William W. Chuang's Blog

Chilean Earthquake Shortened Day

2010-03-01T23:49:00.000-05:00

A NASA scientist said that the Chilean earthquake, which registered an 8.8 on the Richter scale, likely shifted the Earth's axis and shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds. An island near Chile was moved six feet as a result of the earthquake. That is an awesome demonstration of how powerful the earthquake was, and how lucky that casualties there have not been more severe.

US Wins Four-Man Bobsled Gold

2010-02-27T23:56:00.000-05:00

After a sixty-two year drought, the United States won the gold medal in the four-man bobsled at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. A big reason for the success of the bobsled team has to do with the sled itself. The American team had been using second-hand sleds until NASCAR engineers started to design the US sleds.

Obama Shocks McCain By Agreeing With Him

2010-02-26T23:04:00.000-05:00

From The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, a clip from the bipartisan health care summit held yesterday where President Obama shocks John McCain by agreeing with his point about the deals made to secure the passage of the health care reform bill.

Scientist Finds Godless, Sexless Liberals Smarter

2010-02-26T21:45:00.000-05:00

An evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics correlated liberalism, atheism, and monogamy in men with higher intelligence. Satoshi Kanazawa notes that the difference in IQ score, while statistically significant, was not stunning. The scientists behind the study identified themselves as a conservative and a libertarian.

Al Qaeda Terrorist Najibullah Zazi Pleads Guilty In Civilian Court

2010-02-23T16:23:00.000-05:00

From Reuters:

Zazi's guilty plea on Monday provided a much-needed political victory for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. President Barack Obama, who have come under criticism from conservatives calling them soft on terrorism.

Zazi, 25, admitted to receiving al Qaeda training and plotting a suicide bomb attack on the New York subway system, pleading guilty to three felony counts that could put him in prison for life -- all after being read his rights and given a defense lawyer in civilian proceedings.

"It does show that it's possible to get suspected terrorists to talk without inflicting brutal abuses on them," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the National Security Project for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"Family Guy" Actress With Down's Syndrome PWNS Sarah Palin

2010-02-18T23:56:00.001-05:00

Last week, Sarah Palin criticized the TV show Family Guy for making fun of her daughter Trig, who has Down's Syndrome. Andrea Fay Friedman, the actress who voiced the retarded character on Family Guy, responded to Palin's charges with devastating wit.

In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.

Vicious pwning. Wow.

Hormone Spray May Help Autism Patients

2010-02-16T03:00:00.001-05:00

Researchers have very preliminary evidence that a nasal spray containing the hormone oxytocin helps autism patients interact with others. The study included thirteen patients with autism or Asperger's syndrome, which is related to autism. The treatment helped the patients make eye contact and play toss with others. More research is necessary but the study is provocative because it provides a lead for drug companies to develop compounds that may be even more effective. Early use of the nasal spray may help ameliorate the impact of the disease.

I think it's amazing that a hormone can have such profound effects on our social skills and psyche.

Demetri Martin: Sames & Opposites

2010-02-14T22:21:00.000-05:00

Demetri Martin sings about Sames & Opposites. For instance, a musical is the same as a burlap sack; he doesn't want to be in either. I'm happy he finally got his own show on Comedy Central.

NAS As Remote File Server

2010-02-14T21:51:00.001-05:00

We have had a Synology 210j file server at work for a few months now. Having a central store of all of our files has been very useful. We don't have to worry about different version of files when collaborating. Also, the documents are securely and remotely backed up every night using Cobian and RSYNC.

However, security was an issue. The file server shipped with a firewall that blocks access after a certain number of unsuccessful log in attempts. Almost immediately after being set up, the file server started to report blocked IPs. The fix was to disable FTP and set up SFTP instead. Also, and this is the most important step, set the external ports to a random, non-standard port. FTP typically uses port 21 and SSH uses port 22. Hackers will normally scan only the standard ports unless they are specifically targeting your server. If you set your system to use non-standard ports, then you will be left out of their attacks. After changing the ports, I had no more blocked access attempts. To change the external ports, go to your router's port forwarding page. Leave the internal ports the same for FTP, SSH, and SFTP but change the external ports to a random number that you remember.

The Synology 210j has had great uptime. We don't use very advanced features aside from the remote access via FTP. For those small businesses that use Google Apps for mail, calendaring, and contacts, setting up a Synology file server may be a great alternative to a full Microsoft Exchange Server.

Preying Mantis Hunts Mouse Cursor In Vain

2010-02-14T01:10:00.000-05:00

A preying mantis sits on a man's Macbook, patiently trying to hunt the mouse cursor while a dog barks in the background.

Google Buzz: Death Of Privacy?

2010-02-13T21:24:00.000-05:00

Recently, Google decided to use its Gmail service as the basis for Google Buzz, a new social networking platform meant to compete with Facebook and Myspace. (Well, not so much Myspace.) Effectively, a Gmail user's contact list became their friend list. Unfortunately, Google made this change without advance notice and without adequate consideration of its users' privacy interests.

Google Buzz probably caused many people to realize the ugly truth: that Google knows a lot about them. Google Dashboard allows the curious to get a glimpse of their Google dossier, but Buzz finally forced them to confront the fact that their real lives is hopelessly interconnected with their online lives, and that Google has a lot of data on both.

I don't see the Google genie going back into the bottle. The database is there and won't go away. The upside to Buzz might be to remind us that we are responsible for everything that we write or do online unless we take measures to keep them private. At the very least, it means not blogging using a Google-run service, or using Google for your mail and calendaring at work.

Uh, oh.

Google Chrome Now Has Ad-Block!

2010-01-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

Google updated its Chrome Browser with support for extensions, APIs, and syncing your Chrome bookmarks to Google Docs. The best extension, of course, is Ad Block. Kiss your ads goodbye! Another nifty extension is the Google Voice extension. It puts a little Google Voice icon on the minimalist Chrome menu that signals when you have a voice mail. Click on it to place a call, send a text message, or go to your inbox.

I think Chrome is now finally ready for the prime time.

2008 Olympics: Jason Lezac Wins the Relay for the US

2010-01-22T10:51:00.001-05:00

Jimmy Kimmel Slays Jay on His Own Show

2010-01-15T11:45:00.000-05:00

Jay Leno had Jimmy Kimmel over on the 10 at 10 bit. Some of the punchlines: "Listen, Jay, Conan and I have children—all you have to take care of is cars. I mean, we have lives to lead here. You've got $800 million, for God's sakes—leave our shows alone."

Haitians Protest Aid Delays By Building Corpse Roadblocks

2010-01-14T23:46:00.000-05:00

Does this sound stupid to anyone else? "Reports are coming in of Haitians using corpses as roadblocks to protest the lack of assistance they’re receiving. Looting is also being reported." I hope this is a hoax or bad reporting. The international community better hurry the hell up and send aid in there. High temperatures would dehydrate survivors quickly, and disease will be rampant unless controlled.

Setting Up A Small Office File Server

2009-12-26T00:11:00.007-05:00

A file server allows for more efficient collaboration by making the latest versions of documents available to users, even remotely over the Internet. Furthermore, a centralized storage device simplifies backups. At work, we have the Synology DS210j network-attached storage (NAS) device. This post will briefly describe the setup process and features of the DS210j.

The Synology 210j ships without any hard drives. We chose the Western Digital 1 TB Green Drives. Assembly is very simple and requires only a Phillips screwdriver. The Synology has two drive bays. If you stick in two of the same drives, you can configure it to use RAID 1, which mirrors the data across both drives. If you set this up, your data will be safe in case one hard drive fails. Once you install the hard drives, plug the Synology into the network router or switch.

The next step is to download the latest setup software and firmware from the Synology website. (The software on the included CD did not work.) Again, the setup is very simple and run by software wizards. The Synology can be mapped to a drive that logs in when you start Windows. In my case, it shows up as the Z: drive.

The trickiest part is setting up the router properly for remote access. My router uses the Tomato firmware, so that’s what my instructions are geared towards. In fact, it might be worthwhile for you to buy a router that supports Tomato firmware and set it up. First, have the router assign the Synology an IP address via static DHCP. This guarantees that the Synology will always have the same IP on your network. Second, forward only the necessary ports to the Synology, which should have the same internal IP if you set up the static DHCP. The specific ports to open can be found on your Synology instructions, but you should at least forward ports 21, 22, 23, and 5000. The only ports that should be forwarded by your router should be those necessary for remote Internet access by SFTP, and SSH. Do not use the router’s DMZ feature, which directs all ports to your Synology. Even though it makes set up easier, it is also very insecure. Lastly, you need to set up a free account at DynDNS, and put the proper settings into your router. This provides you with an URL that will always be pointed at your router. You will use this URL to access your Synology by SFTP, or SSH. (For more security, you should set the Synology to disable the Telnet service, and to force the FTP protocol to use TLS/SSL encryption.)

The Synology 210j also includes a built-in firewall, which you should configure to reject all ports other than the bare minimum needed to provide the services you need. Keep in mind that not all the ports open on the Synology firewall should be forwarded by the router. Some ports need to be open only on the local network, such as those necessary for Windows file sharing. These ports should not be open to the Internet.

The last thing to set up is automatic backup of your Synology device to a remote server. I used rsync to have the Synology automatically backup to DreamHost servers over an encrypted SSH line every night. RSYNC minimizes the amount of data transferred by only sending the changes in the files, and has a compression function built-in. The only problem is that if you mess up a file, it will be changed on the server that night. In other words, regular backups are still necessary. The remote backup was very difficult to set up and required a lot of typing away at a command line. Most of the difficulty was on DreamHost’s end. Another webhost with a more robust rsync or SSH may make things easier.

The Synology DS210j cost $230, and the hard drives cost $85 each. Newegg did not charge tax in NY, and shipped it to us overnight by standard shipping, which cost $10. For about $400, we have a file server that has built-in redundancy. We can access the files securely from the Internet so we can work from home or other offices without fear that we need someone in the office to send the latest files to us. The automated backup feature provides disaster recovery. Furthermore, if our office’s Internet access fails when we’re away, we can still access the files on DreamHost’s servers. Hopefully, this will be similarly helpful to readers.

New Layout For Firm's Website

2009-12-23T00:42:00.000-05:00

I use Google Analytics to keep track of my firm's website. It showed that there hasn't been sufficient click-through on the articles posted on our website. I decided to rearrange the navigation bar of the website in a bid to change it. Take a look and tell me if it works.

CDC: US Fears Swine Flu Shot

2009-12-22T18:05:00.000-05:00

A poll shows that many Americans fear the safety of the swine flu vaccine even though it has been shown to be safe and effective. Thirty-five percent of Americans say that they will not get the vaccine, and of those, sixty percent say it's because of safety. The CDC doesn't know why so many remain fearful, but fear-mongering by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh probably has something to do with it.

WordPress 2.9 Released

2009-12-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

WordPress released version 2.9 of their eponymous software over the weekend. I would not recommend an update until a few more weeks have passed. (Call it beta testing.) There were over 500 bug fixes in this release. However, the most notable changes are a built-in image editor, better support for embedding media, and a universal trash can so you can retrieve previously-deleted work.

Notary Public Supplies

2009-12-18T13:43:00.000-05:00

Attorneys in New York have the option of being a notary public by application instead of examination. After starting my own legal practice, I decided to become a notary public. I called the NY Department of State, which sent an application form. They couldn't make the form available online because it was on card stock. Anyway, I filled out the form and sent it back with a $60 check. A few weeks later, I received our notary public card.

I placed an order for a notary public stamp and seal at USnotaries.com on December 1, 2009. I ordered the Value Package II, which cost $37.95 along with $5.95 in shipping and handling. On December 8, 2009, the stamp and seal came in. I was surprised by how heavy the seal was, and the fact that it imprinted my name as well as the notary number. The products seemed sturdy enough though I can't tell how long it is going to last.

At this point, I would recommend buying notary public supplies from USnotaries.com. Blumberg wanted $75+ for the stamp and seal.

Eleanor Holmes Norton On Colbert Report

2009-12-17T17:19:00.001-05:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Better Know a District - District of Columbia - Eleanor Holmes Norton

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

U.S. Speedskating

This clip is an old favorite of mine. Steven Colbert attacks Eleanor Holmes Norton in his "Better Know A District" section. After learning that she was born in DC, Colbert argues that she can't be President because she was not born in the United States, as DC is not a state.

Insurgents Intercepting US Drone Video

2009-12-17T14:06:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal reports that video from US drones in Iraq and Afghanistan has been regularly intercepted by insurgents. Apparently, video from the drones have not been encrypted. The bad guys have been able to use the video to determine the areas the US military have under surveillance. Reassuringly, control of the drones was never at risk.

Obama's war plan is to increase the use of drones in combat. Hopefully, this problem will be resolves before anything else happens.

Broken Call of Duty Modern MW2 Disks?

2009-12-17T12:23:00.000-05:00

This week, I went out and bought a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for my XBOX 360. To be accurate, I didn't go out. I went online and ordered it from Amazon.com, which was very efficient. I placed the order on Monday, and the game showed up at my door on Tuesday. However, the game disc for MW2 quit working after I played it for a few hours. The XBOX 360 declared, "This disc is unreadable" even though it's a new disc without a scratch! It's not my XBOX because COD4 and COD5 both work fine.

It turns out that I'm not the only one having this problem with Modern Warfare 2. I kept on rebooting my console until I was able to install the game to the XBOX hard drive. The game works for now, but I shudder to think what is going to happen in the future. I hope that Activision isn't shipping bad discs.

Nonsensical Catchphrase I Hate

2009-12-16T14:21:00.000-05:00

A few of my acquaintances have posted this phrase: "A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have." That may be true, but a government that doesn't provide you with anything is still big enough to take away everything that you have. The despots of the 20th Century such as Stalin and Pol Pot didn't provide anything to their people except for suffering, fear, and despair. But they were big enough to take everything away.

Review Of My Keurig Coffee Machine

2009-12-16T11:14:00.000-05:00

My brother bought me a Keurig Single-Serve Coffee System as an office-warming present. I've used it for two months now, and I thought I should write about it. The model my brother got has a sixty-ounce water reservoir so it doesn't have to be refilled every time, which is very convenient. The Keurig makes great coffee very quickly. It takes about twenty seconds for a cup to be brewed. The only complaint I have with the Keurig is that it gets very loud sometimes as it heats up the water. Otherwise, it has been a huge asset to our office.