Friday, August 07, 2009

Step aside yourself.

Anna Quindlen, in Newsweek, thinks baby boomers should step aside for younger people. I am not one, but I still disagree. For one thing, the perception is really dated. It presumes advancement based on seniority alone. Where is that true anymore, other than unions and academia? For another, it presumes that the younger folks are as productive as the ones they want to replace. I tell you what, in a competitive marketplace, if my company can replace me with a younger model that does more and better, and that they can get away with paying less, how long do you think I will last? Youth has its abilities. There are other abilities that come with experience. Finally, especially in light of the recession, a lot of boomers have no choice but to keep working. Maybe they need to work to just keep eating. Maybe they need it to finish putting their kids or grandkids through school.

Please, it's not right to ask people to lay down and die just to make room.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Time for the tinfoil wallet, now

Wired Online has a piece on remote reading of RFID chips. Think credit cards and door badges. It includes a link to a manufacturer of wallets lined with conductive material.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Google apps for client documents?

Over on Slashdot someone posted a question on whether he should accede to his lawyer clients' desire to just use Google Apps for docs and email.

I have been a system administrator and a security consultant. There's a couple of questions one needs to ask oneself before making such a move:
  1. How bad would it be for me if one of my documents or emails became public? Or, specifically, they got into the worst possible hands? What's my risk?
  2. What are the likely consequences to my service provider if that happens? What's their incentive to keep my data secure?
  3. What measures are available to me to secure my data? What will it cost me to secure my data?
  4. Who has access to my data?

I don't even talk about threats, here. Whatever they may tell you, your service provider is a big black box to you, and you don't know about all the holes in that box.

As a system administrator, I had access to any data on our systems. Temptation.

Information security is about making your data cost more to access than it is worth to the person trying to steal it.

Finding a job is work.

Business insider says the same thing I do about finding a job. Make finding a job your job.