William W. Chuang's Blog

Best Chrome Plug-Ins 2017

2017-04-12T09:50:00.001-04:00

I haven't blogged in a while but I had a bunch of new Chrome extensions I wanted to share.

1. Crypt-Up. Emails are very insecure; they bounce around weird servers that you cannot control. And encryption has been very annoying. Crypt-Up is an extension that beautifully implements PGP encryption for Gmail. (Right now, it's only for Chrome but mobile apps are being planned.) Under the PGP encryption scheme, every user has a private key and a public key. The private key is kept secret, and the public key has to be shared. To send an encrypted email, the sender uses the recipient's public key to scrambled the email. The recipient's private key is the only (known) way to unscramble it. Crypt-Up does a good job of keeping track of private and public keys, and sending emails. You can export your private key to use other PGP products and import your friend's public keys so you can send them emails even if they don't use Crypt-Up. Try it out!

2. Script-Safe. Do you hate it when you visit a website and get hit with auto-playing video or a million pop ups? Script-Safe blocks website scripts that implement ads and trackers. For each website, you need to allow certain domains to get it to work. For instance, you have to allow "Forbes.com" and "forbesimg.com" to read content on Forbes. (Usually, you will need to trust the domain itself, and anything with "CDN" or "IMG".) Script-Safe syncs up all of your preferences across your different browsers. After you visit a website once, then you won't have to mess with it again. But look at just some of the tracking and ad-serving scripts that are blocked for Forbes.com. It's worth the hassle.

3. Pushbullet. Don't you hate it when your phone buzzes while you're typing and you need to unlock your phone to see what happened? The Pushbullet extension will pop up phone messages onto your desktop so you can quickly see what's going on. You can also send links and files from your desktop to your phone really easily. Information is sent over Google's cloud service, and there's an option to use end-to-end encryption (which I enable).

4. uBlock Origin. Probably the best ad-blocker at the moment. It is simple to use and resource light.

Claim Your IRS.com Profile to Help Prevent Identity Theft

2015-04-13T11:30:00.005-04:00

There's been many reports in the news about scammers pretending to the IRS harassing taxpayers for money with threats of arrest or deportation. There is a new scam where identity thieves will break into the IRS website to request copies of your tax return transcripts and income reports. Once the hackers get access to the IRS website, they can access your W-2 and 1099s for the last ten years. Avoid this scam by claiming your profile first by accessing this IRS website. You don't have to get a transcript. You just have to claim your IRS online account so bad guys can't do it. Of course, you should use really long passwords to stymie the bad guys.

Chrome Extensions That I Recommend

2015-02-25T11:23:00.002-05:00

uBlock. A lightweight ad-blocker that is faster than the competition. If you use Ad Block or Ad Block Plus, you can see that it delays the loading of websites quite significantly. I use Ad Muncher as well, which is a host-based solution that you have to install as a separate application, not as an extension.

Ghostery. Blocks social media and advertising trackers.

HTTPS Everywhere. In light of all the hacking going on, it's a good idea to enhance your security. This extension redirects you to the encrypted version of all websites.

ScriptBlock. Do you hate the stupid ads that pop up when you're viewing a website? ScriptBlock controls the scripting language that makes it all possible. It's easier to use than the other script blocking extensions. When you access a domain for the first time, you will have to allow that domain. Then you should be okay.

Should I Start a Law Practice?

2012-06-27T10:43:00.002-04:00

Great article on starting a new law firm from Philly Law. You need to be adequately capitalized ($15,000-$30,000) and committed to the enterprise so you can ride out the rough months.

Smart Ideas From Sen. John Cornyn

2012-06-14T11:34:00.003-04:00

Republican Senator John Cornyn said that he was "not impressed" with the intelligence of Attorney General Eric Holder in an interview with Fox News. I just wanted to take the opportunity to list the good ideas Sen. Cornyn had over the last few years:

Sponsored a bill where anyone arrested or detained by federal authorities must provide a sample of their DNA to be placed into a central database.
Voted against additional funding for up-armoring vehicles for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Voted against restricting businesses with ties to terrorism.
Voted against that a bill that would expand educational benefits for veterans who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Voted for tax cuts for the rich, voted against a payroll tax cut that would have gone to the middle class and the working poor.
As state Attorney General, awarded "Lawman of the Year" award to a freelance undercover police officer who had falsely testified to put 46 folk in jail for drug crimes, including one third of the male black population of Tulia, Texas. (Falsely testified as in claiming to have bought drugs from someone who was at work at the time, and from someone who was in Oklahoma City during the bust.)

Cornyn loves terrorists, hates civil liberties, and hates the troops. Does anyone else think that that's smart?

2012-05-01T18:01:00.001-04:00

Dear Chickenhawk Mitt:

It's time to shake your Etch a Sketch again after you said that even Carter would have okayed the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

Let's get the facts straight here. Jimmy Carter spent ten years in the military. As President, Carter made the very gutsy call to insert a special forces team to extract the Iranian hostages—remember Operation Eagle Claw? This was before our special forces were as well-trained as they are currently. The operation ended in the Desert One debacle, which left eight servicemen dead after a Sea Stallion collided with a C-130 in a huge fireball that incinerated both aircraft. This event was the impetus behind the formation of the Special Operations Air Regiment (aka SOAR Nightstalkers), which now flies special operations soldiers into and out of combat. Memorably, in Black Hawk Down, a SOAR pilot hovered his Huey in a corridor between two houses with inches to spare on either side of the rotor to cut off a bunch of militants surging to the crash site while shooting at them with his personal defense weapon.

But back in the eighties, Carter sent men into battle to save American hostages. The deal backfired and cost the country greatly, and of course, Carter lost his election. However, Jimmy Carter had the balls to do things the hard way.

The evidence says that you would not have done the same. George W. Bush had canceled a Pakistani incursion in 2005 after the SEALs had already boarded the planes because of the political risks. In 2007, after John McCain said that he would not commit to attacking targets in Pakistan to get Bin Laden, you agreed. Romney said, "I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours. ... I don't think those kinds of comments help in this effort to draw more friends to our effort."

It turns out that the Pakistani incursions lead to Bin Laden's death. And the raid that killed him also yielded papers wherein Bin Laden begged his "brothers" to leave Pakistan because the drone strikes were slaughtering al Qaeda there.

In short, there's a ton of reasons to believe that you would not have authorized a SEAL team strike in Pakistan to get Bin Laden. You might have bombed the compound, but you would not have had SEALs go in there and recover the body. I seriously doubt that anyone but Obama would have instructed the military to equip the SEAL team so that it could shoot its way out to avoid capture by the Pakistanis if they were intercepted and safe passage could not be negotiated.

But Jimmy Carter probably would have.

Yours,
A Peon Who Pays Taxes

WordPress Sites Under Attack! Buckle Down!

2012-03-07T12:51:00.000-05:00

Network World reports that 30,000 WordPress pages have been infected in the latest round of hacks. Many of the compromised systems have a fake malware plugin called "ToolsPack". If you see this on your WordPress site, remove it. To prevent infection, use really strong passwords. Use KeePass or LastPass to generate long passwords with random symbols. Furthermore, always keep your installation of WordPress and its plugins backed up and up to date. The hackers have been exploiting vulnerabilities in past versions of WordPress to gain entry.

RAID on HP ProLiant Microserver

2012-03-04T15:59:00.000-05:00

The HP ProLiant Microserver has been a popular platform for small businesses and home users who want to run Windows Home Server 2011. RAID is a technology that stores data across multiple drives for redundancy against hard drive failure or for extra speed. There are different kinds of RAID arrays. I will explain how to set up a RAID 1 array, which mirrors (copies) data on two drives to keep the data safe even if one of the drives fail.

The Microserver supports hardware RAID. You will need to have at least two hard drives to set up a RAID array, so make sure you have them installed. They should be the same size. Once the hardware is set up, you are ready to set up the RAID.

First, enable the RAID option in the BIOS. On boot, hit F10 to enter the BIOS menu. Go to "Advanced" then select the IDE Configuration menu. Change the SATA Controller Mode option to RAID. Then hit F10 to exit, remembering to save the changes. When the system reboots, you will see a prompt to hit enter RAID setup by hitting Control + F. Hit it, and you will enter the RAID setup menu. Select LD View/LD Define Menu. Hit the up and down arrows until you select RAID Mode. Hit the space bar until you set it as RAID 1. Then arrow down to the hard drives you want to include in the array, then hit space so it says "Y" under "Assignment" for that hard drive. ALL INFORMATION ON THE DRIVES WILL BE LOST. Once you selected the hard drives you want in the array, hit Control + Y and enter a name for the array. Hit Control + Y again. It will prompt you to hit Control + Y to set a size for the array, or hit any key to use the maximum space. HIT ANY KEY. The computer will then quick format the drives. Then hit Esc to exit and reboot.

Then install Windows Home Server 2011. WHS2011with out-of-the-box support for the AMD RAID controller used in the Microserver. Therefore, when you go to choose a hard drive to install WHS2011, it will only show one drive (the array), not the number of physical drives in the server. Select the RAID Array, then WHS 2011 will install smoothly.

The hardware RAID will handle the mirroring so as far as Windows is concerned, there's only one drive. All information on the array will be mirrored on two disks. If one of the disks should fail, then the information will survive on the other disk. You can replace the defective disk, and (hopefully) the RAID will slowly rebuild the array. That will prevent a hard disk failure from eating all your data.

If you have a third hard drive, you can set WHS2011 to back itself up on there twice a day. There is a difference between redundancy and backup. RAID provides redundancy, which improves reliability against hard drive failures. However, if you do something stupid that borks your installation, such as delete a system file, RAID will not help you there; only backups will. Therefore, using an internal hard drive to backup your RAID array is a good idea. You can then backup the contents of the internal backup hard drive onto the cloud or onto a removable disk for off-site backup, which is also recommended.

Daily Show Drug Tests Florida Politicians

2012-02-06T18:49:00.001-05:00

State Rep. Scott Plakon of Florida argues that welfare recipients must get drug tested before getting money from state taxpayers. Aasiv Mandvi of the Daily Show makes sure that Plakon is getting paid by the state, then demands that he takes a drug test, exposing this moron's hypocrisy. Mandvi then asks Governor Rick Scott to pee into a cup for the same reason. Hilarious.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/325987/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-poor-pee-ple?c=0%3A0

Pete Hoekstra Is A Coward

2012-02-06T17:07:00.000-05:00

Pete Hoekstra is running to be a Congressional representative from Michigan. He posted a Super Bowl ad where a Chinese woman speaking broken English thanks his opponent for sending jobs to America and thereby making the Chinese economy stronger.

Hoekstra claims that this was not racist at all. Rather, he says that this demonstrate how educated the Chinese are. Imagine! Chinese peasants are bicycling around rice paddies speaking English mocking us!
But the kerfuffle hides the main issue. Pete Hoekstra is an unqualified Washington insider who has done many stupid things in his political life. He held a press conference claiming that there had been weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. Of course, that was not true at all. Then Hoekstra said that Iran had created weapons grade uranium. Again, that wasn't true. Hoekstra had promised the voters that he would respect term limits, but then broke that promise by running for a seventh term. Apparently, it was interests of national security that forced him to stay on as a Congressman. But then Congressman Hoekstra wanted to shut up left-wing critics of the Iraq War by posting a bunch of documents taken from Iraq showing that Iraq had a weapons program. Of course, those notes were useful to those actually seeking to create nuclear weapons, so Hoekstra had to close the website.

So that's the kind of people who want to be our Congressional reps.

Setting Up Phone Service With 8x8 (Packet 8) VOIP

2012-02-03T11:12:00.000-05:00

I recently moved offices and decided it was time to have a real phone system. At first, I looked at expandable phone systems such as the Panasonic KX-TS4200B but the reviews weren't too favorable, and it would require some new wiring to be run. Next, I considered the XBlue X16, which sounded great. However, there was not a lot of information about the company so I decided to chose a vendor that would stick around and deliver customer service in the future. I considered running my own Asterisk VOIP PBX server, but that was just too involved and unreliable. Finally, I decided upon VOIP phone service with 8x8 (formerly known as Packet 8). VOIP is short for Voice Over IP, or phone calls over the Internet. I'm pretty comfortable with the technology, but many users may prefer to stick with regular copper phone lines for better reliability.

I considered phone service with Verizon. However, my primary concern was to have all outgoing calls from any office extension to show up as the main office number on my client's Caller ID. It provides a better user experience if customers always knew to expect calls from me at the same number. Verizon couldn't do this for me. All they could do was to block the outgoing Caller ID, which wouldn't work because an "Unknown" phone call might get rejected. Therefore, I went ahead with VOIP.

I previously had VOIP phone service with Nextiva, but I didn't like it because it was unreliable, and the phone quality left much to be desired. I decided upon 8x8 because it is publicly-traded and therefore suitably large (in my mind) to stick around for a while. The company also maintains redundant servers in New York (where I'm located), Washington, D.C., and Southern California. They were down recently but it apparently was due to the internet service providers of their customers misdirecting requests to 8x8's servers. (Dorky: the ISP's DNS servers, which resolve "8x8.com" to the appropriate IP address, went wacky and sent the requests into a blackhole.) That's another argument for Internet neutrality, and something that is truly out of Packet 8's hands. My bugaboo is that 8x8 should make all their downtime available so you can really judge for yourself how reliable they are.

Packet 8 only supports phones that they sell. You cannot bring your own device to the service. However, the phones are not sold at extortionate prices. In fact, they are sold at a huge discount to retail pricing. I bought the Polycom SoundPoint IP for $125 before a $50 rebate for exchanging old phones. The next cheapest online price was $200. I think Packet 8 only wants to limit the devices they have to service to make their lives easier, not to soak their customers.

The Polycom SoundPoint IP is a great phone. However, you need a router that supports Quality of Service (QoS), which makes sure that traffic to and from the phones are given higher priority and bandwidth than other traffic. Packet 8 sells preconfigured routers. I used my Asus RT-N16 that I had flashed TomatoUSB firmware onto with strong QoS capabilities. Remember to delete all the preexisting VOIP-related port forwarding and QoS settings before setting up the SoundPoint, however, or your phone calls will sound like crap and not go through. Interestingly, the SoundPoint doesn't require port forwarding. Certain ports had to be given higher priority via QoS, but that's it.

Set up was a pain. Activating the phones with 8x8 took repeated attempts. The service wouldn't accept the password until they were typed in over a dozen times. I wanted to configure all outgoing phone calls to have a Caller ID of the main line. That took a weekend because technical support had to fix some magic settings on their end. However, porting a wireless number in only took three business days, so that was impressive. The entire process could have been better, but now I have a system where incoming calls are routed to the first extension, then the second, and then to voicemail. All outgoing phone calls will show up as my main number. Each extension also has a direct dial number but all calls out will show the main number.

The call quality is great. Polycom and 8x8 make a huge deal out of supporting "HD Voice," or in technical terms, the G.722 wide band codec, which is supposed to give better phone quality than regular phone lines. Packet 8 is one of the phone VOIP providers that offer this feature, which really gives much better phone quality. However, the improved quality only shows up when you call another number that supports this function. Still, calls between extensions are really clear compared to outside calls that don't have HD Voice. Hopefully, this gets widely used so all calls will sound great.

Once I deleted the preexisting VOIP settings from my routers and put in the correct ones, 8x8 call quality was amazing. There were no echos, no stutters, and no delay even on a cable line with only 512 kbps upload bandwidth. This is pretty impressive, and I'm not sure if that's due to 8x8's service, the geographic distance between me and their servers, or because the SoundPoint is a great phone. I'm not complaining, however.

Pricing is fair. Do not use their online page to order. Call in for better rates. Each unlimited line costs $20 a month, and a virtual number (which is the "main office number") costs an extra $5. With fees, two lines and the virtual number cost $70. That's ridiculous, I know, but taxes, line fees, and E911 fees are pretty outrageous for every phone service provider. The activation fees were waived as well.

Obihai Obi100

2011-12-08T01:17:00.000-05:00

I have been using an Obihai Obi100 for a long time now. The Obi100 is an adapter that allows a regular phone to be used in conjunction with a VOIP service provider. Unlike many other existing adapters, the Obi100 supports Google Voice transparently. Enter your password, and you're off to the races. Furthermore, instead of configuring the device using the phone, the Obihai Obi100 allows configuration through their website www.obitalk.com. I don't know how they manage to do that, but it's cool.

The decided to post again because my Obi100 needed a firmware update, which went smoothly through the website. I realized that I had been using it for all this time without any problems. Callers love the quality of the phone call, and conference calling actually works seamlessly. I really do recommend it.

More parents refuse vaccines for kids.

2011-11-28T14:23:00.001-05:00

Anti-vaccination movement gets more powerful. Outbreaks are sure to go up. Winner's curse, I guess. I think we should be more careful with promoting vaccination. The decline of disease due to vaccinations have made it easier to claim they aren't needed. The government should take care to educated parents.

More kids skip school shots - USATODAY.com

Feds try proponent of jury nullification; seek to deprive him of right to jury trial.

2011-11-28T08:20:00.001-05:00

NYT: Brief Details Jury Nullificati

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-30T16:06:00.001-04:00

I hate hippies as much as the next man but the Occupy Wall Street crowd is onto something. Income and wealth inequality are at record highs, and social mobility is at an all-time low. The American dream is out of reach for many Americans. We are approaching a caste system with a permanently disenfranchised subclass. Policies meant to lower the gap are denounced as handouts or socialism. Yet banks received hundreds of billions of tax-payer dollars they used towards bonuses. We shrug as though it is inevitable that the rich will always get richer and the poor will get poorer.

Since when did we forget how to hope and aspire to a better tomorrow? If anything, let's hope that the Occupy Wall Street protests result in change to give the disenfranchised a hand up. Cut payroll taxes for the poor and middle class. That would create incentives to hire Americans instead of outsourcing. Raise taxes on the rich and super-rich. Make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy after seven years so the free market can work. Tax corporations that use loopholes to make billions without paying a penny in American taxes.

Let's create an America where we don't have to cynically assume that the game is always rigged.

Windows Home Server 2011 For The Office

2011-09-01T15:59:00.001-04:00

I am writing about the new server I set up with Windows Home Server 2011. I had been using a Synology DS210j for the last year, and it has been great. It is encrypted transparently, it serves up the files quickly, and I can access my files remotely. And with one gigabyte of mirrored storage, I can back up all of my computers (three desktops and a laptop) onto the little server.

However, I've been wanting more from my server. My Synology is quickly filling with space due to all the backups. The multiple copies of Windows 7 sure takes up a lot of space! I also have initiate backups from each computer, which gets old very fast. I read about Windows Home Server 2011 being able to take care of up to ten computers on a single network, so I decided to take the plunge when it went on sale for $45.

I bought an AMD based motherboard and processor combo, and reused some hard drives, RAM, and a case I had sitting around. I installed it from a USB key drive, which took a lot of work to get bootable. (You have to use these instructions to get anywhere.) However, installation itself was hands off, and once it was started, I just did other work while the server kept on rebooting itself during the installation process.

A lot has been made of the removal of Drive Extender from WHS2011, which had allowed users to add drives of different sizes to a virtual disk automatically managed by Windows. However, this wasn't a huge problem because setting up a mirrored array was simple as heck. I plugged in the two disks, then went into System Administration > Storage, clicked on one of the drives, then chose to make a mirrored volume. Done!

I then unplugged the keyboard, mouse, and display from the system, leaving it to run as a "headless" server in the corner of my office. I went to my desktop, then went over to http://myserver/connect to, well, connect to my server. I installed the software, and it started up the Dashboard.

From my desktop, I was able to use the Dashboard to configure WHS2011. I could set backups of all the computers from a central location, and I could see if a system was not up-to-date on a patch, then get it to install the updates—all from my desktop! But the backups took up way less space on the WHS2011 server because it doesn't save the same files repeatedly. In other words, I was only backing up one copy of Windows 7 Professional, not four.

I also set up a domain name so I could access my system remotely. That didn't work out too well. Remote Web Access wasn't working yet. However, I was able to access my computer remotely by using my DynDNS address. If only this worked!

As for administering the system, I used Remote Desktop Connection to log in to the server from another computer on my network. This allows the server to be tucked away out of sight without a keyboard, mouse, or display. At the moment, the server works just like the Synology in terms of sharing files but the backup feature is impressive. The backups take up much less space than they did on the Synology.

Someone Stole My Dad's Phone And Rang Up A Huge Bill

2011-08-30T22:53:00.000-04:00

My first instinct is to file a John Doe suit then subpoena the payer information for all of the phone numbers he called and received until I figure out who it is. There are a few phone numbers that he called many times and which called him back many times, so they definitely know who it is. But is there another way to figure this out?

Angry Birds.

2011-08-24T17:45:00.001-04:00

Why must you be so fun?

Manhattan Automobile Company: Bad Customer Service Or Worst Customer Service?

2011-08-16T17:49:00.004-04:00

I am on the market for a new car. I want to buy America to support our economy, and Ford seems to have nice cars. So I make up my mind. I want a blue 2011 Ford Fusion SE, with the Sync package and reverse sensing system. I decide to use the Internet because I'm a modern guy. TrueCar provides a quote of $22,199 along with three local dealers who would honor that price. Manhattan Automobile Company was one of the dealers. They're the closest, so I send off an email to Ali Mahidashti since his contact info was provided. Then everything falls apart when he delegates the job to one of his subordinates.

So this guy David Denby writes back, "Ali asked me to contact you in the hope that I can help you in your search. Besides the $22,199 price, what is the total out of pocket ( tax, tags, etc. ) out the door best cash price that you have been quoted?" I answer truthfully, which was that TrueCar provided me with three dealers at the exact same quote. In fact, they provide a Price Protection Guarantee to make sure the dealers abide by the quote. But Denby writes back, and he is ANGRY:

I asked you a very specific question which needs an answer. I will ask you again; How much money do you need to take out of your pocket in order to drive the car home? The answer needs only to be a total which includes sales tax, license plates, rebates, and whatever other charges the 3 dealers were willing to take in cash to let you drive home. Did any of the 3 dealers send you proof that they indeed had the vehicle as you described available for immediate delivery?

Denby is pretty worked up. All I did was to try and buy a car from him using TrueCar. But he does make a good point. That seems to be information that I should have handy. So I ask him and all the other dealers for the same info.

Perhaps you can provide me with the answer to your own question. Do you have a 2011 Ford Fusion SE with the six speed automatic, Sync system, and the backup detector in stock? I'll ask them for the same number as well.

The other dealers give me the numbers. David Denby, when asked for the information he thinks other dealers should give me, writes:

Since you don’t want to give me an answer, my answer to you is; I will beat any price that you can provide me with in writing with a signed order including a vehicle identification # from a legitimate Ford dealer.The ball is in your court. My guess is that if you don’t act in the 24 – 48 hours, your window of opportunity for getting a 2011 Fusion will be closed.

This guy is kind of obnoxious, rude, and won't give me the information he thinks other dealers should provide. So I tell him I am taking my business elsewhere. He responds:

Before you run away wounded you might want to re-consider my offer of being able to beat any legitimate price. The longer you wait the less likely that you will be able to get a 2011 at all. I offered to beat your best price and you want to go elsewhere? Perhaps you are blowing smoke!!!!!

So now I'm a liar? Jeez. All I did was get a quote on TrueCar, which his dealership provided. Now he's not giving a straight answer on the price, and he's calling me a liar. So I told him straight-up why I didn't want to do business with him: "I just don't like your attitude. You're obnoxious." His retort:

Excuse me for making you feel violated! I have dealt with too many “ buyers that are liars” such as yourself for probably longer than you are alive.

A used car salesman is calling me a liar. I'm a lawyer, but still, this is irony, right? I forward the TrueCar quote to Denby, and noted the irony: "Haha. A car salesman calling someone else a liar. =P" His response?

You’re right!!!! It’s pretty sad when a car salesman comes across someone like you who can’t see when he’s been outsmarted!!!!! Perhaps you might try one of the Japanese brands. I heard they are very ckeap. Hyundai has some nice cars that would be as cheap as you are.

Now that's kind of funny. I want to naively "do the right thing" and buy America but this guy is telling me to buy a Japanese car. Because they are very cheap. Which planet has this guy been on? Japanese cars are not only dominating the car market, they're also more expensive than American cars because they are in demand.

But the bottom line is that David Denby, a Senior Sales Consultant at Manhattan Automobile Company isn't interested in making a sale. He's more interested in being a jerk and stroking his own ego. I guess business is booming where he is doing business out on Eleventh Avenue. But he didn't get my money. David, you just lost out on a sale. To someone who is obsessive and petty enough to post this all online. =/

Love Song To Our Economy.

2011-08-11T17:35:00.000-04:00

By Katy Perry.

S&P In The Garden Of Good And Evil

2011-08-09T20:39:00.000-04:00

God: *voice booms* "I am the Lord, your God! I am all-knowing, ever-present and all powerful. Mine powers are infinite! I am the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords! Worship me, and thou shalt be saved!"

Devil: *slithers up in an absurdly flashy sharkskin suit* "ssssssss...I'm a SNAKE! We can collateralize the debt obligations of many HUMANS, (*flicks forked tongue at God*) working Joes, and get huge insurance companies to insure them with CDSsssssssesssss. You're much better off diversifying your counter-party risk portfolio than putting all of your eggs in one bassssssket." *coils languidly*

S&P: *downgrades God* "Just because You can shape this world of Your Creation to Your bidding doesn't mean that you'd actually do it. *looks at snake* "So tell me more about these collateralized debt obligations..."

Protect Your Email: Use Google Authenticator

2011-08-03T08:25:00.001-04:00

The Google Account has gotten more important in recent days. Not only does it hold email, it now holds your calendar, pictures, and documents. Google provides two-factor authentication to make sure only someone with access to your phone can log in to your account. It provides an app called Google Authenticator that turns your smartphone into a security key don. This prevents most brute force attacks. Also, if you lose a mobile device, you can revoke the passwords linked with that device to prevent ongoing data loss. There is really no reason to use it if you value your Google Account.

While you're at it, if you use Google Apps, set up SPF and DKIM to prevent hackers from spoofing email as falsely coming from your domain.

Easy VOIP: Obihai Obitalk

2011-08-01T19:54:00.001-04:00

Until recently, choices for VOIP adapters were limited. Most service providers used the Linksys PAP2T, which is an old adapter based on Sipura technology. That has changed with the Obi family of adapters from Obihai, which not only serves as a VOIP adapter but also works with Google Voice.

I have been using an Obihai Obi 100 for the last few months. Set up was dead simple. Plug the Obi into the Internet, the outlet, and a phone. Register an account online at obitalk.com, which is used to set up the Obi software. Type in your Google Voice info (or VOIP info) and you are set.

Voice quality is superb. (But I have a super-high speed Fios connection so your mileage may vary.) I can conference call and forward calls easily. The only wrinkle is that chatting may not work with the Google account linked with the Obi but I haven't run into that problem.

It is definitely worth the forty dollars to try for anyone who wants a landline without paying through the nose.

When Will We Stop Starving The Beast?

2011-08-01T11:06:00.001-04:00

Republicans from Reagan to Palin have advocated starving the beast, which means cutting tax revenues to induce a deficit so that government spending has (in this theory) has to drop. But obviously, that doesn't work because we can just borrow money indefinitely and run up a huge national debt, which is what we have done.

But more perniciously, starving the beast encourages over-spending. This policy discouples spending and cost, with predictable results. If we can buy a war now without paying for it now, and in fact enjoy a tax cut at the same time, then we will over-consume wars. But if we had to raise taxes to pay for invasions, our zeal for war would drop.

But why not a balanced budget amendment? Well, there are times when running a debt is necessary such as during a recession. But maybe we should put a CARD Act disclaimer on our tax returns: "making only minimum payments will cost X and take 100 years to pay back."

In short, raising taxes will make consumers of government largesse (such as NASA states, builders of bridges to nowhere, and Medicaid zealots) realize they are also tax payers who are on the hook for these services.

Building Landing Strip Next To Ravine: Stupid Or Really Stupid?

2011-07-31T11:03:00.001-04:00

Thank God everyone survived, though. RT @YahooNews Jet from New York crashes, breaks in half upon landing in South America, yet all 163 passengers survived: http://t.co/dSQJILw