cfyves.com - News

Google releases Public DNS

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:33:00 -0300

Google recently announced a new service they're offering... "Google Public DNS".

I'm kind of surprised that it's taken this long for one of the major players in web technologies to have released a service like this. DNS is such a huge part of the internet... and it seems as though I've been reading more and more about DNS poisoning...etc.

Security is always a huge issue and it's but one of the things Google is trying to help address with this project.

Quoted from their website:

The DNS protocol is an important part of the web's infrastructure, serving as the Internet's phone book: every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may be performing hundreds of lookups a day.

This is a service I'll be looking into. I've never used my IPS's DNS servers but I've used a few services that were included with domain purchases.

I'll be giving this a look.

Tesla motors is making money!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:41:00 -0300

Ever hear of Tesla motors?

They make really sweat electric sports cars. They're out of my price range of course but that's another topic.

Apparently, Tesla motors have had their first profitable month. Although that might not sound great... to have 1 profitable month it still means that maybe their brand of high end electric sports cars are taking off.

CNN Money reported on their profits.

I think they're beautiful cars... and for the sports car lovers out there they seem to boast power. The Roadster gets 0-60 in 3.9 seconds... not bad.

Check out Tesla Motors on their website!

Huge iPhone problem - Possibly hack every iPhone

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:48:00 -0300

Just found this on Yahoo's website.

It's reported that there is a huge security hole in Apple iPhone and it could result in massive amounts of phones being hacked.

According to the article Collin Mulliner will publicize their findings. Essentially by sending a text message, they were able to take complete control over any smart phone's functionality.

Imagine!

Someone could dial numbers on your phone, visit websites, turning on the camera... and who knows what. I'd say the who knows what is the scary part.

The only defense appears to be turning off the phone.

A warning sign for this hack is receiving a text message with a single square character. They suggest turning your phone off. "Quickly" is the exact quote.

Read the article here:
How to hijack 'every iPhone in the world'

RIP - Michael Jackson

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:36:00 -0300

I must say that I, as many I'm sure, was surprised when I heard the news that Michael Jackson had been rushed to a hospital for cardiac arrest....

I was working... actually, I believe I was taking a lunch break when the news broke on CNN.

As time went on they got more updates.... to where he was in a coma... and then that he had passed away.

Wow.

He was in fact trying to make a bit of a come back to sold out shows this summer.

Very hard to believe that he had passed quite suddenly.

But, as a couple of days passed, I started thinking a little more about him.... as I had before. About how he grew up, what he had possibly gone through being an international star... what people had accused him of.... and the constant bashing of him in certain media outlets for quite some time.

The fact of his passing became less surprising... really. I don't know (or didn't) know the guy. But I do know that being through what he had been through would have been rough.

I try to let the kids be kids. Really. I love seeing my daughter learn and discover.... and play. She's 5 years old. She has talents.... I know that... she even has musical and dancing talents. But I would never imagine of getting her to work at performing. No way. She's got to be a child while she is in fact a child. I can't imagine attempting to force her to be at a stage where she is not.

Mr Jackson had quirks.... for sure. In fact, I'm sure we've all had things in our closet (to varying degrees)... and many still do.

But I can't imagine the kind of pressures that were put on this guy... from childhood... and though he was loved and adored by many... seemed totally reclusive and lonely.

One interview I saw of him... he talks about being about 10 years old and being in the recording studio for hours... and at times watching kids playing in a park across the street and crying because he would have loved so much to be a part of that.

How far would you be willing to push your child for your own wants/needs/desires??

Mr Jackson obviously wanted to be a child while he was a child. He needed to be a child while he was a child.

Kids need to be loved. And they need to be kids.

Mr Jackson had great musical talent... a gift everyone saw early on.... but the focus many had on that gift for their own gain robbed him of his childhood..... and in part having a whole life. The focus was on developping the gift and delivering the gift instead of developping the person... the child in this case.

That is my opinion.

Your kids need love. And they need to be kids.

Losing billions pennies at a time

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:01:00 -0300

I read this article and thought wow.... when you add up these numbers it's amazing how much money was potentially lost.... because of a small glitch... which was practically neglected.

And I'll bet there are other stories like this out there....

Read this article on how the Pentagon lost oodles of $$ over the years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30456930/

Metallica interview for Rock 'n Roll hall of fame

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:27:00 -0300

Found this and it coincides with my late purchase of Death Magnetic on iTunes.

Metallica's music had a great impact on me growing up... I consider a few albums classics.

So here it is:

AIG and huge bonuses

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:16:00 -0300

Anyone think this is pretty wild??

A huge company that the american government gave billions and billions of dollars to in order that they could be "bailed out".

This company was about to issue huge bonuses out.... totalling somewhere in the 165 million dollar range. Bonuses for what?

A company that was about to faulter can now give it's own millions of dollars in bonuses in money that was "given" to them in order that they can continue to do business (and better business at that).

While many people worldwide live in the reality of this new economic frontier it seems that some of these corporations do not. It's not bad enough that in some cases corporations were pretty much gambling with people's money.... life savings in some cases... with little regard for those people's well being that they could make increasingly larger profit margins.... but now they've gotta reward themselves with more dough.

So as many have lost it all or near all... these guys should have bonuses after begging for billions and billions of $$..

Nice.

CNN : AIG's insistence on bonuses raises ire in Washington

Miley Cirus is mad at Radiohead

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:57:00 -0300

I haven't been writing too much lately.

I wanted to post a short note about this... because I think it's rather funny and gives us a little view of some "stars"...

During the Grammy's, seems like Miley Cirus wanted to meet with Radiohead.... because they are (from what I gathered) her favorite band.

She tried to get her manager to set up the meeting.... the manager said something like "Miley's really obsessed".... to which the band basically responded "we don't really do that"...

And so Miley Cirus was insulted and has been acting out.

That's great.

The guys in Radiohead definately "do it their way" and I wouldn't think would bend to try and be popular with some pop culture personality. I believe Radiohead to be "artists" and not some corporate entity who happen to play music.

So here's the article on Yahoo! Music.

Steven Page leaves Barenaked Ladies

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:23:00 -0300

For those who don't know... the Barenaked Ladies are a band ok??

There now...

Ok.. so when I grew up, I was a total metalhead. Still am somewhat drawn to heavy sounds today although I do have a wide range in musical taste.

But as I was totally immersed in Metal... a couple of bands broke through that barrier...

One such band was the Barenaked Ladies.

Their debut album "Gordon" I consider a classic.

Just read the news that Steven Page has left the band.... wishing him the very best as with the band.

Yahoo! article:
Singer-guitarist leaves the Barenaked Ladies

Oilsands and ONE of the costs

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:28:00 -0300

This is an interesting article..

The oilsands create a ton of jobs and the economy in Alberta has been blessed (I'll use those words I guess) to have this natural ressource within their borders.. (I hear that Saskatchewan is next..)

But there are always many aspects of huge industrial projects and usually a "loser" in huge industrial projects is the environment. Actually, I would use the word "our" instead of "the" in front of the word environment if we believe certain things... like the world is round and the waters of the ocean aren't somehow divided and are independant of one another... or maybe the atmosphere's air is neatly divided by country or town and each is independant of the other..... point is.... the eco-system is just that.... a system where wildlife, marshes, insects, plants...etc...... all work together to pollinate, renew, refresh... (use whatever word you like) nature.

One system with many, many, many complicated sub-systems..... all working together.... and we can say we know some workings of this system but I doubt we could honestly claim to "know" all of the workings and consequences of altering it (messing with it)..

This is one article where the good and the bad obviously clash.

Financial gain for the many workers (huge riches for the few of course).... and the kind of thing we really don't want to focus on in media and conversations and thoughts (I would say generally anyway).... the killing of elements of our most important system which sustains our lives. Nature.

This article speaks of Birds directly, but I challenge any of you reading this to think further about other effects the huge tailing ponds (oily water) and the obvious killing of these huge number of birds.

Check out this CBC article

WalMart employee killed in stampede

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:37:00 -0300

I think it's really important to take note of events that effect us (humanity), especially events that occur as a result of other humans...

This is really sad..

People rushing into the store to save a buck... basically a herd of shoppers trample over some people... killing one of the guys who was working at the door after he was knocked over.

As I read that, I can picture a few people who work at our local WalMart... and I would never ever ever wish that upon those friendly smilling people who meet me at the door everytime I go.

Time to step back and think about these kind of behaviours.... is saving a buck really important enough to participate in a stampede as if it was some kind of extreme shopping sport?

Times are tougher for alot of people. But I would say that my fellow human being is more important then saving a dollar or 3 or 40.

What kind of people (humans) are we?

And I ask this because I believe that we (humanity, community..etc) are only as strong as our weakest link.

Yahoo article here.

Facebook worm

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:37:00 -0300

Looks like a new facebook worm has been detected.

I won't write too much about it... but I'll post a link toward's Chris Shiflett's blog post on it.

Chris Shifleet - Facebook worm

USA has president elect Obama

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:58:00 -0300

It was a historic night last night for sure in a couple of different ways.

History was made as the USA dropped some of it's historical baggage by electing the first african-american president.

History was also made in the the democrats victory was quite large... winning over some traditional "red" states.

The consensus in the voting results last night seem to indicate that the greater population wanted a resounding change.... the message should be heard by the republicans as such I would think.

I didn't get to watch Obama's speech.... as I feel asleep on my couch (it was late!!!)... but I did catch McCain's speech.

I thought McCain was well spoken and very respectful.... last night during his speech I found myself really liking him more then I had during this election season. I really thought he spoke well of Obama, of putting their (parties, partisans) differences aside and getting to work on fixing their problems (economy, jobs....etc).

Some of the class that McCain showed wasn't shared by some of his crowd who would start to boo as he talked of supporting his new president. But every time they started, he shushed them...

After all was said and done, I think the change they voted for last night was an important one. If I had been american, I would have likely voted for Obama myself. Regardless, I was very happy to see that McCain was totally classy in his final speech and his expressions of unity are the expression much needed in the tough times at hand and near.

Both of these men (Obama and McCain) deserve respect, as I believe that as all the campaign dust has settled, both seemed to really have an honest desire to serve their country.

Congrats to Obama as the new president elect and also congrats to McCain for the fine example of the continual service he's shown towards his country no matter the outcome.

New Cartel on the block

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:13:00 -0300

Found this article tonight.

Russia, Iran and Qatar might be teaming up to form a gas cartel.

(AP on Yahoo!)

The Oil cartel?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:43:00 -0300

Looks like Iran's oil minister is leaning towards cutting production by some 2.5 million barrels of oil per day.

Here's an interesting quote:
"Given inflation and the current circumstances of the market, the current oil price is very low, and 150 dollars should not be out of the question," Nozari said.

"If oil prices do not reach a realistic level, they will go higher (than 150 dollars)," he said.

If anyone out there has felt a bit of relief on the wallet ever since oil prices went down... and of course gas and heating oil prices haven't gone down in direct proportion to what crude oil.... you probably won't fell that relief much longer.

They will most certainly push to raise the price to $150+ per barrel... and expect that as the same proportions haven't been felt at the pump or in heating oil as were in crude oil dropping to under $70 per barrel.... that when oil is again priced in the $150 per barrel range gas prices will be even more inflated then they were when oil originally reached that $150 peek.

But... I must say that there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

While all of these inflated prices really hurt your and my wallet.... more and more people are taking measures into their own hands. Some people are using small wind turbines to help heat + power their homes.

I also believe that as car makers have started to do, they will change the way car motors run... and we'll see huge improvements in electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars... solar power... etc.

I believe while some big industries begin (or continue) to seriously gouge it's clients... we'll see true innovation.

Henry Ford new that if people couldn't buy his product.... he had no product.

(AFP article on Yahoo!)