Royal Friday

TGIF.

The whole Royal Wedding thing is almost over.  I think the party’s about to start for the newlyweds somewhere in London, and here I am in sunny Austin, Texas, wishing it was a bank holiday here in the U.S. as well.

If you missed all the action, fear not.  Fortunately, I caught the highlights on the DVR (thank God for technology), and no matter how hard hearted you might be, it was a sweet and beautiful ceremony, and all the pomp and circumstance, and the fact that it went off without a hitch (or was that, with a hitch), made it all that more fun.

Not so much fun, however, has been the horrors of the destruction wrought by all those tornadoes here in the American South.  Fortunately, I’ve never experienced a tornado firsthand, but I have relatives who have, and I’ve certainly come close.

I’m most saddened by the reports of so many people killed or injured, and of course, by the massive destruction the storms have wrought.

For those of you who may have been asking yourselves the question, “How can I help?,” this link from Good provides a few answers.  It provides opportunities to contribute via the United Way, Feeding America, the American Red Cross, and even several local churches.

Remember, if you’re in the area, lots of folks are also going to need food and clothing, many having lost everything in the storms.

It seems trivial to transition from the horrible storms to technology, but often the two are tied one to the other, and Amazon has certainly experienced some stormy weather of its own over the past week.

Following up on last Friday’s post about the ups and downs of the cloud, Amazon has now published a summary of its EC2 and Amazon RDS disruption from last week.  The statement includes a thorough forensic analysis of what went wrong, as well as an apology.  At 5,600+ words, that’s a whole lot of explanation.

Also with some explaining to do, Sony, whose PlayStation network was hacked last week and the hackers for which are apparently trying to sell off customer credit card lists from the attack for upwards of $100,000, so reports the New York Times Bits blog.

This was one of the largest data breaches ever, and also led to the outage of the PlayStation Network for nearly a week.  The story goes on to report that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s San Diego office is helping Sony with its inquiry into the hacking incident.

Probably not a bad idea to have the Feds helping where they can, as Sony faces global legal action over the data theft, suggests Reuters.  The breakdown has “infuriated” gamers, and Sony stock saw a nearly 5 percent decline in Tokyo yesterday.

Just in case anyone was wondering about the dramatic, and often negative, bottom line impact security breaches can have.

Me, I’m all about actionable intelligence.

If such incidences have you thinking about your own security situation, take this security self-assessment  and see what steps your company might need to take to strengthen its own security posture.

Meanwhile, winding down, and back to the bright side of life, for those of you in the U.K., here’s wishing you a nice long banking holiday weekend. ‘

Whether you’re in the royal wedding mode or not, it’s gotta be nice to have some down time to spend with family and friends.

Particularly after this week.

The Royal Family Social

This is going to be a big week, particularly in the U.K.

After watching “Morning Joe’s” coverage early today from Trafalgar Square, I’m about ready to hop a Virgin Atlantic flight directly across the pond, take the Heathrow Express direct to Paddington Station, hop in a hackney, and proceed directly to Buckingham Palace for some full-on Clash style crowd surfing.

Judging from my convos with some loyal British subjects, and from Joe, Mika, and Willie’s coverage from Trafalgar, we U.S. Americans are much more enthusiastic about Will and Kates’ Royal Wedding than those in the U.K.

In fact, the British government declared this Friday yet another bank holiday, and the Morning Joe suggested up to 1/3 of the British people would be leaving London for the weekend.

Can’t say as I blame them. You remember the lyrics from that 1979 classic from The Clash?

London calling to the faraway towns, Now war is declared, and battle come down

London calling to the underworld, Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls

London calling, now don’t look to us, Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust

London calling, see we ain’t got no swing, ‘Cept for the ring of that truncheon thing

Yeah, Phony Beatlemania may have gone the way of the do do bird, but royal watching is reaching a new and fevered pitch in anticipation of April 29th.

Me, I remember the first royal wedding I ever witnessed.

I was a wee lad of 15, and it would be another 14 years before I’d make my way to Buckingham Palace live and in person.

I distinctly remember the carriage carrying Charles and Diana down the streets of London, and I also distinctly remember what looked like a few million people lining the streets, most every one of them with a smile on their face.

Putting aside for a moment the Royal Wedding barf bags and toilet seats and cheap-looking “limited edition” anniversary china, let’s not forget one small but not trivial detail about all this hooplah: Two young people are getting married!

Granted, they’re doing so in front of an expected TV audience of two billion people, but nonetheless, they’re having a wedding and they’re getting married.  That’s something worth celebrating, especially considering the lackluster last few years that Great Britain and the world have had.

We could all use a little sumpin’ sumpin’ to celebrate.

One other major difference between 1981 and this week’s royal nuptials: There was no commercial Internet in 1981 — that would take another decade plus, which means there was also no social media.

Oh how far we’ve come in thirty years.  And I’m not just referring to the royal toilet seats.

No, this time around, Prince William and Catherine Middleton will be broadcast on the YouTube Internets for all the world to see, hosted on the official Royal Channel, and everybody is going to have an opinion and perspective.  Joy.

But if you want the inside skinny, the Royal Channel includes a blog, some Twitterin’ by Royal staffers, and even a procession map so you can following the bouncing couple as they zip around in their Royalmobile after they tie the knot.

Unfortunately, the gorgeous spring weather is expecting to evolve into rain on Friday.

Hopefully not a harbinger of times to come for the pending royal couple, but certainly reason enough to take advantage of the endless and ubiquitous video and social coverage and skip the barricades and umbrellas.

Me, my game plan goes like this: I’m going to record it all on my DVR, then create my own soundtrack for a multi-hour replay featuring the best of the best music that originated in the UK: The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Who, Queen, The Kinks, and any other rowdy English rock ‘n’ roll musicians I can think of.

Because for me, great music that celebrates everything the British realm is, and is not, are some of the great gifts to the world by the British people over the last half century.

But I’ll gladly take a royal barf bag, preferably unused — just so I have at least one memorable souvenir of Will and Kate’s big day!