Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Build a Better BarCamp - What Was BarCamp Philly
November 10, 2008

Over the weekend, skippy flew in to hang out with me at BarCamp Philly. This was not my first unconference, but it was my first official “BarCamp” experience.

I would like to say up front that the BarCamp Philly organizers did a great job at building this event. Of the many free events I’ve attended over the past few years, this one was the best run of its style. Kudos to them and thanks for the wonderful effort. I want to spend a little time in this post going over not just what I think they did well, but also where I think all events of this type could stand to improve, either by following their example or doing just a little bit more.

How Future Elections Will Be Decided by Social Media
November 05, 2008

I didn’t want to vote yesterday. I watched CNN last night, not raptly, but with a sense of knowing what was coming. As a sort of passive observer of the political process this year, it has been interesting to see all of the work finally play out, but I can’t help but notice that while, as usual, the election is not really about the issues, it’s also no longer about whatever nonsense it happened to be about before.

At a session I attended BlogOrlando this year, a presenter discussed his role in helping change the image of Fiskars, the scissor people, by bringing social interaction to the table to sit beside marketing and branding. In a very compelling part of his talk, he said that the challenge and success was in creating a movement. And yes, apparently, even if delicacy is required, movements can be engineered.

Why I Hate Robots
October 22, 2008

At Mike Lietz’s mention of the OLF session on using Linux with robots, I let slip the fact that I dislike robots. Really, I hadn’t thought about it much before that very moment, but the more I consider it, the more I hold it to be true.

I have fond memories of robots as a child. My 2-XL robot was one of my prized possessions. But 2-XL wasn’t a robot. He was an 8-track player in the shape of a robot. And this is where my journey into robot bait-and-switch starts.

CPOSC
October 21, 2008

On Sunday, I drove to Harrisburg to meet up with Ryan Duff at the Central Pennsylvania Open Source Convention. This was their first event, covering all sorts of interesting Open Source topics.

Of the six sessions I attended - a packed day - only two were really not of too much interest to me. That’s a pretty good ratio in general, and I suppose that had I chosen to go to other sessions during those time slots instead, I would have had more interest.

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.