Uber cool...



Listen to NPR/WNYC's five-minute audio about NYC subway lines and stations that time forgot...

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/jan/03/new-yorks-lost-subways/

Be sure to check out he interactive map.

In protest of SOPA and to raise awareness of the ill-effects SPOA will have on our internet community, all websites on chazhome.com will be dark today, 18 January 2012.


Many other websites will also be dark in this huge effort.

Please take the downtime to call your elected representatives to tell them what you think of SPOA!

Say it ain't so... Albert and I put in an order for broadband (DSL) for his home (The Ranch) last night! Normally, Rochester Telephone (Frontier) says that he's too far away from the switch room to support DSL and Time Warner (the local cable company) has never run cable down his street -- leaving everyone that comes to "The Ranch" struggling with one static-laden land line for all voice/data communications to the rest of the world.

For the past two years, I've been using my Android Phone as a 3G tether to get some resemblance of broadband so I could work remotely from The Ranch, but the signal is spotty at best and it always falls back to "Edge" (2G) network, which is only a minor step up from dial-up.

We're all crossing our fingers that when the technician shows up on Tuesday the 3rd that they will be able to get DSL with WiFi installed here! Then we can set up the webcams in heaven!

Wish us luck!

Over the past couple of weeks, you've probably heard a lot about the Stop Online Piracy Act (a.k.a. "SOPA"), a bill that aims to combat online piracy and copyright infringement. SOPA focuses on websites promoting or hosting illegal content, as well as giving Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the ability to block websites without prior approval from the government. It would also allow companies to ban certain foreign entities who are deemed to be competing with video services (a primary example is Comcast, who owns NBC - Comcast is able to ban those other entities). The bill has obviously been met with a load of opposition.

Last week, Go Daddy, the world's largest ICANN-accredited registrar, announced that it was a supporter of SOPA. It's customers were very quick to respond to the announcement and called a boycott against Go Daddy. The company's users began moving domains away from Go Daddy to other registrars as well. The next day, however, Go Daddy withdrew its support of SOPA, but that still hasn't pleased many of its customers.

Earlier today, Namecheap, another popular domain registrar, accused Go Daddy of delaying transfers of domains to other registrars, a practice that is against ICANN policies.

Now, one Reddit user, selfprodigy, has declared this Thursday, December 29, "Dump Go Daddy Day," asking customers of the company to move their domains elsewhere. The user stated in a letter written to Go Daddy that he/she has moved away 51 small business websites, as well as personal domains because of the registrar's support of SOPA.

A website, http://godaddyboycott.org, has also been started, asking people to pledge their support of boycotting Go Daddy.

On the eve of what has been dubbed "Dump Go Daddy Day," imgur.com — the massive image hosting sites is responsible for an astonishing 28 terabytes of bandwidth and nearly 200 million page views per day — has already changed its registry entries, foreshadowing the potential negative effect of a boycott set to begin Thursday morning.

GoDaddy.com originally supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) but quickly recanted its position when the call of a boycott circulated. 'The outcry kind of forced our hand,' imgur founder and owner Alan Schaaf said. 'I'm against the SOPA act and imgur as a company is against it. We just feel it is terrible that GoDaddy.com would support this legislation.

To be clear: chazhome.com and many of my other DNS services are registered with Go Daddy currently. Once they expire, I will move my business elsewhere as well, unless Go Daddy takes appropriate action to ensure they DO NOT support SOPA before then.

Website hosting company GoDaddy has officially voiced its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Bill in 2012, which is designed to thwart movie and music piracy on the Internet by empowering copyright holders to effectively shut down websites or online services found with infringing material.

If passed, the U.S. government could blacklist any website it deems in violation of copyright, which could range from a few posts in a Web forum to a few links sent in an e-mail. Furthermore, a little-noticed section of the Stop Online Piracy Act could make it illegal to distribute Tor or other software that can "circumvent" attempts by the U.S. government to block pirate Web sites. link

GoDaddy supports SOPA for 'protecting the intellectual property of hard-working Americans, U.S. business and the American public from the harm that necessarily flows from the purchase of counterfeit products.' Yet, of the 142 companies that support the SOPA bill, GoDaddy is the only Internet company on the list.

Some people started boycotting GoDaddy earlier in 2011 when their CEO, Bob Parsons, went to Africa to get his rocks off killing an elephant for sport. (I agree with cybernanga's comment: "I'm not anti-hunting, but I am anti-hunting endangered animals, especially if there is no cultural norms involved, and I am definitely anti-hunting if your sole motivation is just to kill something for fun."); however, backing SOPA is unforgivable.

I have many domains at Go Daddy, which I will NOT be renewing when they expire and will take my business elsewhere. There is a boycott forming at this time... read more

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And oh, yeah -- happy Festivus!

DISCOUNT ADMISSION!

Thanks to the lack of sun, increased rain and other extreme weather changes, it seems that my S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is kicking in early this year.

Several comedians have made fun of S.A.D., such as Dennis Leary, who says: "Drink a couple of beers and shovel some snow -- that's how you deal with winter." -- Well, I wish it were that simple.

Many doctors recommend light therapy. During light therapy, you sit or work near a device called a light therapy box. The box gives off bright light that mimics natural outdoor light. Light therapy is thought to affect brain chemicals linked to mood, easing S.A.D. symptoms. Using a light therapy box may also help with other types of depression, sleep disorders and some other conditions. Light therapy is also known as bright light therapy or phototherapy.









Sounds simple until you try to work next to a bright light box, or waste hour upon hour daily with a light box glowing on you. Doesn't that look like so much fun!! (Going to a "New Christy Minstrels" concert would be exciting in comparison!)

I'd prefer not to be on an "artificial" happiness pill.

So, I've learned to isolate myself and deal with my manic mood swings without bringing down everyone around me. I ward off suicidal thoughts with travel to bright/warm or different environments, which tends to work.

What do you do to ward off the winter doldrums?

I received a private message in my LiveJournal inbox from kyriakos_of_lj

WHen I try to reply, using LiveJournal's very own "reply" command, I get this error:

"There was an error processing your request:

- This message cannot be sent to kyriakos_of_lj because the recipient has enabled the privacy options for their messages."

What the frack does that mean?

Oh, and if you're wondering, when I go to "Kyriakos the Reckless'" LiveJournal profile and click "send message", just as before, I can write a nice message but when I press "Send", I get the same error.

Why would LiveJournal do that?!?

Damit Jim! I'm a Doctor, not a Plumber!!!

I survived the 2011 Earthquake earlier this week... Our entire building's air conditioning system failed last week (for temperatures exceeding 32C!) Now the weather is getting wonky with a hurricane coming up the coast --- with predictions that NYC will get three metres or more of rain/flood water (as it did in the storm of 1938.)

But just when things look bleak... Just when things truly awful, they get worse:

SOME BUGGER AT WORK HAS BEEN EATING MY LUNCHES AND DRINKING MY BEVERAGES FROM THE SHARED FRIDGE!! -- WHAT A FUCKING TWAT!!!

To make this worse, I'm on an executive floor which requires badge access -- not just anyone can get to this floor, let alone get into the staff pantry. We're all middle-aged professionals making plenty of money. Many of us typically go out for lunch (which in this neighbourhood tends to cost $10 or more.)

What kind of sick, twisted person (who can obviously afford their own food) eats a co-worker's food??!?!?

Well -- shocks and surprises await next week, as I won't poison my food, but I will surely have some things most people wouldn't want to put in their mouth, let alone their digestive tract!! Durian is the least of their concerns.

Send your bodily fluid donations to be fed to Wall Street food thieves sealed in Tyvek envelopes to:

Spunk & Shit Sandwiches for Wall Street
c/o The "I can't believe it's NOT Nutella" Campaign
PO Box 104280
New York, NY 10005-4280

As much fun as it might be for some of my mates to know that some hot-shot, rich-bitch hedge-fund trader is unknowingly eating their 'spunk and spuds' for lunch, I'm not being serious asking for your donation -- but trust me, I will be planting some everyday, good-looking, yummy food items that will cause some serious gastrointestinal distress... More on this later, after I hear the cries of pain in the loo!

Hummmmm, what are the legal ramifications of knowingly putting tainted food in the shared fridge at work if someone gets sick or dies? Is there a precedence? Any advice is welcome -- but I believe this person/these people are asking for a cider vinegar and red-pepper sauce treat. I'm not offering them my food, they are stealing it.