Testing for security

I was moderating a panel tonight at OSEF about Security Testing - we had people from Kynaxis, Cognos, and Entrust It's great to hear from top notch companies how they do things. Their insight into best practices and the mistakes they have done area great way to fast track smaller firms into doing things right from the get go. The key take aways

• build security in - not bolted on - it's a myth that security slows things down if you build it in.
• training - document best practices, train your QA to ask the right questions about what they will be testing, understand the risk level of the module, so that they spend their limited time on the riskier parts.
• Awarness - security is not only for developers and qa - it's for every one in the organization, it's like an onion, their are many layers to it

The Macadamian Files

Welcome to The Macadamian Files The title says it all - if you want some insight into some of our know-how you will find it here.

Founders at Work

I just finished reading founders at Work. There are some good stories in there, Bricklin's story for example is really good. Others I had high expectations but didn't turn out as interesting as I thought. What makes a good versus a not as entertaining story - drama! Some of the startups covered in there, the founders went to hell and back a few times before getting closure, successful or not. Those stories are a through testament to what I think is one of the best people out there - there desire to see the vision realized, and their commitment to making it happen. Some of the stories the author could not extract it from the subject or maybe it just wasn't there. This is an entertainment book, and don't expect to learn lessons, or what to do to be successful, Good to Great is under no threat!

TAKEphONE 7.00

News - ShSh software TAKEphONE 7.00 (build 056) Has Been Released For anyone using a Treo - I highly recommend TakePhone. It replaces the std phone app released with the treo. It makes my life much easier. I initially installed it because of a bug in Snapper mail that doesn't allow to dial directly from an e-mail on the Treo 680, the tech support at Snapper recommended I install TakePhone. I really don't regret it. The search is smarter, the dialing of extension is semi automatic, ie it asks you if you want to dial the extension next to the number. SMS, create task right from the phone app - all in all very useful.

How cute is that?

Over the weekend I was at the office, and I had brought my son with me because it wasn't going to be long. He's come many times with me, but not in a while. Long enough for him anyway to have forgotten a lot about where I work and what I do. So it was an opportunity for him to ask several questions - he is 7years old. He could not believe I was working alone in my office - from his perspective it was like not being allowed to work with his buddies at school, because I had behaved badly. We wrapped up our conversation with one question before making his assessment which one had the best job - "So do you have a recess? one in the morning and the afternoon?" - after telling him we don't have that kind of break per say - he doesn't want to go to work - he thinks school is better!

Sales Training

I was at a sales training yesterday, and it was a great investment of my time and people on my team. I got a lot out of it. I did have expectations to learn - but I also got to experience and respect better the sales job, even if I have been more or less doing some form of it for the last little while in my role at Macadamian. The instructor Terry Ledden is very energetic, great presenter, and is very good at getting his material across. My biggest take aways of the day

1. there are two attitudes one can have - Plentiful and scarcity - Where you stand will dictate how you go about getting and closing business. You want to be a in a plentiful mindset because it will help you find and work on the deals that are ultimately better for everyone, you, your company, your customers. The scarcity mindset is more about trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
2. when selling one is not it in for approbation but to close business - now that I think about it, it sounds Glen Gary Glen Ross, "nice guy can't sell" kind of thing, but one can't answering questions right is not going to get you the deal, as such once can't live of being appreciated for answering the customers questions right.

I highly recommend!

Last Thursday, we went to the Exclaim Spring Fling show here in Ottawa. It's a tour across canada, four bands and 4hrs of great music. I didn't know anything about both You Say Party! We Say die, and Chromeo, I was there for Malajube and DJ Champion. Malajube was a great treat - their tunes are full of life, and very much like life, with its change of tempo, beat, and sound. I like it, it's very original, the one down side is that even on their album it can be difficult to listen to the lyrics, so you can imagine that live, you have to forget about listening to the lyrics, and you enjoy the rest, lots of good and original music. The last but not least DJ Champion, he put up a great show, I got out of there I was soaking wet from jumping up and down, he really works the crowd. Unlike the other bands his show went on for over 90minutes. It's quite amazing to listen and watch - the strong beat, and the guitar rifts Champion puts together, then you have the amazing and powerful voice coming from Béatrice Bonifassi, all in all A++. DJ Chamion has been touring for 2years with this show, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves as if it was the first few show - the energy level they put in it was through the roof.

PocketPC iPhone

Here is an interesting demo of a iPhone like experience on a PocketPC handheld. Some pretty clever stuff.

Dell Ideastorm - two things

Popular Stories - Dell IdeaStorm Ok two things about IdeaStorm. First I think this is great of Dell to open up to its customers for input into new product ideas - this will certainly be a good guide for them. Yes the feedback has errors and needs to be filtered, but they should take care of that, it's much better, broader medium than typical focus groups on an idea coming from the inside. Kudos to Dell! Second the site is powered by Salesforce - it goes to show me the power of the Salesforce platform, I had them in the Sales Automation box, and now I understand what they mean when they say Customer Relationship management(CRM).

Two recipes you can't not go for

Amazon.com: Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy: Books: Two recipes in this book you will love - lobster pasta, and hot chocolat fondant. The pasta - is very simple and so flavorful, if you're not allergic to sea food - you will love it. The hot chocolat fondat is one of those, you know a little cup cake that when you plant your fork in it you hot chocolate in starts melting out. It's just out of this world. I thought this was really hard to make, but he makes it really easy, 30min and your done, from start to finish. The one thing about Ramsay is that pretty much like all chefs at his level - they make use of a lot of butter in their recipes, because it has more flavor, but a three course meal will seriously make use of the butter one has in the fridge.

The confession tour

Madonna's confession tour DVD That show is pretty darn good, if you can watch it go for it. It's huge. Her last CD is very good and then what she puts around the tunes in the show is well done. I wish I had seen it in MTL. Only a few years ago Madonna's music was really not for me, but external influences, read my significant other is changing that.