The truth about Wayne McAlpine and Oneworld

Update December 2016

Wayne is still up to his old tricks

Wayne McAlpine is a bully and appears to stop at nothing to get his way. He has threatened me at least twice with "dirty tricks" unless I removed negative commentary about him and his companies.
He engaged in at least two campaigns of intimidation to try to get me to do so. The first he thought that I was an employee of an auto shop and the second an incorporated company.

The incident started out with a comment that I made about the viability of the OneWorldDataRecovery service. All I said was that I thought that it sounded too good to be true. I was right.

"..... lets get on a call together about safe disk. It was a joint venture between bit defender and oneworld to help drive their sales and the project failed. Anyone that purchased safe disk insurance was dealt with. The volumes were not there to support the company, which almost bankrupted the company" 

The comment on my blog was responded to by Wayne himself and one of his employees, Johsua Sham. Joshua Sham was posing as a "satisfied customer".

I did not talk with either Wayne McAlpine or Joshua Sham at the time and I eventually pulled the blog postings as I got bored with the response that it was getting from visitors to the blog. That would have been an end to it, however, I then received a number of emails and information from someone who claimed to be a former associate and/or employee of Wayne McAlpine. This led me to re-post some of the information and look deeper into OneWorld Networks.

It would appear that my first assessment of Wayne McAlpine was correct.
Subsequently to my original posting on OneWorldDataRecovery I found some (what I thought was interesting) information that related to the securing of web forms. This observation was not meant as a criticism of Wayne McAlpine or OneWorld, however, the reaction to finding this information says a lot about how Wayne McAlpine and his companies operate.

As an example, here is a comment that was left on my original blog post on my doubts on the OneWorldDataRecovery product:
Wow, this guy Wayne McAlpine is a real jerk. If that's the response when you ask for help with their software, imagine what will happen when you send your drive to him for a recovery. 

The comment was in response to the link that another visitor to the blog posted that related to an example of how Wayne does business - this time it was in relation to OneWorldStoreFront software.

An example of how Wayne carries out customer service. Please note that the screenshot above is NOT my words they were taken from the link sent to my blog (see above)

There is also another name Rick Heidrick listed with a 1wn email - I am not sure if this is related (I really don't care)

On the subject of OneWorldStoreFront, again something that I have no interest in, another poster of a comment on my blog (most likely Bill P under the name peterathome) - there was another diatribe from Wayne regarding that:
More evidence of continued harassment brought to the police. Including Peterathome.

And
First of all the program was written by mr. Hithenboggen who now has mall 23 and who was the lead programmer on the one world storefront. Candy press stole the base code from oneworld, got caught and then proceeded to build in .net to avoid a lawsuit. The code started off as an ecommerce exchange for another business.
Canypress originated from free version of comersus cart where they added a few modules. The backend design was stolen from oneworldstorefront. So get your facts straight before you fling your bs.

I really don't care about all this and am really not interested in what the origin of the OneWorld product or CandyPress - I do take exception to the BS reference (however, this could be aimed at peterathome)
The reason that the anonymous comments (quoted in green above) are re-posted here is that I deleted the original blog posting and I think that a full paper-trail needs to be presented.

Ashland, Kansas
Branson, Missouri
Pointe-Claire, Quebec 
Cobourg, Ontario
Saskatoon

How your individual device can be identified on the Internet

This page was a "work in progress March 2012. It does show the potential of a vulnerability when IPv6 is fully implemented.

• Systems and programming on The Technology Muse
• Performing a reverse IP look-up

Your individual computing device can be identified even if you are connecting from behind a firewall or NAT device such as a router. 

    The advent and/or implementation of a ICMPv6 Router. 

Here are a few observations that I have made looking for information about my own identity as it appears to the outside world.

Making a search for IP look-up services I came across a service called IP-Lookup.com

The IP-Lookup site reports my correct IPv4 address and claims to also know a little about my IPv6 identity. However, this doesn't seem  to agree with the information, seen below from running ipconfig:

• RFC 4443 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification  

-----------------------------

Configuring a Hackintosh

These are my notes regarding the configuration of a computer that is using Windows hardware but is running the Apple OSX operating system.

• The hardware requirements for a Hackintosh (as per the Lifehacker website) 
• The LifeHacker Website
• The BIOS/UEFI specifications for a Macintosh

I remain to be convinced that the concept of a Hackintosh is a viable one. Sure if you want to have an OSX powered computer with the fastest processor and memory that you can buy, but the current line from Apple are no slouches. If you are trying to build a Macintosh cheaper that what you can buy one for, I think that you are under an illusion.

Using an iPad to blog

• Using a tablet for Business
• Using a tablet to administer a website
• All pages related to tablets on The Technology Muse

Having purchased an iPad 3 (The New iPad), I wanted to find a use for the old iPad.With a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard the ability to edit is a lot easier. However there seem to be a few things that do not work when it comes to the complete maintenance of a blog. This could be due to the fact that some of the Blogger code is Flash-based.At a pinch the iPad could be used on the road but as the primary device to update the blog it is still lacking.

I also tried this experiment with Asus Prime and Transformer Android Tablets using the Blogger App for Android.

The positioning of the edit window on the iPad screen seems to be a little weird. I will have to look to see if there is a Blogger App and see if that is any better. Using the Web interface is a little "challenging". Spell check and the ability to edit in HTML don't seem to be present.

I downloaded the Blogger app for the iPhone etc. - as it is an interface for a competing platform I was not expecting much from it. In fact it is better suited to the iPhone and touch and the web-based interface is actually better if you want to maintain your blog on an iPad.

• How to Blog on the iPad effectively -  appculture.net September 2010 (I think - if this is an example of BlogPress - where are the dates?) - it also makes me think, if you want to Blog on the road why not use a Netbook?
• Sounds like the WordPress iPad app is waste of space.

DNSExit

DNSExit are another DNS service provider

Links:

• DNS services - an analysis of the various options that you have
• Running a webserver from your domestic Internet connection

AVS Video Converter 6

AVS4you.com

AVS4You running with a 6 core processor

I use Handbrake out of preference.

I downloaded AVS Video Converter for evaluation. For a product that you have to pay for it was not as good as the free Handbrake program.

Links:

• All pages relating to copying digital media and DRM on The Technology Muse
• AVS4you compared to Handbrake 

FileMaker

I seem to get a lot of Blog Spam from filemaker.com

I am not sure what value this product brings to the iPad.

Is a VPN Useless for BitTorrent?

A recent expose (scare tactic) featuring on TorrentFreak suggests that a "Huge Security Flaw...." makes the  use of a VPN based on a PPTP system such as The Pirate Bay's iPredator and Relakks are useless when it comes to protecting your torrenting  identity.

The vulnerability seems to revolve around the ability of the new ipv6 stack having the capability to embed your IP (IPv4) address even though you are torrenting through an IPv4 connection to the Internet and have no IPv6 connection active.

This is a rebuttal from the iPredator website:

Please notice the wording: "...... (if you are behind a router with NAT only the internal number will be compromised"). This is pretty much the case with everyone! So not only does this only apply to Windows 7 and newer Microsoft operating systems (you will be safe if you are torrenting using WindowsXP), the fact that IP addresses of the form: 102.168.1.100 are exposed - big deal! 

However, this is not likely to be the case when true IPv6 connectivity is implemented

Links related to VPN's and Torrenting:

• How to select an Independent VPN service
• Tunneling - the encryption of network traffic
• Ipredator - The Pirate Bay's VPN - has had some doubts regarding its security by TorrentFreak
• Relakks - another solution
• Torrenting pages on The Technology Muse 

Using Google Analytics with Blogger

During the time that I have been using Google Analytics I have found it to be very useful as a web administration tool.

When used with a traditional website hosted on a server, such as Apache, combined with the analysis of visitor logs, it gives a pretty comprehensive suite of tools to enable the crafting of content.

Never-the-less, Google Anlaytics can be used on its own as a powerful tool. You do not see the exact query string as seen in the visitor logs but you do see the conversions of the IP address into location and you also see the search string and other information relating to a visit.

Due to the fact that I am rebuilding my website in the Blogger format, the use GA is now very important to me. I no longer have access to the actual server logs but the analysis using GA gives me enough to see where the visits are from and what people are looking for.

I am in the process of rebuilding an internal link structure for the blog in a similar way that that I used in the website. One of the major things that I found with the blog as it was, was that visitors would not "click-on" to other pages after finding my posts. This was why I started to use the website, privately hosted, as I had far more control over the presentation. Subsequently to my initial forays into using Blogger I now find that the privately hosted website is too vulnerable to attack. These attacks have taken many forms and I have decided to let Google be my defense against such attacks.

Canadian tax filing deadline

The April 30th tax deadline is just a date for which is only relevant it you owe tax.

I wouldn't mind betting that this is a very small percentage of the tax paying public.

True, if you are due a refund then you want to get your return in as soon as possible. This has got nothing to do with the deadline. This is nothing to do with the advertizing campaign that Inuit seem to use - they are talking about a MAXIMUM REFUND and hopefully an accurate return. If you are after a maximum refund and you know that you are due one (you have made some deductible investments or you want to realise a capital loss ***) you maybe better off taking your time with your return.

**** the loss has to be in the year you are filing it or possibly carried over from past years - it is too late to sell and make a loss on a stock in 2012 and claim it on your 2011 return (did anyone say RIM!!!!?)

I really don't understand the Tax software industry, surely they would be better off not trying to scare their customer base into filing before they are ready.

Skydrive vs. Google Drive

Maybe I am just too "old school" but I am not impressed with these offerings. Having worked out how to configure my own Cloud Storage solutions and how to make all the data and files available on the devices that I want, I can't really see what these two products bring to the table.

The biggest barrier to entry for me with Microsoft's Skydrive is the same one as I have with Messenger and Hotmail - I have to log-in to Windows Live.
The problem I have with Live is that whenever I do the device that I try and use a Live application on seems to get "polluted" with things that I don't want and will never use.

To be fair, the same can be said about the Google Cloud Solution - here I have to log-in to my Google account. However, the reason that this is less onerous for me is that I use GMail, Google Analytics and Blogger. I do not use many of the other Google apps such as Google Docs or Code - there are many other "waste of time apps" that I don't need to mention.

As far as which service is "best" - time will tell. All I know there is little to be gained from a "pissing match" on who offers the most free storage. How much does physical storage cost these days!!?

ZoneEdit Problems and Twitter

There seems to be little point in having a Twitter feed if there is no useful information regarding the outage posted on it?

Please post a comment and tell everyone what you think

Update: ZoneEdit website is now up [5:27 EST] - but you still cannot log-in:

This update was made after following Twitter - not many replies from @ZoneEdit

On the positive side, all this time the DNS service seemed to have been running. However, you would have been SOL if your IP address had changed.

If I were still using the ZoneEdit my website would have remained up all this time. The only reason that I know that the service was having problems was that I chanced to try and log in to my account (2 days ago). I have no idea how long the admin functions had been down before that as the last time I was in there was at the beginning of the month.
A made a blog post on the chance that there were others that were seeing problems - boy! was I right.

The take-away from this is: If the admin interface goes down and is not explained, what is to say that the actual DNS service will actually fail....... We are not going to get an explanation in a timely manner.

There must be thousands of ZoneEdit users that are totally unaware that there was a problem over the last few days. Still, unlike Twitter, this blog post will remain for those that search for problems with ZoneEdit

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

• Alternative DNS services 
• DNS Zone Management

DNS Zone Management

As ZoneEdit seems to be down and I was interested in how to assign my domain name so that it could be pointed at a Google Blogger blog, I have been taking another look at the DNS Management offerings of my domain registrar.

It now looks like I don`t need to use a service such as ZoneEdit anyway.  Reading the Google help for using your own domain name for your blog I was confused that ZoneEdit did not have a specific setting for CNAME referrals.

It now looks like I can set my A records to whatever IP address that I like and I can use my registrars nameservers. This is new and was not available when I started to use ZoneEdit.

My nameservers are still set to ZoneEdit`s default servers - at the present time this is OK as I am not currently maintaining tempusfugit.ca as an  independently hosted website.

It also looks like I could set my website (Domain) to point at a Google Blogger blog. I am not doing so at the present time. I now have the option of either resurrecting my own server or using Google.

ZoneEdit RIP

It would seem that the ZoneEdit website is not even reachable today (first noticed last night after the earlier problems in logging in to make changes).

This does not look good for those that were relying on ZE to configure their websites. Luckily I made the changes to tempusfugit.ca when it was still up and running. The domain is still resolving to the correct IP address:

tempusfugit.ca is still resolving to 184.71.94.1

I am not currently running anything on www.tempusfugit.ca as I have effectively "parked" it. If I had not done this earlier my domain would still resolve to my old IP address. I guess in this event I could have always changed the nameserver settings on my domain registration.

When ZoneEdit was running and I could login I found that the changes to the IP address settings for the A records (@ and www) took a matter of minutes to ripple through to the Internet:

As you can see the NS (Nameserver) records are still specified as the ZoneEdit defaults. If I should change my DNS provider I can change these NS records on the configuration screen for my domain registration.

To preserve anonymity I also changed my contact information with ZoneEdit. This ensures that if they sell their database of users my contact information does not get sold with it. Again, I could not do this if I cannot log-on to the ZoneEdit website.

The ZoneEdit email forwarding is also still working. If this fails I may have to transfer my tempusfugit.ca mail over to a package that my domain registrar offers (I have one of these already for another domain).

Other posts on this blog relating to ZoneEdit

• How to configure ZoneEdit Mail Forwarding

AMD Fusion Utility Recovery

It would seem that my cheap hardware may be showing its heritage!

The screen-shot below was taken from my Acer AO522 when it boots. It would appear that the AMD Fusion Recovery utility is loading a "recovery" power profile. The consequence of which is that the settings that I had configured are now reset (the behaviour of closing the lid etc) and I have to reset the profile to "Power Saver".

It now seems that when I switch on my Acer One AO522 it loads the recovery profile. This seems to be coupled with the fact that I have a small amount of flicker on the screen (I have had this for some while however). I guess I can't complain about a laptop that cost just over $200 (brand new). It is not the powerhouse that I would like but I still have a hard time justifying an Mac Book Air. If it fails I will probably fall back to one of the other laptops and possibly user the iPad one a little more.

I have not, knowingly, invoked the AMD Fusion Recovery Utility and as such I do not know for certain why the recovery profile is being loaded. I think that I have "shot myself the foot" as I attempted to use the AMD Fusion Desktop program to control the clock speed of the Netbook/Notebook. Looking at the AMD website you can see that the utility was not designed for portable devices.

Links:

• The AMD Fusion Utility for Desktops
• Catalyst Control Center

Teredo tunneling

The impact of the IPv6 world

Teredo is a transition technology that gives full IPv6 connectivity for IPv6-capable hosts which are on the IPv4 Internet but which have no direct native connection to an IPv6 network. Compared to other similar protocols its distinguishing feature is that it is able to perform its function even from behind network address translation (NAT) devices such as home routers.

Links:

• Systems programming on The Technology Muse
• How the implementation of IPv6 is going to affect anonymity
• IPv6 discussed on The Technology Muse
• Methods of mitigation of IPv4 address exhaustion

ZoneEdit Web interface down

It is my suspicion that the ZoneEdit web interface is currently down. (please note that this was on the 23 April 2012 - if you have been searching for ZoneEdit problems after that then this is not the post for you)

Making searches I find that it has been relatively frequently in the past and has even been target of DDOS attacks. I am not saying that this is the case at the present time but I am unable to log on to my account to change my DNS settings.

The DNS services still seem to be working and my domain is resolving through their nameservers to the IP address that I set up before.

The email forwarding is also still working.

This is only of minor inconvenience as I am not relying on the service at the present time. It may, however be vindication that I moved my reliance from their services last month.

I will continue to try and log on - the message that I get it that a bad server response was returned (or some other nonsense message - I get the same message if I try and confirm my password using their in-line tool). In the unlikely even that others are experiencing the same problem, and for historical record, this post is for that purpose.

• Alternative services to ZoneEdit

Foursquare

• More sharing crap!

A spam email that I received 22 April 2012:

Hey there - Just a heads up that Lisa Armstrong has approved your friend request on foursquare.

 

An example of what can crawl out of the woodwork!

• Emails that are received telling you that you have been invited to Foursquare

I am not a member of FourSquare and I have no intention of being one. In my opinion this is just another one of the stupid "apps" that programmers dream up to make money out of Social Media.

My advice is to ignore all the requests from FourSquare and its presumed members adding or approving you and to stay well away from FourSquare in any form. I have similar feelings towards Groupon, who I also think are a bunch of "chancers" 

Blogger Anonymity

Researching how to get your domain name to point at a Blogger blog I came across the following:

• You Own Your Blog Anonymously - The Real Blogger Status - what  Blogger won't tell you

A quote from the link above:

"When you open an account with Google...... The only thing required here is that you provide a unique and valid account name. No verification of your personal identity is ever required"

Asus Webstorage

I have tried to use Asus Web Storage but I have given up as I found the interface to be confusing and the service was generally too slow.

I tried to use the Asus offering of "Cloud Storage" as a means to offer downloads from my website.I have subsequently moved on from this and currently use DropBox to share files over the Internet. While this may not be as secure as some would like, I would not recommend this for secure backup, the interface is clean and easier to understand and use.

My first Rogers LTE bill

Was a massive 19 cents!

True it was only for the first few days of usage of the New iPad but I did use 6.764MB.

The data usage bonus ends Jun 13/2012

The savings were $36.99 - the Flex Rate Plan is 5MB for $37 - so I am not quite sure how this works out. The additional charge for usage over 5MB is 2 cents per MB
(the savings were for the activation fee waiver)

However, that represents a couple of days doing and going anywhere we wanted on the Internet. I am sure that the novelty will wear off by the 13th of June

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• LTE IPv6

Defective By Design

While I am cognisant of the problems with Digital Rights Management, I do not countenance the unreserved support of organizations such as DBD.

International Day Against DRM — May 4, 2012

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users.

I support the use of FOSS but the goals of DBD and FSF seem to project a mixed message. Most "paid" software is not OSS and has the right to be protected by DRM.

Open Graph

Facebook's Open Graph - why the "sharing" is going to eventually fail.

More and more stories are emerging with critics of ability of Facebook Apps to share information that you don't necessarily want shared.

While the concept of sharing what you "like" with your friends may seem like a good idea, I think that once you work out what is really going on you will not want to do so.

• Open Graph on the Facebook Developers page
• The Open Graph protocol    - .... this is used on Facebook to allow any web page to have the same functionality as any other object on Facebook.
• The Facebook Platform and the Open Graph protocol on WikiP
• Facebook F8: One graph to rule them all  - Caroline McCarthy CNET, April 21, 2010
• How Facebook is ruining sharing -- Molly Wood CNet, November 18, 2011
• Yahoo! is a Facebook API molester Jason Perlow, ZDNet 18 April 2012
• The backlash to all this sharing as I see it 
• My campaign to boycott the "Like" and "+" buttons

NetworkClean

• Comment on Social Media on The Technology Muse
• The New Sharing

An interesting development. I have been saying for sometime that there was going to be a backlash from users that are concerned about their on-line reputation.

I just received an email from NetworkClean, SAVING FACE ON FACEBOOK.

The concerns that I have with this is that, while I know I have a clean profile on Facebook, I would be a little concerned about letting a piece of software from a company that I had never heard of having access to my Facebook account.

Yahoo! and the probable use of the Open Graph Protocol:

This is similar to the Yahoo! is a Facebook API molester article by Jason Perlow, ZDNet, !8 April 2012:

Jason reports:
Once you’ve authorized Yahoo that first time, all future reads of articles on their web sites are also posted to your profile, whether you like it or not. The only way to stop it is to remove the app authorization in your Facebook privacy settings. Which I promptly did after one of my friends alerted me as to what was going on.

Giving permission to an organization even less well known than Yahoo seems a little foolhardy to say the least. NetworkClean maybe more ethical than the Yahoos and Googles of this world but they are new kids on the block and have yet to show their colours.

Hopefully they will provide a service that Facebook users can use to control what it in their on-line persona's. I would say that it is too early to say and in any case I do not have anything on Facebook that I would not want any of my friends to see.

The subject of where this "sharing" is going has been a concern to me for a while. It also seem that I was not alone:
How Facebook is ruining sharing Molly Wood CNet, November 18, 2011

The connection between terry bradshaw and wayne mcalpine

The search "The connection between terry bradshaw and wayne mcalpine"  found this blog today (18 April 2012).
Post Updated 25 May 2012

The search was made from London, Ontario and the pages that were visited were the Unsafe Web Form, Page Tracking and the Comment page.

The visit to the comment page was strange as there was no reference to either Wayne McAlpine or Terry Bradshaw on that posting. However, it was the title of a page that was on my website that did comment on the connection between the two and made a comment on the business practices exhibited by Wayne McAlpine.

The screen-shot above was taken from Google search made 17th April 2011 (not 2012)

RAD Media Corp are obviously connected to OneWorld Office and Terry Bradshaw - Terry Bradshaw can clearly be seen on the VATSIS website as a Director and CEO - where his success at OneWorld are cited.  OneWorld Data Recovery services had an email address for terry.bradshaw@radmediacorp.com

The email address was also seen in the dump from the Oneworld website when the contact form crashed. The only reason that I was looking at the Oneworld website at the time was that I was not convinced that it was a viable service. I had seen an advertisement on a CanadaComputers webpage for their disk recovery service. I expressed an opinion to that effect both on my blog and website.

As this was a web form and I was researching various form scripts at the time, I tried to break it. I did this with all forms that I found on the Internet (not just this one), the principle here was to learn as much as I could about the vulnerabilities of such forms.

---------------------------------------------

The experiments with web forms was before I had any communication with anyone associated with OneWorld. To suggest that the only reason for posting the contents of the web form was in any way an attempt at discrediting the company is ludicrous. It was MUCH later that I was reminded that there was a connection between Terry Bradshaw and Wayne McAlpine. The original search for radmediacorp.com was made 17th April 2011 - this was because I received an email (BP) that got me interested again. My original communication with Joshua Sham was in May 2009 (link).

QuickTax Bob has been replaced by Nicole at TurboTax

The Turbo Tax Blog seems to have a lot of posts by Nicole but not a lot of comments.

Could this be an attempt at "Social Marketing"?

Only 2 Weeks Left - Taxes Due April 30th!

.... is what they are telling us.More like they want us to think that they really care!

Don't get me wrong, I think that TurboTax is a great product - it is just the Social Marketing that I take issue with.

CheckInSave

The following is an email that I was sent to solicit a review on this blog:

Are you writing about Social Media or mobile apps these days? I think I have a story for You and The Technology Muse.

The mobile 'Checking In' phenomena is taking off among smartphone users Worldwide - Now consumers are rewarded for sharing!  CheckinSave is a combination of Groupon (without the Greed) and Foursquare (without the Game) -  a new mobile App that allows users to gain points by ‘checking in’ to venues such as restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, etc., and more points when their Twitter Followers or Facebook Friends check in to the same venues. The accumulated points can be used to get discounts and CheckinSave offers partner venues a free, open platform to harness the power of social media marketing. 


With Groupon seemingly imploading by the day... perhaps CheckinSave is a story angle that you can sink your teeth into. Do you think this could be an interesting story for The Technology Muse enthusiasts?


Please let me know if you'd like a press code so that you can load up on points to help you test-drive CheckinSave?
 
Links:

• The New Sharing
• Foursquare  
• Blog Spam - this is what I see Checkinsave as

Torbutton Firefox 11

TorButton does not work with Firefox versions 11 and newer. The last, and current version of the Tor software has a version 10 as its browser. The functionality and the benefits of being able to toggle Tor is discussed at great length on the Vidalia website. You do not need TorButton to use Tor for anonymity - you can use Tor with any version of Firefox including 11.

Torbutton did not work with Firefox 4 when I tried it. I am currently running Firefox 11 on my computers.

When you download the Tor package from the Onion Project you will get an option of the "secure browser" or components from the Vidalia suite. I download both.

The "Secure Browser" package installs itself with a version of Firefox that is pre-configured with TorButton. The version of Firefox that I downloaded with this package is an earlier version to version 11, although Vidalia say that there is a newer version available.

I did download the Tor module on its own and I configured it for use with Firefox, I was not sure what version of Firefox was at the time but Tor definitely worked with it as I was able to configure the torrc file so that it looked as if I was in India. I did this so that I could get the local pricing of leather goods on an Indian website. Visiting the website in question from Canada did not give me prices in Rupees.

I am currently using Firefox 13 for my main browser and FF 10 when I use Tor. This is not because I cannot configure Tor to use with version 13 it is just a lot easier to go with the software as downloaded from Vidalia Tor "as is" than to struggle with a fresh copy. I can even get Tor to exit in the country of my choosing by the editing of torrc.

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More posts on this blog relating to Tor and TorButton:
Also search the blog for others

• Tor Pages on The Technology Muse
• Torbutton and Firefox 4 
• TorButton for Firefox 12
• How to locate and edit torrc
• Download TorButton for Firefox 11

Innocent Dissemination

According to WikiP Innocent Dissemination:

A person who is found to have published a defamatory statement may evoke a defence of innocent dissemination, which absolves him/her of liability provided that he/she had no knowledge of the defamatory nature of the statement, and that his/her failure to detect the defamatory content was not due to negligence. The defence, sometimes also known as "mechanical distributor", is of concern to Internet Service Providers because of their potential liability for defamatory material posted by their subscribers.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocent_dissemination 

The other defense for libel is that what you said was the truth.

Guardian article on "Battle for the Internet"

Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin - Guardian, 15 April 2012, Ian Katz

The statements by Google's Sergy Brin are just what I have been saying all along.

The threats to Web freedom in the insistence on a "real names" and government "policing" of their citizens Internet activity is coming to a head.

I have been saying all along that the information that is known by those that provide Internet services, Facebook and the like (Google are not immune themselves), is putting the ability to remain anonymous more and more difficult.

Google say: "If we could wave a magic wand and not be subject to US law" they would. They also say they "push back" whenever they can but they are very clear on what they will "take down" and respond to with respect to copyright, defamation and privacy.

Anti-Virus Comparative report

Just a few observations on the report.

The report seems to be relatively unbiased seeing as ESET have their name associated with it. It is surprising that AVG, Norman, Trend Micro and McAfee did not participate in the tests.

I have posted my own evaluations of various A-V products over the time that I have been maintaining this blog.

This is the pdf:

• Anti Virus Comparative

A report from AV-Comparatives e.V.

My point was that if ESET are one of the companies that participated in the test/report I would not have expected it to be impartial.  Also the fact there there were some "major players" that did not participate was something to note.

Links:

• Systems pages on The Technology Muse
• Anti-Virus pages

Rogers ITE iPad Data Plans

The sign-up for a data plan for the New iPad was surprisingly easy

The `Flex`plan seemed like a good idea.

The No activation fee and UNLIMITED for first 2 months also sounded too good.

It does make me think what the plan that was offered to me at BestBuy when I purchased the 3 New iPads last month. I seem to remember that there was a $100 coupon that would effectively give you a $40 cash back (after deducting the $5 per month for a year).

What I don`t understand is how that the BB plan was better as the first 2 months are likely to be the high usage months and if there wasn`t an unlimited period it would be easy to burn through $37 (or more) in the first 2 months.

I would not be surprised that the usage will be quite manageable after the novelty has worn off. The monthly usage is likely to be in the 200M range - we shall see. Even if the 250M tier is exceeded the $37 is not too bad.

What a Nameserver is and what it does

• Systems
• DNS Services
• ZoneEdit Free DNS Service

When an Internet user makes a request for a website the request is passed by your ISP over the Internet backbone to all the Nameservers that are connected to it. The Nameserver that contains (I am not going to use the word "host" here as that could mean something else) the information about the site you are trying to reach then resolves the URL into the IP address of the website that is requested along with the page that was requested.

The information that allows the resolution of a Domain Name to an IP address is stored in a Zone File. This Zone File is maintained by an entity that runs the Name Server.

This is not necessarily the same as the description of how Google say that you can point your domain name to a Blogger Blog.
The setting of the CNAME to ghs.google.com and then setting the A records to the 4 servers specified by Google.
Also the TTL (Time to Live) setting is 3600 on the Google instructions.

• Time to Live on WikiP

However, what I do know is that I had a working website  by using ZoneEdit and setting Name Servers there. My registrar of my domain name does not allow me to assign CNAME referrals on their configuration screens.

ZoneEdit Free DNS Service

ZoneEdit provide free DNS services that allow you administer a website for no cost. They also offer additional nameservers for a subscription. The adding of these servers is supposed to increase the visibility and "up-time'' of your website.

Part of the ZoneEdit Terms of Service as it relates to the surrender of  information.

ZoneEdit administers nameservers and keeps a record of the domains that are using that service. It does this for billing purposes. If you are using the free service you are not billed and as such there is no need to use your real name and address.

Links:

• DNS Zone Management
• What a Nameserver is and what it does
• DNS Services
• Alternative DNS services
• How to use ZoneEdit to host a free website  
• The personal information held by ZoneEdit

DNS Services

This is my post that explains my use of DNS services and how I selected the one that I used.

Prior to my website rebuild I was using the services of ZoneEdit. I still have a ZoneEdit account but my website is no longer resolved by the service. I retain it in case that I wish to re-instate the website.

I subsequently obtained a Cisco Residential Gateway and notice that I can do similar operations with that.

DynDNS.com are partnered with Cisco and offer DNS services that can be configured in their routers and Residential Gateways. This subscription service can be used to host a website on your residential Internet connection.

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Links:

• DOCSIS Modem Specifications
• What a Nameserver is and what it does
• Alternative DNS services - research I carried out just in case ZoneEdit failed

DOCSIS Cable Modem Specification

DOCSIS - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification

• System pages
• DOCSIS on WikiP 
• IPv6 and the potential loss of anonymity 

I have recently upgraded to a DOCSIS 3.0 Residential Gatway.  I think that my previous cable modem was DOCSIS 2.0. It is not clear whether it is just the speed capabilities of DOCSIS 3.0 are the major reasons for the upgrade - trials with download speeds of 1.5 Gbit/s and upload of 150 Mbit/s based on DOCSIS3.0

The implementation of IPv6 is the area of interest for me and its implications for system security.

Quoting from the WikiP page:
DOCSIS 2.0 was released in December 2001. Most recently, the specification was revised to significantly increase transmissions speeds (this time both upstream and downstream) and introduce support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). This version, DOCSIS 3.0, was released in August 2006. 

My concerns about the loss of anonymity

As the DOCSIS specification and implementation has the potential of much more precise addressing it would appear that the technology would allow individual devices to be connected to the Internet directly. The use of a router, as in the days of IPv4 will be less of a requirement.

The fact that Cisco name their current modem/routers "Residential Gateways", to me, is an indication of this. However, as we are still in a largely IPv4 world the "gateway" assigns local LAN addresses to individual devices connecting to the Internet through it. The way that I see this developing is that this eventually will not be the case and the gateway will connect your device directly to the Internet with no NAT (Network Address Translation)

Splashtop Remote Desktop

Splashtop Inc is a privately held software company based in San Jose, CA

What Splashtop Inc. say about their products:

A computer with the Splashtop Streamer can receive connections from any device running Splashtop Remote Desktop , FileHound , Splashtop Remote Browser , Splashtop Whiteboard , Splashtop CamCam , Splashtop XDisplay , Splashtop Touchpad or Splashtop Presenter applications.

This is an Asus thing (in that some Asus computers come with this installed or it is promoted when you purchase and use an Asus tablet). Remote connections can be made using other vendors hardware and software. However, it does make a compelling case for Asus tablets and other computers, not just Asus, running the Splashtop software.

I have run the Microsoft Office suite on an Asus Prime and it was fully functional. You can even use Splashtop remote to control an Adobe or Powerpoint presentation.

The Asus Prime comes with the Splashtop Remote Desktop pre-installed. This prompted me to download (and purchase)  the Desktop app for my Blackberry Playbook.

• About Splashtop Inc.
• Using a tablet for business purposes

MARECS B

I was responsible for the design and manufacture of L-band power amplifiers for the MARECS communication satellite.

MARECS B was launched into Geosynchronous orbit by an Ariene launch vehicle and is in stationary orbit above the Pacific Ocean.

• Some ESA videos
• Multipaction on WikiP

MARECS B followed MARECS A, the subject of the video above. I was proud to be part of the team that pioneered mobile communication systems.

My part of the design and manufacturing process was the development of MMIC modules, manufacture of Space hardware in a clean-room environment, testing and tuning, multipaction proving and team leadership.

The choice of an Independent VPN

When you connect through a VPN it is the IP address of the VPN that appears as the origin of your activity.

Well, this is the case under IPv4 addressing - this may well change when IPv6 is adopted.

In an earlier website posting I discussed the use of an independent VPN service that could be used in place of some of the more well known services that you see advertized on sites that  you would be interested in if you have found this posting. While I am in the process of reposting much of the material and I am aware that this topic is still of great interest, judging by the cache access of the former pages on my website, I will not be expending this topic past what I had before.

I will be posting my analysis of IPv6 connectivity and security as I think that it is going to be increasingly important as we go forward in the development of communication and network services. These are still relatively early days in the development of these systems and not only are we likely to run out of IPv4 addresses there are increased security concerns that can both create new vulnerabilities and provide solutions for individual identification with the WWW.

Links:

• Downloading from File Sharing Sites discussed 
• The VPN service that I use
• How and why ISPs Throttle

Rogers Account

It seems that Rogers are admitting that they have had some synchronization issues with their mail systems. The email shown here is evidence of this:

There were in fact 15 messages in the "Synched Messages" folder - these originated over the last 6 months. None of the messages were important. The account that this referred to had been synchronized with a Blackberry smartphone (not and iPhone or Android device as suggested in the email). The account was a POP configuration not IMAP - there have been synchronization issues other than this reported by Rogers.

The other synchronization issues related to the migration of the Rogers email to a corporate Microsoft Exchange server - changing the Blackberry from BIS to BES. The synchronization issues related to duplicate messages and missing or switched calendars when syncing with Outlook and the Blackberry.

It was good for Rogers to let me know - however late!

Fergus, Ontario - rogers account getting duplicate emails- 7 May 2012

Dubious Business

Dubious Business Practices and Defamation.

I fail to see how the criticism of a business for the product or service that they are offering as being too good to be true as slander. I also wonder when customer service has to be conducted by Shill and Bully techniques.

When a venture fails and the company that was instrumental in that failure "re-brands", it is only reasonable that references to the old entity be removed from the public eye. However, when requests to the remove the "offending" information have been followed with intimidation threats, these requests to "take-down" pages containing the references have been difficult to entertain.

In addition to the initial Shill comment that was posted on this blog by a visitor, various attempts at impersonation of those involved in reaction to my postings were detected. These took the form:

1. A domain registration in the name of a company that it was thought I was associated. (The website for the registration then had links posted on it in an apparent attempt to discredit the company for that I was supposedly connected.)
2. Emails were sent to me both anonymously and in the names of other interested parties.  
3. Invitations to join social websites such as LinkedIn were received, presumably in an attempt to find out more information about me. 

Some Links:

• Is Facebook feedback defamation - or honest criticism of poor customer service?  By Eileen Brown, ZDNet, April 3, 2012 - See the comment by Dr_Zinj (below)
• Old Testamentarian  

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Google search, 30 April 2012, for the exact URL from Mountain View, California.

Blogger and Lightbox

Lightbox is the image viewer that is built-in to Blogger.

When you place an image in a blog post there is an automatic link made to the uploaded image file. The image as it appears in the blog can be sized to fit the text and content on the page. If the visitor clicks on the image a full size rendition of the image will be displayed on the visitors computer screen.

If multiple images are used in a blog post then a "slide-show" will be available and the images can be navigated using the Lightbox thumnail.

knowledgesutra.com

This was a series of hits relating to Phoenix BIOS and Virtualization

Visits on 9 April 2012:

• Dubayy, UAE
• Szeged, Csongrad, Hungary
• Portland, Oregon