New Website!!

Boss It Up! has now moved to a newer and better domain! Introducing The BossItUp Post!

http://www.bossituppost.com/

This blog will still be used, so don’t delete your bookmark. More details on that later.

Have fun!!

Password Tips

For your own security, you should remember the following tips for your webmail client:

1. Use a relatively complicated password (e.g., “ClearSkyL8@Night”

rather than “clearskies”). The key is to have at least a change of case and a number, or change of case and a special character, or number and special character – preferably a couple of each category – and to make sure it’s at least around 11 characters long if you can (but at the very least, 8 characters long).

2. Use different passwords for email and for bank accounts. There are all sorts of tricks you can use.

3. If you log into your email from another person’s account, change the password when you get home.

4. Make sure your anti-virus software on your home computer is up to date (which can prevent key loggers that can capture your passwords).

5. Never enter your password into a page you reached by clicking an email link. Just don’t do it. You’ll be happier that way.

What should you do during an earthquake?

Just don’t hide under the table. Most of what they taught us at school about earthquake safety can’t be compared to scientific research.

My dad sent me an email the other day, that listed an earthquake expert’s directions on what to do when an earthquake strikes. I hope you enjoy it. Please pass it on to save lives!

*******

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP’S ARTICLE ON THE: “TRIANGLE OF LIFE”

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of
the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world’s most
experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save
lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue
teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries,
and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries…

I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years.
I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except
for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico
City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every
child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have
survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was
obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the
aisles. I didn’t at the time know that the children were told to hide
under something.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings
falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects,
leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the
“triangle of life”.
The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The
less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the
probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not
be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on
television, count the “triangles” you see formed. They are everywhere.
It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1) Most everyone who simply “ducks and covers” WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE
are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or
cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal
position. You should too in an earthquake… It is a natural
safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next
to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will
compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in
during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the
earthquake.  If the wooden building does collapse, large survival
voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated,
crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks.
Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete
slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply
roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can
achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting
a sign on The back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie
down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting
out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal
position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is
killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls
forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the
door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In
either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different “moment of
frequency” (they swing separately from the main part of the building).
The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each
other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people
who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads
- horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn’t collapse, stay away
from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be
damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they
may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should
always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is
not damaged.

8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If
Possible – It is much better to be near the outside of the building
rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside
perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape
route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above
falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly
what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz
Freeway… The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed
inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily
survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles.
Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out
of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had
voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns
fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices
and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact.
Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

*******

Don’t forget to pass it on!

What’s going on?!

Good evening, Readers. It’s been a while!

This week was exam week, therefore I had to study for and write exams, beginning from last Sunday. That didn’t really allow me to post on BossItUp. However, I was able to tweet. As I’ve mentioned many times before, Twitter is my secondary blog. I use it to post when I’m really busy, and when I don’t have any time to go on WordPress and post. It’s just an iPod app away. But now, since I’m free once again, I’ll post more often.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means that a new episode and season of the BossItUp Series are coming out!

*******

Finally, before I go to sleep, I want to tell you guys that in a bit, BossItUp is evolving into a completely new site. As you’ve probably read on my Twitter page, I’ve bought a web domain. I’m currently installing WordPress onto it. The new website will bring many new features that are impossible to add here. I’m sure you will all love it! I’ll explain more about this project later.

Sorry for the short post, but you’ll hear more from me tomorrow and this weekend! Goodnight!!

2010: BossItUp featured on Google!! (Happy New Year!)

Happy New Years, everyone!! I’m really happy that the new year and decade has finally arrived! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays!

To start off 2010, I have some great news. Boss It Up! now comes up as a search result on Google if you search “bossitup wordpress”! A few sites also have added my site and my Twitter accounts to their search directory. However, on the other hand, there is something you guys should be aware of. A few other sites have used my username and my blog’s link in either comments or posts. So if you see a comment from the names “idashur” or “The Boss” which was posted before July 2009, then that is not me.

I took a screenshot of the search page.

Look at all those links!

The First Million Digits of pi

Ever wondered how many digits there were in the equation pi? There are about a trillion! Fortunately, I got a hold of the first million digits. This will take a lot of scrolling. Click on the “Read More” link to read the whole post. Source: http://www.eveandersson.com/pi/ (Firefox froze when I pasted this onto here…sad)

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548

The Verizon + AT&T war still continues…

Remember yesterday, when I posted the episode about Verizon attacking AT&T with the “there’s a map for that” commercials? A while ago, AT&T filed a lawsuit against Verizon. The folks over at The iPhone Blog.com covered what Verizon said in reply to the lawsuit:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.

This is probably only the beginning of this company war.

***UPDATE***

AT&T finally retorts with a brand new commercial. Check it out:

 

Explaining my two-week absence

I usually post a lot on this blog. Last month, October 2009, I published 11 posts: my personal best.

However, these two weeks, I only posted the two BossItUp Series episodes. Yes, quite disappointing. And if you’re wondering what happened, I’ll just tell you that I was really occupied with many things. There’s only two weeks left to the first school term, therefore I’m simply finishing up everything on my list before the term ends.

Hope that explains everything! If you have any questions or concerns, either leave a comment on the Suggestions page (http://bossitup.wordpress.com/suggestions), send me a tweet on Twitter at @idashur, or send me an email at theboss.ul@gmail.com.

Wondering what’s been happening with my music?

Earlier this afternoon in one of my posts, I updated you guys on what’s going with my music:

If you’re wondering what’s happening with my music, I’m currently working on a brand new album. I’m not sure when I’ll release everything, but my guess is around the end of November or December. -The Boss

Now all I need to do is find some free time…

YouTube videos not working on BIU

When I went on my blog this morning, I noticed that all of the YouTube videos in all of my posts were missing. Therefore, I checked the YouTube site. To my relief, YouTube is down for maintenance. Thankfully, there will be no need for me to re-embed all the videos to every post once again. Thanks for your patience! I’m waiting too…

**UPDATE**

YouTube isn’t down anymore, however the embedded videos on the blog are going on and off. Still waiting for the partial fix.

**UPDATE 2**

The videos now load really slowly. I also visited the blog on Safari 4, and they wouldn’t load at all. Therefore, try temporarily using Firefox 3.5. I can’t try it with Internet Explorer yet, because I use a Mac. So I don’t know what to say about you PC users.

**UPDATE 3**

They always say that the third time works. Let’s hope. Did you see this? Did you see the outraging “YouTube down” page? I know I did:

Haven't they finished maintaining the site yet?!

Shortly? What’s shortly? Two hours? I think not. Let’s hope the problem is fixed as soon as possible, because every WordPress blog depends on YouTube as its video provider.

**UPDATE 4**

Yep, the third time worked. The problem’s fixed, and everything’s back to normal. Thanks, YouTube. And sorry for any inconvenience, Readers.

Happy Halloween!

It’s that time of the year again! October the 31st…Halloween! This year’s costumes were interesting, especially at my school. One of the school’s professors made the most detailed and freakiest Frankenstein costume I’ve ever seen. As for me, I only wore a plain black wig. Since I’ve had really short hair my whole life, if felt weird to have the wig’s long hair down in my eyes and mouth. Nevertheless, I had a great time.

This also brings the end to the month of October, which I’m proud to announce that this month, Boss It Up has had a whopping 133 views. Thanks to all the new readers for supporting me and leaving comments on posts.

Before I go, let me tell you that during November 2009, two huge new things are coming to the blog. Details coming soon!

Thanks again!

BIU on iPhone/iPod Touch and Blackberry!!

Ever visited Boss It Up on your iPhone or Blackberry? I’ve tried it months ago and the quality was horrible. However, now you can view it on a mobile phone-friendly theme! Here’s a screenshot from my iPod:

Boss It Up! on an iPod touch

Just normally type in http://bossitup.wordpress.com/ in Safari or Blackberry Browser. Happy reading!

The Lyre Bird

This is something I want to share with you, Readers. Two months back, as I was on YouTube, I found this video of this incredible bird, called the Lyre Bird. Not only is it beautiful from the outside, but its voice is amazing. When the male Lyre birds try to attract and impress the females, they copy other birds’ songs and put all the sounds they know into the most complex song. Take a look at a clip from a BBC documentary:

Even a camera shutter?! And…a chainsaw!?! Yep, it’s all true. I’d say the Lyre birds are one of the most talented bird species in the world.

300 views!

When I checked my stats today, I just realized that my blog has reached over 300 views! I’d like to thank everyone for their support, and for all their patience in times when I’m really busy and can’t post a lot.

Which brings me to the unveiling of the 300 view banner! Congrats, readers!

The Boss It Up 300 views banner

More to come!

Changed Twitter username and photo

I’ve changed my Twitter username from @markusabcdef to @idashur. Please don’t ask why. Along came the change of my profile picture. This used to be my favorite wallpaper on my old computer.

Profile on the left, as viewed on Tweetie for Mac, and new picture on the right.

Hope this hasn’t caused you any trouble with recognizing me. This is the reason I posted this.