Will Smartphone apps improve our relationships?  Herman thinks so …

After many years of gathering dust on a shelf in my office, my erstwhile floppy disk friends, containing a veritable cornucopia of hopelessly outdated software and useless data, must go.  I felt an intense inner tug-of-war between my tendencies towards compulsive hoarding (or disposophobia) and my more rational desire for a clean office.  My desire for cleanliness, plus some coaching from my decidedly anti-disposophobia wife, won out, and I carried the floppy disk stash out to the garbage.

Farewell, dear floppy disk.  How many years it will be before my CDs and DVDs join you in the dustbin of history?

Yesterday, Silicon Valley Insider published a remarkable view of what shareholder value Apple delivered in the past fifteen years since Steve Jobs returned to Apple.

When Apple acquired NeXT, and Jobs, for $400 million in December, 1996, Apple’s market cap was $3 billion. Today it’s $347 billion, leaving it just $2 billion short of being the most valuable public company in the world, Exxon.

If we add to this legacy the fact that under Steve Jobs’ leadership, Pixar produced seven hit films from 1995 through 2006 (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars) before being acquired by Disney for $7.4 billion, we have the most remarkable story of profitable, creative genius in the history of the world.

Do you lapse into the “Audit Eye” trance when facing a tough audit?

Oracle Identity Analytics can help … really!

During the past three weeks, I have interacted with three major customers, in industries as diverse as transportation, apparel and entertainment, that had one thing clearly in common – each saw Identity and Access Management as a fundamental, critical enabler for new business models each company is pursuing.  It is all about knowing who your customers are individually, and interacting with them in a highly personalized, tailored way, in the context of their choosing.

Today I sat through a presentation that depicted IAM in the traditional context, as something that would improve compliance, increase operational efficiency and enhance security.  While these drivers are still valid, I couldn’t help but contrast those two views.

On one hand, IAM is considered to be very defensive in nature, necessary but burdensome.  On the other hand is an innovative vision that IAM is first and foremost a proactive, offensive weapon and business enabler, secondarily a protective shield.

Can you tell where I’d rather play?

A friend from an Oracle system integrator partner shared this video with me today – a bit of humorous, unabashed promotion for the Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On product.

So, please learn your password … or try out Oracle ESSO!

Sometimes I’m tempted to ditch my mobile phone, but frankly, I would feel naked without one. What will Ziggy do?

In the past few days, I became aware of innovations at Amazon Web Services that show how AWS continues to lead the industry in cloud computing.

The first product offering is the addition of Identity Federation to AWS Identity and Access Management Services, which gives customers:

the ability for you to use your existing corporate identities to grant secure and direct access to AWS resources without creating a new AWS identity for those users. This capability enables you to programmatically request security credentials, with configurable expiration and permissions, that grant your corporate identities access to AWS APIs and resources controlled by your business.

The second offering, “AWS GovCloud,” offers:

a new AWS Region designed to allow U.S. government agencies and contractors to move more sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing their specific regulatory and compliance requirements.

I find it intriguing that the same company that pioneered the industries of online book retailing and ebooks, is so innovative in cloud services and Identity Management.  Plus, I was able to order an new cordless drill from the comfort of my hotel room in San Mateo last night!  Thanks to Amazon and UPS, I think the drill will arrive Arizona before I do this week.

If you are going to invest in security to keep the bad guys out, please take the sage Pearls Before Swine advice and “Change the Top Secret Security Code” to something a bit less obvious than “Password.”

In the Book of Revelation in the Bible, we learn that the Sign of the Beast, or Number of the Beast, is the number 666 – “Six Hundred Threescore and Six” (Revelations 13:16-18).  I don’t pretend to be an expert on the subject, but over the years, spotting references to this number has been intriguing to me.

When I checked in online for my flight yesterday, up popped the number 666 – the number of photos in my iPhone camera roll.  Interesting coincidence? Bad omen?  Should I be worried?

No … just a coincidence, I’m sure.  I flew to Burbank and back safely.  No beastly danger this time.

But I learned something new this morning.  According to Wikipedia:

Some people take the Satanic associations of 666 so seriously that they actively avoid things related to 666 or the digits 6-6-6. This is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia … A prominent example is Nancy and Ronald Reagan who, in 1989, when moving to their home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles, had its address – 666 St. Cloud Road – changed to 668 St. Cloud Road.

Well, that’s taking the whole 666 thing a bit far.  It makes my irrational fear of dentists (odontophobia) seem a bit prosaic.