Every day we are bombarded with news from every direction warning of impending doom for those connected to the thing we call the Internet. The InfoSec community banters about the Twitters discussing, dissecting and dissing those upon whom misfortune has fallen while forgetting that they too might one day suffer the same fate. George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Many in the community are far too young, have far too little history under their belts and spend little time understanding the path we all took to get to where we are today.
This talk relates the path I’ve taken from a being a degreed Biologist and Microbiologist through starting several Internet services companies to my current position. I’ll relate my failures and successes during that journey to the state of tech at that point in time examining common practices of the day that now seem ludicrous by today’s standards. The goal will be to help everyone learn some history from someone who has been there so that we might start using that knowledge as a lens to help us better understand the current state of our industry and make better decisions moving forward. After all, what we view as standard, prudent and cutting edge today might not appear that way to those who come after us. Seeing where we have once been might help us really appreciate how far we have come!
Come join me in a twenty plus year trip down memory lane.