Niche Swanky House of Wilkinson Residence in Portland

Evoking the feeling of being in a tree house is exactly what the beautiful Wilkinson Residence in Portland does. Located on a flag lot, the extraordinary house is brilliantly designed to perfectly blend with the natural landscape. A steep sloping grade provided the opportunity to bring the main level of the house into the tree canopy.




Catering to the desire of the client, Wilkinson Residence designed a dwelling that not only became part of the natural landscape but also addressed the flow of music. It has a natural wood ceiling that wonderfully floats on curved laminated wood beams, passing through a generous glass wall, which wraps around the main living room. The interior space of this amazing house flows seamlessly through to the exterior. Taking a walk through the house will help you see its complexities and its connection to the exterior.








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Squid Proxy: How To Make a Transparent Squid Proxy Server on Ubuntu

Squid is a fully-featured HTTP/1.0 proxy which is almost HTTP/1.1 compliant. Squid offers a rich access control, authorization and logging environment to develop web proxy and content serving applications.

This is a short guide on how to set up a transparent squid proxy server on an Ubuntu Distro. Squid is a caching proxy for the Web supporting HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more. It reduces bandwidth and improves response times by caching and reusing frequently-requested web pages. Squid has extensive access controls and makes a great server accelerator.

So Let's Install Squid!

The first step is to install squid 3

apt-get install squid3

Edit the squid 3 configuration file in your favorite editor

sudo vi /etc/squid3/squid.conf

And set the transparency and the allowed hosts

http_port 3128 transparent
acl our_networks src 192.168.0.0/24
acl localnet src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255
http_access allow our_networks
http_access allow localnet

where 192.168.0.0/24 is the IP range of local network. Probably you need adjust the swap size

cache_dir ufs /var/spool/squid3 7000 16 256

where the first number denotes the size of cache in megabytes. Save you changes and restart the squid proxy by

sudo /etc/init.d/squid3 restart

For more detailed configuration read the manual of Squid or check the configuration examples on Squid wiki page.
Remember, the memory and processor usage of squid is a function of swap size.
Last but not the least we need to redirect the HTTP traffic to your new shiny proxy

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.0.1:3128
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 3128

where eth1, eth0 are the LAN, WAN devices and 192.168.0.1 is the IP address of your LAN device.

After all, probably you feel the need to monitor the performance of your proxy. Unfortunately, most of the squid log parsers in the Ubuntu repository are configured for Squid 2.x. Nevertheless, squid 3 uses the same log format, so you can change the log file path in your parser config file (sarg, calamaris, etd.) or simply link the log directory of squid 3 to the correct path

ln -s /var/log/squid3 /var/log/squid

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Useful Tips for Buying Used Computers

In this modern era, high tech devices that are very expensive like the computers can be replaced with cheaper ones. Such cheap computers mostly come in the form of used computers. Used computers can be found in abundance in the used computer warehouses in various places, even in the local area of the prospective buyer’s residence. However there is no guarantee of quality when buying a used computer.

The buyer has to take his own personal risk in doing so. But, if the buyer is ready to spend some money in upgrading the level of the used computer and also some time checking the quality of the used computer before purchase, it will save him from loss. Used computers can save a lot of money for the buyer when compared to buying a new computer. There are many who cannot afford to buy a new computer like the students who do not have any source of income but definitely require computers. For such people, used computers come as a boon.

Also, used computers need not always be second hand computers. They can also be recertified or refurbished computers. Refurbished or recertified computers are those, which are checked for any faults, if any corrected and sold with a warranty ensuring the working condition of the computer to be perfect. Hence, such computers are considered to be the safest form of buying a used computer. Refurbished computers can be bought from many of the online stores at very less prices. Quality computer manufacturers also sell such kind of recertified or refurbished computers. However, certain measures need to be taken while buying such kind of computers.

The prime aspect to be considered while purchasing a used or refurbished computer is to look for a good branded one. There are various companies who sell used computers or refurbished computers. The main reasons for opting for a branded one is that it comes with a warranty and also the buyer can be sure that the parts used are of good quality.

While buying used or refurbished computers related software documents, licenses and paperwork have to be got from the seller as this will avoid stolen computers being passed off as used computers to the buyer. If possible working for some time on the used computer will determine its efficiency. Most of the reputed dealers would allow the purchaser to use the computer for a shorter period to check the quality before purchase.

While checking for the efficiency of the used computer, it is good to check if the booting process is smooth, as most of the problems occur during booting and also to check all the sound drivers, video, graphics, monitor, mouse, keyboard etc. CD drives and hard disks also need to be checked. Another aspect is the support system offered for the used computer whether technical or non-technical, support staff capabilities and the number of support staff which determine the quality of service offered. If the purchaser is not satisfied, he can very well think of another choice.


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Mission: CHANGE

It’s the second day of classes and I’m still stuck in my vacation moments. I’d still like to travel almost anywhere without thought of school projects left undone and without though of school obligations which leads to stress at some point.

As I sat sluggishly in one of my minor subjects, the teacher wrote something on the board that made me follow it until the last stroke was finished. It was one word that puts me in a dilemma most of the time- MISSION.

It was a flat piece of written art on the board but it struck me and left the biggest question that might change me forever once I find the answer. “What is my ultimate mission?” Most people wait for signs and others just don’t care. But there are those who would do everything to find their mission. What’s the fuss all about? Why do we have to know and find out if we will still turn to ashes someday?

Our ultimate purpose in this world is to find our mission, or purpose and our direction. As the juvenile members of the society, we have a mission of being heard and of making a CHANGE. We have the mission to be able to have a voice in every issue and discussion when it comes to both national and international concerns.

To create CHANGE amidst the turmoil and disasters.

To CHANGE ourselves to become better.

These changes are easy to say but it’s a work as big as the galaxies and we need battalions of people to be one to make change happen. That’s where the youth comes in!!!

On November 16-17 2009, YES2009 or the YOUTH ENGAGEMENT SUMMIT 2009 will be held and the CHANGE experience begins!

Sign up and join! You might win a FREE TRIP to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. You will be joining 500 South East Asian Youth and meet icons of change.

TO JOIN Click the link below and ask others to join you too…
http://philippines.youthsays.com/seachange/go/s14

TO CHECK OUT THE YES2009 TRIP DETAILS Click the link:
http://blog.youthsays.com/seachange/yes2009-trip/

Deadline is extended until this Sunday. This is YOUR time to be heard. YOUR time and chance to make a change!!!

Join Now!

By: Widowed Patch, join her with her mission to change
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Protect Yourself From Cyber Crime

One of the most powerful mediums of communication is the Internet and today we see almost everyone using it. Many transactions take place on the net which has resulted in the eruption of cyber crime. Though internet is the main platform used to commit cyber crimes, other communication devices such as computer networks and cell phones are also mediums of this type of crime.

Cyber crime may include activities such as computer hacking, child pornography, stalking, spam marketing, credit card fraud and identity theft. Releasing malware, spyware and viruses to steal information is also a part of cyber crime.

Here are a few tips which when followed can protect your sensitive financial or personal information.

If you are a member of online forums and communities, ensure you are very careful sharing your personal information. Predators on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace can steal and use this information to stalk or harass you.

Ensure all your online transaction passwords are really difficult to guess and strong. It is a good idea changing your password on a frequent basis to avoid any problems.

Equip your computer with reliable antivirus software for maximum protection. If you are posting photographs on profiles, choose your picture with care. Ensure you do not post pictures that could harm your reputation.

Never leave your personal information details such as address, telephone numbers, passwords, account numbers and social security number lying around. Also ensure they are not placed on cell phones, mp3 players and multimedia devices.

The moment you receive your credit card bills and bank statements, check for any discrepancies. If you are keen on shopping online, choose a reliable and secure website. Ensure you get a free credit report yearly from the credit bureaus. This makes it easy for you to find out if someone is using your social security number unauthorized. If you do come across any cyber crimes, be sure to report to the authorities immediately


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