L’Amour on a Different View

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

–Louis L’Amour (1908–1988)

American writer

A couple bright sides to remember…

  1. Those gatekeepers keeping you from your prospects… You’ll love them once you’re on the other side and your competition comes calling. (Just be sure you’re continually qualifying your prospects – investing your effort only with the best possibilities… Get JustSell’s quick guide on qualifying).
  2. That deal you lose to a low-cost provider… Sometimes it can be more valuable in the long run. When the lowest priced product or service doesn’t meet the expectations of a customer, a deeper appreciation of the price/ value relationship is developed. This can create a new sales opportunity from what was initially lost – an opportunity for a much stronger business relationship than otherwise may have existed. (Make sure you keep your cool & kindness so you’re called if it happens.)

Here are 4 points to bouncing back.

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Chromium to Feature in Pwn2Own Contest!

We’re excited that the Google Chrome browser will feature in this year’s Pwn2Own contest. Chrome wasn’t originally going to be included as a target browser in the competition, but Google volunteered to sponsor Chrome’s participation by contributing monetary rewards for Chrome exploits. For the past year we’ve enjoyed working with the security community and rewarding researchers for high quality work through our Chromium Security Reward program. Sponsoring this contest to discover more bugs was a logical step. We thought we’d answer some frequently asked questions in the form of a Q&A session:
Q) Is Chrome OS a target?
A) No, not this year, as Chrome OS is still in beta. Per HP TippingPoint / ZDI guidelines, the actual target will be the latest stable version of the Chrome browser at the time, running on an up-to-date Windows 7 system. A Chrome OS device will, however, be awarded in addition to the prize money.
Q) Are you betting that Chrome can’t be hacked?
A) No. We think the Chrome browser has a strong security architecture, and Chrome has fared well in past years at Pwn2Own. But we know that web browsers from all vendors are very large pieces of software that invariably do have some bugs and complex external dependencies. That’s why the Chromium Security Reward program exists, along with our newer web application reward program. As a team comprised largely of security researchers, we think it’s important to reward the security community for their work which helps us learn. Naturally, we’ll learn the most from real examples of Chrome exploits.
Q) How do the rules work?
A) We worked with ZDI to come up with a rules structure that would reward exploits in code specific to Chromium and in third-party components such as the kernel or device drivers.
Of course, we prefer to pay rewards for bugs in our own code because we learn more and can make fixes directly. On day 1 of the competition, Google will sponsor $20,000 for a working exploit in Chrome, if it uses only Chrome bugs to compromise the browser and escape the sandbox. Days 2 and 3 will also allow for bugs in the kernel, device drivers, system libraries, etc., and the $20,000 prize will be sponsored at $10,000 by Google and $10,000 by ZDI to reflect the occurrence of the exploit partially outside of the Chrome code itself.
Note that ZDI is responsible for the rules and may change them at their own discretion.
Q) Does this competition impact the Chromium Security Reward program?
A) The program still pays up to $3,133.7 per bug. As always, submissions to the program don’t require exploits in order to be rewarded. In addition, we continue to reward classes of bugs (such as cross-origin leaks) that would otherwise not be eligible for prizes at Pwn2Own. We encourage researchers to continue submitting their bugs through the Chromium Security Reward program.

A geo-modeling competition in Poznań, Poland

Cities are exploring creative ways to get themselves on the virtual map. Some, such as Chula Vista, California are asking local residents to help. Others, like Mishawaka, Indiana and Poznań, Poland are running contests with cash awards to entice modeling support. While the approaches vary, what’s clear is that cities see the value of a digital representation that is publicly available on Google Maps and Google Earth.

The City of Poznań announced the results for its competition last week. The goal of the organizers (as outlined on the competition web site) was to model specific buildings on the old imperial route through the city. The route contains lots of heritage buildings that the city is eager to promote, including royal palaces, opera houses, the old market area, and other historic buildings.

The competition poster for Poznań’s geo-modeling competition

The Poznan competition was uncharacteristically short – November 22 through December 19 – interested parties had to act fast. Word of the competition quickly spread to others in the geo-modeling community. Entrants possessed a range of experience, but (not surprisingly) several experienced geo-modelers participated. These included Marcin Kruk (nevermor) and Supermodelers Filip Michałowski (Athinaios) and Tomasz Szular (tomcioZG).

The city hasn’t indicated how many entries were received, but it recently announced the winners. Entries were received from as far away as the United States. The competition was supported by the local Google office, who provided prizes to the winners in addition to the cash prizes that were awarded by the city.

Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Kościół św. Antoniego z Padwy) by Zuzanna Kurzawa

Local geo-modeler tomcioZG had this to say about the competition: “I’m happy with this contest and glad that someone in Poland is trying to organize something like this. I only wish the duration were longer – I submitted my last model seven minutes before the end of the competition!”

He went on to say: “I know that this competition was to determine interest, and I think City Hall should be pleased with the result. I checked all the models and they are made really well. After the competition I spoke with an employee of Poznań City Hall, who told me that if all goes well, they will hold this year a new contest.”

The city is still in the process of publishing the models to the 3D Warehouse. Some of the results can be found in this collection.