Simple Nomad's Blog
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13Feb2007 - Good Blog
Happy Black Tuesday. MS released a shitload of advisories this month, most of them lame, although MS07-016 has some potential. Anyway while discussing MS stuff with some friends today and generally bitching about the security industry as a whole, I was given a pointer to a blog I found to be fairly interesting - Information Sellout". No it isn't me (although I have a few ideas who it might be). Anyway I thought more than a few of you out there would find it entertaining.
09Feb2007 - Glowing Blue is the New Black
Apparently glowing blue is the new black.
After doing booth babe work for Vernier at RSA on Tuesday, I went off to the Veracode party, a launch party in what looked to be converted loft space. Don't get me wrong the place was quite nice. It was just ironic as Chris Wysopal (aka Weld Pond) the former @stake/original L0pht member was the one who invited me and is one of the principles in the new startup, so here he was launching their new product in a loft when the original L0pht started in a loft. Maybe it means good things for him and his company.
So the club was named Terra and was decorated with lots of ceiling to floor drapes and lots of glowing blue lights. Not just blue lights, glowing blue lights. The "ticket" into the party was a blue LED necklace. There was a game that involved getting someone else's glowing blue light by getting them to say the word "security". A fun little social engineering game -- all you had to do was ask people what they did for a living or what they'd been working on. The best part of the game was I got Wysopal's light -- he was talking about the book he co-authored ("Weld, what did you say the title of that book was again?" "Oh goddamnit..."). I didn't win the prize for the most blue lights, I only got a couple. Anyway back to the glowing blue. The drinks had glowing blue lights floating in them -- and it was an open bar.
Outside of the drinking with tons of friends who were at the party, what really made the party rock was the live rock music. Veracode had booked Zepparella, a Led Zepplin cover band. The band didn't try to imitate Zep's stage presence, they worked hard to perform classic Zepplin note-for-note. It probably would have been hard for them to actually properly imitate Zep in the flesh as the band was an all-girl band. While I knew part of the appeal of the band was that they were chicks (hot chicks, mind you), they carried the evening on their chops alone. When their guitarist started playing Page licks better than Page (he tended to be sloppy at times) it was apparent they were not to be messed with.
Ok back to the glowing blue thing, it didn't end at the Veracode party. At the Microsoft party on Wednesday the room was again lit with the glowing blue against white curtains. I arrived at the Microsoft party at 8pm, and after downing 3 screwdrivers was in a cab on my way to the W at 8:15pm. It was one of the lamest parties ever. A sea of dockers, knit collared shirts, blazers, and a fair number of suits. Christ. Not good suits either, your basic off-the-rack lameness you expect to find on any sales call. And there I was, in my basic black, having walked to the hotel where the party was (it was raining) looking like fucking Aqualung. It was like a Republican accounting firm showed up to the party. Obviously Andrew Cushman (the new MSRC guy and a decent person all-around) had NOTHING to do with this event. Bashes he throws are actually good.
So after having left the lame toolfest, I headed over to the wicked-ass cool party thrown by Spi Dynamics. Billy and the gang put on a great party. This affair was all black curtains, however glowing blue badges, plastic martini glasses that glowed blue, and the now expected blue accent lights. But good food, gambling with Black Jack, Roulette, and Hold'em, and the wonderous open bar. They managed to attract a ton of cool people.
The BreakingPoint product launch of their BPS-1000 on Thursday also had a bit of blue lighting with the white walls thing, but the artwork on the walls was green, which matched the front of their new box. While the box costs an arm and a leg, it promises to replace several test boxen one might already use. It is a firewall/IDS/IPS stress tester, the gui is astounding, the features are wonderful, hopefully we can buy one.
Outside of blue-lit parties and booth duty, my RSA experience was rather bland. My badge didn't allow access to the talks, so I would entertain myself spying on the competition (amazing what trading a badge with a friend with government ties will get you as you ask people questions) and visiting the few other friends also stuck on booth duty. But I did enjoy RSA, and Gretchen, if you are reading this, as one guitarist to another playing Jimmy Page note-for-note is quite worthy, especially when you play better than Page yourself.
05Feb2007 - Heading to RSA
Ok I am typing this while on the way to RSA. The week is starting badly. Lots of interruptions and trying to get packed and get 100 different things done before leaving. Don't know how successful I was, getting out of the house today was a chore between work demands and minor things like moving heavy boxes for the wife to help prepare for company this weekend. Trying to get the trash to the curb while getting phone calls from work. Everything at once.
Leaving the house didn't end the stress, it only increased. I had a 6:25pm flight, and since my schedule was destined to be fucked all week in San Francisco, I thought I better stop and get cash from the ATM before I leave so I could cover cabs. I stop at the bank (since the ATM withdrawal would be free there) and lo and behold one drive-thru ATM was out of order and the other had the Brinks truck in line for it. It was 4:35pm or so, so I figured I would look inside the bank and see what the line looked like instead of deciding to go to the airport and use an ATM there. Big mistake. What kind of a cheap bastard am I anyway, trying to save that $2 fee from the ATM?
Anyway there was exactly one person in line so I got in line for the tellers. Two were working. When one of them finished up with her customer, she disappeared on break. Fuck, not good. Oh but then the other teller finished up with her customer, and the guy in front of me gets up to the counter. Great.
Unfortunately I am one of those guys that says "just five more minutes". That's what I did. It was taking forever, and I just said shit, five more minutes and I am leaving. No such luck. And I kept saying it. Fifteen minutes after I got in there, I finally get up to the counter. The guy was having massive problems, but since the talk was in Spanish I have no idea what the issue was. I get back in the car and it is 5 fucking pm, damn I'm going to have to hurry.
Apparently a guy named Murphy crashed his car into another guy named Murphy on the freeway I take to DFW, adding a another good 15 minutes to my 19 mile commute to the airport. I get to the parking lot, get on a bus, and arrive at the terminal at 5:45pm. Of course there is a HUGE line at security. Fortunately the line was moving, but fuck. I get to the gate at 6:10 and they are already boarding. Jesus I cut this close. As a former airline employee I knew that 10 minutes before scheduled time to leave they start giving up seats of passengers that aren't there to standbys, etc. I made it by 5 minutes.
One would think that since I was on the plane, the stress would end. It didn't.
I listened a couple of podcasts and some tunes on my iPod, then got my computer out and tucked the iPod between my leg and the armrest (sitting in the exit row, the armrest is solid). About a quarter of the way into the flight, I head back to one of the aft lavatories. There is a guy in one of then with the door open, flight attendant hovering. He is puking his guts out. The entire back part of the plane smelled like puke, and you had the sound of this guy wretching like a frat pledge during alcohol hazing night. So that was ugly. The guy had puke all over himself. At one point they even announced for medical practitioners on board to come back and look at the guy. Nasty.
I come back and work on my laptop, finished my work, and decided to rock out to some tunage on the iPod. No iPod. Can't find it anywhere. I dismantle my seat, look under the row in front and behind. Nothing. Fuck. It's the 30gb video one, so it wasn't cheap.
Everyone gets off the plane, even the puke guy, and I'm still looking and just giving up when of the mechanics on board to fix something askes what I and three flight attendances are looking for. I tell him my iPod, said I had it in between my leg and the exit row armrest. He says "did you look in the tray compartment?" I say no as I never got the tray out. He opens it up -- lo and behold, my iPod is in there. When I stood up to go to the lavatory, my leg apparently pushed the iPod up which in turn pushed the hinged door over the tray open, the iPod fell in, and when I finished standing up, the lid closed with my iPod inside. Needless to say I was quite pleased and even tried to give the guy $20 as a thank you but he turned it down. I should write a letter to AA instead as having half the crew helping me look for it was really nice.
The rest of the evening was without incident. After checking into the hotel it was drinks at a bar with SHIFT Communications and Julie from Marketing, followed by drinks at another bar with Julie and all the Vernier SEs. Between that and the drinks on the plane, I had no problem getting to sleep.