Congrats, though we've not interacted much here, you feel like a neighbor... so it feels great to see... and i've learned a LOT from your posts, like never typing the letters, A, E, S in consecutive order, for starters. : )
First, congratulations. I did notice though a change in your comment tone from some time ago. (Unfortunately I can't recall exactly when and there is no easy way to draw up comments on HN from "x" days ago you have to go through page by page.) I'm wondering though if it coincides with this (or maybe another deal) going down. Meaning either the stress or elation of this or another potential transaction altered your writing.
You actually can do this using HNSearch and the by: keyword. If you ever do find some inflection point at which I become/became even more annoying, shoot me an email.
There was a point about 12-18 months ago where you stopped explaining yourself each time and made more appeals to authority (your own) on crypto issues. Admittedly, you were right, and these were all things which you'd explained in detail before, and on which the academic and practical communities have pretty much reached a consensus.
this inflection point is almost certainly not unique to you, though since you're probably one of the first to discuss it in this way, you should probably name it so we can all start identifying it in ourselves and other founders :)
We're continuing as an independent business; the two biggest changes are (1) we're hiring more people than our original plan, and (2) we get to work directly with our friends and rivals at iSEC, who were bought by NCC 2 years ago.
(2) is a big deal --- there are so many smart people doing what we do at NCC companies that we expect research time to get way more productive; also, iSEC and NGS/NCC (the UK "us") have different research focuses, like Android and 3G to our crypto and trading protocols. Black Hat next year should be fun. (there are crypto people at iSEC; I'm sleep deprived and on an airplane)
Yeah I'd reckon with the depth and breadth of talent across the testing business now, it should be really cool. I hope they make the internal information sharing/collaboration piece a priority.
My flight out got cancelled, so my celebratory meal was "Marriott room service Caesar salad".
Apropos nothing: I do not understand why anyone in 2012 flies United. And while I understand why someone might order a Marriott room service Caesar salad, I do not recommend it.
SWUs for international flights. Especially if you buy them on eBay for $200. A cheap coach international fare + a $200 SWU puts you in United Business, which is sometimes better than best-carrier coach. (honestly, I'd prefer CX Economy to UA business on most routes, but UA wins for SFO-IAD-KWI.)
United business between Edinburgh and Newark means seats that fold down into beds and was entirely worth the US$480 I paid to upgrade my flight home last month.
They also have a monopoly on direct flights to the US from Edinburgh, which is another reason someone might end up on a United flight.
Not in our case; we're a wholly-owned subsidiary, but not integrated with our parent company. Our sibling company on the west coast, iSEC Partners, has been operating independently under NCC for several years.
We work a little bit like small record labels.
The changes that will happen include "we're hiring more people" and "we get to share research with sibling companies".
