Just thinking…by Mark J. McArdle

I enjoy the dabbling that I do with my little blog.  But, whenever the topic of blogging comes up at work or in a social situation, I have a bit of an awkward feeling.  It’s not that I’m ashamed of blogging, far from it in fact.  But I realize just how great some blogs (and bloggers) are, and how much time, talent and effort it takes to create a truly engaging and influential blog.  These are not easy attributes to achieve, especially given the sheer volume of topics and participants in the blogosphere.

But today I discovered how easy it has become to start looking for great blogs authored by ‘thought leaders’, influencers and witty people across the globe.

PostRank, a wonderfully creative company based in Waterloo, Ontario has posted their “Top Blogs of 2009“.  I don’t know about you, but I found it very difficult to find great blog content.  Doing a Google search doesn’t get you very far.  I primarily used recommendations from people I trust.  But I was sure I was missing out on a lot of insightful writing.

So now, thanks to PostRank, I no longer waste time hunting, I use my precious time much more productively by seeking out “the best” in any subject that interests me.

The more I learned about the Kung Fu behind the PostRank approach, the more impressed I became, and the more confidence I had that this was based on real science and large volumes of user data.

PostRank has identified 3 awards for blogs in each of the almost 500 blog topics:

Engagement is a measure of the amount of intention or interest a specific blog attracts.  I think of it simply as analogous to a Twitter user who is frequently Re-Tweeted. PostRank extends this concept quite broadly and tracks billions of “Engagement Events” by analyzing 19 different social networks for users taking actions on blog posts.

Influence is measured by determining the average number of Engagement Events per post for a blog, and the Movers & Shakers are those blogs who have achieved a huge growth in attention.  If you’re a consistently referenced blogger, your Influence will be high.

It’s fun to see what comes up for topics you enter at http://www.postrank.com.  You can also surf around the topics alphabetically.  After a few minutes, I’d found some interesting new blogs.  Here’s some of the wonderful nuggets I found:

The “Best Bacon Blog” is Mr Baconpants. Yes, that’s right.  There are several bacon-oriented blogs, and the current leader in this very tasty category is Mr. BaconPants.  But you should be aware that this is a tightly contested battle, and current 2nd place blog BaconGeek was the #1 bacon blog on the planet last week. I’m getting hungry.

After checking that my tinfoil hat was affixed firmly to my head, I checked out the “Conspiracy Theory” topic.  To my surprise, the winner was InfoWars and surprisingly not FoxNews.  That brings up a question.  Should I look for the best Glenn Beck blog under “Nut Job”, “Weasel” or “Tea-bagger”?

Despite my best intentions, I cannot help myself when it comes to Geek and Gadget sites.  I was certainly familiar with the Gadget site winner: Engadget.  But the Top Geek blog was a new one to me, and one I’m going to spend some time reading.  It’s called io9.  I just saw a post there titled “Engineering the Perfect Racecar – At Nano Scale“.  Win! Thank you, PostRank!

There’s also a lot you can learn from PostRank about how engaging a blog has been over time, as well as where the reader engagement is coming from.  Clearly, Twitter is a very powerful means to tell the online world that you think something is interesting.  Here’s a screenshot of the analytics for one of my favourite destinations, Slashdot.

Blogs can be a wonderful source of opinion, advice, know-how and humor.  But the good ones used to be hard to find.  The smart folks at PostRank have found a way to leverage our collective actions to magically help each other recommend great blogs.  I think this is significant.  The Internet is getting constantly bigger, and the good sites are getting harder to find.

The only problem I now have is that I’m now faced with proof that my little blog isn’t influential or engaging.  I guess I better work on that!

mJm

I approached my first trip to CES with many of the same feelings I had when I made my first pilgrimage to Comdex in the ’90s.  Excited for the new things I would see, anxious about the size of the crowds, and concerned for my feet.

CES Opens

It’s always refreshing to get out of Waterloo, where our concentration in Tech Companies is mistaken by some as a form of destiny, and that our leadership in any particular area of technology is secure.  I most often get that sense from people who don’t spend much time in Silicon Valley or other hotbeds of innovation.  Things move very fast, especially in developing markets.  It is with this sense of inquisitiveness I set out to experience the latest breakthroughs in the vast world of Consumer Electronics.

Getting to the show from my hotel was very easy.  The monorail is a cheap and comfortable way to get to and from CES, as long as you try to avoid the peak times.  I left early, so I could avoid the rush and get the floor maps to each hall.  I like to plan my itinerary around specific companies or industries.  It’s a foregone conclusion that you can’t spend lots of time at everything.  There were over 2500 exhibitors, which was down from 2700 in 2009.  With 1 day to go, there were 113k attendees.

As a side note, I think over 200 of these 2500 exhibitors were purveyors of BlackBerry and iPhone covers.  You name a theme, colour, texture or material, and somebody has a case for you.  I did wonder how many cases these companies needed to sell to justify the costs of CES.  Anyhow…

With my South Hall 1&2 map in hand, I set out to see the wonders that lay before me.  The first interesting technology I saw was a home security product.  It was called “Control4” and uses various touch-screen remote and tablet-like devices to control and monitor your home.  You could also access the system through your computer/iPhone (I assume remotely but this wasn’t mentioned).  There are some real conveniences in a system like this.  The gent demonstrating the system pointed to the logging and reporting that enables a parent to tell when their son actually got home.  Did he make curfew?  Hmmm, not sure that pitch worked with me.  I’ll be waiting up for my kids.  One other odd issue was the physical door locked.  I asked him “how is it powered?”.  The whole system works wirelessly, and the doors lock/unlock upon command through the console, or by entering the code on the keypad.  The locks have AA batteries inside.  So, I wonder what happens when your batteries die, and you don’t have your keys on you?  Hopefully there’s an alert on the system that warns you that you’re about to be locked out of your house.

I next found my way through lots of not-so-interesting cable and component vendors.  I was starting to become concerned.  Where were the cool technology booths?  But fortunately, there were some sites to behold in some booths.  I snapped a few pictures as proof.

I met up with my colleagues mid-afternoon, and we decided to grab some refreshments and head back to the hotel.  All in all, day 1 was a bit of a let-down to be honest.  But the best was yet to come.

Day 2 I set out first for the Central Halls.  This is where the large Consumer Electronics companies had their booths.  Well, actually calling these booths is like calling Buckingham Palace a cottage.  They were immense, and beautifully constructed.  I began to see what I had heard was going to be the “big thing” from CES 2010: 3DHD.

But before I got there, I wandered past the Intel booth, where they were showcasing lots of processor technology.  They had a very cool touchscreen cube that was showing small thumbnails of pictures of CES people had uploaded to Flickr.  When you touched a particular thumbnail, the image expanded.  It was all moving like a wavy stream of thumbnails.  It was just a showcase of something cool, not tied to any particular Intel technology.

Next I strolled past the Microsoft Pavilion.  I found it foreign and uncomfortable because I really don’t use Microsoft for much anymore.  They’re clearly still a huge market force, but their technology doesn’t have near the effect it did 5 years ago.  I did take note of their “Microsoft Auto” display.  [Insert your own car-reboot, crash, <ctrl><alt><delete> joke here]

I then approached the first of the CE giants: LG.  Their plasma and LCD TV offerings were huge.  And the panoramic display they made out of over 100 TVswas quitespectacular.  Their 3D HD presentation was quite impressive.  I should mention a few basics about 3DHD.  Most require the use of special glasses.  This does pose a challenge to consumers who wear glasses when they watch TV.  So far, it appears that each TV manufacturer has their own spec and design for the glasses, and that they are selling the TVs with only 1 set of glasses.  I heard a Panasonic rep say something about it “making sense for the single guy who likes to watch sports”. Uhm, that perhaps works better for the “single guy who has no friends”.  I think there’s a standards opportunity here, and I think it would behoove the entire industry to standardize the technology so that the glasses can be innovated and segmented by 3rd parties.  If I have to bring my glasses to a friends house to watch the Superbowl in 3DHD, I don’t want to have to worry that he’s a Sony guy and I’m a Panasonic.  I didn’t see any pricing announced, and when I asked was told that pricing isn’t available.  I’d guess that these should be priced similarly to top of the line HD Plasmas, with a small premium.  One area of innovation that I wasn’t impressed with was the IP TV features.  I don’t want my TV manufacturer putting YouTube and other browser capabilities in my TV.  They won’t be done as well as 3rd party media devices (Boxee, WD HD TV Live etc), and they just raise the cost to develop and manufacture TVs.  Stick to what you’re good at, and leave those other things to companies that have competencies in things that bring out the best in your TV.

There isn’t a lot of 3DHD content right now, but it’s starting to come.  Panasonic was demonstrating 3D Blu-Ray as well as DirecTV’s 3DHD channel.  I feel like I’ve already seen Avatar because it was playing everywhere in 3D.  I tried on glasses from several manufacturers and there wasn’t much difference IMHO.  They all felt about the same.  I think the quality of the 3D experience is affected by the size of the screen.  The larger, the better.

The Panasonic 152″ Plasma is a great example of this: I saw a Boxee Box and met with Avner Ronen, the Boxee founder.  And I spent some time checking out the various Android-based phones, including one called the vPhone that supports 2 way video conferencing.  The smartphone market is going to be a very exciting one to watch in the next year.  With BlackBerry in a battle with iPhone and Android attacking both from the lower-end of the market, there will be lots of drama here.  Of course, the hottest spot at CES for me this year was seeing Maria Bartiromo aka the “Money Honey”.  She was broadcasting live from the floor of CES for CNBC.  It was interesting to see the behind-the-scenes work that goes on just prior to going live.

I also spent some time at the Sony booth. I was very happy to learn that the driving simulator Gran Turismo 5 is going to launch in Japan in April.  This is a spectacular simulator for the PS3.  They had it running in a demo racing station, and I took my turn at the wheel of a beautiful new Ferrari 458 Italia.  Mamma Mia!  There was lots of interesting stuff there, but nothing that had me in awe.  Perhaps that’s just a sign of how high expectations are set now for Consumer Electronics innovations.  We’re all spoiled to a certain extent, by the wonders the bright minds across the globe have brought into our homes.  I’m considering this CES an incremental evolution of existing technology.

I haven’t decided whether I want to go back next year or not.  Perhaps someone is working on something that will blow my socks off in 2011 or 2012.  And maybe that someone is working right next door to me in Waterloo.  Who knows?

BTW, to see more of my CES 2010 pix, please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ph-stop/sets/72157623065655279/show/

mJm

I’m sitting nearby Gate B11 at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.  I’ve had a great day, and enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner with some genuinely interesting lads.  But once again, I’ve observed some bizarre happenings at the airport.

First, a confession.  I know what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, but this is wearing heavily on me:  I didn’t gamble at all, and I’m up 1 beer thanks to the nice young cocktail waitress who brought me a beer, at no charge, as I was watching the Leafs & Raptors play (I did tip her though).  Ok, that’s off my chest.

So, back to Airport Sekuritee.

As you may recall from my previous post, the spectacle that US-bound travellers go through when flying out of Canada is something to behold.  Utterly bereft of logic, and full of drama and exciting visuals.  But let’s step back a second and look at the basic mechanics of the transaction:

1. A Canadian Airliner
2. A mix of Canadian and American passengers
3. A flight between Toronto and Las Vegas

Now you could argue that the To/From is relevant, but I’d argue that the value of a plane to a terrorist is not based on the direction it’s nose is pointing.  So I believe these assets are of similar value.

Do you think these similar assets are provided with equal protection?  Well, after tonight, I can confidently say that only really stupid, inattentive terrorists would attack a US bound plane.  Instead, wait for the return flight.  You can get to the airport much later, enjoy another Vegas show, and have a couple more cocktails.  Why go through the drama, delay and risk that some fellow passenger will go postal and beat you to ‘heaven’.

So now the details.

The check-in process was very, very long.  I waited over an hour just to get my boarding pass.  This was not however due to increased security.  It can only be attributed to WestJet having ‘a bad day’.  I’ll be charitable, since I’ve only ever heard good things about them.  Perhaps they just hired a new executive from Air Canada. Or maybe everyone was out late at the Penn and Teller show last night.  In any event, I was starting to fear for my departure time.

Off to the security check-point.

Well, it was no different from the hundreds of other ones I’ve been through post-911 and pre-undie-bomber.  Well, one difference.  The TSA agent who screened my boarding pass and passport prior to admitting me to the x-ray/magnetometer made a little scribble instead of a letter.  Apparently my last rant on cryptographically secure symbols to ensure nobody ‘black-pens an X’ has had an effect.

Off with my shoes, out with the MacBook, jacket and sweater in a box and off we go.  No beeps through the magnetometer and I’m now bracing myself for the Broadway Proctological Exam.  But what to my wondering eyes should appear, but an empty hallway.

No more checks.  No groping, no fondling, no tearing everything out of my backpack.  Just plain old ‘what we did before’.

Not having the ability to inquire about this process (without introducing the inevitable ‘why do you want to know, and drop your pants’ reaction), I’m left to try and figure out what can explain this big difference between the Vegas outbound, and Vegas inbound security.

Here’s some initial thoughts:

1. Any terrorist who spent a few days in Vegas would have ‘gone native’.  There’s no way he’d blow up himself and an aircraft that brings people to this city.  Vegas would turn him.  Especially given what these twisted guys are promised.
2. Canada has over-reacted, and wants to make sure it looks like it’s doing ‘important things’ to improve security for US travel
3. The fax machine at the TSA office in Vegas is out paper, and Outlook put the ‘Important Undie-Bomber Script Changes’ email in the Junk folder
4. It’s what we would call a ‘continuity problem’ if this were a movie or TV show (you know, when in one scene the male lead is holding a full beer in his left hand, then magically, it’s half empty and in his right hand)
5. Stephen Harper prorogued inbound security
6. This approach to security doesn’t work, and even Vegas has called bullshit on this horrid show.  And remember, they had Celine Dion for over a year.  And Carrot Top.

I am certainly not arguing that what is being done in Toronto is ‘Best in Class’ and should be replicated in Las Vegas.  Quite the opposite.  But the fact that the system is self-contradicting should be analysed.  Am I less safe flying to Toronto than I was flying to Las Vegas?  No.  Am I less annoyed and delayed? Yes.

I will also point out that a man in his 60’s left 2 bags in line for about 10 minutes.  People kept walking around them.  I approached them and asked the people in front of me if they knew who’s bags these were.  Nobody knew.  I kept asking down the line until somebody said ‘some old guy’.  Now, those bags were almost certainly not a real threat, but they were much more of a real threat than everything the rest of the passengers on my flight presented.  It’s interesting that even in a time of ‘heightened alert’ regular travellers take no note of things like this.  The grumpy old guy showed up a couple of minutes after I asked, and when I suggested he not leave his bags unattended, he looked at me like I just stole his wallet.

We have a long way to go.

That’s all from Sin City.  When I get home, I’ll post my observations from CES.

mJm

Well, I have completed my first post Christmas Undie-Bomber flight into the US.  I was headed to Las Vegas to attend the annual Consumer Electronics Show.  I have to be honest, I really, really, REALLY wasn’t looking forward to the changes the TSA/CATSA has made to the pre-flight security process.  But, I decided to channel this energy in a positive way, and instead focus on the Canadian Junior’s hockey gold medal game against the Americans.  Because I was flying WestJet, I would be able to watch the game in-flight because each seat has it’s own TV running Bell Satellite TV.  Game On!

But first, I had to get to the plane.  And that meant security checkpoints.  And more.

My initial check-in with WestJet was pretty quick.  A short wait, and I was at the front of the line.  I told the nice young lady that this was my first flight ever with WestJet, and that I’d heard wonderful things about it.  I realized as I was saying it that there was no schmoozing my way into an upgrade, because there is only 1 class on their 737s.  How communist.  That said, the service I received at check-in, and in-flight on WestJet far surpassed the general apathy and occasional eye rolls and scowls I’ve endured at Air Canada.

With my boarding pass in-hand, I headed to the US Customs/Immigration checkpoint.  I had expected to see thousands of rotting bodies lying in the hall waiting for their opportunity to be interrogated, scanned, photographed, blood typed, politically assessed, psychologically assessed and genome decoded.  But, to my pleasant wonder, there were only 6 people ahead of me.  BTW, I have a NEXUS pass, but can’t use it going into the US until I head over to the NEXUS office in Terminal 1.  Their office closes at 3pm.  Government work has great hours, and a wonderful pension, and …oh, never mind.

So with my papers in order, and an act honed over many hundreds of shows throughout the years, I was through US Immigration and Customs, and on my way to the CATSA security screening area.  Hmmm, this really hasn’t taken very long, so far.  This is probably where things get messy.

Once again, there were very few people in line for the x-ray/magnetometers.  I kept my boarding pass/passport in my pocket, and took off my coat, shoes and took out my MacBook and sent everything through the x-ray machine.  Now, as I’ve mentioned in my previous post, carry-on roller bags are as welcome in airports as George W Bush is anywhere outside Texas (and possibly West Virginia).  Because of this baggage restriction, I have my Targus Laptop knapsack with me, and in it is my camera gear and MacBook accessories, and everything else I don’t want lost, stolen or broken.

I breeze through the magnetometer with nary a beep, unlike the bozo in front of me who kept pulling change, metal rulers, copper pipe and a wrench out of his pants.  Why do I always get stuck behind morons like this.  I say that if you are incapable of identifying metallic objects on your person, then you cannot be trusted to ensure your luggage has not been compromised by Al Qaeda, and you have to take the bus instead.  These people are also the reason we have to have the seatbelt explained to us every time we get on a plane.

As I’m putting my shoes back on (they apparently did not have PETN inside them), I hear the dreaded words no traveller wants to hear: “Sir, is this your bag?”.  Ok, here we go.  Now previously when I would hear that, it meant that the chemical engineer in the white CATSA shirt was going to do a spectrum chromatographic test of my carry-on to ensure it doesn’t have trace amounts of volatile, dangerous compounds.  Actually, the lad in the white CATSA shirt says he just rubs this plastic stick with a bit of kleenex on the end of it on random parts of my bag, and then he puts the swab in the machine that goes ‘bing’.  I recall from my long-ago chemistry labs at UW that controlling the environment and calibration of the test equipment is critical to generating reliable data.  Judging by the colour of that swab, I’d say it’s been in use since mid-September, 2001. And I think I saw a placard on the machine that says “lick once to calibrate”.  Anyhow, I distract myself with happy thoughts, realizing the ‘bing’ test should only take a minute.

Uh, oh.  Now he wants to completely empty my bag.  Uhm, ok.  So I take out the MacBook, extra battery, power supply, notebook, travel docs, DSLR camera, lens, headphones and assorted pens and mechanical pencils.  It looks like a yard sale, and I’m thinking “I carefully packed this stuff so it would all fit the smallest volume”.  So Igor, (I have spent so much time with him, I feel it now appropriate to take notice of his name tag), starts swabbing my notebook, and anything else he can find.  When the ‘bing’ machine says “he’s clean, Danno'” he starts to give additional scrutiny to my belongings.  He picks up my mechanical pencil, and makes sure there’s lead in there.  I was going to point out that it’s graphite, but thought better of it.  With a million smart-ass remarks flying through my mind, I realize there’s a special room nearby for wise asses, where their wise asses get special attention.  After Igor is happy with the pencil, he says “ok, you can put everything back”.  I hand him my pen, and say “you didn’t check this”.  He seems momentarily confused, then says “no, it’s ok”.  So apparently CATSA training contains a session on ‘Visual Identification Of Weaponized INkS’ (VIOWINS).

One interesting side note.  I don’t know if this happens to others, but as Igor was scrutinizing my belongings, I started playing a game of  ‘where would I put the contraband’? I made a mental list of all kinds of ways to get naughty things past these inspections.  This would be called penetration testing in the IT Security world.  The ‘bad guys’ try to get past the ‘good guys’.  The fact that I came up with a handful of ways to do this while watching them was of some concern.  Alas, I made myself feel better by realizing once again that this isn’t actual security, it’s theatre.  I decide I’m in the middle of Act I, just before the funny guy does his song.

Off I go, my belongings carefully re-packed, and start thinking about getting a bite to eat.  I look ahead of me, and there’s a big queue of people about 150′ away.  My first thought was, wow, that’s a strange place for those people to line up for boarding’, but as I get closer, I realize there’s a new roadblock.  We have more screening to go through.  Oh dear, now I’m thinking I should start taking notes.

There are no signs, just a CATSA agent at the front, and as I look ahead I can see armed RCMP officers doing pat-down searches of everyone.  I overhear someone say “females on the right, males on the left”.  A guy in front of me jokes aloud about whether he could be searched by a female agent.  Apparently that’s not allowed.  More silly rules.

It’s now my turn.  I walk towards the highly trained, capable, and expensive RCMP officer and he smiles and politely asks me to take off my jacket.  I feel like we both know this is a farce, but neither of us wants to demean the dignity of the other by saying so.  I ask him if we could get to know each other over a glass of wine first, but he says no.  He’s not looking for a long relationship.  He asks me to make a ‘T’ with my arms, and I wonder if I’m going to be allowed to spell a word with my body as part of a peaceful protest of this performance art called airport security.  No time for that, he starts high, and briskly grabs me all over from behind.  “Turn around, please” he says.  Now he checks me from the front.  I almost can’t prevent myself from laughing.  This whole scene is ridiculous.  He is satisfied now (that makes one of us) and writes a “C” on my boarding pass.  I quickly determine “C” means “Table C” for the carry-on bag inspection.

Let’s now review what’s happened this far.

1) Nobody asks me any meaningful questions about my trip at the WestJet check-in, or US Immigration.  Perhaps that’s negative profiling, but I’m certainly not willing to cede that the process used is that sophisticated.  It’s village idiot simple.  Do the same thing to everyone, and look very serious when you do it.

2) I’ve been through a magnetometer and my bag has been x-rayed and completely emptied and searched.

3) Me, and everyone else flying that night, was physically patted down.  I was told by a woman in line that they are even doing this to children.  I found that hard to believe but was busy with my own pat-down and didn’t see how they handled children.

4) If I was a radical, and used the same approach as the Christmas Day bomber, I would have made it through these checks with exactly the same ease.  Nobody tested me in a meaningful way.  Me and my explosive tighty whities would be heading for the magazine shop for some pre-terror reading material.  Perhaps a Steven King novel, or something from Dr. Phil.

Ok, almost there.  But I have to go through yet another tear-everything-out bag check.  So I’m think that perhaps this is a ‘defence in depth’ approach.  Overkill, but when you’re going for dramatic effect, the more the better.  I think they actually need some flashing red lights, some sirens and  a smoke machine.  And maybe a fireman.  I initially think playing the theme music from ’24’ would be a good effect, but then decide that this would set expectations that this entire charade would be over in ‘1 day’.

The CATSA agent looks at my coded boarding pass, and directs me to Table C.  I walk up, and place my bag on the table, and guess who’s there?  It’s my old friend Igor!  Well, isn’t this nice.  Igor gets to test his own thoroughness.

I can’t resist.  As he’s taking everything out of my bag, I say to him, ‘doesn’t this look familiar’.  He doesn’t appear to understand what I’m talking about.  Is he ignoring me, or does he genuinely not recognize the MacBook, Canon camera/lens and mechanical pencil from 15minutes earlier?  At this point, I’m looking for the director to yell ‘Cut!, Who the hell put this guy back on bag-check? You’re ruining the whole effect!  Ok, people, back to your marks, and ACTION!”

Igor finishes his work, and says I can go.  I look at him quizzically and say ‘that’s it’?  He says ‘yes’.  I’m wondering, shouldn’t you write a special cryptographically secure symbol or code on my boarding pass to indicate that Igor has confirmed (again) that my bag is safe?  So, not overthinking this, I turn and head to the final CATSA agent.  She looks at my boarding pass, and stops me saying “Was your bag checked?”  Uhm, do you trust me enough to want my answer?  I tell her yes, and point to my friend Igor.  She yells “You have to put an X on the boarding pass”. An “X”! Dammit, that’s so simple and so perfect.  Who’d crack that code?  You can’t pass through this final rigorous final security checkpoint until you have a black ‘X’ on your boarding pass.  Perhaps black ball point pens should be banned in airports as well.  Igor sheepishly acknowledges that he’s not following the script, and is likely to get a call from his talent agent telling him he’s back to community theatre after this show runs its course.  But if this show has the longevity of Cats, we’re all screwed.

So, after 45+ minutes of additional screening, I’m free.  And I’ll point out that the airport was as empty as I’ve ever seen it.  I can only imagine what it is like when it’s full.  That explains why WestJet says you should show up 3 HOURS before your flight to the US.  Imagine flying to New York (1.5 hour flight) and have to show up 3 hours early.  Sure, that’s sustainable.

Well, that’s my report.

It’s like one of those really bad sci-fi movies where the science is so incredibly weak that you find yourself cheering for the asteroid to wipe out the Earth.  When we use highly trained law enforcement in this way, it demeans their skills, and clearly takes them away from more important societal tasks.  Shouldn’t we be identifying anomalous behaviours? It isn’t profiling if you select people based on stress responses.  The more I learn about the Israeli approach to aviation security, the more impressed I am with it.  If we’re going to have to spend Billions of dollars, can we at least attempt to do it intelligently.  “Sir, please take off your shoes” is not basis for airline security.

We need a much more intelligent approach to identifying threats.  The model being used by the aviation world makes me appreciate how well Internet security works.  Yes, it’s that bad.

mJm