Tony Perez On Security, Business, And Life
Running a business is the most exhilarating and challenging experience of my life, rivaled only by my tours overseas. What I've learned in a very short time is that very few people actually know what they are doing, while most of us are just trying to figure it out. Here I hope to share my own insights and opinions, in the hopes that my experiences can be of some value.
In Chandler, Arizona, a day early, in preparation of the first Pressnomics event. And event tailored for businesses in the WordPress ecosystem.
Spending it at the local co-work facility, Gangplank. Can’t wait to bring something similar to my little city — Menifee, California.
My good friend Chris Lema put out a good post today: The Most Destructive Thing You Do: Overshoot.
While the target demographic was aspiring developers and designers, I couldn’t help but find similarities in the challenges that businesses and their owners face every day.
I forget where I read it, but it made me think of those conversations you have with fellow entrepreneurs and advisors where the conversation always migrates into all the things you should be doing. One recommendation to all those entrepreneurs, all those conversations often lead to “overshooting,” stay focused.
It always amazes me how simple and yet complex a concept this is. I am not talking about software roles and responsibilities, I am talking about the people aspect of projects and businesses.
Everyone has an idea, everyone has an approach, and it feels as if the fields are always greener on the other side of the fence. Why is that? Why do we as humans have this urge? This need to interject and fiddle with theories and proposals. It is not just the person outside looking in, but the one inside looking out.
Why do you feel the need to get validation? This need to confirm that an idea may or may not work? These are the questions I find myself wondering these days.
Tomorrow I will be boarding a plane headed, at a crisp 400 mph, to Phoenix, Arizona for the first WordPress conference tailored for the business ecosystem, Pressnomics. I remember when the announcement was first made earlier this year and my initial thoughts on what a conference like this would entail. Surprisingly, my thoughts haven’t really changed.
I do however find myself wondering if it’ll meet, exceed or fail all the above expectations. I can almost see pundits on either side ready to bash or praise the event. I wonder what insights will be shared. Will it ride on the coat tails of the recent community summit? Will this kumbaya like feeling that seems to have poured out of the summit find itself into Pressnomics?
And to those that bash me for talking InfoSec, you obviously haven’t heard me talk business before. :) The issue isn’t the subject, it’s the talking…
Here’s to an interesting week. Cheers!
So John O’Nolan started things off with a bang today with his Rethinking WordPress post and it has sparked a lot of discussion across both sides of the fence.
If time permits take a minute to look through the thread on YC’s Hacker News. John brings up a number of very good points, as does Matt Mullenweg, and the various threads and discussions seem to echo similar opinions. I wonder what that means and whether 2013 will bring about a fork of sorts. What do you think?
I, like many, can’t help but agree with many of John’s points… I wonder…
Came across this great post at TechCrunch today, Communicate More Like George Bush Than Al Gore. It’s a message to all entrepreneurs and professionals alike. For some reason, many of us have this need to complicate our conversations by injecting it with our intellectual superiority — that’s where we go wrong. We need to communicate more like Bush!!
It offers five recommendations:
Highly recommend reading.
As many know I am one of the owners of a tech start-up and as of late social media has been kicking my butt.
I often talk about keeping your cool and resorting to your more rational, logical, thoughts before engaging with people and engaging in debate, but I am quickly learning that its not quite that easy when it comes to social media.
What I am learning is that my more rational, logical, arguments often come off as condescending, rude or argumentative. Maybe it’s true, maybe its not, but the fact of the matter is it’s exceptionally difficult to have any rational conversations via any social mediums – i.e., Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, etc… at some point in the dialog, it all changes. And the fact is, it comes down to an individuals perception of what you’re trying to say or imply. Whether pointing out fact from fiction, or vise versa, someone undoubtedly gets upset and it all goes to crap from there.
What agitates me most is the right that people have to put out whatever they want, whenever they want, about what ever they want. Yet, you don’t have the right to respond as harshly or aggressively, oh no, now you’re being mean.
Although social engineering has been around for some time, it’s probably not been as prevalent as it has become in recent months. Perhaps the one event that has forced many of the largest companies to rethink their security posture was the complete dissolution of Matt Honan’s digital presence in August. In the weeks following it sparked much discussion and uproar around the existing protocols employed by Apple and Amazon and other big service providers.
Today Matt Honan put out another exceptional post on Cosmo, a cracker that goes by the name of Cosmo the God. What’s by far most impressive is he is only 16 years of age, but then again, is it really? Besides the jaw-dropping size of the youngster, his insight and knowledge of social engineering techniques was and is impressive.
If you’re interested in better understanding what social engineering is all about then this is definitely a post you want to read.
Cheers.
After all the fuss I stirred up with the release of WordCamp San Francisco sponsorship packages a week ago, I felt compelled to take a minute to commend the WordPress leadership on today’s release of a Community Summit set for later this year, 2012.
Of the entire post my biggest take away was this:
Ok, this has me a bit perturbed.
Today I get an email about the WCSF 2012 sponsorship packages and low and behold I am shocked, again, at the packages. Last year this happened, and not many folks said anything, this year I’m not sure I can go without saying something.
Having been part of the organizing team for two very successful camps, WordCamp San Diego 2011 and 2012, I can’t help recall long conversations with the WordPress foundation, whom “govern” the WordCamps world-wide, around sponsorship packages.
One very specific conversation was around the level of sponsorships and the response I got:
Today it was publicly released that there is a new conference for businesses that leverage the WordPress platform as part of their service offering or as part of the business architecture — Pressnomics. It took me a minute to sick back and really think about the conference and how it differs from what we know of today as a WordCamp.
At first glance I couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, it had more to do with getting away from the Foundation’s oversight and breaking free from the perceived shackles. I would probably argue that some might still think that at first glance, and so I decided to think through it a bit more.
If you have ever considered planning a WordCamp then you will want to read this post.
I was an organizer in 2011 and 2012 for WordCamp San Diego. I can honestly say they were by far one of the most interesting experiences I have had to date. They were comprised of extreme highs and lows spread over a number of months. There is no escaping the feelings you have the few days prior to the event, the days of the event and the days immediately following the event. The things that I probably overlooked when first starting off were:
After my last post on Managing Client Expectations I figured I should probably touch on Communication a little more closely. Specifically on its application in Project Management and General Management. I forewarn you though, I am going to reference the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), so let the eye rolling begin now…
This is something that I have been wanting to write about for some time. For one reason or another I always fail to do so. Often it’s because I have that little guy on my shoulder telling me that if read by the wrong person it could be interpretated incorrectly and it could have negative impacts on me personally or professionally. Well that being said, the hell with it…:)
I’ll focus this specifically to managing expectations on projects. Now note that managing expectations shoud be something you strive and work towards in everyday things, from sexual relationshiops to professional ones. I’ll write about the sexual ones later…
In recent weeks I have been faced with some serious challenges as I try to understand an application that was architected by my predecessor and his staff.
What I am quickly learning though is that without one key ingredient, transitioning control of an application will never happen successfully — that ingredient is communication.
So today was interesting, we had to replace one of our generators because it had been giving us a bunch of problems. The first thing that came to mind was a “monkey F’ing a football.”
Well, while they were able to replace it the experience was a bit.. umm… interesting. Let’s just say they do things differently here, safety is not exactly there biggest concern. I decided to video tape because I was convinced something was going to happen, it unfortunately didn’t.
Office politics, that seems to be the theme these days. Never before have I been exposed to the interoffice and intercompany politics that I have been experiencing as of late. What’s most amusing is that it’s all levels, not just senior management, but the lowest levels as well. It is grossly overwhelming.
Well the day started off like it does most morning’s out here. At 0530 this big oger of a Texan, notice that I don’t use the term man, bangs on my hatch and asks if I’m ready. Naturally I’m not, I’m barely opening my eyes actually and my dear Paco hasn’t even start fussing about being in the cage. Needless to say I respond “I’m coming, hold your horses” while I scramble to put on my shirt backwards and shorts inside out.
We merrily head off to the gym where we throw our P90X disc in and try to get into the mood for our plyometric work-out. Naturally it takes about 15 yawns and 20 minutes to really get into the mood but we manage to get through it and stumble back to our rooms to call the families and stare at our roofs for 15 minutes or so. But enough about that..
I am ashamed that it has taken me over two months to get back on here and share some thoughts with my 0 followers. Well let me be the first to apologize.
It’s been crazy times lately folks.
As most of you know I left GIS, Inc. for what I perceived to be greener pastures. Well, yes, that’s right, the grass is not always greener on the other side. The company was supposed to offer new opportunities and experiences that I felt better aligned with my own personal aspirations, but they have fallen short of those expectations. But perhaps it is still early and time will change things. In the mean time I will continue to work out of Kabul, Afghanistan working with local nationals, or LN’s, as I have for the past month. Oh wait, did I not mention I have been in Afghanistan? Oops my bad..
Let’s see what else…
Oh yeah, was enjoying the few times of the day that I like, talking with the family and my wife brought something to my attention that I can’t help but share. So we have a gardener, hard to go out on Sunday’s and mow you know.. being 6,000 miles away and all. Anyway ole boy has not shown up for two weeks or so. Luckily for him they have phones in Mexico. Turns out that he got deported, ain’t that something. His room mate got into a fight with his girlfriend, she called the cops, they showed up and asked for ID’s and boom.. next thing they know they’re in the back of the bus heading south of the border. Tough break.. the good news is he called and wants to know if he can pick up where he started when he gets back. No problem buddy, our grass is waiting for you… just hurry up and cross that border.
I bought a parrot too. That’s right, a rose-ringed parakeet. Cool little bugger but dang he is loud. Getting him was a bit of an adventure too. One of my LN’s called a cousins who lived on the border of Pakistan; he drove into Pakistan to a breeder, put him, the bird that is, in a taxi who then drove 254 km to my location. All for 200 bucks. Oh did I tell you that they had a flat tire on the way. True story.
We decided on the name Paco. Not really sure, maybe it was just easy or maybe because it fit him well, either way it has stuck. He does talk, I think, the challenge I have is he speaks Pakistani and a little Dari.. sooo.. that does kind of suck. Who could be telling me off or plotting against me. He has gotten pretty attached which is cool, but also annoying. He thinks the louder he screams the more attention I’ll give him, well I guess he doesn’t think that he knows that. I find myself staring at him sometimes and see him staring back and we’ll sit there for a while until he decides it’s time to crap. He then continues to stare and lifts his tail feathers and drops a juicy one on my table, never blinking, just sitting there staring. Ain’t that something….
On a different front, no more than 2 weeks after getting here my wife calls me hysterical that the dogs had been in a fight. Turns out my dear Pepper (1 year old) went a bit crazy on Roxy (9 year old). Not sure on all the specifics but had to do something with the kids eating and the dogs getting to close. Either way Pepper went to town on Roxy and a spoon had to be shoved into her mouth to help unlock her jaw. Anthony, my oldest (4 years old), went to the kitchen to help his pregnant mom by grabbing a pan to hit her with, while my disabled mother-in-law (fresh out of surgery) struggled to get off the couch, my pregnant wife mean-while trips and falls and low crawls to the dog with a spoon in her hand.. or so I heard… True story… Well needless to say, my dear crazy Pepper is no longer with us, well not in our house that is. The next day they took her to the pound, couldn’t do a shelter because they were booked and the Pit Bull shelters were at capacity. I can’t help but think that it was inevitable with my departure, I just had this feeling that she would do something silly that would have this as the outcome. On the flip side the iguana was given a new larger home and the retarded fish are still alive.. ain’t that something.
Well that about sums it up folks, at least what I care to share. I hope to put a little more energy into getting on here and updating with you with all the great, wonderful, engaging things going on in my life…..
I was recently introduced to drink known through the WordPress community as a FizzyPop.
If you are like me, you’re probably wondering, “What the hell is a FizzyPop?” Well, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. What I’m quickly learning is that many bartenders are also wondering the same thing. Little do we and they know, that we all know what it is; it’s a Jager Bomb!
If you’re still wondering what it is, well, then you need help or maybe just wikipedia.
I have to say, that this, is probably quickly becoming the unofficial official drink of WordCamps. That’s right folks, next time you find yourself at a WordCamp watch out for the phrase “It’s FizzyPop Time.” This probably means that the time for presentations has ended and the time for “drinktivities” has commenced.
Now, Dre will demonstrate how you are to begin your FizzyPop experience:
