Category: Personal

Posted on

Visiting Las Vegas for McAfee Focus 11 security conference

Four weeks from now I’m flying to Las Vegas for McAfee’s Focus 11 security conference, 18 to 20 October 2011. On their tab, obviously.

Vendor conferences must have a keynote speaker that has nothing to do with the industry. Focus 11 is no exception. We have… Richard Branson. WTF?

At this stage the plan is that I’m heading to San Francisco first, since McAfee want me to visit their corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley before heading to Vegas. Then once the conference is over I intend to spend a couple more days in Vegas and do the day trip to the Hoover Dam and perhaps the Grand Canyon, and then spend Saturday night in Los Angeles since the only part of that city I’ve seen is the airport.

Mind you, I’m told that Los Angeles is shit.

Any other suggestions for things to see and do near Las Vegas?

Posted on

Recording in the streets of Kuala Lumpur

I decided to record this week’s Patch Monday podcast in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, so I chose Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang, a street lined with hawker food stalls.

This is a frame grab from a Flip TV video camera, so it’s a bit rough. But I hope it conveys some of the flavour of the moment.

I’m speaking into my Zoom H4n recorder and its Rode Dead Kitten windscreen, reading the script from my battered old MacBook Pro. The nearby family seems bemused.

The finished podcast will be posted on Monday is Crims come to the net: expert and patient.

[Update 12 September 2011: And here’s a video.]

Posted on

Metronidazole and Kuala Lumpur

OK, so I haven’t even posted a Weekly Wrap and it’s already Tuesday night. However the abscess on my left jaw flared up again on the weekend, and I’ve been put on more serious antibiotics, including the rather nasty metronidazole (pictured).

So, as I write this, I’m about to board Malaysia Airlines flight MH140 to Kuala Lumpur for a couple of days of Kaspersky Lab’s reportedly-generous hospitality — and I can’t have a single drop of alcohol lest I become immediately and seriously ill. Look it up. It’s true.

Bugger, eh?

More news once I touch down in KL…

Posted on

Visiting Kuala Lumpur for Kaspersky Lab

Just 10 days from now I’m flying to Kuala Lumpur as the guest of Kaspersky Lab, the information security company. It’ll be my first time to Malaysia.

The event is a briefing for Kaspersky’s partners and the media in the Asia-Pacific region about their new Endpoint Security 8 for Windows product, due for release in October.

The event itself is Thursday 8 and Friday 9 September, but I arrive early on Wednesday 7 and fly out late on Monday 12, so I’ll have three or four days to explore the city.

Any suggestions for what I should do and see?

As an aside, I’ve actually met the founder, Eugene Kaspersky. We were seated together on the panel discussion Is cloud secure enough for business? at the AusCERT Conference on information security. He’s everything you’d expect a Russian billionaire to be. However I’m fairly sure he won’t be at the KL event.

[Photo: Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, by Amber de Bruin, used under a Creative Commons BY license.]

Posted on

Script Challenge sees new breath of life

Image of Script Challenge text: click for full story

After another gap of more that six month, my Script Challenge is being tackled by a couple more people.

Can you figure out what’s said by this unknown piece of writing?

It’s a quote from a novel by Ursula LeGuin.

Feeling clever? After all, it’s been four years and now at least eight people have tried — but none have succeeded, despite the many clues. I’ve added three more clues just now.

[I’ll close off comments on this post so that all the discussion stays with the original article.]

Posted on

Visiting Melbourne for IBM’s Pulse 11

I’m heading to Melbourne this week to cover IBM’s Pulse 11 for ZDNet Australia. The event runs 27 to 28 July at the Crown Promenade, although I’ll be flying down late Tuesday afternoon and returning on Friday.

“Pulse is your premier event for accessing the solutions and expertise that can help your organisation transform the way it designs, delivers and manages business services,” says the promo material in a sentence remarkably free of concrete nouns. About eight pars in you’ll discover that it’s about things like managing cloud services and making sure your IT systems are secure and compliant with regulations.

I simply do not understand this corporate aversion to being specific.

It’s my first trip to Melbourne in about five years, so I’m looking forward to it. I’ll have a little free time on Thursday afternoon and evening, so do feel free to make suggestions.

I’m attending Pulse 11 as a guest of IBM.