What’s new pussycat? Laaa-laa-laa

Well, long time no update!

This month has been extremely crazy for me. A co-worker of mine quit with 0-day notice, forcing me to take alot of additional hours. It’s really impaired my ability to get any other work done. Things have only now slowed down, giving me the chance to write this update.

San Jose was absolutely fantastic. I was there three days, attending the ISEA/Zero One conference. I was there to do participate in a panel along with Steve Cisler, Mike Ward, Paul White and Eduardo Villanueva. These were all absolutely fantastic people, each with incredibly interesting viewpoints in their own right. I had never before witnesses such elaborate and well spoken thoughts on the issues surrounding piracy.

As for the talk itself, it went quite alright. Unfortunately, I felt like I let down the others there; using my time to go in a very shallow tangent about issues of new media and IP violations. It was almost a rehash of what someone had said the day earlier. I should of discussed filesharing and youth, or something more appropriate to the topic at hand.

San Jose itself was a unique experience. So different than Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal & NYC. Beautiful vistas, palm trees, and some of the most distinct architecture I had ever seen. Whereas each house here is somewhat brick & mortar, the ones there had a sort of Spanish feel. Speaking of which: the Mexican influence took me a-back. One could easily find advertisements for prominent products uniquely in spanish, and sights of illegal Mexican workers waiting by the corner of a road for work. ‘Twas almost surreal.

Then there’s also the tech-hub aspect of San Jose. Streets were named after tech pioneers (ie. “Woz Ave.”), and it seemed like everyone I met down on my way overthere had some position or other in a tech-related enterprise. I was also surprised by how much of the tech crash was still evident in the city.

Anywho, great place, great people. Absolutely fantastic people.

On another note, I’ve released the unofficial version of HackTV: Underground Episode 4. In this, I interview Johannes Ullrich, Chief Research Officer for the SANS Institute. You can download the show it from here (104MB). The official release is expected to come out soon, and will feature the standard HackTV intro and end credits.

Apart from that, I’m volunteering to work in an advanced Geographical Information Systems (GIS) project with the University. I’m not doing this for credits/marks, as I’ll get neither. However, why not do something like this? I really like the kind of work they’re doing, and in a year from now I’ll be expected to do a project along the same line anyways. It’ll be a great experience, I’ll gain valuable knowledge, so its a win-win situation.

Finally, I did get to write the PCWorld article. Here’s hoping it makes the cut. Oh, and before I forget: I’m temporarily putting the H4CK3R5 film on hold. With the Piracy Documentary still snatching up alot of my time, in addition to everything else (university, job, moving out, etc.), I just cannot manage it right now. Post Christmas is when I’ll likely have more time to take a look at it.