Day two at the conference started well. Our opening plenary was given by Dr. Dixie Baker, who spoke on security in the public healthcare system. This was a fascinating talk, especially as it was a subject I didn’t know much about. It talked about HIPPA, what information is releasable, and how computer security reacts in the process–sometimes it helps protect information, but sometimes the hindering of the release of information can have public health consequences. The late morning session was also good: I went to a vendor track talk on the National Vulnerability Database, and it morphed into a talk on some tools being developed by NIST and NSA to do automated security configuration and configuration checking. All good and useful information.
Lunch was some sort of fish, with some sort of potato, and peppers. Some limish-cheesecake was for dessert. No iced tea was served, just water.
During the session after lunch, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. I made it through most of the session (on service oriented architectures), and then went up to my room. My tummy was out of it (I think I got contaminated by the peppers, and the Tums that I chased them with), and I just didn’t make it down for the late afternoon sessions.
The reception was held in the Starlight room, but I was sort of out of it. Still, I had some pleasant conversations. It was also fun listening to Peter Neumann and Steve Bellovin (the NSA/NIST Award recepient) talk. Peter reminded us of the history of the hotel: this is where one of the first meetings that led to the creation of the Orange Book was held. I went out to the same place I went last night for dinner with someone from UC Irvine and someone from BYU, and just had a club sandwich. My tummy is still feeling a bit off. Hopefully, I’ll do better tomorrow (and tomorrow evening is Cuban food at Versailles — yes, I’ll see if they are connected to the one in Los Angeles).
So what are my impressions so far? Technically, the conference is doing great this year. We’re attracting top people as always. Facility-wise? Due to the food prices here, I think we skimped on the food, and it isn’t up to our normal high standards. It has been too greasy (we’ve had fried stuff for both receptions), and there have been far too many peppers for my taste. I think my tummy will be glad when I can return to Los Angeles… for a nice dinner of latkes and sour cream!
