I just checked my blog stats and I currently have 340 subscribers! 80% of which are probably spammers…. meh!

In other news, the sun was out again today and it cheered my spirits, must admit I have felt a little melancholy this past couple of days. Yay for the sun!

laterz….

I’ll be brief, though I could ramble on for hours and bore the t%ts off you. Basically in this largely connected world, and arena of ‘collaboration’ at an enterprise and a corporate level. The perception and the role of the “Mainstream” hacker has changed a huge amount.

This is topical for me at the moment as I am currently attending Kiwicon II, New Zealand’s own hacker/security convention; not as a hacker - or someone who is interested in becoming a hacker, but as an IT professional who is cognicent enough to recognise that not ALL hacking is bad, and in fact can be a good way of moving the IT development community forwards. Especially in this increasingly ‘Open Source’ world.

I’m not going to whistle on about any of the specifics covered this year, but the bent is predominantly on security or the lack there-of in enterprises potentially high up the food-chain, and the rather short sighted reliance on cheap, off-the-shelf, open source solutions to their security requirements. Making it insanely easy for the people they are most likley trying to avoid to get in.

Unfortunatly either ‘budget’ or ‘it has to work’ mentality creates an environment where many corners appear to be cut. So we don’t even get a chance to be complaicent since the models being rolled out and deployed are broken to start with - simply trawl the forums on RFID if you need a hint!

I’m at least in a unique enough position to be able to learn from peers and educate in order to evolve not just the infrastructure but also the perceptions of the people surrounding it as well. To use an analogy, a carpenter can build a school in a third world country, but unless it is populated with the teachers who know how to use it, that school may amount to nothing more than a shed!

Although I haven’t seen all the talks at this year’s Kiwicon (which saddens me) since I am trying to do too many things at once this weekend, I want my cake AND I want to eat it ok!! I’m going to make an effort to get up early in the morning, since this is a weekender.

If you mozy on over the the Kiwicon website feel free to check it out, but as with any website that thinks outside the box; I’d advise you to use your best judgement when clicking links you are not sure about, and certainly think twice if you are at work!

In other news, at approximatley this time last year, I was on a plane heading for New Zealand!!

I do.

I never want to grow up! With a child’s eyes the world is a beautiful, adventurous and amazing place! For some time now I have been trying to figure out who I am, not my name silly!! No…but more philosophically ‘who’ I am…

….the answer, is no more complicated than ‘me’…

I seem to have a knack for telling people what they ‘need’ to hear (not necessarily what they ‘want’ to hear); be it intuition or what? I don’t know, but anyway I have come to the conclusion that this is an intrinsic part of ‘me’ - I don’t consider myself a teacher, or a prophet, or a preacher for that matter?! The only word that comes to mind that best describes me..? I guess I am a Catalyst; my actions and words with people around me tend to bring change, so it would be the most accurate metaphor for me at this point in time…

All actions have a consequence; an outcome. It seems from what I am reading in the ether of late, that philosophy is gaining in popularity at a therapeutic level. Since I am at the heart of me a philosophical being (not quite Epicurian in nature) this gives me hope for the future. There is a real positive energy around us all right now!

If you can feel it? Hold onto it! You’re one of the lucky ones…

In other news, I came up with a novel approach to layer 2 high availability wherein you are only allowed to use one link at a time; utilising something called EEM (Embedded Event Manager) which is included in certain Cisco IOS revisions. I have proven my concept in the lab, and whilst my initial ‘chain reaction failover’ works in about 15-20 seconds I hope to learn more about EEM to be able to refine it so it works quicker! bonus points to anyone who can figure out how I approached this!

I say ‘time’ even though it’s potentially a flawed perspective. Here’s an idea for the world!! Time is a man made concept and measure used in all fields of science (pretty much) and something around which we base our entire existance. What if our concept of time is flawed? Who is to say our current definition of time is correct? Who invented the concept of time anyway?!! I will put some more thought into this and post a more indepth view over the weekend as this philosophical exploration vexes me.

In other news. I watched ‘Hellboy II’ last night and it didn’t dissappoint; as sequels go - this knocks the socks of the first Hellboy film in a way that only a ‘Pan’s Labrynth’ director can deliver. There’s a growing focus in the media in multi-culture/dimension etc… for example - ‘The Golden Compass’ as well as the afformentioned films; which has kind of focused my current philosophical thought processes on time in general.

I’m an open minded person - I like to think most of the time, and I’d like to believe there are multiple dimensions around us, it would certainly help explain a lot of things that have happened in my life to date I can tell you! I just need a little bit ‘more’ impiracle (spelling?) evidence to go on. I guess we will see as time (however flawed it may be) goes on…