Give it a listen...

Real Guitars. A fiddle. A Mandolin. A String Bass. No Computers. And no Auto-tune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiXmnGWw2EU

Worth 5 minutes of your time, even if you're not a fan of Country Music. So many musicians can't do real "music" anymore.

Jeremiah Denton

Jeremiah Denton died today. He was a Navy pilot who served in Vietnam and was a POW for 7 1/2 hears. He was famous for spelling out "TORTURE" with eye blinks during a video his captors made of him and broadcast.

Denton was the senior officer among former POWs who stepped off a plane into freedom at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Denton epitomized the military spirit as he spoke for the returning soldiers:

"We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our commander-in-chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America."

What a badass. Not many people would get off a plane after 7 1/2 years as a prisoner being tortured and say something like that. Rest in peace and god-speed, Mr Denton.

Tracking down old MX records

I had a nice challenge tracking down lost MX records today.  A client moved their hosting to us and didn't mention that they had email hosted with their domain.

I ended up using two tools.

http://whoisrequest.org/history/ let me lookup the old NS servers for the domain.

and then http://www.geektools.com/digtool.php let me "dig" them for the old MX settings.  I was then able to transfer over the correct settings to our servers.  The trick is to put the old name server in the box that says "query nameserver" so that you're not just getting current data.  Oh, and switching type to MX (or all, for the overly curious).

 

For those of you wondering what an MX record is... its the way a domain name knows where email is hosted.  Without it, email fails.

Napa Platimum Oil Filters

Napa Platinum

This is my new favorite oil filter.  Its expensive, but offers better protection for longer Oil Change Intervals (OCI).  I'm a subscriber to OCI.  I like to go 10k to 12k miles per oil change.

• I spend less time changing oil
• There's less hassle disposing of used oil
• Its better for the environment
• Oil is expensive.

Previously I used Napa Gold.  There's nothing wrong with the gold, I just feel better using the Platinum.

Napa filters are made by Affinia, who also make Wiz

Read more over at Bob Is the Oil Guy (bitog)

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3151427

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2741644

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2304026

New favorite gas station!

Andrade exit off 680.

New Music option for Samsung Galaxy Owners

Samsung Milk

Built on Slacker... but with no ads/no fees.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9246827/Samsung_39_s_Milk_music_streaming_service_is_free_has_no_ads?taxonomyId=77

I haven't tried it yet.  Sounds like it has limited musical selections - obscure stuff may be missing.

If it has online capabilities it may be better than Pandora.

I miss Paul Harvey.

What a treasure he was. We don't have guys like him anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuzhwkaNC40&feature=youtube_gdata_player

More Good Diesel News - the Ford STD (ok, maybe that's a bad name...)

The Focus ST is going to get a Diesel.

Now... will we get it in the States?  Because damn near everything gets a Diesel in Europe.

But... we can hope!

http://www.imotortimes.com/ford-focus-st-diesel-confirmed-diesel-powered-focus-st-has-its-eyes-set-vw-golf-gtd-report-25822

Yaaah Fairfield! Oh, wait...

Our local fire department shared this on Facebook today. It's not the greatest of news. 

It comes from this NBC Bay Area Story about PTSD screening.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Doctors-Recommend-PTSD-Screening-for-Civilians-oakland.html

Why are we such a depraved society?

What's wrong with us?

I was walking through the parking lot of a store the other day and had to step over used condoms and dirty baby's diapers.

A few days later... another diaper at a different store.

What the hell is wrong with us?

My first job in HS (and partially funding college) was working at McDonald's.  Its an entry level job.  Lots of low income/underskilled folks work there AND eat there.

I NEVER had to clean up used condoms or dirty diapers.  In 7+ years.  Ever.  I never did it, none of my crew ever mentioned it to me, we never talked about it in meetings... IT JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Yes, I grew up in a fairly nice part of town... but I also worked  in a store "on the other side of the tracks".

I'm convinced society is going down hill.  In the 50s/60s, Marilyn Monroe was considered salacious.

Now she's damn near a role model for piousness as compared to the likes of Miley Cyrus.

The euphoria of those who survived WWII, the baby boom and their children are to blame.  Everyone gets a puppy and an ice cream cone has bread generations of an "expectation" society who things everything they ever want should just be theirs.  They shouldn't work for it, they "deserve" it.

Its not their job to pickup after themselves.  They shouldn't have to walk to the garbage can with their dirty diaper or wrap it up to dispose of at home. They earned the right to discard it on the ground for someone to step in.

Its depressing.

Part of me considers myself fortunate we can't have kids.  I won't be contributing to this problem nor burdening my offspring with it.

Bam! Tundra Diesel

We really need half ton pickup diesels.   Better fuel economy, better towing, longer range... Diesels are just where its at.  Europe has been lucky in that regard, and their disdain for them is unwarranted.

My friend Derek tipped me off to the Dodge Diesel a while back and I've been watching it intently.   Unfortunatley, dad told me never to buy Dodge (Chrysler) products, so while I can look at it longingly, I can't buy one...

Well, I caught an article today about Toyota's new Diesel in the Tundra.  This looks really good.

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2014/02/toyota-tundra-getting-cummins-diesel.html

Now, if we could only get Ford to do it...
And we could get them to cost less than $50k!

Yes, we should ban plastic bags.

I know that a lot of the country makes fun of us in California for our forward environmentalism... and I've seen some flak about banning plastic bags.  But let me tell you why I'm in favor of it.

Since so many stores insist on forcing us all to use self check, we're left to figure these bags out on our own.

Seriously, the hardest part of self check isn't looking up the produce or stuffing bills in the machine... its separating the damn bags so you can put stuff in them.  I end up overstuffing bags or taking forever trying to set them up... its incredible.

So, we should absolutely ban plastic bags and force people to bring their own canvas or use paper.

Now, selling us paper... that's another story.

Did you know there was a Korean Motorcycle Manufacturer selling in the US?

I'm a car/bike guy.  I like to think I'm on top of things like this.  I missed it!

http://www.hyosungmotorsusa.com/

South Korean. They make cruisers and sport bikes.  My friend Justin posted a CL ad on Facebook the other day for one, needling a friend of his to start riding.

Their prices are quite a bit lower than the equivalent Honda. Their 650 Race Rep is $5k less than a 600rr.

The Boss covers Lorde's Royals

Not sure how I feel about it. Cool he did it. Think he could have done better.

Crowd seemed nonplussed.

 http://www.stereogum.com/1667571/watch-bruce-springsteen-cover-lordes-royals/video/ 

Posted via Blogaway

Blocking Apps from reading your SMS on Android

A variety of Apps are starting to request to read your SMS history on Android.  Facebook was first (actually a while ago, but rescinded under pressure... but its back), and I noticed this past week LinkedIn and Twitter.

I'm not comfortable with that.  Not because I'm doing anything nefarious, but because of how a single sentence or phrase can be positioned in the form of a "sound bite" to sound like something it wasn't. I don't need a single off handed remark about a salacious celebrity from a friend in a text to become something a future employer sees as one of my "interests"

Facebook started to worry me a few releases ago when it started suggesting I post photos I'd taken when I launched the app.  I don't want Facebook scrounging around in my photos... what's to stop them from uploading them automatically?  The combination of that and SMS mad me nervous enough I just uninstalled it.

But then Twitter and LinkedIn did it.  And I actually use LinkedIn, so it was time to find a way to have my cake and eat it too.

iOS users... Apple doesn't permit that, so you're safe.  But on the Android world, its a little harder.

ASOP briefly had the ability natively to manage this through the Ops Center, but Google removed it as "a mistake".

If you're rooted, CyanogenMod (and presumably others - I can't recommend CM since they took money and went commercial, their intentions are now on shareholders not on users) aftermarket roms have these abilities - to manage app permissions on a app by app permission by permission basis.

But, if you're like me and LIKE what the manufacturer added (I happen to like TouchWiz on my S3 - and before you flame me, I have a N7 2013 with 4.4.2 on it too, and previously owned an HTC with Sense) - then you're not going to throw a new ROM on there.

What I found is the Xposed Framework.  Its like what Cydia is to the iOS world.  Any easy way to manage side loading apps that aren't in Google Play (because they wouldn't get approved, or its too much hassle).  You do still have to be rooted, which voids your warranty and can block you from future updates, so its not to be taken lightly.  I'm not advocating you root your phone.  But if you've rooted already for other reasons, or understand it and want to take the risk, Xposed is something you should add to your tool chest.

Xposed lets you add XPrivacy, which lets you manage all permissions for all apps.

Here's a good how-to on installing.

Discussions about apps are on Reddit and XDA

What Xposed does is feed the app fake data for contacts and SMS, so it doesn't hang/crash due to an access violation - it just doesn't get any data.  You can either select apps to setup or just setup apps when they install/update.  It does an elegant job of prompting you.

So far, all I've seen is Facebook fail on 2 factor SMS security... which is ok with me, I'll take that as a trade for not letting it read my SMS.

Another Xposed plugin I'd suggest is BootManager.  Its like MSCONFIG for your Android - letting you choose what runs at startup.  I shook my head at some of the things running at startup - now, there are valid reasons for them.  Badges, notifications, etc.  But often they're for apps you don't care about, or you might be like me - I don't care for most push notifications.  A few I like - news, sports - but I don't need Flappy Bird reminding me to play or iHeart Radio telling me a new podcast is on.

Boot Manager doubled the performance of my phone - both in speed and battery life, at no real expense to me.

I'm not being paid by either... I just really enjoy their features/benefits and wanted to spread the word.