Megan’s latest project at her new home, Converse College was pretty cool. She had to do a “reflection” of who she was before she started college, how she has changed, and then to speculate about her future.
So call me a softy or whatever, but this video makes my eyes get all watery and stuff.
Megan is certainly one of the main things I am thankful for this holiday season, in addition to my wife, son, a secure source of income, good health and the fact we live in the greatest country and one of the greatest states!
Hopefully you have just as much to be thankful for yourself!
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is something you don’t see every day… I present Star Wars Burlesque:
Star Wars Burlesque from Tenderloins on Vimeo.
One of the newsletters I read regularly had a link to this video… So I figured it would be a great password to use…
Data from Star Trek TNG emulates Picard’s voice with a very long password.
A group of creative and daring Greenville / Upstate, SC individuals spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time to bring us Bovinova 2011…
What was it? It was BIG! Here’s a Wall Street Journal video that details it: (Vegetarians and Vegans may want to skip this. hahah)
Alas, no mention of The Dockside Band playing, but hey, there’s a shot of me helping man-handle a cow! Mooooooooo!
On Friday night, while the cooking was going on, TimTV performed his act with fire eating, and then the rain came & the wind blew… Allll night long! Dozens watched on a webcam to see what was going on and to watch those crazy cooks like Jeff Bannister do their thing, while battling the weather… The next day, it cleared up just in time for hundreds of people to attend and enjoy some tasty beef!
Some of the sponsors of the event were www.WeServePapers.com, Swagclub, Network Controls, Whipp and Ken’s Plumbing.
One thing is for certain… Bovinova 2012 will be even more spectacular!
Occasionally I find a product claim so outlandish that I scoff at it. When I saw the Wet Circuits surge protector claims a while back, I thought how I wouldn’t do what they were doing in the video. (If you have not seen their videos, they demonstrate them by sticking tweezers into them while they were wet, as in under water).
I even shared the link with a few people, and they too laughed at the thought. Some considered that there were ground fault breakers in place, but, the lights remained on, etc.
Welllll, one guy decided he would test it:
Great little video… And no, I’m still not going to test this power strip in that manner!
Today starts the epic culinary event of the season… Bovinova.
This thing is going to be a blast. But, unfortunately, I can’t tell you about it, until after the event. There will be fire, meat, swords (not meat swords though), entertainment and a good time will be had by all.
The presenters have been working on this for months, and starting about now, and all through the night and into tomorrow, they will prep.
I’m just glad to be a part of it, but sorry I can’t tell you about it =)
A video link will be up in a bit at http://www.Bovinova.com and you can follow the #bovinova hashtag for more info.
Those of us who have been through a hard drive failure know what real pain is! As a computer technician, it is no less devastating for us, all the same things have to take place after a failure, the routine is something like this:
- Determine the drive is indeed dead, have last rites, it was a good drive.
- Replace the drive in the computer.
- Format and load our operating system. (We do have the install disks, right?)
- Configure all the networking, ownership, accounts, etc. (What? No net access? Of course not, you don’t have the right driver)
- Load drivers for network interface, audio, video and other hardware. (They are long out of date if you are using the original install media)
- Load all the updates, patches and driver updates. Windows XP systems may require 100 updates or more!
- Load your applications… Of course you know where the disks and license keys are.
- Find some applications online because they were downloaded. Guess what? Your key no longer works with the current version, your version is no longer available for download…
- Restore your files from the last backup you made. YOU DID MAKE A BACKUP, RIGHT?
- Spend the next week realizing you missed various things and fix those as you go.
Even for a seasoned techy type person, the time spent could literally be hours. New curse words will be invented. You may miss an important event like your son’s wedding, because this is far too important to put off.
There are many things that can shorten the time it takes to return your machine from a brick to a working system. You can ensure you have all your install media for the operating system and applications in one place, and that your product keys/licenses are tucked away safe and secure. Any hardware driver disks should be kept, and without question, you should always backup your system!
What if I told you that all of that can be avoided, and in the event of a hard drive crash or even a complete computer failure, that you could replace the drive, or failed system with another identical system, then have it running as if it never happened in about 20 minutes?
Through the magic of a “Bare-Metal Restore”, that is entirely possible! It is as if you went back in time, to happier days when the system was working correctly!
Many products are on the market that can accomplish this, but if you are using our Servosity Online On-Demand backup solution, you already have all the software you need! You will require an extra hard drive to make the image to, a few minutes to configure it, and then let it run!
Watch it in action here as Damien Stevens, CEO of Servosity talks with Jon Evans, and George Law performs an actual restore:
We are so sold on Servosity that we use it for our own servers, recommend it to our clients and have partnered with them to offer it to you!
Convinced this may be right for you? Call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. Want a free trial? Sure you do! Click this link:
FREE Servosity Online Backup Trial! Click Here...
For all 3 of you reading this blog… I apologize from the bottom of my heart for not posting something entertaining, witty or even boring today.
Wait a tick… I just posted this, so that means I DID post something. Bah! I can’t even procrastinate correctly, as I was going to do this tomorrow.
Off to the George Clinton performance in a few… He should rock out The Handlebar! Haven’t seen him in about 20 years. He was kinda old then, so he’s really old now, still I just bet he’s so high you can’t get over it… So low you can’t get under it.
See you tomorrow for something computer or tech related, I promise. In fact, no, it’s not a promise, it’s a threat.
Secure your Wi-Fi Connection with a VPN
WSPA’s Amy Wood (@TVAmy) had a great segment on last night (2011-02-07) in which she had Doug Cone (@nullvariable) a local web/graphics “devsigner” discussing the dangers of using public Wi-Fi. You can find that story here.
He demonstrated a tool which allows even the most novice of “hackers” to see a list of others who are using any given open wireless access point. He did this at a coffee shop and then went around and scared the bejeebus out of people by showing them how much information was at his fingertips.
In a discussion on Facebook the other day with Doug and Russell Tripp (@RussellTripp), I suggested that those two get together and product a video showing the same information in depth and then explaining how to protect yourself from this all-too-real security threat. I believe they may be doing that as a follow-up to the WSPA story and will post that information here as a reply when that becomes a reality.
In the mean time, I thought I give some info about one tool that is both readily available and super-affordable that you can use to secure your connection when using a public Wi-Fi hotspot. That tool is a VPN, or Virtual Private Network. Yes, the same VPN technology that has been around for a very long time and used in businesses and larger corporations, and it is so easy, a caveman could do it. (I’m sure a lawsuit is forthcoming for my use of that slogan)
A VPN connection established to your home will allow you to connect to the open wireless network of your choice, build a “tunnel” to your home connection, and then send all traffic through the wireless network through the encrypted tunnel, providing a very secure transport.
All that is needed is a VPN capable router or firewall at your home. But wait, you say you can’t afford a Cisco ASA 5505 (or WatchGuard or SonicWALL security appliance). That’s okay, you don’t need one.
You may already have a compatible home router that can be setup with the free DD-WRT (the website http://www.dd-wrt.com has a list of compatible routers) which provides VPN capability to your 40 dollar Linksys or similar device!
The setup is pretty straight-forward once the device end is ready. Connecting takes only seconds.
The VPN is not just for Microsoft Windows, but also Apple Mac OSX, iPad, linux, freebsd, solaris, etc. Most smartphones including Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Blackberry should have the ability to utilize your VPN too.
If you don’t have a compatible router, you could optionally use OpenVPN on your PC, and last but not least, you could use the OpenVPN HOSTED service. The hosted solution comes with a price tag, but for many it may be worth it to protect their privacy.
If you are fortunate enough to work for a company with a VPN already in place, you could probably use that as an option, assuming the IT policy permits you to do so.
Should you require assistance in Greenville or the Upstate for your personal or business VPN needs, we are partners with Cisco, WatchGuard, SonicWALL, ZyXEL and have a solution that is right for you. Call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com.
Happy Birthday Megan!
Our daughter, Megan, turned 18 today, and deserves to be recognized for the awesome young lady she is! Sure, I could have just scribbled something on a card, taken her out to dinner (yeah, we are doing that too) or something similar, but I figured I would go this route and force her to come read my rants and raves!
Megan you are the apple of my eye, whatever that means… You are the cat’s meow!!!!
For those of you who don’t know her yet, this year Megan will graduate high school and has already determined which college she will attend, and has been accepted to that college (Converse). She’s an interesting person with a multitude of talents and skills. One of which is playing piano, which she has been doing for over 10 years. She’s been involved with the Furman Pre-College Music Learning Program for most of those years, and intends on entering the field of music education herself.
What more can I say, other than I love you very much Megan, and can’t wait to see what you do with your adult life!
