Movies and IT Heroes

Every decade or so, Hollywood puts a bona fide star actor in a hero’s role as an IT person. Last time it was Robert Redford in Sneakers, and now it’s Harrison Ford in Firewall. Sorry, but I don’t count Sandra Bullock as much of a hero in her movie, The Net.

Does this movie help you protect your business better? According to the Firewall movie story at the top of the news index to the left, ID theft details were vetted for accuracy. If they can get Harrison Ford, what hope do we have? Yes, take warnings about ID theft, both personal and company ID, seriously.

Another interesting trend is this story about Skype now working with Intel to leverage capabilities of the new dual-core CPUs for more concurrent conference call connections. Do I recommend running out to buy a new PC just for this? No, but it’s nice to see new telephony products being supported by established hardware vendors.

In the never-ending list of socially inept technical person stereotypes, add this week’s RSA Conference (Security) scheduling. A major conference for technical people on Valentine’s Day? No wonder everyone believes geeks lack romance.