David Westerfield

Peter Schiff was Right and Saw it All Coming

On July 19, 2009

Quite keen insight. He was laughed at by most of the people on these shows … “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” No one wanted to hear it. And articles like this really should make you take a step back and listen: Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons … I’m starting to wonder if people really understand how bad off things really are.

Update 8.1.2009: and this prophetic warning from a proven trends forecaster does not bode well for the US … The Collapse of `09.

6 Years of AT&T DSL Connection Woes Resolved in 1 Second

By David Westerfield

On July 16, 2009

In Technology

Background: over the years, I have had a fluctuating issue with a weak DSL connection from my ADSL modem to AT&T’s CO (central office) in my area. This resulted in continual errors on my modem and at times the service would just drop off and then come back up. My speed would change often and was never consistent.

So recently, my DSL connection totally dropped for four days. Apparently an AT&T tech messed with things a little too much and knocked out my DSL service attempting to “fix” someone else’s phone line that another tech had messed up (a sort of domino effect). Of course this all happened right before the Fourth of July holiday weekend and so another tech finally came out the Monday after. He got me back online, but the connection speed was the most degraded it has ever been. But he made the decision to switch me over to a “digital line” (update – AT&T tech terminology, not mine, that is simply what he told me – A.K.A. an RT line, digital port, whatever) to get me a much more solid connection.

Anonymizing Squid Proxy Traffic

By David Westerfield

On July 14, 2009

In Technology

For anyone using the Squid proxy server, either on Linux or Windows, these parameters will anonymize enough traffic so that websites you attempt to access will still work (such as ajax-heavy sites like Facebook), but your source IP information will still be concealed.

via off
forwarded_for off

header_access Cache-Control deny all
header_access Forwarded-For deny all
header_access From deny all
header_access Keep-Alive deny all
header_access Link deny all
header_access Pragma deny all
header_access Proxy-Connection deny all
header_access Server deny all
header_access Via deny all
header_access WWW-Authenticate deny all
header_access X-Cache deny all
header_access X-Cache-Lookup deny all
header_access X-Forwarded-For deny all

Change We Can All Believe In … In the Middle of a Recession

By David Westerfield

On July 7, 2009

In Environment, Politics

Email with more information from Kay Granger on the Climate Bill that passed the House two Friday’s ago. Unbelievable.

Dear Friends,

I heard your concerns loud and clear about the “cap and trade” bill. The overwhelming majority of you who shared your thoughts with me voiced your opposition and frustration, and I am proud to say I voted against this misguided bill. Although this 1,400-page bill narrowly passed the House, we are still learning what’s in it because parts of the bill were hidden from Members of Congress until less than a day before the vote.

Many of you told me you are worried about the job losses and economic impact we can expect from this bill. What you may not know is that the Democrats who wrote this legislation know it is going to cost American jobs, so they included incredible new benefits for workers who lose their jobs because of this bill. These benefits include 156 weeks’ worth of payments that are equal to 70 percent of the worker’s average weekly wage; 80 percent of their monthly health care premium; up to $1,500 for job search assistance; up to $1,500 for moving expenses; and job counseling, training, and other assistance. Rather than instituting an expensive new welfare program that will cost untold millions in tax dollars, wouldn’t it make more sense to stop those jobs from being lost in the first place?

Why Isn’t the Stimulus Working? It Doesn’t Get at the $40-$70 Trillion of Leveraged Debt – Taleb

By David Westerfield

On July 2, 2009

In Business, Economics, Politics, Video

http://www.cnbc.com/id/31706523

Interesting Links on The Ramifications of the Economic Crisis

By David Westerfield

On July 1, 2009

In Business, Economics, Politics, Video

Use the phrase New World Order around people and immediately you will get responses ranging from, “I know! The world government is coming upon us,” to “You’re a nut.” The phrase is often associated with conspiracy theories, some of which are out there. But nowadays, the term is being thrown around very freely in the press.

When I saw these news article titles below, I was kind of shocked, just because it was strange to see a term, associated mostly with many fanatics out there, being used as a normal term for, well, nothing short of some form of global governance. But what I find really interesting about these links below is that they are all from major media sources endorsing the concept of a world economy, which also calls for and implies a world governing body to govern that world economy with (hopefully) just laws. Check ’em out.

Judge Napolitano on Obama’s Plan Giving Unlimited power to the Federal Reserve

By David Westerfield

On June 29, 2009

In Business, Economics, Politics, Video

Our Computing Environment is Already Compromised

By David Westerfield

On June 25, 2009

In News, Security, Technology, Terrorism

(Original): http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/single.php?id=8200
(Archived): http://www.westerfunk.net/ … common%20language/

“The former cybersecurity director at DHS had some sobering words last week about the battle for cybersecurity. ‘We lost,’ the former director, now chief executive officer of NetWitness Corp., said at the Symantec Government Symposium in Washington. ‘We lost the cyber war over the last 15 years. Our computing environment is already compromised,’ and things are likely to get worse going forward because we do not really understand security. ‘We lack any meaningful metrics or measures to say how secure a system is.’ It no longer is true that the best minds are on the side of the hackers. The dark side of cyberspace has been co-opted by organized crime, entrepreneurs of questionable integrity and, possibly, terrorists. Much of the process of illegal hacking has been mechanized to the point that it involves automation, not innovation. Part of the problem was identified by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team director. ‘We lack a common language for discussing many of the elements of security. We need to reinvent not only how we do incident response, but how we talk about events,’ the director said at the symposium.”

IOGear’s Must Have Toy

By David Westerfield

On June 24, 2009

In Technology

http://www.iogear.com/product/GUWAVKIT/

I just saw this today, sent to me by a co-worker. As much as I would spend on getting yet another HDMI cable and a VGA-to-DVI converter to hook up my laptop to my flat screen, I could pay a little more and go completely wireless while still broadcasting a solid HD signal to the screen. This is the first really cool product I’ve come across that utilizes the relatively new wireless USB standard, sure to blow the bluetooth standard out of the water in capability very soon. I haven’t investigated a whole lot at this point, but I’m sure there are more wireless USB products out there, besides the standard wireless keyboard or mouse. But this is the coolest toy I’ve seen so far. Check it out!

Kay Granger on the Energy Bill Being Crafted – Outrageous

By David Westerfield

On June 24, 2009

In Business, Economics, Environment, Politics

This is outright tyranny. Just like the trillions in bailouts that clearly aren’t working (see Warren Buffett’s comments from today, who himself is a liberal Democrat), this too will be crammed down our throats, without debate, without the consent of the people for whom Congress allegedly works, without any dialog or discussion, under the assumption of an unproven theory that man is causing the Earth to warm. This is simply outrageous. And it will raise costs on everything, especially energy, to levels we likely haven’t seen … and all this at a time when our economy is in one of the worst crises since the Great Depression and on the verge of possibly getting worse for a long time to come. Simply unbelievable. Yet this is the exact kind of nonsense that was warned against before the election. Kay Granger is up in arms on this one.