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It be that time o’ year again – 19th September, International Talk Like A Pirate Day
Well ye scurvy land-lubbers, it’s that day again – t’ infamous Parlay Like A Pirate day.
Tho’ its origins be clouded in mystery (well, unless you visit the website anyway) It’s become a globally celebrated phenomenon.
So much so that I be inclined t’ see how fast I could code up one o’ my infamous VBScript classes t’ help yonder less able translate their words.
Here it be in its full glory – yonder incredible, 17minute VBScript pirate speak class.
SafeSkies TSA Master Key reverse engineered
Another of the seemingly secure “TSA” approved luggage locks has fallen to good old fashioned reverse engineering.
According to SafeSkies Locks writer Steve Ragan, the key and the story behind how it was reverse-engineered using a number of store purchased locks was disclosed at a lockpicking conference.
If you remember, in 2015 a large number of TSA master keys became available after a picture of them was shared online, leading to the lockpicking community demonstrating how easy it is to convert an image into a working key. Now you can find the 3D files online to print your own. Read more…
Elite turns 25, or How I met David Braben
This week marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most famous computer games ever published – Elite, by David Braben and Ian Bell.
Released to the world on September 20th, 1984 for the 8 bit BBC Microcomputer. Initially rejected by the software publishers of the time, Elite was picked up by Acornsoft and managed to sell 1,000,000 copies on a whole range of platforms. Written by two guys, without the help of a studio, artists, or project managers, and entirely in assembler, for a machine which had less memory “than most emails”, it stands the test of time as one of the finest examples of how gameplay trumps visual beauty every time.
Guy Kawasaki sums up Innovation…
I find it hard to add further comment to Guy Kawasaki’s presentation at Cisco Live. He sums up the difference between delivering a product to market, and delivering the product. For those who don’t know of Guy, he’s an ex Apple fellow, and an author of books such as The Macintosh Way and How to Drive Your Competition Crazy. You can find his Blog online where he comments widely on Apple, social media, energy and all kinds of interesting things. He’s now involved in matchmaking entrepreneurs and angel investors, and public speaking. For Guy, innovation means deep, intelligent, complete and elegant (DICE).
The take away I want to highlight is his message that you have anticipated what people need before they known they need it. Something that in my opinion is best served by gut feeling, industry experience and deep thought – not by asking an analyst what you should do.
To be truly great, and to be truly innivotive, you need to take some chances and push the envelope..
What makes innovation? First quality of innovation is that the product is deep, lots of features, does lots of stuff. You have anticipated what people need before they know they need it. They will not run out of power. Great products, great services are deep. Read more…
Who?
 | EVP Cyber Product Innovation for Mastercard. Formally the Chief Technology Officer for Intel Secure Home Gateways, CTO for McAfee Enterprise Endpoint, CTO McAfee Innovation team, and Founder/CTO SafeBoot Corp. |
Simon Says - Musings of a Technology CTO 
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