Category Archives: Security

Energy, Security

Fuel conservation gives Earnhardt Jr the win

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I did not notice the whining about fuel economy in 2003 by Dale Earnhardt Jr., as captured by NASCAR.com – Fuel strategy gives Earnhardt Jr. top five – July 28, 2003:

Earnhardt indicated next weekend’s Brickyard 400 would be the same story, exacerbated by two-and-four-tire strategies and the specter of fuel mileage, another issue he said he’s had enough of.

“Tony (Eury) Jr. is always on me about fuel,” Earnhardt said of his car chief, who calls his races from atop the pit box in conjunction with his father, crew chief Tony Eury. “It’s never close, it’s always short.”

Junior said after his last pit stop the crew told him he was “about a gallon short” of having enough fuel to make it to the finish.

“He (Eury Jr.) said ‘Don’t scrub your tires and you’ll save some fuel.’ I said, ‘man, I’ve been through this too many times with you.’ I’m getting tired of hearing it from my guys when they tell me that I need to save fuel.

“There is no book on how to save fuel. I mean, every time they say ‘save fuel’ I say, ‘all right, tell me how to do that again?’ I’ve been around this sport a long time — I don’t think anybody really knows.”

Well, apparently Junior has figured it out and is all the better for knowing. The big news today is that he has won a race in Michigan by applying fuel conservation. The articles I have read point out that stopping for fuel would have dropped the driver 25 places! Big kudos to Tony for his sensible energy strategy:

The most popular driver in NASCAR won this one by gambling, going the last 55 laps on the 2-mile oval, including three laps of overtime, without stopping for gas.

He gave most of the credit for his first win in more than two years to crew chief Tony Eury.

“We came in on that last stop and we were going to be about six laps short, and I saved six laps of gas,” Earnhardt said. “So, (we were) just real lucky. I have to hand it to Tony Jr. for being a risk-taker. … He’s done a good job this year getting us good finishes, better finishes than we should probably have.”

Perhaps Eury could consult with Bush and Cheney now and give them some tips on how to keep America from falling behind; better security and more success from higher availability. Imagine a Dick-infomercial where the VP says “Be a winner. Conserve energy.”

Or perhaps Eury could now convince Earnhardt to drive a diesel race car.

Security

ISO 27001, 27002…27003, 4, 5, 7, 8…

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Anyone else notice that the ISO/IEC 27000-series is exploding. First we had 27001 for managing security (ISMS), then 17799 was renamed to 27002 for consistency with 27001. Now, OMFG:

# ISO/IEC 27000 – an introduction and overview for the ISMS Family of Standards, plus a glossary of common terms
# ISO/IEC 27003 – an ISMS implementation guide
# ISO/IEC 27004 – a standard for information security management measurements
# ISO/IEC 27005 – a standard for information security risk management
# ISO/IEC 27007 – a guideline for ISMS auditing (focusing on the management system)
# ISO/IEC 27008 – a guideline for Information Security Management auditing (focusing on the security controls)
# ISO/IEC 27011 – an ISMS implementation guideline for the telecommunications industry (also known as X.1051)
# ISO/IEC 27031 – a specification for ICT readiness for business continuity
# ISO/IEC 27032 – a guideline for cybersecurity (essentially, ‘being a good neighbor’ on the Internet)
# ISO/IEC 27033 – IT network security, a multi-part standard currently known as ISO/IEC 18028:2006
# ISO/IEC 27034 – a guideline for application security
# ISO/IEC 27799 – an ISMS implementation guideline for the healthcare industry

What happened to 6? Perhaps I should be pleased with this laundry list of options, but in fact it makes life quite a bit more complicated right now. I just had to explain 27003 even though it is still in draft form, just because someone wanted to work on ISO compliance for 27002. If you live in a country, let alone a state, that has compliance governance of its own, will you deal with the ISO? Something tells me if you do business across national boundaries this may be your only path of communication, and that is what the ISO is banking upon. On the other hand, I have already met a few people who think international standards are somehow an insult to their sense of national pride and want nothing to do with them.

Security

The perils of upbeat language in the office

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The BBC advises us to avoid being upbeat in our business speak. The last thing you want to say, apparently, is that you are going forward

…the really lethal thing about the whole language of business – is that it is so brainlessly upbeat. All the celebrating, the reaching out, the sharing, and the championing in fact grind one down. Several decades too late, it is as if business has caught up with the linguistic spirit of 1968. The hippies got over it, but businessmen are holding tight.

Funny stuff and very prescient.

It seems that the less one has to say, the more likely one is to reach for a going forward as a crutch. Politicians find it comforting for this reason. “We are going forward” poor Hillary Clinton said just before the last, fatal primary last month when it became indisputable that she was going nowhere of the kind.

I have met many executives in America who hate the term “failure”. They think it lowers spirits and becomes an obstacle to success. Unfortunately, it actually is the lack of communication about failures that let them linger.

Blue sky thinking, pushing the envelope – the problem with office-speak is that it cloaks the brutal modern workplace in such brainlessly upbeat language…

Presumably it is ok to upbeat, just not brainless about it.

Food, Security

Marketing in America

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The BBC has posted an entertaining look at marketing in America called The United States of Advertising:

America is, I think, the only country in the world which permits advertising of drugs which are available only through your doctor.

The insidious message is simple; if your doctor is not offering you this drug, maybe you should be asking for it.

Americans do accept advertising in areas where it does not tend to appear elsewhere.

The really good part comes at the start, when the author tries to explain beef jerky:

…an American food whose classiness you can judge from the fact that it is mainly found in petrol stations.

You could make it yourself at home by cutting a tough, thin steak into tiny strips and leaving them on a sunny window ledge to dry when you went away for your summer holiday.

Little does he realize that good beef jerky is hard to find, but it does exist, just like real food in America.

The point of the article seems to be that watching for legal disclaimers/compliance in marketing is practically a form of entertainment of its own.