4 things today.

1) Internet meanderings
So I was screwing around on the internet and kinda thought about this new way to search on Google.com that Harry showed me at work. It requires you to preface your google search with a 'allinurl:'. This will make your search query return only addresses that have the search term in the actual URL.

So I started wondering about the number of pages that are on the internet that are probably ridiculously outdated and wanted to see how many urls are there on the web that contain the years 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, etc... all the way down to 1991.

Well- here are the results starting with 1991:

Search Query: Number of pages returned.

1991: 672,000
1992: 601,000
1993: 663,000
1994: 854,000
1995: 1,430,000
1996: 2,070,000
1997: 2,760,000
1998: 3,810,000
1999: 5,160,000
2000: 8,080,000
2001: 583,000,000
2002: 853,000,000
2003: 16,900,000
2004: 29,400,000
2005: 79,000,000
2006: 898,000

As time went on, the years were incorporated more and more into web sites. There are huge spikes in 2001 and 2002 so I took those outliers out of my data before making the chart below. For the most part- this information can help project the possible growth we might have in the future on the web...



What makes me wonder is where did the extra pages come from in 2001 and 2002. I suspect the BMW 2002 played a part in inflating the figure for 2002 however I'm very skeptical that it can account for the extra .84 billion pages. Perhaps it was all the news surrounding the dot-com downturn? What about 2001? Blah- it's 1am and I can't believe I'm rolling this around in my head.

So - back to my concern about the internet growing at a ridiculous pace, I read something a while ago that's been lingering in the back of my mind. It was about an Indian company that was persuing the $100 laptop. Naturally, the $100 laptop, would be an awesome breakthrough in the economies of scale since it would allow almost everyone to afford one. But there's a problem with everyone in the world having a laptop. Everyone will want to e-mail, publish a web site, web cam their friends, upload/download media...

With all that going on - can you imagine the craziness of what the web will offer in the future?

I wonder what kind of ideas will this newly enabled segment of the world's population contribute to the web.
Will their behavior offline bleed into their online activities? I'm sure it will. But then again, the people this $100 laptop will bring onto the web might just be merely entertained with the latest distribution of media that will basically be what is dispersed offline. Except- marketers will have a better definition of their viewers and will be able to really focus down to their target market. Which makes me wonder - what do I contribute to the web? My friends check this page out but do I really share anything for the greater good of society? Probably not - maybe only when I show off a coupon or two to help my friends save a buck or two. But that's about it. My site essentially is me - online. My persona online. And with that in mind, it makes it so so clear that GoDaddy.com, the number 1 registrar in the world, will be very popular with others who want to establish their persona online. Maybe they don't want to have their own domain but personal publishing is definitely here to stay and I encourage all of you who read this to hop aboard and share your experiences with others.

2) My friend is leaving GoDaddy.com
My friend W.C. is leaving GoDaddy.com. Say it ain't so!! C'mon Bob, let's keep him around!

3) I love working out my arms.
It makes my fingers so light when I type. haha!

4) Update on the bird
Last night I held the hummingbird in my hand last night. He was so scared he pooped on my hand a few times. I fed him some nectar (just sugar and water) and killed a grasshopper for him to eat and put him outside. The next morning the grasshopper was untouched and my bird was just hanging out in his nest. I hope he gets big enough to fly away.

So I had the backyard cleaned up and the cleaning crew was going to clean up my hibiscus tree by my front door so I had to save my new little friend.

And now... I have a hummingbird in my house!

Pictures of the clean up.

Suns lost. Boo.

The parental units came over today and swam in the pool. My maternal unit mentioned something about a bird's nest by my front door and I didn't really believe her until I went out and checked it out.

Yep - sure enough- here lies "Small Bird".






Some news about the possible move this year...

I found the house for which I'm willing to relinquish my primo spot near the 101/51 freeway.



Stats: 5 Bedroom, 1 Optional 6th Bedroom, 3.0 Baths, 3043 Sq. Ft.

I know what you're thinking - "What does a single guy need a 5 bedroom house for?"

I have a lot of pets.

4 things... and a note about music.

1) Zach is a great friend. It's 1:30 and I'm crashing at his house so we can play golf tomorrow. I was thinking I was going to crash on the sofa but he went the extra mile and setup the foldout sofa bed. Dude- you rock! I'd tell him that right now but he's sleeping.

2) There's something to be said about traditional relationships. I'm not saying that the guy HAS to go out and be the bread winner and the wife HAS to clean the home and watch over the kids but I'm beginning to see my life go down that road.

Don't worry- I'm not a father... yet.

I'm just writing about all this because I've been chastised for having a less than perfectly kept home and have been told that it's unattractive when a guy can't take care of his own house but I've also been told that a woman might find it a bit odd to come into a guy's home and find everything kept extremely tidy.

If you've seen the house you'd know what I'm talking about when I say I see my life headng down the "traditional role" path. It hasn't been vacuumed this year, the dishes in the sink are stacked high at times and the stuff in my fridge might be a lot older than what is normal. I'm not looking for a maid to marry but someone who is into the more traditional role would REALLY WORK WELL! :) I know, I'm terrible.

Blah - I just need to pick up after myself.

3) I need to clean up the backyard! WOW! I've got some help from the parental units though- they've agreed to come and supervise the help that I hire to eradicate the weeds that have taken over my backyard. I'd like to have a party this summer - yay!

4) Happy Birthday Marc. I went to Sugar Daddys around 1 but I couldn't find ya.

Note about music... I was listening to some house/trance music (do they call it 'trance' because it puts you in a trance?) and I realized that the music was massaging my mind with the various spatial sounds. Very cool.

I couldn't sleep. I napped at my parents' house for 2.5 hours and I wasn't able to sleep after that.

Wonderful.

Yaaaaaaaaay- pictures from the trip!

Click to enlarge!


Jen and Clifford dancing


Virginia and Clifford


Jen and Mike


Cliff and Frankenstein



Justin and Frankenstein


Teresita and Frankenstein


Justin and Clifford

Probably the coolest version of Dave Matthews Band's Crash that you'll ever hear...

The mp3s

Interesting reads:

Real big diamonds made real fast


Gridswarms... you might be hearing about these in the future.

So tonight was supposed to be a nice quiet night at home with Justin and my parents and it would have stayed nice had I not picked up the latest Lexus GS catalog from a local dealership.

I made a quiet comment that I would like to get a cooler car next year and my dad goes on a tirade about how I'm materialistic and that I should focus on bettering myself and making money as opposed to focusing on how to spend it.

Wonderful.

I'm a consumer. So I want a cooler car - so what? People in the ghetto always looked towards the houses on the hill for inspiration. To build their "why". Why do you want to have a bigger house on the hill? Because it's in a better neighborhood- it's safer- I want to provide a better life for my kids- I want to see the view and be away from so much hustle and bustle of the downtown area.

What does it take to get a cooler car? More money.

What has to happen for there to be more money in my bank account? I spend less and make more.

What has to happen for me to spend less and make more? I do better at my job or work more on something that generates revenue and I don't eat out as often and I forego getting the latest little gadgets.

So what do I do to make more money? I get my ass into real estate school so I can start turning deals. I would have loved to have sold my Godfather's house for him. The real estate agent took in $10k and he did a shitty job of relaying information back to my dad a day late.

So what happens when I have enough money to really buy the car? Will I really go get it? Probably not.

What I've found in the decisions in life (not including romance) is that there is always what is the right thing to do and what you want to do. If you always follow the right thing to do- you'll never go wrong because you're thinking more with your brain and you'r casting away the waves of emotion. If you continually follow the hedonistic metality to happiness, you'll inevitably end up in a mentality where responsibility means nothing.

Just like right now - I have a pretty fun car but it would be cooler with fancy shmancy rims - will I get any? Most likely not. It would be neat if I bought a body kit or spoiler for the car to make it look better - will I get it? Most likely not. It would be cool to have a big 60" dlp TV at the house- will I get it? Definitely not because I can't justify the cost and I rarely watch TV. What I DID spend money on is a great radio because I drive a lot and brighter lights for increased safety. Was the cost justified? Definitely.

So back to the day dreaming - a person can think of the possibilities, right? The goals in life breed the plans necessary to accomplish those goals. You can plan and plan and plan but if you don't know what your goals are - you'll never know what you've accomplished.

So what are my goals?

Ah- you'll never know. It cheapens them if I 'kiss and tell'. But I can assure you that I'll have a cooler car in the future- it'll be a byproduct of the bigger goal.

And one more thing... don't give up your goal or a step towards your goal for a night with the family. They'll be there tomorrow.

Yaaaaaaaaay

Justin got into med school!!!

Woooooo Hooooooo!

It's 11am and although I'm supposed to be at church right now, I'm at home typing away on the computer telling you all a little story.

So Mother's day was last week. Great. To all the mothers out there- Happy Mother's day. My Mom is a strong woman who has put up with two wild sons for the past 26 years and made an awesome recovery from cancer a couple of years ago (I love you Mom). And so with that in mind, it is on this one day that I decide to give my mom a Tivo.

Now for those of you who know what Tivo is - it's widely touted as the coolest thing to hit Americans across the country since the Simpsons and American Idol. I know - American Idol came way after Tivo but be a team player and nod your head in agreement and overlook that small detail. So I get my Mom Tivo and she's not too keen on it. Mainly because she says she doesn't watch much TV (she does) and she kinda likes my iPod mini that she saw the week before (because it's cute).

So me being the good son that wants to make his parents happy (Dad, your day comes later this year) I go ahead and take the Tivo back and pick up an iPod mini from the local Apple store. For those of you who must know- I got her pink. So yeah- I get her the iPod and I remembered her saying that she'd like to listen to church hymns and gospel music on it. Again, being the good son that wants to make his parents happy, I go online to see how many mp3s I can find for church hymns from the collective efforts of thousands of Kazaa users on the web.

You know what? There's like... NOTHING.

What's up with that? I can understand that the Bible says to respect the laws of the land or something (I remember vaguely hearing/reading that somewhere) but c'mon- we're talking about church music. Simple hymns and songs that have been watered down in complexity to the lowest common denominator so even the short bus kids can sing. These are super simple songs that anyone should be able to find online!! God would WANT YOU TO SHARE HIS WORD! I'm pretty sure God will be happy that you shared His Word by downloading/sharing church music and that he doesn't really care what the RIAA says about the matter.

So anyway- long story even longer... If you read this and you have some type of church music on your computer and you use Kazaa - please share it. I bought the 6gb version so it would have a longer battery life and I can't find enough stuff out there to fill 2MB of space on it.

I should have told her I couldn't return the Tivo.

Ahhhhhhhh!!

Haha- I found this photo the other day when I made my San Diego album.

Bob ate my feet!



Ahh... the life of Clifford...

Hey Senor!



Some photos from SD:

Photo Set 1

Photo Set 2

Last night I worked out again... and I worked out on Thursday as well.

I'm on a roll and I don't wanna give up. Woot!

I'm about 100% positive that my upcoming trip to a faraway land has me going to the gym at full tilt. Monday I went to the gym and pedaled off 5 miles and walked another 3. Tuesday I pedaled 5 and did some lifting. Today I just did lifting to strengthen my shoulder since I dislocated it a while ago.

So tomorrow my little brother graduates from college. I simply cannot believe it. I've had him trailing me by 5 years my whole life and somehow his graduating makes me acknowledge without a doubt that he's all grown up.

I remember when we were younger (this was like 16 years ago) and at the zoo for some fieldtrip. I had longer legs so I was ahead of him and we were eating ice cream on a hot sunny day. I heard him yelling out my name and running as fast as his little legs would take him towards me and as I walked towards him he biffed it hard right into the asphalt and his ice cream just went flying.

Back then it was so sad and I felt so bad for not hanging out with him since his little legs couldn't keep up but now when I look back - it was so funny. I'm sure he'd agree if he remembered. Maybe.

But I really felt bad and I ran over to him like a good big brother and helped him dust himself off as he stood there crying his eyes out. He was a little scratched up but he was ok.

For my entire life, I've always wanted to make sure he would be 'ok'. As much as I live my life in a rambunctious forward looking mentality, I try to find the time to look back and make sure he's going to be alright. Sure there have been times when I was a little selfish and took the better toy out of the two toys that we were given but I've made up for it since then.

Well - it waxes late, I'm headed to bed.

Justin- congratulations man. You're the best little brother a guy could ever have and I love you man.

Ah Ha!

I think I succesfully unlocked my cell phone today. I just need to find someone with a cell phone so I can pop their SIM card in and test it out. Since it's 2:24am right now - I'll have to wait until later today.

To the bunny...

To the poor bunny on I-8 West,

I didn't mean to do it. I swear. It was 6am in the morning. I normally wouldn't be 150 miles away from home on the freeway at the time of our meeting but my friend wanted to leave for California early so we left at 3am. I'm not saying its her fault but she DID want to leave that early. It's a fact- you gotta believe me. I also told my roommate I wouldn't speed so I was only going 80mph. We wouldn't have met if I had gone faster. I'm not saying it's his fault but I DID promise I wouldn't go over 100mph. Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is - I didn't mean for us to meet like that and I want you to know that I'm sorry.

It all happened so fast. You hopped out two little hops and stood up with your ears all tall. You faced us with an inquisitive look like I had just asked you what the square root of 81 was and your paws were in front of your chest all together like the cartoon bunnies in the cartoons. I swear, your ears were taller than the headlights of my car so you must have been an old fella. I yelled out "Holy Shit!" and suddenly "Thwump Thwump!" later - it was done. My car continued on its way as expediently as it had been seconds earlier and my jaw just dropped. My friend just sat there and she couldn't talk for like... 4 minutes.

I don't even want to know what you look like now. But I will forever remember what you looked like in your full glory, on your haunches, paws up by your chest, ears perked up tall... looking straight into my HID headlights.

Sorry bunny. It was an accident. Not like that guy who's going to eat your cousin, Toby on SaveToby.com. If it helps any, I told all my friends about SaveToby.com and hopefully they will help raise the necessary funds to save your cousin from the frying pan. I tell my friends about it because I don't really feel like buying a product with a bunny on it - it would remind me of you too much.

Just in case you were wondering - your light and fluffy body didn't do any damage to my bumper. I have to admit, I was worried more about my bumper at first but that's only because I've known my car longer than our 2-second encounter.


Respectfully Yours,


Clifford

I subscribe to a newletter from Netcraft.com that talks about the intricate workings of the Internet and the countless related statistics that are tracked. They track everything from the most popular hosting companies to the various types of web server software being used online to the number of SSL certificates being issued and the marketshare of the major players in each space.

Well, today I read about a new tool they introduced and since I'm concerned about your privacy and your welfare while surfing the web- I thought I'd pass it on. The site works similarly to the Google toolbar however their tool helps you measure the risk of submitting your credit card and personal information online.

Check it out here!

With headphones - did you know that lower frequencies come out of the right side and higher frequencies come out of the left side? Some people just arbitrarily put them on when they listen to their music but I find it nauseating when I have my earbuds flip-flopped. Try it out next time you're jamming to your mp3 player.

FYI: If you're in the fraternity and you're reading this... please pass this message to your fellow Brothers:

If you can't seriously list off something that you contribute to the fraternity.

Resign.

Marc's response to an earlier post...

Of course Lexus. I was listing fancy shmancy european cars. Lexus's are tight..

Asian Fused: things that blend asian elements. Used in a sentence: Having served as a diplomat for the UN in several Southeast Asian countries, Marc Chung is able to bridge the Asian divide and resolve differences between the various cultures. He fuses asians, and so, he is asian fused. Totally. making. this. sh1t. up. :)

I should blog that :)


-M

:) I'll save you the trouble buddy.

Marc also won the Free Starbucks Contest... One green tea with two pumps of mint coming up! The answer: QT Inside!

Just had a plate submission via text message:

SIQTDE

I'm offering free Starbucks to the first person who deciphers the meaning!

Thanks Susan!!

Two more submissions for the personalized license plate!

THANKS MARC!

ASNFUSN <- because you're asian fused
DOTMLNR <- requires Porsche, BMW, or Ferrari...

hmmm... he didn't list 'Lexus'.

:) I guess I can't get that one.

Recent submissions for the personalized plate idea!

PNDAPWR, CLIFFUD, ASNMFIA, GAGTMAN, LXSCLUB, HOT&HRNY , DONWONG.

Thanks Jen!! See you in a week!

An update on random things in my life:

The server is coming down. If you have hosting space on my server, please find another host provider by the end of May.

I received my free Ipod Mini from Citibank. Fun toy but getting all the tags setup properly in iTunes is a pain in the butt. But it's all worth it since I can take it on the road with me.

A house just like mine in my neighborhood is selling for $300k... too bad I paid $450k for mine. jk.

I have 3 classes left of real estate school. If these 3 classes have not been completed within the next month and you happen to see me - please kick my ass.

I was hypothesizing on what GoDaddy's ticker symbol will be on the Nasdaq when we ipo. Some possible ones are "gddy" and "dady". Hmmmmmmmmm- possible license plate???

I finally recaulked my tub. yay.

Please be aware of phishing and pharming. A tip for the moment you come across an e-mail or a page where you suspect the website might be not be what it seems, type in a BAD password and see if it "let's you in". If it does, you know the site isn't legit.

Here is an excerpt from CNET.



By Robert Vamosi
Senior editor, CNET Reviews
February 18, 2005

Hopefully, we've all become wise to phishing attacks, so named because they cast the bait (via e-mail) and if you bite, they can lure your personal information out of you. These scams are now fairly recognizable and usually arrive as a note from a bank asking you to go to its site (link provided, of course) to reenter your most personal information. The fact that a bank wouldn't really need your mother's maiden name might tip you off. Most likely, though, you spot the misspellings in this bogus e-mail, or you're otherwise savvy to the identity theft scam and immediately trash these messages unread.

So what if I told you phishing is just kid stuff compared to what's coming next?

The danger here is that you no longer have to click an e-mail link to hand over your personal information to identity thieves.

In January, I started hearing about these new "pharming" attacks, a supposed successor to the now familiar e-mail phishing attacks. Gerhard Eschelbeck, CTO of Qualys, a vulnerability management company, told me recently that pharming is simply a new name for a relatively old concept: domain spoofing. Rather than spamming you with e-mail requests, pharmers work quietly in the background, "poisoning" your local DNS server by redirecting your Web request somewhere else. As far as your browser's concerned, you're connected to the right site. The danger here is that you no longer have to click an e-mail link to hand over your personal information to identity thieves.

The DNS system
To understand pharming, you need a little background on DNS. Throughout the Internet, a series of domain name servers (DNS) quietly resolve the familiar addresses you type into specific Internet addresses. These servers are basically large directories of common names such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, and IP-specific addresses that you never see. For example, if you type www.cnet.com, this request goes to your nearest DNS server, which then locates the registered Internet address for the Web server at CNET Networks. It's much more convenient than always remembering 222.123.0.0 or something similar.

However, this translation is also a weak link in the Internet's infrastructure. With every Internet request first bouncing off a DNS server somewhere on the planet, criminal hackers realized (some time ago) that rather than flooding a specific domain and effectively hiding it from the rest of the world (in what's known as a denial-of-service attack), they can either change the DNS record or take down the DNS system all together.

DNS poisoning
In October of 2002, criminal hackers (crackers) attempted just that: they directed a denial-of-service attack at the 13 high-level, or root, DNS servers located throughout the world. Although 10 of the 13 failed and went offline, the Internet itself didn't fail. Why? Because the subservers that most people actually access when they type in a URL all have 24-hour cache backups of popular addresses. In other words, there are enough redundancies to keep everything running.

Just watching the address bar on your Internet browser won't inform you of any hijacks; to you, the URL and possibly even the spoofed financial site will look just fine.

But DNS poisoning is a whole different kettle of fish (so to speak), and much more subtle than what I just described. When a cracker poisons a DNS server, he or she changes the specific record for a domain, sending you to a Web site very different from the one you intended to access--without your knowledge. Usually, the cracker does this by posing as an official who has the authority to change the destination of a domain name. DNS poisoning is also possible via software vulnerability, however. A white paper by Joe Stewart from the security company Lurhq and published on SecurityFocus offers more about DNS poisoning, including its history.