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One of the greatest comedians of all time passed away on Sunday. He died of heart failure. He will be missed.

I have become keenly aware of the issues that face our country. I am not sure why these are not being fully addressed by those that are running for president. Until they FULLY address all of these issues I will have a hard time picking a candidate.

1. The economy - We are in a sorry state of affairs when it comes to the economy and anyone that wants to be taken seriously needs to address this issue. We need to find a way to strengthen the dollar, lower inflation and bring this country back to a world economic superpower.

2. The war and why we are there - Bottom line is that we need to be out of this conflict and fast. I know that means that Iran might invade or another dictator might take over, but at this point we can not stay and keep driving this country toward economic disaster.

3. Education - This goes without saying. We really need to move away from the PC values that are causing this countries education system to fail. The world needs ditch diggers and those that do not have ambition and drive are doomed to fail no matter what we do. So we have to prevent them from bringing the rest of the country down with them. We also need to move away from this archaic notion that everyone learns in a strict regimented fashion. I think that the brightest people learn better in a more free style manor.

4. Borders - It should be a privilege to live in this country. Those that do not want to learn the language and customs need to be sent away. If you sneak in you have committed a crime and you should be dealt with like a criminal.

5. Net neutrality - Our tax dollars paid for it once. It should be an open access system. I do not have a problem with companies trying to make money off the net, but they should not be allowed to dictate access to make more money.

6. Oil - It is high time that we come up with a way to get off oil. Stop subsidizing oil companies and put money into research.

OK, so I know that most of this sounded like a rant. In a way it is. As Americans we need to be proud of our country. We need someone that will lead us and solve these problems.

Apple filed a patent that revolves around delivery of mobile location based content to mobile users. This is a technology that I have long waited for and has the ability to change the world. First of all the idea of being able to walk into a store or restaurant and order what you want from your device, pay for it and be notified when it is ready is an awesome concept in and of itself.

The bigger deal comes when everything is wired. You walk into a bar and they know your favorite drink. You are also connected to the local matchmaking system at the the bar. You are then notified about the people in the bar that meet your criteria and that you meet theirs. How will that change the world?

What about the airport. You walk in and are instantly checked in. You are then free to walk around the airport and be notified that it is time to board. Lets say that you are on standby. You are notified if there is a slot available to you. The person that might be waiting to pick you up at your destination is kept abreast of flight status and your status so they know when they need to be at the airport and where your bags are going to be.

Now lets imagine that you check into a hotel. The hotel can make special offers to you, let you book spa packages, schedule a tour or order room service all from your phone. This will allow the hospitality industry to take service to the next level.

There are some downsides as well. This will allow more detailed tracking of your likes, dislikes, movements and habits. The question that we need to answer is if it is worth it. From my point of view, I think we are being tracked anyway so we might as well get some use out of it. What are your thoughts?

Over my years in the security field I often get asked, by people trying to get into security, what a security “person” be. I also get told, by people who are in the field, what they think a security “person” should be. I have never really written a post on it, but I have given my opinion many times. So what should a security person be?

1. Smart - Security practitioner should be able to adapt quickly and be able to learn on there feet. It is said statement, but most administrators are not fully verst in there system and a security person most know how the architecture of those systems work so they can advise and write policy.

2. A good verbal communicator - Most business people do not speak geek well at all. It is up to the security professional to be able to translate geek speak into real business terms. This will go along way in gaining points with those that can help you make your environment more secure by giving you there support.

3. Teacher - You must be able to educate people on why they should not do the things that will increase risk. And the phrase “or Hackers will get you!” does not work. For example, most people do not understand the real reasons they should chose a strong password so they need someone to educate them.

4. Social - Being social helps avoid the “unapproachable geek” syndrome.

There are some people that believe that people need to be programers, authors, accountants or various other things that they are interested in. I would like to take a few moments to give you my opinion of these issues.

1. programer - It is nice if your security person can read code, but they really do not have to be programers. I understand where this comes from with buffer overflows being a common attack, but it is not really needed. What they must be able to do is understand what they should put in policies to be audited against. Also if you do not develope your own programs in house you will put the secure coding requirments in contracts, but that does not mean you need to be a lawyer. See Smart from above.

2. authors - I believe this stems from the fact that security professionals need to be able to educate and communicate. While this is noble it is not necessary but is a nice to have. What is important is at least a decent written communication skill set.

3. accountants - This is one that I really do not understand. I guess it has to do with accounting and auditing practices, but I do not see this one as necessary either.

Keep in mind that these are just my opinions and they are open for debate. I would be interested in hearing yours.

I sometimes spend hours just thinking about how things are and trying to predict how they are changing. That has lead me to believe that we are at a very pivotal point in history. We are at that point when people start turning everything we know upside down.

You can look at this and see evidence in music. We started with a very monolithic industry. They chose the artist that we would listen to. They brought them to public eye and maintained there popularity. They also gained the lions share of income from the artist’s success. Then the internet hit. Once people figured out they could share things the turning had started. Now you have bands releasing things on the internet themselves and keeping the lions share of the money. Does this mean the record industry is dead? Well we could only hope, but the reality is they are fighting an on surge of change that is in relation to a man sticking his fingers in a damn that is about to burst. They just will not be able to hold it for long if at all.

Architecture is the next area that I see changing. Dubai has shown us the way. They are challenging all preconceived ideas and doing so impressively. This kind of forward thinking will permeate threw society and lead to a revolution of thought that I hope will be the second renaissance error.

Computing will not be left alone either. People will stop sitting at machines and producing. These computers will become parts of our lives in ways that only movies have shown today. These devices will allow cohesion between work and relaxation. They will allow our creative mind to work freely. This will be accomplished by them doing mundane tasks such as searching for new, places to eat, taking or rejecting phone calls, accepting meetings, paying bills, shopping for cloths and the like automatically. This has been called a “virtual personal assistant” and in the future we will all have them.

Education will also change/is changing. No more will education focus on what gets us jobs. It will focus on talents and interests. This will prove to be one of the great advances to society and man kind. People will be able to find there place in society far easier and will not be punished for not being good at math.

I realize these this is a lofty vision, but one that we are already encountering. The changes are everywhere and we as a people need to learn how to welcome them. Stop fearing the change and realize that it is for the best. It will be beneficial to all man kind.

Seems that this is the perception of most information security departments. I personally feel that this is a mistake. Maybe it is because I work in information security or maybe because I work so hard to not be that guy.

Ok so I admit that he did not say Mission Accomplished, but he did say major combat operations had ended. He also said that we had prevailed which to a rational person means that we had won the war. So I help this clears up some of the doubt in his defenders minds that he never said it was over. But this is just my thoughts. Lets hear yours.

I am not intending this to be an academic post in that it is well researched and polished. This is more of me just thinking out loud about what I feel.

It looks like we might be attacking Iran sometime in the near future. While I am not opposed to the idea of dealing with Iran, I am opposed to it right now. Here are the reasons why:

1. We are stretched very thin in Iraq
2. The public can not stand three wars at once
3. I do not think we are fiscally able to maintain 3 fronts at once
4. Why would we really want to do this now? Bush already has low public opinions, but does it really matter?

These are just some of my first thoughts on the matter. Do you guys have any opinions?