The highly anticipated next major update of Mac OS X, Lion is given the Golden Master status today. The official build is 11A511 as shown. Developers can get their hands on this release as early as this morning on the first day of July. Apple is right on schedule with its promise of making OS X Lion available through the App Store sometimes in July. My guess is everyone will see this update in a week or two.

I'm off to check out all the new features Lion has to offers!

Major news outlets are portraying Net Neutrality Laws passed just yesterday as another way for the current administration to control our daily activities. Rather than providing mere rhetoric, below I've listed the specifics of the Net Neutrality rules. The regulations are based on three fundamental rules: transparency; no blocking; and no unreasonable discrimination.

Transparency: the transparency rule requires Internet service Providers (ISP) – fixed and wireless – to be more transparent about their activities. They need to be upfront about how they manage their networks, how well (or poorly) their networks perform, as well as details about their plan options and pricing. Most ISPs would argue that they already do this, but if you disagree, you could conceivably take it up with the FCC. In layman's terms, if your ISP slows down its network at peak times, imposes a usage cap, or charges roaming fees without explicitly stating them, you can report such incidents to the FCC directly. One example that comes to mind is mobile ISP such as AT&T. AT&T provides what it calls an "Unlimited Data Plan", but which actually caps usage at 5GB.

No Blocking: fixed providers may not block lawful content, applications, services, and non-harmful devices. Fixed providers also cannot charge providers of these services simply for delivering traffic to and from the network. Wireless providers, meanwhile, would be banned from blocking access to lawful Web sites or blocking applications that compete with their own voice or video telephony services. It does not apply to mobile broadband app stores. Comcast would not be able to block access to Netflix's streaming service, for example. Likewise AT&T cannot block Skype over its 3G network.

No unreasonable discrimination: broadband providers cannot unreasonably discriminate against lawful network traffic. Reasonable management of network traffic remains acceptable. Such management is defined as appropriate and tailored to achieving a legitimate network purpose. In other words, Comcast could slow down its entire network to handle an influx of users, but it could not cut off a specific, bandwidth-heavy service – like Xbox Live or Youtube. The FCC acknowledges that network management is necessary to prevent harmful content such as malware and child porn from making its way onto ISP networks.

The intention of this blog entry is to clear up the confusion and misinformation surrounding Net Neutrality and how it will effect us, the end consumers.

During the past 2 months, I have received numerous emails and phone calls regarding a malware, most commonly named Antivir Solution Pro. This particular malware is extremely annoying because it doesn't allow you to run any program as well as disables internet access by making changes to Windows DNS settings. Even worse, it masks itself as an anti-virus software that reports a fake scan of your computer that found infections/intrusions/attacks, then repeatedly prompts you to buy the full version in order to remove and protect your Windows computer from what is essentially itself.

Under no circumstance should one use a credit card and pay for the so-call solution provided by Antivir. Reason being, in the best scenario the problem would go away for a few months and probably $50 down the drain. In the worst case however, one's personal information and credit card might be sold to third party.

Summer is a beautiful thing. Especially so when we get to start it off with an extra day off from work to enjoy barbecuing in the wonderful company of our loved ones. The good life, all but warranted to us by those who have served.

Today we remember and honor our service men and women who have given their lives so that we may live in freedom.