I Just Joined USENIX

I'm speaking at the USENIX Security conference next week, delivering two days from one of my training classes. I've been teaching at USENIX for two years, beginning with USENIX Security 2004.

When attending USENIX conferences I always get a few free copies of ;login: magazine. I've written about this magazine before. One of the best aspects of it is the conference proceedings section. It's a great way to read summaries of academic papers on security and system administration topics.

Because I'm working on submitting an application to pursue a PhD in computer security, I decided I needed to get serious about what's happening in the academic side of security. (Byt the way, I've started a NSM Research blog to capture thoughts and links to papers as I progress. I don't suggest reading it, since it's mainly for me. Anything worthwhile I will publish here. I detest keeping bookmarks, so blogging makes more sense.)

One way to get serious about security academics is to subscribe to ;login:, and I did that by joining USENIX. It's $115 per year, but I consider that a small investment in order to gain access to this great academic resource. It's true that ;login: issues are made public one year after they are published, but being one year behind won't help me when I prepare my research proposal.

A second reason I joined is that I continue to teach at USENIX, and I figured it was time to show I support the organization!

Are any of you USENIX members?