Monthly Archives: July 2012

Chick Fil-A controversy…

28 Saturday Jul 2012

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The more I read about this controversy in the news the more I think how absurd the reactions are from a rational point of view. And reading the comments on the various blogs made me cringed. They reveal the shallowness in thoughts among the general readers. Calling out to boycott Chick Fil-A, derogatory comments about the CEO, etc. And because of this, this controversy continues to be blown out of proportion from what it really was about. What exactly did the CEO Dan Cathy said in an interview in the Baptist Press? If you have not read that interview, I would highly encourage you to read the whole interview to get the context of his comments to better understand the issue. I am sure any clear thinking adult would agree that to pass a judgement without prior understanding of an issue is immature and irresponsible.

Firstly, look into his background, his up-bringing and his religious belief and conviction. It should not be a surprise to hear him come out with a statement as follows:

“We are very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit,” he said. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.…We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families.”

Let’s reason for a minute and see what the issue is that sparked the controversy. Did Dan Cathy call for a boycott of the gay groups? Did he say that Chick Fil-A will not serve gays? Or did he said anything about not hiring gays? I did not see any of those expressed in the company policy. And for the record, the word “gay” or “lesbian” was not even mentioned anywhere in that interview article. Surprised? Do not take me at my word, go read it for yourself.

So how did he get branded as a gay hater from this interview? All he is advocating was he is “very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit”. Does that deserved to be classified as a hate crime? Just because the biblical definition of the family unit contradicts the gay marriages, can we honestly call him a gay hater, as has been implied by the reactions on hundreds of articles on the internet? Does he not have the freedom to voice his own religious belief and convictions on a religious news press? Has the US Constitution changed recently that I am not aware of? If not, why then the controversy?

I believe this has become a heated controversy for a simple reason. People make it a controversy. They flame the issue and keep putting fuel on the fire to make it hotter. The presses took the bait and added more fuel to it. To make it even more absurd, the politicians are jumping in to cash in on this. The mayor of Boston, for one, used the “bully pulpit” to discourage Chick-fil-A from coming to Boston, by writing a scathing letter to Cathy urging him to keep his restaurant out of Boston, while Chick Fil-A is in the process of searching for a site to locate in Boston. Is that not an abuse of administrative powers?  Since when has it become a crime to express your personal beliefs about something (in this case his support for traditional family unit) that you get bar from his city? Even though Boston Mayor Thomas Menino later came out with a statement to clarify his previous statement, that “he would not deny the restaurant the necessary city permits to open in the city.” A typical politician opportunist, from my point of view.

Obviously the traditional biblical definition of a family unit has been on a collision course with the LGBT community. And it is no surprise that the statement by Chick Fil-A CEO is viewed as a threat to whatever agenda they have, simply for the fact that Chick Fil-A is a high profile company in America. Hence we see the kind of reactions that followed and in the manner it was distorted. Don’t be a puppet that act the way puppeteer wants using his strings. is calling for a boycott of this company based on unfounded facts the proper way to express your displeasure? Maybe for some readers, it may be. You are surely entitled to your belief system. By the way, at the time of this writing, the Amazon CEO has just pledged $2.5 million dollars in support of gay marriages referendum in Washington state. Now after reading this, should I go out and boycott Amazon since I disagree with his standing and personal beliefs, even though I am a regular Amazon customer? Should I not label him as a “biblical traditional family unit” hater? No!!! that man has a right to his belief and as long as it is not criminal in nature, he has every right to put his money where his mouth was. So this same right is not  applicable to the CEO of Chick Fil-A? And instead we have now to label him a LGBT hater, as many has come forward to express this view?

Wars and riots have known to have been started based solely on rumors. And the consequence is always the innocents will have to pay.  We need think for yourselves, get the facts before you rush into following the piper. Boycotting Chick Fil-A may be your choice of action. That’s your right and decision but it has its consequences. One of which will be innocent people will lose their jobs in this already struggling economy, which is what may happen if Chick Fil-A loses its business and will have to cut back on their employee out of necessity.

If you have not already picked up this from reading this article, I hold the same view as Dan Cathy and I support his conviction. I will make it a point to eat at Chick Fil-A more often than I have in the past, if for no better reason than simply to play my part to save the jobs for their employees caught in between. But most of all, I will do it in support of free speech of an individual in the USA.

Kids are simply amazing…

20 Friday Jul 2012

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I was just watching my 8 year old son on the computer as he was busy playing an online game on the Cartoon Network website. The game he was playing was a ninja game based on the popular kid’s TV show called Ninjago. I watched him intensely focussing on beating the bad guys, and not a care in the world could distract him from his mission. What’s so amazing about it? He is just like any 8 year olds when it comes to computer / video games.

What amazed me is the fact that I did not teach him how to play the game. I have yet to figure out how he is even aware of this game site or a few others that I did not even knew they existed until my son showed them to me. He knew which keys on the keyboard to use for which movements. Basically he knows how to get into the game, enjoy the game and leave when it is done. Again, I never taught him any of that. I guess kids watch us and absorb everything they see. And they probably learned those from their friends, who in turn learned it from theirs, and so on.

I still remember vividly the time when my son was three years old and I had him on my lap while I was working on the desktop PC. He watched closely how I was moving the mouse and hence the cursor. And without any inhibition, he wanted to do the same. So I let him try. Much to my amazement, he picked it up fairly quickly how the mouse work. For a three year old to grasp that concept isn’t a small feat. I remembered that I just showed him once with a brief explanation, and he was already on his way to becoming a PC user… well sort of a user. So it should not be a surprise to see him pick up quickly how to surf the internet, etc. I believe this is the case for all kids, especially those who are fortunate enough to grow up in a home with multiple computers scattered through the house. They have no problem learning the computers. For them it is really another household gadget like the many we have around the house, such as the TV, DVD player, stereo system, microwave, etc.  This is the kind of world they are familiar with, unlike the one that their parents grew up in. Ok, I’m speaking of myself, the ancient one. When I was growing up, we only play games that we made ourselves. And that never minimize one bit the amount of fun I had had in those days.

Anyway, the fact remains, kids, I believe, are gifted by our Creator to learn quickly. They have to in order to assimilate into the “grown up” world. On the caution side of the fence, as parents we need to be mindful that it also works in the negative way, meaning that they learn the negatives just as quickly. I think it is sad that too often I have seen  parents neglecting to pay attention to that fact and allowed their kids to go in the wrong direction. The path they take today determines the destination where they ended up in. Put simply, “we reap what we sow…”.

To finish up, take time to notice our children, even in the seemingly mundane things they do everyday. And it will surely help us understand our children better, as they grow.

 

 

Is my account secure?…

14 Saturday Jul 2012

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Recently in the news, Yahoo! was reported to have been hacked and had more than 400,000 user credentials stolen. And the hackers apparently wanted to make their feat publicly known by posting them online. According to them, “We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat,” What a thoughtful way to go about helping Yahoo! Who cares about the 400K+ users who are inconvenient by the incident. Do you know the trouble a Yahoo user had to go through to change their password? I’m talking about those who are ATT users as well, who had one time or another had their Yahoo user account merged with their ATT account. It took me half an hour of searching through the internet to finally accomplish that. And considering the fact that I am a computer guy. What about the thousands of users out there who relied only on the customer support to do that. For the lucky ones, they get it done without  too much further woes. But others like those I read on the forums, who spent hours on the phone and got directed from one party to another. The ATT support told them to contact Yahoo support and vice-versa. What a mess! Thankfully with more search on Google, I got that resolved fairly quickly less further frustrations.

Anyhow this hack raised some questions about the security measures taken by some of these companies. Especially the bigger ones who have the resources to do better. Even if the hacker were to steal the user data, it would have taken them a long, long time to extract those encrypted passwords, assuming that they were encrypted. So to be able to get those 400K+ passwords posted  (I have not seen those posted data myself and rely only not the news reports) will mean one of two things (if not more). The passwords were not encrypted (which would be a “shame on you” thing) and in plain text on the database. Or they have such weak encryption that could easily be broken fairly quickly. Either cases is no excuse, especially for a large corporation which supposedly has the resources to do better.

How can we tell if the service provider has good password encryption process to keep your private data private? I’m sure there are many ways to do that but for me the simplest way to find out is to use their “Forgot your password?” link. If the provider sends you back the password in the email in plain text that you can read, you better avoid using their service from here on. This is a good sign that they are using a weak encryption method or worse no encryption at all. A secure company should not be able to show you your password because even if they want to, they won’t be able to. So they will send you a link to reset your password, after further verification of course using some security questions and answers that only you know.

Well, if after knowing that the service provider (that means any website services that you use) isn’t secure and you still would want to continue using their website, in this case I would recommend that you use a one of a kind password with that site. Meaning that password will not be used in any other websites, and also that website has nothing important  with regards to your privacy data. By that I mean something like a game site or something. You decide what is important to you. And if it is a site like your email service provider, I suggest that you change your provider quickly with our further risk of compromise. I can tell that there are a lot of email users whose account had been compromised and it is not only inconvenient but sensitive data too has been compromised. So be aware that everyday there are actual living beings out there somewhere in some dark corners of this earth who are at this moment trying to break into your account. Just a week ago, I received an email that supposedly come from someone I know, but judging by the email, I know instantly it wasn’t from him but definitely the work of someone who has hacked into that account. If I were to tell you how easy it is to hack into someone’s gmail account (at least at one time. Hopefully Gmail has updated their security process since), you would not believe it. I did not either until I saw it on YouTube. Well, if it is on YouTube, you can be assured that thousands if not millions others have also seen the video, and probably also learned how to do it in the process. This is real on the cyber world. But by taking the necessary precaution, you will be a little safer, although no security is 100%.

Free Kindle books are worth it…

08 Sunday Jul 2012

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I have always enjoyed reading. Although with a busy family and professional life it is often a challenge to find time to read. That was until I got myself a tablet last August, a HP Touchpad at their fire sale. I was fortunate to be able to grab a 32GB Touchpad from Best Buy, after waiting in line for more than an hour and a half. That’s another story to tell, about my experience with the HP Touchpad.

Anyway the tablet together with the Kindle app has practically became my mobile library. Today I have about 150 books on my Touchpad, that I have the pleasure of carrying around with me for any period of free time I might find myself. Especially thankful to have that whenever I have to accompany my wife to the supermarket. While she shops, I take the opportunity to catch up with my reading.

Why carry around so many books? Do you even have the time to read them all? Well, that is not the question that I am interested with. I guess, I would probably ask why not. The main reason I have all these books with me is due to the fact that they are readily available for me to download…for FREE. Some of you might already be fully aware of this but for the benefits of those who aren’t, there are practically lots of kindle books on Amazon you can download for free. All the books I have on my Touchpad library were free books from Amazon. Don’t be fooled that those books are worthless books that nobody wants to buy. On the contrary some of those books I have downloaded were hot books.

To share a secret about these free books on the Amazon (well it is not really a secret but not everyone is aware of it just the same), everyday there are price movement on the kindle books on Amazon. And the best news is that they often temporary move to be free for a short period of time before returning to its regular price. I do not claim to understand why this is so. But I just enjoy this “secret” nevertheless of being able to download books that I wanted to read for free. Of course, it doesn’t mean you are able to download for free those best seller books that you heard about on the news and wanted to read. You may still get them if you are patient enough and willing to wait till they move temporarily to the free zone. The point I am getting at is that there are good books that are free… for a period of time.

So, how do I go about gathering my collection of books? A few times a week I would visit the Amazon site to view their free collection. To do that would be as simple as clicking a previously stored bookmark to the page for free kindle collection. And I would browse through the category that I am interested in and when I see any books that look interesting enough, I would not hesitate for a moment to download them. After all it cost you nothing but mere a clicking of the “Buy now with 1-Click” button. The act of browsing through the books is just like going to your local library except you do it from the comfort of your own home or wherever you might be. Consider those books that are not moved to the free category yet, as books that have been checked out by other people, in the local library scenario.

To summarize, to get free books on Amazon, you need first to have an account on Amazon. That should not be difficult to do. Once you have an account, you have the convenience to immediate start downloading books. Of course, to read the Kindle books, you will need either a kindle app on any of the available electronic devices. Personally I use a tablet but I would consider it a good investment to get an Amazon kindle. So if you do not have a tablet, it would be worthwhile to consider getting one, if you love to read. At the time of this writing, the tablets are getting cheaper by the months. Especially the 7″ tablets. I think it would not be long before they become one of those cheap everyday devices.

After you click the purchase button, the kindle book will be added to your collection, which is incidentally stored on Amazon computer. So regardless what devices you may be using, or even multiple devices, it can be automatically synch with every devices you have.

One extra note, when you are downloading the free books, make sure you are looking at the “Buy” price showing at $0.00, and not only the Prime Members price. Unless you are a Prime Member, of course. The reason I bring this up is because often these two prices do not necessarily match, and often the Prime Member price shows $0.00 the Buy price may be the regular price. So just beware of this so that you do not ended up with an invoice saying you will be charged for so and so price when you thought it was free.

Lastly for those of you for whom the kindle books experience is a totally new concept, to read kindle books you first need a kindle application/software. If you already have a tablet or mobile devices, you should be be able to download a kindle app available for your device. For those of you who do not have a mobile device, you probably own a PC. And there are also kindle app for PC too. Yo can download this kindle app for PC from the Amazon site for free.

Before you can begin to use your kindle app, you need to have downloaded kindle books to your device. And before you could download, you first need an Amazon account. So go ahead and create an Amazon account. Once you have done that you can link your kindle app to your amazon account. That way, Amazon will know which device to send your purchased books. Actually how it works is whenever you purchase a book (even for $0.00), it is “downloaded” to your Amazon account. And whenever you use your kindle app, it will do a sync to your Amazon account and download any new books that you purchased, to your mobile device. After that you can read the book without the need to connect to Amazon. Your kindle connects to Amazon only to sync your books.

Anyway enjoy reading…