Thinkst Blog

The Internet lit up last week with news of Intel's purchase of McAfee . Every analyst (and his dog) has chimed in on what it means, from "Anti Virus on a chip", to just " a national security disaster ". I think it has a subtler implication that bodes well for developing nations. - In the ongoing competition between hardware and software, hardware just flinched. Watching Intel spend almost a years worth of profit on McAfee made me think of Professor Clayton Christensen (of " The Innovators Dilemma " fame) and his "Law of Conservation of Modularity / Law of conservation of Attractive Profits"). (If you have not yet read the book, you can catch a good overview of the content from his talk titled " Capturing the Upside ".) Professor Christensen regularly cites his conversations with Intel's Andy Grove, and it is clear that Intel took cues on strategic direction from him in the past. (First, some background) The Law of Conservation ...

Hello. How 'bout that ride in? I guess that's why they call it Sin City . [1] BlackHat this year passed in a blur. In retrospect staying in Vegas for only 3 nights was probably a bad idea. ( This is especially obvious when you consider that the round trip involves about 60 hours of travelling time ) I got in and mostly hid in my room working on the talk. I did the talk, and promptly hid in my room feeling sick till it was time to fly home. (this means that i failed completely to participate in teamZA's magnific ent #hackcup football victory ) In 2009, our " Clobbering the Cloud " talk squeezed in about 138 slides into 70 minutes. This year my talk was 50 minutes long ( i wasn't convinced that the topic could hold interest for longer periods ), and my keynote deck was made up of 38 slides. But, the presentation used both the 38 keynote slides, and a prezi presentation (with about 170 transitions). This means there was never a chance of finishing the presentatio...