SecurityNow ads

[fairlane32]

Whenever the ads come on I’m always reminded that most of them are geared towards businesses and enterprises and not the home user and I’m always curious why these companies don’t release consumer versions of their products? Does anyone else think that? Except for maybe that little NAS that went around and was always ‘out of stock’ and the pfsense router that home networks can take advantage of, I feel like most of the services and hardware aren’t for someone who may want to beef up our home networks, and have it as simple as they make it for enterprise people. If the home is one of the weakest links in proliferation of malware, or such a low hanging fruit with anything other than our router to protect us, I’d think there’d be a big market for that. I get we’re also at the mercy of our ISP, etc but c’mon people. Am I crazy or no...

 

[Warwagon]

Ya, such as the Canary. They should release a $50 version for a consumer. Can we also talk about how Leo's Ads go on FOREVER!!! I think honestly, past a certain length it's doing the company a disservice because the listener is just annoyed.

 

[micsaund]

Canary is a great example. Even though the ad touts it as an 'amazing value' at "only" $7,500/year, that's simply a non-starter for home use. For $50/year, I might consider leasing one.

I realize that $7,500 for a business to get a turnkey solution is cheap, as I often order stuff 5-10X that at my job. Maybe the biz advertisers are hoping people like me will take the idea into the workplace? I guess if they land a single $7,500 deal due to one of us listeners taking the idea to the office, that's a lot more money (and less support hassle/etc.) than selling 150 units to people to use in their home.

But, yeah, I'd appreciate hearing more about stuff that's relevant to me personally. I don't mind ads, as long as they're relevant and as Warwagon said, not stupidly drawn-out.

 

[Barry Wallis]

Companies buy ad time on the show to reach a target audience. Since Security Now serves a wide (yet geeky) demographic, some of the ads won't be of interest to some people. Clearly, the ads are effective otherwise the sponsors wouldn't keep running them.

 

[PHolder]

I guess you all don't know about https://github.com/thinkst/opencanary ?

 

[blaq]

I guess you all don't know about https://github.com/thinkst/opencanary ?

Steve & Leo mentioned it once Security Now.
I can say from experience that its far from Turnkey or even userfriendly. I'd place it at the level of how it was installing Linux in the 90s. Doable, if you've got alot of spare time. But defnitely not for the 99%, and not even for 80% of SN listeners.
Also interestingly, I never was able to get it working on FreeBSD (Steve's and my *Nix OS of choice), even though they claim it does work on BSD (and there's instructions for how to get it working on MacOS)

I think if they made a cute little SG1100 (pfSense) equivalent of the Canary it would attract alot more usage.

 

[PHolder]

little SG1100 (pfSense) equivalent

Well it IS open source, so in theory anyone could get a build that worked on cheap hardware and release it, no? I will admit I am curious, but not enough to buy random hardware and hope I can make a go of it... I already have more than enough unfinished such projects

 

[fairlane32]

Steve & Leo mentioned it once Security Now.
I can say from experience that its far from Turnkey or even userfriendly. I'd place it at the level of how it was installing Linux in the 90s. Doable, if you've got alot of spare time. But defnitely not for the 99%, and not even for 80% of SN listeners.
Also interestingly, I never was able to get it working on FreeBSD (Steve's and my *Nix OS of choice), even though they claim it does work on BSD (and there's instructions for how to get it working on MacOS)

I think if they made a cute little SG1100 (pfSense) equivalent of the Canary it would attract alot more usage.

Those are my feelings also; that there may be a product here or thereclaiming to be for the home user but still it’s too advanced for the mom and pops of home users that really need it. We need more turnkey tech products - especially home routers that are more easily understood without compromising their ability to protect people’s home networks.

 

[Splix]

I once considered writing a script that would remove audio from downloaded podcast audio anytime Leo speaks for more than 2 minutes without interruption.

I would subscribe for an add free version of downloadable podcasts, the time saved would easily be worth $1 per episode to me.

 

[TheDev]

Steve & Leo mentioned it once Security Now.
I can say from experience that its far from Turnkey or even userfriendly. I'd place it at the level of how it was installing Linux in the 90s. Doable, if you've got alot of spare time. But defnitely not for the 99%, and not even for 80% of SN listeners.

If you want to set up a home honeypot, try HoneyDB. It is much more simple to set up. I was able to set up a Twitter feed with it in an hour. It is much more simple than a Thinkst Canary install.
Please don't set it up on your home network though!

 

[blaq]

Yea - I've given up trying to get it to work. After alot of tinkering I was able to get it working...with Python 2.7
Apparently Thinkst are still using deprecated headers that were removed in Python 3.0...

 

[StarvaldD]

Ya, such as the Canary. They should release a $50 version for a consumer. Can we also talk about how Leo's Ads go on FOREVER!!! I think honestly, past a certain length it's doing the company a disservice because the listener is just annoyed.

It is really annoying how long he goes on for, when cycling to work i have to get off and keep skipping forward on pocket casts.

 

[rfrazier]

Not sure about Pocket Casts. I switched to Podcast Addict (on Android) a couple of years ago when Pocket Casts messed up their user interface. On my system, you can set the podcast to play at 1.5 X speed (or other speeds). Also, my version has a car mode (icon looks like a car) which makes the main buttons appear very large. I have the FF button set to skip ahead 30 sec and the REW button set to skip back 10 sec. Maybe you can do this in Pocket Casts. Still, DON'T crash you bike or get a ticket. You may be able to plug in a wired headset with FF and REW buttons. I wouldn't use Bluetooth as it zaps your brain with continuous microwave radiation.

Ron

 

[PHolder]

I frequently listen (and half watch) on the TV via ChromeCast. You can say "Ok Google, skip forward 2 minutes". That usually skips most of the ad read for me.

 

[pzero24]

Ya, such as the Canary. They should release a $50 version for a consumer. Can we also talk about how Leo's Ads go on FOREVER!!! I think honestly, past a certain length it's doing the company a disservice because the listener is just annoyed.

I completely agree about the length of Leo's ads. I never listen to them anymore and just skip right past them. If they were only 30 seconds long, maybe even a minute long, I might listen to them.

 

[Jungle Jim]

I quite agree. The only thing that keeps me going with these podcasts is the ability to skip forward to get past Leo's incessant droning on. The other thing that bothers me about them is the way that he'll earnestly explain how Product X has changed his life, only to be followed a few weeks later by the same disquisition about Product Y (which does the same thing, like shave). Or how the assertion (in Barracuda ads, I think it is) that 91% or so of all attacks come from emails, was debunked in a study that Steve quoted in one of the Security Now sessions, but is still repeated in the ads.

 

[PHolder]

@Jungle Jim would you pay a subscription fee of say $5 per episode to listen? Probably not right? Guess what, that's why Leo "drones on"... someone has to pay for the staff and bandwidth to make that content FREE to you. Also with respect to Leo [pretending] to believe in the product... perhaps you don't realize that's how marketing works, and how TWiT is able to still command enough money for them to stay on the air. No the ads aren't the most pleasant part of the show, but I'd rather them be done as they are than any other way. Have you actually watched TV recently... a 30 minute show has what seems like 10 minutes of very inane and repetitive ads. At least Leo tries to keep the ads from getting too repetitive by doing them fresh every time. And be happy you CAN skip the ads... it's not guaranteed to stay that way as "big money" (Spotify, Apple, et al) start to take over podcasting.

 

[Jungle Jim]

@Jungle Jim would you pay a subscription fee of say $5 per episode to listen? Probably not right? Guess what, that's why Leo "drones on"... someone has to pay for the staff and bandwidth to make that content FREE to you. Also with respect to Leo [pretending] to believe in the product... perhaps you don't realize that's how marketing works, and how TWiT is able to still command enough money for them to stay on the air.

@PHolder -- I certainly take your basic point that these podcasts have to be paid for somehow, and ads avoid or reduce the need for subscriptions. I don't have any problem with that. Indeed I've often found the Twit ads helpful in pointing me to a product or service I didn't know about and have subsequently used. What I think is being said in this thread is that Leo, unlike the other Twit podcast hosts I've listened to, gets carried away with the ads and goes on for much longer and more repetitively than they do, clearly to the irritation of many here (including me). On the other point, the network has what I think is an admirable policy of only advertising products they believe in (Leo has talked about this policy on air). That's the difference between ethical marketing and the kind of marketing that we're all too familiar with, and it's why I find it so jarring to hear him switch overnight from one "wonderful" product to another, and to repeat statistics that have been debunked on the program the ad supports.

 

[PHolder]

to repeat statistics that have been debunked

Well the ads he reads have copy, and I don't think he has as much freedom to change it as you might imagine. After all the advertiser may have an agenda to spread "their point of view" and have paid dearly for it. I do agree it would be nice if it weren't the case, but I never believe advertising anyway, and stick to my own thinking for what meets my needs and when and how. I skip a majority of Leo's ads after hearing about the product once. "Ok Google skip forward 2 minutes" usually is plenty to skip most of it.

 

[martindholmes]

With most podcasts (like Stuff you should Know) I'll just listen through the ads, especially when I'm on my bike. But with Leo's ads, I'll move off the road, take my gloves off, dig out my phone, and fast-forward five minutes just to get round them. The irony is that I listen to short ads, but I skip long ones. The length has the opposite of the intended effect.