The Converging Network

Blog shout out: www.Paths2Trust.com

We have another network security blog in the house. Not too far on the heals of Secure64 CEO, Steve Goodbarn, two of his technical guys have decided to join the ranks of the network security bloggers. The blog, www.Paths2Trust.com, is co-authored by Joe Gersch and Bill Worley. Joe, the head of development for Secure64, has taken the lead and started putting up some blog posts while Bill’s been heads-down cranking out DNSSEC product code.

The primary topic of their blog is DNSSEC. Both are active in secure DNS product development and I expect they’all also share some of their experiences with the standards bodies, DNSSEC adoption, and implementing DNSSEC. Both Joe and Bill have the career chops to talk tech and I’m sure we’ll enjoy hearing what they have to say not only about DNSSEC but also their past experiences in networking, RISC computing platforms (in which Bill is an industry pioneer) and other topics of interest.

I enjoy working with all of these guys as part of my Converging Network LLC business. It’s a real pleasure to see them joining the security blogging community. Take a moment to welcome them by checking out both www.paths2trust.com and www.stevegoodbarn.com. You can also check out Steve on his recent SSAATY podcast appearance.

Journey To The Last Lecture

I'd heard through many different paths about Prof. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture given at Carnegie Mellon, but like so many things I want to do, I just hadn't gotten around to checking it out. I remember hearing about his lecture on TV, seeing the book The Last Lecture when it came out, hearing others talk about it... even a good friend gave me the book to read but I hadn't read it.

Tonight, I saw an email sitting in my junk mail folder, which I check every once in a while, and saw an email from Carol Ross's blog. It was an email saying "Your turn" to share about something you're grateful for. That's an easy and a hard question for me because there's tons of things I'm grateful for, and there are 10x more things I should be grateful for but probably go on blindly not recognizing them.

Anyway, I popped over to Carol's blog, made a comment on a post and took a quick scan to see what she'd been writing about. For whatever reason, I saw a link referring to a project Carol worked on for a friend who'd passed away a while back. She'd told me about it, so I decided to pop over there and check it out.

At the bottom of the site is a small YouTube video (246x140) and for whatever reason I had a feeling it was Randy Pausch's talk. It was 1 hour and 16 minutes long, it's late, and I'm behind on the project I wanted to get done tonight. All good reasons, again, not to watch this video... just like I hadn't read the book. Not sure what possessed me to take a different path, but I decided to watch a little bit of it. It's on YouTube, I figured, so I can always go finish watching it if the video's that good.

Well. I just finished the video 10 minutes ago and it has to have been one of the best talks I've ever seen. What caught my attention first is that Randy was a leader in the virtual reality field, something that speaks to that geek and video gamer in me. But more importantly, he was born in 1960, the same year I was born. He went through some of the same childhood experiences I had, like being fascinated watching men walk on the moon on TV in real time as it happened, and experiencing a family "driving" vacation out to Disneyland, something my family did too when I was nine or so. Hearing about his gaming the system to get to ride on the "vomit comet" in order to experience weightlessness set the hook so I had to watch the rest of the lecture.

http://www.youtube.com/v/ji5_MqicxSo

Today, I had lunch with two friends who I've partnered in business with, worked with, worked for and visa versa. During our lunch, one friend, Donald, kept referring to and quoting things he said he'd learned from me over the years. I guess if I squint real hard I can kinda-sorta remember telling him those things, but not really. I told him he was giving me too much credit. I just didn't remember saying any of that to him, but I did agree with the things he was espousing. Maybe those are things that just came across in observation, I don't know. Donald's very observant that way. If I did really help him in the things he said he learned from me, well... then I'm flattered and honored he'd consider them important enough to pick up and use again. What he doesn't realize is I know I've learned 10x from him compared to anything he learned from me. At least that honestly is how it feels to me.

So, in the spirit of sharing what we're grateful for (back to Carol's email), I'm grateful for friends and colleagues who I've worked with and grown from in the process. I'm grateful for the long but completed path to Randy Pausch's Last Lecture video and I’m grateful for what he shared with me in that lecture.

If you haven't watched it, here's my opportunity to pay it forward and share Randy's talk with you.

Recession YTD, Brain Damage Already Done

It's official. We've been in a recession since December... of last year. 12 months already. CNN reports that most US recessions last 8-10 months, and global recessions average 16-18 months. Obviously we're in a global recession, which means somewhere around another 8-12 months, if history is any indication. The tangible impact of a recession are clear; layoffs, unemployment rises, downturn in spending, failed businesses, etc.

Now I'm no economic expert, don't play one on TV and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I have to ask, what additional deep damage has our federal government done by heralding the coming catastrophic financial, banking and credit crisis. By getting on TV and announcing we're facing a dire financial situation, Henry Paulson and George Bush perform the equivalent of yelling fire in a crowed theater while not owning a shred of fire fighting equipment.

Just as tangible as the impact of job losses are, economies are just as much about how we perceive them - we often describe this as "confidence in the market". If we believe the markets are going to be in the tank, they will be. It's a self fulfilling prophesy. The reverse is true when we're bullish about the economy - somehow we make our predictions come true. I believe Bush and Paulson have done us all a huge, huge disservice, making things even worse by all their aimless handwaving of warnings and non-specific dark cloud predictions.

The best things Bush and Paulson can do for the economy is to:

• stop talking
• stop appearing on TV
• focus on transitioning to the Obama administration

Blog shoutout - Steve Goodbarn

It's always satisfying when someone takes your advice and as a result I'm happy to welcome a new blogger who's decided to join us. The new blogger on the block is Steve Goodbarn, CEO of DNSSEC vendor Secure64. Steve's a client of my business, Converging Network LLC, and we've been talking about doing a blog with two of his other "more technical" executives. But after spending time with Steve it was really clear he has a unique perspective and a great deal of wisdom to share with us. Steve comes from a background as CFO of Janus Funds, so he really understands how businesses (and CFOs in particular) evaluate, assess and justify risks and mitaging costs around security purchases. Plus he's a genuinely nice guy which I'm sure others will discover as they read his blog and meet Steve at various industry events and security blogger get togethers.

Join me in welcoming Steve to the blogosphere and the community of security bloggers. You can find Steve at http://www.stevegoodbarn.com. Steve also recently appeared on SSAATY podcast episode #61 with Alan and me.

Podcast #62 - Mike Rothman goes to the dark side

Fast on the heals of our podcast with Steve Goodbarn of DNSSEC vendor Secure64, Alan and I whipped up an interview with Mike Rothman to talk shop about security and his goings on at his new company, eIQ Networks. Honestly, I thought Mike had sworn off working for another product company and would never had guessed he’d join someone from the SIM space, so you can imagine I was pretty to surprised to hear Mike found a new home at eIQ Networks. That says a lot about what he thinks about the prospects for eIQ and the kind of team he’s joining. Mike’s been a good friend to me, and many in the security world, and I definitely wish him all the best in his new role at this new company.

Just in case you are wondering, Mike is going to continue blogging at Security Incite and is also launching a corporate blog and podcast at eIQ Networks. Since social media for product companies is something I specialize in myself, I'm interested to see where Mike will take the corporate blogging efforts. BTW, if you'd like to learn more about the social media strategy and product innovation services of Converging Network LLC, please contact me directly.

Check out the podcast here. Enjoy the podcast and email us with any comments, ideas or suggestions. Blessings!

Today is World AIDS Day 2008

Seems like we don't hear very much about HIV AIDS anymore. Maybe we're over saturated with news reports, we're just numb to it, or we thought the problem went away. If you're like me, you recall hearing we've made progress and HIV AIDS isn't growing as fast as it once was. If you think the HIV AIDS problem has gone away, think again. It might not be the biggest "killer disease" in the US but it is very much a world epidemic scale problem, with AIDS killing 1.5 million in Africa and 340,000 in South-East Asia in 2007. Worldwide there were over 2 million deaths from AIDS.

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day 2008, a day set aside some eight years ago to help continue worldwide awareness of AIDS and the impact it has on countries and people across the world. Part of my business is working the companies and individuals on social media strategies to help them become contributing members of the online world where they can reach and build relationships with customers. My own further exploration into social media caused me to get into doing more things with video. I video tape and post conferences, do online product demos and reviews, and I've also dedicated some time to creating video assets for social causes I'm involved in or believe in.

This week I created a video, and posted it on YouTube, about the global impact of AIDS to help increase awareness about the disease. Once the recording project I'm working on is close to wrapping up (in the next few weeks) I'll recast the video with one of the songs from that CD.

I would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to watch this 3 minute 35 second video about World AIDS Day 2008 and an organization I support that works with orphan children in Romania and more recently Africa, called Global Hope. You can watch the video here or check out a few of my other original videos I've posted on my Converging Network YouTube channel page.

http://www.youtube.com/v/CKEdCgckU2s

Here's a link to a document from the Joint United Nations Programme On HIV/AIDS if you would like to see more information about HIV/AIDS statistics across the world.