Today I was trying to reach 1&1's home page, but the browser kept failing to pull up the site. Mysteriously I was able to reach 1&1's home page when I changed my DNS servers to those of OpenDNS.org. Feeling curious I decided to investigate the matter in depth. My default DNS server was reporting the — Continue reading ยป
The Inverted CD Yields
I was checking ING DIRECT's CD (Certificates of Deposit) rates today and wondered how long will they continue to be inverted. A 6-month CD currently has an APY of 3.3%, while that of a 4-year CD stands at 2.5%. What I would really like to see is a normal curve, where the longer the CD — Continue reading ยป
Phoenix's Mars Landing
I bet the team in charge of the Phoenix spacecraft is not going to enjoy a restful night as they prepare to land this hunk of metal near Mars's north pole tomorrow. I'll probably sleep fine, but I'm hoping for good news tomorrow. This landing is specially poignant, since the last craft (Mars Polar Lander) — Continue reading ยป
Phoenix's Mars Landing
I bet the team in charge of the Phoenix spacecraft is not going to enjoy a restful night as they prepare to land this hunk of metal near Mars's north pole tomorrow. I'll probably sleep fine, but I'm hoping for good news tomorrow. This landing is specially poignant, since the last craft (Mars Polar Lander) — Continue reading ยป
Sales, Politics, and Religion
For a brief period in my career I was encouraged to try my hand at sales. I was ok at it and made decent commissions but in the end I knew that sales wasn't my calling and I returned to my passion, technology, mainly programming. That brief stint taught me one lesson in salesmanship. When — Continue reading ยป
Particle Accelerator and Black Holes
I'm no scientist, but I do have a keen interest in science. That's why I was fascinated with the The Large Hadron Collider experiment that's about to be commenced at CERN in Switzerland. The basic idea is to replicate (or try to) the conditions moments after the alleged Big Bang by creating a high-energy collision — Continue reading ยป