About time. And product. And being more deliberate.
John Hoffoss, a network security engineer at one of Minnesota’s larger institutions, and I dive into computer security, security versus usability, the insecurity of URL shorteners, and some of the reasons Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer are more often targets of security exploits than other platforms.
Stay til the end for a discussion of the security threats of places like Facebook and Twitter.
Put on your tin foil hat and join John Hoffoss and me for a tour of computer security threats, exploits, and vulnerabilities – and their relationship the usability.
And yes, if you pull the hat down far enough – Twitter and Facebook are two of the most significant threats to network security yet.
First Crack 122. John Hoffoss on Usability and Network Security
I was getting 403 errors after deploying my newest Sinatra app with Passenger.
Turns out Passenger assumes and requires a /public folder.
This app is so tiny and new, it didn’t have one yet – so I was pointing Passenger at the app’s root. Resulting in the 403 errors.
Solution: Create an empty /public folder and restart Apache. Ta Da. Like magic.
If you’re still having issues – confirm your LoadModule passenger_module path is correct, mine looks like this:
opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.7/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
After updating the Passenger gem to 2.2.7, my LoadModule path was way off, not helping the deployment troubleshooting efforts.
In 5 brief minutes, I discuss my web font deliver service, Kernest and my hopes and dreams for Minnesota’s tech startup community.
More interviews from all the Minnesota entrepreneurs that presented at the MIMA Summit over at MN Tech Startups.com
[43 minutes]
In continuing my mental exercise on replacing the USPS I was stuck with solving the problem of delivery and drop-off for rural America.
Especially deep rural America – where the roads are still gravel.
A I commented on earlier – Wal-Mart’s based its success on serving rural America remarkably well.1
With more than 4000 stores nationally, 3000 stores worldwide, and a highly efficient network of distribution centers – there are few organizations with the presence, passionate customer base, and logistics experience capable of competing with the USPS.
Even half a mile down a dirt road in rural Wisconsin – a Wal-Mart is still a quick 15 minute drive away. And has been for 15 years.
Let’s say Wal-Mart returned to the days of small town packaged good store.
As part of your weekly drive into town for clothes and groceries, you drop your outgoing mail – bills, personal correspondence, everything – off at the customer service desk.
For the personal correspondence – you provide an email address or phone number of the recipient and you go about your shopping.
Wal-Mart – in their characteristic price cutting manner – charges nothing for this service2.
The outgoing mail is picked up by the existing incoming delivery trucks and their first stop is the nearest Wal-Mart distribution center. Where the mail is sorted for delivery to next closest Wal-Mart distribution center to the final destination2. And so on, and so on, until it’s delivered to the Wal-Mart closest to the intended recipient.
Once at this last Wal-Mart – a email (or voicemail) is sent to the intended recipient notifying them that an item is ready for pick-up during regular business hours.
What else would that quote at the top of the post be about?
Oh, how Wal-Mart is transforming the prescription drugs market.
1. Yes, I’m aware my original question was about a competitive non-profit. I do think that’s an more interesting idea – but I landed on Wal-Mart. So let’s explore this for a moment.
2. Just like email.
Yesterday, NPR discussed the challenges of the US Postal Service after reporting a $3.8 billion revenue loss for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009.
The revenue loss corresponded to a reported 13% decline in mail volume.
I’ve noticed a significant decrease on my end since Dec 2007 as well. For the 2008 and 2009 – the number of credit card offers and direct mail catalogs arriving daily was 0. This number is only now picking back up – maybe one per week. Nowhere near the multiple items per day we received in 2006 and 2007.
We’re even transporting Netflix DVDs less.
I have a hard-time imaging the USPS returning to profitability with first class stamps less than 50 cents a piece. Then again, none of the bulk mailings I mentioned above had first class stamps on them. So, either first class stamps are the USPS’s only profit – or they’re a loss leader.
My bet is the latter.
This puts the Postal Service in a tough spot. FedEx and UPS are taking the high end of their business. Email, Facebook, and 37Signals are taking the low end.
There are a few things we send via the USPS – things that aren’t easily digitized and not urgent enough to send via a private carrier:
Leads me to some interesting questions:
Who else could handle that exchange?
What would a non-profit competitor to the USPS look like?
Even one that didn’t sell first class stamps or provide service to every address.
Or, restating the questions –
What would US Postal Service look like if it started today – with FedEx and the internet already well-established ?
Three ideas that immediately come to mind:
How would you change the USPS?
This morning Andy Parkinson pointed to his Innate Index project. And since narcissism is the perfect way to start a Monday, I indexed myself.
That’s the graph above.
“The Innate Index is a brief personality inventory based on the five factor personality model that has been shown to be associated with a variety of school, life, career and relationship success outcomes. The Innate Index is intended to provide you with information about key aspects of your personality and style.”
That’s nice and while self-reporting can provide satisfying results – it’s one of the least accurate methods of reporting. So, I’m very pleased to see Innate Index make it easy for others to index you.
Yes – Innate Index makes it easy for your friends and fans to rate your personality, with a simple link to 45 multiple choice questions.
I’m intrigued. If you are as well – innately index me.
In my world – Twitter and Facebook streams seem to be slowing down, while I’m hearing rumors of more people “using” both services – it’s not translating to me seeing new faces. Hell, I’m even seeing fewer familiar faces.
And half expecting to hear Whit Stillman‘s next project is titled “Social Network”.
Not a bad thing. Scenes change. The exciting pieces turn bland.
We know that. One of the first social networks – Geocities, launche in 1994, recently closed down. Five years from now it could easily be – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, FourSquare, or Tumblr.
1. Nobody owns them, Everybody can use them and Anybody can improve them
Listen to John Hoffoss on Computer and Network Security