Hectic Eclectic

Know anyone with a connection to PSYBT (The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust)?

Folks...   PSYBT on linkedin... now with 140 members

Almost a year ago I posted a link to the PSYBT site I had set up on linkedin.  Well we had 64 members then and now have 140.  More than doubled but if I'm honest I had my heart set on a random number somewhere between 500 and 1000 and so 140 is pretty poor to my money.  So I need your help...  The Trust is looking to reconnect with other PSYBT contacts and I see linkedin as a cost effective way of reconnecting and directing folks to their own PSYBT content in a simple and unintrusive fashion....

Do you know anyone who...

1) Started up through PSYBT?

2) Is or was an aftercare advisor?

3) Is interested in becoming an aftercare advisor to young business....?

We could do with your help....  Checkout the group here

Since it was formally constituted in 1989, PSYBT has supported some 11,000 individuals to start almost 9000 businesses and provided £31.7 million in funding alongside a whole package of other assistance tailored to the needs of each individual.

Last year PSYBT invested £2 million in 665 young people involved in 559 businesses and the average PSYBT investment per business during financial year 2007/08 was £3203.

Having spent some time at LCTY2010 in Edinburgh...

At times reduced to a Barcode...

I may still just agree that Lotus Knows...

At the event there were some great speakers, for me the Highlights being (I've retitled)

Stuart McRae a Collaboration Evangelist - Connections plus with special sauce

John Schumacher a Director of Development at Lotus - It's the ROI stupid

and

Eliza Manningham-Buller, from the Bond movies - on being in MI5

So there was a lot to see...

Stuart's demo showcased a load of little 10second savers (widgets) being used in concert and in context within Lotus Connections and Domino (yes you could have used outlook for this bit).  Widget shown were either Business Partner e.g. Snapp, Big publically available stuff like linkedin and TrippIt and some internal IBM tools, or publically available stuff from the IBM Lotus Labs.

If you can save people 5mins every day through smarter working.  That is about 1% of a working day.  So with hundred staff you can have 100 staff doing the work of 101.  With a 1000 staff you are getting the work of 1010.  So for a 1000 employee business you save 10 average salaries... Think about you average company salary for a moment....  think you should be considering this stuff?  I do.

For a £20k average salary

1000 staff equates to savings of £200k p.a. 

For a £40k average salary

500 staff equates to savings of £200k p.a.

or

1000 staff equates to savings of £400k p.a.

Powerful stuff ... but who believes the 5mins right?  Well Stuart showed one example after another of how time could be saved.... if you couldn't easily find AT LEAST 5mins you are probably doing something mad.

Stuart McRae also touched on some of the stuff I've mentioned already about Blackberry and the iPhone but it was cool to see some iPad announces too and to hear reinforced that IBM's view is - you choose the device and we'll work with anyone.  Some really cool announces on how people are working well with Alloy by IBM & SAP (wee blog on that), Connections, Quickr and the rest on the Blackberry.

Amongst other things I was reminded by a colleague to check out Ed Brill's blog - where I hadn't been for a while, which led me to some Lotus Protector articles.  Zero false positives at 99% effective... not bad and ICSALabs certified.  If you don't know it much check out these videos with Arthur Fontaine

Don't be evil...?? Cyber attack on Google hit password system, says insider - 20/04/2010 - Computer Weekly

Cyber attack on Google hit password system, says insider - 20/04/2010 - Computer Weekly.

Bummer - looks like the old gmail account needs a password refresh!  And not 3 months too soon...

Don't be evil ... might that include full and open disclosure on information breech?  Thank goodness failure to disclose will most likely carry a fine in the UK from April 2011... but what if the server isn't UK hosted (like most of google tax avoiding UK business) will they be subject to the legislature...

#verymessycloudness

Good old fashioned fun from xkcd.com

 

From the love of maths to the futility of technology...

You can find out more about xkcd here see he's done some stuff for IBM's Smarter Planet - which I like but I suspect someone in IBM's marketing dept will be shot for going this far out there

The Trouble with IT

Well more like... the trouble many businesses have with their IT departments generally...  This is a pitch I've given to quite a number of clients.  Why?  Not because they don't know but to help them understand the issues IT can present to a business and to make sure they are avoiding falling into those common pitfalls...

I like this pitch because it gives a taster of how we work with clients...

The Trouble With It

View more presentations from Stuart Macdonald.

£500k Data loss fines come into Law

Hi, I mentioned earlier that some fines were likely to come in to law - well they just have.  So if you haven't got your house in order you probably should be thinking about it.

Whether you are governed by PCI, FSA or anything else this is the catchall - so make sure you are on top of it. 

Oh, and it lok like a few guys

Zurich Insurance

(who lost 46,000 unencrypted records)

Royal London

(who had over 2,000 stolen)

just missed out on being the first big fine... good old post ex-facto...  ;-(

Watch out all you data protection guys...  call us if you need a hand...

IP-CCTV: Upcoming Seminar with our IP Security partners King Communications

Looks like the date is in for our next IPCCTV Event -Thursday May 06, 2010, 09:30-12:30

We've been working with Guys at King Communications to get the tweak the agenda for the intended audience.  We've listened to the feedback from the last three events and think this one will be even better than the last.

The event will be held at the Dakota Hotel at Eurocentral will feature a number of in depth demonstrations of Milestone XProtect Corporate software and you will be able to see the systems running on IBM System X Servers and Storage.

XProtect 3.1 and Smart Client 5.0 Launch Webinar MIPS 2010 from Fredrik Wallberg on Vimeo.

The last event had over 60 attendees and we expect more this year.  You can register on the Kings Event landing page here and if you want to let your network know what you are up to you can declare you are attending on linkedin.com by adding the event to your linkedin profile.

#ipcctv #ipcctvscotland

Snowboarding in Saalbach

Just spent a few days in fine company snowboarding in Saalbach Austria.  Had an absolute ball.  Sore bum from the hill and sore head from the beer but it's all good...

Anyone who thinks this pic is actually me - leave my blog - we can't be friends any more.  I also discovered Mozart's Balls - he sure has tasty balls - not just a composer you know a chef too.... who knew.

IBM wins Best Security Company in 2010 SC Awards

IBM scooped the Best Security Company at Secure Computing 2010 Awards.  Click these here links for a full list of finalists and winners.   IMHO this is cos IBM has been going all aquisitive on us and snapped up, it would appear strategically (well done guys), all sorts of niche solutions over the past four or five years.  Noteably for those of us at Seric Towers are of course Watchfire (2007) and Ounce Labs (2009) and we do see a fair bit of ISS (2006) out there in cyberville.  Throw these bad boys into the already reasonably juicy mix and rub some GBS on it and IBM have a good story to tell those enterprise boys.  Good enough to win the Security Company of the Year from SC at the largest awards in the Security Industry Calendar.

Here are some of the factoids about what IBM is doing to get just such an accolade

• 7,000,000,000+ security events managed daily
• 48,000+ vulnerabilities tracked in the IBM X-Force research and development database
• 15,000 researchers, developers and subject matter experts on security initiatives
• 4,000+ customers managed in security operations centres around the world
• 3,000+ security & risk management patents
• 40+ years of proven success with security and virtualisation

Why am I telling you this - well this would be the shameless plug section of the blog, we do this stuff!  We supply and support the IBM's Rational AppScan Suite - covering black and whitebox application scanning.  If you want secure code out there that won't leave you with egg (a fine) on your face (balance sheet) get in touch!  Look, I even have a snazzy graphic for this stuff on my blog - yes, I spotted it should read PROTECTED

There are are 10 different siblings in the AppScan Family.  You can compare the members of the AppScan clan here - though it is a particularly bad page as the row headings don't change with teh product changes and products look devoid of features when they are in fact irrelevant.  Anyway - pick three and compare like-for-like, find what you like and then call us 0141 561 1161  - we'd like that  ;-)

Know any kids you think might fancy a career in IT?

It's The Ruddy Future from Stephen Levin on Vimeo.  Made me titter a little.

A contact of mine at IBM, Jacqueline Davey, recently gave me some info following a discussion we had about widening the demographic of folks making it into blue chip technology companies.  A subject close to my heart as my science savy niece approaches adolescence.   Jacqui suggested checking out some of the following...  Might be of interest to you too.

Computer Clubs for Girls
http://www.cc4g.net/

Mentorplace - and links to some pre built collateral open for anyone to use with schools/students
http://ibm.mentorplace.epals.org/

We're Generally Very Happy with Windows 7

Chief geek here at Seric Towers William 'Raoul' 'MacGyver' MacLeod has put his shoulder firmly behind Windows 7.  You can check out some of the reasons here on his Zeneric and never Generic site.

Web Applications Security Issues Make up almost half of all Successful Attacks in 2009

http://www.scmagazineus.com/ibm-report-vulnerabilities-fell-in-09-attacks-rose/article/164547/.

I Am Jack’s Overwhelming Sense Of Awe

Picked this up thru Google reader...

Web Application Security - The time of the carrot and stick has come

As I mentioned earlier the information commissioner's office has announced big fines (~£500k) for folks not getting their data security sorted out - web application or otherwise.  I'd not be surprised to see at least 10 people get a big fine in the next 12 months and can imagine just what action will be taken with the CIO in charge of these outfits.

I hear from people on the grapevine that the banks are already starting to look downstream on their supply chain to ensure they don't have any dirty little secrets hanging around in there.  Do you supply any of the big banks?  My money would be on you being a target for a juicy fine.

Seen a great article at www.mcpmag.com which covers a lot of the drivers for Standards (CWE/SANS OWASP) and Legislation (US Fed/UK/NY State etc) currently out there.

IBM Storage CTO visits Seric Towers

Steve Legg, IBM CTO Storage popped in to Seric Towers to give our team a briefing on the one of the more recent updates to the IBM storage portfolio VDS - and very interesting it was too.

Steve Legg (right) is pictured here along with Abdo Gadmour (left) who is heading up the charge on VDS in our region and our main technical lead here at Sericville Mr William MacLeod.  As I said it was all very interesting and once we have done our appropriate training (very shorlty) we will be taking the message out to folks around the UK though of course focussed on Scotland, NI and the North of England.

For anyone looking to do a bit of background reading you can do well to have a look at the UK VDS landing page in IBM land.

Thanks to Steve and Abdo for your time today at Seric Towers.

Glue - now I've only sniffed it - not had a full look yet

... but this look pretty interesting for folks going down the in house social software route... but perhaps looking to take it out to the network edge and (eventually) beyond.

The offering extends the functionality of Connections to include more of the Twitterlike ( @stuart-seric ) microblogging functionality.  Here's a wee demo from Youtube land

There's a 30 day trial available and I can see this being useful for at least a decent subset of staff in an fully online business and a smaller proportion in others.  No news/comments on whether mobile support will be offered or how this fits in on what Lotus are up to with RIM for Connections

Lotusphere Comes To You 2010 - Edinburgh Date Announced

This year's (Scottish) Lotusphere Comes to you Event has been announce and the word on the grapevine is it will be a corker, with even more great demos.  I know David Hood has been working on bringing the right people to the show.  We'll be there along with the usual suspects and of course hoping to see many more new folks along.  Why not tell a friend...

You can get updates and register (not quite yet) for the Edinburgh event at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/events/lcty2010/europe.html

If in the meantime you want to let your contacts know you're interested or are planning to attend I've created an event on Linkedin so you can let folk know you are going and get some of your own networking done at the event too.

Aussie bank launches online social community for people with plans

I picked up from a fine article at finextra.com that Australia's Bendigo and Adelaide Bank have launched an online social community where anyone with a plan, project or idea can connect with other people to find support, resources and expertise.  This sort of community enterprise enablement through social media is the sort of thing that could really bring big changes to communities.

The PlanBig site, currently in beta, lets users come up with any plan they choose, from a campaign to bring music education to rural communities in Queensland to fundraising for a horse rescue centre.

Users provide a description of their plan, the reason they are embarking on it and an explanation of what will constitute success. They can also post pictures, videos and documents.

Other visitors can then post comments, offering support, money, advice and information. They can also "get involved" by telling people about the plan through Facebook and Twitter, voting to support it and signing up for progress updates.

The bank says PlanBig draws on the strengths of social networking to enable people to efficiently share information, create partnerships and support each other's plans.

"One day we hope that PlanBig will be part of everyday life, a self-sustaining and self-moderating community that is of real use to passionate people and real benefit to communities with all kinds of plans, big or small," it says.

Themed collaborative platforms such as these will help to bring people together around a common purpose.  Interesting to see banks getting involved in this space given older survey of facebookers have suggested they might be interested in taking up such things should vendors run with them.  Good on the boys down under in getting this one out, looking to take a lead in their market space.  Fortune favours the brave and this might just erm disrupt the apple cart.

Oh Philip, you made it all better again and again and again

What a gift to conceive/dream/imagine/invoke/create/transcribe/deliver such a beautiful noise for Solo Piano.

Life is just easier with Mr Glass.  A friend, lost to me through time and separate lives, introduced me to PG and a very many others almost 20 years ago but this is the one that cuts and mends me.  Standing the test of time along with perhaps only two others in the 1000's of listens category.  Good luck wherever you are big J.

For anyone interested enough the others are 'Laughing Stock' by Talk Talk and 'In A Silient Way' by Miles Davis.  And although I enjoy a very many others, across a very much more Catholic taste than my short shortlist might suggest, and each give me something, nothing sustains me like these three, save a single track Canteloube's 'Baïlèro (Chant de bergers de Haute-Auvergne)'.

Music is the purest art form and these have spoken to me most, if you haven't stumbled across any of these I hope you enjoy them.  I came to these through good friends and despite a musical non-education at school; I took the triangle and f*cked off just like I was told.  That said they were right - only the ears work.  ;-)  

Fat girls & Gingerbread Men: the wonderful world of Sarah-Jane Szikora

We got a couple of Sarah Jane Szikora prints a few years ago, SWMBO is a real fan and my niece and nephew love them to bits.  Personally I allways wanted to track down Foolish biscuit.  Funny I never dug online for her stuff so it was nice to stumble onto www.sarah-janeszikora.com

Of the newer stuff - I really liked Damien's dress. 

And I never tire of the antics of her Gingerbread man.

Here is the aforementioned foolish biscuit.  I see a lot of myself in him - though he is thinner despite liking milkier tea.