Hackers Slow Internet Root Servers With Attack

This is kind of an amazing story that is well covered in the commentary at Slashdot. Imagine the botnet that can bring down two root servers!

Online attackers have briefly disrupted service on at least two of the 13 "root" servers that are used to direct traffic on the Internet. ...

Link: Hackers Slow Internet Root Servers With Attack

Searching for insurance

See, the thing about buying a home abroad is...you soon realize that you will have to live abroad. By live, I mean that you have to do all the little things that we all do every day: chat with neighbors, pay bills, get the house cleaned, do laundry, fight with the insurance company...you know, the usual.

So now I'm looking for car and home insurance for the new place. Two years ago, Jerry and I had our house broken into and three laptops stolen. This was a devastating experience, both financially and (more importantly) personally. It was particularly devastating financially because we had a very uncooperative insurer. The best site I've found so far to compare car insurance in the UK is Insure121, which offers home insurance in addition to car insurance.

Link: car insurance

Google CEO: Internet's Role in Freedom Still Expanding

I think that free expression is meaningless if nobody is listening. Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago would have been meaningless if it had never been smuggled out of Russia...I guess I'm trying to say that expression isn't the problem, communication is the problem. Expression is impossible to squelch, while communication is all too easy to squelch.

Eric Schmidt said the Internet has an ever-growing role in allowing free expression, but only if attempts to squelch it are unsuccessful. ...

Link: Google CEO: Internet's Role in Freedom Still Expanding

Financial calculators

I need to head over to Niemann-Marcus and pick up a green eyeshade. Seems like I'm spending most of the day either daydreaming about my new home or trying to figure out whether I can afford it. The considerations are: I love the weather and the soccer and the prices in Spain (yes, those outlandish prices are relatively affordable) but I love the language and the soccer in England. Should be an easy choice, I suppose, but the language matters to me.

And so does the money. Not in the really visceral way that it probably should matter to me (i.e., so that I'll have enough to eat). Rather, it matters in the same adrenalin-inducing, exhilirating way that a soccer game matters to me. I want to win. It sounds lame (very lame) to say so, but I think that Jerry and I have always enjoyed collaborating on money projects for this reason. We like to play on the same team.

In fact, I've become something of a connoisseur of financial calculators. The online competition in this space is actually amazing, and the variety of different calculators is endless. Jerry prefers to wrestle with Excel for a couple of hours, while I spend my hours on Google checking out the calculators.

CreditProvide is a great example of a site with an almost endless variety of calculators, from mortgage refinance calculators to simple loan calculators to payday loan calculator. This site also has a great education center that has helped me to understand mortgage refinancing. Part of the plan here is to refinance our first home in order to help afford our second. Is this a bad plan? Perhaps the education center (or your comments!) can help me. Has anybody tried this? Experiences? What about buying property abroad? I know so many folks with second homes here, but none with second homes abroad (save one friend with a flat in Hong Kong).

Link: payday loan calculator

Cisco profit rises as Internet traffic grows

I've always been a Cisco believer, and it looks like I've been proven right again! Jerry keeps setting up new websites while at the same time telling me to sell Cisco...

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO.O) surprised investors on Tuesday with a stronger-than-expected outlook and quarterly profit as demand for network equipment to handle Web traffic showed no signs of weakening, driving its shares up 5 percent.

The announcement defied some analysts' predictions that the biggest maker of routers and switches to direct Internet traffic might fail to surprise this quarter, after the previous two quarterly results triggered heavy buying in the shares.

Link: Cisco profit rises as Internet traffic grows

The debtor's lifestyle

Last year was a good year for my Jerry and I, and we have made significant progress toward paying off a number of loans that we've held for a long time. This is a wonderful feeling, but I'll also say that I look back with some appreciation on the folks and institutions who lent us the money. It is incredible to me that folks like Jerry and I can always manage to live, regardless of whether we are making money or losing money. Jerry and I have had both kinds of years, for sure!

I've been up-front on this blog about our search for another home, probably abroad, so I am getting ready to take the plunge into another mortgage. I'm pushing for a home in the UK (they speak English and play soccer over there!), so I've been browsing a British site that has put us in touch with several banks offering good terms, though they also do secured loans and personal loans.

Link: loans

Barca holds La Liga's top spot

Truly, Xavi's early goal was a thing of beauty. I know, he isn't Catalan, but I'll give him the "X" on the strength of his performance in this awesome game:

Barcelona held onto its slim lead in the Spanish La Liga on Sunday with a 3-1 win over Celta de Vigo at the Nou Camp.

The defending champions now have 42 points, one up on Sevilla, who gained their first victory of 2007 with a 4-2 win over Levante. Real Madrid sits in third place, four points back after losing to Villarreal Saturday.

Barca was able to earn the victory after striker Javier Saviola headed the team in front in the first half. Celta got the equalizer midway through the second when Nene scored on a penalty but Ronaldinho returned the favor about 10 minutes later to put the home side up one. Ludovic Giuly scored on a breakaway in the closing minutes to seal the win for Barcelona.

The first goal was a thing of beauty after several chances by the home team had been thwarted in the early going.

The cross was from Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, who isn't Catalan by any stretch of the imagination. You need a nice precise German for these crosses.

Barca holds La Liga's top spot - Soccer