“My favorite Mountain Lion feature, though, is one that hardly even has a visible interface. Apple is calling it “Gatekeeper”. It’s a system whereby developers can sign up for free-of-charge Apple developer IDs which they can then use to cryptographically sign their applications. If an app is found to be malware, Apple can revoke that developer’s certificate, rendering the app (along with any others from the same developer) inert on any Mac where it’s been installed. In effect, it offers all the security benefits of the App Store, except for the process of approving apps by Apple. Users have three choices which type of apps can run on Mountain Lion:

• Only those from the App Store
• Only those from the App Store or which are signed by a developer ID
• Any app, whether signed or unsigned

The default for this setting is, I say, exactly right: the one in the middle, disallowing only unsigned apps. This default setting benefits users by increasing practical security, and also benefits developers, preserving the freedom to ship whatever software they want for the Mac, with no approval process.”

From http://daringfireball.net/2012/02/mountain_lion

http://www.cymru.com/monitoring/dnssumm/

So my fix is quick and simple (and can be found all over the Internet). I only post it here so that I can easily find it in the future.

sudo grub-install /dev/sda # HDD device name
sudo update-grub

Good luck!

Initially, I wanted to insulate the walls. To do this, I would have to breach the plaster walls to blow in insulation, because I have stucco exterior walls and plaster interior walls. After some research, I learned this is a VERY BAD thing. My plan now is to insulate the attic. Here are some “before” pictures. I will post “after” pictures in a year or two, whenever the project is complete.

Pictures of the attic’s existing insulation:

At http://bobyapp.com/blog/2009/06/myths-about-insulating-old-house-walls Bob Yapp wrote:

If your goal is to continue loving your old house, make it energy efficient while keeping your costs down, then you absolutely don’t want to blow insulation into the sidewalls.

One of the top reasons for exterior paint failure, termites and structural damage to old houses is loose cellulose or fiberglass insulation blown into the sidewalls. “Hey, wait a minute Bob, if we can’t insulate the sidewalls, how can we afford to heat our old house?” That’s a valid question but you need to think of air movement in your house as if the house were a chimney. Heat loss primarily happens in an upward movement. So, I want you to insulate your attic space to an R-38 with eave ventilation. You should also friction fit craft-faced (paper faced) fiberglass batting- insulation or foam board into the box sills in your basement (the area where the beams or floor joists rest on top of the foundation). The craft face acts as a vapor barrier and should face the inside.

Most building codes today require that when a new house or addition is built in a northern climate, it must have a vapor barrier. When a new house is going up, they frame the sidewalls and install exterior sheathing. The next step is to go inside and install fiberglass, batting insulation between the 2″ x 4″ or 6″ studs. Before the drywall can be installed over this wall, 4 mil thick plastic sheeting must be laid over the insulation on the entire wall. That plastic sheeting acts as the vapor barrier.

We create warm moist air in our homes by cooking, taking showers, having plants, breathing etc. That warm, moist vapor is attracted to the exterior walls. This vapor enters the wall through hairline wall cracks, outlets, switches and window trim. In new construction, the plastic vapor barrier under the drywall stops the wet air from getting to the insulation and condensating.

In old houses with plaster walls, there is no vapor barrier under the plaster so the wet air hits the insulation and condensates. This wets down the blown-in insulation making it a wet mass at the bottom of the wall cavity creating an inviting place for termites and dry rot. Then the moisture enters the exterior sheathing and wood siding causing permanent exterior paint failure. Since the homeowner, for some “unexplained” reason, can’t keep paint on the house anymore, they call the vinyl siding salesman. This makes the problem even worse as you now have backer board (insulation board) and vinyl siding which in combination creates a vapor barrier on the outside of the wall that stops the free exchange of air, trapping more moisture.

…

If your house is drafty then tighten it up. Weather-strip your windows and doors, keep the house painted/caulked well, insulate the attic and box sills. This will stop the air infiltration, make you more comfortable and really save money on utilities.

More details:

• DRPT, Norfolk Southern and CSX are working together to coordinate work at the Petersburg Collier Connection project site.
• CSX has submitted design plans of the Petersburg Collier Connection to DRPT for review and comment for the Norfolk Southern connector track. The internal DRPT review is complete and the Agency is ready to issue a Notice To Proceed for construction.
• All grading work on the Norfolk Southern segment of the Collier Connection is complete. Subbalast and ballast has been placed, and Norfolk Southern track work is close to completion. Final track elevation adjustments will be made upon completion of the CSX connection work.

I will also bump this post in December 2012 before making another Post in January 2013.

• Read THESE books.
• Eat at every restaurant in Richmond’s Fan district (neighborhoods include Oregon Hill, VCU, Broad Street Corridor, SOFA (Southern Fan), and Carver), or at least every restaurant on this list:
  • Fan Restaurants (Richmond, VA): The Definitive List
• Complete Code Year 2012 at Codecademy: Got behind by a month, gave up.
  • www.codecademy.com
• Enable 2-step verification on my Google accounts.
  • See how.
• Enable full-disk encryption on every laptop, desktop and server I own. For the Windows boxes, I will be replacing Bitlocker for Truecrypt. For the Linux boxes, I will continue to use dm-crypt/LUKS/cryptsetup.
• Buy an ugly Christmas sweater before the holidays.
• Import all of my photos (thousands) into Picasa and tag them for faster searching. Having them in folders is no longer working for the number of photos I have.

I’ve installed Hexxeh‘s build of Chromium OS on my ASUS Eee PC.

See Chromium OS builds by Hexxeh to get his Vanilla build. See this page to get his Lime build. I am running the Lime build.

This program was initially written to fill a need for Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04) Netbook Remix. Recently, it has grown in popularity for other project developers, namely Arm development projects (Android, Ubuntu on Arm, etc). Unfortunately, the developers have been retasked to other projects. Hopefully, one of us can spare a little time to bring this app up to date with requested features and needed fixes.

https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/

The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers
Kevin D. Mitnick (2005)

The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
Kevin D. Mitnick (2003)

Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life
David Allen (2008)

Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done
David Allen (2004)

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen (2002)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle (1969)

During the 1950s, the AT&T Long Lines’ system of microwave relay links carried the majority of US long distance telephone traffic as well as intercontinental television network signals. The main motivation to use microwave radio instead of cable was that a large capacity could be installed quickly and at less cost. It was expected at that time that the annual operating costs for microwave radio would be greater than for cable. There were two main reasons that a large capacity had to be introduced suddenly: Pent up demand for long distance telephone service, because of the hiatus during the war years, and the new medium of television, which needed more bandwidth than radio.