In 1949, George Orwell published “1984,” his iconic novel about perpetual war, ominpresent government surveillance, and public mind control. Twenty nine years after the year 1984, we have not yet reached the state of Orwell’s cynical vision. However, recent disclosures of the scope and scale of the US Federal Government’s data collection activities makes one wonder if we might be a lot closer to “1984″ then we thought.
In March 2012, Wired magazine published author James Bamford’s article entitled “The NSA is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)” about the US Government’s data collection and analysis efforts. Bamford wrote about a massive data center being built in Utah by the National Security Agency (NSA), aka No Such Agency, which is scheduled to go on line in September of 2013. Bamford stated that not only is the data center designed to store mind boggling amounts of phone records, emails, and other types of data but it would house the world’s fastest supercomputers, for the express purpose of cracking encryption codes. Recent disclosures about the US government’s surveillance activities corroborate much of what Bramford wrote about, and that is a scary thought.
Perhaps George Orwell was right when he wrote in “1984″ that “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” At the very least, if you are concerned about privacy you should invest some time learning about the issues at stake. A good place to get started is at FastCompany.com, which is tracking the latest news. If you want to protect your data you should also use the latest security techniques and features to minimize the possibility that your privacy will be compromised. Remember, “Big Brother is Watching You.”
It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere
A Brief History of the PiñaColada
Appy, our mascot, is taking some much needed rest and relaxation this month. He won’t tell us where he is, except that he is kicking back on the beach, enjoying a PiñaColada. He wanted to share some information about his favorite adult beverage.
PiñaColada, which means “strained pineapple” in Spanish, is an alcolholic beverage made of hard rum, coconut cream, and pineapple juice. It is very popular in tropical climates, and is the official beverage of Puerto Rico.
There are several stories about the origination of the PiñaColada. The generally accepted one is that it was created by Ramon “Monchito” Marrero and introduced on August 15, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As the story goes, SeñorMarrero was given the task by the hotel’s management to create a new signature drink that would delight the cliente of the hotel. After three months of trial and error, Monchito debuted his creation, calling it the PiñaColada. The rest, as they say, was history.
July 10, 2013 is National PiñaColada Day in the US. We invite our customers all over the world to join us that day as Appy and the eApps team pay tribute to the PiñaColada. Try one of these recipes and ENJOY!
Claudia was born in the small town of Targoviste, 80 km north of Bucharest, Romania. She moved to the capital in 2008 to attend college in the European Studies section within the Faculty of Philosophy at Bucharest University.
Her first job, in 2009, was as a Sales Representative for Computer Generated Solutions. She also worked for an online gaming company, where she provided online customer support and learned about international stock markets.
Claudia is an only child, and is used to getting a lot of attention from her parents. Her mother studied Geology and worked for a large, important coal mine for 25 years, where she met Claudia’s father. She was born in the summer of 1989, right before the revolution against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Claudia has an eclectic group of friends who know her by her nickname, Maki, the main character of a fantasy novel she wrote in high school. One plans to be a famous horror movie director. Another has a jazz band and has been getting good gigs in underground pubs where beer is cheap and advice is free. She looks up to her boyfriend because of his professional orientation. He’s into gardening and landscaping and says that there is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment seeing a tree you’ve planted growing, or a garden slowly revealing its hidden beauty after being “trimmed.” He is not just another brick in the proverbial wall and says she is “glad he stumbled upon me so that we can be different together Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. . ”
Claudia wishes she could say she likes keeping in shape . . . but round is a shape too! She enjoys the outdoors – taking walks in the park and going on road trips to the sea side or her home town. As a youth, she used to go crazy about anime and manga. Part of her still has that childish delight when watching a new series, but lately has been too caught up in The Game of Thrones to start watching something animated.
Claudia has found that it’s easy to be a real professional at eApps, because she gets the best guidance from the best bosses ever! She has also discovered that the eApps philosophy of “delivering more than we promise” also applies to how the staff is treated.
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IN THIS ISSUE
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Privacy - “1984″ What took you so long?
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere - Brief History of the PiñaColada
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Meet eApps - Claudia Apostoaei
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Promotions – 50% OFF VM for 3 Months! FREE VPN Review
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Tech Tip – A Primer on Preventing and Detecting Hacks
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LATEST PROMOTIONS
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TECH TIP
A Primer on Preventing and Detecting Hacks
Having your web server get hacked is no fun. Your server is where your application or web site lives, and no one wants bad guys making themselves at home there.
We often get asked if we prevent your virtual machine from being hacked? Well, yes and no. We use quite a few measures to combat hackers. However, customers of our service have a lot of power and freedom. Along with that comes some responsibility for the security of the server.
We also must take care not to intervene in our customer’s server unless it is clearly necessary. Our policy is to provide secure versions and advise our customers to upgrade. In the case of a severe vulnerability we sometimes need to take immediate action and perform updates but usually this is not the case.
