Lee's Blog

Cloud Based Services Drawback

Lee Villar — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:32:07 +0000

This rant is inspired by Network Solutions. If a company wants to offer a cloud-based service to the public that is sold through a web site and administered through a web site, then it should also allow the client to cancel it through the web site.

What I shouldn’t have to do:

1) A desperate “Where’s Waldo” search for the ability to turn a service off before the next billing statement.

2) Get referred to a phone number when submitting a request through the contact us form.

3) Have to dedicate 30 minutes of phone time to tell customer service that I no longer need something (and want it turned off), just to have them try to sell me something unrelated.

4) Have to be assigned a “ticket” number so that my request can be “escalated” to a department that can turn the service off.

There is a (mystery) hidden department. They are too important to be reached by conventional methods. My request is now up in “the cloud” and this should serve as a warning. If you are a company that provides services and you make them very easy to turn on but very difficult to turn off then I will not trust you. Cloud based computing is all about trust because we don’t see anybody behind the scenes and we don’t know anything about them. If these people are trying to sucker me out of money in the way they design their services and management capability then what does this say about the people that run this company?

I deleted my Facebook account today

Lee Villar — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:46:37 +0000

It didn't really take too long to decide. It only took a privacy policy that is tilted 100% against us and a constant trend toward turning all of us into mindless information sharing drones. I deleted my personal and business accounts because it is the right thing to do. I have decided to look elsewhere for information sharing and I am very hopeful that diaspora will take off and put Facebook in the grave it needs to go in. Until then I will be using Twitter and blogging more often. This is how I voted. Those that want to remain in support of a company that wants to openly exploit their privacy can do it with others of equal meekness.

Use OpenDNS to Filter Web Content at Home

Lee Villar — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:48:38 +0000

Most homes use the same basic setup to access the Internet. They have an ISP that supplies them a router with a dynamic IP address and sometimes the router also provides wireless access. Other times there is a second box acting as a wireless access point. This "router," regardless of its wireless capability, is also responsible for handing out IP address information to the computers and other devices on your home network. One of the things it does is tell your computers what the DNS addresses are. DNS (domain name system) is what your computers use to translate a domain name (facebook.com), to an IP address responsible for that domain name (69.63.181.12). So imagine you press "Lee" on your telephone's speed dial and it translates that to 410-914-7010. This is similar to what your computer does when you type www.facebook.com in your browser. Your computer asks its assigned DNS servers where to go for facebook.com and they reply 69.63.181.12. Your current DNS servers are most likely assigned by your ISP. (Comcast, Verizon, etc...)

There are two places you can alter your DNS servers. On your computer or on the router. The difference is that altering the router affects all the computers. So if you want to filter one computer, you change only that computer's DNS setting. If you want to cover the entire home then you change the DNS on the router.

Let me forwarn that changing IP address settings can screw everything up if you don't know what you are doing. Only attempt this if you understand what I'm writing and always keep track of what you are changing so that you can put it back if needed.

Another thing you need to know is that this is a very simple low tech and low security way to filter web content. So if your teen knows what they are doing they will easily circumvent it by putting another DNS server in their TCP/IP settings. I use this to filter bad stuff from our youngest daughter's laptop and she could care less. It just makes me feel better when I hear her mumbling and typing liv girls into the browser that she won't get "live" girls.

So here is how this works...

You open a free basic account with opendns.com
You change either the router or computer's DNS servers to: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
Install a program on your PC to keep updating your IP address so that opendns doesn't lose track of you.
Setup the web content filtering under your account in opendns.com.

I was about to write paragraphs of details on the process but that would be silly because opendns did all that. They even have videos that will walk you through the process.

http://www.opendns.com/support/videos/

iFixit Provides Free Apple Manuals to the World

Lee Villar — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:44:16 +0000

91 Mac Models, 34 Ipods and a couple of iPhones are available to everyone for free under Creative Commons license. You can now take apart all that Apple walled garden hardware yourself if you dare. I know I'll be using it.

www.ifixit.com

Google Launches Public DNS

Lee Villar — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:20:55 +0000

Google launched a public DNS service touting its speed but I found it slower than the public 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3 option. OpenDNS was faster too but they intercept to ads and who wants that? Funny thing is that Google seems to be using Level 3 Communications which also hosts 4.2.2.x. Still not bad progress toward total world domination.

http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Public+DNS+Launches+Flirts+With+Internet+Domain+Name+World+Domination+/article17034.htm

Facebook Lite - Better for you than Bud Light?

Lee Villar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:42:33 +0000

Is light beer better for you than regular beer? How about Marlboro Lights... Better for you than regular? Well Facebook Lite is out although it still needs work. I still think that if you are going to commit online suicide you can do it with the lite version as easily as the full package. There is however one nice advantage to having the lite option. Well two advantages to be exact. One obvious advantage is the leaner interface will be better on bandwidth and you get to avoid a lot of childish apps like the dozens of beers, roses and other silly apps I've been ignoring (hopefully they will keep it simple). The other advantage is for the people that want to adopt social networking in a more "mature" environment. I have clients that are on Facebook and Twitter. They use the sites for advertising and networking. Using Facebook in the work environment causes a lot of wasted employee hours and security risks. The "Lite" version is the answer to this problem. I would recommend that if your organization wants to dive into social networks for obvious business reasons, then using Facebook Lite will save you a lot of headache. Not allowing third party apps to run through the user's browser is the key to keeping bad code out. Facebook Lite doesn't have apps or chat and that is a good thing for business security and it makes a good alternative.

Another thing I noticed is that if you Google "Facebook Lite" you get a link to http://lite.facebook.com, but the better way to get there is to use https://lite.facebook.com. The difference is the http vs https. Https being secure where http will allow the guy next to you at the coffee shop to get your password with a packet sniffer. I know you're thinking "who cares" and "what are the odds", but it happens and if (like many users) you use the same password for multiple sites he just hacked your twitter, myspace, facebook and he's going to try amazon, ebay, major banks, etc... Don't be one of the "security challenged" people of the world, its easier to just use https if available.