Hard Conversations
Earlier this week I was at the mall with my friend "Dave" (not his real name), shoe shopping. The reason we were at the mall isn't important, but it sets the scene. We left the shoe store, Dave turned...
ai
Over the weekend I had to call a plumbing service. Tenant had a broken toilet, bad timing, the usual Saturday night special. Like most after-hours services, I didn't get connected to a plumber. I got...
ai
Earlier this week I had the privilege of moderating a panel at Digital Access Day, the Canadian Internet Society's annual gathering of thoughtleaders working on the issues shaping our networks and our...
3d-printing
Earlier this year I wrote about "New York's attempt to mandate filtering software on 3D printers" (https://mgamble.ca/p/new-yorks-3d-printer-bill-wont-stop-ghost-guns-but-it-will-stop-you-from-fixing)...
net neutrality
Earlier this year, I wrote about "Bill S-209" (https://mgamble.ca/p/bill-s-209-protecting-kids-at-the-cost-of-the-internet) and its deeply flawed premise: that we can protect kids from pornography by...
code
I lost the remote for my Yamaha RX-V385 receiver. Not temporarily misplaced it, not left it between couch cushions. Gone. Vanished into whatever dimension claims TV remotes, single socks, and 10mm...
code
Wtih today being a holiday (Good Friday) and a chance to finally start to tackle my "todo" list around the house I installed a new smart light in my office, an Artika Skyshade I picked up from Costco...
Security
I've watched many teams score vendors on raw CVE counts. Not on response times, not on disclosure transparency, not on architectural controls. On the number of CVEs. I've seen it first-hand, in the...
Reflections
Fiction has a funny way of becoming government policy. Recently I've been rewatching Person of Interest, the CBS drama that ran from 2011 to 2016. If you haven't seen it, the premise is this: a...
rant
Recently, I found myself sitting across from a 20-piece McNugget box, three dipping sauces, and a rising sense of injustice. Three sauces. For twenty nuggets. I'm a network engineer by trade, and even...
Reflections
I double booked myself again. A work meeting landed on top of a personal commitment because I forgot to cross-reference my Google Calendar before accepting the invite in Outlook. It's embarrassing...
Reflections
Over the weekend, something happened that most enterprise architects and business leaders probably never seriously modelled: drone strikes took out Amazon Web Services data centres in the Middle...
policy direction
Earlier this month, "PC Gamer reported" (https://www.pcgamer.com/software/operating-systems/a-new-california-law-says-all-operating-systems-including-linux-need-to-have-some-form-of-age-verification-a...
Alignment
There's a special kind of technical debt that doesn't show up in Jira. It doesn't sit in a backlog. It doesn't have a product owner. It doesn't even admit it exists. It lives in PowerPoint. I call it...
Hard Conversations
For the past decade, I've watched enterprise security teams deploy TLS inspection appliances with the best of intentions. The pitch is always the same: we need visibility into encrypted traffic to...
amazon
I was watching the American feed of the Super Bowl last night when Ring's latest ad came on. A family loses their dog. They upload a photo. Ring's network of neighbourhood cameras springs into action,...
Security
Security requires a particular mindset. Security professionals (at least the good ones) see the world differently. They can't walk into a store without noticing how they might shoplift. They can't use...
innovation
New York is considering a budget bill (S.9005/A.10005) that would require all 3D printers sold in the state to include "blocking technology" that scans every print file through a "firearms blueprint...
code
If you're reading this, you're looking at a completely rebuilt blog. Not a theme change. Not a migration. A from-scratch rebuild of everything – the content system, the search, the social layer, and...
code
Last week I was reviewing a vulnerability scan report for a client when something caught my eye. Buried in a list of "critical" findings was a Log4j vulnerability - you know, the one that broke the...