Security Pie

While Sharon is busy waddling knee-deep through Phy (layer 1) terminology, another hardware/lifestyle company has released its gigantic equivalent of their iPod product, named iPad.

Somehow the glitter of lower tech color LCD screens has been noisier than Sharon’s uber technology switches. Go figure.

In a high-tech job (but also any other job) change requires to learn the new lingo. Like Obama, I like the change. I consider this fun (and I WILL change the world)…

While I’m waiting for Assaf to create the next-gen soup, here is the partial list of abbreviations and their meaning I have to learn. In some cases, it takes me 20+ years in time…

• AUI : Attachment Unit Interface, originally connected to a MAU
• MAU : Medium Attachment Unit, like a 10Base-2 transceiver.
• XAUI : A 10G AUI, the X is the Roman numeral for 10; Data path is 4×3.125Gbps Lanes
• XLAUI : A 40G AUI, XL being the Roman numeral for 40; Data path is 4×10.3.125Gbps Lanes
• CAUI: A 100G AUI, C (you guessed it) being the Roman numeral for 100; Data path is 10×10.3125Gbps Lanes
• MII : Medium Independent Interface, 4bit wide data path.
• RMII : Reduced MII, the MII but with less signals!
• SMII : Serial MII, the data path is reduced to one bit.
• GMII : Gigabit MII, 8bit wide data path.
• RGMII : Reduced Gigabit MII.
• SGMII :  Serial Gigabit MII.
• XGMII : 10G MII (this time the G made it in).
• XGXS : XGMII eXtender Sublayer.
• XLGMII : 40G MII.
• CGMII : 100G MII.
• MAC : Media Access Controller.
• PLS : Physical Layer Signaling; for 10Mbps only, implemented the Manchester encoding.
• RS : Reconciliation Sublayer.
• PCS : Physical Coding Sublayer; e.g. 8B/10B.
• MLD : Multi Lane Distribution
• PMA :  Physical Medium Attachment.
• PMD : Physical Medium Dependant.
• IPG : Inter Packet Gap; Code words sent between valid Ethernet Frames.

See also the Broadcom glossary of terms.

First, let me start stating that this is NOT a security issue with Google, even though it might be presented this way.

Unless you were hiding in a cave in the past hours you know that Google is taking some serious steps to protect its customers (you, me, all of us) after it was attacked one more time (see  ”Google on the defensive, vulnerable; China risks international and U.S. response“). Among other things, “Google Finally Improves Security of Gmail Connections as Consumer Watchdog Urged” which is great:

Consumer Watchdog said Google should use encryption for connections to all its Internet-based services, not just Gmail.The new security measures would not have prevented the sort of cyber attack that targeted Google from China. It does increase security to prevent third parties from snooping as information moves from a computer over a network to Google’s servers. Google has offered SSL encryption using the https protocol as an option since 2008

But if you look on the  the screenshot you can see that NOT all the traffic is encrypted… While this might be OK for static pages, who knows what other pages are not protected with SSL? Why can’t you turn it on for the entire site? It will add more credibility and assurance…

HTTPS by default - not so sure

Victor Stampfer knows something about cooking. At the end of his long book he lists this knowledge clearly and articulately:

Cellulose hydrolysis above 120C
Cooking vegetables to hydrolysis pectin and starch > 85C
Pectin Hydrolysis 85C
Cooking vegetables to hydrolysis (starch only) 85C > > 80C
Starch solubilization and hydrolysis 80C
Myofibrilar proteins and myoglobin alteration (loss of waterholding capacity; color is definitely altered) 68C
Cooking of –
– braized, sauteed, steamed or boiled meats
– roasted white meat
– fish
Sarcoplasmic protein alteration (modification of the perception of color) 62C
Cooking of –
– just cooked fish < 62C
- red, roasted or grilled meats <62C
- rare 56-58C
- medium rare 58-60C
- medium well 60-62C
- well done > 62C
Beginning the destruction of vegetative forms of bacteria 52C (careful of spores!)
Bacterial growth, spore germination < 52C

It is really all you need to know to cook some of the best meals of your life.

Since the Fluffinator is a very geeky coffee project of mine, I have posted it on home-barista. Those of you who happen to own a Mazzer Mini E grinder and are somewhat disappointed with the quality of its grind will find it very useful.

All the rest of you won’t, but may appreciate the level of myopic focus invested on diminishing returns exhibited by the people involved. And then some of you will disapprove and comment on the injustice of it all and that half of the world is hungry. Well, that is the half that picks the coffee that both you and I drink. So there – life is not fair.

More details at http://www.home-barista.com/grinders/mazzer-mini-e-grind-distribution-improvement-mods-t12954.html#p156133

At the end of every quarter, there’s this magical moment: its best time. If you are working in a sales or sales support position, you are probably connected to your mobile email device working 24×7 on getting this next deal… Lots of adrenalin in the air. It’s fun time. Unfortunately, RIM’s Blackberry network is down. In other words, no-mail-for-you…

Some BlackBerry customers in the Americas are experiencing delays in message delivery,” RIM said in a statement. “Technical teams are actively working to resolve the issue for those impacted. RIM apologizes for any inconvenience experienced by customers.”

The outage is the second for RIM in that past five days. For several hours on Thursday, users were once again not able to receive or send e-mail messages. RIM did not provide any details on what caused the outages on Thursday or Tuesday night.

Googling around, you’ll find several outage reports. Few are during this time… while it’s clear that it is only a coincidence it proves again that there’s never a good time for an outage…

So in an effort to better understand the future by reading about the past, and out of respect for Uma, I am reading a famous handbook for Samurai swords by John M. Yumoto.

In the book, Mr. Yumoto discusses the issue of counterfeiting, which apparantly rampant througout Japan at the time the swords were made. “Smiths often used friends’ names; apprentices used masters’ names and sons would use their fathers’ names.”

He quotes a legend from the smiths of Bizen Province:

The village in Osafune, in Bizen province, was known for its swordsmiths. One day Kanemitsu (金光), one of the town’s leading smiths, was enjoying a moment of rest in his shop. He suddenly found himself listening intently to the sound of the chisel of his neighbor in the shop next door.

Angrily he arose, dashed next door, and seized the sword on which the other smith had been chiseling a name.
“You were putting my name on that sword,” said Kanemitsu.

The other smith admitted that he had been doing so and apologized. “How did you know?” The guilty one asked. “Were you watching?”

“No” answered Konemitsu, “but I was listening. You used a greater number of strokes than was necessary if you had been writing your own name”.

Real Samurai use real Kanemitsu swords

A few weeks ago I gave a talk at an ISSA webcast about the importance of monitoring for data security. The Bizen province legend is a great example of monitoring data usage. Somehow, it is oddly comforting to know that data monitoring would have been as important to 14th century swordmakers as to modern day business owners.

/al

Finally a real reason to go through the headache of switching a phone company, get new apps and test ‘em. The folks at JVC developing VHS understood that. Sony did not get it at first

There is a claim that adult content was not available on Betamax (possibly because Sony would not allow it) while it was becoming readily available on VHS. Whether or not this was really a factor is a contentious topic….

(read the sotry how VHS format won here)

But then they did…  The folks at mikandi get it for sure. The killer application of all times – porn, now at a screen next to you.

There are still some open positions at the company. But beware, if you are self-righteous, ignorant and/or annoying please do not apply.

Regardless of your religion and belief, Happy Holidays!

It's all about the pie

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.