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Did Al Gore Say He Invented The Internet?

The answer is "no". He did make a statement in an interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN about his role in the creation of the Internet, but that statement was taken out of context to be used as a political attack tool. I've heard Al Gore mocked many times for his supposed statement and found someone else making what appeared to be a sarcastic comment in a post today to an article "The Web back in 1996-1997"

As I posted there, I would like to point out that he never claimed to have invented the Internet (see the Snopes article "Internet of Lies"). For a much fuller discussion of the topic and some history on the Internet’s development and Gore’s role in supporting advanced networking initiatives, I would recommend “Al Gore and the Creation of the Internet”

His early vision of its potential and his support for funding of advanced networking activities was important. Vint Cerf, who has, I think appropriately, been dubbed the “father of the Internet” for his technical contributions, along with Bob Kahn, in designing the Internet Protocol, has credited Gore’s early support for advanced networking efforts (see "Vint Cerf responded to MSNBC").

I see the same tactic of taking an opponent’s statements out of context being widely used in the current campaign by both parties. Unfortunately, I suspect many Americans will make up their minds based on what they see in political ads that are designed to mislead them. The tactic used so successfully against Gore still works.

Bandwidth Testing for Verizon's BroadbandAccess Service - USB720

I've posted the results I obtained during testing this weekend of Verizon's BroadbandAccess service using a Verizon-provided USB720 modem at Bandwidth Testing for Verizon's BroadbandAccess Service - USB720

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IP and Domain Name Reputation Sites

An IP address may be added to a DNS Blacklist (DNSBL), if spam is detected as emanating from that IP address. You can check for the presence of an IP address on various blacklists using the MxToolBox Email Blacklist Check, which currently checks 124 blacklists, or at individual blacklist sites, such as MAPS.

You can check on whether an IP address has been associated with attacks on other systems at DShield or myNetWatchman by performing an IP lookup.

You can also obtain information on the "reputation" for a site at Barracuda Central by performing a lookup on either an IP address or a domain name. Barracuda Networks sells widely used spam firewall devices, so a poor reputation listing at Barracuda Central may lead to email from an IP address listed there, or with a domain name in the body of email messages being found there, being blocked by those using Barracuda Networks security devices.

Another reputation site is TrustedSource. You can lookup an IP address there and see a graph of activity associated with that site. If you see red bars on the graph, those represent malicious activity associated with the IP address on the days for which those bars appear.

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Locating Cybersquatters Capitalizing on a Variant of Your Domain

Cybersquatters may buy domains similar to yours hoping to take advantage of someone mistyping your domain name or to mislead someone into thinking a domain name in a URL belongs to a legitimate company or organization. For instance many people might visit microsoft.com, so a cybersquatter might buy micrsoft.com, which has a missing "o", so that someone making a typo that left out that "o" would be directed to the cybersquatter's site instead, where the cybersquatter may have nothing but ads, hoping to get money generated from those viewing those ads. If millions of people visit microsoft.com every week, the cybersquatter will probably get a signifiant amount of traffic from such a typo.

Or perhaps you own example.com. The cybersquatter may purchase example.net, if it is available. Someone seeing example.net in an email may think the domain belongs to your company and visit a site that might have nothing but ads, perhaps even risque ones, or the site might try to infect visitors with adware/spyware, which might harm your company's reputation, even though you don't own the domain name and have no control over the site.

CitizenHawk helps you locate potential cybersquatter sites for your domain name.

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Internet Usage Statistics

If you want to see statistics on Internet usage for various parts of the world, check Internet Usage World Status - Internet and Population Statistics, a "website featuring up to date world Internet Usage, Population Statistics and Internet Market Research Data, for over 233 individual countries and world regions."

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Checking on Whether a Remote System is an Oracle Server

Nmap can be used to determine if a system is functioning as an Oracle server using the command nmap -p 1521 -P0 -sT <ip_address>. Port 1521 is a port used by Oracle server software, but the port may also be used by other software, so, if nmap reports the system is listening on that port, it does not guarantee that the system is an Oracle server.

The options specified above are as follows:

-p 
       This option specifies what ports you want to query.

-P0    Do  not  try  and  ping hosts at all before scanning them.  This
       allows the scanning of  networks  that  don't allow  ICMP  echo
       requests  (or  responses) through their firewall. 

-sT    TCP connect() scan: This is the most basic form of TCP scanning.
       The connect() system call provided by your operating  system  is
       used  to  open  a  connection  to  every interesting port on the
       machine. If the port is listening, connect() will succeed,
       otherwise  the  port  isn't reachable. One strong advantage to this
       technique is that you don/t need  any  special  privileges.  Any
       user on most UNIX boxes is free to use this call.

For a list of other ports used by Oracle, you can check Which TCP/UDP port or ports does 'oracle' use?

References:

1. Which TCP/UDP port or ports does 'oracle' use?
   SecureTrust TCP/UDP Port Search Lookup Tool

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Happy Birthday Internet!

Reckoning by the publication of the first Request for Comment (RFC) document, the Internet was born April 7, 1969, when RFC 1 Title: Host Software was published by Steve Crocker.

RFC's document the protcols on the Internet. The precursor to today's Internet was the ARPANET, which was developed for the United States Department of Defense. The first RFCs were published in 1969 for the ARPANET. At first researchers distributed hard copies of the RFCs among themselves, but in December of 1969 they began distributing them using the ARPANET itself.

References:

1. April 7, 1969: Birth of That Thing We Call the Internet
   By Tony Long
   Wired News


2. Request for Comments
   Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


3. ARPANET
   Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


4. RFC 1 Title: Host Software
   By Steve Crocker
   IETF Tools

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AOL Cuts 5,000 Jobs

AOL plans to cut about 5,000 jobs within 6 months as it tries to move away from its dwindling subscription dial-up service. AOL is planning to offer its services for free to broadband users, counting on advertising revenues to sustain it.

AOL's user base has been dwindling as users move to broadband services. Those that don't have access to broadband services or don't want to pay for broadband services are also likely to choose cheaper dial-up services rather than pay a premium price for AOL's ad-saturated dial-up service.

References:

1. AOL to slash 5,000 jobs
   CNNMoney.com
   August 3, 2006
2. AOL Tells Broadband Customers to Find New ISP
   MoonPoint Support
   November 12, 2004

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Verizon Tech Support Phone Numbers

If you need technical support from Verizon for dial-up access, DSL service, or ISDN support, you can use the telephone numbers below:

Company	Number	Description
Verizon	1-800-567-6789	Dial-up Access/ISDN (24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week)
	1-800-567-6789	Consumer DSL (Dynamic IP)
	1-888-649-9500	Business DSL (Static IP)

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GCN Interview of Vinton Cerf

Vinton Cerf is often referred to as the “father of the Internet”, though he modestly declines the title, crediting Bob Kahn with starting the internetting project at DARPA in late 1972 or early 1973. He later joined with Bob Kahn to work on network ideas after joining the Stanford University faculty. But Mr. Cerf certainly is one of the fathers of the Internet.

Government Computer News (GCN) has an interview with Mr. Cerf, who now works for Google, at The search continues. In it he states, when asked what Internet developments have most impressed him over the years, that "The massive sharing of information among individuals who offer their expertise and knowledge has been stunning in its scope." I think that is the most important benefit of the Internet. I've benefitted enormously from the information others have been willing to freely share on the Internet and I hope that information I provide will also benefit others.

I believe the impact of the Internet will be comparable to the impact the invention of the printing press had on civilization in helping to eradicate ignorance and disseminate knowledge. Just as the printing press sparked the Reformation and the Enlightenment, the Internet will spark new ways of looking at the world. The Internet, though at last enjoying wide popularity, is still in its infancy and its full impact has not yet been realized.

Reference:

1. The search continues
   By Brad Grimes
   GCN Staff
   January 23, 2006

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