Enigma's, Bombe's and FaceTime

The Infosecurity exhibition, held in Earls Court, London is our biggest European event here at FaceTime and this year whilst promoting the company and our products we decided to support Bletchley Park. Until very recently Bletchley Park hadn't received any government funding. It's run as a museum, but runs primarily on charitable contributions.

In the place where the Enigma code was broken, where the war was shortened by at least two years, where, during the war more than 100,000 people worked in complete secrecy at Bletchley Park - from brilliant mathematicians, to linguist, to crossword experts and chess champions. It's the home of modern computing, it paved the way for modern computing, for with Colossus, they gave us the world's first programmable electronic computer.

Fitting then, that in our industry we support and maintain the memory of the momentous history of Bletchley Park not just for us, but for future generations. I drove down to Bletchley today, before I head to London on Monday 27th April to set up for Infosecurity, to remind myself why we're doing this and why we all should care and contribute to this living memorial of intelligence work, computing and cryptography.



You can see some of the buildings and the sterling work that the volunteers of the Bletchley Park Trust do everday - from the guided tours (not to be missed), the the slate tiles being sold from the roof of the mansion to fund ongoing repairs, to the rebuilds of the Bombe machines.


I'm very proud to be working with the Bletchley Park team over this next week - and I really do hope that I blow my budget on our campaign. We're donating £10 for everyone who comes to a FaceTime presentation during the Infosecurity Exhibition, and hoping to raise a significant amount for the coffers, but also to raise the profile of one of the most incredible and crucial contributors to the second world war. We have Bletchley Park volunteers on site with us, and also one of the Enigma machines

Join me, Chris Boyd from our research labs, Nick Sears, our EMEA VP and the rest of the EMEA team, as we not only promote FaceTime at Infosecurity, but also ask you to either donate a little of your time, or perhaps the spare change in your pockets to support Bletchley.

See you at stand H92.

Official Warning

I had an official warning yesterday. Minutes after our briefing for RSA I couldn't see my laptop screen. By the time I got back into the office I share with Bev and Larissa, I couldn't see much of anything. Even when I closed my eyes, it was all swimmy.

Migraine. Wow, years since I had one of these.

Bundled off back to my room, I went to bed, because there wasn't actually anything else I could do. Field the amazingly kind offers of help from friends here, but then just close my eyes.

Acceptance is amazingly peaceful. I feel like I've been in a state of "just another email, just another hour of trying to get this done, or if I work this Saturday, I'll clear the backlog" for months now. Now finally, it was beyond my control.

And you know what? I wasn't stressed, hassled frantically sending my mind in 360degree spirals wondering how I was going to get things done. I just stopped. Even now, nearly 24 hours later, after a long long nights sleep, I'm up early, but I'm writing this, not juggling datasheets or presentations or thinking about how to meet some deadlines for next week. I am thinking about what I have to do, but I'm also thinking that unless I stop thinking about it, I'm going to be in the same state as I was yesterday.

It's like the stress swam out with my vision. For the time being anyways.

I missed my only Friday night that I get to spend in the Bay area this trip, I was going to cycle some more of the Bay Trail, then go for dinner at Town or Cask here in San Carlos. But boy did I enjoy the sleep. I enjoyed the fact that my neighbour turned his darned TV off for what must be the first time in a week. Even the refrigerator in the suite that I'm in seemed to be quieter last night. But I can do Friday on Wednesday, or next time.

Isn't it great when a wake up call actually means that you get to sleep soundly?

Expectant parents

No no, don't go getting excited, nothing quite so momentous. Or perhaps it is.

We've been proud half-tenants of an allotment for over a year now. Well, I think it was Christmas 2007 when we first started discussing the allotment with Tom and Jane and decided we'd go for it in a haze of Merlot induced enthusiasm. It took a further year (and further wine, although this time I think it was Cava) to move the allotment discussion on.

It became a reality in March of this year. Four raised beds. Planning on a scrap of paper. Regular "how many peas do you get from a seed" type conversations and well, we're making progress.

The house has been taken over, we have root trainers in the porch - on all windowsills, herbs, tomatoes and peppers throughout the rest of the house. Potato grow bags, onions and garlic in the back yard and a distinct dislike for B&Q peat free compost, which has the consistency of horse hair and a similar itching capacity.

The planting selection has been based on

1. what we'll eat fresh
2. what we can make into chutney
3. what we can freeze

Although what we're going to do with all that cauliflower and sprouts, I really don't know - but at least this Christmas, it will (hopefully) be a totter down to the allotment to pick the carrots, parsnsips and sprouts for lunch, rather than Asda.

It's rather exciting, at the moment - obviously because we're obsessed, in that new parent sort of a way, we can see changes from day to day, although I suspect I will become bored in looking at the state of change of a leek pretty quickly.

We've had our first casualty. Three actually. Three of the peppers were lost at sea. Nigel has an interesting watering technique - if its not swimming then it needs more. We are now exercising caution and restraint in watering. I don't think squeezing out the peat pods and hoping there is still life is a viable solution to over watering. But what would I know. I still don't know how many peas you get from a plant. And where is there to ask dumb questions like that? None of the gardening books or websites seem to cater for such basic questions - I know, I know, that the answer is a piece of string one, but please, have pity on us newbies!