After the 3GI/RSA collapse happened a little over 3 years ago, I often said that my experience there had been the worst thing that could have happened to me from a work perspective. It was such an amazing work experience that nothing could ever live up to it. I hope that I now have an opportunity to prove myself wrong. Yesterday I turned in my resignation to the College of William and Mary. I have had the chance to work with a great group of people and it was a very hard decision for me to make, but I knew if I passed up this chance I would regret it.

The soul of the Williamsburg 3GI office was Kit Letchworth and Tom Barr. They got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago and invited me to join them for a presentation. They were looking for a group of developers to form the core of what will become the east coast office for PC Guardian Technologies. As far as I can tell I am employee number 3. Although I don’t technically start until May 1, I have already begun the recruiting effort to get people I think would be good fits for the organization. I’m having mixed success, but since I have never done this before, I’m relatively pleased. Between a few former 3GI folks and people I have met through my CS classes at W&M I think we will have a good start.

I get to play a similar role to what I did at 3GI; I will be doing software design and architecture as well as being the entire IT department. It is a role I really enjoy as it lets me play with lots of different things. At the beginning I expect the IT role will be dominating as we need to get an office up from scratch; everything from wiring to servers to computers for all the developers and test staff.

So, there you have it. The cat is out of the bag. And in the immortal words of Tom Barr: “This period of relative inactivity is coming to a close.”

Security no match for theater lovers

“Claire Sellick approached a woman in London’s tony theater district with a clipboard and a chance to win tickets to an upcoming show. All the woman had to do was answer a three-minute survey on locals’ theater-going habits. Or so she thought.

The first question was easy. ‘What’s your name?’ Next came questions about her attitude towards the theater, with more personal inquiries interjected now and then. For instance, the survey company needed the woman’s date of birth (to prove she was legally able to win the seats) and her mother’s maiden name (for later verification) and her address, of course, to mail the tickets if she won the drawing. What about a phone number? Her pet’s name? The name of the first school she attended?

At some point, the woman began connecting the dots. ‘I work for a bank and this information could be used to open a bank account.’

‘Yes,’ Sellick responded.

The event director for the Infosecurity Europe trade show recalled with incredulity what happened next. ‘She then proceeded to give me all her details!’”

ARRRGGGHHH!!!

I just got three new CDs, so I thought I’d post theme here among the other stuff. I’m listening to the Bloc Part EP right now. I heard the main track, Banquet, included in the free BitTorrent download that SXSW offered for all the artists performing this year. This download was free and included over 750 songs (2.6 GBs) from all variety of artists. Very cool.

The Thievery Corporation CD, Cosmic Game, was a given, I have loved all of their work since I first heard them in DC at the ACLU Members conference two years ago. I had heard a few tracks via KCRW and I wasn’t disappointed.

The last CD, Phantascope by Anubian Lights, I honestly don’t remember where I heard it. My guess would be KCRW, as that is where I hear almost all of the new and progressive stuff I do (not much in the way of that from VA stations).

So, there you have it. Let me know if you actually want to hear any of this stuff

OK, this post just cracked me up. I guess I’m in a weird (and posty) mood this evening. Could be the new music (see previous post). Hopefully posting this doesn’t violate some fucked up Virginia law. Probably does; good thing I have the VA ACLU on speed-dial.

The Stranger’s new formula for Personals

And just to clarify how I got to this article: The Urban Archipelago linked to The Stranger which linked to the above article.

I haven't been doing such a great job of posting what I've read lately, so here is a quick update.

Exploiting Software was a pretty good book that had quite a few odd coincidences with one of the authors (he is the CTO of the company some friends work for and in reading the foreword, I realized a guy I knew in college also worked for the company). The book was generally pretty good; it was definitely very technical and complete in it’s coverage of the topics. I felt it got a little bogged down in details near the center of the book, but it picked up by the end.

I'm about halfway through [Smart Mobs](/cgi-global/amazonbounce.pl?isbn=0738208612&assoc=gothmogstolkiena) and I am finding that the writing is a little inconsistent.  There will be sections that I just can't put down and others that are painful to make it through.  Aside from that though, the subject matter is quite interesting.  The way in which mobile computing is effecting the social structures over the last 10 years is amazing.  At this point at least, I'm glad I picked it up.

Apple has added what is arguably the worst music ever to the iTMS.

AsianMack Super Filter: Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner

For the non-RSS crowd out there, you are already aware that these pages don’t quite look the same. The RSS folks can look if they care. I was getting a little bored with the old layout, so I made some changes. Nothing drastic, but a little more subdued. Comments welcome.

Wow, my brain is just writhing with the possibilities. As has been said on a few other sites, this is the exact thing the internet was designed for. Whether it will work or not is to be seen. Basically it is an open market for individuals to pool money to lend money out to other individuals; no bank involved. The lender sets the amount of risk he is willing to take, and the interest rate he will offer.

Zopa - The first lending and borrowing exchange

I just finished reading Ken Grimwood’s Replay. This in and of itself isn’t particularly interesting. The notable fact though is I started reading it less than 12 hours ago. It isn’t that often I come across a book so enthralling that I just can’t stop reading but this one definately got me. I found myself having to consciously slow down because I wanted to find out what happened so badly I was starting to skim whole paragraphs.

I know I can’t do the story justice, so I won’t try to give any kind of summary, but I highly recommend it.

I will hardly be the first person to recommend The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria’s book on the politics of democracy and freedom, but I wanted to add my vote. I am hardly an expert in government and politics and have rarely found books on this topic that I care about deeply even remotely interesting. Zakaria does an excellent job of making his topic approachable. In reading the book I had many “ah-ha!” moments as observations and points he made clicked with things I had half observed came into focus. In addition to the history and perspective the book gave me, the critical point I think he makes is that there is a difference between democracy and freedom in a country. Both are needed, but one does not imply the other. Nor is freedom without democracy necessarily a bad thing (and sometimes is a good thing).

Good book. It will make you think. Go read it (assuming you are into thinking, that is).