Today I’m remembering, Today I’m planning to get back for an extended period of time. Manila -- The Philippines is developing, and so am I. We’ll meet again soon. The goal is to do Six Months and Six Months. Six Months split between the Providence -- New Bedford -- Fall River MSA, the Boston -- Quincy -- Cambridge MSA, and the Orlando -- Daytona Beach -- Kissimmee MSA. For those of you who don’t know what MSA is -- it’s Metropolitan Statisical Area. It’s usually the area the radio stations reach and they itemize for Nielsen Ratings and such.

Great song for this, by the Standells, I love that Dirty Water.

Oh, Boston you’re my home.

In my near two years in manila I never met as many tech -oriented Entrepreneurs as I have met back at my home area. Providence, Boston, Nashua, Fall River, Brockton, Cambridge. Manila -- you are awesome. I love you. For many different reasons. I feel Manila will someday be the techno-hub of Asia. For now it’s still Tokyo.

The most significant characteristic with haml and sass versus html and css is nested hierarchy of its elements. This takes a little while to get used to, since we’ve never written in white-space aware code (like python), yet is very powerful in eliminating un-necessary markup, following DRY conventions. Secondly, sass mixins, imports and patterns within compass-css framework make HTML5/xHTML design a sinch – without ever using photoshop.

We are excited to offer this to clients, saving precious development time, dollars, and energy.

This slideshare really helped me out a lot and I’m posting it for my future reference and for anyone else into learning Sass and Haml.

FOR YOUR OWN SAKE – and FOR YOUR CLIENTS SAKE.

Security is an issue I think all of us, from one time or another, take for granted.

I think Big Ben said it best:

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

-Benjamin Franklin

While, thoust I am tempted, this is not going to turn into some political tirade. Ben’s quote came to mind, and his quote is in a different context altogether from the subject you’ve read in the headline

You Are Not Cheap. Feel Secure and more Prosperous, trade your passWORDS for passPHRASES.

This is a SIMPLE method to INCREASE your PERSONAL SECURITY instantly. Although, some people (consultants) would charge a hefty price for this advice; this INCREASE IN SECURITY only requires a decision and a swift action. Changing your ‘password’ to a phrase.

Here are some fun passphrases I’ve set in the past for clients.

(Yes, they’ve changed them now, in fact some of them may already have changed and returned back to mary777 or john123)

WeWishYouAmerry2009CHRISTMAS!!!!

Iburied6theHAMinyourfreakinBACKYARD

ERIC-youneedtoquitsmokingITSNOTGOODFORYOURHEALTH1985-2009

RockOUT9erwithyourCO*KOUT

Those are just examples of passphrases. They are MUCH MORE secure than ‘john123′ because they are alphanumeric (numberz and lettahz) use alternative characters. THEY ARE EASIER TO REMEMBER it’s a PHRASE NOT A SINGLE WORD.

CASE IN POINT:

Let’s say you had a friend who you cheated on a gambling debt. OK- maybe you weren’t cheating, you just needed more time to PAY.

You have social networking accounts like a Facebook, a LinkedIN, a Twitter, and maybe a GMail account.

You have a job where you should keep your image nice and professional, let’s say you sell Insurance. You need to AT LEAST portray a professional responsible image.

You are a bit lax and take for granted your ‘password’ or Personal Security. You have a wife named Joan. It is the year 2009. You were born in 1962. Your address is 123 Everany Street.

So you’re friend who you owe a gambling debt to is pissed off, he hasn’t heard from you in weeks. You owe him $750.

Your friend is a bit computer savvy, he even KNOWS a few people who know computers better than him. OK your friend doesn’t even know computers that well, but he’s got some wits doubled with common sense.

Your friend attempts to login your facebook. He tries first eric1962. Fail. eric2009. Fail. ericjoan2009 Access Granted.

Wow – he notices a lot of common acquaintances whom he could communicate with right now, and they would think it’s me!

He is pretty angry about the money so he writes on my Facebook wall.

Friends, Clients, Family: I have a problem right now, I have a gambling debt of $750 and a mortgage payment due tomorrow of $1800. Which one should I pay? Can anyone help me I will pay back soon! Thanks!

He then gets amped up, and decides to try my Gmail. Man I’ve got all my clients personal data in there stored in spreadsheets, confidential company info…

Longer more Nerve-wracking Story cut short.

BE A VIGILANTE AGAINST PASSWORD VULNERABILITY

USE PASSPHRASES.

We’re in a new information age. Information is instant and at anyone’s fingertips. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE THAT YOU PERSONALLY COULD MONITOR YOUR ACCOUNTS 24/7.

Yeah I can get my email anywhere. Yeah, I can give you a contract anywhere. Yeah, I can take your info anywhere.While this ‘Internet thing’ is really freakin’ convenient.

PLEASE REMAIN A VIGILANTE ABOUT THE new VULNERABILITY of your reputation.

Not only your reputation and information, but the new ability of the clumsy to turn others lifes into nightmares.

Turning the lives’ upside down of the same people you love and want to succeed. Your family, friends clients and acquaintances. Your network. Your Ecosystem.

Use Passphrases. Change them often. Use uppercase and lowercase. Use numbers and use symbols.

It’s really important.

I saw these last month, from John Perkins. He wrote a book called ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman” chronicling his career as a consultant for a goverment contractor firm who specialized as representative of the Military-Industrial-Complex, the frontline of fascist globalist politics, serving brute and verbal force notices to newly elected Governments, warning them to swear allegiance the USA or else!

Watch his three part series speech here,

where he issues a

call to action for the people to identify PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE,

The CORPORATOCRACY

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Corporatocracy or Corpocracy is a form of government where a corporation, a group of corporations, or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country.

Corporatocracy is that type of politics,wherein a country is run by a corporation or a group of corporations or government entities with privatisation.

Who controls the Federal Reserve Bank?

Not the people. The Corporatocracy. The Same who Bailed out themselves with your money. They have the ability to dilute your money, and are currently doing so.

END THE FED

Hey I’m not slime,  and anyone who knows me would agree!

This is a great song where Frank Zappa, ever satirical and entertaining, is trying to reveal the BOOB TUBE aka Television to the general population.

He’s also showing Americans how much we are just plain tools when it comes to letting government abuse and manipulate us.

Frank Zappa’s I’m the Slime. Televised LIVE Saturday Night Live 1976. Listen to the announcer talk over Zappa’s song when he says television.

I am gross and perverted
Im obsessed n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little had changed
I am the tool of the government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can’t look away
I make you think Im delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin out
From your tv set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don’t need you
Don’t got for help…no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That’s right, folks..

Don’t touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin along on your livinroom floor

I am the slime from your video
Cant stop the slime, people, lookit me go

Hey America, Whats our tonic of choice?

Censored Mass-Media Oligarchy Corporatocracy TELEVISON

Beware, the Internet is next.

I might be movin’ to Montana soon
Just to raise me up a crop of Dental Floss

Raisin’ it up
Waxen it down
In a little white box
I can sell uptown
By myself I wouldn’t
Have no boss,

But I’d be raisin’ my lonely Dental Floss
Raisin’ my lonely Dental Floss

Well I just might grow me some bees
But I’d leave the sweet stuff
For somebody else…
but then, on the other hand
I’d Keep the wax N’ melt it down
Pluck some Floss N’ swish it aroun’
I’d have me a crop
An’ it’d be on top

(that’s why I’M movin’ to Montana)

Movin’ to Montana soon

Gonna be a Dental Floss tycoon

(yes I am)
Movin’ to Montana soon
Gonna be a mennil-toss flykune
I’m pluckin’ the ol’ Dennil Floss
That’s growin’ on the prairie
Pluckin’ the floss!
I plucked all day an’ all nite an’ all Afternoon…

I’m ridin’ a small tiny hoss
(His name is MIGHTY LITTLE)
He’s a good hoss
Even though He’s a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or
Blanket on anyway
He’s a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or
Blanket on anyway
Any way I’m pluckin’ the ol’ Dennil Floss
Even if you think it is a little silly, folks
I don’t care if you think it’s silly, folks
I don’t care if you think it’s silly, folks
I’m gonna find me a horse
Just about this big
An’ ride him all along the border line
With a Pair of heavy-duty
Zircon-encrusted tweezers in my hand
Every other wrangler would say
I was mighty grand
By myself I wouldn’t
Have no boss
But I’d be raisin’ my lonely Dental Floss
Raisin’ my lonely Dental Floss
Raisin’ my lonely Dental Floss
Well I might Ride along the border
With my tweezers gleamin’
In the moon-lighty night
And then I’d Get a cuppa cawfee
N’ give my foot a push…
Just me ‘n the pymgy pony
Over the Dennil Floss Bush
N’ then I might just Jumb back on
An’ ride Like a cowboy
Into the dawn to Montana
Movin’ to Montana soon

(Yippy-Ty-O-Ty-Ay)

Movin’ to Montana soon

Zappa on CNN Crossfire in 1986

“Why are people afraid of words?”

“I don’t believe that there is any word that needs to be suppressed, there is no scientifical realistic reason why you should suppress words from people.”

“I think if you use these so-called ’strong’ words, I think people get their point across faster and there is no beating around the bush.”

- This is from the 1986 Debate around Suppressing / Censoring Music, Music Videos. This debate is still on the forefront of the game today. Internet Censorship, Government control of Internet is the quest the suppress Words from the people. Words proliferate Ideas, Words describe things, Words are communication and humans aren’t meant to communicate.

Back when I lived in Orlando, my Indian friends had recommended it as an anti-inflammatory agent against some recurring skin boils I had. Back then I was only mixing Turmeric with Luke Warm water and just downin it. The taste was horrible disturbing I would almost vomit. I’m so happy the Philippines awakened me to Salabat (ginger tea), and therefore was encouraged to mix and mash the two keywords, search it on google and voila- Turmeric + Ginger Tea. Tastes Much Better!

Here’s the recipe:

Ginger Root, Cut up a bunch, Stronger the Better

Turmeric, 1TBSP

Sugar, 1TBSP

Pepper, 1Tsp

Procedure:

Fill Pot with Distilled/Spring Water. Cut up Ginger Root. Bring water to a boil, dump the sliced Ginger Root in the boiling water. Add Turmeric and Pepper, Put cover Back on. Let simmer for 10-15 Minutes. Put sugar in your mug as you would with coffee. Pour tea into mug filtering the ginger root with a fork or strainer.

Drink 3 Times per day. Follow with 1 Liter of Water after each serving. Reason is that Turmeric is very dangerous when not hydrated. It will severely de-hydrate you. So Far, I’m on two days but my goal is 10. This is to flush out my liver for all these years, I started in High School, of heavy smoking and drinking.

I bet this will cost you less than USD$10 for the entire 10 days. One Dollar a day your liver is now in-play. Don’t listen to those bozos trying to sell you $100 a month detox plans. Use natures elements. Ayurvedic medicine is something to be admired, and I would trust any Practitioner of  Ayurvedic Medicine anyday over Western Government-Industrial-Complex doctors.

Why the pepper? Something special happens when Pepper meets Curcumin, the active resulting compound of the Turmeric Root.

If you are fortunate enough to live in a tropical environment and young coconut is readily available, I would drink it until you drown.

Benefits:

• Liver Cleansing
• gastrointestinal remedy,
• wounds and skin infections
• chronic stomach upsets
• gastrointestinal disorders
  

  But Wait, There's MORE!

• acne and skin disorders
• arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis
• bad breath and gingivitis
• anti-cancer agent
• prevent hardening of the arteries in people suffering from diabetes
• may help stop cholesterol from forming gallstones
• may prove helpful in the overall fight against Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Fights against MRSA and Staph Infections.

I am always a seeker of unwanted computers, but if you offered me an XT with 128 kilobytes of memory ….

IBM XT

Got it when I was 8 years old, and it weighed a ton.

128k of Memory and my proudest moments with it included programming a batch menu system on startup. This is back in 1993, still innocent, I still haven’t played Nirvana’s Nevermind. My dad got me started in computers and we were spending a lot of time messing with MS-DOS , Norton Commander, Wordperfect Macros and Borland’s Quattro Pro Spreadsheets. Then, I was introduced to Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). At the time I was a boyscout and many of the ‘Cub Masters’ were active on BBS’s so my dad’s knowledge started to grow. Looking back, for me, this was the dawn of the fragmented internet. I remember graduating some level of Boy Scouts and my friend Josh and I being told by my dad that they guy speaking on the stage was the SysOp of Gumby’s World BBS. Being one of the BBSs I dialed into frequently at the time, he seemed like an enigma to me. Long Beard, cowboy hat and spurs and he is in charge of this BBS service, what the heck? Back then, we were connecting to BBS with a 300 baud external modem using DOS Software such as RIPterm. Countless days redialing in RIPterm as BBSs were popular and the SysOP could any allow as many users as he had telephone lines in his house. Getting older now and reflecting, I have much empathy for the men of Boy Scout troupes who have families, jobs, limited time to hone their skills via their hobbies. They needed a way to share and further their hobbies; ASCII Art, Files, Shareware, Porn, and just plain communication, jokes, intelligence, software tips, news, listings Bargain Hunting Computer Shows down at the CCRI Knight Campus, and MIT Flea Market Events were listed and carpooling was offered. Even though these BBS’s weren’t connected to the internet backbone, they were a way for people to get together, share materials, share software, share knowledge, collaborate to over all improve one’s autonomy over the quality of life they lead.

Give the people a place to congregate – and you’ll be amazed what ya’ll come up with – Together! Ok, now you get a Whuffie!

As I get older and become more learned, I see that back then even the same rules apply to life! They didn’t just appear when I saw them! Only when awareness is reached. The Mathematical Principle, Small World Phenomenon and decentralization of search shows us that;

even so far separated I may be from that Dean at Harvard University, yes even you, white-trash city boy; you are still connected to him in some way thru links with other people.

Technology only serves as a catalyst of further contracting the six degrees of separation. Take a look at how the internet works, peer-to-peer file sharing. Network nodes connect to each other through centralized gateways and can be access independently also making them de-centralized. Vector Distance RIP and Link-State RIP

If every person is living, has a brain, has a soul, has a thirst for knowledge on any topic, then, that person will naturally live to locate that knowledge, and the fastest way to obtain that knowledge is usually by conversing with other people.

Networking.

Through this, cliques form and seek to mingle and dance with other like-minded cliques. For most of history this has been limited by geography. You would only network locally in your Church, your Hunter-Gatherer Group.

Today we have no limits.

They say Bad News travels fast; well perhaps it is a natural human safeguard in the checks and balances of small world math?

My Second PC was a $3000 Compaq 486 with 32 megabytes of Memory and a 200 megahertz processor.

With this we were able to run Windows 3.1 and installed it with 20+ 5.25” Floppy Drives.

Yet I don’t think capabilities besides having a Graphical User Interface (GUI) were improved much. This was the age of Microsoft Encarta and being able to watch FDR’s fireside chats on-demand in my living room. This was decentralized knowledge mass-produced. At the same time, National Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) started to heavily advertise themselves to the masses. Prodigy was the first one I remember we subscribed to. I don’t recall email being a main feature of prodigy (we used Juno for that), it was basically an aggregator of news, chat, games, polls, stock and financial news, weather, shopping, quality content and BBS services. This was centralized but with a narrow focus, you could only get the content that Prodigy aggregated for you and presented to you.

Later that year, after my dad getting pissed off about all the CD-ROM’s being used as Frisbees around the yard, we signed up for an America Online (AOL) 100 hour trial.

Though AOL’s GUI was much more user-friendly than Prodigy’s, the features were similar. You had a narrow centralized interface where you could get weather, stock quotes, weather reports, and read content from expert authors writing on popular topics.

You could say that AOL was a pioneer in enabling the masses to adopt email and personal webpages. Within AOL there wasn’t much motivation or ease to leave AOL websites, and the AOL interface to browse the World Wide Web (WWW).

My father, noting our boredom with AOL and Prodigy, then took a big leap and signed us up with a local Internet Service Provider called IDS based in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. IDS did not offer content, no interface, no stock tickers on your screen, no special offers popping up. IDS simply gave you instructions on how to download a web browser at the time we started with Cello then adopted Netscape Navigator. We were able to search internet-wide using Archie and later, Yahoo.

This was quite an experience, like a narrow peak whole widening over night.

My father and I were able to access any type of knowledge we so desired. Totally unrestricted, totally decentralized. Through this, I discovered Internet Relay Chat (IRC) using mIRC, discovered Dalnet, Undernet and soon had off-line penpals in the Philippines and Iceland. I was very fortunate growing up to have such a father who supported my thirst for knowledge. One gentleman in Iceland named Thor-Thor was nice enough to send me glossy travel brochures from his local travel office in Reykjavik Iceland. I was amazed that through this machine I could contact and obtain materials from far-away lands, for free. Talk about decentralization. At a time when the Government was purchasing a few computers (IBM AT’s) for the classrooms in my elementary school, it seemed the teachers were terrified to turn them on. They didn’t know what to do with them. In the fifth grade I remember a Maverick teacher turned them on though didn’t know how to use them, let us play games such as The Oregon Trail. Today, from the Philippines, Tagay to you Mr. Fifth Grade teacher.

This age of local ISP popping up was a notable one, more and more people, ideas, products were able to come together to be offered on a Global Virtual Marketplace.

So, yes, Cluetrain, markets are people and people have conversations. Some conversations were controlled like on AOL or prodigy or CompuServe,  and some conversations were totally liberated and out there in the Wild Wild Web.

Now, as the Obama Administration is about to shove Net Neutrality bill down yer throats, ask yourself, why do we need the government taking helms at the top of the heap of this liberated free network known as the Internet? Now, more than ten years later, there very few local ISPs still operating independently. Like many mom-and-pop business across our great nation, my former local ISP IDS.net was bought out by a large Multinational Conglomerate, and now belongs to One Communications. Granted all ISPs are connected to major internet backbones (Tier 1) such as Verizon (formerly)  UUNet,  AT&T, Sprint , Global Crossing , and so on, there is now a lack of independent power in the Industry. I think Network Neutrality is to govern as the Tier 1 Networks, delegating to all beneath it, via the Government, not the Industry, not the Free-Market. Network neutrally will just be a formal nail on the coffin of a liberated and free internet. Please do not be fooled by the friendly name of the Bill, ‘Network Neutrality’, I see it as a precedent-setter in Government Regulation of the Internet. Content such as this could be censored in the near future. Check it out yourself on Thomas, S 215 IS Internet Preservation Act, Amending the Communications Act of 1934.

First, we the masses adopted BBS’s, de-centralized independent networks. You went there if you found what you like. Then, we adopted ‘Internet’ from America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy. This was centralized in the sense they had large rolls of subscribers, and it was Nationwide. Content was narrow, served, and selected by the ISP.

Next, we migrated and adopted the World Wide Web WWW via Local ISPs. We had complete freedom, we could build our own web server and it would be accessible from any ISP. We chose the sites and the content we wanted to see, and we were repeat visitors. If this was too much for you, your homepage was a Portal such as Lycos, Excite or Yahoo.

Still, to this day, the WWW is wide open.

Government has not yet put their slimy hands on it. They tried with Internet Sales Tax, they tried MPAA fear rulings, now they will try Network Neutrality. It is the same thing only wrapped in a Christmas Ribbon. They are trying at all fronts. They do not encourage free-market competition in the Telecom industry. There are no mom and pops left.

Thanks for letting me share, and I want to leave it off with a song sung by a band named God Ate My Homework. They were a group of Students at UC Berkeley who attempted to start a genre called Nerd Rock. It was hard to find this track; I actually had to go on IRC to get it. So I want to share it for anyone who is looking for tingles reaching back to the past.

What are your thoughts? What are your memories of the early web? What do you think about Network Neutrality? What do you know about it?

Lyrics;
Saw Bill Gates on IRC
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC
He was just tryin’ to get an mp3
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC

I saw the President on the net
I saw the President on the net
He had so many JPEG’s he could get
I saw the President on the net

I saw my admin hackin’ NASA
I saw my admin hackin’ NASA
He said they shoulda shadowed their root pass
I saw my admin hackin’ NASA

[grunge interlude]

I saw Jim Griffin tradin’ warez
I saw Jim Griffin tradin’ warez
He said, “it’s not Geffen’s, so who cares?”
I saw Jim Griffin tradin’ warez

I Saw Bill Gates on IRC
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC
You can’t kill anything that’s free.
I Saw Bill Gates
I Saw Bill Gates
I SAW BILL GATES
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC