SKYFALL, possibly the best James Bond film in the franchise to date, opens this weekend in the United States. Expect tense action and plenty of gadgets and explosions.
Look for a classic Aston Martin, though new Aston Martins may look more like a Lexus if Toyota buys Aston Martin.
The Red Cross, though they do good things, has a problem. Their computerized phone system has a glitch and continues to call my cell phone multiple times a day at all times of the day. Always from the same phone number, 800-733-2767, which is the main number for the Red Cross. When I try to answer these random calls there is just dead space. No messages have ever been left from 800-733-2767. When I tried to call the number back, it just goes to the main menu system for the Red Cross which I didn’t have time to deal with.
Finally, I got tired of the incessant calling and called the main Red Cross number, 800-733-2767, and waited through the menu options. I pressed ‘2’ for blood donations because I assume that is how they got my number. Waited on hold briefly and a nice female voice answered. I explained the problem with the relentless calling. She had heard this before and explained that the call system is glitchy and they are in the process of fixing it. She verified my information and flagged my phone number so the system would stop robo calling me. So far I haven’t received any more calls from them. Time will tell…
With the passage of Prop 30, California gave itself higher sales tax and higher state income taxes.
Chia Obama sales have outpaced sales of Chia Romney. Though many people that will buy a Chia Pet presidential candidate, would probably not actually vote. We’ll soon see if the Chia Election Prediction has any thing to ‘grow’ on.
Whoever wins needs at least 270 electoral votes in order to declare victory. Build your prediction map here: http://www.270towin.com/
Well it seems the Chia Presidential Prediction was right.
Perhaps the Chia Hello Kitty would have been a better choice.
Finding your OpenSSL (Open Source Secure Sockets Layer) version in Solaris 10 Unix:
sunbox# /usr/sfw/bin/openssl version
OpenSSL 0.9.7d 17 Mar 2004 (+ security patches to 2006-09-29)
The current stable release is OpenSSL 1.0.1c.
Don’t forget the space between the command path and “version”!
Update 9 April 2014: This post has received a lot of attention recently due to the OpenSSL heartbleed vulnerability (CVE-2014-0160). This OpenSSL vulnerability did not affect OpenSSL versions prior to 1.0.1, so if you are running the older versions packaged with Solaris, you might be OK. The heartbleed vulnerability is reportedly fixed in OpenSSL version 1.0.1g and affected in versions 1.0.1f, 1.0.1e, 1.0.1d, 1.0.1c, 1.0.1b, 1.0.1a and 1.0.1. But you better check and keep patching before your heart bleeds out! The site Unixpackages.com now has an updated Solaris package for version 1.0.1g of OpenSSL.
Update April 18, 2014: And now Oracle finally releases an official patch for Solaris. I received an email at 2 pm Pacific time with their security alert:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alert-cve-2014-0160-2190703.html
Seems a little late in the game for Oracle but there’s the update. Happy patching!
Oracle released another updated OpenSSL patch for Solaris 10 on June 13, 2014.
Here’s the readme file for patch 148071-13.
And another update to the ongoing OpenSSL patch saga:
February 2015: OpenSSL packages 1.0.1j for Solaris 8-11 on SPARC and Solaris 10-11 on x86 have been updated to version 1.0.2. available from UnixPackages.com. Check out the OpenSSL patch changelog here.
Google celebrates painter Bob Ross’ 70th birthday with a creative Google Doodle. The United States Air Force veteran and fast painter of “Happy Trees” died at the age of 52, but his painting methods still live on.
So if you are in the path of Hurricane “Sandypocalypse” Sandy, try to think of those happy trees as they start to come down around you in the wind.
For those of you that remember the campy British science fiction comedy from the 90’s that has been rumored to return to production again for over a decade, it’s back! Currently airing on the Dave and Dave HD channels in the UK for the first returning season. The series is planned to be released on DVD in November 2012. No word yet on if Red Dwarf Series 10 will air on BBC America.
Think Geek’s Zombie Survival Kit will give you a head start on gathering your supplies in the event of a zombie invasion. Is a zombie apocalypse really likely to happen? Probably not. But at least you’ll be prepared for the next power outage when you find yourself sans internets. You can amuse yourself by using the axe to chop some wood and build a chess set or something.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f250/
Think Geek’s Zombie Survival Kit. Be prepared. For zombies.
A true sign winter is coming. The rain was heavy at times. Enough to wash the dust out of the air and make the roads slick.
Gas at many stations in the Silicon Valley area will now set you back $4.75 or more a gallon. Regular unleaded gasoline is now more expensive than California’s number 2 diesel.
Due to refinery shortages on the west coast, supply of refined gasoline has been limited. Less supply means higher prices passed on to the consumer. One more high cost that exists in California that doesn’t exist in better managed states. How long can California citizens take these higher costs before they decide to move to Texas?