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Join me along with ISACA and TechTarget today to learn about how to advance your infosec career!

Im happy to announce that Ill be joining ISACA and TechTarget for their annual online security seminar - a day-long learning event for IT and information security professionals.  My session this afternoon, which starts at 3:30pm ET, will be I Can Do versus I Have Done...Certification, Experience, and the Information Security Career Path.


You can register by clicking the image or via this link:
http://www.bitpipe.com/data/document.do?res_id=1469026420_560  

I hope to "see" you there!

Available link for download

Its Friday and No Quiz Instead Im Just Gonna Blog About Bikes

First of all, heres a self-serving reminder to get your limited edition bike-riding hat!

I dont know how limited they are, but presumably theyre still available because I havent heard otherwise.  Also, this discount code is good for 10% off until the end of the month:


So there you go.

Oh, also, while were talking about caps, I have some Yehuda Moon comic books at home:

Only 15 copies left of Vol 1. If youve thought of getting (or gifting) a set of Yehuda Moon books, now is the time! https://t.co/zU1mhgHk54 pic.twitter.com/ZzCW71d97j

— Yehuda Moon (@YehudaMoon) October 14, 2016

And the other day one of my seventeen (17) kids put on this cap with the brim over his face and said, "Look, Im that guy from the comic book!"

Thats how you know a kids growing up in a bike house, and hopefully when he grows up he can find a good shrink to help him undo all the damage.

In other news, the Wall Street Journals Jason Gay had the exclusive on Robin Williamss bicycle collection, which is now being auctioned:


When Robin Williams died, the world lost a great comedian, and the sport of professional cycling lost its only remaining fan.

In any case, if youre a bike dork (which, if youre reading this blog you are, sorry to break it to you) youll no doubt find his collection fascinating.  It spans years, and Ive been totally nerding out on it.  Indeed, you could start a museum with the mountain bikes alone:


Plus, if youre a recovering Fred like I am, youll find yourself nostalgic for bikes you once coveted.  Hes got all the sweet team replica bikes from the EPO era, like this Bianchi:


Looks like it even has the embroidered Il Pirata saddle:


Id argue that this era represents the pinnacle of the road racing bicycle: pretty much everything was still made of metal (with the exception of the fork), the headsets were threadless but not integrated, the bottom brackets were threaded but not integrated, and the shifting was integrated.  Its even got a square taper crank.  I mean sure, its no Hollowtech II (which is and will always be the worlds greatest bottom bracket interface), but Ill take square taper over all this press-fit crap any day.

Oh yeah, and you didnt even have to charge anything.

Alas, its all been downhill from there.  Have we really gained anything with the modern-day equivalent, apart from a bunch of batteries and proprietary fittings and a 100% price increase?

Id argue that we have not.

Sadly, I never owned that sweet Pantani replica, but I will admit I did own another team replica in the Robin Williams collection:

What can I say?  I was blinded by lust for the crabon-accented Campagnolo Record group, as well as the then-still-kinda-edgy sloping top tube geometry.  Sure, I could have done without all the Festina decals, but it turned out to be a non-issue as the frame cracked at the chainstay in less than a year.

(To their credit, Specialized promptly replaced it, but to their detriment they replaced it with an Allez frame with S-Works decals.)

And thats not the only bike Ive owned thats also represented in the Robin Williams collection--nor is it the most embarrassing.  I also owned this monstrosity:


My excuse is one youll hear from many Freds, which is that its what our team was riding that year.  Unlike the Festina bike, which at least looked pretty cool at the time, this piece of crap was ugly from Day 1.  I could never come to terms with riding this thing, though I rode it anyway, and it wasnt long before the crabon top half of the frame started to separate from the aluminum bottom half of the frame at the head tube, complete with creaking sound.  (A similar fate befell pretty much every one of these as I understand it.)

Specialized also replaced that frame for me, with this one, which to their credit was an actual full-crabon S-Works:


Note I moved the stupid Zertz seatpost over from the ungodly crab-O-luminum freak bike, only because I dont believe in putting metal posts in crabon frames (they seize, dontcha know, unless youre into torque wrenches and boutique assembly paste) and I wasnt about to buy a new one.  This frame served me well for a number of seasons, until eventually I suspected maybe it was cracked:


Instead of verifying this I instead decided to end the cycle by stripping the bike of its parts and putting it in storage.

So if youre wondering why Im often dismissive of the hot new Fred bike technology, theres your answer.

But of course now weve entered a new era of Fred bikes.  Now its all about #whatpressureyourunning, not to mention #whatwidthyourunning:


For years, the standard road bike tire size was 23mm. Thin, light and able to be pumped up to back-achingly high pressures, there was no need to experiment. Then science, endurance events, and gravel riding got in the mix.

Science has now proven that wider tires actually have less rolling resistance than skinnier tires. Wider road tires provide a more forgiving ride and improve handling through a, you guessed it, wider contact patch that makes endurance riding safer, easier, and more accessible. Finally, gravel riding popularity brought on wider tires and the associated equipment to mute the bumps, take on the rocks, and provide some traction in the loose, dirt road conditions. 

You know, this pisses me off.  For years the bicycle industry has been telling us that the path to excellent ride quality and superior performance was expensive frame materials.  And of these materials, ostensibly the best one was crabon fribé, since they could mold it into all sorts of stupid shapes and even put dumb little see-through inserts in it.  (Like the ones you see above in my seatpost).  Yet during this same period there was nary a mention of how tires affect ride quality, save from impassioned reviews about how this 23mm tire is more "supple" and "confidence-inspiring" than that 23mm tire.

So successful was this propaganda campaign that crabon fribé has pretty much completely taken over the Fred bike market--and only now that the takeover is complete and no Fred in their right mind would consider anything else are they telling Freds the truth, which is that its all about the tires, and fatter tires make for a better ride.

"Oh yeah, come on, SCIENCE says wider tires are better, where have you been?," says the bike review machine.

"Uh, reading your dumbass reviews of crabon bikes with skinny tires," say the Freds.

But its already too late for the poor Freds, who now think they need disc brakes to run the wider tires that are now de rigueur, even though they could have been riding on 28mm tires on their short-reach rim-brake Fred chariots all along.  My plastic Specialized as pictured above took them happily, as does the Ritte on which I undertook my Brooks gravel extravaganza:


And to go even wider, all you need are some long- (or technically medium-) reach brakes like Ive got on my Milwaukee:


And I wont even mention cantilever brakes, which despite being powerful and offering lots of clearance are of course hopelessly out of style.

But no, there was nary a mention of medium-reach brakes until it was too late.

No, in order to run todays slightly-wider-than-23mm tires and slightly lower gearing youve got to buy a dedicated gravel bike with dick breaks and that thats it.

And there you go.

Not that I dont want bike shops to sell lots and lots of bikes or anything like that.  And heres a bike shop owner whos also a mayor:


One day maybe well finally get a Fred or a Frederica into the White House.  Then well all get a "pro deal" on our taxes.

Available link for download

Is There Too Much Worry About the Debt

In the March 15, 2010 TIME magazine article "Is There Too Much Worry About the Debt?," Zachary Karabell argues that the U.S. should not lose sight of the things that increase productivity and lead to real economic growth (which in turn, increase tax revenues): investment in physical capital (infrastructure, factories and machines), human capital (education and skills training), and technology.

Available link for download

Its 2006 and MS has still learned nothing about installations!

Due to a contractor job, I need to get some Visual C#/.NET/MSSQL experience. So I was going to install Visual C# Express (or as it is called Visual Studio 8, or other). I got the 3 mb installation file and started the installation (I hoped). The installation program did what they always do, Greetings&Saluations, Accept eula, Install MSDN and MSSQL?. Sure I could go for those as well. The program told me that I needed 1.7++ GBs of hard drive for this installation. Fine, I have plenty of space on my D-drive (data&Programs), which I told the program.

But wait a minute! That isnt how Ms wants it!

If I choose to install everything onto the d-drive, it would install 60 MBs on the D-drive and a whooping 1.7 GBs on the C-drive. But I thought I told VS to install on the d-drive and not onto the c-drive. Of course, I understand that VS requires some files to be installed on the c-drive. But 1.7 GBs, that is ridiculos.

Ok, regroup. Lets just choose the VSC# package, and I still want to install on the d-drive. Now it still wants to install 60 MBs on the d-drive and only 314 MBs on the c-drive.

When I left the MS development environment for six years ago, they still had this idea that I as a user shouldnt be allowed to make decisions like this. Still, they order me around and forces me to install everything on the c-drive. (The c-drive is already packed as every other program/driver wants to install onto the c-drive). I guess I can solve this the MS-user way, do a re-install every two years.

At least with Java, Im old enough to choose where to put things.

Available link for download