2011 in Cybersecurity

2011 was a watershed year for cybersecurity, but it was evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Political hacking, industrial skullduggery, drones gone wild, and mobile malware all made 2011 a year, to borrow CrucialPoint amigo Matt Devost‘s phrase (since I’m already borrowing his image for the post graphic, why not?), to live cyberdangerously. The Rise of theRead… Read more »

Is the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card Really a Good Idea?

As a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), I regularly receive information and notices proclaiming their annual “grading” of our nation’s infrastructure. There is even a website to promote this effort: http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/. My opinion on this might not be popular with my colleagues, but frankly I have never thought this report wasRead… Read more »

Used to be a public servant, took an arrow to the knee

Don’t worry if you don’t immediately recognize the verbiage, “taking an arrow to the knee” is an internet meme popularized by the action/role-playing video game Skyrim. In Skyrim … … the town guard non-player characters (NPCs) have several stock lines they repeat when the player walks near them, including a bewildered statement about “curved swords”,Read… Read more »

California Eliminating 400 Redevelopment Agencies

Last year the California State Legislature passed a law eliminating more than 400 redevelopment agencies statewide. Most of the $5 billion in property taxes that provided funding to those agencies will now be funneled to the state, counties and school districts. The elimination of redevelopment agencies statewide was proposed by Governor Jerry Brown. The CaliforniaRead… Read more »

5 Ways to Disengage your Workforce

I came across an interesting post on headshift by Anne Bartlett-Bragg. 5 Ways to Disengage your Workforce. It struck me as being interesting post. Partly as I have long been a fan of the the antithesis lens. Have you ever noticed that HR types start getting all warm an fuzzy when the prospect of anRead… Read more »

Presidential Czars and the U.S. Constitution

One of the most absurd tools that the Republicans use in their distraction campaign against us is the incessant whining about President Obama’s “czars”. Because the monarchs of imperial Russia were called czars, they assume that you will believe that anyone associated with that title is a communist and, therefore, evil. Yes, that’s what theyRead… Read more »

Coders encounter the great outdoors

Before a line of code was written, a wireframe was sketched, or a GitHub repo was created, the first Friday at Code for America began with us away from our computers and traveling out of San Francisco to the Marin Headlands. With the help of our park guides and facilitators, we explored the park andRead… Read more »

California IT project falls behind

California’s most recent government technology effort is running into some hurdles. The Financial Information System for California (FISCal), was supposed to streamline IT costs and staffing but seems to be hitting snags for exactly those reasons. So far, the project has cost over $60 million with final costs stretching into over a billion over theRead… Read more »