Free Users on App.Net
There's a lot of talk on App.Net about the fact that it's exclusively a paid service. Currently there is no way to use the network without paying for it. I think I understand enough of app.net (though I could be completely wrong) to hypothesize a way to run a free-to-users, ad-supported service over top of the paid-to-use app.net. Forgive me if this has been debated and discarded elsewhere.
Security Tone Deafness
We, as security professionals, have to raise our game. We have to be respectful and helpful. We have to know our audience and speak their language. If we are seen as the guys who will pounce on a mistake and publically humiliate the organization who makes a mistake, we will only make enemies among those we want to help. If we take the attitude of "every mistake is a catastrophy," we will be ignored by management who will hear us saying "the sky is falling" and they will look out their window and see that the sky very plainly is not falling.
I will let Hunt's own words express it best (modified slightly by me).
there [is] a bit of an opportunity here – an education opportunity for [security people] who like to learn from anti-patterns, i.e. seeing how those who have gone before them have done it wrong
Over the weekend, a whole storm spun up over Tesco's web site security. I made a bit of a storify of it. They store passwords in the clear, they violate a bunch of SSL best practices, etc. Troy Hunt gets credit for the seminal tweet. Prompted by the flurry of interest, Hunt goes on to do a bit of investigating and blogging. What I think is noteworthy about his blog is the tone of voice. It undermines the (true and important) message and it represents a failure I think is common among security people. My favourite tweet was from matthewhughes: when he says "I think tone is less important than being right. And Troy was spot-on, IMHO." That is exactly what I mean by "security tone deafness."
Comparison Christmas Shopping: Amazon versus Tesco
This isn't a post advertising one thing or another, but I was really surprised at the difference in prices when doing some Christmas shopping online today. Here's four of the toys we were considering and the prices offered at Amazon.co.uk versus tesco.com. You figure that prices do vary from site to site, but I've never seen them vary enough that it mattered. Today, anyways, it mattered plenty.