MarkPappas.info

OpenDNS is a free service that perofmrs and action many people end up paying for – internet filterting.

How it works:
When you type in a web page, like “www.google.com” you are actually typing in a shortcut to a place on the internet. Your internet provided has a a DNS (Domain Name System) server that then tells your computer the real address of the webpage – 208.69.36.230 for our example of www.google.com (click on it if you don’t believe me!). Google paid for the web shortcut of “google”, just like I paid for www.markpappas.info.

Your internet provider has that DNS server – but you can override it. Here’s the slimplicty of OpenDNS. You set your computer or router to look to openDNS instead of the one your internet provided has. OpenDNS then gives your computer the real address of the webpage. However – once you have an account with opwnDNS you have other options.

When a new web page is added to OpenDNS it is catagorized in up to 54 different catagories. With your account at OpenDNS you can selectively block any selection of them in addition to a few other features.
This means that with a simple click of a mouse button in your settings window you can block Pornography.

Here are the current categories OpenDNS has-

• Adult Themes
• Adware
• Alcohol
• Auctions
• Automotive
• Blogs
• Business Services
• Chat
• Classifieds
• Dating
• Drugs
• Ecommerce/Shopping
• Educational Institutions
• File storage
• Financial institutions
• Forums/Message boards
• Gambling
• Games
• Government
• Hate/Discrimination
• Health
• Humor
• Instant messaging
• Jobs/Employment
• Lingerie/Bikini
• Movies
• Music
• News/Media
• Non-profits
• Nudity
• P2P/File sharing
• Parked Domains
• Phishing
• Photo sharing
• Podcasts
• Politics
• Pornography
• Portals
• Proxy/Anonymizer
• Radio
• Religious
• Research/Reference
• Search engines
• Sexuality
• Social networking
• Software/Technology
• Sports
• Tasteless
• Television
• Travel
• Video sharing
• Visual search engines
• Weapons
• Webmail

One stop internet filtering. And it’s free.

On a side note, I love stumbleupon, specifically the photography catagory.
I didn’t like the people that submit nude photos under the ‘photography’ catagory.
OpenDNS has solved that issue for me. I now end up looking at a generic OpenDNS page stating that the website was blocked for being catagorized into XYZ catagories which have been blocked by your network administrator.
I’ve been using it now for over 6 months without any issue.
Did I mention it’s FREE? OpenDNS

So it’s about time I updated the site a bit with current happenings.
I’ve been spending some time in my basement building my workshop/”man cave”.

So far I’ve;

• Added a wall (along the foundation)
• Built a great 8 foot workbench off the wall
• Installed 4 new lights (CFL’s of course) in the ceiling
• Modified existing shelving for use as a PC/server location
• Installed a new circuit for the workshop itself.
• Cleaned (alot) of old crud up and tossed a few bags worth of trash out

And thats just the basement area alone. I’ll get photos up someday hopefully!

Around the rest of the house I’ve been working on smaller projects and tasks-

• Installed new lights on the outside of the house
• re-sealed most of the existing windows for air leaks
• Installed a handful of new light fixtures in the house (they finally all match! [well, I have a few left])
• Fixed a nice former homeowner ‘fix’ in the attic that lead to water leaking into the house this winter… (will need to permanently fix when it gets warmer on the roof).
• Put in some energy saving items around the house (power strips, CFL’s, LED lights (yes, I have some LED light bulbs, $5 a piece at Sams Club. I’ll never have to change them again, only useful as accent lighting though, about as bright as a 20w incandescent light)
• Rewired the entire garage. The existing electrical was just plain bad.
• Installed a new electrical outlet on the front of the house – no more running an extension cord 150ft from the back to the front now!
• Replaced 3 windows with brand new ones. Installed estimated that the old ones were at least 40+ years old.

Starting to get a list of projects to do this summer too.

• Add shelving to the garage (needed badly!)
• Figure out a way to lift the bikes up into the rafters so they are out of the way of the cars
• More new windows (still have some 40+ years old ones left!)

Anyhow, always a list of stuff I’d like to do, Angie has a completly different list of hewr own for me!

Well the Christmas seaons offically starts this coming week with Thanksgiving. Thanks the retail establishement for turning Christmas from a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus to a nearly month long retail shopping spree.

Not to mention the concept of Christmas lights. I’m assuming that the idea started as a safer alternative to candles… and at some point some retail/marketting genus thought, “hey, these things can go outside!”. And the rest of the story is history.
On the note of Christmas lights.. ours are up. I won’t light them until after Thanksgiving though. I did solve one issue I had with the lights last year however – Today I installed an electrical outlet on the front of the house. Drilling though our brick house to make a hole is somewhat of a scary concept, especially because it took 2 trips to the store to get a masonry drill bit long enough. Turns out I need a 13 inch bit to bunch through from the outside to the inside.. Anyhow – no more extension cords going from the back of the house to the front!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So last Wednesday night I managed to sprain my ankle in a rut in my backyard. I don’t mean twisted, hurt, etc – I mean the ‘hurt so bad my toes are turning back and blue’ sprain.

Yes – I’m telling the truth about my toes. The tops of my toes are actually bruised along with pretty much the rest of my foot.

On Thursday morning I called into work and told them I’d be taking the day off and I called up my mom who happens to live across town (My wife had to work) so I could get a ride to the local clinic for x-rays and a doctor’s opinion. I swear I heard a ‘pop’ when I fell.

X-rays came back clean – no fracture.

So crutches and limping for the next few weeks!

Fast forward over the weekend and I’m back at work on Monday now. I can limp along without crutches as long as I wear this ‘aircast’ thing the doctor gave me, which is a huge plus over crutches and not be able to walk at all.

So for the next few weeks, or however long it takes to heal, I get to wear an air-cast and limp around everywhere. I’m just praying that I’ll be able to walk around easily by the time my vacation starts in 2 weeks!

Over the holiday weekend my wife and I stained the deck in our backyard. When we bought the house I figured we needed to get it done, but I wasn’t really sure how badly it needed it…

The deck looks amazing now.

Only problem is the sunlight. The deck gets nearly direct sunlight from dawn to dusk all summer long, as a result we don’t really use it too much.

So next up – adding a pergola so it looks even better and with the added shade from a canvas ‘roof’ of some sort we’ll be able to use it even more often!