Today I was invited to attend InfoSecurity Europe, Europe`s largest Information Security industry event.
As always, it was interesting to have a chance to catch up with this rapidly moving field, and a great opportunity to chat with old friends.
Apart from gimmicks (VR everywhere, car racing and helicopter simulators, giant robots, etc), swag (all kinds of Star Wars and other Sci-Fi related giveaways, from toys to t-shirts) and junk food (from candy to icecream to chips, the booths did not have healthy alternatives, although the food vendors did), the most interesting part of these events is always the talks, specifically the hands-on demos.
Today I was invited, along with my son, who at 14 has been a videogame developer for years, to attend the Intel Buzz videogame developer workshop. It was not only a lot of fun, but WONDERFUL to attend with him!
Although a small event, it ended up being extremely interesting, with an area to try indie games and new technologies, and a long list of talks and panels, including one-on-ones.
I spent Wednesday evening and most of Thursday in Zürich.
On Wednesday I had dinner with some business partners; “business as usual”.
But on Thursday, after my business presentation to potential customers, I had the very rare and exclusive opportunity to visit one of the main data centers in Switzerland. Here are some impressive facts about them:
they host 1/3 of Swiss banks data internet traffic = 40% of Switzerland’s internet traffic energy bill = 2 million Swiss Franks per annum 2 different energy suppliers from 2 different access points, with preferential oil supply in case of a failure (full reserves for 5 days for the generators) almost 50 telecoms suppliers, from many different countries, providing direct access for their customers worldwide RFIDs paired with 3D fingerprint scanners which measure the fingerprint but also the morphology, pulse and temperature separate isolated room to open packages, to minimize the risk of fire single person magnetic doors temperature, movement, and sound sensors double-gated entrance even to the parking lot!
I have been working at the Google-TechHub Campus in Shoreditch (the “Silicon Roundabout”) London for a few weeks. It is really cool. In no particular order, here are some things I love about this place:
A cafeteria (open to anyone) with terrace, foosball table, bitcoin machine, device bar (to test your developments in many different devices) and even a spacesuit! A small but well stocked library of tech books Very nice team, from security to reception, to admin, to social media… all of them Two levels of office space, one of them (supposedly) “quiet zone” Unlimited supplies of toast and tea, great wifi, and good scanners/printers A ton of areas to sit down and have a meeting, not just the “meeting rooms” Most importantly: the events.
On Monday, February 9, I attended a Bitcoin – Blockchain event with my wife at law firm Latham & Watkins in New York, organized by Hedgeable.
Over 100 bitcoin enthusiasts, investors, journalists, lawyers, and entrepreneurs networking over food and beverages, with demos from:
and a round table of Bitcoin innovation experts:
Since I have already started researching the application of the block chain technology for healthcare, it was quite a useful event.
If anyone wants an invite to buy a OnePlus, the best phone in the market, or to join Ello, the social network that does not sell your data, send me a message.
STW
Due to the launch of the biosensors module for my company`s medical imaging and data solution a few days ago, the Withings company sent me a biosensor (wearable) Withings Pulse Ox, manometer BPM and WiFi WS-30 scale for testing and integration tests ahead of some national projects we are about to sign in London and Santiago de Chile.
All three came in luxury packaging, and were relatively easy to connect and set up, at least for a “tinkerer” (there are people who gets annoyed if I use “hacker” as a synonym, although it is) like me.
