So the conflict of interest red herring has bubbled to the surface looking to feed on your scraps again. For those who don't remember, I blogged about this farce of an argument after John WTF Thompson's RSA keynote back in February.

Mark Litchfield just sent out a quick e-mail asking for our opinions on the latest stop on Thompson's BS Blitzkrieg at a conference in Germany, with a link to CSOonline's article. Mark and I (and I assume the rest of the sane world) are on the same page with this one ... get real.

These kinds of self-interested rants do little more than diminish the value of our competitive space. When I was on the customer side, I wanted as many competitive products from as many capable vendors as possible so I could secure my networks to the best of my ability at a competitive price. I didn't change my mind when I moved to the vendor side. No misguided analogy to "accountants should not audit their own bookkeeping" is going to change this lesson that I and many others have learned the hard way.

I said it in February and I'll say it again now - If you don't want the world to buy a competitor's products, explain to the world why your solutions are better. Better yet, forget the explaining and prove it.

It doesn't matter if Security Solutions and Operating Systems roll out of the same corporate entity. Make a better mouse trap and those who care about solution quality and value will buy it. If IP360 wasn't better than MBSA, there wouldn't be a VERT Daily Post for you to read - we'd be out of work. There's a good reason why we're here.

Sorry Johnny ... this pig of an argument doesn't fly.