Just Do It

No, this isn't a Nike commercial.  This is for all the people who have always wanted to do something, but haven't yet.  We get all caught up in our daily lives, that it becomes hard to reach into your "someday" list and just do something from it.  I am certainly one of those people, and it really feels good when you do grab something off that list and just give it a try.

For years, I have been wanting to get back into electronic tinkering.  When I was in Engineering school, I greatly enjoyed the many projects we worked on.  It is quite amazing some of the thing we had built.  From a 600 baud modem, to a switching power supply to a digital control system.  That was some cool stuff.  Unfortunately, the direction my career took led me down the software route (not that I am complaining, it has been a great ride) and I lost the urge to tinker.

This year, for my birthday, I took the plunge.  I bought an Arduino learning kit from the MakerShed and have been soldering away this holiday weekend.  I still have some birthday funds remaining, and that is going to more tools and storage containers for my workshop.  Halloween at our house is going to be cool.

Coming this spring, I'm taking another item off my someday list, and will be learning to kayak.

Don't be afraid.  Get your list out, pick something and just give it a try.  It'll expand your world and you will feel so good afterwards.

In case you are interested in getting started on Arduino, take a look at these resources:

• www.arduino.cc -- The official Arduino site.  It is such an easy kit to use.
  
• www.makershed.com -- They have cool kits and don't forget to jump over to the Make magazine portion of the site.
• www.parallax.com -- For those who want more robot-centric kits.  The Boe Bot is a good one.  Their support staff is very helpful.
  

Secure Computing -- PCI

Working for a financial services client where sensitive information is exchanged, I have learned that it is important to understand the new rules of secure computing.  It is becoming very important to understand the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).  Even if your company or your client is not seeking a PCI certification, following these standards will help to reduce your vulnerability to a breach of sensitive data into the public domain.

Here are a few quick rules to follow that will get you started:

• Try to avoid exchanging personal account numbers (PAN).
• If you must exchange PAN data, do not let the data remain unprotected at rest.  Encrypt the data in transit and keep it encrypted whenever the data comes to rest.
• Remove PAN data exchange from your business processes.  Never let a credit card number out in an email or be saved in an insecure location.
• Limit access to your applications and secure web sites.
• Limit access to your network.
• Code defensively.  Use the tools and guidelines from a security organization like OWASP.

Like all security measures, there's no quick fix.  Protecting your systems and data is an ongoing task.  You will need to build this into your company's culture and continuously enforce your standards.  This is one of those ongoing battles where a victory means that you have no excitement to deal with -- which allows you many clear nights to spend thinking about cool stuff.