Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

According to The Space Review, “to ignore the sexual and reproductive issues surrounding people in space will not make them go away.”

Check out what I get when I ask where Myspace is:

nslookup myspace.com

Name: myspace.com
Addresses: 216.178.32.49, 216.178.32.50, 216.178.32.51, 127.0.0.1, 216.178.32.48

That’s right–the loopback address, essentially me, resolves to Myspace. They’ve clearly misconfigured their DNS, and are now dropping 1/5 of their global traffic. Smart one, News Corp. It’s not a great idea when you buy a company to make a public, stupid mistake. For more, see the opendns blog.

Nouveau Riche University - Profile of a 29 year old successful real estate investor and business owner. Chris Record, Independent Student Advisor, Nouveau Riche University

If you bored, check out this hot new blog:

Coding Horror

When I said new, I lied. Jeff Atwood’s been blogging on here since 2004, but I’ve only just discovered his blog. Very technical, code-oriented, his last few articles cover comprehensive anti-spam theory with a classical “defense in depth” solution, performance tips for virtualization, build servers, and defeating capchas.

For example, in an article about Windows Vista and VM, he writes:

As alluded to in the above lunch anecdote– and as you can see from the Task Manager screenshot above– Windows XP has no qualms whatsoever about leaving upwards of a gigabyte of system memory empty.

This is exactly what linux has been doing for years–filling up system memory with things it needs, because when it doesn’t need them it will swap them out for other things. Then, in another article, he wonders why databases don’t index themselves:

But in a modern client-server database, the server should be aware of all the queries flowing through the system, and how much each of those queries cost. Who better to decide what needs to be indexed than the database itself?

The answer is that it’s not enterprisey enough. Auto-indexing would create slower insert/update times, cause a bigger disk footprint, and affect complex systems in unknown ways. Performance differences often produce side-effects.

It should be Remy Martin but I don’t like putting accents in post titles. That aside, Remy Martin’s a high-class drink made from double-distilled fine champagne. After distillation, the brandy is aged at least 2.5 years in oak barrels. The grapes used are also strictly regulated–90 percent must be Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, or Colombard grapes.

There are three kinds of Cognac you can buy, sorted by quality:

• VS (Very Special) - stored for at least two years in casks
• VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) - stored for at least four years in casks
• XO (Extra Old) - stored for at least six years in casks

Interestingly, 60-80% of the American cognac market is African American, because of its recent placement in hip-hop and rap music as Yak or Yack. According to BoingBoing:

“Cognac “is a classy, sophisticated and really smooth thing to drink,” says rap star Jay-Z. His new Manhattan club, 40/40, features a “Remy room” in honor of his own favorite cognac brand, Remy Martin. He says he likes to sip Remy Martin’s Louis XIII — which comes in a gold-encrusted Baccarat crystal bottle for $5,000 — “whenever I wanna have a really relaxing moment, usually with a cigar.”

It’s a bit expensive–at $135 a bottle, $35 a glass–but it’s definitely worth it if you want to relax. Next to try: Hennessy VSOP.