Twitter is Down: Denial of Service

Twitter joins 4chan, reddit, and the Gawker Media sites as the latest to fall victim to a Denial of Service attacks. What is going on lately with these DDoS attacks? A few weeks back, a large number of internet users experienced a web-wide slowdown due to a DDoS attack against some of the biggest U.S. sites, and since then it seems there’s been a new attack every few days against a huge site. With Twitter going down today, web geeks panicked as they had little recourse to send out messages about ___ being down.

As of 1 PM, Twitter is back up and functioning normally, but will they be attacked again? Who will be the next target? Is one group responsible for all these recent attacks or is there a copycat effect going on?

Facebook Struggles as Twitter Falls

Of course, the first place the majority of Twitter users would flock to would be Facebook. Unfortuanetly for them, Facebook too was having network issues today. As of 1 PM, I’m receiving errors at Facebook.

Facebook's Network Struggles

Die IE6, Die IE6, Die

CNN reports that the movement to kill off Internet Explorer 6 has been renewed with vigor. They’re not the first to break the story but are the biggest mainstream media outlet to report on it. Back in July a few major web companies begin announcing they are dropping full support for Internet Explorer 6. Mashable reported on the trend as well as listing a plethora of reasons why IE6 should be killed off and forgotten. Since then, the kill IE6 movement has been snowballing, reaching new heights today with the CNN article.

But, at the end of the day, most IE6 users are stuck in the antiquated browser because the corporation they work for has too many applications developed in-house that break outside of IE6. I don’t think anyone out there is willfully using IE6 because they think it rocks. Rather, they’re stuck using it.

Warning: Internet Explorer 6 is in your PC!

Still, going back to my corporate days I remember that it wasn’t exactly difficult to get Firefox running alongside IE6. Even Microsoft wants users to upgrade from IE6, but since it’s not easy to get fully working, fully supported versions of IE6 and IE8 running on the same desktop (I have such a setup for testing purposes, but it isn’t bug-free) we’ll likely continue to see corporate IT departments holding back the web by keeping IE6 on the corporate desktop.

I’m all for this movement, but it’ll take more than Youtube, Digg or Facebook not working properly to kill off IE6. It’ll take a truly huge site that corporate users must have access to, something like Google. Until then, web developers have three choices, ignore IE6 users, create a skeleton version of the site for IE6, or handicap their overall site by ensuring it works in all browsers by default.

Paying for Online News

Last but not least, Rupert Murdoch announced that he’ll be switching all News Corp. web-sites over to a paid format. The key quote from the announcement:

“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting,”

Does that mean the Fox News web-site will remain free?

Seriously, paying for news isn’t a terrible thing. It’s unlikely to work, but if the quality is truly there, meaning news is reported pro-actively instead of re-actively, and has investigation behind it and doesn’t simply regurgitate press releases, then people will pay. How many is the real question.

Thanks to the Rich Man for the photo of the four horses.

As I discussed last week, I feel there is variability in these types of assessments and if I re-took the assessment a week, a month [etc.] from now, I would score differently. Nevertheless, at this point in time the results are clear, I value people, enjoy pleasing them, and value loyalty among coworkers. From knowing myself better than anyone else, I’d have to agree with the values a high LPC score denotes. However, my competitive side also values completing a task and desires competence in my coworkers. Looking at my satisfaction with types of work I’ve done over the past one and a half years [at State Street], I know I prefer long-term projects over repetitive short-term tasks. In fact, a few months ago I moved over to a processing team, where the tasks are similar, day in and day out, and the volume is high. Although I derived pleasure from finishing a high volume of these tasks, I found myself making mistakes as the tasks require an attention to very minute details. Part of these tasks involves applying tax rates to a client depending on their residency, account structure and other details. I found I would constantly apply the wrong tax rate [luckily, our auditors caught all of these before they went live] or make a small typo. Overall, my quality of work on this task-processing team was good but not exceptional.

Meanwhile, I was working on multiple projects before joining the task processing team, and earned an Outstanding Performance award for my devotion to the project’s goals. On these projects, I would have to build a good working relationship with coworkers in the office and in outside organizations. I excelled at building these relationships, which allowed me to push my coworkers and contacts when necessary without damaging the relationship. I also paid more attention to the details of the project, and made fewer mistakes as I had a commitment to my coworkers and contacts to ensure quality work. Also, the details in the projects were of a much more complex nature and dealt with client and market situations, rather than minute details.

So even though I fight the results of these assessments, it does seem, compared to my actual experiences, that I am a high LPC, at least more than I am a low LPC. Rather than being heavily tilted to one side, I feel that I use aspects of both, depending on the situation and my mood, to accomplish my and the organization’s goals. It also does not surprise me that my LPC shows I am motivated by relationships right now. I work in the typical corporate office setting, where networking plays a much larger role in promotions than performance.

There is a leadership situation in my past, which goes counter to my current LPC score. In this situation, I was the formal and informal leader! A brief background, in the 6th grade, I gained admission into the prestigious Boston Latin School, a public exam school [you must pass a test to enter the school], for the 7th grade. In the 8th grade, I tried out for and made the freshman football team. Although there were tryouts, in essence everyone was able to play for the team who had a modicum of desire or bare minimum of skills. At Latin, our athletic teams are not the focus of the school, and are quite often the last area to receive funding. We still do not have a home football field and instead share White Stadium with the other city schools. The lack of funding and focus on academics has negatively affected the football’s teams performance. The freshman team had a longstanding tradition of winless seasons, a tradition which repeated in my first year on the team. In the 9th grade, I was appointed to one of the two co-captain positions for the freshman team.

Accepting my responsibility as a captain, I was extremely motivated to win at least one game. That was my goal, and I viewed each game as a task with a clear success/failure evaluation. If we won, we succeeded; if we lost, we failed.

Self-Rating of Effectiveness

Score: 5/10

Although the freshmen team did not win a single game under my captaincy, I still feel the group and I had a few moral victories. For one, right from the start we were behind all of our competitors. Rather than playing against other public high schools in the city of Boston, we played in the Dual County League, playing teams from rich suburban neighborhoods, with a lot more resources and focus on their athletic success. Many of the kids on these suburban teams had been playing together since their early youth, so they not only had more experience playing football, but also more experience playing together. There were more than a few games where we were simply blown out.

Another disadvantage which directly affected our group performance was our lack of a home field. Whereas the varsity team played at White Stadium, a shared home stadium among city teams, the freshman team traveled to our competitor’s field for all of our games. Not only did we not have a home field crowd to motivate us, we also experienced biased referees who would clearly make calls to help the home team. If we could have played all of our games under unbiased referees, we definitely would have won at least a couple of games. Even though we failed my goal of winning one game, under the circumstances we performed admirably.

Leader-Member Relations

Score: 19/40

The fact that this was a high school football team helped and hurt leader-member relations. For one, we were all less mature then, and petty differences between people would cause fights between individuals occasionally. I didn’t help matters much either, as I led by a decidedly authoritative style, often yelling at my teammates after we lost games. In particular, a lot of my teammates didn’t seem to care as much about the end result of the game as I did; conversely, I cared too much about the end result in the grand scheme of life. I really wanted our team to break the winless tradition and my teammates understood that no one would blame us for not winning a game. Neither side was right, and a healthy medium existed which would have benefited everyone if both sides drifted more to that healthy middle ground. Hence, even though I led with a strong right hand, I also was friends with many of these people on and off the field, which helped me avoid physical harm from my leadership style. My friends and teammates understood I just wanted us to win, but then and now they think I would have been more effective if I relaxed my style a bit. The other co-captain led more by example and less by actual leadership. He was calm and stayed back often, but at times would also yell and shout at our teammates; the difference is when he yelled our teammates knew he was dead serious and it was time to shape up immediately. He still should have been more vocal, and several of our friend-teammates encouraged him to talk more often. We all had our faults back then, hind-sight is great now but at the time we tried our best and still often failed miserably.

Task Structure

Task Structure Part I: 16/20
Task Structure Part II: (-) 3/9
Task Structure: 13

Any sports team has to be structured to ensure all of the players and coaches are on the same page, hence why every sports team has a playbook. The playbook is the blue-print of the team’s strategy. Plus, the goal is obviously clear, win. The team’s schedule also has to be structured to ensure everyone is at the same place at the same time. If the timing of the players is off, the play usually won’t work and might even result in penalties. On a successful team, everyone knows their role and understands the step they need to take to fulfill that role. In this way, our team was like the majority of teams. Timing and adaptability were the two big shortcomings of our structure. As I said before, we were at a disadvantage since all the other teams had years of experience of playing with each other, and had all of their plays and timing and style down quite well. They were also able to adapt plays to the talents of their players, since the coaches had plenty of time to evaluate their players and adjust their strategy accordingly. On the other hand, our team’s coaches barely had enough time to implement our playbook, yet alone start changing it to fit the unique skills of our players.

I had one year of formal experience and training over the rest of my teammates, so I chose a moderate level of training and experience. I didn’t choose very little because our academic program was much better than any of the other schools and trained me to critically analyze situations, which comes in handy on a football field, where you have to quickly analyze and act on a huge number of factors during every play. My obsession with football also helped analyze game film and adjust my game accordingly.

Position Power

Score: 6/0

As a co-captain I had some power over my teammates, but the coach is the dictator in this situation, and at best I could only offer recommendations on players and strategies.

Did my leadership style fit the situation? At the time, no, if I was in the same situation now, yes. At the time I was much closer to an a low LPC than my current high LPC. A low LPC thrives in situations with high or low control, whereas the co-captain of a high school football team has moderate to low control over the situation, requiring a high LPC for success. My co-captain was closer to a high LPC at the time, but he too struggled with the low control portion of the situation, whereas I was a low LPC at the time, and struggled with the moderate control of the situation.

The results of my low LPC style in this moderate control situation match the predictions of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory on the surface. Below the surface, we had a few moral victories which just do not show up in quantitative analysis of the situation. The next year, our junior varsity team, earned a 4-6 record, and still all of us objectively agreed we should have been 6-4, if a very few factors were flipped. Of course, the opposite is also true and we could have also ended up with only 1-2 wins too. The junior varsity team kept the same two captains from our freshman year and added two additional captains. I also matured greatly and focused much more on relationships, for instance making sure my teammates didn’t play hurt and that everyone got a chance to attempt a position they wanted to play. I also had a lot more input with the coach on how our team should be managed. Although I was still focused on tasks, the fact that we were succeeding at these tasks took the edge of my authoritative style and I gradually moved to the middle of the LPC scale, where expecting competence and loyalty from my teammates greatly improved my leadership effectiveness.

If I knew what I know now, about football and leadership, I am quite confident that if placed in the same position, I could share enough knowledge and help my teammates by leading them on the path to (at least one) victory.

Being relatively smoke-free for more than six months now I’m here to tell you about the immense benefits of not smoking and how to quit smoking in less than one minute. There’s simply too much material to cover in one post so we’ll have a 3-4 part series about cigarettes, their dangers and how to quit. Today let’s go through some of my personal history. Next we’ll talk about the pros and cons of smoking, focusing on health, economics, and time. Finally, we’ll discuss how to quit smoking in less than one minute. If you’re not subscribed to the RSS feed, now would be a good time to subscribe!

For the first 18 years of my life I never smoked a cigarette and was very adamant about the dangers of smoking and trying to get people around me to quit. When I was a little kid there was one or two incidents where I threw a cup of water at my step-father while he was smoking. Needless to say I quickly figured out this was not a very good strategy! I’d also see my mom smoking on very rare occasions and would take the cigarette from her and threaten that I’d start smoking it if she didn’t put it out. So, you can see I was certainly not a smoker, knew the dangers and publicly promoted not smoking.

Alas, a few months into my freshman semester at the University of Southern California, I got a little too drunk and ended up smoking a cigarette and enjoying it. Though I smoked on only very rare occasions for a few months, eventually I degraded to being a pack a day smoker. The low point came that summer, while working for my step-dad as a construction worker, I smoked nearly two packs a day!

The next school year, I incidentally transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, home of Tobacco Road. Though I didn’t repeat the mistakes of smoking two packs a day I still smoked way too much. Even as a poor college student, I could easily find ways to scrounge up the $2-$2.25 for a pack of smokes. Yup, they are dirt-cheap there as much of America’s tobacco is grown in the region.

So my drunken slip turned into a habit and six years later at the age of 24 I was still smoking nearly a pack a day. At this point though my desire to quit was growing exponentially every day. A few incidents pushed me past the tipping point. In January of this year I quit smoking cold turkey. I had one relapse, which I expected to happen, but it only served to further convince me that not smoking is clearly the right move. Seven months into my smoke-free existence and I’m wicked happy and healthy. Buying and riding a bicycle personally helped me remember to keep my lungs clear and over the course of this series we’ll discuss similar strategies for kicking the habit and staying clean. Remember to sign up for the RSS feed or e-mail updates to stay up to date.

In particular, if we change “King of Great Britain” to “King of the United States of America, George W. Bush” does the document still make sense? Let’s see [note, anything you see in brackets is me adding an incident to support the claim].

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain King of the United States of America, George W. Bush is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let the Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good [Bush vetoes children's health insurance bill].

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them [federal raids on state approved medical marijuana operations in California].

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only [Republicans intimidating voters to stay away from voting booths] .

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures [telecom immunity, commutation of Scooter Libby, continued approval of war spending bills and vetoes of timelines].

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people [Attorneys fired for not agreeing with Bush, the power to declare war lies in the Congress, not the executive branch].

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands [Bush expands immigration checks].

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. [Patriot Act, warrantless wire-tapping, Department of Homeland Security]

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures [illegal wars].

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power [unconstitutional Guantanamo trials, majority of Americans are opposed to Iraq War].

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us [Department of Homeland Security]:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world [Cuban embargo]:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent [war spending for a war the public does not consent to, the economic stimulus checks which are simply an early refund (so you may owe taxes next year)]:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury [false accusations of terrorism lead to illegal detainment]:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences [27,000 people held in secret overseas prisons]:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments [the Dick Cheney branch]:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever [Bush believes he can sidestep wiretapping laws].

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us [Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq which criminalizes anti-war protests.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people [Bush has had a constant negative impact on the environment].

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation [private contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq].

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British American brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British American Crown, and that all political connection between them and the Federal State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Nearly every single reason for the original Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom holds true today. There can be only one true patriotic move, declare independence from King George W. Bush and his henchman in the executive branch. Today, as we celebrate this country’s birth we must move forward and yet again renew the Tree of Liberty. The current federal government of these United States of America through its criminal negligence, corrupt conspiracy, and open disregard for the law has rendered itself null and void. The truly patriotic amongst us realize this government is now illegal and an enemy of the people and this country. We all must openly admit and declare that we are no longer part of this criminal, blood-thirsty, tyrannical American empire.

To conclude this post, I will borrow the words of one of our greatest fictional Presidents, the great President Thomas Whitmore from Independence Day. We truly live in a sad state when he is the most inspirational President of my lifetime. Though he spoke of fighting to prevent annihilation from aliens, his inspirational speech holds too true for our modern struggle:

We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom… Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution… but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: “We will not go quietly into the night!” We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

1. small dog create

Huh? Was this person asking Google to make them a small dog?

2. too much fun but not enough education

There is a fine balance. One which many strive for but few attain.

3. sitting

Where they looking for a how to? Definition? History?

4. managerial accounting for idiots

How much you wanna bet a Fortune 500 CEO is behind this search?

5. i love nate and adam icons for aim

No idea why I’m the first result for this…

6. do schools need textbooks

College kid trying to convince his/her professor to drop textbooks? Or a principal trying to cut costs? In my opinion, schools do not need textbooks but do need authoritative resources to learn from, whether they be people or e-books or experiences is up to the school or teacher.

OK, time to go Google “Large pile of cash create”.

The truth is, I was starting to become burnt out with this blog and really needed a short break from blogging. I intended to only take a couple of weeks off, but then near the start of November I sprained my lower back while foolishly catching an air conditioner in mid-air that was slipping from my hands as I was carrying it into the basement. To anyone whose sprained or otherwise injured their back, you understand why sitting at a computer (especially after sitting at one for eight hours at work) was not something I looked forward to. So, to help bring me back from this injury I avoided using the computer as much as possible as sitting upright tended to cause pain for those first few weeks.

Needless to say, I should have written a quick post letting everyone know that posts would be sporadic here for a while but at the time, I foolishly thought my back would get better within a few weeks. It’s now been over three months and I’ve finally begun to feel like I did before the injury. In fact, I went running for the first time in a long time today. I barely got through a mile but it felt great (after the pain in my lungs subsided) though surely I’ll feel a little bit sore tomorrow, but in either case it won’t keep me from running again. As you can imagine the past few months of recuperation have really caused me to pack on a few pounds so a little soreness won’t be enough of an impediment from running.

Anyway, I hope that explains my near three month absence and to prove it wasn’t all time wasted here’s a few lessons I picked up:

• Be careful when lifting heavy and if your grip is slipping just drop the weight (watch your feet though).
• You can buy a new air conditioner but you only get one back
• Don’t disappear. Let people know if you will not be around for a while.
• If you’re in pain, see your doctor. Do not wait until the pain is unbearable.

There’s more than a few other things I learned over the past three months and we’ll have to get to those another day.

I left out the default “I am away from my computer right now” away message but used all the others messages my IM buddies put up, including my “somewhere but not here” note. How about you? Does your buddy list’s away messages tell a story?

Good News

It’s Friday baby!

-me a few minutes ago…sure this past Sunday night and Monday weren’t the best of times but the weekend got here quick!

I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.

-Mitt Romney via Romney suspends campaign

As someone whose lived in a government led by Mitt Romney, the news that he is suspending his 2008 presidential campaign is a huge relief. Though this news does not officially end his campaign, it does limit his already diminishing momentum. I just love it when someone comes into my home state, barely stays here, yet acts as if he’s know a true Bostonian. Hopefully, we are now only left to wonder where Mitt would have ventured off to if he became president.

If he spent his time as a Massachusetts governor campaigning across the country, would he have traveled the world as a U.S. President campaigning to be the first World Leader? Either way, we’re better of with Mitt out of these elections. Even better, the Republican field now narrows to three candidates. Will the mainstream media continue to ignore Ron Paul, now that he represents a third of the Republican candidates left?

Bad News

Even without surgery, the 41-year-old Schilling is not expected to be ready to pitch until at least the All-Star break, according to several sources familiar with his condition.

-Gordon Edes from Boston.com writes that Curt Schilling might be out until after the All-Star break. When it rains, it pours, eh New England? Seems those curses are hovering above us again, Pats lose their only game of the year in the Super Bowl, Kevin Garnett remains injured, and now Curt might be out for half a season. Yeah, this one story is enough bad news…moving on.

Odd News

It looks much fatter than the iPhone, while claiming to be a ’99% iPhone Clone’.

Sascha over at Live25 found this gem of a device, the HiPhone, which just straight up copies the iPhone. Sure it looks a lot like the iPhone (though being fatter and more oval shaped) and comes with competitive features, but I’d do as Sascha recommends and stay far, far away from this phone. It’s only $130 cheaper than the iPhone so you might us well pony up the extra cash and get the real deal.

Earlier this week, this post about authenticity in the modern sales industry was listed in the Carnival of Sales & Management Success. There are literally tons of articles listed in this carnival so if you’ve got some spare time or are really interested in sales and management, check out some of the carnival’s posts.

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