Duncan Hart

It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure.

Duncan Hart — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:00:25 +0000

This piece from Clay Shirky isn’t new, but it’s sure still absolutely relevant.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/LabqeJEOQyI?rel=0

The right question

Duncan Hart — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:38:54 +0000

“If you’re not asking the right question, then there is no correct answer.” Merlin Mann

Unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable

Duncan Hart — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:00:55 +0000

I think Chris Chant has hit the nail on the head with his recent Institute of Government piece.

“It is unacceptable at this point in time to not know the true cost of a service and the real exit costs from those services: the costs commercially, technically and from a business de-integration standpoint. So, how do we untangle our way out of a particular product or service. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the discussion that says, we need to get away from that, and we can’t because of the complexity of getting out from where we are, and of all the things that are hanging on to that particular service, that we can’t disentangle ourselves from.

I think it’s completely unacceptable at this point in time to enter into contracts for longer than 12 months. I can’t see how we can sit in a world of IT, and acknowledge the arrival of the iPad in the last two years, and yet somehow imagine that we can predict what we’re going to need to be doing in two or three or five or seven or ten years time. It’s complete nonsense.”

It fills me with hope that there are people out there working to highlight that the command-and-control approach to technology and systems no longer holds up. Can the few break out of the force field of the incumbent suppliers? I really hope so.

Full audio of Chris’s piece is available here.

Doodlers, unite!

Duncan Hart — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:25:53 +0000

Reading

Duncan Hart — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:42:08 +0000

“The man who doesn’t read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” Mark Twain.

The wrong questions

Duncan Hart — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:00:03 +0000

“ The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.” Peter Drucker

The security sky is falling (but what should I do?)

Duncan Hart — Sun, 22 May 2011 17:52:29 +0000

I’m increasingly becoming irked by lots of security folks who are screaming ‘the security sky is falling.’ Stopping there, with simply the frightening aspect of worrying, is like screaming “Danger!” without knowing what to do or where to run. All that happens is that the screaming causes disturbance but has not told anyone what they can do to avoid the danger.

Communicate

Duncan Hart — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:16:13 +0000

I spend a lot of time thinking about communication systems that have low control, and high expectations. As a result I’m rarely using e-mail these days. Instead, if you want to contact me please do it via Twitter: @duncanhart

Security utopia

Duncan Hart — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:03:16 +0000

The problem I’ve most often met in building secure systems is that this particular subject seems to bring out the utopian in people like no other.

This ‘should’ happen, that ‘should’ happen, its unfair or wrong or wicked that such and such is allowed to continue. Well, yes. But what are we actually going to do about it? So we need realistic problems solvers. That means a pragmatic approach, which can often offend a lot of purists. Peter Gutmann captures the essence beautifully - “I think a lot of purists would rather have PKI be useless to anyone in any practical terms than to have it made simple enough to use, but potentially “flawed”.”

The fallacy of control in all broadcast era organisations

Duncan Hart — Sat, 21 May 2011 07:37:05 +0000

If you think you have control then think again