New Addition to Blogroll: lifeofdunbar

Are you a government employee, federal or state?  If so, you will enjoy the reflections in the newest addition to Dreadnaught’s blogroll: lifeofdunbar

Sample:

This blog is for those who possess the faculties of reason yet somehow thrive in service to their country.

A respite for those who understand the government and who are frightened by that very fact.

Enjoy

yojoe out

Blogroll Addition: The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

If you have ever noted the myriad grammatical faux pas visited upon the signage across the country, this blog is for you: the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks

Here is a prior post with a very unusual urinal sign.

yojoe out

Helmets For All College And Pro Football Teams

The Helmet Project is a very cool Website.  If you ever wondered what the helmet of your favorite college or NFL team look like in the past, just go to the site.  You can even see some made-up helmets, like Penn State with a logo.

yojoe out

Notes On Refinancing A Home

Having just completed the paperwork necessary to refinance a home mortgage, it is appropriate to share a few thoughts.

First, there is a reason people hate lawyers, to wit, the preposterous number of signatures required.  For a simple refinance, same residence no second mortgage, it required a total of 32 signatures and 14 initials to consummate all of the necessary documents.

Second, why is it essential to disclose one’s race and ethnicity to borrow money?

Third, it was in sum a positive move.  The refinance resulted in a 5-1 ARM at %4.5.

yojoe out

P.S.   Premier Lending Group, Brian Baker,  was very helpful in making this loan happen.

Marine Corps Banns Access To Twitter, Facebook, And MySpace

The Marine Corps recently published MARADMIN 0458/09, entitled IMMEDIATE BAN OF INTERNET SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES (SNS) ON MARINE CORPS ENTERPRISE NETWORK (MCEN) NIPRNET, which prohibits access,

TO INTERNET SNS FROM THE MCEN NIPRNET, INCLUDING OVER VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN) CONNECTIONS.

The SNS mentioned in the order include,

FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, AND TWITTER.

At first blush this may not appear to be a radical move by the Marine Corps.  After all, it is rational for an organization to ban the use of websites that are used exclusively for gossip about old high-school friends, taking useless quizzes, and online dating.

However, Admiral Mike Mullen, USN, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has his own Twitter account, entitled thejointstaff.

According to 10 USC 152(c), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “outranks all other offers of the armed forces.”  Thus, Admiral Mullen is the highest ranking member of the armed forces.  As the most senior military officer it would seem important for Marines to remain aware of what the Chairman has to say.

Microsoft Windows 7 Available For A Limited Time

According to the great Wired blog Epicenter, Microsoft will offer a beta version of Windows 7 to the first 2.5 million people to visit the Windows 7 page.

Windows 7 will offer:

• Improved taskbar
• Jump Lists
• Internet Explorer 8
• Windows Live

Start looking for download times on Friday.  Good luck being among the first 2.5 million.

yojoe (in Windows mode) out

Yahoo! Search Engine Offers More Privacy Than Google Or Microsoft

If you are looking for privacy and anonymity in your Internet searches you should use Yahoo! search. Yahoo! recently announced that it,

will anonymize user log data within 90 days with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations. Yahoo! will also expand the policy to apply not only to search log data but also page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.

By comparison, Google will anonymize data after 9 months.  Here is Google’s privacy policy.

Microsoft keeps data for 18 months before making it anonymous.  Here is Microsoft’s privacy policy.

So, before searching for things you may not want others to know about, at least after 90 days, you may want to consider Yahoo!.

yojoe out