Dell Netbook

Check out this awesome deal from Dell.   It's a netbook spec'd reasonably at $199.00 before taxes and shipping. 

http://tinyurl.com/cq67zo

Dell Vostro A90

My System Details

Ubuntu Linux version 8.0.4

1 Year Basic Limited Warranty plus 1 Year Mail-in Service

512MB,DDR2,533MHZ,1 DIMM

8GB Solid State Drive

Also Included

Intel® Atom Processor$#174; N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)

8.9 Inch Wide Screen WSVGA TL Display (1024x600)

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950

Wireless 802.11g Mini Card

Bluetooth 2.1 module via USB I/F (Option)

Integrated 0.3M Pixel Webcam

Obsidian Black

No Onsite System Setup

35WHr Battery (4 cell)

ATM Card Skimming Awareness

I came across a presentation on ATM card skimming prepared by a security group for a bank.  It's worth reviewing.

ATM Card Skimming and PIN capturing Awareness Guide

Pics: What if Google was founded in the 1960s?

This is too good not to share.

 

 

Sent to you by mister_cbond via Google Reader:

 

 

Pics: What if Google was founded in the 1960s?

via Geekend by Jay Garmon on 4/16/09

A couple of cunning humorists happen upon the same notion: What if Google was founded in the pre-Internet era, when search queries would have been handled by the predominate communications medium of the day — snail mail? Check out the Google Search request form and query postcard, available at quality libraries near you (during the Nixon administration).

(Via Fury.com and Boomerang via LaughingSquid.)

 

 

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DHS Report - You're Likely an Extremist

Here's the new DHS report on "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment".

If you read through it you will probably realize that you, too, are an extremist:

* Do you believe in the 2nd Amendment?
* Are you against a large tyrannical federal government?
* Do you have concerns about the economy, immigration, trade and a New World Order?

You, my friend, are being watched by the DHS.

Fantastic Creative Blog

I came across a fantastic website and blog today via Mindjet's blog.

The site, www.austinkleon.com, is chock full of informative and creative content.  He has mind maps of events (like SXSW), maps of books, one he's read about Charles Schulz), and poems. 

One of the many creative aspects of Austin's site is his "blackout poems".  He creates poems using newspaper articles as his source of words.   The process begins by outlining the words he wants to use for the poem, then blacking out the surrounding content. 

He's been commissioned to publish a book of poetry in this manner, due out in 2010.

Another great aspect of his site are his analysis of events, books, festivals and other happenings which he mindmaps.  He keeps a gallery of these on his Flickr account and they're also linked from his site.

Cell Phone Taxes & Monkey Fees

The NY Post published an article concerning the high rate of taxes and fees place on consumers for cell phones.  

The article struck a nerve with me because on Thursday I had updated my cell phone plan in Texas.  When I was finished I realized I was paying almost $15 dollars in additional taxes and fees.  Fortunately the amount was considerably less than if I lived in New York.

A gentleman interviewed for the article put the subject into context:

"If there was a $5 monkey fee, even if they couldn't explain it, you would still have to pay," sniped Danny Schluck, 28, of Bushwick.

Here's the original article: http://www.nypost.com/seven/04132009/news/regionalnews/phone_taxes_are_cell_hell_164180.htm

Disc Golf as a Career?

I used to play disc golf in my late teens and early twenties.  It was a fun way to drink beer and enjoy time outside.

There were always some crazy characters out there and many of them took an afternoon throwing frisbees way too serious.    Perhaps that was due to the fact that their livelihoods were tied to the 'sport'? 

I just can't believe that anyone can make their living play disc golf.

Here's an article in the Houston Chronicle depicting a tournament in Houston:

Club choice no factor here

 

This is fun, but it's serious for a lot of us too," said Seaborn, who is from Fort Worth. "This is some people's livelihood."

Disc golf is pretty similar to regular golf. There are 18 "holes" (actually metal baskets), and the player's goal is to toss a Frisbee into the hole with as few throws as possible.

Tough disc golf has long been a popular recreational activity, it has attracted a cadre of more serious players in recent years.

Top professionals can make around $40,000 a year. Because the overall cash pot isn't as large as in many other professional sports, each tournament is important.

At the Houston tournament, the big winner will get $1,400, according to tournament director Chuck Conaway.

To prepare for the tournament – an important event for Texas but not in the nation's tier of top disc golf tournaments — the best players have maintained specially designed regimens to keep them in competitive shape.

Houston professional Rob Engle said he has even placed a metal basket in his backyard so he can practice "putting," or throwing the Frisbee into the basket from a short distance.

 

Don't Lie to Me About Firearms Smuggled to Mexico

I was positive that the statistics the government quoted on US firearms smuggled to Mexico were flat out wrong.  I kept wondering why a drug cartel would buy semi-auto firearms that were being smuggled in small batches from the US?  Why wouldn't they just buy fully auto rifles on the international market... The whole time they have!

An excellent piece from Fox News lays out the statistics:

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.

A Look at the Numbers

In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced -- and of those, 90 percent -- 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover -- were found to have come from the U.S.

But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.

In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.

So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:

-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.

-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.