Well, I don’t know about everybody else, but I had a good time, at least after I made it inside.

We had a good meal, several amusing conversations, notable example keywords and phrases would be: Palindrome, Penny Lane and “dislocated my leg”.

For Bruce: I do hope he’s OK and that was some manner of overreaction to something equally odd but less disasterous.

On to my little offering for the interested who followed my sporadic phone calls and emails:

http://holisticinfosec.blogspot.com/2008/12/online-finance-flaw-american-express.html

I had also mentioned that Tim Inkpen had contacted me regarding some training. Here is his proposal email to me:

Hi Scott,

As per our discussion on Saturday, here is a brief outline of the
Network Education Series I am planning to run at Pythian.

Note: We have decided to delay the start of these sessions until after the transit strike has been resolved.

Location: 116 Albert, 8th Floor

Time: 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Monday evenings

Frequency: Monthly

Format: Hands-on Seminar
A topic will be selected and a brief presentation prepared, along with a series of hands-on learning exercises and topics for discussion. The intent is to keep the mood informal but focused.

The intent is to have people with various levels of experience share
their knowledge.

The path I propose to follow is based on the Network+ and Security+ and
Server+ Certification courses, then move on the Cisco Certifications and
then the Ethical Hacking and related Certifications. I believe that this
direction is import since network security is becoming an increasing
concern.

The sessions would start with the basics of Ethernet then move onto
Wireless networking. TCP/IP would then be focused on, specifically
looking at the structure of TCP and IP headers, in real time, using
tools like Wireshark.

For instance the first seminar I am planning is focused on ethernet
cabling i.e. how to make/test cables, limitations of cabling etc.
There will be cabling so that participants can actually gain hands
on-experience with cutting/testing cables.

The transcripts from the session and/or a web cab of the session will be posted on the Pythian website so that discusion can continue on what was discussion in each seminar.

What Pythian is Looking For:

What we are looking for is co-sponsors like OVSAGE for this program. We are not asking for resources, just the input and co-sponsorship by a
known System Administration organization.

We would also like to get an idea of the number of people within OVSAGE who may be interested in attending.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

If you have any comments, feel free to add them below here.

Counting the hours to vacation…

Scott