Careful with That Laptop, Eugene

Today I came across the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare.¹ Lots of good stuff in case you're planning on starting one.  There's some interesting stuff even if you're not.

For example, suppose you're thinking of joining the resistance in a levée en masse defending some beloved piece of critical U.S. infrastructure under cyberattack (er, your local water district?). Then you need to know that under the Manual's Rule 35, you will no longer have the protections afforded to civilians under the Laws of War.² Also note that one of the criteria classifying someone as a combatant is the "open carrying of arms". Which under Rules 39&41 of the manual, might mean that when the bits hit the fan you wouldn't want to walk around carrying a phone computer.

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¹ Annoyingly, the report can only be read via some lame publishing platform.
² Don't say there are no laws of war. I just told you there's even a manual on how those laws apply to cyberwar.

Tegal buys CollabRx

I'm pleased to relay the announcement that Tegal Corporation (NASDAQ:TGAL) has purchased CommerceNet portfolio company (and incubatee) CollabRx.

In September '10 — weeks after I sold Usable Security Systems — founder Marty Tenenbaum asked me to help out CollabRx.  I worked there informally as COO and head of product management for over a year.  Together with CollabRx employees like Smruti Vidwans and Jeff Shrager, I created CollabRx's Therapy Finder family of web applications for personalized cancer treatment decision support.

I'm proud of that work and I'm glad that the company and its products have moved on to a bigger stage.  Congrats guys, and thanks for all the fish.

But I'm again faced with the question I had in August '10: so, now what do I do?

New privacy aphorism

In privacy, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

— me (with apologies to WRC)

Find Targeted Therapies for Metastatic Melanoma

A new web app we launched today uses the latest medical science to help doctors and patients find targeted (e.g., genetic) therapies for metastatic melanoma. This is what I've been doing the past few months (CollabRx is a CommerceNet portfolio company) – I'm pretty proud of the result: therapy.collabrx.com.

Everybody has a song

This is mine.