Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

I got a notice yesterday from Helio, my former wireless carrier through my former employer, that I am among a group of their subscribers whose personal information may have been breached and that I’m in danger of identify theft because of it.

We are writing to you because of a recent compromise in security. Helio has discovered that restricted data containing certain personal information was accessed through illegal means.

We regret to inform you that your name is among those that may have been compromised. While we are uncertain whether your personal information was actually obtained, we know that the individual(s) responsible sought and retrieved some personal information, including customer names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers (last four digits).

Helio has taken steps to secure this data by limiting access to this information, resetting passwords and implementing new procedures to protect this information. In addition, Helio has notified the appropriate law enforcement agencies and an investigation is being conducted.

Just swell. So now I need to contact the credit bureaus, put a fraud alert on my account, check my credit records and monitor my credit for the next year or so. Is it so freaking hard to keep customer information under wraps?

And thanks, Helio, for taking “steps to secure this data” - after the breach.

The LSU football team made their pilgrimage to the White House yesterday to get the obligatory pat on the back from the President. Good job by Steltz of getting his manly mane up front for the big photo op with George:

And we gave Bush a 7 jersey, not a 1 (like Texas) or a 43 (like Florida). We gave him a 1 after the 2003 season, so I guess the athletic department was looking for something else, but I’m not sure where 7 came from. Bush’s 7th year in office? Dunno.

In any case, the ceremony was nice, but an ugly scene sort of ruined the day:

Seriously, Tubbs. Time to call them off. Glenn’s having a hard enough time already.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve written much of anything not related to college football. For longtime Wisdom readers, the outward appearance is probably that not much is happening with old Cap’n Ken.

In reality, though, the past eight months have been a whirlwind of change. And I find myself immersed in a new world pondering how to reconnect to the old world.

All of this change has been driven by two primary events; the birth of my daughter August 1 and being laid off by EarthLink on August 28. I made a passing reference to having a child, but haven’t really mentioned the layoff here. I can’t say I’m not somewhat bitter at the trajectory of my career with the former employer, but I welcomed the severance package when it came.

It’s not how I planned things, but the layoff meant I got paid for a good while to be home with Daphne, the wife was able to go back to work without burning all of her vacation time and we weren’t pushed to daycare like a lot of people when the baby was two or three months old.

And eight months in, I’m still a stay-at-home dad. Only now I’m not being paid for it. The long-term plan is for me to return to work and for the wife to be home and work her freelance web design skills to generate income. The timetable for that is unclear, though.

So my days are spent chasing a baby and my nights and weekends are spent piddling around with web projects hoping to hit upon something that might bring in some money. But more than the potential to generate income, I’m trying to keep my product and strategy skills sharp.

Part of what The Wisdom will be focusing on (at least until football season) will be my night/weekend work, and that may well bore the crap out of those of you not in the industry or coming over searching for “fire Les Miles”. But The Wisdom is not just a platform for my personal rants, it’s also a link out to potential employers, partners, etc. Nobody will know my brilliance if I’m not sharing it, you know.

I may also find time to write some about Adventures With Daphne, but I don’t think I’m looking to be a Daddy Blogger. Unless the AdSense targeting is good for that …