Dan Griffin's Blog
Comments on security, PKI, smart cards, cryptography, and entrepreneurship.
Find 10 balloons anywhere in the country in 8 hours
January 27, 2010
Just learned about this, although it happened in December. In summary, DARPA issued a challenge for teams to find 10 large red balloons that had been scattered around the continental US. A team from MIT was able to do it in approximately 8 hours using a combination of Facebook and Twitter.
Crazy, the power of social networks. Harness that power to build your own empire!
Permalink | Comments (0)Check out Web Server Probe, a security tool contributed to CodePlex by some Microsoft Security MVPs (including me). From the Web Server Probe CodePlex wiki:
“This is a tool for security researchers. It allows you to search for either an IP address or a DNS name and display all associated domain names known to Bing.
- If a specific IP address is searched, all domain records associated with that address are displayed
- If a DNS name is searched, all domain records associated with all addresses returned for that DNS name are displayed (this case is shown in the screenshot below)
Two separate self-contained versions of the tool are available: command-line-based and GUI-based. The GUI version can be spawned directly from the browser - no installation or additional files are required - just click on the link in Downloads and select Run.
Both versions require the .NET Framework 3.5.”
Permalink | Comments (2)Should your leave your job to do a start-up?
January 23, 2010
Just read a Seattle 2.0 post by Mark Maunder entitled, “Should I burn my 401K to start a business?” I must admit that I like reading stuff like that, because running small businesses is a risky proposition on any day, and even the smallest thing can inspire me.
That said, for many reasons (including those raised in comments that readers have attached to that post), the question is moot: most people in their 30s don’t have significant savings, and the tax penalty for breaking open your 401K is way too steep for it to be worth it, and it wouldn’t be enough anyway.
Plus – and I’ll say up front that I get that the point of Mark’s post was probably to be inspirational, rather than literal – the figures he uses strike me as misleading. And that’s a relevant point here, because while entrepreneurs are typically viewed as risk takers, the real secret to entrepreneurship is understanding and mitigating risk, not just taking it (but, inevitably, you’re still going to have to be tolerant of risk if you’ll walk this path).
For example, referring to Mark’s figures, you must realize that funding a startup in your 30s, from your 401K, such that the startup is profitable in two years and then sells five years later at a price that nets you $5 million is way beyond a long-shot.
But, assuming you’re sufficiently risk tolerant, have some business savvy, marketable skills, etc, there are some more constructive questions to ask than, “Should I spend my 401K on my start-up?” Here’s a convenient list:
- “Should I leave my current bigger-company job in order to join a start-up that’s already got some funding?”
- “Should I keep my day job for another year or so while I try to grow my thing on the side?”
- “Does my current employer have an incubator team that I could join while I seriously consider my options, write my business plan, etc?”
- “Have I ever worked in sales or marketing [if I’m an engineer], or etc [etc]?”
- “Can I think of a service-based business model that would be cash flow positive in the first month?”
On two topics:
- Securing Windows 7
- Managing a Virtual Environment
At both events:
- March 29 at the Orange Counter Hilton (Costa Mesa, CA)
- April 26 at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero (San Francisco)
If you decide to go as a result of reading this post, email me or post a comment here and I’ll send you a promotion code to use for registration 
Restorify is an Azure Front Runner
January 19, 2010
Reinforcing our commitment to mastering leading-edge technology, we’re using Azure for software licensing and registration tracking. The future is in the cloud, baby!
Just learned about this site, which the Seattle Chamber of Commerce setup as a venue for local businesses to self-promote. You can submit articles, events, etc, and have them broadcast to the Chamber’s social media-based audience.
Permalink | Comments (1)If this post works correctly, mad props to JohnCow for the WordPress plug-in work-around that I’ve been looking for for like two years!
Our website host has been stuck on the broken libxml and PHP versions that cause HTML tags to be stripped out of WordPress posts received via the XML-RPC interface. Attempts to get them to update their servers have gone nowhere, of course.
Permalink | Comments (0)There are resources that one learns about when one is involved in a “product” start-up that one may not have been aware of when one is involved in a “services” start-up. Or maybe I’m just getting better at this.
Permalink | Comments (0)Intro to Hyper-V - PPT deck
January 13, 2010
During the Great Recession, entrepreneurs are well advised to branch out. Look for opportunities for broadening your practice areas, technology expertise, product portfolio, and customer base. The net result will be a more robust business, and specifically one better able to withstand a bad economy.
Case in point: Google’s Android operating system is gaining traction among early adopters. Here’s a good link. What’s more, Android will soon be available on netbooks, including one from Acer.
Why is this interesting? Well, if you, like me, are primarily focused on the Microsoft space, this article raises some good points about why Android is a potential competitive threat to Microsoft. One way to look at it is this: for $349, you can get a netbook from Acer with Windows XP. But the full retail cost of a Windows 7 license is around $300. Now, that’s not exactly an apples to apples comparison, because Microsoft offers volume licensing discounts. But, with the retail cost of Win 7 being 85% of the cost of a new net book, there’s going to be continued pressure on Microsoft as it looks for others ways to subsidize its huge investment in the Windows OS. Not only that, but netbooks are expected to offer a streamlined user-experience: a cross between a smart phone and a fully-featured laptop. There’s less value-add opportunity here for a premium operating system.
On one hand, you might think that that cuts both ways. I mean, if all a netbook needs is a browser and an email client, where are the opportunities for entrepreneurs? On the other hand, consider the following:
First, if you’re in IT, netbooks are going to need to be purchased, deployed, managed, and retired just like any other piece of equipment. Android, since it isn’t Windows, won’t support all of your management technologies. And yet the price pressure is going to keep your customers so tempted. Find solutions.
Second, if you’re in software development, if there’s one thing that the iPhone has taught us, it’s that users like to have a huge selection of applications. Android uses Java, which for at least 10 years has basically been the world-wide standard for teaching college students how to program. So, no shortage of talent, and potentially huge demand. And there’s already an app store. But if there’s one more thing that the iPhone has taught us, it’s that it’s really hard to make money if a huge pool of developers starts contributing applications for free. So the key is to look for the broader opportunities: servicing, brand exposure, partnering, etc.
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