spf-test@openspf.org

If you get a response where it says that it has passed, then you’re good to go. Otherwise, you’ll have to do some more testing to see why it’s not working. OpenSPF is a great place to start as far as finding the right tools and how to do setups for SPF records.

Image via Wikipedia

I have to say that overall with national politicians, there’s a pretty easy litmus test to find out if your particular representation is actually listening and serving your needs.

E-mail them.

In the past, I have had responses to emails from former Senator Edwards, and Senator Burr, but never anything from former Senator Dole. I also have received responses recently from Representative Mel Watts and Senator Burr (kudos here for always generating conversation) but nothing from Senator Hagan’s office.

Call it strange, but Hagan replaced Dole so I wonder what that’s about. In any case, in regards to my email, Senator Burr’s office contacted me directly and had a short but very responsive contact. Representative Watts though sent me a letter that basically said that he’d love to support my needs, but since no legislation was brought up in Congress about it, he’ll keep a look out for it. For the most part, it was a generic form mailer. Which, while I appreciate feedback, it’s one of those… ehh… what? It was almost answering a question like: “Is the sky blue?” with… “I’m sure your color has merit, and when the general consensus talks about a sky color, I’ll support yours.”

You sort of have to laugh at it and wonder exactly what politicians do. You’re either for, or against a certain ideal. Perhaps there is merit to either side and you could be swayed to one end. But without actual conversation, the generic stop letter is just not the way to go. Maybe that’s just me from a personal perspective, but it’s only slightly better than the total constituent ignore only because you’re getting it on Congressional letterhead.

Today, this issue really isn’t about Representative Watts’ letter and I apologize to him for using his letter as an example. But from a state where the general populace has been beaten down to a bloody pulp when it comes to employment and trade, the cynicism starts to grow when you don’t see conversations being started by even the aides of the representation. Call it strange but you would hope those are the individuals that are fighting for you in the big city of politics.

• Go to Total DNS Control Panel.
  
• Under the TXT section: click Add SPF Record.
  
• Select An ISP or other mail provider: click OK.
  
• Select Outsourced tab: put “aspmx.googlemail.com” (no quotes) in the field and click OK.
  
• Click OK again when GoDaddy sets up a SPF record.

And then you can wait a little bit for that to propagate to all of the DNS servers. Once that’s done? You’ll have your SPF Record set.

Image by AMERICAN ARTIST BEN MURPHY via Flickr

Show me a world without politics, and I’ll show you a world where pigs fly.

Sometimes, I have to smile when I get frustrated that everyone seems to live in this ideal world where everything is supposedly dandy and we’ll have all of our problems fixed because in “today’s society”, we shouldn’t have to deal with these problems. Call me a cynic, but it’s been a long time since I have felt that way, and a long time before I ever will feel again like that.

Let’s be frank. You have to deal with certain unfair scenarios in life. It’s just like for some, they have all the luck. It’s not that people cannot achieve their dreams, but for every single person that does succeed in making their dream a reality, there are countless thousands that do not make it. That’s just a cycle of life. But the sooner you realize this cycle, the better your odds become at beating the cycle.

And that’s where the idealism comes in. I can’t stand it when people want to cry at every single turn about discrimination in the work place. Apparently, this happens to the Asian American community too and I’m sure it does. But to even have a term called the “bamboo ceiling”? I mean seriously, this just bugs me. Of all the stereotypes in the world, I was lucky enough to end up with the one that really doesn’t have too much of a negative connotation, and stereotypes exist just as everything else does. And now people want to play the fact that racism plays a factor in promotions of Asians? Come on. If you want anything that plays a factor, it’s politics. The political play is more eventful, more powerful, and when it comes right down to it, way more legal.

Seriously, who the heck plays the race card anymore? If you are, you’re not too bright considering all of the alternatives in the work place. In a dog eat dog world, the entire corporate structure relies on strategy and tactics that not only pits external competition against each other, it also creates internal conflicts where the strongest rules. It’s always been this way, and it’ll always continue to be this way. If you don’t like it, then join the ranks of the upper crust and you won’t have to deal with it.

Otherwise, there are many that believe that today is entirely black and white and have gone beyond politics where there are sweets and rainbows. The day that politics ceases to play in the corporate environment is the day there ceases to be corporations. And at the rate capitalism is going at right now, I’ll have to bet against the odds of that happening.

It says that until corporations or the government gives a nice jab in the arm on hiring, the overall percentage of buying power has been reduced. This hurt can and will be felt through both retail and financial markets since people without jobs cannot pay loans and mortgages. And let’s face it. Saving the financial institutions do not amount to squat if the people that the money is being loaned to can’t get work to actually pay it back. This is not only brings financial players to a grinding halt, but it shows that politicians do not understand the basics of economics. Everything starts with the beginning of the food chain, not the end.

What’s worse is that until someone does actually gain this bright idea, all of the injection of federal funding is for naught. That means that the taxpayers bear the burden of a costly mistake, of which becomes more and more weight per each individual as more and more people cannot find work. And you wonder how Congress can sleep at night with a twenty or so percent approval rating.

First, they’re literally beta testing this in the field because instead of having some new firmware that is backwards compatible, they send out a phone call the previous day saying that the mailer they sent out should have the information about what’s going on. For the most part, all I can tell is that they make it easier for you to accidentally purchase premium channels, it’s prettier interface from the original guide, and the actual interface is even clunkier.

Let me put it this way. Before with digital cable, or any HD channel for that matter, it would auto-detect the resolution of your television before the channel came through. It was slow, but it wasn’t terrible. With the Navigator “upgrade”, it will first go to the lowest resolution of the channel (usually 480i), then convert. So it’s like changing the channel twice. Each of these channel changes are around a 2 second delay wait versus probably about half second before, so if you’re flipping through the television channel, it D-R-A-G-S.

It was so slow, that when I was scrolling through my favorites and saw something I wanted to go back to I decided not to go to that show because by the time I rolled through my twenty-five favorites, that segment of that show would be over already.

In my personal opinion, it basically seems like either the testing that was done didn’t produce the slower results, or some manager somewhere thought that having slower results would be better for the overall television experience (I’m not sure why this would be since the television is literally dark while the channel is feeding through). Either way, sounds like bad product management.

If anything? Give me a way to roll-back to my set-top box’s old firmware. Believe me. I’ll have a better cable television experience instead of this junk. Because if I continue on this type of channel surfing, then I’ll probably get frustrated enough to just put it down and read a book or play my PS3. At the very least, the interfaces for either don’t come with a lag time that makes me want to throw a controller.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Healthcare reform is a scary thing. Not that I don’t think that people shouldn’t have healthcare. It’s definitely a necessary evil. But forcing it upon everyone not only raises cost, but it becomes under regulations that usually are loopholed by corporations. Show me any law that eventually doesn’t have SIG play in it and I’ll laugh.

The entire thing from my personal opinion is ridiculous. Every single country that has ever done it does not have nearly the population or expanse to cover. And when is anyone going to learn that the countries that do have it, do also pay a lot more in taxation? Good luck in telling your average American that the taxation currently isn’t good enough and there will be more percentages coming down the pipe. Because if the government plays options, then someone has to pay for it. And that someone is usually the middle class.

Here’s another perspective. Sometimes, it might even be worthwhile to gamble a bit. If you’re the type of healthy individual that doesn’t get sick often, then perhaps premiums are not worth it for you. In an average family, you’re looking at anywhere between two hundred to four hundred dollars for an average policy. I’ve seen up to a thousand dollars in pretty pathetic policies for two people. But if you rarely go to the doctor for anything, that’s a lot of money that you save. Say that you only go once a year and need prescriptions with it. That would probably cost you the same amount as a single month’s premiums. Coverage itself really is for those scary emergency room bills or what not. But it does show why it might not even pay to have coverage.

Either way? I can’t understand why so many people push for universal coverage. If we’re required to have it, then it’s an extremely costly joke. If we are not, then it’s not universal. Either way, if it goes through it’s doomed to land on the shoulders of the middle class in some shape, form, or fashion. Cost is always passed onto the last man on the totem pole. It’s just the nature of business.

Image via Wikipedia

Bleh. CNBC and the rest of the financial world totally is off their rockers.

I mean, think about it. The Dow Jones breaks 10,000 and people think that the economy is turning around. But in all reality, that’s an indicator of shareholder confidence in the corporations after the huge government bailouts. Not only is the dollar weak now against other currencies but it’s not likely to be any better any time soon with all the surmounting debt. But if you don’t watch the financial markets and actually just buy into your mainstream media, let me put it another way… do you think this will survive in the long term? Especially with the holiday season coming?

Think about it. Job loss is at an all time high, and corporations are not producing any more hiring. The jobs that are taking place are the entry level, non-education based while the educated workforce is laid off. On top of this, the government itself doesn’t hire civilians unless you have military discharge papers (go and try to apply and when you finally finish the entire application, you might be surprised at what you need to submit). So with all of this coming and locally, we’re losing 900+ jobs from the Dell plant closing, that means there is less money to pay for … yes, gifts. Less work force also means less taxes, and less potential profits for retail. Retail has a trickle-down effect upon anyone that supplies or transports for that industry.

In essence? Stocks that do well don’t mean jack diddly. If there is anything that it does mean, it means that the senior management is even less likely to hire. Why? Simple supply and demand. If they can squeeze the effort out of the current work force with the threat looming of job loss, and provide greater revenue for their shareholders, there isn’t one single event that could show why they would want to expand status quo unless it’s to squeeze more people with more work. And the way things are going, the stimulus money wasn’t just a wasted effort in my opinion, but it could have lead to more job creation from the government itself. Whatever happened to when we fought wars and provided jobs?

In the end? It seems like the only ones that win in the end are those that are in the upper social stratosphere. Where most want to be, but few ever achieve.

Either way, Microsoft has identified this issue and has apparently locked down the compromised accounts. If you were compromised and are locked out, there is an email form that Microsoft Live has set up for you to reclaim your account. I took a look at it, and it asks for some serious private information.

All of this should teach you (the end user) something. Lesson here is that you don’t click on anything ever in emails or otherwise, when you can go directly to the site itself and look for it. One of the reasons I have always hated HTML emails since it stupefies the entire security aspect and makes it a more difficult problem since you go against human nature. Thus? You’ll never see me prefer text over HTML any day of the week. You can dump links there, but I can read them.