No Rest for the Wicked?

The flight home from Utah was uneventful - primarily because I slept the entire time. Thanks so much to the BrainShare attendee who sat next to me and let me snooze uninterrupted for the short flight. My voice is recovering nicely after going for 24 hours without speaking (to the delight of all around me).

I decided to stop by the office for a quick 'check in' - yipes! The office was crammed with boxes of all sizes - nearly floor to ceiling. Hoping I hadn't hit eBay after a late night of Port o' Calling last week, I nonchalantly asked Angela 'what's in the boxes?' She raced over to rip one open (apparently these were not tipsy eBay purchases - phew!) - Sharkfest conference goodies!

Sharkfest is just 9 days away! Eek! Time flies when conference time rolls around. It promises to be an interesting conference considering you have some of the premier Wireshark contributors coming from all over the world to sit face-to-face with Gerald Combs, Loris Degioanni and Gianluca Varenni. In addition, we'll all get to spend more time with Pilot, the new graphing and reporting tool for Wireshark. I showed Pilot during the Meet-the-Experts night at BrainShare. CACE Technologies (http://www.cacetech.com/) is expected to release Pilot on March 31st! Keep an eye out for it. Check out the entire Sharkfest schedule at the CACE Technologies site when you get a chance.


One of the myriad of boxes in the office held the 'shark shaped shirts' (glad I did not have a rum and coke before trying to say that). These shirts are a bit freaky, if you ask me. They are compressed and squeezed into the shape of a shark. Although everyone assures me that a slight bump on the box will not cause sudden decompression and the boxes will not expload with shirts and fill up all the breathing room around... I am staying away from those boxes!

So... as I sit here gazing out the window at a 70-degree plus day, I find myself putting together the schedule for the coming week in the lab:

1. Finalize my Sharkfest presentations (one session has a last-minute enhancement)
2. Do the final review of the Wireshark Certification Test question bank
3. Upgrade my old Windows 2003 servers to Windows 2008 servers
4. Perform daily updates to my Pilot Beta software and give it a good workout
5. Organize all the business cards and contacts received during BrainShare
6. Review, clean and release some of the trace files gathered last week
7. Finish up and turn in Microsoft project "R"
8. Record at least three hours of the new NetScanTools course (coming soon)

Yup - the week will be busy and filled with exciting new projects and opportunities. Before I head into my lab and immerse myself in packets (especially those 'ICMP Communication Administratively Prohibited' packets), however, I will catch a few moments in the sun to ward off a florescent-light pallor...

Laura