Searching for Privacy in a World Without Secrets

“I am not a number, I am a free man”

IDC reported that we generated and replicated 1.8 zettabytes – that’s 1.8 trillion gigabytes – of data in 2011. To give you an example of scale you would need to stack CDs from Earth to the Moon and Back again – twice – to represent that amount of data and its expected to grow 50x by 2020. Interesting factoid: Through April of 2011 the Library of Congress had stored 235TBs of data. In 2011 15 out of 17 sectors in the US have more data per company than the US Library of Congress, much of that data is about you.

Facebook is preparing to raise $100 billion, yes a hundred billion, in a highly anticipated IPO next spring. Twitter is valued at $10 billion, and social media companies are pulling massive valuations. In terms of data, roughly 4 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook every day, and Twitter registered 177 million tweets per day in March of 2011. The success of these companies, and many others, is trade in human commodity. There is an inherent value to your tweet, your wall post, becoming mayor at some DC cafe or posting your location to wherever people post those things, but the real value is simply in your existence as a number in a sea of other 1 and 0’s.

We are entering a world where every aspect of our lives, short of those thoughts we hold deep, will be processed, indexed, analyzed and archived forever. What we search for, our online activity, where and how we drive, what we buy; when and how often, our health, financial, and personal records digitized for quick sale to the highest bidder. Never before have we had the ability to implement systems to handle massive volumes of disparate data, at a velocity that can only be described as break-neck and with this ability comes the inevitable misuse.

The commercial implications for companies seeking access to this depth and breadth of customer intelligence is clear, but this same information federated with the analysis of unstructured video, picture, voice and text data in the hands of our government or one that meant us harm is truly frightening.

Social media is an interesting experiment in applying a large scale operant conditioning chamber to a mass population, the law of effect is a retweet, a friending, being listed on a top x most influential list, or whatever else elicits the desired response. We leap head first off the cliff of technology and only concern ourselves with the implications when they become a problem for us.

The irony is that in our search for identity and individuality in an increasingly digital world we have willingly surrendered that which we used to hold so dear – our privacy.

May future generations forgive us.

Top 10 Most Overhyped Technology Terms

We have entered a new era of information technology, an era where the clouds are moist, the data is obese and incontinent, and the threats are advanced, persistent, and the biggest ever. Of course with all the paradigm-shifting, next generation, FUD vs. ROI marketing, its important to remember that sometimes we need to balance innovation against misunderstood expectations, vendor double-speak, and relentless enterprise sales guys.

Because contrary to the barrage of marketing, these technologies won’t make you rich, teach you how to invest in real-estate, help you lose weight or grow a full head of hair, it won’t make you attractive to the opposite sex, nor will it solve all your problems, in some cases they can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your operating environment but it requires proper planning, expectation setting and careful deployment…and on that note, I give you the top 10 most overhyped technology terms over the last decade.

Why I Suck at Blogging…and Twitter

So recently I posted some thoughts on big data and the increasing usage of Hadoop, the general theme was data management != data analysis…this caused confusion with some folks, as evidenced by the twitter exchange (tweets haven’t been altered but some extraneous ‘noise’ removed to maximize your reading pleasure)

@Beaker @amrittsering I’m confused by your last blog. Is your point that people are spending $$$ on data aggregation hoping it leads to analytics?

@Beaker @amrittsering I read/re-read your posts & it’s almost like u r suggesting majority of co’s deploying Hadoop (e.g) are clueless WRT why?

Needles in a Digital Hay Stack; Finding Value in Big Data

Big data is a scorching hot topic, currently capturing a lions share of the markets available stock of hyperbole and for good reason, data is growing at a meteoric rate.

As we continue to innovate, as business accelerates technology adoption, as the line bleeds between corporate and personal computing and as we interact more in digital mediums we are creating mountains of data. Much of this data is garbage, but some of it is gold (big-data-are-you-creating-a-garbage-dump-or-mountains-of-gold).

Unfortunately with all overly hyped technologies there is a lot of misinformation, failed expectations and the inevitable trough of disillusionment, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend months or years curled up in a fetal position, disillusioned and wondering what went so wrong. With a thoughtful approach you can venture through the murky swamp of your big data and find the insights that provide your company a significant competitive and market advantage.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Technology Acquisitions

It is the foundation for the free market system and capitalism and it is every entrepreneurs dream; build a great technology, execute and achieve excellence in GTM, deliver fantastic value to customers and take great pride in watching your passion grow – fast.

Then it happens; the exit, the liquidation event, the ‘golden ticket’ and in a blip of your time on this tiny little rock your life changes.

Last year, after spending almost four years as the CTO of BigFix, we were acquired by IT industry behemoth IBM (IBM to acquire BigFix) for what was the largest acquisition of a private software company in 2010 (second was CA’s acquisition of Nimsoft at around $380m) and my life changed…

Cloud-Computing is Dead, Turn the Internet Off, Amazon Failed – Again!

 

So it appears the Internet went down, or so many claimed when they were presented with 404 errors when attempting to watch “Georgia Hillbilly Massacre 17: The return of the Banjo Man” on Netflix  – Since Netflix is selective on what you can stream they certainly weren’t queuing up the latest and greatest new releases, but that is a totally different rant – or attempting to declare themselves the Mayor of “who gives a rats ass where you are right now” on Foursquare.

Last time this happened some started to claim that it rocked the very foundation of confidence in cloud-computing (here), yet they failed to juxtapose Amazon’s operational failures against the universe of enterprise operational failures, security compromises and general administrative stupidity that plagues nearly 99.98% of every organization on Earth (minus the DPRK’s website, really not more you can do to fudge that one up)

IBM to Acquire BigFix – Hallelujah! Can I Get a Witness?!

I will post more later but given all the blood, sweat, and tears we have poured into BigFix we are extremely excited about this move.

IBM and BigFix are a great fit. The product portfolios are very complementary (data center to the endpoint), the strategy and vision are well-aligned (automated service management and convergence) and the companies respective values and focus will drive greater innovation to the market

Product and market synergies

• BigFix offers best in class endpoint management (PCs, laptops, and distributed servers) that extends the IBM portfolio enabling their smarter computing vision from the data center to endpoints anywhere in the world
• Our product portfolios are very complementary, as demonstrated by the many joint customers we successfully serve today

Strategy and vision:

• We share a common vision for delivering automated service management and security and operational convergence to our customers worldwide
• IBM intends to continue to evolve the rich capabilities of the BigFix platform and to innovate, integrate, and expand the combined solutions to address a broader set of market requirements than ever before

Company values and market focus

• We share similar ideals and value around integrity and innovation
• We both have a workforce that is provisioned and dedicated to solving the problems of the largest and most sophisticated enterprise environments in the world.

Client Hosted Virtual Desktops Part II; Back to Basics

Back 
to 
Basics: 
What 
is a Client Hosted Virtual Desktop (CHVD)?

Client 
hosted virtual desktops 
refer 
to 
the 
combination 
of 
a 
management
 system
 and
 a 
hypervisor 
on 
a
 client
PC,
 utilizing 
the 
local 
resources 
to 
execute 
the 
operating
 system.

Figure 1. different desktop virtualization models segmented by central vs. distributed computing environment support and reliance on operating system

Securing the Mobile Workforce

The rising tide of mobile computing, driven by the introduction of consumer devices such as the iPhone and iPad, is crashing against the shores of many an IT shop. Most IT organizations have lived on a diet of corporate policy restrictions and liberal use of the word “No!”, unfortunately their time has come.

Chinese Government to Ban All US-Based Technology Companies and Products

Beijing, China – April 1, 2010 – The Chinese government announced that effective immediately all US based technology firms and associated products and services will be banned from all Chinese government and state-run agency IT environments. The ban is expected to include critical infrastructure, such as military, finance, utilities, and healthcare as well as education, retail and manufacturing companies.

North Korea Cyber Scape Goat of the World

Never before have so many misrepresented so much about so little…

In all my years in the security industry I do not believe I have read more misinformation than the nonsense surrounding the recent DDoS attacks. Apparently North Korea is waging Cyber Warfare, or if not an actual all out cyberwar they are behind a targeted “cyber attack”.

Let’s look at what we know…

• Multiple US and South Korean websites fell victim to sustained distributed denial of service attacks (happens all the time)
• The DDoS attack used tens of thousands of compromised hosts (I have seen bigger)
• The compromised hosts appear to have been infected using well known and easily shielded against malware (What else is new?)
• The organizations that were impacted and had taken proper measures to defend against a DDoS were not materially impacted (At least someone was thinking ahead)

This is just business as usual on the Internet – nothing to see here folks – these DDoS attacks could have been just as easily launched by an awkward prepubescent child with about 2 years of computer experience as they could have come from a coordinated, state-sponsored, North Korean attempt to test our defenses.

Just so we are clear this is no more Cyber Warfare than me running to the Mexican border and throwing 10,000 apple pies at the Mexican Federales is a coordinated US invasion of Mexico.

Client-Side Virtualization Part III: HAL 9000, Hosted Virtual Desktops, and the Death Star

Systems and security management is difficult, ineffective, costly and becoming ever more so in increasingly distributed, heterogeneous, complex, and mobile computing environments…

• 98% of all external attacks take advantage of poorly administered, misconfigured, and unmanaged systems (Source: Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2009)
• A locked down and well managed PC can cost 42% less than an unmanaged one (Source: Gartner – The Total Cost of Ownership: 2008 Update)
• The direct costs incurred in a “somewhat managed” PC are only slightly lower than the direct costs of an unmanaged PC, because of expenses to maintain underutilized or dysfunctional management systems (Source: Gartner – The Total Cost of Ownership: 2008 Update)

The benefits provided by server virtualization are being realized as server consolidation has enabled cost reduction and efficiencies in data center/server management. This is of course leading many to ask the question “why can we not virtualize our desktops as well?”

Client-Side Virtualization Episode II: Standardization, Attack of the Clones and Desktops Reloaded

Consolidation is the major benefit or “killer app” for server/data center virtualization. Standardization is the major benefit or “killer app” for client-side virtualization.

As I was pondering the challenges of current systems management processes, researching the latest and greatest from the client-side virtualization vendors, and talking to a lot of large organizations I was trying to find that one thing that explained the operational benefits of client-side virtualization. There are more than one, but it really does come down to standardization, allow me to explain…

Desktop Virtualization Overview; The Good, The Bad, and The Reality – VDI is DOA!

To address the increasing cost and complexity of managing dynamic IT environments organizations are trying to understand how to adopt virtualization technologies. The value proposition and “killer app” are quite clear in the data center, however less attention has been given to the opportunities for endpoint virtualization. Even though there are multiple methods to address client-side virtualization; hosted virtual desktops (HVD), bare-metal hypervisors, local and streaming virtual workspaces and a range of options that layer on top of and between them all, such as application virtualization, portable personalities, and virtual composite desktops, there is still a tremendous amount of confusion and even more misconceptions about the benefits of client-side virtualization than with server virtualization. The major architectural flaw in almost all of these solutions is they remain very back end and infrastructural heavy, which reduces the benefit of cost-reduction and lower complexity.

Unlike server virtualization, which drove adoption from the bottom up, that is from the hypervisor and then through the other stacks, adoption of endpoint virtualization technologies is moving top down, that is starting with single applications within an existing OS. Application virtualization adoption will accelerate over the next 12-18 months with Gartner life cycle management analyst suggesting that it will be included in the majority of PC life cycle RFP’s in 2010 and beyond. Workspace/Desktop virtualization will follow over the next 24-36 months, as will the endpoint virtualization infrastructures. The adoption of both workspace/desktop and endpoint virtualization infrastructure will align with organizations desktop refresh cycles. Considering the average is between 3-5 years and considering that many are looking at desktop refresh to support Vista, although it probably only has about a 10% market adoption, and Windows 7, it is conceivable that we will begin seeing accelerated adoption of desktop and infrastructure virtualization over the next 24-36 months as organizations rethink their current systems management processes and technologies.

Let’s look at the 4 client/desktop virtualization models I believe will become the most prevalent over the next 3-5 years…

DMCA Anniversary – 10 years of FAIL!

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (here), which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28th, 1998. The act essentially criminalizes the production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (such as DRM) that control access to copyrighted works and it also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself, it essentially makes DRM hacking, among other things, a crime.

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) noted (here)…

Over the last ten years, the DMCA has done far more harm to fair use, free speech, scientific research, and competition than it has to digital piracy. Measured from the perspective of the public, it’s been a decade of costs, with no benefits,” said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. “The music industry has given up on DRM, and Hollywood now relies on DRM principally to stop innovation that it doesn’t like. It’s time for Congress to consider giving up on this failed experiment to back up DRM systems with misguided laws.”

Trying to address the problem through technology is also a losing battle. Sony tried to prevent digital copying of CD’s with its Key2Audio technology (here). They spent millions and it was defeated with a $1.35 sharpie marker. Their attempts to install a rootkit were even less successful (here) and the backlash was deafening. Students at Georgia Tech are working on a technology to block the functioning of video cameras in movie theaters (here), and Paris-Based Thomson is working on a technology that inserts “artifacts” into the the frame that are picked up by camcorders (here), essentially the movie could be covered with watermarks such as “you are viewing a pirated film”.

Unfortunately, those who want to pirate are clever and will find ways to bypass all these laws and mechanisms. Millions, perhaps billions, will be spent trying to stop copyright infringement. Piracy will continue, virtually unimpeded, and there is very little the media industry or the government can do about it.

Well except one thing. That is to lower the demand for pirated media. Bollywood does this by releasing DVD’s at the same time movies are released in the theater. Wouldn’t this lower theater profits you ask? The same thing was said about VHS and video rental stores, but sometimes you really want to see a movie in the theater – anyone stand in line for Batman, Indian Jones, or Star Wars Episode III, even though all of these movies were available on torrent sites prior to release?

Hollywood seems to have a lack of understanding for the appetite of the consumer. If they want to be successful at limiting piracy, and all they can do is limit piracy, they have to lower demand. They can lower the demand for pirated media by releasing movies through DVD, cable TV, and the Internet at the same time movies are released in the theater. They can lower pirating of music by taking advantage of innovation around the distribution and licensing of higher quality recordings. They can find unique ways to partner, market, and charge for them. Simply put they either figure out how to leverage the new digital mediums to satisfy the consumers appetite or they lose out on billions of dollars in potential revenue and licensing fees, and trust me if any group can figure out ways to keep the gold plated toilets at 50 cents mansion shiny and the Porsche humming in Lars Ulrich’s 12 car garage, it will be the the MPAA and the RIAA.

To learn more: The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has been tracking the unintended consequences of the DMCA over the last 10 years (here)

Update: Interesting story on Electronic Arts Game “Spore” and the backlash on their use of DRM with the game (here)

Mac OS X 10.5 and the Subterranean Homesick Blues

Blue Screen of Death plagues MAC OS X “Leopard” (here) install due to an incompatibility with third-party enhancement software. I was planning to upgrade this week and looks like there is a solution so no reason not to – just in case you are feeling the blues…

Solution

Solution 1: Reinstall Leopard (recommended)

It may be necessary to perform an Archive and Install installation of Leopard. Archive and Install moves your existing Mac OS X system files to a folder named Previous System, and then installs a new copy of Mac OS X on the selected volume. Mac OS X–installed applications, such as Address Book and Safari, are archived, and new versions are installed in the Applications folder. Applications, plug-ins, and other software may have to be reinstalled after an “Archive and Install.” This is covered on page 7 of the Install & Setup Guide included on the Leopard DVD.

You will probably want to check “Preserve user and network settings” when starting the installation.

Note: After installation, verify each third-party software product is compatible with Leopard before reinstalling it, especially any application “enhancement” software.
Solution 2: Use the command line (advanced) to remove application enhancement software

Try this solution if you are comfortable using Terminal and have certain application enhancement installed. The software may be removed following the below steps:

1. Start up in single-user mode by holding Command-S after restarting the computer.
2. Execute these commands, each on a single line:/sbin/fsck -fy /
   /sbin/mount -uw /
3. Execute these commands, each on a single line. Important: Type each command carefully, misuse of the rm command may damage other files.
   rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/Application\ Enhancer.prefpane
   rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/ApplicationEnhancer.framework
   rm –rf /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
   rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist
4. Restart normally.
5. If the issue persists, use solution 1 above instead

AT&T U-Verse Universally Sucks!

I have always had problems with At&T which is one of the main reasons I refuse to buy an iPhone. My experience with AT&T has always been poor and I should have listened to my instincts but when presented with the possibilities of AT&T U-Verse, their IPTV technology, I was curious. For the most part U-Verse would appear to be a nice alternative to traditional Comcast and although I had no issues with Comcast cable their internet service was less than optimal in my area so I made the switch.

AT&T spent 2 full day’s rewiring stuff, the anticipation was mounting and finally we had light – a picture – a nice high-definition picture that really brought out to my wife why we needed a 62 inch HDTV. Everything was fine for about 2 days but then the problems started, first certain channels would periodically report that we were not subscribed and then later they would automagically work, the television would freeze for several minutes at a time, and many of the features I had become accustomed to with Comcast were unavailable, such as being able to set a reminder for a future show. I mentioned this to the CISO at AT&T and he said “yeah, but can’t you just record on the DVR instead?” uhhhh no I don’t want to record everything I want to decide what I will watch at 10pm when 10pm rolls around, btw the set top boxes are running a crappy insecure version of Windows CE, but here nor there….fast-forward about a month and AT&T U-verse is virtually unwatchable, I can barely get through an hour of television without the picture freezing for 5-10 minutes at a time and we do not even watch that much TV, of course we also use the internet service and it as well experiences similar issues. So in short AT&T U-verse is not ready for prime-time.

Now that in and of itself is not a deal breaker for me. It is a new service, I understand that, I had similar issues with Comcast when they first offered digital TV, but the deal breaker is AT&T support. AT&T customer service/support is beyond poor, it is the worst service I have ever received in my life, the telecom equivalent of customer service at a fast-food restaurant staffed by jaded, hip-hop youth convinced of their own self-importance as they trudge through your order rubbing their Gangsta tatto’s and periodically pulling up their baggy jeans. This isn’t about the people that work in AT&T support though this is about the technology they use, one of those automated interactive support recordings that push one to the limits of maddening frustration. Let me give you an example…

AT&T: Welcome to AT&T although some of our business offices are closed we are available to you 24×7 for technical support, you can continue here for technical support or to use our automated system. I see your calling from <phone number> is that the phone number on the account you are calling about?

Me: Yes

AT&T: Sorry I didn’t hear you, please say yes or no? I got <phone number> is this the number you are calling about

Me: Yes

AT&T: Sorry our offices are closed please try your call again later

Me: WTF?

OK so I try again…this time I decide not to use my phone number and say no I don’t have one

AT&T: OK, please enter the phone number you are calling about or say I don’t have one

Me: I don’t have one

AT&T: Sorry I didn’t hear you? Please tell me the phone number you are calling from or say I don’t have one

Me: I DON’T HAVE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AT&T: I am sorry I am having so much trouble hearing you please tell me the phone number you are calling from or say I don’t have one or for more information please say help?

Me: Help

AT&T: It will be easier for me to help you if you tell me the phone number on your account? If you do not have an AT&T account and would like one please say “I don’t have one”?

Me: I don’t have one

AT&T: Ok to continue I need to know where you are calling from, let’s try something else please say the zip code where you would like service

Me: <zip code>

AT&T: OK let me make sure I heard you correctly? Did you say <zip code>?

Me: Yes

AT&T: OK, now please say just your street addess or rural route number, for example 123 main street west

Me: <street address>

AT&T: Sorry I didn’t understand, can you please repeat your address?

Me: <street address>

AT&T: I am sorry I am having problems hearing you let’s try something else (then all of a sudden) this office is closed <hangs up>

Me: OMG WTF?

I give it yet another go because SF is playing NY and I really want to watch the game…I make it to the address portion again.

AT&T: Let me make sure I have it right (he does) is that correct?

Me: Yes

AT&T: I am sorry I am having trouble understanding your address, let’s move on. In a few words I need to know why you are calling today? You can say things like I need to know my account balance, order new phone service or report a problem. If you would like to get to an agent say agent.

Me: Agent

AT&T: Sorry I didn’t hear you

Me: Agent

AT&T: OK If you need to talk to an agent I will need to understand what you are calling about, please say what you are calling about, you can say things like order new service or repairs

Me: Repairs

AT&T: It sounds like you would like to make a repair is that correct?

Me: Yes

AT&T: OK it sounds like you are calling to repair your DISH TV service is that correct?

Me: No

AT&T: OK are you calling about your phone, internet, or television you can also say none of those

Me: None of those

AT&T: I am sorry I am having trouble hearing you can you please tell me why you are calling today

Me: U-verse

AT&T: OK I will transfer you now…

AT&T <busy signal>

So I call yet again and make it to the requesting an agent part…

AT&T: All agents are busy please cotinue to hold and someone will be with you shortly (this went on for about 20 minutes and I finally hung up)

AT&T support is so bad I was forced to cancel service and move back to Comcast, here is the call I made on a Sunday morning…

Comcast: Thank-you for calling Comcast, blah, blah, blah, please enter the phone number you have or would like service

Me: <phone number>

Comcast: Good afternoon, thank-you for calling Comcast, my name is Christina, how may I help you today

Me: Wow a real person, thank-you for working today…

And with that I switched service in about 5 minutes.

Now here is the thing I can tolerate problems with technology, I can understand that my TV will freeze or my internet access is less than reliable, but piss poor customer service is a deal-breaker it is why I hated AT&T to begin with and quite honestly is the root of all things wrong with our society.

EDIT: Apparently there are a lot of people experiencing the exact same issues and many are deciding to avoid AT&T  or switch back to their old service provider (here), (here), (here), (here), and (here). I am sure there are many, many, many, many more…even Shimmy has taken issue with AT&T support, although for different reasons (here). It is baffling to me that a company the size of AT&T with the resources at it’s disposal is experiencing the same issues as a mom and pop ISP – sad!

Researchers crack mysterious beer-goggles code

Researchers at the University of Manchester have worked tirelessly to calculate a formula for how beer goggles affect a persons vision. The result was some sort of epiphany moment where they realized it required more than just alcohol, including light in the bar, smokiness of the room and the distance between the ugly that contributes to the phenomenon…

 

An = number of units of alcohol consumed

S = smokiness of the room (graded from 0-10, where 0 clear air; 10 extremely smoky)

L = luminance of ‘person of interest’ (candelas per square metre; typically 1 pitch black; 150 as seen in normal room lighting)

Vo = Snellen visual acuity (6/6 normal; 6/12 just meets driving standard)

d = distance from ‘person of interest’ (metres; 0.5 to 3 metres)

All of this calculate to a score between less than 1 and to more than 100, where “non-appealing people become suddenly attractive between 51 and 100. At more than 100, someone not considered attractive looks like a super model.”
It is comforting to know that science is focusing on the truly important issues of our day.

Top 10 reasons movie downloads suck

…from Gizmodo (here). Walmart’s offering movie downloads, yes that Walmart (here) at a whopping $14.98 to $19.98, no wonder ripping warez is alive and well – when will the entertainment industry learn? (here)

Finding the zone!

I finally cracked open the magazines that Santa left in my stocking, one of them had an interesting article titled “Wired for Victory” (here), which is about Neurofeedback and how it can greatly increase mental ability and concentration, which supports peak performance.

Many moons ago I worked on Neurofeedback equipment. At the time the medical industry was just warming up to the idea that Neurofeedback could be used as a treatment modality for everything from ADD/ADHD to chemical dependency. Of course the study of the brain, how it functions, and how that information can be used provides interest in many fields. As an example, we did some work with several researchers from the Air Force who were interested in ways to provide feedback to pilots as they encounter aerial hypnosis – I think that was the term – basically coming out of a barrel roll at tremendous force could result in the pilot becoming disoriented and frozen. The basic premise was that brain wave patterns change when someone enters this state and a mechanism in the helmet would monitor for these patterns, when they occur feedback would be provided, probably in the form of loud blinking alarms and lights, which would hopefully pull the pilot out of that state. Aircraft utilize these mechanisms for monitoring anomalies in the plane, but monitoring physiological changes in the pilot were not widely adopted (similar evidence could probably be gained from monitoring and correlating heart rate, breathing patterns, muscle activity, etc). What was more interesting was their work in trying to determine if Neurofeedback could be used to condition pilots to find the “zone” and result in faster response times and more accurate targeting.

Another area of interest, and what the article discusses, is peak performance conditioning. Everyone has experienced the “zone” I can recall playing pool, golf, basketball, or some other sport and for some inexplicable reason I was just on, I couldn’t miss a shot, I was batting a thousand, I was all net – I was playing in the zone! I can’t replicate these conditions on demand and I was never quite sure what I did differently but I know that when it occurred I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, I just did it.

Can’t afford an EEG machine? I would note that mediation techniques combined with goal-oriented visualization result in similar benefits as Neurofeedback. It requires one to learn how to quiet the mind, visualize an outcome, and execute or react in the real world. Each of these requires a lot of practice and is not easy in our wired, fast paced, to-do list lifesytles, but through repetition and supporting a connection between the mind and body, the execution and the reaction become automatic.