Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

How to be Transparent About Security Issues
October 18, 2008

It was bound to happen to Habari eventually, right? And in the dark recesses of my mind, I’m happy for two reasons. First because at last we merit inspection by “security consultants”. Second because we are staffed well enough to have addressed the issue within a reasonable amount of time. But some questions have arisen about how to handle security announcements, and there are distinct sides on the issues.

People are going to publish security notices about your software whether you want them to or not. Sometimes there is altruism at work - people want others to know that something is unsafe. Sometimes it’s open malice - people sharing secrets of how to exploit software for their own malicious uses. In either case, as a software author, you can’t control what people say about you, and specifically what exploits in your software they expose to the world. So in the end, security exploits result in more spin control than controlling the information.

Lost news
October 17, 2008

While reading an old Entertainment Weekly magazine earlier today I discovered something I didn’t know about that Janet Jackson Superbowl nipple slip debacle.

As you will recall, a couple of years ago MTV was put in charge of the Superbowl halftime show, and they presented some crazy spectacle involving Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. In what would later be referred to as a “wardrobe malfunction”, Timberlake removed part of Jackson’s costume revealing parts that aren’t fit for prime time public television.

Whether the incident was planned or accidental isn’t material to this topic, although I will say that I’m in the camp of those who are all for nudity on the public airwaves provided that there is some way to determine what shows to avoid watching if your preference is not to be shocked by seeing a half second of exposed female breast. Regardless, CBS, the network that aired the game and halftime show, was fined something like $500,000 by the government for the public’s exposure to indecency.

What’s interesting – or disturbing, depending on how you look at it – is that until I read this small blurb in the legal news column tucked away in the front of the Entertainment Weekly, I did not know that a federal court in Philadelphia had revoked this fine, saying that the network couldn’t be held responsible for this accidental incident on live TV.

Surviving The Long Haul
October 06, 2008

Alex and I have been going back and forth in comments over the areas of our interest that overlap. In his recent post, he asks, “how long can organic communities self-moderate?”

I admit that I haven’t read the Starfish and the Spider, although I did just one-click it into my Kindle, so it’s doomed to suffer my analysis. Nevertheless, I had some comments about how leaderless organizations can thrive, particularly in open source communities, of which I happen to be a part of a couple.

Catfight
October 02, 2008

Since Berta took our cats to the vet last week things have not been right around our house.

I guess they got some strange smells of other animals in their snoots while at the vet’s office, and it woke them up to the world outside. But the world outside is not really the problem. Since they’ve gotten home, they’ve been literally at each others’ throats.

Conclusions Drawn
September 21, 2008

I’m currently at the airport in Las Vegas, awaiting a flight that starts boarding in 45 minutes or so. I figured I would take the time to write this now, because if I don’t then I’ll just say “forget it” like I always do, and then literally forget everything.

While I was in Las Vegas this weekend, I visited Blog World Expo. I don’t even really know what Blog World Expo is. I mean, I know what it’s supposed to be, but I’m not really convinced that it is what it purports.