Recently, I wrote on VoIP Tech Chat about a SIP Attack one of my servers received from Amazon’s Cloud service. First, Don’t Panic. This is not about anything Tech/Geek/Nerd related. It’s all good… Let me quickly sum up the incident for the non-geeks (like my wife) who may be reading. Amazon sells everything. In your shopping cart you can buy a robot, a book, a DVD, and almost anything else you can think of. You can also buy Internet service for your business. This “cloud” service is called EC2, and it’s a little technical; so I’ll just say… you can place some of your business computing needs with Amazon. ...

My wife has been baking like a woman possessed… and let me tell you. These cakes taste even better than they look.

Makes it harder to lose weight– but it’s gooooooood.

[][1]Sick, Poor? No thanks. You already know where I’m going— it’s in the title after all. At this time, I do not support the health care bill. Now before I get into the many reasons why I do not support this legislation, let me spell out the following disclaimers. I am a small business owner. I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I proudly check the NPA (no party affiliation), when I register to vote for one simple reason— I vote along my ideals and conscious; not along some party mantra. As a general rule, I feel that the government continually mismanages money and our current news media fails to account the statements of government officials to any fact check or truth test. With that introduction out of the way, I can now describe why I believe our government failed us— as we should expect it to. After all, the Founding Fathers did not want us to depend on our government; and for good reason. ...

Spirit Airlines drank some Kool Aid and decided to charge passengers for carry-on bags that do not fit under the seat. The fee will only apply to bags placed in the overhead bin. “Bring less; pay less. It’s simple,” Spirit’s Chief Operating Officer Ken McKenzie said in a statement. (Which by the way beats their first attempt at the slogan: Bring less, pay less, fuck you.) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, although this time I’ll say it differently. When I was a kid, I absolutely loved everything about flying. After taking someone to the airport, my family would walk to the window and we’d watch (from the gate) as our loved one’s plane taxied out to the runway and would stay until we saw that plane leave the ground and take off into the sky. When I’d actually get to fly, I looked forward to it. I’d pick out a good magazine, try to get a pillow, and look forward to some pretzels and a nice drink. ...

[][1]Tell me about you. On a recent trip to Target, I decided to add some compressed air to my cart. Working in electronics, I find compressed air to be almost a necessity. The servers, computers, switches, and other equipment I use routinely need a good “spritz” of compressed air to keep the dust from accumulating. But I digress. When I went to check out, my cashier advised that I needed to scan my ID to purchase the compressed air. Not just show her my ID, but rather have my driver’s license scanned into their register. This of course allows Target to scan, read, and store my personally identifiable information. Although just someone’s full name fulfills the criteria of personally identifiable information, a Driver’s License barcode and/or magnetic stripe contains much more. By scanning the driver’s license, Target retains my full name, date of birth, address, gender, race, driver’s license number, license information (restrictions, endorsements), organ donation, and issue date. First, let’s look at the obvious… ...

[][1]It must be the Corn Syrup I’ve been saying this for years… and so has many other people. Lot’s of times, friends just said it was a conspiracy theory or some BS thought… but now scientists from Princeton University have conducted research on High Fructose Corn Syrup. The results? Increased weight gain with High Fructose Corn Syrup versus Sugar. Calorie intake was the same, but High Fructose Corn Syrup caused increased weight gain. A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain by Hilary Parker A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same. In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States. ...

Where has the time gone? To paraphrase the Princess Bride, which Yes, is still one of my favorite movies — there is to much to explain, let me sum up. Painting, painting, painting. (4 parents, lots of paint, bottom line: house looks great) Met Sebastian 🙂 Renewed the annual pass at Disney and got Yeni her Florida pass. 🙂 Took the in-laws to St. Augustine. Posted about Spam on VoIP Tech Chat Actually posted a chat on VoIP Tech Chat Getting ready for the Voipathon and posted a few pics on Picasa Thanks for stopping by....

I’m sure you’ve googled. Who hasn’t. Well, based of course on the popularity of what others across our great world are searching, Google often “suggests” what you might want to search for; based on what you’ve typed in that google search box. Well… what others are searching for doesn’t just scare me, it scares the bejesus out of me. But now I understand exactly where we may be heading. Today I made the mistake of typing why does in the google search… and well, I was presented with: [][1]Click for Full Size Don’t get me wrong. I love poop questions as much as the next guy… but really? So then I started to see what others were looking for and well, here’s a few examples: ...

The movers were supposed to call and let us know what time they’d be here… hasn’t happened. We called the moving company yesterday and they were certain we’d get the call last night. Never happened. So far, no truck. Not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling here…