On December 10, 2009, I posted a short piece on this blog about Trufina, a company providing online identity verification services.  For a long time, I had a visible Trufina badge on the blog, so someone could click on it to verify that I was, indeed, the very Mark Dixon I claimed to be.  Since no one expressed interest, I took the badge off my main page.

Just this week, over 18 months later, one person actually clicked on the link in my December 2009 post and requested verification of my identity – not so much that he was interested in my identity as he was in the process of validating online identities.

I have concluded that this dearth of activity must have something to do with the following:

1. My blog is rarely read.
2. People aren’t interested in Trufina.
3. People just don’t care about validation of online identities.
4. A combination of the above.

By the way, I have never received a single request from someone via Tru.ly, the similar service whose badge I now display on the right most column of this blog. But I must be patient.  I just signed up for Tru.ly in March, 2011.  I have 14 more months before I can really compare the popularity of Tru.ly and Trufina.

All our married kids have at least 1 HDTV system in their homes – one son has four!  But their “stuck-in-the-dark-ages” dad still has the same old reliable Sony flat screen 36″ set that was state-of-the-art back in 1997.  I can really identify with Earl Pickles.

And yes, Opal, I may also be an obsolete old thing.

But seriously, when we break down and buy a new HDTV system later this year, what on earth should we do with the Trinitron?  Give it to Earl?

By the way, the ghostly image in the screen is not me bowing in obeisance to the TV Gods.  I am just taking a photo for this blog.

Last week, I reported that the US Department of Defense had released a highly-anticipated document, entitled, “Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.”  Here is a bit of an overview of the document.

The high degree of the Department of Defence’s dependence on cyberspace is abundantly evident:

Along with the rest of the U. S. government, the Department of Defense (DoD) depends on cyberspace to function. It is difficult to overstate this reliance; DoD operates over 15,000 networks and seven million computing devices across hundreds of installations in dozens of countries around the globe. DoD uses cyberspace to enable its military, intelligence, and business operations, including the movement of personnel and material and the command and control of the full spectrum of military operations.

In speaking of the risks the DoD faces in this area, the report states:

Potential U. S. adversaries may seek to exploit, disrupt, deny, and degrade the networks and systems that DoD depends on for its operations. DoD is particularly concerned with three areas of potential adversarial activity: theft or exploitation of data; disruption or denial of access or service that affects the availability of networks, information, or network-enabled resources; and destructive action including corruption, manipulation, or direct activity that threatens to destroy or degrade networks or connected systems.

In response to these concerns, the DoD has outlined five strategic initiatives:

• Strategic Initiative 1: Treat cyberspace as an operational domain to organize, train, and equip so that DoD can take full advantage of cyberspace’s potential
• Strategic Initiative 2: Employ new defense operating concepts to protect DoD networks and systems
• Strategic Initiative 3: Partner with other U. S. government departments and agencies and the private sector to enable a whole-of-government cybersecurity strategy
• Strategic Initiative 4: Build robust relationships with U. S. allies and international partners to strengthen collective cybersecurity
• Strategic Initiative 5: Leverage the nation’s ingenuity through an exceptional cyber workforce and rapid technological innovation

How many times have you caught yourself choosing coffee shops, hotels and other venues, based on availability of free Wi-Fi?  How do you feel when you are caught in the middle of a Wi-Fi desert without a connection?

Last week, I attended a week-long training session focused on Oracle’s new directory services product, Oracle Unified Directory.  A direct descendant of the Sun Microsystems OpenDS project, OUD is the next-generation Java-based directory product we have been anxiously anticipating for a long time.  This webinar is the first public unveiling of this exciting new product.

As my memory shifts towards and merges with cyberspace, I think about my all time favorite bumper sticker:

Now, what else was I going to say?  I think I’ll go check Evernote and get back with you.

I was intrigued by the recent article in IEEE Spectrum entitled “The Web is Your New Memory.”  The author, Erica Westly, observes:

The idea that the Internet has become a sort of “hive mind” is certainly not new, but researchers are still figuring out how the hive mind affects how our own minds work. A study published in today’s Science suggests that the Internet has changed how we remember facts. The study shows that the Web has become a sort of external hard drive for factual information. So instead of remembering specific details, such as who directed the film Casablanca (Michael Curtiz), we remember the name of the website where we can look up that information (IMDb).

That suits me just fine.  I really admire my son who has a near-photographic memory, with an uncanny ability to remember a wide variety of facts and figures.  I once worked for a fellow who could name and discuss every person who had ever coached or starred on any NCAA or NFL team, with the fluency of how a mother discusses her children.

However, I have always been one who was better at remembering how to look up stuff, rather than remember the details.  I’m much better at carefully crafting an analysis report or creating a presentation focused on resolving a specific customer problem than with impressing folks at dinner with quick recall of esoteric facts.  For me, cyberspace has indeed been a blessing for my way of thinking – a vast expansion to my short- and long-term memory.  I keep my to do lists on line, I take almost all my notes on line, I study and annotate scriptures on line … the list goes on and on.  In a way, this blog is as much an extension to my memory as anything.  I often refer to back issues when researching subjects of interest.

So, Erica, I think you are spot on.  But I take a bit of exception to Gary Small, whom you quote:

My guess is that you would see this effect in older subjects. The younger people may have grown up with this technology, but the digital immigrants are catching up.

I’m an old guy, many years removed from college.  But I prefer to think the young folks are catching up with me. After all, I started college before floppy disks were invented … and my online storage has been expanding ever since.

Today, the US Department of Defense released a highly-anticipated document, entitled, “Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.”

I think this comment from a Pentagon official goes right to the heart of the issue:

“The department and the nation have vulnerabilities in cyberspace. Our reliance on cyberspace stands in stark contrast to the inadequacy of our cybersecurity.”

High reliance on cyberspace + low confidence in our ability to cope with bad guys = a dangerous combination.

I haven’t read the paper yet, but will comment more when I do.  The topic is both scary and intellectually stimulating to me. Perhaps I should enlist and ask to be assigned to the Cyber Command.

Oh, by the way, is it only coincidence that Iran recently launched their own Cyber Command?  I think not.

I have spent the week with my North American information security colleagues from Oracle, meeting on the historic Oracle/Sun Microsystems campus in Santa Clara, California.  What a delight it was to visit this beautiful campus once again as I mingled with so many friends and professional associates.  This business campus was built on the site of the former Agnews Insane Asylum.  Several of the elegant old buildings remain, suitably updated and equipped for modern use.  But I heard flitting comments today that some people think these buildings are haunted.

Back in the day, the Clock Tower building was known as the Treatment Center.  It makes you wonder what went on there … and what ghosts the “treatments” left behind.

Here are a couple of photos I took of the Clock Tower building with my iPhone this week.

 

It was interesting that a Sun Microsystems sign/monument still occupies a prominent position in the rear of the Clock Tower building, near another smaller monument honoring a Sun Microsystems leader who perished in the 9/11 bombing in 2001. What irony!

All the other signs were brightly accented with bright Oracle red – a fitting reminder about whose campus this really is.

But it has been suitably nostalgic to visit this place today.  As I participated in an hour-long conference call while sitting on the concrete bench surrounding the beautiful fountain near the rear of the Clock Tower building today, I couldn’t help but think of the many, many hours I spent on this campus during my five years with Sun Microsystems, the wonderful colleagues I worked with, and the dreams we shared together.

Back in the day, it was an old timer by the side of the road, who, when asked for directions, uttered the immortal words, “You can’t get there from here.”

Now, Ziggy has to deal with Google Maps.  I think I miss the old timer.