Finaly I got the blog set up. I just need to update Movable Type today and we gonna be up and running. Just as it's been said, the blog is gonna be mainly about security with some non-security-related stuff showing up from time to time.

As for the nearest future you can expect another section containing couple of my past projects to show up. Plus, of course, a lot of riffs on security. Stay tuned!

Asking questions is generally about getting answers, not pissing people off, isn’t it? If you think otherwise, just forget it, but if we agree on this it’s worth noting that sometimes to ask questions means more than to barely inform someone what you would like them to tell you and wait.

Usually it just doesn’t work like “fire and forget”. Why? Because people are busy with things of great importance and urgency (even if they just seem to be seating and picking their nose), with delivering results they’re being accounted for and probably with thousands of other better things to be occupied with than answering your endless lists of questions. So what can you do?

In most cases the trick is to convince your respondent to cooperate with you during the process of finding answers instead of flooding them with a list of 987987 detailed questions (half of which is relevant only if they answer positively some previous one) and expecting to get them answered.

Starting with a small list of general questions, which then can be detailed depending on received answers, seems to be quite a good idea. First of all it’s easier to get someone to answer a short list of questions for you (even if finally there’s gonna be like fifty of these short lists).

Also, what is kind of important too, you can avoid asking a lot of irrelevant questions and save a lot of your respondents’ time.

And yeah, it means you have to interact with your respondents, explain a lot and be patient. But, believe it or not, it pays off — it takes less time and, above all, pisses people off a little bit less.

Say you asked questions. And say you were smart enough to actually get some answers back. Perfect, right?

Not necessarily. Especially when you realize there are answers, sure, but not quite to what you thought you asked. Well, seams you didn't ask what you thought.

Remember the saying that there are no stupid questions? Got a bad news — there are. At least inappropriately asked if not stupid per se. Provided your respondent gets you wrong or has to ponder a lot to figure out what you actually meant (and face it, he won't spend a minute to solve your riddles), it means the question is not a very good one. In fact it fails to fulfill its very purpose — get you an answer.

What to do? Try to beta test your questions with your peers. Try to pick on some trickier details yourself. Try to think like your respondent. And finally, whenever it turns out something wasn't as clear as you thought — fix it.

And believe me, you would be really surprised how people can misunderstand the simplest and straightforward question.

Once again news for those of you who speak Polish, as the conference will be held in Polish.

The event has a pretty long tradition of 22 editions, but this year for the first time audience has been invited to actively participate in shaping the agenda. Unfortunately, it’s already too late to voice your opinion, but I think it may be worth considering visiting the conference anyway. I’m planning to be there (if only time allows me) and I’m watching closely to see how is the vox populi, vox dei idea catching on.

In other news, there is a parallel initiative, 2nd International Workshop on Secure Information Systems, held in English — please feel free to check out the details.

Not much time for posting lately. But I wanted to update you a bit.

Here are the slides I used delivering a keynote on the BIN GigaCon in Warsaw a week ago.

On October 20, so in about a month, I'm going to give a speech at SecurCON in Wrocław. I'll be talking about automatic human recognition and various ways to tell humans and machines apart.

So, see you there, I hope!

What do you think about public speaking? Are you, by any chance, one of those people who feel entirely confident when performing on stage? No trembling hands at all? Maybe you feel like you were born to motivate people and encourage them to excel? Do you? Statistics say you most likely don’t. And you know why? Because people aren't usually born ready and prepared to get on stage and give a wonderful emotional performance. And if they think they do, they usually give a pretty crappy one. You are not born a speaker, you become one.

So, to rephrase, have you ever thought of becoming a successful public speaker? Have you ever wanted to overcome your fears? If you did and you haven’t heard about Toastmasters yet, it’s something you should definitely try. Find a club near you and go to the meeting. See how it is and if you like it, join and start amazing even yourself!

If you live in Wroclaw area, Poland, you’re lucky, as there are two clubs currently forming in Wroclaw – an English speaking one and another, Polish speaking. If you’re interested, feel free to subscribe to our mailing list and sign up to our Goldenline group, as these are the places where you can hear the news. You may also like to visit our website. And of course, be sure to visit our demonstration meeting soon!