Archive for the ‘Random-izations’ Category

Oct
01/08

Support Me in my Walk to End Alzheimer’s!

Last Updated on Wednesday, 1 October 2008 12:05
Written by jj
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

I try not to blog too much about personal life, because -well- I assume it’s probably not of interest to anyone. Today, I’m going to make an exception here for a good cause.

Unless you already knew me (pre-blogging) you probably don’t know I had one grandmother who went on to better places after our horrible struggle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease years ago. But that’s a whole ‘nuther discussion. What’s today about?

My second grandmother (and only living grandparent now) is suffering from another, more common, affliction – Alzheimer’s. In recognition of her great achievements, and in support of the other millions affected by this disease, we have gathered the troupes and are participating in the 2008 Memory Walk.

Our team of about a dozen family members and friends will pound the pavement this Saturday, October 4th in Cary, NC in an effort to do our part!

Now, I will shamelessly ask for your support!

If you feel so compelled and want to join us, or donate online, PLEASE DO! Here’s how…

My Donation Page - JJ’s Memory Walk page
Our Team Page - ’Forget-me-nots’

I have a dream, I have a goal and I think I have lots of really great readers who will throw in some love and donations. Even $1.00 or $5.00 is GREAT.

Granny Boop!

Here’s a photo of our Granny Boop with my cousin, Meredith, my Mom and me. (I think she looks mad because we took her chocolates away for the photo!)

Click Here to Donate

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Tags: 2008, Alzheimers, Memory Walk | Posted under Random-izations |

2 Comments

Sep
15/08

Poof* and I’m Back Again

Last Updated on Monday, 15 September 2008 10:01
Written by jj
Monday, September 15th, 2008

I know… I know… You can yell at me via comments or email… I’ve been a bad blogger…
again. :(

A flurry of conferences intertwined with customer emergencies have taken me ‘out of pocket’ for the past month or so.

You know it’s serious when I have to cancel my trip to INTEROP… I’m traumatized by that, btw.

What have I been doing?

The Conferences… Well, after the ILTA Conference in Texas (the hotel was gorgeous, by the way), I returned on a Tuesday evening only to be diverted directly to a customer site for the remainder of the week. After that, a few con calls and customer meetings, followed by SCITDA in South Carolina where I delivered a ‘Network Security Trends’ talk and participated on a Security Panel (with McAfee, Juniper, Cisco and others) later in the conference.

The Other House… As soon as I returned from SCITDA, the next few days were spent over-seeing the replacement windows going into the rental property. A few windows here, some sheetrock there, more painting than I really cared to do… and we were in business.

It’s been an on-going project… Over the past year, the house has been completely repainted (inside and out), all the hardware (doorknobs, fixtures) as well as lighting and outlets/switches replaced. The master bath was redone with new tile and a new vanity with custom bowl sink and faucet. In addition, the third-acre lot was mostly cleared- from ‘couldn’t-see-the-back-fence’ to ‘wow-there’s sun-light’. The dark (ugly) wood floor-to-ceiling fireplace surround was removed and sheetrock put up. After a guy ran over (and crushed) the draining system, that had to be replaced also (I have a friend to thank for redoing that, I wouldn’t have known where to start). Oh and, last month the roof was redone too, making the windows the last major project for a while (I hope). The roof and windows were the only parts contracted out… if that gives you any idea as to the volume of work I’ve done on the house. Maybe I’ll share some before and after photos…

And now, I still have more customer projects to complete, more product evaluations and reviews to write and of course… more conferences coming up. Plus, I have a sink to fix and a water heater to drain… (uggg).

Next on the list is SecTor… more on that soon.

So, while I probably could have found 5-10 minutes to write something, the days have been long and tiring. The chances of an even mildly-coherent post were slim to none (at best).

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Tags: Conference, Events, personal | Posted under Random-izations |

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Aug
04/08

Welcome to the NEW Security Uncorked Blog!

Last Updated on Monday, 4 August 2008 11:43
Written by jj
Monday, August 4th, 2008

I promised a ‘better blog’ coming up and I’ve been hoping I’m able to deliver!

Over the weeks, I’ve been moving the SecurityUncorked blog to the new platform, transfering data, adding tags and working out all the bugs.

It was a slightly frustrating journey and it’s definitely not over yet… I’m no PHP or java script programmer, so I had to do a little research and reverse engineering to figure out how to best manipulate the templates.

You’ll notice a blog roll, tag clouds, related blog links and more options to search and browse archives. I hope it makes your experience on the site better and I always appreciate feedback. (Not to say I’m going to change it, but it’s good to know what works and what doesn’t.)

Like I said, the fat lady hasn’t sung- I have a lot more work to do. My goal was to get the new site functional as soon as possible to best serve the permanent blog links and other functions. By Black Hat was the mental deadline I agreed on with myself and so here we are! I’ll be taking off in the morning…

Hope you like it!

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Tags: blog upgrade, new blog | Posted under Random-izations |

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Jul
08/08

Techie Travels- What Do YOU Look for in a Hotel Room?

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 04:54
Written by JJ
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

I’m on the road… again. After some really great (and a few really crappy) hotel stays in the past few weeks, I started thinking about ‘what makes a good hotel’.

Recently I spent one week at a customer in a hotel where the staff obviously was hosting nightly parties down at my end of the hall- from about 2:00am – 5:30am each (yes- every) night I was there. The hotel I’m in tonight has no elevator. Yeah. @#$! That’s what I said. Twice in the past 10 days or so, I’ve been in really nice resort-hotels, so I’ve had the whole spectrum this month and last.

For me, sometimes it’s the little things… I really like it when hotels have conditioner, instead of just shampoo. I like space- so a nice work area is important to me. Of course a big soft bed and plenty-o-pillows is a key ingredient. A whirlpool or jetted tub (in the room) is icing on the cake. Exercise rooms are good, although half the time I’m too tired when traveling or have work to do (I know- excuses, excuses ;). Convenience is also a biggie- I had a run in Las Vegas where *every* room I had felt like it was a 10-minute walk just to the elevators. When I’m on-site for a customer, I also love the hotels with the do-it-yourself breakfast- I can go when I want and grab something before heading out for the day. I love the little lighted makeup mirrors… and of course a full-length for checking out the wardrobe. Plugs! I love lots of plugs. I like hotels that secure the outer doors early and require a key for access to various parts of the building.

Sometimes it’s the bigger things… Hotels with outside-facing doors make me paranoid, and obviously those in neighborhoods where your rims may disappear is not good either. I hate hotels that MAKE me valet park my car. It’s my car, my keys, I park it and I keep the keys- that’s my rule. (My Dad taught me a little trick of telling the valet boys that it’s a company car and against corporate policy for valet- it works!)

Traveling techies sometimes have unique needs or requests, and many of the ‘good list’ is universal for all traveler types.

So, those are some items from my little list… What about you- what do YOU look for in a good hotel?

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Tags: hotel, security, technology, Travel | Posted under Random-izations, Travel |

7 Comments

Jul
08/08

A Better Blog… Coming Up!

Last Updated on Monday, 21 July 2008 11:38
Written by JJ
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

It’s that time- we need more ‘stuff’!

Once upon a time…
When I first started this blog, I wasn’t quite sure what would happen… where it would go… or even if I could keep finding enough new things to talk about. I haven’t had a problem finding topics, only the time to write them all!

Point being, when I started the blog, I began with a hosted solution – Squarespace. My blog host is not free, but has provided a nice platform for me to get started and easily maintain the site, posts and reporting.

Having been in the web development business for years, I know what’s involved in maintaining a site and really didn’t want to throw myself back into all that. However, the time has come. We need more ‘stuff’ and to get all the fun stuff we want I’m going to need to make some drastic changes in the platform.

What’s getting added…
Soon you’re going to have a better blog site to enjoy. The changes will provide easier and better comment and collaboration systems, more capable search tools and email forms, a blog roll and better methods for linking and trackbacks. The changes will also allow me to modify the domain host records so we can access the site without the “www”, a specific request by some, namely ‘the Wilde’.

Overall, I hope the changes will give you the tools to better use the site, find the content you want and have the ability to make it ‘your’ community and a place for interaction and idea exchange.

When?
I’ll keep you posted through the changes and hope you’ll hang in there. The content is/will/should all be the same and will be transferred in its entirety. It will be a process so you may not see any changes for a bit. It’s important the new site is up and functioning before anything is replaced.

Also, I’ll be looking for your feedback of what you like and don’t like!

I’m excited :)

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Tags: blog, security blog | Posted under Random-izations | Comments

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