Nota Bene

Every February several hundred of the world’s top IT security experts gather in a sunny beach resort, be it in the Americas, Europe, Asia, or just off the coast of Western Africa. But they don’t go for the sun, per se. Or the beach. Or the beach-bar cocktails. They go… to fight cyber-swine! At least, that’s what they attempt to tell their loved ones when they disappear for a week in Feb to this year’s chosen idyllic paradise.

And this year’s idyllic paradise was the Canary Islands – chosen for, you guessed it, the Security Analyst Summit (SAS), our annual special pow-wow for IT security gurus. SAS brings together InfoSec big guns from different companies, with different specializations, from all over the globe, to basically just chew the fat, sometimes formally – mostly informally – in air-conditioned basement conference halls – and on sun loungers on the beach (oops, the secret’s out for those loved ones:) – in order to help more folks understand the where and how and why of IT threats by exchanging expert know-how and experience.

Read on: The world is NOT doomed…

I find myself in many different far-flung places on this planet, but quite often they’re… predictable: world capitals, business hubs, Must-See places…

But occasionally I also get to less obvious spots. Example: Sviyazhsk. Heard of it? Probably not!

Well, it’s an ancient town, now a village, located at the confluence of the Volga and Sviyaga Rivers.

According to our excellent excursion guide (I normally trust good guides more than, say, Wikipedia), the short history of the town is as follows:

Read on: Ambitious!…

Last week I stayed at the Déjà Vu hotel near the Sviyaga skiing complex in the city of Kazan (dubbed the third capital of Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg). And though there was just me in my hotel room, the shower was most certainly designed for two persons. I have to say it was the first ‘erotic shower’ I’ve ever seen out of all the hotels I’ve stayed at. Most innovational. Good idea!

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Read on: great location, questionnable breakfast…

Pheeeewwwwwww. That was a tough week. I’ve another toughie planned for the coming week too. So a good dose of tools-down and time-out was in order for a few days between the two.

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Handily, I found myself in Berlin for those few days. Nice. With no work plans whatsoever. Even nicer. Been here many times, but was always too busy to get a good portion of sightseeing in.

So here, some plenty of pics of the German capital, with my usual banter commentary kept to a minimum. A bit like on Euronews: No Comment.

Read on: Say No to grim and sober monuments…

Our journey through Tanzania consisted of three stages:

1. Climbing Kilimanjaro
2. Savanna safari
3. Zanzibar

Those who’ve been following this Tanzanian mini-series will know that I haven’t told you about the last stage yet – Zanzibar. So here it is: tales from the final stage of our January 2016 Africa adventure.

Upon arrival we were straight into it: snapping the super sunset:

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I have to admit that I didn’t quite know where Zanzibar is. Well, I knew it was in the Indian Ocean somewhere, but that’s about it. But what was a real revelation for me was that the Zanzibar archipelago belongs to Tanzania!

Read on: Sea – beach – pina colada…

The Maasai are a semi-nomadic African tribe who’ve almost entirely rejected modern civilization in favor of their traditional way of life. For more information about them, check out the Internet – the text below is that of an ‘inquisitive observer’ who just happened to be passing by.

For just $50 from each car, the Maasai men gathered to perform their traditional greeting.

Read on: Welcome to the village!…

Hi all!

Now, a bit on where to stay on a safari. In the African savanna there are two options – either in tents or in hotels.

They say that spending the night on safari in a tent is really cool. Although not the most comfortable of habitats, what more than makes up for that are the night sounds all around: the growls, woofs, miaous and roars that occasionally cut through the constant background hums and hisses of all creatures wild and great and small as they eat, hunt, mate or whatever else it is they get up to at night.

But we stayed in hotels.

So what can you expect from a hotel deep within the Tanzanian savanna, tens if not hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization? As it happens, you can expect something great! The places we spent the night were really decent, each with a swimming pool and plenty of other conveniences and facilities on site. There are of course the inevitable local ‘specifics’ you have to get used to, but then you get those practically anywhere (no paper napkins on tables in London…, but I digress:).

Ok, about those specifics…

Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge. Our first overnight stop at the top of the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater.

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Read on: Simply stunning everything…

Just two weeks in Tanzania over the New Year break, but soooo many impressions! And you, dear blog readers, are only half-way through those impressions…

After coming back down Kilimanjaro to the plains below, before we had time to utter ‘acclimatization’, we were whisked off… on an African safari!

Initially, the colonial meaning of the term ‘safari’ meant ‘to go and shoot wild animals in Africa’, not necessarily to later eat them or even use their hides for whatever; just like at a shooting gallery – only with live targets. Time has passed and mores have changed for the better, and now the term means ‘to look at wild animals in Africa (from a car or jeep)’… and take photos of them in all their wild poses.

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Read on: Hakuna matata!…

I did a fair bit of walking in Tanzania on our Kilimanjaro expedition – a whole week’s worth, in fact. That meant I had plenty of time – besides chatting to my companions – to ponder, contemplate and reflect – on all kinds of stuff.

I never once thought about business, but then, not thinking about business was one of the chief aims of the trip. So, naturally, my mind turned to non-work stuff, like life and eternity, nature, man, the universe – and man’s insignificance in it. The latter was reflected upon mostly at night, when I’d look up to the extraordinarily brightly twinkling stars – so much more vivid for being up a mountain; much better than how they look down near sea level.

Like I say – lots of walking time = lots of chatting time, including long chats… with oneself! All sorts of different thoughts arose in my little gray cells, including, for example, the following:

The moon gets three centimeters a year further away from Earth (that’s a scientific fact). At some point Earth will eventually lose its ‘gravitational interest’ in the moon, which will then become one more satellite of the sun. It’s possible that the trajectories of the moon and Earth will intersect again at some distant point in the future, and the moon will again become a satellite of Earth. Or maybe it will collide with Earth? It’s difficult to calculate… but my specific questions (related to this) are easier…

Question No. 1

This will happen earlier than when the sun becomes a much huger, redder and hotter giant than it is now and swallows up the planets near it (Mercury, Venus and Earth) or later? What will happen soonest: the moon will return to Earth, or the sun will eat up this question?

Read on: Questions 2, 2.1 and 3 …

Last week we were awarded Product of the Year from AV-Comparatives in the picturesque little Bavarian town of Würzburg, notable for both its yummy beer and scrumptious wine – a double-whammy rarer than some of its vintages :).

Read on: Then we headed south…