I may be a little quieter than normal this week, because I’m heading to Prague for the 25th Virus Bulletin International Conference.
Every year VB, as it’s affectionately known, sees the eggheads of the IT security industry gather somewhere in the world to discuss the latest developments in cybercrime, listen to new research, learn about new technologies, and check out presentations by the very people who program the anti-virus which is (hopefully) running perfectly on your PC right now.
And, if your anti-virus isn’t running that well on your computer, well the VB conference is the place where you can collar the coders and get them to buy you a beer.
Yes, it’s that kind of conference – which is why those techies and customers in-the-know make their annual pilgrimage to network with each other, catch up with old friends and compare war stories.
This year, I’m not giving any talks – but I am chairing a session on the Friday morning which will see students present quick-fire five minute presentations about their research. My job is to police the presentations, to make sure that nobody over-runs their five minute limit.
I take this kind of responsibility seriously. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic doesn’t allow you to bring gunge tanks through customs, so I may have to resort to my trusty duck whistle.
I missed VB in Seattle last year, so I’m delighted to be making the trip to the Czech Republic (even though I remember just how scary the taxi drivers were on the drive from the airport last time I attended a VB conference there in 2001…)
If any of you are also attending, please don’t hesitate to say wotcher.
And if you can’t make it, you can follow all the fun by following the #VB2015 hashtag on Twitter – and maybe we’ll see you in Denver in 2016?
Graham!! I will buy you dinner AND a beer if you can get Avast to cough up the real reason their two apps were pulled from playstore some weeks back.
I like their mobile security,and its probably the best for added features,plus they always score well in testing. But I feel they were a little secretive about the Full reasons. They said it had to do with how they promoted their apps,but I think it was more to do with functionality,or information gathering.
Have a safe trip,and call an uber driver instead of regular cab! Migh bbe safer (-:
'My job is to police the presentations, to make sure that nobody over-runs their five minute limit.'
Let's hope they aren't aspiring to be leaders of some kind – for example, politicians – or those who crave power in any form (e.g. CEOs or some such). If they are you're going to need a lot of help and that is under the best of conditions. Even then, though, I imagine that it will be quite difficult. (It might be worse because most people have a horrible perception of time and at the same time don't plan things as well as they should have?)
Good luck on it regardless of the difficulties.
Oh, and I suppose you're allowed to have some fun. Just a bit though (surely that isn't a problem if you're taking it seriously enough to stop people from talking longer than they are supposed to?).
Edit: Yes, as David says, you should also remain safe. My amusement of the matter took over and I forgot to remark on this.
Cheers.