Security Pie

Our Google ranking must be higher now. Otherwise, I can’t explain the increase in the amount of spam (via comments) that Securitypie.com is receiving. It might be Assaf’s recent rant on Google and Windows or maybe that we are now running a newer version of WordPress.

Whatever the reason is, we are getting much more spam. Some of it is lame, other (though few) is more sophisticated. In the future we should publish the best spam messages….

The wine industry (as we are told) is in crisis. At a recent conference (Vino2010 in New York) a group of panelists discussed the future of luxury wine (see the excellent read at http://www.vinography.com/archives/2010/02/the_future_of_luxury_wine.html). I, for one, am happy. Prices are falling. Not neccessarily for the uber wines, but very decidedly for anything else. I can walk into wine shops and pick up decent wines that in 2006 were asking for very unreasonable prices.

It is a buyers market, and picking the wrong wine is no longer a very costly mistake. It literally take me back to the 90′s, right before (and perhaps as) the asian and US markets conspired to jack up the prices of wines. Now that both the Asians and Americans lost their funding sources, they stopped paying exorbitantly for wine.

This is so good. The bubble has funded extensive knowhow in wines. How to extract as blockbuster a wine as possible from newly planted berries: and make a killing in the process. So there are many great wines out there. And they have no buyers, so some great ones sell for 30c on the dollar. Their future prospect is questionable: They may fold, they may redo their business model, who knows. But for now, run out and get them!

Now I do have to watch the calories, though…

I came across a document that was published few months ago describing Israel’s IT market in 2009.  I’ll let the readers decide if they accept the analysism but as a service I would like to point you to another source of information based on STKI’s summit presentation which is quite detailed.

I’m interested to hear your feedback on opinion.

Finally a bold contester for the “big bucks spent for nothing in a marketing movie”, “what did they think” and “you are so cool. NOT” categories.

Someone from the Windows 7 marketing team thought that the following movie would be funny and interesting. Well, it is not. Personally I feel so stupid spending 6:14 minutes trying to understand if there is a hidden message. I even tried to run it backwards and looked at other movies in this channel, trying to determine if this is indeed an original / legal 
Microsoft publication (it looks legit).

They got the cast right: a young and an older women. The stereotypical geek and a black person (humm, is a real black person? ) but what about the plot?

WTF?

According to a new Proofpoint study of 220 leaders at American companies with over 1,000 employees, 38% employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the content of outgoing email, compared to 29% last year. Why the big increase in surveillance? 34% said their businesses had been affected by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information, up from 23% in 2008.

Dear outbound email reader. While you are reading my emails, can you look into the way I write my emails? Simply correct any spelling and grammar mistakes.

Thank You!

I’m sure that I asked for it in the past, and there might be a Feature Request somewhere…

Silicon’s Alley Dan Frommer thinks that Twitter is attracting “normal people” from real life , “not just other nerds on the Internet”.

I disagree.

I can’t argue that Twitter is gaining popularity but I argue that it is used by “normal people”. See, I recently joined the crowds and started to twit. Thus far, it distracted my blog(s) and some other activities…   Yes. it is becoming addicting.

Now at the holiday season I find it to be an anti social tool. According to my family’s tradition we reach out to our friends and families, wish happy holiday, visit and reconnect. Twitter is the antimatter of real life social networking: One sends (very short) messages, typically not waiting for an answer and expects in return to maintain the relationship.  In the past we had to (at least try to) work hard in order to maintain a meaningful relationship. Calling, sending emails, visiting.

As much as I enjoy it, I see it more as a research tool or a communication protocol, similar to SMS but more efficient. 

Drop me a line. I’m listening (on Twitter…) 

Assaf wrote about the need to have a consistent message. Let’s remember that it is even more important to set the right message.  Using Rafael’s “one of the worst marketing movie”  as an example:

If you believe Rafael’s marketing director, they are pretty consistent in the way they think about marketing movies:  ”We try to make the movies about the place where the defense expo is located,” the company source said, adding that in previous years Rafael had won prizes for its pavilions and marketing techniques. 

Whether you think that the movie is bad and wrong or just not according to your taste, it proves again that there’s no bad marketing.  Just look at the youtube counter. 116,000 and growing..

 Picture taken few days ago on HWY 280 north, not far from Palo Alto.

Add Your Caption Here

After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well.

Is it a gimmick or a genuine attempt to change the environment? Will we see other manufacturers adding “holes” to improve energy consumption and go green? 

I like the marketing advantages, not to mention the “in the press” section:

It is not possible for us to keep up with all publications about the Ecofont. If you happen to read an (English written) publication about the Ecofont, please let us know. Thanks in advance. 

See more here: http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html