Chad Salinas Tech + Finance Blog

SVASE First Impressions Presenters Oct. 12, 2010

2010-09-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following 5 First Impressions presenters:

eMetaLogic, Joseph Ng
GlobalOptimal, James Chiu
MobiFind, Hari Dhandapani
RTE Water, Jim Kurinsky
SocialSamba, Aaron Williams

Panelists:
Andy Bartley, The Angels' Forum
TBA,
TBA

Sponsored by:

W ilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

SVASE First Impressions Presenters April 13, 2010

2010-03-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following 5 First Impressions presenters:

Digital Sun, Dale Hitt
GreenPlatform, Gus Malek-Madani
NotePal, Duane Nason
SpecialFork, David Hu
Stratplace, Steve Wick

Panelists:
Paul Straub, Principal, Claremont Creek Ventures
Vivek Mehra, Partner, August Capital
Don Ross, Board Member, Sand Hill Angels

Sponsored by:

W ilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

SVASE First Impressions Presenters February 9, 2010

2010-01-29T17:35:00.000-08:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following 5 First Impressions presenters:

Argonaut, Buck Melton
Meet4Trip, Lily Ksendzovsky
TruSM, Tom McCullough
YourVersion, Dan Olsen
ZeSecret, Alex Grishin

Panelists:
Andy Fillat, Managing Director, Leapfrog Ventures
Michael Madison, Managing Director, Cocoon Ventures
Sherman Ting, Board Member, Sand Hill Angels

Sponsored by:

W ilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

SVASE First Impressions Presenters October 20, 2009

2009-10-10T20:22:00.001-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following 5 First Impressions presenters:

TribeVibe, Jed White
Strongdata, David Berk
RingFree, Eric Chamberlain
SellYourRights, Björn M. Braun, PhD
LiveArts, Ken Iisaka

Panelists:
Roy Thiele-Sardiña, Managing Director, HighBAR Ventures
Sean Aggarwal, VP Finance at PayPal and Member of Sand Hill Angels
Bill Shetti, Sr. Associate, Storm Ventures

Sponsored by:

W ilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

SVASE First Impressions Presenters April 14, 2009

2009-04-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

SVASE First Impressions winner will be invited to appear on the April 23rd SVASE TV show, "The Silicon Valley Entrepreneur" -- Chad Salinas

Congratulations to the following First Impressions presenters:

CNS, Gerald Commissiong
HouseLens, Andrew Crefeld
e-Radio, Rick Boland
SNImpact, Harry Soza
Skede, Naresh Batra
Silicon Valley Global, Richard Brown

Panelists:
David Rohrsheim, Analyst, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Shomit Ghose, Partner, ONSET Ventures
John Cornwell, Board Member, Sand Hill Angels

Sponsored by:

W ilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 6 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

SVASE First Impressions Presenters Feb. 10, 2009

2009-01-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions presenters:

GirlAmbition, Hilary DeCesare
Inigral, Michael Staton
Lenopsys, Mohan Kumar
Sensor Analytics, Dadi Gudmundsson, Ph.D.
Trooval, Jonathan Lowenhar
Veloxum, Kevin Cornell

Panelists:
Bill Reichert, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
Anurag Nigam, Deal Screening Committee, Sand Hill Angels
Curtis Feeney, Managing Director, Voyager Capital

Sponsored by:

W ilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 6 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

Excellent Software Development Article

2008-12-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

Interview with Victoria Livschitz...

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Interviews/livschitz_qa.html

Chess With Friends Longs For Push As It Taps The iPhone’s Network Effect

2008-11-08T14:25:00.003-08:00

Chess With Friends Longs For Push As It Taps The iPhone’s Network Effect

Posted using ShareThis

SVASE First Impressions Presenters Oct. 14th, 2008

2008-09-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions presenters:

vIDentity, Alan Viars
Famento, Lauren Kwan
Alliance Analytics, Bill Davidson
YourStreet, James Nicholson
StakkIT, Florian Pestoni
GreenWirelessSystems, Bret Foreman

Panelists:
Roy Sardina, Keynote Ventures
Anu Nigam, Sand Hill Angels
David Epstein, Crosslink Capital

Sponsored by:

W ilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 6 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

Latest Lightspeed Investment

2008-04-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/25/lightspeed-funding-turns-facebook-application-into-serious-business/

SVASE First Impressions Presenters Feb. 12, 2008

2008-02-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions Feb. 12th presenters:

Iravest, Shannon Tobin
LeadGenesys, Jeff Kostermans
MadeIT, Stephen Weir
OpenVPN Francis Dinha
User Level Media, Bob Martin

Panelists:
Lara Druyan, Allegis Capital
Ted McCluskey, Sand Hill Angels
Roy Sardina, HighBAR Ventures

Sponsored by:

Applied Ventures
Silicon Valley Bank
Siemens
Wilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

SVASE First Impressions Presenters Nov. 12, 2007

2007-10-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I have completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions Nov. 12th presenters:

Azure, Geoffrey Giese
Lready, Chris Hulls
PuppyFinder.com, Dr. Larisa V. Genin
Relevant Mind, Aaron Mann
User Level Media, Bob Martin

Panelists:

Roy Sardina, HighBar
Ray Robidoux Sand Hill Angels
Shomit Ghose, Onset

Sponsored by:

Applied Ventures
Silicon Valley Bank
Siemens
Wilson Sonsini

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

Chad Salinas Latecomer to Facebook

2007-10-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Chris Gill, CEO of SVASE, I am a recent convert and fan of Facebook. While primarily the province of 2o-somethings trying to hook-up, it does provide me with a non-intrusive way of keeping up with folks that I certainly would never had otherwise. I used to play a bit of chess, but since my son's birth, I haven't had the time. I met some cool, intelligent, chess players that created some intersting art over the board. With Facebook, I have a light-touch way of reconnecting with my fellow hobbyists. Ever walk down the street and wonder what happened to a classmate you once knew? Facebook provides some possibilities. Now, if we could get some thirty and forty-somethings on it.

FreeRateSearch.com Wins SVASE FI

2007-07-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to FreeRateSearch.com for winning both the Panelist's Choice and People's Choice award at last evening's First Impressions event.
Technorati Profile

SVASE First Impressions Presenters for July 9th

2007-07-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides. We had 103 unique inquiries for the July 9th event. I narrowed the list down to a final 15 presentations and that is where we focused most of our effort.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions July 9th presenters:

Accelalox, Julia A. O'Connor
FireRock, Vikram Gupta
FreeRateSearch, Gerri Detweiler
MyOwnCartoon.com, Doug Mackbee
Sideways, Vic Kley

Panelists:

Roy Sardina, Steelpoint Capital
Nick Triantos, Sand Hill Angels and Quantum Technology Partners
Sachin Maheshwari, Opus Capital

Student Sets World Record For Math Constant Calculation - Campus

2007-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

Student Sets World Record For Math Constant Calculation - Campus

Is Everyone Over 30 Useless?

2007-06-19T16:10:00.001-07:00

John C. Dvorak explores why venture capitalists think older people are stupid.

read more | digg story

First Impressions Presenter Guardian Raises $3+mm

2007-06-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

Guardian Mobile Monitoring Systems, Inc. Secures Over USD $3 Million Series B Financing

Investment to fuel sales growth and product development of Guardian’s GPS platform
VANCOUVER, BC., June 6, 2007 – Guardian Mobile Monitoring Systems, Inc., the leading provider of turn-key GPS solutions for the monitoring of assets, vehicles and loved ones, is pleased to announce the first closing of its Series B round of financing. This round represents the company’s first institutional round of funding and was led by BC Advantage Funds, along with leading angel investors and software executives from Vancouver and across the United States. In conjunction with the financing, David Raffa will be joining the Board representing BC Advantage Funds, joining Greg Peet, the Company’s Chairman of the Board and John Mack, CEO of USBX Advisory Services in Los Angeles, as non-executive directors.
“We have been watching the evolution of the location based services market for the last several years, and we believe all the elements are in place for widespread commercial and consumer adoption,” commented David Raffa, Partner and Chief Operating Officer of BC Advantage Funds. “Guardian has the right team, technology and distribution strategy to capitalize on this enormous opportunity and we are excited to help continue to grow this world-class organization.”
“We are pleased to welcome David and the BC Advantage team to Guardian,” stated John Tedesco, President and CEO of Guardian. “Growth in the market for GPS solutions is accelerating rapidly. This financing will enable Guardian to extend our leadership position within the security alarm vertical and to expand into other reseller markets, including internationally.”
Guardian’s patent-pending GPS platform is built to work with any wireless network in the world using any location technology, including those from industry leaders such as Trimble (NASD: TRMB), Qualcomm (NASD: QCOM) and SiRF (NASD: SIRF). The multi-tenant, multi-tiered architecture of the system enables resellers to offer branded GPS-based monitoring services to commercial and consumer customers. Solutions range from covert asset tracking and fleet & equipment management to family safety applications, including teen driver monitoring.
About AdvantageBC Advantage is the largest and fastest growing venture capital corporation in British Columbia. Advantage offers everyone in British Columbia the opportunity to invest in some of the Province's most promising life science and technology companies. For more information about Advantage, please visit www.bcadvantagefunds.com.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Guardian Mobile Monitoring SystemsFounded in 2002, Guardian Mobile Monitoring Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of turn-key GPS solutions for the monitoring of assets, vehicles and loved ones. Guardian’s web-based system enables reseller partners to offer mobile monitoring services to their consumer and commercial customers for security, productivity and family safety applications. Guardian is a privately held corporation based in Vancouver, British Columbia with U.S. operations headquartered in Santa Monica, California. For more information, please visit www.guardianmms.com.
Company Contact:Rob GoehringVice President, MarketingGuardian Mobile Monitoring Systems, Inc.604.683.3106rgoehring@guardianmms.com

william azaroff | blog & Javelin Strategy Links

2007-06-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

william azaroff blog

http://www.javelinstrategy.com/2007/02/15/plugged-in-bofa-customers-can-bank-by-cell-phone/

Podcast: Kidaro Managed Workspace

2007-05-26T17:57:00.001-07:00

VSM speaks with Ran Oelgiesser, VP of Product Marketing for Kidaro about their desktop virtualization solution.

read more | digg story

Enterprise virtual desktop provider Kidaro secures $10 million

2007-05-26T17:55:00.001-07:00

Enterprise virtual desktop provider Kidaro secures $10 million financing round. Opus Capital led the round, joining existing investors Genesis Partners and Storm Ventures.Kidaro leverages desktop virtualization technology to provide the missing key to solving enterprise IT challenges: from deployment and management, to security and usability.

read more | digg story

SVASE First Impressions Presenters May 14th 2007

2007-04-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, and I completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides. We had more than 150 unique inquiries for the May 14th event. I narrowed the list down to a final 23 presentations and that is where we focused most of our effort.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions May 14th presenters:

Industrial Origami, Rick Holman
CollegeWikis, Joe DiPasquale
Connectance, Rick Beberman
DivinR, Rock Clapper
KDH, Susan Brown

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

Math Test

2007-04-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

\begin{equation} I_D=I_F-I_R \end{equation}

SVASE FIrst Impressions Presenters March 12th 2007

2007-03-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Chris Gill, SVASE CEO, Dylan Steeg, Intel Capital Senior Investment Manager, and I completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides. We had more than 200 unique inquiries for the March 12th event. I narrowed the list down to a final 22 presentations and that is where we focused most of our effort.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions March 12th presenters:

BrightQube, Lee Corkran
DebugLive, Chuck Orr
Ephox, Andrew Roberts
Focus Biology, Matthew Frome
KeyMedia, Kelly Brant

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

Crypto 4

2007-02-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

How could you break 2-DES with just 10 plaintext/ciphertext pairs in about 56(2^56) time?
Meet-in-the-Middle!
2-DES key is (k^i, k)
Build a table 2
Sort the table in n log n or in this case 56 2^56
The attack is time efficient but requires about 2^56 of space
"effective" key-length of 2-DES <= 62 bits any key size over 90-bits is considered secure The improvement of sorting in n log n is at the heart of reducing algorithmic time Linear & Differential attacks Basic idea of linear cryptanalysis Probability that a given message bit XOR'd with the ciphertext = 1/2 = some episilon Keep trying to cut an exhaustive search by factors of 2 What is the significance of the 5th S-box beeing chosen poorly? What does this bias allow an attacker to do? You can deduce 14 bits of information about the key 56 -14 = 42 bits of the key left to do an exhaustive search on Anyone releasing a cipher today has to prove it's not vulnerable to linear cryptanalysis Attacks on Implementation Power cryptanalysis What was Paul Kocher's insight around hardware power fluctuations? AES 128-bit block size and variable key sizes of 128, 192, 256-bits How could a quantum computer break a block cipher in 2^(n/2)? 2 4X4 matricies; one for the key and one for the state info AES 4 invertible steps:

byte substitution
shift row
mix columns
add key

Iterate 10 times...

2 Theoretical Goals

Abstract model for Block Ciphers
Argue that CBC and counter-mode are secure

PseudoRandomPermutation (PRP) versus Secure PRP

Assume AES and 3DES are secure and just focus on PRP

Crypto 3

2007-02-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Block Ciphers
Much stronger than stream ciphers
Warning: Don't develop your own ciphers under any circumstance
Encrypts one message block at a time into a same size block as the original message block
Data Encryption Standard (DES) is popular with public sector and FIs
a bit of history...
1967 - Feistel developed Lucifer using a 128-bit key length
1972 - NBS issues RFP
IBM develops DES with a shorter 56-bit key and a 64-bit message block
1979 - DES phased out
2000 - NIST adopts AES
Idea behind DES is the Feistel network
Feistel network also influenced IDEA, RC5, Skipjack...
No swap on the last round
Each round only half of the previous round's plaintext gets encrypted
Write a recursive definition of a Feistel network
Prove that Feistel network is one-to-one, i.e. invertible
Proof: Construct the inverse
Take Fd and derive Ld-1. Rd is already equal to Rd-1
Feistel network inverts itself!!!
DES is a 16 round Feistel network using a 64-bit block so LHS na RHS are 32-bits each
DES was meant to be implemented in hardware, not in software
Most ATMs that FIs use are validate pins using DES
What do the S-boxes in DES signify?
Is there an S-box attack on DES?
What is the madness behind the choice of S-boxes' values?

Algortithm Performance (source Wei Dai)
Environment: Pentium 4, 2.1Ghz running Windows XP SP1
RC4 runs in about 113MB/second
SEAL runs in about 293MB/second
DES runs in about 21MB/second
3DES runs in about 61MB/second
IDEA runs in about 19MB/second
SHACAL-2 runs in about 20MB/second

Electronic Code Book (ECB) - break a message into blocks and encrypt each block separately
Ciphertext will be the same size as the plaintext
Deterministic constructions are problematic
i.e. send the same e-mail message twice and the attacker will see the same ciphertext twice which allows the attacker to learn info
ECB inherently leaks information
Recall Bart Preneel's photo example with a sillohuette revealed in the ciphertext
NEVER USE ECB to do encryption

Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)
CBC is a better method than ECB
DES uses CBC
XOR the Initial Value (IV) with the first block of plaintext
C1 is then XORd with P2...
Ciphertext will be a little longer than the plaintext
IV must be new and random for every message - non-deterministic
CBC encryption is inherently sequential which is problematic for high-end network device implementations i.e. harware VPNs
CBC provides no integrity for the ciphertext
With CBC, decryption is just as easy as encryption
Could use counter-mode to turn block cipher into a stream cipher to solve sequential encryption problem; counter-mode is making the encryption parallel
Still no ciphertext integrity guarantee

Output FeedBack mode (OFB)
Another mode of encryption; don't use it

Attacks on block ciphers
Exhaustive search - try every key
Recall RSA's DES Challenge
1997 Challenged solved in 3 months using distributed.net
1998 EFF paid Paul Kocher to develop DeepCrack. DES broken in 3 days
1999 Combined Search broke DES in 22 hours -- The death of DES
Never use a 56-bit cipher

3-DES uses 186-bit keys
AES uses 128, 143, 256-bit keys
128-bit key would be 2^72 harder to break than a 56-bit key and therefore not subject to exhaustive search attacks

What attacks would be better for 3-DES?
Why not use 2-DES?

SVASE Security BIG

2007-02-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

I am moderating SVASE's Security BIG on March 15th. Details follow:

SVASE BIG Event, March 15, 2007
Security: Private Security Companies’ Opportunities and Exits

Since 2001, the computer security industry has witnessed several notable private security companies being acquired while only one has gone public.

Private Companies taken off the IPO Track:
Cisco bought DOS attack toolmaker Riverhead in a $39 million cash deal
Novell bought security event management vendor e-Security in a $72 million cash deal
Verisign bought MSSP Guardent in a $140 million deal
Symantec bought MSSP Riptech in a $145 million deal
McAfee bought Wi-Fi network vendor Wireless Security in a $20 million deal
McAfee bought vulnerability management vendor Foundstone in a $86 million cash deal
CheckPoint bought encryption specialist Pointsec Mobile in a $586 million deal
Network Appliance bought secure storage vendor Decru in a $272 million in cash and stock deal

Private Companies that IPO’d:
NetScreen IPO’d in Dec. 2001 -- Juniper Networks subsequently acquired security appliance maker NetScreen for $4 billion in stock.

Gartner security analyst John Pescatore says, "For every merger, there will probably be a new startup backed by venture capital and seeking to address some new type of threat or market demand," (Source: eWeek 12/26/2006.)

Against this market landscape, SVASE has assembled an experienced panel of thought leaders and security industry insiders who will discuss current opportunities and exits in the security space. Theses distinguished panelists will share their experiences and insights on this unique market.

Specific topics include:
Is the security market over-invested?
What areas within security can a startup firm bulk-up around from a standing start?
What are the critical success factors unique to building a security company?
Should private security firms aim for acquisition or hold out for the IPO market?
What changes will an entrepreneur encounter if/when acquired?

The Panel:
Kevin Brown, VP Marketing, Decru
Asheem Chandna, Partner, Greylock Partners
Philippe Courtot, CEO Qualys
Srini Gurrapu, Vice President, Product Management, Facetime Communications

Moderator: Chad Salinas, Managing Director, Najdorf Capital

Thursday, March 15
6.00-7.00 pm: Networking and Business Showcase
7:00 – 8:00 pm: Panel discussion and Q/A
8.00-8:30 pm: Additional networking

Location:
Network Appliance, Inc., 495 East Java Drive (N. Fair Oaks becomes E. Java), Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Register now at http://www.svase.org/, Events > BIGs Event

PRE-REGISTERED RATES (All Rates Include Hors D’oeuvres):
Members - $20; Affiliates who advertise this event - $29; General Public - $49;
Business Showcase Exhibit Table - $149 (Includes exhibit table and two tickets to the event.)

WALK-IN RATES: Add $10.00 to the listed price

This event is co-sponsored by Network Appliance

Seating is limited, so early registration is recommended to avoid disappointment on the day.

OS 7

2007-01-29T16:00:00.001-08:00

O/S Scheduling
Does the nth job need to run in approximately 1/n of the the CPU?
How do RR, FIFO, SJF scheduling algorithms affect the time to run n?
How does the O/S predict a process' future needs based on past usage?
How does Lottery Scheduling work?
How does scheduling change as you have more complete information about a set of processes?
Real-Time Scheduling
soft real-time vs. hard real-time
soft - e.g. display video frame every 30th of second
hard - e.g. anti-lock brakes on a car
Which jobs do you keep in memory?
How do you determine which subset gets written to disk?
How could Mitzenmacher prove his result?
Does it converge to optimal?

OS 6

2007-01-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

CPU Scheduling
All I/O devices + CPU busy = n+1 fold speedup
CPU vs. I/O bursts
Universal Scheduling
What is the best way to run n processes on k nodes where n < k?
latency vs. throughput conflicts
speed vs. fairness
halting problem derivatives
How do Markov Chains and rival processes work?
Allocate resources across dimensions of time and space.
FIFO is the simplest scheduling algorithm.
Describe the Convoy Effect.
Round Robin Scheduling
You have to amortize the cost of context switches over the timeslice time.
What is "Priority Donation"?
Shortest Time to Completion First (STCF)?
Prove STCF given jobs a, b, c, & d.
How do you know a job's length?
Shortest Seek Time First (SSTF)
Which operations are most expensive?
Describe the Elevator Algorithm.
Use multi-level feedback queue (aka exponential Q)

OS 5

2007-01-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

When programming with monitors make sure the invariant is true.
Only one variable is usually updated (shared) by the two threads.
Don't need variable to determine whether buffer is full; you can just use buf.head less buf.tail == N.
Race conditions result from bad interleaving of processes.\
Instead of locks, you could use scheduler.
Compare & Exchange
Optimistic Concurrency
Could you write an entire O/S without locks?
Most O/S make heavy use of doubly-linked lists.
Intel's product roadmap assumes transactional memory to aid developers in wirting code to take advantage of multiple processors.
Deadlock -- what do you do when none of the threads are making progress?
Graph deadlock as a directed cycle with inter-thread dependencies.
4 necessary conditions for deadlock:

Limited Access
No Preemption
Multiple Independent Requests (hold & wait)
Circularity in graph of requests

Circularity is the easiest condition to violate.

Two-Phase Locking -- simple deadlock control.

How have databases traditionally dealt with deadlocks?

OS 4

2007-01-29T12:21:00.000-08:00

How much does blocking cost?
How long should you spin?
Spin for the length of the block cost. If you still don't have the lock, then block.
Idea is to pay the incremental cost until it equilibrates with the up-front cost, then switch.
Mutual Exclusion -- only have one process at a time in the critical section.
Make Progress
Multiple threads that are sharing state info create race conditions.
While (lock is not available)
spin - within your own process cache
...
What is the good, bad, and ugly of recursive locks?
What is synchronization modularity?
What characterizes trylocks?

Producer/Consumer design pattern
producer puts characters in an infinite buffer
consumers pulls characters out...
not so edge case of consumer reading to read while producer has fallen behind
release lock, go to sleep?
producer should wakeup the consumer as it posts a char.
Semaphores - non-negative integer counter with atomic increment and decrement. Semaphores block rather than going negative. Use semaphores for mutual exclusion and scheduling.
Emulate a lock using semaphores.
Monitors are easier and safer than semaphores.
Think about Java synchornized classes as monitors.
What is the difference between Hoare semantics and Mesa semantics?

Crypto 2

2007-01-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

Stream Ciphers
Why do you replace the "random pad" with a "Pseudo-random pad"?
Why is PRG a deterministic function? Does it have to be deterministic? What if you chose a non-deterministic function.
What is the unpredictability property? Given the first i bits of output, could an adversary guess the next i+1 bit?
What is meant by "semantic security"?
Don't use the UNIX PRG for crypto.
Does SSL give you a new stream cipher key for every connection?
Why are stream ciphers so fast?
What is the difference between a "strong cipher" and a "fast cipher"?
Why do you have to completely re-encrypt a file after making even a small change to the file?
What is meant by "highly malleable"?
How can you guarantee the integrity of your CipherText?

RC4
Simply elegant!!!
How could you predict the next byte given a segment of data?
What RC4 attacks exist?
What is the probability that the second byte of the output is zero?
What other bytes have some inherent bias?
Would there be any bias if you ran the s-array through 256 cycles before using its output for RC4?
What is the probability of seeing two consecutive zeroes in the output?
How is RC4 used in (read incorrectly) 802.11b WEP?
Why shouldn't you use CRC for integrity checking?
Look at Fluhrer-Mantin-Shamir (2001)
Look at WEPCrack
Need to get to 802.11i

Hardware Stream Ciphers
What is an Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR)?
How is a single LFSR predictable?
Why is LFSR easy to break given about a kb of plaintext and a kb of ciphertext?

OS 3

2007-01-17T15:01:00.000-08:00

What is the cost for a context-switch?
Do virtualized processes really run in about 1/n slower than real CPU?
What economies can you gain by duplicate a subset of state data?
Why is it so difficult to get an "isolated" process today?
Try to debug the results of multiple processes that share state data!
What is the probability of a race condition when you have two processes that both read, increment, then write?
Break down operations into their atomic units aka "critical section".
Why do you need compiler support to atomicity in a uniprocessor environment?
No trap + No interrupt = No context switch
How can you mask interrupts?
Don't mask interrupts by increasing the thread's priority only to have your thread go into an infinite loop.
What are the pros and cons of locking a thread?
What idiomatic expression connotes acquiring and releasing the lock?
Don't disable preemption and then go into an infinite loop.
When implementing multiprocessing locks, how can you leverage the hardware?
Can you build up a lock from more primitive instructions?
What is a "spin lock"?
What are the issues associated with spinning?

OS 2

2007-01-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

When can you partition work to speed up job?
How can an OS uses processes and threads to glean economies?
What is the importance of a theoretical Turing Machine?
DEF: Process = thread + address space
DEF: Address space encapsulates protection
Why separate the thread from the process?
DEF: Program = code + data
Programs are passive as opposed to Processes which are active
Windows has a function BOOL CreateProcess(...
How does Unix fork() compare?
Why does windows take a number of args whereas Unix creates processes without any args?
What is the difference between mutilprogramming and multiprocessing?
What elements other than Priority, registers, and open file descriptors are stored in the Process Control Block (PCB)?
What fairness algorithms dictate which processes get scheduled?
3 Process States: running, ready, blocked
How does the CPU get back control from a process?
How can the callee use some of the caller's registers?
You cannot use a stack to save thread state because you don't know what order threads are going to resume.
How can push all the general-purpose registers onto the stack?

Crypto 1

2007-01-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

Chad Salinas Crypto Notes

If you haven't done so already, take a look at the Java Crypto Extensions (JCE).
SSL takes about 5 quick round of session setup to produce a shared key.
Shared key relies upon symmetric ciphers for privacy and integrity.
DES, AES, RC5... provide confidentiality
HMAC provides integrity.
Crypto is used with Windows' Encrypted File System.
Crypto is used in authorization and password management.
Wireless, 802.11b, uses the poorly designed WEP for Crypto.
Avoid "Security by Obscurity".
Read "The CodeBreakers" by David Kahn to get the history of Crypto.
Ciphers - i.e. Encryption happens like this C = E(k, m)

Substitution cypher
- is the world's oldest cipher where K = 26!
26! ~= 2^88
Encrypting plaintext with the substitution m = "bcza"
Ciphertext C = E(k, m) ...
Of course, you can break substitution cyphers by noting letter frequecies i.e. "e" occurs 12.7% of the time ., "t" = 9.1%, "a" = 8.1%
By extrapolation, you can look at frequency of doubles, i.e "th", "he", "an",...
The only thing an attacker would need to know is the cyphertext.

Vigener Cipher
Replicate the secret key over the message until the entire message is covered.
Secret Key: CRYPTOCRYPTOCRYPTOCRY
Message: Chad Salinas Tech+Finance Blog
________________________________
CipherText:
Easy to break by looking at the 6th letter in the ciphertext and do the same sort of frequency analysis as with substitution cypher.
Think about the intial configuration of the rotors of an enigma machine.
Natural languages have a fair amount of natural redundancy.

DES
The commercial world needed to wait until DES came out in 1974 for the first "good" crypto.

Cipher is a pair of efficient algorithms takes a key and a message and outputs a CipherText.
Constraint is that encryption and decryption are inverse functions.
nb. Encryption algorithm is often randomized where as decryption algorithm is ALWAYS deterministic.

"Secure" Cipher - One Time Pad (OTP) 1917
C = E(k, m) = m XOR K
D(k, C) = K XOR CT
The problem is that the keys, being comprised of 0's and 1's, are too long.
What is a "good" cipher?
Claude Shannon (1949), the father of information theory, defined what constitutes a "good" cipher. CipherText (CT) does not reveal any information about the PlainText (PT).
Given a CT, no adversary can if the message came from m1 or m2. C is equally likely from m1, m2.
What about length of messages? OTP encrypts fixed-length messages... a bit of a disclaimer.
Lemma: OTP has perfect secrecy.
Proof: Pr[ E(K, M0) = C] = ((# of keys k encrypting to C) / (Total key space))
...
Only 1 key maps m to C!

Does a cipher exist that has smaller keys?
K >= 2^n
key length >= message length

Enter the Stream Cipher!
Leverage a pseudo-random pad as opposed to OTP
Run the key through a pseudo-random-generator (PRG)
PRG(k) => result
XOR the result with the message to get the CT
PRG is a deterministic public function.
You cannot use Two-Time Pad as adversaries can XOR two messages together and recover m1 and m2... completely broken.

Problems with the OTP and Stream Ciphers:
Maleability Attack

SVASE First Impressions Winner gets $6M from KPCB

2007-01-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

Please join me in congratulating Jeff Fairman and Juvaris!

JUVARIS ANNOUNCES FIRST ROUND CLOSING OF SERIES A FINANCING

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Pandemic & Biodefense Fund
Sole Investor in First of Two $6 Million Rounds

Pleasanton, CA – January 8, 2007 – Juvaris BioTherapeutics, a private company, today announced it has closed the first of two rounds of a Series A financing with a $6 million investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Pandemic & Biodefense Fund. The second closing will occur within 120 days from the date of the first closing, bringing the total Series A Round to $12 million.
The funds will enable the Company to advance its lead vaccine products for influenza and pneumonia indications to clinical trials. The Company will also pursue immunotherapy products for Hepatitis B and Biodefense applications. The funds permitted the Company to close asset purchase agreements negotiated with Valentis. The purchased assets include relevant intellectual property that had been the subject of a worldwide exclusive license and a fully operational 10,800 sq. ft. manufacturing plant in Burlingame, CA. As part of this transaction, Juvaris has hired seven former Valentis employees engaged in production and QA/QC activities.
In commenting on the investment, Juvaris Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO Martin D. Cleary said, "There could not have been a more favorable outcome for our program, employees and shareholders than to have KPCB take this investment interest in Juvaris. Their long-term view and willingness to help guide our strategic direction has already made a major contribution to our effort. Together we will build a very successful company."
In commenting for the KPCB Pandemic & Biodefense Fund, Partner Thomas P. Monath M.D. recently appointed to Juvaris' Board of Directors said, "The Juvaris team has done a superb job of demonstrating the potential of their proprietary adjuvant and immunotherapeutic platform for multiple disease targets. With the acquisition of manufacturing assets from Valentis, the Company can now rapidly progress to clinical proof of concept."
About Juvaris
Juvaris BioTherapeutics was created in 2003 to develop an immunotherapeutic product platform for the treatment of infectious diseases and cancers using lipid-DNA complexes. Cationic lipids are formulated with non-coding DNA (plasmid) to create the JuvImmune Immunostimulant, a lipid-DNA complex, which as a single product will have utility in multiple infectious disease and cancer applications. The JuvImmune product has been shown to be at least 50-times more potent at triggering innate immune activation and interferon release than current immune stimulants.
When combined with disease-specific antigens, the technology creates JuvaVax vaccines capable of activating substantial antibody- and cell-mediated immune responses, particularly induction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Immunological responses elicited by the lipid-DNA complexes have been successfully demonstrated in both prophylactic and therapeutic settings in a variety of mammals including rodents, rabbits, cats, dogs and non-human primates. Moreover, substantial immune responses have been induced following oral and intranasal administration. This platform provides the opportunity to develop many disease-specific immunotherapy products, for which there are significant unmet medical needs.
In January 2006, the Company announced the award of a two-year Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the NIH for the development of an influenza A virus vaccine. In March 2006, the Company announced the award of an 18-month Small Business Innovation Research-Advanced Technology (SBIR-AT) grant from NIAID for the development of an HIV vaccine, and in September 2006, the Company announced the award of a two-year biodefense SBIR grant from NIAID for the development of an immunotherapeutic treatment for Tularemia. Recently, the Company announced the award of an SBIR grant from the National Cancer Institute for the development of a vaccine for leukemia.
About Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has backed entrepreneurs in 475 ventures, including AOL, Align, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq Computer, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Hybritech, IDEC Pharmaceuticals, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Lotus, Nuvasive, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Verisign and Xilinx. KPCB portfolio companies employ more than 250,000 people. More than 150 of the firm's portfolio companies have gone public. Many other ventures have achieved success through mergers and acquisitions. KPCB has broadly invested in both life sciences and information technology since inception in 1972. In the last six years, KPCB has expanded its focus to include Greentech and pandemic preparedness.

TasmanAve looking for SOA Consultants

2007-01-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

One of Najdorf's portfolio companies is looking for SOA Consultants. Here is the full spec from TA's website:

SOA Consultant
TasmanAve is a venture-backed software company in the web services space. Our client base is growing rapidly and we are looking to add a few experienced SOA consultants to our Professional Services group. As a TasmanAve consultant, you should have developed information systems using RUP or iterative methodology. Your technical strengths must include XML technologies, J2EE Design Patterns, Enterprise Java Beans and Component Interface, Implementation level of EJB as Service and Web Services as Service. You must also have been a leader in an Enterprise Software development Environment.

Essential Job Functions & Skills-5-10 years of Industry experience -Excellent problem solving, analytical skills and technical troubleshooting skills-Strong knowledge of complete project life cycle -Will develop innovative and appropriate architectures, acting as the engagement architect when required. -Understand issues about scalability, reliability, performance optimization and distributed architectures-Have worked on projects from conception through delivery including developing and deploying to production architectures. -A background in SAP and/or Oracle Applications integration is preferred.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:-Development of POC and prototypes. -Conduct training or custom workshops. -Work effectively with Customers and Partners. Develop strong working relationships.-Develop and implement innovative data integrations. Effectively transfer knowledge on a formal and informal basis.-Effectively manage time and people to deliver key project components. Report status and raise issues on a timely basis. --Utilize extended CI resources effectively (sales, engineering, product marketing etc.).-Contribute to knowledge database within CI. Capture and share information/knowledge from each engagement
-Respond to e-mail requests for support internally and externally. -Author and deliver Detailed Design Documents, and integration white papers.-Support Sales Efforts. Be able to scope and deliver Proof of Concept.
-Look for opportunities to increase sales of products and services.
-Customer Management & Customer Experience Skills-Strong communication and customer focus skills - Must be able to define -Customer problems and articulate current situation to customers-Exceeds customer expectations garnering "high ratings" in "customer satisfaction"-Technical Project Management and Requirements Gathering Techniques-Understands "Enterprise Business Processes" in at least 2 industries

Technology Skills
-Significant depth of expertise in four or more of the following areas:-RDBMS (any of Oracle, SQL Server) -Strong Understanding of Databases, distributed objects, guaranteed delivery, performance optimization techniques.
-Working knowledge of SQL, Triggers, PL/SQL stored procedure.-XML technologies (DTD, XSLT, XPATH, XSD, XQuery), development using XML, HTTP/S, Web Services, SOAP, SOA, WSM, Security-Experience with mapping tools, flat-files parsers, batch processing, messaging-EAI, middleware, or other integration experience at the enterprise level (Tibco, webMethods, BEA WebLogic, J2EE/JMS)-Java/C++/object oriented programming and Distributed computing-Unix/Linux, NT,
Vertical applications/industry experience helpful (any of the following):-ERP Functional and or Technical Interface experience ( Oracle Financials, SAP, PeopleSoft, JDE, Baan, QAD, Siebel, other CRM -Telecommunications, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Chemicals, Automotive-E-Commerce (Portal Application, B2C, B2C, B2E or other)-EDI, FlatFile, FTP, Secure FTP, SSL, Ariba, WebMethods
-Experience in the following areas will be very helpful and will be considered a plus
-Strong understanding of Integration including e-commerce and web integration, EAI, middleware.-Guaranteed delivery, Error handling, Re-submission, Highly Available Systems, Clustering-Business Process Management - Understanding of different Industries and common Business Processes in industries-Human Work Flow and Long-Lived Processes

Personal Skills:-Excellent oral and written skills-Provides senior-level presence on behalf of the company to named accounts-Strong customer focus and consultative skills -Ability and desire to learn rapidly without supervision-Willingness to take on new challenges and environments on a frequent basis

Travel:
Depends on client location.

Education Level:
BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or similar technical degree

Please e-mail resume to careers@tasmanave.com

SVASE First Impressions Presenters Jan. 15, 2007

2006-12-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

Chris Gill, CEO of SVASE, and I completed our careful and exhaustive review of prospective presenters' slides. We had 116 unique inquiries for the January 15th event. I narrowed the list down to a final 16 presentations and that is where Chris and I focused most of our effort.

Congratulations to the following First Impressions Jan. 15th presenters:

Guardian John Tedesco
Legal Force Raj Abhyanker
Vilong Carl Lin
Settlenet Andrew Blaisdell
QueerCity Oliver Kay

As usual, we had a number of quality presentations and business ideas, but only 5 slots. For those who did not make the final list this time, I present 3 SVASE-related options:

E-mail me, Chad Salinas, if you would like me to put you into the priority queue for the next event in March.
SVASE offers a number of workshops detailing how to prepare presentations. In addition to expert advice, you will also meet other members of the SVASE team and familiarize yourself with some of the heuristics of raising money.
Attend the First Impressions event as an observer to get a feel for the quality of presentations and business ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Chad Salinas

2006 Najdorf Capital Salary Survey

2006-12-18T14:58:00.000-08:00

2006 Najdorf Capital Salary Survey

Najdorf Capital surveyed 263 respondents from amongst the Fortune 500 in the month of October. The results of our salary survey follow:

Security-related Certs

CISSP $ 95.64K
CISSP-ISSMP $118.26K
CISSP-ISSAP $113.53K
CISM $107.47K
CISA $ 96.24K
CheckPoint $ 94.74K

SOA/Software Develpment Certs

Java $ 84.39K
MCAD $ 72.54K
MCSD $ 77.42K
Oracle OCA $ 73.92K
Sun Certified Developer for Java 2 $ 82.45K
Sun Certified Enterprise Architect $ 94.55K

CISSP Security Management Practices

2006-12-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

Shon Harris asks If different user groups with different security access levels need to access the same information, which actions should management take?

Increase the security controls on the information.

Chad Salinas would say that it depends on your view of the AIC triad. A tradeoff exists amont Availability (A), Integrity (I), and Confidentiality (C). If your view is that A is more important than C as it is in most commercial, as opposed to military, settings, then you may actually implement the complete antithesis of what Mr. Harris suggests; you might decrease the security level on the information to ensure accessibility and usability by both user groups.

Shon Harris asks what are security policies? He gives the definition as broad, high-level statements from management. Chad Salinas would ask to define terms. If by "management" you mean senior management, then yes you can sift through the platitudes to derive some abstract notion of a security policy. "We shall endeavor to protect our client's data using best efforts". Operationalizing this eg. you are in violation of the "Security Policy" would be non-sensical. Futher, complying with "Security Policy" would be uncertain, eg. I maintain that our client database is in compliance with the company's security policy. How can you be sure? What level of confidence do you have? How would you derive a confidence factor?

So, perhaps "management" is generally meant to be everyone in the corporate structure who is not a leaf not to borrow an analogy from computer science. In this instance I would say you are likely to have as many diffent definitions of security policy as you have nodes.

Final note: Chad Salinas encourages you to use your ALE calculation and your cost/benefit analysis.

Security Management Links

2006-12-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

I think I've responded to all of the latest security comments and questions. Also, I promised a few links to ISO 17799 info, so here the are:

Chad Salinas at stanford dot edu

OOP 16

2006-12-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

God bless the Electrical Engineers and Moore's Law!

NYU MBA: There are no free lunches.
Stanford Computer Science: There are no Silver Bullets.

Tangibles versus Intangibles

Modularity

Simplicity (Agile School of Sofware Development)
Official Agile term: Do The Simplist Thing That Could Possibly Work (DTSTTCPW)
Ignorance of the Future Problem: eg. Since we are not very good at speculating about the future, write the entire zebra code as opposed to deriving from horse super class and adding methods and overrides. You can refactor later.

Drive To Release
Have a series of 3-month projects as opposed to a single 2-year project.

Take just 1 step to Heal The Code.

"From Scratch"??? - the opposite of refactoring
Once you get a specific Use Case, resist the popular argument to re-create from scratch, rather make the attempt to refactor.

Respect the baked-in cases. A lot of edge cases only appear from running the code over a period of time.

Chad Salinas at this school dot edu

OOP 15

2006-12-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Design based on requirements.

What classes should we have?
What data is going to be stored?
Don't worry about method names yet.
Design should be done in English.
What diagrams/objects will be on the canvas?
Develop common Use Cases, not exotic ones.
Run a Use Case by your design.

No perfect solution exists.

Choose a simple, consistent, and easily understood design.

Agile design embraces the most simple thing that will work.

Keep things modular.

Chad Salinas at thisschool dot edu

OOP 14

2006-12-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Art of Software Project Management
3 Variables:

Features (Scope)
Quality
Time

Project teams often fail to manage the tradeoffs of the 3 variables.

Can you exchange more people for less time? Remember The Mythical Man Month, by Brooks?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

If Done = Features X Quality, what is Done's tradeoff with time?

How long will it take to do X?

Everyone is thinking (not doing anything) about something that doesn't exist yet.

Collective optimism augments the responsible developer's ego to arrive at an unrealistic timeframe.

Would you rather have 10 things 100% done or 20 things 50% done?

How do you measure done? Doneness is a bit intangible.

How do you measure bug density?

When measuring each developer's doneness, don't forget to account for the integration, compile, and testing time.

Drive-To-Release includes integration, compiling, testing, and hopefully a url where you can go and run the code to date.

Why do you get so much productivity in the last 24 hours before a due date?

Requirements
Use Cases - problems the user needs solved

Concrete use cases keep the design team grounded.

Chad Salinas at Stanford dot edu

OOP 13

2006-12-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

What is the condition of serialized data?
BEAN/XML encoder/decoder

Expose getters & setters
Provide an empty default constructor
Encode request will call all the getters on the DotModel and write the results to XML
Decode request will create an empty DotModel, reads the XML, calls all the setters
Knows about defaults in the model
Don't forget about the "Dirty Bit"

Chad Salinas

JG Master Quest

2006-12-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

For all of you who want to monitor an aspiring expert's ascent to the rank of chess master, check out http://chessquest.blogspot.com/ . I am betting that JG becomes a USCF Chess Master in 2007.

Chad Salinas

OOP 12

2006-12-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

Use Smart Repaint to draw just the object you are moving rather than the entire view.
Smart Repaint's animation is much faster than repaint().
System tells view that it is time to redraw.
Double-buffering allocates an off-screen bitmap.
Sets the origin and calls PaintComponent().

MVC Pattern
Controller deals with change propagation.
In Java, TableModel is the Model; JTable is the View.

Chad Salinas

OOP 11

2006-12-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

Use Producer/Consumer problem to demonstrate semaphores.
What happens when consumers consume the buffer faster than the adders can fill the buffer?
All the consumer threads can use a a semaphore CanRemove with 4 permits.

Fairness is too expensive! FIFO versus randomness.

Interupt the thread to set isInterupted() boolean.
Allows the process to exit cleanly.

Think about operations that occur asynchronously as opposed to synchronously.

Thread.sleep(100) XOR InteruptedException.

Chad Salinas

OOP 10

2006-12-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

A "Thread" is a Java object that represents a thread of control.
Thread.currentThread() is a static method that returns the current thread.
Subclass off of Thread object and then override run().
Implement the Runnable interface.

OOP 9

2006-12-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Use Javadoc; it's a godsend.
Don't ever use setSize as Swing's layout manager will just override it. Instead, use SetPreferredSize().
Make certain that all listener objects implement actionPerformed() method.
Add ActionListener(listener object) to the JComponents.
Remember that a JComponent may have multiple objects listening to it.
Create anonymous inner classes.
Google "Swing Open Source XML"
What are the differences between threading in C++ vx. Java?
ILP - Instruction Level Parallelism limited to 3-4X by rearranging transitors on the chip.
Could use more cache, otherwise the CPU would click over an instruction 100X faster than memory can process. However, big cache is slow cache.
Threads go along way to leverage microchip/transistors.
Single threaded is the fastest.
Multi-core pushes the cost on to the software developer.
SMT - Simultaneous Multi-Threading, aka HyperThreading by Intel.

Chad Salinas

OOP 8

2006-11-29T14:36:00.000-08:00

Factory Pattern allows clients to get new instances of an object without having to call new. Gives the client a turn-key solution.

Singleton Pattern ensures that E(x).

Iterator Pattern...

Adapter Pattern creates an object that looks like "Bob" to "Alice", but really its just a pointer to Mallory. Also, think about how hashmap works; it doesn't return the collection.

Why is being a subclass harder than being a client?
The developer of the subclass would have to know the details of the superclass.

How does the system do a recursive traversal to reformat text in the GUI to conform to other languages?

Chad Salinas

OOP 7

2006-11-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here are some ideas that everyone should know about OOP:

Encapsulation
API
Receiver Relative
Inheritance

But, what about ideas that nobody likes to mention about OOP:

Coupling between two classes, i.e. loose or tight based on dependencies
Sometimes you just need a C++ type struct - an object with data but no operations on the data.
Knowledge Isolation - just make a change in one place is difficult under normal OOP design wherein you may have multiple objects accessing the file system idividually. A change to file system access would then have to be made in each object.

What is the idea behind Java inner classes?

Remember C++'s callback facility? Alice provides Bob a call back vis-a-vis a pointer. Bob stores the pointer and after some time passes, Bob can call the code in Alice's structure.

In Java and other OOP, you create an object that responds to various messages. You give Bob a pointer to this code which is in the Alice object. For example, passing an iterator to a client to iterate over members of an ArrayList.

Try making a Binary Tree class wherein the nodes are inner classes.

Try to make a nested class with static keyword and you will find that the inner class cannot access the outer class' instance vars.

What is AbstractCollection?

A factoring up of the various collection attributes.

Chad Salinas

OOP 6

2006-11-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

I'll try to answer some recent OOP questions here:

You need to check the run-time receiver for the method before looking for the compile-time object which is the super class.
Message resolution uses the run-time type of the receiver.
Flow of control can jump up and down form super to sub-class.
Don't over-code, just rely on polymorphism.
When you override the method's arguments need to agree with prototype.
Java 5 does allow you to change return type on an override as long as it is more specific.
Do you ever really need to use instanceOf?
Class can only have one superclass, but can implement multiple interfaces.
Multiple inheritance is the bain of C++; Java's one superclass + multiple interfaces rules.
Every object derives from Object.
Every object has a toString that derives from Object and can be overriden.
equals is a deep comparison of an object, returns boolean.
If an object is the the same, then there hash code is the same.
Make use of an @Override to tell the compiler your are trying to override a superclass method.
Comparable is just an interface that contains a method int CompareTo(Object o) returns the negative if rcvr/less, 0 if the same, positive if greater.
Java 5 now has Comparable.
You must use encapsulation or you will be lost on more complex projects.
Document your testing strategy.

Chad Salinas

More Inheritance

2006-11-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

OpenBSD STRLCPY fixes the old STRNCPY; you don't have to be victimized by buffer overflows!

For what class of problems is inheritance a silver bullet?

What are the differences between run-time type system and compile-time type system?

Chad Salinas

2006-11-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

How would you quantify IT's investment in a well-defined exposed interface?

Do you always comply with the following standards?

IVARS declared as private
getters for most important IVARS
Immutable, i.e. getters and setters in the constructor
setters/mutators - state changes

API should never be a 1:1 exposure of the implementation. Interface should simply expose methods that solve the client's problems.

Why is "Receiver Relative" an important OOP concept?

Change versus ReadOnly - Changing an object is more imortant than the object you are just reading from. So, changingObject.doSomething(readObject)

Chad Salinas

API Design

2006-11-22T09:31:00.000-08:00

"API Design" is a more important skill in OOP design than modularity. The software engineering crisis of the 1970's witnessed the exponential growth in man months as number of lines of code grew linearly. The number of interactions between code segments increased omplexity- the n-squared problem. Modularity solved this problem. Why then is "API Design" more important?

As a developer, you have the power to "expose" the functionality you like through a clean interface; you have the power to hide the details in the implementation.
Receiver Relevant implies the object contains the data and its associated operations close by.

Think like a client when writing your implementation. For example, in a binary tree interface, your client probably doesn't want t.getLeft(), but rather he wants t.lookup().

Chad Salinas

Java Thoughts

2006-11-08T14:27:00.000-08:00

Eclipse 3.2
Java 5
Generics... no more casts!!!
Java Collections - One stop shopping for buld data storage!
ArrayList; HashSet; HashMap
for (String encryptedString: list) {
...
Iterators
Iterator it=list.iterator();
while( it.hasNext()) {
String s = it.next();
}

Autoboxing deals with the Integer != int issue
no free lunch; 8 bytes of overhead per integer?

TNM Results

2006-10-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

In the penultimate round, I was able to beat an USCF-rated expert handily in a Nimzo-Indian, see Chad Salinas vs. Romulo Fuentes. For the last round, I prepared for 3 people, none of whom I ended up being paired against. Further, I prepared as black, but ended up having White. I played USCF-rated expert, Victor Ossipov. Victor played an obscure and passive line of the French which I over-reached in trying to punish. I ended up losing because I wouldn't accept an equal position. I made an unsound sac that was a tempo too late. Lessons learned from Chad Salinas vs Victor Ossipov: Sometimes you have to do what the position calls for even if that's just a draw. The net result is that now I am two games away from becoming expert.

SVASE & Garage Art of the Start

2006-08-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE), in association with Microsoft and Garage Technology Ventures, today announced the agenda for “The Art of the Start,” a one-day workshop for entrepreneurs and the Call for Companies for “Launch: Silicon Valley,” an occasion for early-stage companies to showcase their business, products and strategies to hundreds of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capitalists and angel investors. Attendees will have an exclusive opportunity to gain practical and useful knowledge on how to achieve start-up success, learn about new business opportunities and network with influential players in the industry. The back-to-back events will take place on Wednesday, November 8 at the Microsoft campus in Mountain View.

Start-up authority and popular business author, Guy Kawasaki, will kick-off The Art of the Start conference that morning with a talk on the subject, followed by a series of panels and presentations by experts from Garage Technology Ventures, Silicon Valley leaders, venture capitalists and successful start-up CEOs. The event will also feature sessions entitled, “The Art of Raising Capital” by Bill Reichert, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and “The Art of Pitching” by Bill Joos, founder and managing director of Go To Market Consulting, as well as a lunch keynote.

“In the current Web 2.0 frenzy, it may be time for a dose of reality. This is an outstanding opportunity for entrepreneurs to hear from people who have been there, done that, and learn what it takes to translate their visions from concept to reality, no matter what the environment,” said Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures.

Launch: Silicon Valley to Showcase New Products for VCs

The Art of the Start will be followed by the debut of Launch: Silicon Valley. Sponsored in part by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the Colorado Venture Capital Association, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Garage Technology Ventures and the Woodside Fund, this event provides an opportunity for startups seeking A and B round funding to showcase their businesses and products to an audience of influential Silicon Valley venture capitalists and angel investors. In addition, SVASE will also be reaching out to regional venture capital organizations to give them the opportunity to expose some of their funded companies to the Silicon Valley investment community. Selected companies will be invited to participate in the event with a selection of these companies then chosen to deliver a detailed product presentation to the group.

“As a company that is so dedicated to the advancement of new technologies, Microsoft is happy to be a host of this year’s conference,” said Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft Corp. “The creative energy and ingenuity exhibited at these events is nothing short of amazing and it’s wonderful to be able to take part in it.”

“SVASE is proud to be hosting this premier event which holds so much opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn about issues that are vital to running a successful start-up, including the current investment climate and what it takes to secure funding,” said Chris Gill, president and CEO of SVASE. “For over a decade, SVASE has provided support and resources to local entrepreneurs and we’re privileged to contribute to the creativity and innovation that’s so characteristic of Silicon Valley.”

Companies wishing to be considered for Launch: Silicon Valley must be proposed by a professional business partner, such as an attorney, banker or investor. The submitting party must send a two page executive summary to LaunchSV@svase.org by no later than October 6, 2006. All submissions will be reviewed by a panel of successful entrepreneurs, angel investors and early-stage venture capitalists. Selected companies will be notified via email by October 25, 2006.

Agenda:

Art of the Start

8:00 a.m. Breakfast & Registration

8:30 a.m. Opening remarks
8:40 a.m. Guy Kawasaki: The Art of the Start
9:20 a.m. Panel: Successful entrepreneurs: Been there, done that

10:20 a.m. Break
10:40 a.m. Bill Reichert: The Art of Raising Capital

1:20 a.m. Bill Joos: The Art of Pitching

12:00 p.m. Lunch
12:50 p.m. Lunch Keynote: TBA

1:20 p.m. Panel: VCs - Funding your dream

2:20 a.m. Break

2:40 p.m. Guy Kawasaki: The Art of Rainmaking

3:15 p.m Close

Launch: Silicon Valley

4:30 p.m. Opening remarks
4:40 p.m. Session I: Information Technology: Five companies present
5:40 p.m. Break
5:50 p.m. Session II: Life Sciences: Five companies present
6:50 p.m. Break
7:00 p.m. Session III: Consumer Technology: Five companies present
8:00 p.m. Closing Reception: Showcase room
4:00 - 9:00 p.m. Launch: Silicon Valley Showcase (adjacent hall): 30 companies

Both events will take place at Microsoft Building 1, located at 1065 La Avenida Street in Mountain View, CA. For each event, early bird registration for SVASE members is $125 and $145 for non-members and is available until October 18, 2006. Thereafter, the cost for registration will be $195. For more information or to register for the event, please visit www.launchsiliconvalley.org , www.svase.org or www.garage,com.

Sponsors of one or both events include:

GOLD

Fenwick & West

SILVER

ABD Insurance

Bridges SF

Colorado Venture Capital Association

Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson

DMNA

Garage Technology Ventures

Microsoft Corporation

National Venture Capital Association

Pillsbury Winthrop

Silicon Valley Auto Group – displaying Aston Martin, Bentley and Lamborghini cars at the events

Voce Communications

Woodside Fund

Lunch/Dinner/Breaks

Cooley Godward

Finpro

Schwegman, Lundberg, Woessner & Kluth

About Garage Technology Ventures

Garage Technology Ventures is a seed-stage and early-stage venture capital fund headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with investors that include Thomas Weisel Partners and CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System. Garage is focused on information technology and materials science startups in the Western U.S. “Art of the Start” is Garage’s signature conference for entrepreneur education. For more information about Garage, visit www.garage.com .

About SVASE

Founded in 1995 by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE) is the largest and fastest growing nonprofit in Northern California dedicated exclusively to helping technology and life science entrepreneurs start and grow successful businesses.

SVASE accomplishes this mission through key programs such as the weekly VC Breakfast Club, which introduces entrepreneurs to venture capitalists; the Forum lunches for startup CEOs, CFOs and CTOs; on line 24 Hour Networking; the online Startup Reference Guide; and much, much more. For more information about SVASE, please visit www.savse.org

SVASE First Impressions July 10th

2006-07-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

July 11, 2006
First Impressions SVASE July 10th, 2006
First Impressions, provides entrepreneurs with the opportunity to present and get feedback from VCs and prominent entrepreneurs. The event this month, had the following presenters:

Rick Bentley, Connexed.

Tony deKerf, Global Serv.

Don Levy, SkyWi.

Zafar Kazmi, smartmicros.

Vyew.com Henry Hon, Vyew.

Lauren Elliot, W3PN.

Presenting at First Impressions is a great way to gain first hand experience on pitching for Venture Capital, make connections with VCs and Angels, and get a clear understanding on how to move your business forward.

"After making my presentation at First Impressions, I got five leads to investors, including three VCs that would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain on my own. I've already set appointments with each of them for follow-on presentations." John Matthesen, CEO, Byte Blaze.

For more on SVASE and it's programs, go to www.svase.org.

How to determine your valuation

2005-04-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

Last evening's Financing Partners event was hosted by Wilson Sonsini and moderated by Nicola Foreman. The following 4 panelists presented their views on valuing early-stage companies:

Leon Glover III., Band of Angels
Tom Fountain, Mayfield Fund
Peter Rip, Leapfrog Ventures
Come Lague, Nueva Ventures

Takeaways, observations & thoughts...

CL - focues on early stage firms that are not ready for Series 'A' VC funding

PR - just raised a second fund of $200mm, the first fund was $100mm, 3 partners, no associates

Most Series 'A' is getting financed within a band of roughly $3-7mm pre-money. Pre-IPO terminal values are modeled to be around $200mm. Software companies typically need between 15-30mm in capital to get to the terminal value. The VCs need to own 15-20% of the company. Leapfrog Ventures' goal is to have between 10 and 20 firms in the portfolio. The next round needs to be 2X the Series 'A' post-money valuation. PR concludes that based upon his empirical observation, formulaic calculations involving DCF or VC-Method are best used only to bound intuitive notions of valuation.

TF - VC's don't enjoy prolonged negotiations over value. Valuation is an art, not a science. The 3 risks that dominate the VC's decision process are:

People Risk
Market Risk
Technology Risk

TF concludes that DCF valuation approaches have no application to valuation, whatsoever.

LG - In contrast to the other panelists, LG gave an overview of the typical MBA finance models. He elucidated the fallacy of entrepreneurs using public company proxies; he suggests a discount rate of 25-35% for the illiquidity premium. LG challenges entrepreneurs to choose the correct driver for their business model when using the Multiples Method. When using the Venture Capital Method, he suggests discounting with a target rate of return of between 40 and 70% for an early-stage firm. For thoroughness, LG mentions the Adjusted Present Value Method and the Option Pricing Models as alternative ways to calculate a valuation range.

CL - Come built a bridge from the frictionless MBA models to the realities facing early-stage entrepreneurs in coming up with a value for their firm. Citing recent original research, PWC -Money Tree, Series 'A' fundings are averaging $3-7mm with investors taking about 50% of the company. Typical M&A exits are between $50 and 75mm. Given a 10 firm sample of a VC's portfolio:

2 Winners would yield 20X returns
5 firms would break-even
3 Losers would return nothing

CL suggests a Milestone-based valuation methodology wherein a program is designed, with the next-stage investor in mind, to get the entrepreneur to a Series 'A'. This approach assumes the entrepreneur has access to information regarding the other levers of a VC transaction. For those who don't, CL suggests a book entitled "Term Sheets and Valuation" by Alex Wilmerding.

Chad Salinas

Philosophically, I am closest to CL's notions about setting milestones. Although, all of my finance training tells me that choosing a target rate of return, using DCF, the VC-Method, and Real Options should provide upper bounds to valuation. In fact, I think a built up r in the WACC ends up systematically over-valuing firms. The lower bound is well guarded by the entrepreneurs need to be incented rather than relegated to indentured servitude. Regardless of a VC's behind-the-scenes valuation model-building, a VC is going to have to syndicate to get deals done. If the majority of potential syndication partners think the deal is too expensive, the deal simply won't get done. Clearly, the data on "done deals" are between self-selecting VCs and entrepreneurs who had the flexibility to come to terms regardless of the imperfect private equity market and its concomitant information asymmetry. However, nobody is asking what rate of return equilibrates the valuation model once a value is determined.
Now, I am purely speculating, but given TF's highly technical background at Stanford, for him to say that formal finance methods have no place in the valuation process, he must have an empirical basis. Clearly, quantitative approaches are far less prevalent in the Valley than in New York. In New York, however, you wouldn't even consider approaching your investment committee without having the obligatory models in hand.
For completeness sake, I need to post an example of the VC-Method and Multiples Method in the near future.

Stay Tuned!

US Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura is the Real Deal

2004-12-14T20:11:00.000-08:00

As I have known Hikaru for four years, it is hard for me to believe that he will now become a legitimate contender for the World Chess Championship. I met Hikaru at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City when he was still a 2300-player. His father would say that he and Hikaru would be happy just to beat American World Champion Bobby Fischer's record of becoming the youngest American GrandMaster at about 15 years. With a lot of help from the FIDE congress and an agressive world tour, that few other junior players could afford, Hikaru broke Fischer's record. Still, I wasn't convinced he was the real deal -- history is littered with young would-be prodigies that end up topping-out early. America's other hopeful and good friend of mine, Var Akobian, had tied for first in the World Open to receive his first GM-norm. Then, Var crushed Hikaru in the Imre Konig to get his second GM-norm. Finally, Akobian, had a winning position against Shabalov in the last round of the US Championship - a win, and Akobian would be crowned US Champion. So it was far from clear that, the then 15 year-old, Hikaru was ready for prime-time. However, he has persevered and consistently improved. This improvement culminated in his winning the 2004 US Chess Championship outright. I reviewed his games and saw that he was actually losing in two games, but I believe in former World Champion Mikhail Tal's position that your opponent must be able to find the win over the board. I started appreciated Hikaru's maturity over the board as he crushed Stripunsky in both playoff games. But, even with a US Championship filled with former Eastern European champs, note how many competitors were named "Alex", Hikaru would still need to prove he is the strongest of the world's crop of up-and-comers. This week Hikaru proved he is the real deal by crushing Ukranian phenom Sergei Karjakin. Congratulations to Hikaru!!!

Steve Jurvetson's J-Curve Blog

2004-12-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

Steve Jurvetson's J-Curve Blog

Lester Thurow's new book

2004-10-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

Last month I had the chance to talk to Lester Thurow about his new book : http://www.lthurow.com/index.htm . As part of the economics curriculum at NYU, I was a big fan of Dr. Thurow. He is a brilliant thought leader and an engaging presenter. So, if you have a chance to read his new book or hear him speak...

Dr. Ashwath Damodaran's Finance

2004-10-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

After 12 years as an entrepreneur, I got my MBA in Finance from NYU (aka vocational school for investment bankers). I then switched over to the dark side -- I became a venture capitalist / investment banker. Recently, I moved from New York to San Francisco and have been looking at technology companies in the Silicon Valley. These early-stage companies have few quantitative tools to justify their valuations. Typically, the entrepreneur finds some public company proxies that he would like to look like 5 years from now. He then applies their P/E multiple for his own firm. The VC and angel groups don't seem to be much different -- most will tell you valuation is more art than science. Here is where I pay my profound respect for Professor Damodaran (http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/) for giving me an abundance of modeling tools that provide the quantitative underpinning to both the upper and lower bounds to valuation based upon a company's projections. Clearly, valuation comprises of both art and science, but that does not excuse throwing out quantitative methods for anchoring a firm's valuation.