I'm blogging this from the hospital, while I wait for my wife and new daughter to be allowed to go home. I spent a bit of time reading through my back log of blog entries and this one popped up onto my radar. Add/XOR/ROL - Halvar denied entry in to the United States
That type of garbage just makes me want to leave the US. What a horrible situation for one of the best info sec researches in the business. It makes me believe that the system is just horribly broken. When there are more people sneaking in to this country that we can shake a stick at, and a legitimate consultant can't get in to give important training to help keep our country safe, something is broken.
Guest writer WXS here (shameless plug)... With one typo I blew away the old Lauren entry and am now putting this one in it's place. My apologies but I sometimes suck at life. Anyways, TXS called me and asked me to put the picture of Lauren that he took online, so here it is. She's a healthy baby girl weighing 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches long. Congratulations to Tyler, Kelly and Logan.
EDIT: Additional pics can be found at My Flickr Account
Yes I'm a Harry Potter reader. Yes I've read all of the books and seen all of the films. Yes I've pre-ordered the book for arrival this Saturday to my home. Yes Yes Yes. I'm all of the above, guilty as charged. Now let's get past this fact and move on to the interesting essay.
In my searches for a pre-release copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" I came across a fantastic essay discussing why J.K. Rowling has created the character Snape in the fashion that she has and the buildup and ultimately predications of the essay author as to Snape's part in the final book of the series. I won't discuss them here in case people don't want to be swayed regarding the possibilities of the final novel, however please feel free to make comments regarding your thoughts on the essay in the comments section.
The essay is by Orson Scott Card who is best known for his work on the Ender books. This isn't just another fanboi creating his ideas of an essay, this is an established and well known author, who is familiar with the fiction creation process, discussing what ultimately sounds like a real ending to the Potter series.
I enjoyed this 23 page read immensely and highly recommend it to anyone who would like a glimpse into the thought process behind creating such a complex series of characters and novels.
Today has been a very interesting day. I've been up to my ears in advisories, found out my body is the age of a 40 year old (and I'm only 32), and that the California Franchise Tax Board are nothing but a pain in the arse.
Tomorrow is patch tuesday for Microsoft and I'm coordinating a vulnerability that will be released tomorrow. It's unbelievable the amount of work that must go into the "responsible" public disclosure of a vulnerability, especially one that is a biggie like this one. I didn't find the vulnerability myself, however I am one of the leads of the vulnerability release group for my organization and as such am tasked with organizing and running the process of disclosure. Trust me when I say that companies like iDefense and TippingPoint are doing a GREAT service for the researcher out there, and paying them to boot!
Releasing an advisory is an insanely complex thing. Not only do you many times have competing interests at stake (finder vs. vendor), but you also have to take into account the best interest of the general public regarding the disclosure of a particular issue. Add to that the business issues of being part of a large security consultancy and the fact that the vulnerability may have been discovered in the course of work for a client on a product that isn't even THEIRS!. Talk about complex. Then remember that you have a HUGE IT shop internally that may be using this product and want to be patched on day one coupled with any PR fallout that may happen, and you have sufficient evidence that vulnerability disclosure can be an exponentially growing headache. At least the next few in our release queue aren't as PR heavy as this one and should be a lot easier to get out the door.
On a "not so lighter note", I also found out that my body is the body of a 40 year old, when in reality I'm only 32. While I saw it coming, this definitely stings a bit. On the bright side, I know what needs to be done to fix the problem and am tackling it head on as we speak. Hopefully in a year's time I will go from 40 years old to somewhere near 33. Not everyone can say they are getting younger every day and really mean it! Otherwise, I'm just hoping not to kill myself in the process.
Finally a big FU to the California State Franchise Tax Board. From all of the hard working people out there you can just eat my ....
A little humor to finish this post:
This is the best book dedication I have ever seen! Pedram rocks!
Thanks Jeremiah for digging this link up.
The following is a quote stated today from Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert. Not only is he spot on, but he has supporting reasons to back up his comment.
...I'd point out that most of our information about the war comes from the generals. All leaders are unreliable. A general would be fired immediately if he said the surge was a bad idea. And if a general believed the surge might succeed, even as a long shot, he'd be a crappy leader if he told anyone his true assessment of the odds. So you can't believe the leaders.
This also applies to the business world. Your leaders can't be trusted. I'm not saying you should go out there and defy them, argue with them, or generally disagree with what they are saying, but that you must take a look at the activities that color their world view and understand that what they are saying is often times what must be said and not reality. Be sure to take everything you hear with a grain of salt.
Since I haven't blogged in over a week, yet again, I feel obligated to at least post something for my loyal reader (note no s).
