Tag Archives: USA

Veterans’ Day 2009 – Thank you

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Dept. of Veterans' Affairs - Veterans Day 2009

Dept. of Veterans' Affairs - Veterans Day 2009

As we do every year, on this Veterans’ Day we at digitalflood.com would like to extend our unending gratitude and appreciation to all our soldiers past and present who have unselfishly defended our liberty, freedom, and justice that we all too often take for granted. Your selfless acts pay tribute to the living legacy that is the United States of America and its people. You are not forgotten. Everyday, not just Veterans’ Day, your valiant acts cross our minds and capture our hearts. Thank you once again.

For those of you who would like to learn more about Veterans’ Day please see this article. Veterans’ Day originated in the USA as Armistice Day and was originally a holiday to honor those who fought in World War I, as well as, to mark the day (November 11th) in 1918 when a treaty was signed to end the war. It later, after World War II, was changed to Veterans’ Day and made to commemorate not only the efforts of both World Wars, but to honor all who have served in the US Military past and present; especially those who have served during times of war and in active combat. Traditionally the day is marked by living veterans parading to cemeteries where they mark the graves of their deceased comrades with American flags. This recalls the time honored US Military tradition of “leaving no soldier behind.” The tradition is about making sure those veterans alive today have the civilian public’s attention drawn to remember those who have died in honorable service of both our country and their freedom. It’s a solemn holiday, but an important one as a true democracy maintains its freedom through a standing military comprised of volunteers showing our commitment to the values of our nation and the defense of those values. Our volunteer military is a hallmark of that very concept in the USA and as such we must honor their commitment to us as a nation and a people.

If you know a living veteran be sure to say thank you to them today. This is their day.

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Birth of InterWebs

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Some random items and thoughts:

  • Forty years ago today, the first packet was sent across the Internet between the Univeristy of California (LA) and Standford Research Institute (both in the State of California in the USA). Happy birthday Internet!
  • Everyone keeps asking me if I’m psyched about the soon to be launched DJ Hero video game– I’m not. Just like Guitar Hero is nothing like playing a real guitar, DJ Hero is nothing like mixing real tracks.
  • A local bank robbery is solved… I think the best part is the bank robber made it all the way to Hawaii on the cash and then came back to Orange County, NY where he was caught by parole officers with the clothes and money in his car from the robbery. Why would you come back? Come on!
  • Your first official look at the new Verizon Droid mobile phone.
  • If you use Mozilla Firefox be sure to upgrade to the latest release. They just patched like 16 security holes.
  • There are a number of password stealing scams going on right now across the world. One such is the recent Facebook phishing email scam. I got about 15 of these messages in my various accounts this morning. Don’t be a moron and fall for it lest I mock you publicly for all to see.
  • For all you Yankees fans who mocked me when the Mets where being clobbered by the Phillies… hope you’re happy now because they are 100% your problem to deal with.

I’m hoping the weather holds out for Halloween. I’d like to walk around with the girls for an hour or so. It’ll be my first time outside of the house or a hospital in over a week. Fortunately I’m not getting cabin fever as of yet– yet being the operative word.

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Classic DF – 12/18/01

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December 18, 2001: [•] Ramadan is over (BTW: I hope that all my Muslim viewers had a joyous Ramadan) and 90% of the war in Afghanistan has been won. However, Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden are both still missing. [•] US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warns all US citizens to be vigilant against terrorism as the nutjobs of the world begin to embrace new techniques of inflicting pain on others. [•] US Marines injured by a landmine encourage the world to worry about bigger problems instead of their wounds. [•] The Yemeni military has attacked an al Qaeda camp in its country. [•] Even though al Qaeda appears to have been beaten the US government continues to warn US citizens about the possibility of a terrorist attack. [•] US President Bush had several lesions removed from his face. None were cancerous. [•] Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is asking Arab leaders to meet him in Mecca to discuss Israel and Palestine. Go nutjob leader! [•] Siena Heights University has added a philosophy class that examines how The Simpsons handle theology. [•] India is mulling over its response to a terrorist attack on its government. [•] Arctic weather hits Europe. [•] Somali warlords are attempting to convince the US to attack their country’s government in hopes of achieving power. [•] Ebola continues to ravage Gabon. [•] The ousted government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide attempted to regain control of Haiti, but failed. [•] Oh those crazy civil liberty loving Canadians and their crazy civil liberty loving Canadian ways! [•] Thailand will only issue 17 visas this year in an attempt to stop illegal activities. [•] A heavy earthquake hit Japan and Taiwan creating a small tsunami. [•] Spain has arrested 7 suspected ETA members. [•] Princess Buniah al-Saud, the niece of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, has been arrested on charges of beating her maid. [•] A sewerage spill has closed a portion of Laguna Beach, California. [•] A first-grader who dresses as Santa Claus and distributes small toys in a local mall was kicked out by mall owners since (get this) he’s competition to the official mall’s Santa LOL. [•] The Space Shuttle Endeavour has landed. [•] Serious crime fell in the first 6 months of 2001, but murder went up. [•] An equipment failure has stopped progress in clearing anthrax from the Hart Senate Building. [•] Vivendi Universal has bought USA Networks. [•] Be careful, you could end up buying fake FDNY or PDNY goods. [•] Intel is sponsoring an open source code called OpenCV that they hope will allow computers to see in three dimensions. [•] A Japanese zoo’s panda gave birth to a male cub. [•] Utah has introduced the US’s first voice-recognition based travel information service for telephone users. [•] A genetically engineered mouse has been developed who’s milk contains the malaria vaccine. [•] Chicken feces and diesel fuel: What a mix! [•] CERT is warning UNIX administrators who are running Secure Shell on their systems to make sure that they are using SSH2 (full install not upgrade) with no SSH daemons running and all exploits patched. [•] Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for Office XP. [•] RSA Security Inc. has developed the Wireless Equivalent Privacy protocol to encrypt individual data packets sent over 802.11 wireless networks thus fixing current security issue. [•] A new drug reduces cold symptoms within a day and knocks one day of the actual disease off. FDA approval is about a year away at best. [•] 3/4 of new HIV cases are resisting treatment. [•] Autism seems to be higher in Silicon Valley. Could tech savvy genes be responsible? [•] Google will allow you to now browse 600 catalogues online. [•] Universal Music Group’s new CDs won’t play in a PC. Their solution: Buy another copy in digital format for the PC through the Net. Hey, why not pay a third time just for fun! Hell, let’s go for four! [•] An ISP is claiming the FBI wants the e-mail logs for data logged by the BadTrans.B worm and sent to one of several e-mail addresses including one hosted by the ISP. Why would they want it? Well, they assert that BadTrans.B is actually the Magic Lantern virus developed by the FBI reported on earlier last week. [•] A captured al Qaeda member turned informant claims that Windows XP has backdoors inserted by the terrorist group. [•] Christmas may be here, but thoughts of September 11th still haunt Americans. [•] Everyone’s favorite anti-CVS group, It’s Our Town, has been sponsoring a gift drive for needy families of Warwick, NY. [•] The US Postal Service switches into high gear to meet last minute mail demands. [•] Will a correction officer who is charged with trash compacting a box of contraband kittens face jail time? [•] Newburgh, NY City Comptroller Ed Weber resigns because City Manager Harry Porr was fired. [•] Cory Jones is found dead in New Windsor, NY and police are ruling it suspicious. [•] Local Catholic school teachers are still on strike, a textile union pickets an employer over a wage dispute, a woman is charged after she crashes her auto with a young child unbelted, ’tis the season for ice, the Milford-Montague bridge toll gets raised, an elderly woman is killed crossing a highway, a high speed chase keeps things interesting for the Ulster County Sheriffs, robbers are defeated by a soda machine, the Sullivan County Family Violence Response Team arrested a man on charges of molesting a toddler, and Wurtsboro Police arrest John Kallajian stemming from charges in Connecticut. [•] Hank Williams Jr. and Kid Rock will appear together on CMT Crossroads. [•] Weezer has begun working on their new album. [•] Charlie Clouser has left NIN, but formed a new band called Revenge of the Triads that includes guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and bassist Jason Slater from A Perfect Circle. [•] The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 rules, but then again you already know that don’t you? [•] Can’t afford the Corvette? Try the Ford Focus; it rules. [•] The 2002 Maserati Spyder is so damn kick ass that I don’t even have a wise ass comment to get you to click on the link. Just do it. [•] Intel has announced an official Pentium 4 chipset using DDR SDRAM. The new AMD Duron mobile ratchets cheap laptop speeds up to 1GHz. And Toshiba has quit the memory business. [•] Viisage Technology licenses its face recognition technology to the US Army. [•] Apple has released a PowerBook with a CD/DVD burner and more memory. [•] Adobe is putting the final touches on multimedia creation software for Mac OS X. [•] Azazel and I had an excellent time at my company’s Christmas party. The food was great and a good time was had by all! [•] C0il is home for Christmas vacation! [•] Sometimes a song can say it all. [•] Note that there is no planned updates for the next three days as I will be attending a three day seminar on VDSL. The next update will be this Saturday. Talk to you then.

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Classic DF – 10/20/01

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October 20, 2001: [•] The Taliban claim to have shot down a US helicopter, but the US military says no one was hurt during military operations. Officials did say however that 2 soldiers were killed in a non-combat accident. War is Hell, people. [•] Germany has issued a warrant for Moroccan Zakariya Essabar who they believe helped create a terrorist ring related to the September 11th attacks. [•] Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops leaving 4 people dead. [•] The UK is mulling over whether or not to resume direct rule over Northern Ireland again. [•] An unidentified person left a bomb in a Pakistan airport, but a bomb squad managed to place the device in an area where it could safely explode. [•] An Omaha, Nebraska student died from injuries incurred during a bus crash. [•] A New York Times reporter in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil received a letter tainted with anthrax. [•] Robert Durst, a wealthy real estate owner, has been arrested and charged with murdering a neighbor. [•] A suitcase full of explosives is found after no one claimed the suitcase it was stored from a bus station locker. [•] Would-be anthrax jokesters find out what is really funny– watching their facial expressions when they are sentenced to life in prison for being asswipes! [•] Do you really think that children of people killed by an airplane ramming into a building want to fly? I don’t think so. [•] Halloween is on the way… oh joy. [•] Oakland International Airport in California will begin scanning faces in crowds and using a database to match them up with known criminals. [•] Who let the lemurs out? [•] A second New Jersey US Postal worker tests positive for anthrax exposure. [•] Apple joins that latest trend of MP3 devices that stream data to stereos without wires. [•] IBM wants to make computers take care of themselves. [•] It is really unlikely that anyone in Smalltown Anywhere, USA will be targeted with anthrax. These nutjobs are after the big dogs, if you know what I mean. [•] A woman is stabbed and strangled in Port Jervis, NY. [•] Highland Falls will hold its Fall Foliage Festival today, the City of Kingston celebrates 350 years of existence, Republican Orange County Executive nominee Edward Diana will not be able to attend an environmental forum since he was never formally invited, Laura Fox gets sentenced to 32 days-23 months in Pike County Jail for being caught DWI 3 times in 3 hours, and West Point hosts a display on historic military pieces. [•] Ozzie and Zombie talk to MTV’s Curly want-to-be. [•] Macromedia is suing Adobe for patent infringement. [•] UK police close off an area for a serious situation. [•] A UK soldier is killed in Sierra Leone. [•] Pocket rocket shoot out. [•] The Lexus IS300 Sport Cross rules. [•] A Mazda Miata on Slim Fast. [•] Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management software has been hacked. Microsoft claims it’s no big deal and that they can correct the issue. [•] MP3.com has split into 2 companies. [•] Once copper runs hit their maximum potential speed in PCs fiber may be the only hope to increase computing speeds. [•] Li’l Pooh has gotten her first tooth! [•] Mervernation.com’s server is getting a new case. [•] Bored? Well, it isn’t going to get any better. In fact, it gets worse: Check out “bizarre pictures”. I personally like the baby flipping me off. It reminds me of my own sweet Li’l Pooh 🙂

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Classic DF – 7/3/01

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July 3, 2001: [•] Milosevic is learning just how ironic life is. [•] Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is all too eager to call off a cease fire with Palestine. [•] The US serviceman in Japan accused of rape by a woman has been handed over to Japanese police for questioning. [•] It has been 30 years since Jim Morrison (The Doors) died. [•] The US has asked a jury to sentence Khalfan Khamis Mohamed to death for bombing a US embassy in Tanzania in 1998. [•] Uganda has reopened the Rwenzori Mountains National Park citing that it has evicted rebels from the area. [•] UNITA rebels have asked the US and Russia to help end the civil war in Angola. [•] Alfredo Astiz has surrendered himself. [•] Mexican President Vicente Fox married his spokeswoman, Martha Sahagun. [•] Muslim rebels in the Philippines say they will continue taking Europeans and Americans hostage until the government withdraws its forces from the Basilan island. [•] Cheetahs in Iran are endangered. [•] Quick! Arrest that woman! I can see her ankle! [•] Lebanon plans to eradicate cannabis crops… maybe. [•] The Department of Consumer Protection is looking into claims that ACME Rent-a-car did not provide fair warning to consumers about its speeding policy. [•] The TechX Tradeshow showed off upgrades a plenty. [•] Having wolves in Yellowstone has cut the coyote population in half, but that may not be a bad thing. [•] The Duh Study of The Day: 5.2 million children/teens have hearing loss. What did you say? What? Huh? 🙂 [•] An old story I missed, but should note: Scientists have engineered mice that are immune to certain breast cancers. [•] Laid off workers are reporting their former employers’ pirated software habits to the authorities. He who laughs last indeed. [•] New Mexico teenager Jason Schwab has been charged with hacking into NASA in April of 2000. [•] The world gets a taste of what happens when crazy people get a hold of powerful technology. [•] Did a missing 14-year old girl run off with boys she met on the Internet? [•] Short Line/Coach USA wants a piece of the Metro-North Railroad and Woodbury Common Premium Outlets planned commuter parking lot. [•] The Warwick Town Police lost their case against a man they charged with DWI for driving his truck down his driveway to pick up his trash cans. LOL [•] Do me a favor tomorrow: Don’t be stupid with fireworks and blow off a limb or something! [•] A drug raid in Deerpark yields 3 arrests, Sean T. Pennell gets arrested after crashing his car because he was DWI, and the Tappan Zee Bridge goes online. [•] Creed says its next album will be comparable to U2’s The Joshua Tree. I don’t know, those are big shoes to fill. [•] At last count there are 120 unreleased recordings of Kurt Cobain. Tu Pac eat your heart out. [•] Chino Moreno (The Deftones) decided it would be cool to drink lots of vodka, throw up, show his penis to the crowd, and get beat up. Sounds… ummm… interesting. No wait, let me amend that. Sounds retarded and interesting. [•] Signals to Noise has a very promising line up. [•] A very large ice covered object has been discovered between Pluto and Neptune. [•] The 2002 Ford Thunderbird: It doesn’t suck. [•] Ford recalls 1997-2001 model E150, E250 and E350 trucks due to fuel tank crack issues. BMW recalls models equipped with four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines that were built between October 1998-March 2000. [•] You can now buy an Acura RSX (Kick ass!). [•] A sneak peak at the new VW Microbus. [•] Napster has shut down its file trading service to update its databases. [•] Azazel finally updates! GASP! 🙂 [•] Mermaid gets new fish. [•] I would just like to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July. Freedom rules!

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