Tony Bevilacqua

Haven’t had a ton of time to update my blog lately, so I appologize in advance. I do have a picture today from my recent trip to Cancun, Mexico.

If you have any blog ideas for me, let me know!

ServerBeach, the dedicated hosting provider for SpawnPoint.com, has released a fancy little gadget called the “mGuard Smart” [PDF]. The mGuard Smart is a single server hardware firewall. ServerBeach is currently offering this product on their Category 3 and Category 5 servers, in San Antonio, TX.

The mGuard Smart draws power from the servers USB, and replaces the ethernet that plugs into your server. The ethernet from the PEER 1 powered network is then plugged into the device, allowing filtering to occur before entering the server.

The mGuard smart is currently the smallest security device on the market, offering an extremely high degree of security and performance. It can be integrated anywhere both quickly and simply without modifications to the computer system, regardless of the processor technology or operating systems used.

The mGuard Smart, although small in nature, packs some serious punch; this is a shortlist of just SOME of it’s features: VPN, Configurable Firewall, Integrated AV Supporting HTTP, FTP, SMTP and POP3.

Decatur Daily, a newspaper in Tennessee recently published an article regarding a man who killed an 80 year old man. Is he a psycho? Is he a serial killer? Are there voices in his head telling him to do it? No. Apparently, he thought he was in a video game. And apparently, this is a valid defense for first degree murder these days.

The deadly confrontation between the accused and an innocent 80 year old man that occurred on Halloween 2005 “resembled a video game”. I wonder, is this a reason to take someone’s life? If I am walking down the street and say to myself, “Hmm, this street reminds me of a violent video game I just played”, do I automatically react violently? No, and I’m sure you don’t either.

Clearly, this is just another over-the-top, flashy defense hoping to confuse the jury so much that they are left asking themselves, “What the hell just happened in there?”

The elderly man was left “lying on his living room floor in blood-soaked pajamas with more than 70 stab wounds, one eye gouged out and a gunshot wound”. Now, that sounds more to me like a cold-hearted murderer than a confused kid, but hey, that’s just my opinion, and I’m no defense attorney, right?

This is clearly a robbery gone very, very bad, especially since the defendant can be heard on the 911 call screaming, “Where’s the vault?” the entire time. This sounds like an open and shut case to me.

I’m just glad this lunatic is getting the attention he was craving, because clearly, that’s the only reason they could be throwing this out there. That, and to try and drag down the gaming industry. You heard it here first, folks: video and computer games don’t kill people; crazy people with weapons kill people.

I got confirmation today that my family has booked a group vacation with two other families to the “Grand Oasis Cancun”

I am very excited to get out there, in the sun. I haven’t had a real vacation for years, and some serious downtime, without the laptop, without the smartphone, is going to be totally awesome.

Unfortunately, even with lots of effort, and negotiating on our part, Liz is unable to come with us, on this vacation. The time that worked for the group fell directly onto her exam period, and some of her teachers were less that willing to negotiate. I would really love her to go with us, but unfortunately there is no choice in this situation. Luckily this isn’t an extreme downer for Liz, she was just in Scotland in August of 2007, and she’ll be going with her Mother and Sister to DisneyLand / LA for Dance in July.

I all be departing on April 12th at 5:30AM, for 7 days. Woo hoo!

With the release of the new MacBook and MacBook Pro machines yesterday, I thought it would be helpful to go check out the iMac, and make sure there have been no changes. Low and behold, there was a change in price on the particular machine that I had purchased.

Put Apple to Work for You

Should Apple reduce its price on any shipped product within 10 days of shipment, you may contact Apple Sales Support at 1-800-MY-APPLE to request a credit of the difference between the price you were charged and the current selling price. To receive the credit you must notify Apple within 14 days of shipment. In the event a credit is given to you, the same credit card that you used to make your purchase will be credited.

The price difference was a mere $61, but none-the-less, this is money I paid, and could easily get back. I called Apple Support at 1-800-MY-APPLE - After collecting my order number, the agent quickly offered me the discount that I was looking for.

When purchasing hardware from a company like Apple, Dell, etc - Always check out the policies on price change. I did this well before my purchase of the iMac, it offers a certain satisfaction that I won’t be left completely screwed in the event of a price change.

Some companies may try to pull a fast one on you. Don’t accept no for an answer, if you are within their written policy! In Apple’s case, the agent quickly accepted my request, and put forward the refund. Nice Job Apple.