Hosting has been arranged for the next 2 years.
Nerd power!
DNS settings are still propagating, but it looks like at least the US part of the Intertubes is already well aware of the awesomeness that is paananen.fi.
-TPP aka madfinn (at) paananen.fi
Checking server [whois.ficora.fi]
Results:
domain: paananen.fi
descr: Kerkko Paananen
status: Granted
created: 28.12.2006
expires: 28.12.2009
nserver: ns1.dnsexit.com [OK]
nserver: ns2.dnsexit.com [OK]
More information is available at https://domain.ficora.fi/
Copyright (c) Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority
And there was much rejoicing among the nerds of the Paananen family.
The domain has been unavailable for the past three years and just came available again 25 minutes ago.
-TPP
A company that has built part of the fence between Mexico and USA has been found knowingly employing illegal immigrants.
-TPP
Todd Shriber, 28-year-old communications director for Representative Denny Rehberg (R-MT), has been exposed to have solicited two computer hackers to commit felony crimes.
It appears Mr. Shriber felt his college grades weren't good enough and engaged two well known operators of the website attrition.org in an email conversation about hacking into the computer system of Mr. Shriber's College to alter his grades. The school he went to: Texas Christian University. Thou shalt not steal, Mr. Shriber?
What Mr. Shriber didn't know is that attrition.org operators are white-hat hackers and had no intention of going through with the plan. Instead they strung him along and finally posted the entire Email conversation on their website. A reporter investigating the story then found out Mr. Shriber's true identity.
Mr. Shriber was fired from his congressional aide position.
There is no word, as of yet, on any possible arrest warrant issued for him. Soliciting someone to commit a felony crime is a crime in itself. Federal guidelines state soliciting felony crimes should be punishable by half the sentence of the crime being solicited.
The email conversation is posted on attrition.org website.
More links to the press coverage on the story:
Talking Points Memo
-TPP
New York City Journals is documenting one person's project to replicate New York City in Sim City 4.
This thing is indrecible. It is extremely well done. The amount of work gone into it already must be ridiculous.
-TPP
New York City Mayor Bloomberg has revealed his long term development plan for New York City.
It's a great read of the problems New York City will face during the next 25 years, and how the city is preparing to tackle them.
One can only wish Bloomberg's successor(s) will also be looking into the future beoynd their term limits.
-TPP
Update: Looks like it really was Chase who called me. Damn phishers making everyone paranoid.
Today I've received two calls on my cellphone supposedly from 1-800-454-9078.
The automated call claims to be from Fraud Center at Chase and is asking me to verify information regarding my Chase PriorityClub credit card. The caller has my cellphone number and the last four digits of my credit card. I can only imagine what the caller wants to do with the data.
I use this credit card very seldom. In fact, I haven't used it for months before yesterday. Someone, somewhere swiped my credit card information yesterday. Very interesting. I used the credit card on two online stores yesterday. Both supposedly VERY reputable. Either they, their credit card processing company of my PC have been hacked.
I don't think it's my PC, because I make purchases from it using other credit cards all the time, and I haven't received similar phonecalls about my other credit cards before.
Let's see what kind of payments will start appearing on my credit card this week.
-TPP
Andrei Nekrasov, a Russian film maker and an outspoken critic of the Putin dictatorship, has sent an open letter to Helsingin Sanomat, the leading newspaper in Finland.
The letter was sent from the deathbed of the former KGB spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who died this Saturday after being poisoned with radioactive poison earlier in the month. Mr. Litvinenko was a friend of Mr. Nekrasov's. Before he died Mr. Litvinenko claimed he was poisoned by orders of Vladimir Putin.
The letter by Mr. Nekrasov is one of the most direct and outspoken criticism directed towards the power elite of Moscow. It's a must read for anyone interested in the decline of democracy in Russia. Mr. Nekrasov is saying Russian democracy has regressed back to Stalin's ideas for democracy.
Mr. Nekrasov is a brave man. Critics of Putin and his cronies have had a habit of dieing lately. And yet the European Union, under the leadership of Finland, is still talking with Russia about a new partnership agreement between EU and Russia. Politics as usual, I suppose. Money trumps little problems like murdering dissidents.
-TPP
A friend of mine posted about a live video feed of a African watering hole on the Internet a day or two ago. I've been mesmerized since (yes, I'm a geek).
Africam has set up the first live video feed, with audio, filming a watering hole in South Africa. The video stream is active 24/7 and its video and audio quality is excellent. The video feed is coming from Nkorho Pan, which is a natural water hole in the prestigious Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, in South Africa. Nkorho pan is named after Nkorho bush Lodge which gets it name from the Shangaan derivative for the call of the yellow-billed hornbill, a common and unusual looking bird from this area.
The camera is apparently operated by someone pretty much around the clock as it pans and zooms around following the wildlife around the watering hole. The audio really makes you feel like you're almost there. The cricket noise at night is ear piercing and the bird noises and a pack of hyenas laughing is really cool.
At the time of writing this post, I'm watching about 10 zebras, a dozen giraffes and maybe 20 antilopes having breakfast together in the grasslands surrounding the watering hole.
It may not be edited as nicely as Animal Planet documentaries, but it's LIVE. Everything you see on your screen is happening right at the same time half way across the world. It's truly amazing. I'm not someone easily impressed by technology, but this thing is just great.
-TPP
