There was (and still is) so much snow outside, and I spent a good chunk of today helping people dig out. That means my back hurts, and I feel like a fluffy post. You may want to stop reading here.
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First, I ended up in the basement of Lit at some point last week, escaping all things fashion week that took over the New York nightlife. Two occurrences seemed a little relevant to this blog.
Someone, a complete stranger, asked me to watch their beer to make sure the bartender did not take it away and to make sure no one put anything in it. I did what she asked, and it reminded of my post here.
Someone, feigning interest in what I was interested in, asked me what got me into IT security.
Short answer, MUDing. (I did not realize how difficult it was to explain MUDs, ending up comparing them to a maze of chat rooms, which I guess worked well enough.)
Long answer, my college locked out my IT account due to MUDing. Now, I should have just gone down to the IT offices, gotten a talk about improper use of campus IT resources, and been given back my access, but I felt the policy was inane and I was too full of angst/conceit to cave to such things (I know, stupid kid). So, I went after the IT infrastructure at my college instead, much like the dumb things we used to do in high school.
At some point, I started thinking about simple ways to catch an attacker (simple example, logging on as professors in the middle of the night from lab terminals – an administrator should notice such behavior, and at least go and talk to the professors to see what was up). Later, I started thinking more and more about how to stop a determined adversary that had been delegated a minimum set of permissions, had plenty of time to work in, and had a lot of access to information (e.g., IT staff, profs, students, friends, mailing lists, web sites, etc.) from gaining more access than they were supposed to have. That was (and is) a hard problem and really was my leap into thinking about security, although it was quite a while before that translated into something useful.
It took a few years after college, but I eventually outgrew the poor behavior. However, the interest in security stuck with me, as is probably obvious to readers of this blog.
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Second, I was recently offered a position as a security consultant, which I had to decline. I really want to help people with technology hands on, and I do not want to be limited solely to the security arena. Sure, security is a strong interest of mine and it pays quite well to boot, but bringing people and technology together for the better is much more important to me, of which security is just a part. That is what D-kriptik is trying to do for small businesses and home users, and that is where my energy is being spent.
(Of course, I greatly appreciated the offer and the rounds of beer. 
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Third, my impressions of New York fashion week (Fall 2006) after a tiny bit of exposure to it. This is a topic because some of you will be at the RSA conference 2006 this upcoming week, which in many ways is to the security industry as fashion week is to the fashion industry, albeit the RSA conference has much more fluff in its presentations.
Fashion is big business, and fashion week in New York is a mountaintop of fashion networking and marketing in the United States of America. It was beautiful to see.
In the midst of these great heights, I saw the three pinnacles of the fashion business.
I saw designers. These people channeled their creativity and inspiration to paint clothing. The New York shows also let you know the designers meant business, and the designs often felt more wearable than arty.
I saw editors (and lowly commentators). These people decided what will receive the big publicity, both positive and negative, and they pushed the trends, the clothing, the style. They lived to observe and comment on fashion, and they had minions, known as commentators.
I saw buyers. (I have a bias here. 
) These people decided what you will see in the stores, and they were amazingly powerful in the fashion world. They chose what will actually be put out there in the real world, and they could take a designer’s runway looks and force a translation to mainstream clothing like no one else.
And, what did I like best? Proenza Schouler. Their designs cut like a razor, and I loved them. I also noted Rodriquez (womens line, not the mens) and Valvo just because those designers clearly loved the women they designed for and it showed in the pieces.