01Jan 2014 by R&O 1 Comment
Bitcoin: A Crash Course

Bitcoin: A Crash Course

Bitcoin, Business, Economy, Finance, Internet, Technology, The World
The interest in cryptocurrency is growing by both governments and individuals all over the world. Some governments fear a decentralized, unfettered currency, other governments (specifically China and Russia) are presently embracing and actively promoting the technology, though probably more to poke a finger in the eye of The United States than anything else. It's better for no one to control it rather than your enemy, right? In my opinion, two things are poised to change the world as we know it: 3D printing and a secure, dependable cryptocurrency. These two technologies will empower the global population more than any single events in history, allowing us to produce goods on demand and disallowing governments and banks from continuing to use our money as global economic weapons. These changes are well beyond…
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21Dec 2013 by R&O No Comments
First Lady of The Internet

First Lady of The Internet

Internet, People
Many moons ago, the internet was a barren landscape of computer nerds and curious onlookers. Before the days of Google, Facebook and YouTube, Marg Meikle, CBC's sardonic yet utterly charming 'Answer Lady' on the Vicki Gabereau show, contacted me for some Internet help. If my memory serves me correctly, she wanted to connect to this nerdy new computer network at home, a sometimes challenging and always frustrating endevour at that point in time. She invited me to her very groovy (her words) pad in Kits and we worked on her various computer maladies while she brewed tea and chatted about interesting stuff, all of which I can no longer remember. I helped Marg with her Internet connection (a dialup SLIP connection) that day and she jumped straight in, surfing, posting,…
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15Dec 2013 by R&O No Comments
Netscape Flashback

Netscape Flashback

Internet, Of Interest, Technology
Way back in 1995 Netscape was king. It was king because it was a direct descendent of Marc Andreessen's ground-breaking Mosaic software, one of the first cross-platform web browsers available to users on the newly paved superhighway. Those were the days. Sort of. Unfortunately for the Netscape company, who saw part of their future in the secure transactions business, a 27 year-old graduate student in France broke the security code that allowed their commerce server software to offer security to its customers. This, in the world of web server software companies, was a very bad thing. Up to that point, Netscape advertised that its security was bulletproof and would allow all types of sensitive financial transactions to take place over the internet without fear of credit card numbers and bank…
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15Dec 2013 by R&O No Comments
Hacker Scumbags

Hacker Scumbags

Assholes, Internet, Observations, Technology
I think it's time we legalized lynching as punishment for hackers that deface, destroy or hijack websites. I speak from experience because this blog has been attacked numerous times over the past year and cost me hours of time spent picking malicious code from the hundreds of files that make up this blog. So why do these scumbags do it? There's a variety of answers to that question but most are attempting to inject iframes or other bad code into pages allowing them to reroute traffic or deliver malware to unsuspecting site visitors. And then there's the little bastards that sit in their basements and troll the net looking for vulnerabilites to exploit. But, whomever these miscreants may be, they should all be dragged from their homes, strung up left…
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