StillSecure, After All These Years

God took me off the grid

I had every intention of blogging during the long holiday weekend. Catching up on email and work at some point was on the agenda as well.  However, this morning in the middle of email my laptop froze up.  I could not do anything with it and so had to power down.  On start up I got a missing media notice and it looks like my hard drive went kaput.  Luckily my Windows Mobile phone has everything I need to stay connected. Email, typepad blog platform, etc.  Well we went to my family in Hollywood Beach for a fireworks display and BBQ tonight.  I left my phone in a backpack, so I would not take it in the beach or water with me.  Great, it rained, the backpack got soaked and my phone is down now too! 

So I think it is God telling me to go off grid this weekend.  I am writing this on Bonnie's desktop machine. The kids are staying with my cousins and Bonnie and I are headed down to Key Largo for the weekend.  I have her spare pink Razor with my Sim card for phone calls, but that is it.  No email, no computers, no blogging!  Speak to you all Sunday night or Monday, enjoy your weekend!

Hopefully, I had one article written scheduled for tomorrow morning. I hope it publishes.

On braces, baseball and Fathers Day

Image via Wikipedia

So it is quite an exciting Fathers Day weekend here at the Shimel house.  On Friday my oldest son Landon, 8, had braces put on his top teeth. I know that 8 is early for braces, but evidently today they do this as a "Phase 1", so that hopefully he won't need them as long later on.  Seeing my little boy come out of the room with braces was quite a sight.  Unlike the trauma that kids had about braces when I was younger, he thought it was awesome.  The picture to the left are not his braces.  Landon's are black and gold, Steeler braces. In 6 weeks they will change them to Yankee blue and white.  Braces have certainly come a long way since I was a kid.  But my son Landon has come a long way too.  Looking at him with his braces and talking to the office staff I realized that the little, fuzzy red headed baby we brought home from the hospital almost 9 years ago now has grown into quite a boy. Where is the little toddler that I would toss a sponge ball to underhand and tell him to use two hands to catch? Could this kid with the catchers mitt catching everything I throw at him and firing it back to me be that baby? 

Saturday is a day filled with both boys. I am taking Landon and Bradley to breakfast and than off to Baseball City to practice our hitting and pitching. Then Bradley has a birthday party he is invited to and Landon and I will go swimming.

Sunday Landon has a travel baseball team game at 10am.  Landon was selected for the team because of the great season he had in Little League and is now in tournaments for the next few weeks. Than we are all going to visit my Uncle and Aunt for Fathers Day at the house near the water with a pool.

I could not think of a better way to spend my Fathers Day weekend. My mother-in-law always used to say that she was the richest woman in the world because of the treasure that were her children.  When I was younger I laughed but would have taken the cash.  As I have grown older and have had a chance to watch my boys grow up and have come to understand what it truly is to be a Father, I know that she was right.  There is nothing like the love of a child and watching, helping and sharing in their adventure that is life.

To all of you celebrating Fathers Day this year whether as a Dad with your own kids or with your own Dad, congratulations and savor every minute of it. Happy Fathers Day!

Long holiday weekend

I am really looking forward to a long holiday weekend with the family. We are driving up to Orlando to stop in Disney World and SeaWorld. Going to check out the new water park they opened there called Aquatica. It has water rides unlike any we have ever seen. A day there and two days at Disney should have the kids in a great mood. Lets see what kind of mood it leaves me in. Waiting on long lines in the sweltering heat is not a lot of fun, plus I can only imagine what it is going to cost to fill up the gas tank to drive up there!

Anyway, won't be much blogging going on this weekend.

Its Mothers Day, be thankful you have a mom to call - so do it.

Mothers Day is always a tough one for me. My mom passed away 25 years ago and though time has passed to cover up a never healed wound, every Mothers Day the scab is torn off a bit and the regret and pain ooze through. Having our kids celebrate Mothers Day with my wife has made it better, but nothing takes the place of your own Mom. Fred Wilson reminded me of that today with this post about a Tom Friedman piece in the NY Times today.

Tom just lost his mom last year after a long bout with dementia it seems. She was 89. Tom reflects on her remarkable life and how she influenced him to be what he is. Can any of us say any differently? Weren't all of our Moms special to each of us. Isn't so much of the people we are today directly related to that woman who raised and nourished us? Of course. So on this day honoring Mothers everywhere, if you are lucky enough to have your Mom available to thank, do so and don't miss the chance because you never know when you might not be able to.

Happy Mothers Day Bonnie and to all of you mothers everywhere!

Where is Shimel?

Sorry readers if I have been slow on blogging but with end of year/quarter work and kids on vacation, blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.  But I am back and hopefully with lots to say.  I spent lots of time at Disney World with Bonnie and the kids over the vacation.  The kids had a ball, even though Orlando had record low temperatures.  We frooze! I won't bother with a top ten list, but my least favorite thing about Disney is lines. I hate waiting on line for everything from rides to food to going to the bathroom.  For the money you pay there, you shouldn't have to do it!

Anyway, holidays are over, the kids are back in school and I am back to blogging.  Stay tuned.

Cats in the cradle and other New Years thoughts

"Warning: non-security post" One of my favorite songs as a kid was Harry Chapin's "Cats in the Cradle".  Maybe because my parents were divorced and my dad was not around, the song struck a chord with me.  When I grew older and got to know my Dad I was struck at the many similarities between him and I, in spite of the fact that he was not there for the formative years in my life.  I am sure as a result of that experience I try to savor every moment with my own two sons. 

We were sitting and reflecting at dinner tonight about New Years and as I often do I was telling the boys a story.  I usually make up one that ends with a moral lesson.  Tonight as I was coming to the moral punch line in my New Years story when my oldest son Landon, 8 years old, looked up at me and said, "Dad, you could sum this story up by saying that half a meatloaf is better than none".  Anyone who knows me knows that I am always using corny analogies like this, so I was laughing to myself hearing Landon say that. 

As soon as we were done with dinner my youngest son Bradley started complaining that Landon had not given him enough time on their Wii video game.  Landon looked at him and said, "I went outside to give you time to play Wii while I was gone, it is not my fault you didn't play.  Dad I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make him drink". At that point the words from the song, "My boy had grown up just like me" rang into my head.  It made this New Years special and caused me to reflect on all I have to be thankful for watching these boys grow up before my eyes.

I am thankful that I have been able to spend the time with both boys these past years. I wish I could spend more time with them and hope to in the year coming up.  But I reflect back on the growth both of them had over this year and am amazed.  Much of the credit goes to my wife Bonnie who is home with them all the time and puts so much love and effort into raising them.  They say children make it all worthwhile.  I have to agree, sometimes just taking a step back and realizing it makes the wonder of it all almost overwhelming. I look forward to many more New Years with them.

Happy New Year to you all and enjoy every minute with your own families and loved ones!

Happy Thanksgiving

Not sure who is reading blogs today or tomorrow, but to those of you (you know who you are) that have taken the time to check in today, from everyone here to all of you and yours, have a happy, safe and secure Thanksgiving!

In case you have been wondering, here is a link to an article on why we eat turkey for Thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

Great holiday weekend, but does anybody care about Labor Day anymore?

Like most of you, I had a great holiday weekend.  Spending time with Bonnie and the kids, swimming, bowling, movies, BBQ, tennis, etc. Watching a little bit of the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon (another big year for Jerry's kids, I hope it will lead to some breakthroughs). You could get real used to three day weekends couldn't you?  Sitting down tonight to finish editing this weeks podcast, I was thinking a bit about the idea of holiday weekends.  It seems that Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend have become the bookends to the beginning and end of Summer.  On Memorial Day, I think most of us get it that it is about a day of remembrance for all of those who have given life and limb so that we may live free.  I am not sure how many of us actually take the time to reflect on that during Memorial Day though.  But I would venture that more of us do that, than take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Labor Day.

For those who may not know Labor Day was set aside as a national holiday in 1894 to commemorate the organized labor movement in this country.  Through ups and downs, depressions and boom, the American labor movement thrived. In its heyday in the 50' nearly one half of all US workers  belonged to unions.  Of course that seems now like ancient history and no one can argue that labor unions have as much influence or relevance as they once did.  I remember being younger and many older folks arguing passionately about the good or evil of unions.  You don't hear that much anymore. Instead, maybe the holiday should celebrate the American worker who strives to be more productive and competitive in this new flat world (check out Friedman's book in the left column) we must all live in. 

In any event it sure is nice to have the long weekend, no matter how you feel about labor unions, American workers or anything else.  If you are interested in more on the topic, former Clinton Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich has a good blog article up on this subject. I also found an interesting article along these same lines from the Kansas City Star's, KansasCity.com.  Maybe next Labor Day or before, you can take a moment to think about America's laborers and what the labor unions meant to the people of this country.

Are we entering an age of the private equity bubble?

Was just reading two pieces of news today.  One was that Hilton Hotels is being acquired by the Blackstone Group, the private equity group that recently had an IPO. The other was that KKR, perhaps the king of private equity filed for a 1.25 billion dollar IPO as well.  In the tech world, the private equity boys have already made more than their presence felt.  Now with the public markets finally starting to open up again to tech companies, does the private equity market represent a viable alternative or will we see that bubble burst like so many others before it?

I don't know, but I do know that some people will make a ton of money and a lot of others will get in too late and loose. I have seen this movie before and know how it ends.  But that is capitalism I guess and that is what makes our country go round.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

Summer of Love/Fathers Day

Enjoying the Fathers Day weekend with my sons and wife.  We took the kids to their first concert Saturday.  Delray Beach had their Kindness Festival, featuring a salute to the "Summer of Love" 40 years ago. It was an outdoor affair in the Old School Square and had cover bands featuring music from Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix. We caught the Dead and Doors bands in between dinner on Atlantic Ave..  The kids loved the festival atmosphere and where even bopping to the music.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time, but whereas when I was younger I would not have minded people smoking pot at an event like this, with my kids there I found it upsetting.  Interestingly the many young people there were not the ones smoking the dope. It was the old left over hippie types.  I made sure they stayed clear of the kids, but funny how being a dad changes your prospective on those things.  Anyway, it was fun for all of us and I think the kids will remember it.

Today the boys woke me up to give me my cards, t-shirt and book they bought me and after Mom cooked breakfast we are off to their choice place, the water park (it was either that or bowling). Doesn't really matter where we go, enjoying the time with the kids is great.  I try to remember they won't be this age forever so stop and take the time to enjoy it while you can.  Good advice for all of us.

Happy Fathers Day to all of you celebrating and enjoying being a father or spending time with your own father!

Non-work article - Holiday weekend with family and friends

Nothing like a long holiday weekend to recharge the batteries.  Even though I was out in Vegas last week with Bonnie, it just didn't feel like a vacation.  Probably because it wasn't.  I was booked and busy all week with Interop related activities. Anyway, spending the weekend with the family and friends was a great way to deflate and get ready for June.  We really didn't do much. Saturday was spent with the kids doing some gardening and landscaping around the house and then swimming. Saturday night we had a great dinner at a new Greek restaurant here in Boca with our friends Bill and Dori Gerstein.  Then more swimming and parties with the kids on Sunday, topped off by a trip to the water park with the Gerstein's and their children today. Not even a sub-par dinner at the new Outback Steakhouse that opened near our house could ruin it.

One sort of work related thing, was a good conversation I had with Bill about H-1B visas.  Bill is a great immigration attorney and spends a lot of time on H-1B's.  Bill says that the tech industry is single handedly eating up all of the H-1B's and we need to do something about this.  He does not understand why Congress just does not allow more H-1B's if the demand is there.  As a result, either you have the possibility of folks working illegally or of jobs being outsourced out of the country.  Makes sense to me.  You can read more about this on Bill's blog here.

5767 years and still learning

OK, forgive me as I am going to blog about religion here, with nothing to do about security. So if you are not interested please don't read any further. One of the complaints we hear about organized religion in general today is that it just doesn't adapt to the changing times. We hear young people have faith, but are not turned on by going to church and synagogue. My friend Mitchell Ashley has made tremendous progress against this at his church, where Mitchell leads the church band playing contemporary Christian music at very progressive services.  This "Christian Rock" seems to have made Mitchell's church very successful in attracting young people and getting them involved in the church. 

Growing up Jewish, I don't remember our local Synagogue being a place that really seemed to be "with it".  My perceptions of all this changed today when I attended my 5 year old son Bradley's pre-school Seder at Temple B'nai Israel in Boca Raton. For those who don't know, a Seder is the traditional Passover meal and with Passover starting Monday night, they had a mock Seder at the school today.  I was amazed at how they used technology and media to make it relevant and fun for the kids.  First of all everything was put on powerpoint slides and projected up on the wall so everyone could read and sing along.  The graphics accompanying the words and lyrics were great and gave the kids something to look at.  Next the words to many of the songs and prayers were put into new melodies.  There was even some hip-hop/rap type tempos with prayers for words.  While I thought my grandmother, god rest her soul, would be turning over in her grave had she heard this, the kids were really into it.  They were up and dancing and reciting the prayers.  All of the pre-recorded songs were actually on an iPod that was plugged into the rooms stereo system.  Other songs were sung and played on guitars live in the room.

Instead of being told just sit there and behave yourself as I was as a child, here the children were encouraged to indulge themselves and enjoy the festivities.  The adults and children put on hats and costumes, used finger puppets and other props to act out the story. What was the real pay off for me, was that the kids liked it so much, they actually learned and knew the whole Passover story of Moses and the Ten Commandments.  It was very heartening to see that after 5,767 years the Jewish religion is still growing and adapting to stay relevant in our turbulent times.

In this holiday season, whether you celebrate Passover or Easter or some other holiday, peace and good wishes to you all.

Happy, merry and healthy holidays

Bonnie, the kids and I leave today for a 10 day vacation to NYC and surrounding areas to visit family and friends and show the kids the big city.  I don't think I will have much time to blog, so don't expect too much content between now and the first of the year.  Maybe our end of year podcast, if I can find time to edit it.

So to all of you from me, have a merry, happy and healthy holidays and here is to a great 2007!  Thanks for reading my blog and listening to our podcast.

The Farnum who stole Christmas - Bah Humbug!

My friend Michael Farnum, is I know a good person.  Though we have never met in person, from the many times we have spoken and exchanged emails, I know Michael is a straight shooter with a good sense of humor and most of all takes his responsibility as a security professional very seriously.  However, the road to hell or in this case to Christmas is paved with good intentions gone bad.  Michael has crossed the line here with his article about how companies should be responsible Internet community members, by stopping their employees from online shopping with company resources.  I think he is off base here and using all the wrong reasons to justify his position.

Really, it comes down to two reasons to limit employees online shopping during the holiday season.  The first is a productivity issue.  This is not the business what so ever of the security or network admin. This is strictly a management decision.  Personally, if someone is not abusing the privilege, I think there is nothing wrong with letting an employee use the companies internet connection to do some online shopping.  The alternative of shutting it down, I think will do more to hurt company morale and spirit and wind up costing you more in productivity.

The second reason is for security purposes.  Frankly, I see some merit in this.  But if you have defenses in place, I think you have to give more credit to the user that they are not going to do something totally stupid.  On top of this, I think it is more than potential phishing attacks which you have to be careful for.  Are they downloading any spyware, key loggers or botnets.  However, good security in place for this type of malicious traffic should do the trick here, without having to prohibit online shopping.  I have not seen enough evidence to allow the security arguments to outweigh giving the users the right to surf for holiday shopping.  Of course I would monitor to make sure no one is abusing this.

In any event, what really ticks me off are people who really want to limit on line usage by employees for productivity reasons and hide behind the security issue to justify it.  Releases like the one by St. Bernard that Michael refers to are the perfect example of this.  They don't make a clear case for either productivity or security but try to lump them together with a little FUD thrown in.  In any event, come on Michael, show your Christmas spirit and keep the employees happy!  Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Christmas ;-)

Happy Turkey Day

Not sure who is reading blogs today or tomorrow, but to those of you (you know who you are) that have taken the time to check in today, from everyone here to all of you and yours, have a happy, safe and secure Thanksgiving!

In case you have been wondering, here is a link to an article on why we eat turkey for Thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

What is the average persons experience?

Being involved in the computer and Internet industry for many years I sometimes forget and so do probably many of you, what the average persons user experience is like with their computer.  This point was driven home to me again this weekend.  For the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashonah, we went out to relatives for dinner both Friday night and Saturday night (Happy and Healthy New Year to all of those out there that celebrate the holiday).  On Friday night we went down to my cousin Jeri and her husband Danny's place in Bay Harbor.  I tried to get on Danny's laptop to show my uncle something and was amazed at the amount of virus warnings, spyware, expired security software and how damn near impossible it was to use this machine.  When I asked Danny he didn't know how this stuff got so out of hand but was ready to buy another computer. I asked him to let me give it a try.  First thing I did was remove the programs generating pop ups for expired software.  The biggest offender was a product called Virus Burst.  I am not familiar with this product, but it is in my opinion, spyware itself with the amount of garbage it throws up on the screen and the constant reminders and such.  Then he had Norton which was flashing in a endless loop that it had found spyware and viruses but could not remove them, just quarantine.  Then there was a shareware spyware program, plus the garden variety odd spyware an viruses on the computer.  I downloaded Windows OneCare and deleted everything else.  I then ran a full system scan and cleaned or quarantined most everything up.  Finally, after almost 2 hours it was running fairly well. If I did not come by and clean this up, the computer was hosed.  How many computers out there are hosed without someone like me to come by and clean it up.  How many average users out there are forced to use their computer like this?

My answer came the next night at my sister-in-laws house.  Our niece from Colorado was in town and wanted to show her My Space page.  She loaded up their machine and after a bunch of minutes asked her Aunt why the machine was so slow.  I thought it was a dial up connection, but it was in fact a cable modem.  I had a look and sure enough it was not the connection but the fact that the CPU was pegged running so many garbage programs.  Again, some good housekeeping put this right.  Is this the average?  Does everyone depend on the family computer geek to come over and make it right?  This is why we need to make security easier.  This is why we have to put automated defenses in place that will allow every computer user to have a better experience.  We sometimes forget how the things we take for granted are so complicated for those who don't spend their lives in IT.  Everyone should go to a relative or friends house every once in a while for a dose of reality!

Father's Day with Fudgie the Whale

Growing up as a kid in NY, the best ice cream around was from Carvel.  This was of course before Hagen Daz, Ben & Jerry's, Cold Stone and the like.  There was an old man named Tom Carvel, who would do local TV commercials for the stores.  One of the big promotions was, "get dad a Fudgie the Whale cake for Father's Day".  They were a great ice cream cake shaped like a whale with chocolate crunchies and fudge on top.  It became synonymous with Father's Day.

There is one Carvel store down here in Boca Raton. I often take the boys there for ice cream for dessert.  A couple of weeks ago they had some fudgie cakes in the freezer and I showed them to the boys.  Today, Bonnie and my sons brought home a Fudgie the Whale cake for Father's Day and we had it for dessert.  It had melted a little because it was so hot out, but it was delicious. My youngest son Bradley, who is an ice cream monster, was really psyched. It was the cherry on top to a perfect Father's Day with my two sons and wife.  To all you father's out there and to those who take the place of a father to others, here is to you.  Happy Father's Day!

Holiday time

Since my blog has become more officially part of StillSecure, I have tried to cut down on the personal side of postings.  But with the holidays upon us, I wanted to take the time to acknowledge them.  We celebrated Passover these past two days with lots of good food, great family and friends and good times.  Passover in many ways is my favorite holiday.  It signifies Spring and brings back many memories of my childhood.  I really enjoy seeing my children partake in the traditions as well. 
Anyway, whether you celebrate Passover, Easter or something else, I wish you a happy holiday season.

The downside of RSA

I was reading Brad Feld's post today about our SC magazine award win when I cam across another post he put up on Valentines day.  After spending the obligatory 10 seconds thinking what a great holiday that would be, I lamented my own dilemma.  The RSA show is the highlight of the security industry year.  However, every year it is either over Valentines day or worse during my wedding anniversary on February 25th.  Two years ago, I was so consumed with business stuff at the show and with the time difference, I did not even call Bonnie to wish her happy anniversary.  I am still paying for that one.  This year, though I called and wished her a happy Valentines Day and sent a romantic e-card, I probably screwed up by not sending flowers.  On top of this I came home empty handed with no card or present and I am again paying the price.  In the future either the RSA folks have to be more thoughtful in their scheduling or I have to take Bonnie out to the west coast with me.

What do you have to be thankful for?

In a lot of ways Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.  New Year's is always a bit melancholy for me, Christmas is nice, but anti-climatic sometimes and July 4th is always a lot of fun.  But Thanksgiving, kicking off the holiday season, the long weekend off and the concept of being thankful for all we have been given always seems to do it for me.  This year in reflection, I am again truly amazed at all I have been blessed with this year. Some of the highlights include:

1. Some recent good news we received regarding a friend of ours health. She had been battling an advanced breast cancer and things look very promising
2. The continued growth of my children and the wonder that my kids inspire in my every day. 
3. My wife Bonnie being the good mother and friend she is
4. The continued success of StillSecure in the market as we continue to build the company into something great
5. The many friends I have, both old and new, who continue to make it exciting for me and share in life's adventures.

I urge you all to take a moment and reflect this weekend on all you have to be thankful for and pray that next year we are all thankful for even more blessings that we continue to enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving!