I just had an interesting woops. Installed iPhone SDK onto my snow lepoard machine (for the first time) and it added a PATH= to the /etc/profile file. That took a little working around!

One of the tools that I use on an almost daily basis is the Binary Search. I think that this tool is one of the ways that a good troubleshooter seems so much more efficient then a mediocre troubleshooter.

It’s a pretty simple tool, as the diagram show. Split the problem’s area into two, and determine which side of the split the issue lies on. As you continue to split the set of problems down, you’ll either reach a level where you only have one issue, or only have one logical direction to proceed.

Continue reading ‘Binary Searching and other tools of the trade’ »

People are very poor at risk analysis. As such, people “in the biz” come up with metrics to determine ROI. This might seem cold hearted. Since money is not infinite, we need to have some tool that we can use to measure the effectiveness of each dollar that we put into mitigating risks.

Let’s imagine that your mom had been killed by a falling piano. If we could mitigate this threat and it would cost 2/3′s of our budget, would you? What if random lunchmeat explosions costs 2/3′s of the budget to mitigate as well? What if falling piano’s claim 10 people a year, and random lunchmeat explosions claim 100,000?

When you look at events with the correct lenses, it’s possible to start to understand what’s really going on. These are the tools that actuaries use to model the world. It’s also the tools that security folks should use to model their spending against threats.

Continue reading ‘Risk Analysis and Spending’ »

So, I’ve had this curse since I was a kid. I just cannot sleep sometimes. I’m still really tired and groggy, I just can’t sleep.

It’s really times like this that get the mind running into some of it’s darker corners. This is that mystical point, where good ideas flow, and right when I get a head of steam up on an idea, I fall asleep.