Sheer bloody madness.  First Jesper leaves, now Steve has been re-structured out of a job.  First heard Steve (and Jesper) speak at TechEd 2005 in Brisbane.  I think the talk was “SEC301 – Common security screw-ups we have known and seen.”  Best darn security presentation I’ve ever sat though.  Was worth it for that presentation alone.  From memory, it wasn’t that widely attended either.  People don’t know what they missed, or are going to miss now that Steve is gone.

Friends, as a part of Microsoft’s second round of restructuring, my position was eliminated yesterday and my employment with Microsoft has ended. While there were many rewards that came from my job, the most satisfying element was knowing that our time spent together helped improve everyone—whether at conferences or through this blog, I’ve learned as much from you as you’ve learned from me …
- Steve Riley Microsoft Blog: Good bye, and good luck.

Steve’s new blog is here.  All the best for the future Steve.

electrical component which reduces the flow of electrical current.

Plain old wire has a built-in resistance, which is why gold is preferred for some wiring applications.  Darn expensive though.

If you think the world has problems with thieves taking the copper from overhead electrical wires, and telephone cables; think what would happen if gold was used!  Not that we can afford gold wiring in the State of Victoria, where a transport ticketing system project has proven more expensive than landing a rover on the surface of Mars.  And where a “”new”” rail line is going to cost $108,300,000 per kilometre.

Once heard a story about an electrician working down a mine, who needed a replacement resistor.  Not having one handy, and realising it would take time to get back to the surface to get one, grabbed a coil of wire.  And used that instead.

Urban myth???

Maybe, but electric fencing wire is advertised with a resistance rating, so the story could be true.