The hacker group, LulzSec, announced its dissolution on Saturday, June 25, in a Twitter message to 280,000 of its followers. The publicity-seeking group had successfully hacked the websites of the CIA, the U.S. Senate, Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, Sony, PBS, and other high-profile targets. Many do not understand why the group decided to break up or if they really did at all. There are a few theories as to why they did, at least, publicly, anyway: the law was closing in on them (they had been getting many looming threats of arrest); they were just bored; they picked disastrous fights with rival hacker groups; or they had simply run out of ideas.
Although, this hacker group is seemingly no longer around, there are many other, more seasoned groups like this one that can be even more harmful. The trick to reducing the chances of having your email or social networking profile hacked by such groups is to create a strong password. Mixing letters and numbers is a good start. Avoid using simple words or birth dates. You can use your birth date but mix it into a name. For example, let’s say you have a sister named Jane and her birthday is on March 22. Create a password like this: j3a2n2e. That’s the basic concept but as long as you can remember it, your regularly updated strong password will definitely help keep you more secure.
On June 26, 2011, the Palace Theatre turned 100 years old. To commemorate the centennial anniversary, three sold-out screenings were held. The theater, located on 630 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles and originally named Orpheum, opened on June 26, 1911, as a vaudeville house. In 1926, the theater was renamed the Palace when a much larger Orpheum Theatre was built down the street. The Palace has hosted shows with entertainers like actor Fred Astaire, magician Harry Houdini, and French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt.
A million dollar restoration project, with a few changes, has begun. The craftsmen in charge of the renovation stripped away seven layers of paint from the walls, revealing the hall’s original wallpaper. Shahram Delijani, whose family owns the Palace and three other historic downtown theaters, was able to replicate the original wallpaper, allowing him to bring the Palace back to its very original decorations. The Palace Theatre will look beautiful with its original design, bringing it back to a French and Renaissance look.
One of the best methods yet for increasing your productivity.
I get more work done when I'm flying. It's as simple as that. I can spend two hours on an airplane and accomplish almost as much as I can in an entire day in my office. What's that all about? And, more importantly, how can I be that productive even when I'm not on a plane? I'd love to tap into that level of productivity on a regular basis. So, why do I get more work done when I'm flying? It's really pretty simple. 1. No internet, no internet, no … Read More
Now that the summer of 2011 has finally arrived, it’s time to start taking certain precautions. With the heat expected to be much more intense here in California, it is important to protect your skin to avoid putting yourself at risk for melanoma (skin cancer). It’s also important to protect your eyes from being damaged by the sun’s strong rays. Here is a list of the top ten best sunscreens.
Food allergies can be difficult to deal with, especially if it is a common ingredient in foods you eat. You could go to an allergist to evaluate the severity of your allergies and get prescription medication to help relieve your symptoms if you accidentally eat something you are allergic to. Non-prescription antihistamines, like Chlor-Trimeton or Benadryl, can also be taken to relieve symptoms.
However, it is best to consult your doctor before buying any kind of over-the-counter medication to relieve allergy symptoms and ensure they are right for you. The best way to deal with allergies is to avoid what you are allergic to altogether. You should check labels on foods you buy to make sure they don’t use any suspect ingredients. Also, if you go out to eat somewhere you can ask the server if they cook with that certain food item or ingredient and request a substitute if necessary. Being allergic to food can be difficult, but reactions can be easily avoided.
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth revision in the development of the Internet Protocol (IP) and the first version of the protocol to be widely deployed. Together with IPv6, it is at the core of standards-based internetworking methods of the Internet. IPv4 is still, by far, the most widely deployed Internet Layer protocol. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP) that is designed to succeed Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). The Internet operates by transferring data in small packets that are independently routed across networks as specified by an international communications protocol known as the Internet Protocol. Although IPv4 is still the most commonly used protocol, I want to list the differences between both so you can better understand why your company and ISP must begin making plans to migrate to IPv6.
IPv4 has run out of IP addresses.
IPv4
Addresses are 32 bits (4 bytes) in length.
Address (A) resource records in DNS to map host names to IPv4 addresses.
Pointer (PTR) resource records in the IN-ADDR.ARPA DNS domain to map IPv4 addresses to host names.
IPSec is optional and should be supported externally
Header does not identify packet flow for QoS handling by routers
Both routers and the sending host fragment packets.
Header includes a checksum.
Header includes options.
ARP uses broadcast ARP request to resolve IP to MAC/Hardware address.
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) manages membership in local subnet groups.
Broadcast addresses are used to send traffic to all nodes on a subnet.
Configured either manually or through DHCP.
Must support a 576-byte packet size (possibly fragmented).
IPv6 is the successor to IPv4, but deployment has been slow.
IPv6
Addresses are 128 bits (16 bytes) in length
Address (AAAA) resource records in DNS to map host names to IPv6 addresses.
Pointer (PTR) resource records in the IP6.ARPA DNS domain to map IPv6 addresses to host names.
IPSec support is not optional
Header contains Flow Label field, which Identifies packet flow for QoS handling by router.
Routers do not support packet fragmentation. Sending host fragments packets
Header does not include a checksum.
Optional data is supported as extension headers.
Multicast Neighbor Solicitation messages resolve IP addresses to MAC addresses.
Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) messages manage membership in local subnet groups.
IPv6 uses a link-local scope all-nodes multicast address.
Does not require manual configuration or DHCP.
Must support a 1280-byte packet size (without fragmentation).
Depending on what you are using, the IP address for either version is still valid. There are some advantages to upgrading from IPv4 to IPv6 such as 79 octillion (that’s 27 zeros) times the IPv4 address space, better bandwidth efficiency, better efficiency and scalability, and works with the latest 3G mobile technologies and beyond. With so many devices requiring IP addresses for Internet access, the development of a more versatile Internet Protocol was inevitable. I hope this article helps you better understand the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 so that you can make your decision accordingly.
On June 16, 2011, the International Business Machines, better known as IBM, turned 100 years old. IBM is the best-known American computer manufacturer, founded by Thomas J. Watson, and has stayed vital and important for most of its history. This company has created and designed many prominent inventions that are widely used today. Here is a list of five of their most important inventions, so far:
TheMagnetic Stripe Technology: This is the thin, black stripe you can see on the back of credit cards, drivers’ licenses and many other cards. With this invention, buying things became much simpler and faster. What they don’t realize is what a major shift this seemingly simple technology represented for retail, transportation and daily life.
Computing Scale: Used to weigh and price things that any vendor can use. This invention saved retailers a lot of money.
The Universal Product Code: Even though barcodes were dreamed up and patented in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it wasn’t in use until lasers emerged years later that they could be digitally read. This technology sped up checkouts and improved inventory-keeping.
The Time Clock: The invention had an “IN” and an “OUT” slot, used to keep track of each employee’s attendance.
The Automated Test Scoring: In 1937, IBM introduced the 805 Test Scoring Machine. This machine graded test answers that have been marked on a certain paper with a No. 2 pencil, making grading much easier for teachers.
When most people think of IBM, they think of computers. Well, they did invent the PC in the 1980s, but they have many more inventions that are still in use today. Their inventions have helped ease the daily life of many people, such as managers, teachers, students, store owners, and many employees. IBM has many other inventions that have made our lives easier and should be greatly appreciated. Congratulations to this successful company.
On Friday, June 17, 2011, the Hollywood Bowlcelebrated its 90th season with fireworks, music performances, and a preview of the new Cirque de Soleil show, “Iris“. This year, the Hollywood Bowl honored two new inductees to the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame: singers Gloria Estefan and Harry Connick Jr.. Actress Hilary Swankintroduced honoree and New Orleans native Connick Jr., a friend since their on-screen performance of, “P.S. I Love You” together. The pianist and jazz singer start off somewhat stiffly with “The Way You Look Tonight”, pausing afterwards to acknowledge the award. “I’ve never been in a hall of fame for anything so it’s a big deal. I’m just honored,” said Connick Jr., who noted that his voice had cracked a couple of times. “I’m sure you heard it. I don’t care, I mean, it’s not like I’m performing brain surgery on someone. If you make a mistake, it’s OK. But I was thinking like the Cirque de Soleil people, like what’s the equivalent of cracking a note for them? You die… So I’m very happy to be a singer. I might crack some more notes because it’s very comfortable to know that I can do that and live.”
After intermission, actor Andy Garcia introduced Gloria Estefan. Garcia explained, “We have a common bond. Our families, both fled to this country when we were young children to escape the repression of Castro’s Cuba. Our parents had to start all over again, struggling to give a better life in Miami.” Estefan also happens to be the first Latina to be honored in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations to both of these singers for their many contributions to the music world.
The changes will be limited to websites with these domains: .com, .net, and .org. However, they are expected to let companies register unique website names or better protect their existing brands. Nonprofit groups could reserve the .school domain and hand out addresses to every elementary school. Cities could consolidate their websites to .nyc or .losangeles. And interest groups could stake out their own corner of the Web: .car for auto enthusiasts, .law for attorneys, and .food for restaurants. This is a big, albeit expensive, change for the Internet, but it looks as if things will go smoothly. Companies can now have fun, creative web domains!
Lava tubes are a type of lava cave formed when an active low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust, which thickens and forms a roof above the still-flowing lava stream. Tubes form in one of two ways: by the crusting over of lava channels, and from pahoehoe flows where the lava is moving under the surface. Lava usually leaves at the point of eruption through channels. The channels stay very hot although their surroundings are cool. When lava begins to flow away from its eruption point the surrounding lava of the pahoehoe flow cools down, resulting in the underground channel known as the lava tube.
Lava tubes can form into different structures, such as caves, pillars, or lavacicles. Here are some of the tubes that can be found all over the world that contain any or all of these structures.
Ape Cave, Mount St. Helens, Washington State
Iceland
Surtshellir – For a long time, this was the longest known lava tube in the world.
Kazumura Cave – Not only the world’s most extensive lava tube, but has the greatest linear extent of any cave known and is located in Hawaii County, Hawaii
Lava River Cave – A lava tube in Oregon’s Newberry National Volcanic Monument, located in Deschutes County, near Bend, Oregon
Ape Cave – Lava tube located in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, just south of Mount St. Helens in Washington state
The video, below, shows a number of kids and teenagers who participated in the Hawaii Sea Camp program.
The hacker group, LulzSec, announced its dissolution on Saturday, June 25, in a Twitter message to 280,000 of its followers. The publicity-seeking group had successfully hacked the websites of the CIA, the U.S. Senate, Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, Sony, PBS, and other high-profile targets. Many do not understand why the group decided to break up or if they really did at all. There are a few theories as to why they did, at least, publicly, anyway: the law was closing in on them (they had been getting many looming threats of arrest); they were just bored; they picked disastrous fights with rival hacker groups; or they had simply run out of ideas.
Although, this hacker group is seemingly no longer around, there are many other, more seasoned groups like this one that can be even more harmful. The trick to reducing the chances of having your email or social networking profile hacked by such groups is to create a strong password. Mixing letters and numbers is a good start. Avoid using simple words or birth dates. You can use your birth date but mix it into a name. For example, let’s say you have a sister named Jane and her birthday is on March 22. Create a password like this: j3a2n2e. That’s the basic concept but as long as you can remember it, your regularly updated strong password will definitely help keep you more secure.
