Bruce Schneier and Adam Shostack opine on Microsoft's security progress.

"Making security Microsoft's first priority will require a basic redesign of the way the company produces and markets software. It will involve a difficult cultural transition inside Microsoft. It will involve Microsoft setting aside short-term gains in order to achieve long-term goals. It's a difficult goal, and we believe that Microsoft can do it. We hope that they remain committed."

8:47:00 PM     

Nominees for the Second Annual Weblog Awards are now available.   2:26:47 PM     

Thanks to a tip by Dan Gillmor, I'm now reading "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove. It's an "alternate history" book about how the Civil War might have turned out differently.

The basic idea is that, after the Battle of Gettysburg, the South's commanding General Robert E. Lee is visited by someone who introduces him to the AK-47 assault rifle. As you might imagine, the story takes off from there!

An Amazon reviewer writes:

"On one level Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South" reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit which asked the question, "What if Napoleon had a B-52 at the Battle of Waterloo?" This alternative history novel about the Civil War asks "What if the South had AK-47s during the Civil War?" The answer is, of course, they would have won their independence. But ultimately "The Guns of the South" is more about what type of nation the Confederacy would have become."

7:06:58 AM     

Walter Hewlett has launched a web site in his fight to have this merger terminated.   6:32:41 AM     

Feast for Fans of Guitar Music. Wayne Harada of the Honolulu Advertiser reviews Keola Beamer's masterful 'Soliloquy', Ozzie Kotani's 'To Honor a Queen', and Winston Tan's 'Music for Life.' [Hawaiian Music News From NahenaheNet]

We heard Keola and Ozzie last Saturday at Borders in Stonestown.

Electronic Warfare Associates releases 20-page PDF with sensible advice for securing wireless networks using existing technology: they don't claim this methodology is 100 percent secure; rather, they describe a series of sensible, generally inexpensive steps that ensure the best possible results with the least amount of ongoing maintenance and concerns. The paper is available in PDF form from their security white papers page; you can also use Adobe's free PDF-to-HTML converter, which allows you to enter a PDF's URL and have the page displayed as text. [80211b News]

Knowledge@Wharton talks to Alta Communications' William P. Egan, a veteran of the VC world, about the future of private equity after an economic lull.

"So the lesson I have learned from the recent mania is that you may have capital and a talented management team, but if you are fundamentally in a lousy business, you won't get the kind of results you would in a good business. All businesses aren't created equal."

ComputerWorld covers Project Eleanor and Citibank's implementation of I-Flex's banking software suite.   6:16:36 AM