's the NIR that's the issue, the so called 'Central Database'. Most of the scare mongering around this has been the idea that there will be a 'Central Database' with all of your info in it. Most people are talking about this as if somebody is going to set up one big database (choose your favourite - SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc) on a huge big machine somewhere. This is kind of easy to imagine and get your head around, and it's described as such in the bill, but it's not going to be a technical reality. The 'central' database invisioned in this bill is really going to be a huge collection of separate databases, interlinked in various ways by keys, encryption, hashing and joins. There isn't going to be a www.bigcentraldatabase.gov.uk for the hackers to hit.

Of course, that's not to say that the 'central' database won't be a target, it will. What the next step is is what does the information architecture for what needs to be stored look like? Is it virtualised, how are different systems cross referenced, what divisions of data, management and storage need to be designed? How will information be compartmentalised? Questions, questions.

It might also be handy if somebody could explain exactly what this information will be used for, and how it might benefit Joe Bloggs who is going to asked to stump up £80 or so for it, when a passport or driving licence happily identified most of us quite nicely. This assumes that the ID Card won't be helping with online authentication. As I write this PKIs are not in scope for the card; but this is subject to change without notice... ;-)

It's kinda of inevitable that this system is going to happen now, (though whether it stays once it's implemented is up for debate though), but the design of the NIR is the next big thing. I want to be pretty much convinced the NIR design is a good one, otherwise I'll just have to be 'a fool' as Mr. Clarke would tactfully put it...

( Apr 06 2006, 01:04:18 PM BST / Apr 06 2006, 12:54:58 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/so_it_s_a_voluntary

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