The Ashimmy Blog

Black Hat yes, DefCon no, Bsides maybe

Well it is that time of year again. The pilgrimage to Vegas for Black Hat, Defcon and this year security Bsides. I will be at the StillSecure booth for a bit and checking in on the presentations that interest me.  Of course will probably also be around town with the usual suspects enjoying the views. I leave Thursday night, so will not be at DefCon. I definitely want to stop by the Bsides security event and am looking forward to seeing what that is about.

If you are out for the show please stop by and say hello. If not, will do my best to blog about the scene so you won’t miss anything.

Not so clear no more

I was very saddened to receive the following email this morning:

 

Clear to Cease Operations

 

 

Dear Alan Shimel,

At 11:00 p.m. PST today, Clear will cease operations. Clear's parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.

After today, Clear lanes will be unavailable.

Sincerely,
Clear Customer Support

While I thought Clear was going to make security quicker because of the background checks and identification information, it didn’t. In fact you still went through the same security process, so why bother with all of that information. I was nevertheless pretty grateful when I skipped long lines (especially at Denver) at airports. It really was sort of a “super-first class, premium passengers line”. Hey I admit it, I liked it. 

I guess at the end of the day either they just couldn’t get enough people to join and bring on new airports quick enough.  That doesn’t mean that there is not a market for this kind of service. I think Clear just had a very expensive business model.  Someone will figure out how to do this cheaper and better and they will be successful at it. 

In the meantime I am pissed about two things:

1. I just renewed my yearly membership last month for $194.00!

2. I am flying out of Dulles this afternoon and was counting on using the Clear lane to not have to wait on the usual long afternoon lines at Dulles. Now I have to leave earlier for the airport!

 

 

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Down in the Big Easy, where livin’ is good and Oysters are cheap!

Image by Diva Eva via Flickr

Was down in New Orleans for the SANS show. Tonight I stayed at a hotel near the airport and went to a local seafood bar & restaurant for dinner. When I saw fresh oysters at 6 dollars a dozen I’ll admit I was a bit afraid.  But after seeing a few trays of them go by to other tables, they looked so good I couldn’t help myself. I ordered a dozen and boy were they good!  They were snow white and really fresh.  I scarfed them down along with some soft shell crabs and the whole bill was like 20 dollars.

I just won’t be able to pay 15 bucks a dozen anymore without thinking about being back down here.

US Air used to be the worst, still is!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

When you travel as much as I do, you get a good feel for which airlines, hotels, rent-a-cars, etc. are good, bad or indifferent.  As I have said before, none of the airlines are really good, but some are certainly better than others.  However, no doubt US Air is at the bottom of my list as possibly the worst airline out there!  This was underscored for me today again and is a text book example of why some companies just don’t get business. Unfortunately some of these same companies will be lining up for bailouts from our tax money.  While I hate to kill domestic industry, but frankly some of these companies, like US Air should just not be in business with the service and business practices they embrace.

Today’s episode is a case in point. I usually try to avoid US Air like the plague. However, with United no longer flying out of Ft Lauderdale or West Palm Beach, sometimes I don’t have a choice.  In the past when I did have to fly US Air, I would use my United Premier information as US Air and United are both Sky Team members. For this year I decided that I would use my US Air dividend miles number to give US Air the business for staying in my market and build up my status. 

Today was my first chance to fly on US Air under dividend miles this year.  When I checked in they wanted to charge me 15 dollars for a checked bag. I told the agent that I had not paid to check bags before this.  She informed me that it was I had used my United Premier number and so the fee was waived.  I said OK, lets use the United number again and I will keep my 15 bucks thank you.  I explained to her that US Air was losing business from me from making me use my United numbers. I would continue to use United and Delta (where I am platinum) and would use US Air only when I had to.  She saw the business sense in this and asked me to call the dividend miles number, explain my situation and they would honor my status on United and give me similar temporary US Air levels as long as continued to fly US Air.

I called US Air and the agent on the phone told me she would very much like to do that. If I paid 250 dollars and promised to fly 7500 miles in 90 days. I told her that if I flew 7500 miles in 90 days they should pay me and to keep their status. I asked for a supervisor, who when I explained the situation told me that honestly she came from America West where they would do this all the time to gain a frequent flyer, but US Air just didn’t do this kind of thing.

So no US Air for me.  They had a chance to gain my business even though they charge 2.00 dollars for a bottle of water.  As a business they just don’t get it.  I just hope my tax dollars don’t go towards bailing them out one day.

What I did on my holiday vacation

Image via Wikipedia

OK gang, I am back and looking forward to 2009.  Hey it can't be any worse than 2008 can it?  Anyway, when I last wrote my family and I were saying goodbye to our dog Jake.  We had planned a short trip on New Years day and as it worked out, it was good for all of us to get away from the house which just seems empty without Jake. 

We were planning to go to St. Augustine and then stop at the Kennedy Space Center.  It turned out to be a great trip.  For those of you not familiar, St. Augustine is actually the oldest city in North America (settled by Europeans anyway).  Originally "discovered" by Ponce de Leon in the early 1500's while looking for the mythical Fountain of Youth, St Augustine was already a city 50 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.  There is a ton of history to visit and tour dating from the 1500 and 1600's all the way through the late 1800's and early 1900's when the city was the wintering grounds for the Vanderbilt's, Whitney's, Rockefellers and so forth. My oldest son Landon is learning about the history of Florida in school this year, so this trip we toured a lot of places he learned about.  It was very educational and cultural for all of us.

Stopping at the Kennedy Space Center brought out the kid in me.  Seeing the rockets, the capsules and all of the space program history had me dreaming of becoming an astronaut again.  We had lunch with Story Musgrave, who flew 6 shuttle missions including a space walk to repair the Hubble Space telescope.  The space center folks have done a great job making this a real fun destination for kids and adults alike.  We stayed a second day because we could not take it all in one day.  If you get a chance, Kennedy Space Center is a great place to visit.  Also our space program is really one of the crown jewels of America. I am going to write more about that in another post.

This was our first vacation where it was not waiting on one line or another to go on a ride or sitting at a pool or beach.  I have waited years for the boys to be old enough to appreciate an educational trip like this. I am really looking forward to more of these kinds of trips in the years to come!

Now back to work and security and making 2009 a year to remember!

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Back from Christmas, but on my way out again

Image via Wikipedia

Just wanted to drop a quick note that I have not abandoned the blog.  Just really busy with Holiday stuff and end of quarter/year business.  New Years Day I am taking the family on a mini-vacation for a few days here in Florida, so will be AWOL again.  Lots of big news though coming up in the next week or two around both the Security Bloggers Network (check out the site for some of the new look) and some news with StillSecure as well.  Stay tuned and Happy New Year to all of my readers!

Delta steps into big brother role, do they belong there?

 

Image via Wikipedia

I for one was pleased to hear about Delta Airlines plans to start offering wi-fi access on domestic flights.  I figured being a platinum medallion member there is a good chance I may even get access for free. I frankly was worried about security while logged on in the air. In a "closed" environment on the plane a malicious individual could play havoc with folks whose security settings may not be up to snuff.  But what makes logging in on the plane any different than logging on at the airport?

Now comes reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a follow up in ComputerWorld by Mike Elgan, that Delta will implement some sort of content filtering application to make sure that inappropriate web sites are not accessed while on the plane.  This raises several issues in my mind.  First of all what makes Delta the judge of what is appropriate or not.  Second isn't it a bit imbecilic that they may prevent access to pornographic web sites, but have no problem with people running a porno DVD on their computer.  If keeping smut off the plane is the goal, what difference does it make if it is via the web or on a DVD? Lastly, what happens when inevitably the filtering solution blocks a legitimate web site?  If I paid for that access and was unable to access what I wanted and it was a legitimate site, is Delta going to refund my fees?

It seems to me that when Delta steps into the role of big brother and is going to regulate what I am allowed to see, I am having to conform to their views on what is normal.  If I am paying my own hard earned cash, as long as it is legal, Delta should not have the right to filter me. I want to make my own decisions.  I also think that this is a case where the market will take care of itself.  Peer pressure will stop people from viewing smut on the plane better than Delta's big brother censors.

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Continental Airlines, keep the turkey sandwich and give me my luggage!

So this has turned into another classic Shimel road trip. In fact this post could actually be three different posts, but for the sake of sparing you all, I will condense it into one. I am scheduled to participate on a NAC panel tomorrow at the ITLA conference in Grapevine, Texas. I am on the panel with JJ and some other folks.  Not wanting to kill the week, I scheduled myself to fly in tonight and fly out tomorrow afternoon after the panel. 

Airfares are out of control, so instead of a non-stop I booked Continental through Houston out of Ft Lauderdale.  This is the third time I have flown Continental this year.  This is the second time they have lost my luggage!  For an airline who prides themselves on not skimping on service, they have not impressed me for sure. In fact I think they are the worst!  Frankly, I don't need their soggy turkey sandwiches.  How about just getting my luggage to where I need it.  Now, I have to speak at 11am tomorrow and am hoping my suit shows up on time.  Otherwise, I am appearing in shorts and a t-shirt.

But wait, if that is all that happened tonight, it wouldn't be that bad.  I go to pick up my rental car at Alamo/National. I purposely rented a mid-size car, so I don't have to pay for some gas guzzling monster.  They charge me for a mid-size and want to upgrade me to an SUV for free. I say thanks but no thanks, at which point the counter person comes clean and tells me that they only have SUVs left.  I felt like I was talking to a GM or Ford exec. Isn't it the same problem.  We want cars that will not leave me listening to a giant sucking sound as they guzzle gas and all they have for me are SUVs. If I wanted to rent an SUV, I would have rented one! 

I am not done yet though.  This is a Shimel story after all.  I get lost on the way to the hotel and what is supposed to be a 15 minute drive turns into 45 minutes of driving around.  It stops when I see flashing lights behind me and a spotlight shining in my eyes.  The friendly, considerate Grapevine police officer after hearing about my luggage, being lost and an out of town businessman was kind enough to give me a speeding ticket for doing 58 in a 45.  Great!

I finally get to the hotel and when the clerk asks me how things are going. I tell him don't ask.  I request some toothpaste and stuff.  He gives me a package and hopes I don't mind using woman's deodorant as that is all they have.  At this point, I am just done, stick a fork in me.

What to do? I am in Texas, it is almost midnight.  I think of my friend Ed Cavazos.  Ed is an attorney who I worked with at Interliant. He reads my blog and occasionally even comments.  Ed is a life long Houston guy, but had to move to NY for Interliant.  When I would come back to Texas with him, he would take me to What-a-burger.  It really made him feel like home.  Ed would even sing the What-a-burger theme song when we pulled into one of these joints.  So, I went to What-a-burger and drowned my frustrations and sorrow in a patty melt.  Now I am sorry I did, the grease is just too much for me!

Ah, the life of a road warrior.  Why the heck am I even speaking at the ITLA conference anyway?

When your flight is DOA

Last night I wrote about my first day of this weeks road trip and my hotel which doubled as a funeral parlor. Now it is Wed night and I am live blogging from the runway of DC Regan-National airport, on board a Delta flight which has been on this same runway and not moved for the past 2 and a half hours. 

I say I am live blogging this, but of course you are not live reading this.  That is because I have no way to upload this to my server.  You see the iPhone 3G for all the coolness, has no Internet sharing that I am aware of. My old windows mobile phone had Internet sharing and if I still had that you would be reading this live right now.  But no, not with the iPhone. 

I was scheduled to connect in Cincinnati right about now.  I am obviously missing that connection.  I was flying from there to Columbus and driving about an hour and half from Columbus.  I have a 9am meeting tomorrow.  So unless I feel like renting a car and driving 4 hours whenever it is I land, I am pretty much missing my meeting tomorrow as well. 

What to do?  a). Should I break out of this plane, run to the terminal and try to get on a flight home to Florida  b). Go postal or c). Grin and bear it and try to remember that I love what I do and that is what flying in the summer is all about (actually that summer thing is full of beans, it is no better in winter with weather either!).

So here is the update, we sat on the runway for 4 hours!  Finally took off and landed in Cincinnati at midnight. I had no connection.  Could not get a flight out in the morning, not rent a car and most hotels sold out. I am writing this from the coffee shop of the lovely (and I do mean lovely) Drawbridge Inn. I will miss my meeting in the morning and am booked on a flight home tomorrow.  Ah, the life of a road warrior!

When your hotel does funerals

So another week, another travel nightmare.  This week I am in the DC area for a few days, than flying over to Ohio and then back home.  Staying in the DC/Northern Va area I made hotel reservations through our corporate Expedia account (which is now called Egencia BTW). Though it is fine for airline reservations, I regret it every time I make a hotel reservation on Expedia.  This time I reserved a room at the Virginian Suites. I had never heard of it, but it was only $158, which is really cheap for around here.  It had 3 stars and sounded good, so I booked it.

I arrived tonight and as I pulled up I have to say that I thought I made a good choice. It is a converted apartment building and every room is actually a studio type of apartment. It has free parking and is located near where I have meetings in Arlington. I gave my name at the desk and they had my reservation, looking good!  I was given keys to room 707 and headed on up.  I got to room 707 and tried to open the door.  No luck, the keys didn’t work. After a moment or two of trying to make the keys work, the door opens and the guy who is staying in the room wants to know what I am doing trying to get in. Well I was reminded of an old Robert Schimmel comedy routine and ran away from there as fast as I could. 

I went back down to the desk and told them what happened.  The woman at the desk apologized, she meant to write room 700, not 707.  While I am waiting for her to correct this and issue new keys, I am looking at the schedule of events at the hotel today.  That is when I notice that one of the main events of the day was a someone’s funeral!  Thats right, it seems the hotel is used for funerals in the area.  That just freaked me out.  Now I am getting Six Feet Under deja vu here.  I don’t know, call me squeamish, but I just don’t feel good about staying at a hotel that doubles as a funeral home. To top it off, the Internet access here sucks. It is so slow that I am watching the paint dry.  Maybe I should go down and catch a funeral or two while I wait for a page to load.  In any event, I think this will be the last time I stay here.  I just can’t wait for what the rest of this week brings!