Apple Store dns ttl change

@Wed Mar  7 15:15:16 EST 2012 the dns ttl for apple is


store.apple.com.        259     IN      CNAME   store.gcsis-apple.com.akadns.net.
store.gcsis-apple.com.akadns.net. 19 IN A       17.112.156.51

while

apple.com.              2484    IN      A       17.149.160.49

apple.com.              2484    IN      A       17.172.224.47

apple store loosing their copyright protection?

Apple copy right as of March 07, 2012 12:12pm Pacific Time says

Copyright © 2011 Apple, Inc. All rights reserved.

I am sure they care for copy protection... Or, did they give up any copy protection after the iPad fight with China?

can't call directly from Android OneNote

Downloaded OneNote Android today (2012/02/28) on receiving promotion mail from hotmail.

1. I can not insert a method to call a number in notes. tel: protocol does not work.
2. On web interface there is no way to insert check boxes.

Is this just poor selection of feature set by Microsoft? makes me wonder, is this what Apple & Google do it just right for them to be doing well in the past 10 years...

Megaupload <> roads

Why should we not sue the owners of 'roads & streets' for allowing bad people drive/walk on them doing bad things? This sounds comparable to the reasoning by Justice department indicted Vestor Limited


http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/January/12-crm-074.html

Megaupload diagnostics

Megaupload diagnostics after Order of US District court was executed

megaupload.com.         26607   IN      A       107.21.243.42

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
megaupload.com.         172800  IN      NS      ns5.cirfu.net.
megaupload.com.         172800  IN      NS      ns6.cirfu.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns5.cirfu.net.          172800  IN      A       107.21.224.156
ns6.cirfu.net.          172800  IN      A       107.21.226.254

---

whois:

   Domain Name: MEGAUPLOAD.COM

   Registrar: DOTREGISTRAR, LLC.

   Whois Server: whois.dotster.com

   Referral URL: http://www.dotster.com

   Name Server: NS5.CIRFU.NET

   Name Server: NS6.CIRFU.NET

   Status: clientDeleteProhibited

   Status: clientTransferProhibited

   Status: clientUpdateProhibited

   Status: serverDeleteProhibited

   Status: serverTransferProhibited

   Status: serverUpdateProhibited

   Updated Date: 20-jan-2012

   Creation Date: 21-mar-2005

   Expiration Date: 21-mar-2014

Registrant:

   Megaupload Limited

   P.O. Box 28410

   Gloucester Road Post Office

   Wan Chai, Hong Kong  00000

   HK

   Registrar: DOTREGISTRAR

   Domain Name: MEGAUPLOAD.COM

      Created on: 21-MAR-05

      Expires on: 21-MAR-14

      Last Updated on: 28-NOV-11

   Administrative, Technical Contact:

      Lam, Bonnie  domain@megaupload.com

      Megaupload Limited

      P.O. Box 28410

      Gloucester Road Post Office

      Wan Chai, Hong Kong  00000

      HK

      +852-3013-7707

   Domain servers in listed order:

      NS1.MEGAUPLOAD.COM

      NS2.MEGAUPLOAD.COM

      NS3.MEGAUPLOAD.COM

      NS4.MEGAUPLOAD.COM

whois for cirfu.net

   Domain Name: CIRFU.NET

   Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC

   Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com

   Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com

   Name Server: NS73.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

   Name Server: NS74.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

   Status: clientDeleteProhibited

   Status: clientRenewProhibited

   Status: clientTransferProhibited

   Status: clientUpdateProhibited

   Updated Date: 30-nov-2011

   Creation Date: 01-apr-2009

   Expiration Date: 01-apr-2013

Registrant:

   Federal Bureau of Investigation

   935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

   Washington, District of Columbia 20535

   United States

   Registered through: Go Daddy

   Domain Name: CIRFU.NET

      Created on: 01-Apr-09

      Expires on: 01-Apr-13

      Last Updated on: 30-Nov-11

   Administrative Contact:

      Division, Cyber  ipr@ic.fbi.gov

      Federal Bureau of Investigation

      935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

      Washington, District of Columbia 20535

      United States

      +1.2023243000      Fax --

   Domain servers in listed order:

      NS73.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

      NS74.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Hostname				Region Name	City	Postal Code	Lat	Long		Organization		Area Code
107.21.243.42				Washington	Seattle	98144	47.5839	-122.2995		Amazon.com		206
107.21.224.156				Washington	Seattle	98144	47.5839	-122.2995		Amazon.com		206
107.21.226.254				Washington	Seattle	98144	47.5839	-122.2995		Amazon.com		206

Some of the DNS Servers are still returning

London, United Kingdom (BT Global)

174.140.154.24 174.140.154.23 174.140.154.22 174.140.154.21 174.140.154.20

Istanbul, Turkey (TTNET)

212.156.4.8

154.140.174.in-addr.arpa. 1798  IN      SOA     ns1.carpathiahost.net. hostmaster.cirn.net. 2008112100 10800 3600 604800 86400

Business entities who helped in megaupload.com site to be brought down

1. Amazon.com - hosted servers & hosting name server ( http://usdoj.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ )
2. dotster.com - DNS registry
3. godaddy.com - DNS registry for domain name used for the name server for megaupload.com

megaupload.com

HEAD /banner.jpg HTTP/1.0


Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:38:47 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.21 (Amazon)
Last-Modified: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:31:19 GMT

HEAD / HTTP/1.0

Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:40:03 GMT

Server: Apache/2.2.21 (Amazon)

Last-Modified: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:36:33 GMT

list of names part of 1%

As my contribution to occupy wall street movement, I want to collect the list of people who belong to the 1%. This list is going to be 3,125,380 (3M+). Well, that's a tall order to meet. We should give it a try - why not!! Who knows what we will see/get..

Couple of places to compile from

1. Forbes list (potentially, Copyrighted material)
2. sec filings
3. How about property list (Zillow?)
4. Political Campaign contributions

Bells and whistles:

1. May be provide a wiki style for people to add/edit?
2. Looks at what is spent (how about list of expenses - especially that huge for ordinary things)
3. How to maintain this list as information changes. Can this change on a day to day basis when share market moves around?
4. Why limit to US - why not expand to world wide
5. How to differentiate family wealth from individual wealth
6. How to differentiate office spending on wealthy individuals - as compared to personal spending (Example: President of the US & President of Exon fly to places with whole bunch of people with them. Do we include this trip in their personal income?)

Irritable bowel syndrome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irritable_bowel_syndrome

constipation-predominant (IBS-C)

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/irritable_bowel_syndrome/article_em.htm

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/slideshow_understanding_irritable_bowel_syndrome/article_em.htm

spastic colon

http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/stomach/ibs.html

what do you not pay tax today

1. Bank account transactions
2. Home Mortgages issued to buyer
3. Loans Received
4. Initial issuance of a stock or bond 
5. Short-term revolving loans
6. Individuals who have 401(k) or mutual fund accounts
7. Stock purchase
8. securities
9. purchase of debt
10. Stock options purchase
11. credit swaps
12. foreign currency “bets”
13. derivatives
14. Earned Income Tax Credit
15. Higher education Tuition Payment
16. Payments to non profit
17. Home mortgage interest
18. Income Tax Paid to local government
19. Property Tax
20. Medical Insurance and expenses
21. Business Travel and entertainment
22. Home Office deduction
23. Moving Expense
24. Alimony
25. Job Search Expenses
26. Stock & Gambling Losses

Financial Transaction Tax

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/financial-transact
ion-tax

Related quotes & rant (from us perspective)


"Discourage Wall Street's reckless, job-less gambling. The greed of large banks and Wall Street firms have wrecked our economy, wiping out pensions and portfolios, throwing us into a recession, costing us millions of jobs, and squandering American productivity. Yet nobody on Wall Street has paid the price for this wrongdoing. No one has gone to jail. In fact, they remain some of the most profitable businesses in America, doling out hundreds of millions of dollars in executive bonuses. And they pay some of the lowest tax rates in the country."

"... discourage the reckless, high-volume/short-term profit computer-driven Wall Street gambling that lead to our current economic crisis."

“Wall Street got bailed out. We got sold out.”

“These corporations have gotten so greedy right now. It’s not only Wall Street, but if you look at every major corporation that has outsourced any kinds of job in the area, we need to make sure that those jobs ... We need to make sure that those jobs remain right here in the United States.”

“They were so hungry,.... They came to us. We feed them.”

"What we have in America is corporate socialism, publicize the losses, and privatize the profits. I was not in favor of bailing out the banks, because these are the same people, who complain about big government, but when things go belly up they want the government to bail them out. And by the way the bank bail out took place under Bush. They got bailed out and now have refused to lend the money out. Corporate America is flush with cash because they have figured out how to get 5 people to do the work of 10."

... WE bailed THEM out and in the process lost OUR jobs, homes and retirement funds. Now THEY got all the cash and wouldn't spend them. THEY are forcing US to borrow for them to get richer.

They take away my job and give it to other parts of the globe and wouldn't pay taxes or even bring back the profits to spend here.

If I sell my pottery to ordinary people, they pay tax. If I sell a piece of my pottery company to a rich person, there is no tax. Is this fair? Is this capitalism? If so, do we still need capitalism?

Capitalism - Cheating?

Rich and intelligent cheating the poor and less intelligent?

Democracy, Capitalism, Monarchy - all have the same (defect?) feature...

“Civil law is for the rich. Criminal Law is for the poor.”

Adult Intussusception

Information:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intussusception_(medical_disorder)
2. http://bjr.birjournals.org/cgi/content/full/75/890/185
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crohn
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_bowel_irrigation
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverticulosis

Medicines:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_hydroxide
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_citrate
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_glycol (MiraLAX)

US hand in Anna Hazare Movement against corruption?

US hand in Anna Hazare Movement against corruption? This is a statement/suspicion hinted by Republic of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This information was also reinforced by Mr. Rashid Alvi of Indian Congress party. From certain perspective, this can be true. Let us try to see what's happening...

I am all for the reduction/elimination of corruption every where - not just in India. This is one of the bad behavior that's worth changing in the gene.

Anna's supporters are from US as well. http://www.dandimarch2.org/ is owned by Ranadheer Kumar Varma Dantuluri 3901 Parkview Ln Apt #9B Irvine California 92612 9493506498 varmadrk@gmail.com . The web site says "6 main marchers (Jawahar Kambhampati, Kewal Parnami, Srihari Atluri, Srinivas Nandiwada, Subhash Karri & Sunil Kumar) walked 240 miles in 15 days and concluded at Gandhi Statue in San Francisco. 600 or more walkers supported them in over 30 cities with 5000 man miles. Varma Dantuluri alone added 100 man miles."

Do we consider this information as US influence? Are these individuals and their supports American Citizens/immigration/residents (even if they are Indian Citizens / OCI holders).

Moving on to the support with in India. The movement is supported by younger generation - Some of them get paid on their day job by their US clients.

So, on a long stretch - US has supported Anna's movement against Corruption in India.

How to know/track the owners of a public company

How to know/track the owners of a public company and how can we know how things changed in any unit time - say 3 month period. This info is available in different places. How to compile them to know the dynamics.

Possible source of info are

1. SEC filing for the company.
2. Institutional Holders and Mutual Funds Holders periodic reports
3. Company's annual report
4. Sell/Buy raters will tell their hand if they hold any (This is not as reliable and we can not hold them accountable)
5. Press who cover the company

What can we learn when this is done methodically:

1. Find Insider trading, if any
2. Trends - just follow another knowledgeable person/company who do the research
3. We can get some indication on the internal health of the company

Example: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000119309911000056/xslF345X03/edgar.xml indicates this director got paid $10K (cash equivalent) + stocks - probably for attending a board meeting.

Waterfalls near Pune

Pune, Maharashtra waterfalls

Kundalika river - White Water rafting - around 2 hours from pune towards Pirangut. Lot of beautiful water falls on the way. The famous water fall close to pune is Tamhani.

http://www.whereincity.com/photo-gallery/show-big-photo.php?photoID=703

http://www.whereincity.com/photo-gallery/show-big-photo.php?photoID=702

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marleshwar_Fall1.jpg

Mid-day Meal Scheme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-day_Meal_Scheme

"The Mid-day Meal Scheme is the popular name for school meal programme in India which started in the 1960s.It involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger, increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved socialisation among children belonging to all castes, addressing malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women. The scheme has a long history especially in the state of Tamil Nadu introduced statewide by the then Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in 1960s and later expanded by M. G. Ramachandran government in 1982 has been adopted by most of the states in India after a landmark direction by the Supreme Court of India on November 28, 2001.[1] The success of this scheme is illustrated by the tremendous increase in the school participation and completion rates in the state of Tamil Nadu."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARE_(relief_agency)

The idea was that Americans would be able to send “CARE Packages” those who were in desperate need of (food) relief.

In 1948, CARE was already working in many Asian countries—first came Japan, then the Philippines, Korea, India, and Pakistan.

"Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe" in 1945 to

"Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere" in 1953 to

"Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere" in 1993

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_School_Lunch_Act

The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (79 P.L. 396, 60 Stat. 230) is a United States federal law signed by President Harry S. Truman in 1946. The act created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a program to provide low cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools. The program was established as a way to prop up food prices by absorbing farm surpluses, while at the same time providing food to school age children.

----

Who can connect the dot - where CARE packages of wheat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semolina) were in-fact used for Kamaraj's noon-meal program in the early 90s.

Online version of numerically intensive papers

http://www.w2express.com

Noticed this feature recently where a paper document with full of numbers can be stored/distributed over the web as well. May be we can do similar thing for purchase order/Invoice and plain Point of Sale receipts.

Invoice sounds more interesting... We need more work flow (deeper integration into existing documents that consume the Invoices) and support dual mode (Paper containing a way to enable pulling the info online as well - in machine readable data format and human readable format for legal purposes).

---

Recently noticed the following software

1. http://blinksale.com/
2. http://www.billingboss.com/
3. http://www.invoicejournal.com/index.html
4. http://payments.intuit.com/products/quickbooks-payment-solutions/quickbooks-online-billing.jsp

Taxes for goods not stocks

When I buy goods and services, I Pay taxes. Even when I get paid for my labor (employment), government takes taxes. However, when I buy stock of a company (I become part owner) of a company, I do not have to pay taxes at all. (Today, I pay taxes only when I sell and make a profit on the sale, I need to pay tax).

Recommendation: Tax the sale of shares of companies.

Benefits:

1. Gets more money in to US Treasuries
2. Reduces the high volatility in stock prices

Downsides:

1. Lower trade volume
2. People may claim, that's not capitalism

Middle grounds:

1. Charge on the sale of shares on any company that claims they are too big to fail
2. Charge people/companies that sell/buy more shares (day traders)

Rant from a person who lost his job during 2008 recession: "The Companies who took my money (US Tax dollars), took my money, my job and my home with it. When things are turning around, the people who came for arms on my tax dollars are still keeping their jobs and my money - while I still suffer with no money."

Pure Day Trading Risk

What if the company releases it's results or sets revised expectations? As Day trader, this can be a big problem.

BRCD: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1009626/000119312511211376/dex991.htm

3.52

-1.37 (-28.02%)

This is fertile ground for insider trading of sell activity prior to this announcement!!

Operating Systems - lost it's importance?

Since MS-DOS came in to the market, Microsoft was monoploy in the inexpensive operating system market. Recently, Mac & Linux have come in the mix. Mac on the desktop market and Linux in the server market.

Thrown in to the mix is Virtualization (Desktop) and Cloud (Server). Now, is it time to preciously define what is Operating System and see if it is still relevant? May be we do not need Operating System after all. May be a dumb terminal connecting to various specialized applications on private/public cloud could be one of the path?

Night vision - next winner in war technology?

American military is resorting night vision. Examples include Bin Laden died on a moonless night shortly after 1:00am local time. Night rides in Afghanistan has increased many folds recently.

In the past, different technologies brought big difference in successful military campaigns

1. Bow & Arrow
2. Horse
3. Fire Arm
4. Navel Fleet

The next phase seems to turn to night vision.