Serious intra-generational meditations are always in vogue during times of upheaval and chaos, and today is no exception. And frankly, why wouldn’t it be a great time to contemplate the forging of millions of people in the furnaces of the now? Europe is threatening to fly apart like a delaminating high-speed flywheel, protesters are occupying cities all over the world, and the political “leaders” everywhere are finding it hard to speak or act without tripping over their own feet. With unemployment above 9%, that leaves plenty of hours free to think and write and blog about these issues; the ubiquity and non-existent monetary cost of the web makes it easy.

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• Current Mood: Serene
• Currently Listening To: "Neighbours", The Rolling Stones

I’m pretty much done with the bulk of my MSST degree program, now that my capstone project has been completed. All in all, it’s been a fantastic experience. I knew that there would be a few bumps along the way, seeing as how I was in the first cohort to go through the program, but the issues that came up were addressed with an eye towards improving the program for future students. I feel that I’ve learned a great deal about risk management in a number of realms, and how to frame issues I had never thought of before when it comes to dealing with risk and security. I definitely feel like this is going to be a useful set of tools for the rest of my career.

• Current Mood: Udon
• Currently Listening To: "Subterranean Homesick Alien", Radiohead
• Currently Reading: "Angler", Barton Gellman

I recently spent almost a week in Arizona visiting family. It was my first time visiting Arizona, and suddenly, I understand John McCain a whole lot better…

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• Current Mood: Capstoned
• Currently Listening To: "Moon, Turn the Tides...Gently, Gently Away", Jimi Hendrix
• Currently Reading: "Fear Less", Gavin De Becker

Predictions of the end of free checking seem to have come true, at least for U.S. Bank: I recently received notice that my free checking account, which I’ve had for over a decade, will now have a monthly fee attached if I don’t carry a minimum balance or do enough in direct deposits. Since my main account is with ING Direct, I use my U.S. Bank account for two things: the odd check that I have to deposit at an ATM (ING doesn’t do ATM deposits), and the one check I write a month that I can’t send electronically (thanks, bus pass!). So I will not be maintaining those accounts balances, and since I don’t feel like paying anything, U.S. Bank will lose a customer.

What I don’t get, though, is why banks aren’t coming up with more flexible options. Pretty much every bank that is getting rid of free checking is doing the “maintain a minimum balance or pay a set fee each month” approach. Why not have a variety of options? How about a fee per ATM use, or a fee per check? I’d be much happier to select an option like that. Seems like it wouldn’t be that hard for banks to put together a cafeteria-style menu of account options and let customers choose what they would prefer (with limitations, of course, on how often you can change things, so you can’t game the system too much). A flat fee for unlimited ATM use and checking doesn’t appeal to me because I don’t need those things.

So now, the question is where to go. I could go to a credit union, or just use my wife’s account. But for lack of account options and flexibility, U.S. Bank will be losing a customer.

• Current Mood: Hot
• Currently Listening To: "Purple Haze", Jimi Hendrix
• Currently Reading: "Bossypants", Tina Fey

I’m currently working on my MSST Capstone project, which is going to focus on IT security in small organizations and small businesses. If you work in a small business, especially if you have an IT role, please fill out a short survey I’ve put together. It’s 36 questions, mainly yes or no, so it shouldn’t take up too much time. You can access the survey here.

• Current Mood: Hungry
• Currently Listening To: "Thunder Road", Bruce Springsteen

Julia and I went on our honeymoon over Christmas. We went to Hawai’i's Big Island for a week, and it was absolutely amazing. Pictures and our trip after the jump…

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• Current Mood: Sunday
• Currently Listening To: "The Final Cut", Pink Floyd

We’ve posted our wedding photos here. Another big thanks to Steve and Kelsey from Holm Photo.

Also, in my last post about the wedding, I forgot to mention our fantastic officiant, Tomkin Coleman. He helped us create a ceremony that was meaningful and truly our own.

Thanks again to everybody!

• Current Mood: Sore
• Currently Listening To: "Learning To Fly", Pink Floyd

It’s hard to believe that Julia’s and my wedding was over a month ago. We switched from wedding planning back to campaign mode so quickly, the past month just flew by with no time to sit back and reflect. Now that the election is over and things are a little slower, although unsettled, here’s the lowdown.

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• Current Mood: Friday
• Currently Listening To: "Casey Jones", Grateful Dead

CNN did a story on the Masters of Science in Security Technologies (MSST) program I’m enrolled in at the U. The story can be found here. I’m in the story for a few seconds of talking and clicking around on my computer at work (I’m clicking on the database app I created, not Solitaire). Except for my appearance on ‘N Sync’s website many years ago, it’s probably my broadest media appearance yet. I’m so proud!

As for the MSST program itself, it’s going very well. Our first course, dealing mainly with the psychology of terrorism, is already over, and it was very interesting. Ron Krebs, the instructor for the majority of the class, handled the class exceptionally, with a very good balance of lecture and group activities, as well as engrossing readings. I and several of my classmates were interested in taking a course he is teaching in the fall, but the workload just isn’t something I could handle while working, planning a wedding, and electioneering. Our current two courses, on critical infrastructure protection and science and technology in security, are also very interesting. They are pretty broad courses with a number of guest speakers lecturing on their particular expertises (cybersecurity, biosecurity, food security, pandemic preparedness, and so on) and they will provide for a good base upon which we can expand in later classes. They are also great at scaring the crap out of us.

In a little more than a month, the summer semester will be over and I’ll be 25% done with my degree. Not bad. Next on the to do list: thinking of a capstone project.

• Current Mood: Hump day
• Currently Listening To: "Let It Bleed", The Rolling Stones

Hey, is this blog still on? It appears that I haven’t updated it in quite a while. The end of session got in the way, then the MSST program started and then we moved to a new place. During the move, I had yet another example of how important it is to back everything up on your computer.

I moved my computer over, plugged everything back in, and turned it on. Windows 7 refused to boot, halting at a blue screen. When I tried to boot into safe mode, I could see that the problem was with a file called CLASSPNP.SYS. I found this thread with a similar problem, but unfortunately replacing the file didn’t help. All the other searches I did turned up people with the same problem, and no solution. Eventually, I had to reinstall Windows to get it working.

Fortunately, though, I had backups of all of my data, and so I didn’t lose anything, most importantly the paper I was working on for class. It did take several hours to reinstall all of my programs and get everything looking right again, but I didn’t have to spend many more hours recreating documents. Remember: always back up your files, and back them up to more than one place!