May 6, 2017 the Economist published an article that data is more valuable than oil. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/05/06/the-worlds-most-valuable-resource-is-no-longer-oil-but-data
Every year I “try” to figure out what tools I need to sharpen, what tools I need to pick up, and what tools can be put away. I’ll stay focused on database security, pick up some new tools, work on improving my writing, videos, and get consistnat with the interviews . Hey, if you can’t communicate, then you can’t help the customer.
The database is not going away anytime, so we need to get serious about protecting the crown jewels we store in our databases. With my work, I still see encryption implementations that are wrong, where data will spill out unencrypted. Y’all, you need to understand how the technology you’re working with operates and configure it securely. That said, the safest place for data seems to be in the Oracle Cloud where if you’re using autonomous databases, they will be configured securely. If you’re using Infrastructure as a Service, you’ll still need to do the secure configuration and patching.
Ransomware is here to stay. We’ve seen that the most common way to access systems is through an initial phishing attack. It’s critical that users are trained and tested on phishing attacks. I hate to say it but make the users paranoid about clicking links and opening pdf documents. Frequently if I receive a link from someone, I’ll contact them out of band to check to see if they actually sent me that link. Other times a link comes from an entity that I have some business relationship with. Here I’m careful not to click a link unless I know it’s safe. Hover you mouse of the link and see where it’s directing you to. Organizations need to get serious about their backups and testing their recovery. Oracle has a couple of products that’ll give you immutable backups and air gaped backups. I’ll be writing about them later once I’ve had a chance to test them.
I have a daily habit of figuring out what’s not working and adjusting. Seems like sometime things just slowly creep up on you and you don’t notice it. Well, I took the last two weeks off for the holidays and put my mind to what is not working, because to be honest, my focus does not seem to be as good as it’s been in the past. I’ve also noticed, that although I love working from home and enjoy the solitude, I’m craving being around people more and more. Now, working from home as cut out my commute time, saving me over three hours a day that I can use for more productive things, however; I’ve also cut way back on my travel and have not been able to spend time with friends and work associates. This isolation has impacted my ability to focus on writing and getting my thoughts down on paper. Now, every morning, I spend about thirty minutes to an hour writing. This process allows me to clear my head, get my ideas straight, and identify gaps in my knowledge. What is missing are those long conversations with people smarter than me that triggers ideas. So, in 2022, I’m going to spend a lot more time traveling to see friends. And sense I’m telecommuting, that will not be a problem. Just give me a room, fast internet, and coffee, I’ll get the work done. So, if you see me popping up in your city, don’t be surprised. That’s just me stopping my isolation.
Tech to watch in 2022:
VR Fitness Apps. Face it, gym burnout is a real thing. My exercise of choice has always been to hit the weights, and every few months I get burnt out and must force myself to exercise. Always telling myself that the hormones released are not only good for my body; however, they are also good for my brain health. For the last couple months, I’ve been using www.supernatural.com, a VR aerobic workout that places you in some of the most beautiful places in the world. This makes it more fun to exercise, and considering that my work puts me at my desk for up to ten hours a day, using my brain; that exercise is important to my ability to produce, and my health. Note: my resting heart rate using just weights was always around 75bpm, after two months using supernatural, my resting heart rate averages around 61bpm and frequently drops down to 50bpm. Now, considering I’m 61 years old, and my family has a history of stokes in their 60’s (my younger brother had a stroke the week before Christmas 2021!) This is another good reason for aerobic and weight training. Now, one thing I like about supernatural is the mix up in exercises, one of the things I don’t like is not having the ability to fine tune the intensity of the workouts. When exercising, I like being at about 104%, this way I’m always pushing. But from what I’ve found, you don’t have the ability to fine tune, what you get is what you get.
Electric flying taxis. I’m not too sure about this one, but I’m seeing more startups moving into this space. The problem is the weight and capacity of the batteries. So, if we do see these start to fly in cities around the world, they’ll likely be for very short hops.
Quantum computing. I’ve always had an interest in quantum mechanics, mostly because it’s so mind bending. IBM https://www.ibm.com/quantum-computing/ now has the 127 qubit processor. We’re making some big leaps but I’m thinking, what will be the killer app. Will it be Quantum AI? That’s where my money is.