I was listening to my favorite podcast today, This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, John C. Dvorak and others (pretty much the old TechTV gang when it was an awesome cable channel, before they were bought by G4 and subsequently run into the ground). But I digress... anyway, they were discussing an awesome service called OpenDNS , so of course I decided to check it out when I got back from lunch. Sure enough, this is a very cool, completely free DNS (domain name service). For those of you who don't know, DNS is what converts Internet name addresses (i.e. www.google.com ) to it's actual IP Address (i.e. 208.67.219.230). DNS was created in the early days of the Internet because humans can remember names a lot easier than number combinations. Typically, when you type an address into a web browser, for example, it goes and runs to your Internet Service Provider's DNS server to say "where the heck is google.com?" to which your ISP's DNS server...
Being a pilot myself, I my sympathies go out to Steve Fossett and his family, since he has been missing since September 3rd. It is presumed that his plane crashed somewhere in Nevada. He is an intrepid aviation adventurer and it's unfortunate that he is most likely gone. Still, a glimmer of hope exists for those who continue to help search for his plane. This tragedy has resulted in increased popularity of a very powerful concept- that of using the Internet and the power of people to make otherwise insurmountable tasks possible. Richard Branson , friend of Steve Fossett, asked Google if they could help find Steve, and Google answered the call. Google Earth is known by many as one of the 'coolest' programs on the Internet- covering a virtual globe with relatively up to date aerial (and satellite) imagery of the Earth. You can then browse around and look at anything you want from an aerial view. Having worked in GIS myself, I know the power of a system like this to ...
From its earliest beginnings, the idea of America united the thirteen British Colonies. There were many British subjects who took umbrage with the heavy hand of King George and the Crown's policies as they were were applied in the Colonies. These frustrations accumulated over time to the point where they became intolerable and more and more Colonists decided they had had enough, until eventually they got together and decided to declare independence from Great Britain. That idea, the spark that ignited what was to become the United States of America, was based on a set of shared principles and values. Those principles are what have held Americans together as a nation all these years, and resulted in the most powerful and productive nation the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, most of these principles have now been forgotten. They are no longer taught, and the majority of voters no longer understand freedom, the Constitution (and thus the proper ...
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