XEN by Nish Patel
May 20, 2013 | 
Author 
A nice relaxing Sunday evening spent in the back yard shade. Enjoyed it while smoking a fine cigar I had stored in the humidor for a good while now, the XEN by Nish Patel. The XEN has a Nicaraguan binder, and is boxed-pressed with a smooth Ecuadorian-grown Connecticut wrapper.
The light on this stick was easy and the flavor very smooth and mild to medium strength. There were hints of spice, but nothing at all overpowering. I loved the large volumes of thick smoke the cigar produced which enabled me to blow smoke rings even though there was a slight breeze out side. As for the scent, my daughter said it had an excellent aroma. As for the burn itself, the stick had a firm ash that lasted about 1 to 1.5 inches.
Other than the cigar, man it was relaxing sitting out in the back on the swing. The weather hasn’t turned to hot yet, especially in the evening. It was about 5:30pm and the trees protect the area from any direct sun. Even the dogs were behaving and not barking – for a while anyway. As you can tell by the photo, the yard is really green back there. What you can’t tell from the photo is that most of that green is made up of weeds. I really need to get back and trim some bushes and pull back some of those weeds.
What you can’t see from the photo is the small corner of the yard that I really claim. It is that vine covered are beyond my hand. In the corner plot are three Japanese maples that my family gifted me, a small angel statue, and a fairy stone. I need to weed, but I don’t want to disturb the angels or fairies either! When I have done some of the cleanup I will post a picture of the area.
Ah well, anyway … a good cigar and a nice evening. Next time I will tap into a growler from the Charleston Beer Exchange instead of my constant companion – Diet Coke.
The Good Fight
Some morning you will wake up to find that the dream you have been chasing is just bait. Shiny, attractive, alluring, but just bait. If you are lucky, you may find out in time, but in all likelihood you won’t. You will be too distracted to notice the truth. Too late you will discover the hook is firmly set and there is no breaking free, no wiggling loose. The line has been pulled tight, and the best you can hope for is to put up a good fight.
Presenting on WordPress Security
Just wanted to let you all know that I will be speaking at the May WordPress User Group meeting on WordPress Security. Since WordPress enjoys the position of being one of the most widely used web platforms, it is also one of the most attacked. This has become particularly clear with the DNS and dictionary attack over the last month.
We will look at the basics of WP security touching on everything from file permissions and user accounts to preventing script injection and backup procedures to protect your blog from hacking or downtime.
The May meetup of the User Group will be held on May 14 at The Flagship on the corner of Calhoun and East Bay, from 6:00pm to 7:30pm, and feature 2 presentations. For more information, visit the WordPress User Group of Charleston’s site.
Posted in Events & Appearances, Security, Website Design | 
Tags: Presentation, Security, user group, WordPress | 
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Nexus 7 Tablet Six Month Review
I have had my Google Nexus 7 Android tablet for a little more than six months now. You can see my early impressions of it back when I talked about using it as a mobile computer. I feel that I have been using it long enough to take a good look at it and summarize my feelings. My summary – I really don’t like it. Sorry, I just don’t.
The most obvious problem with the Nexus 7, and actually the problem that bothers me the least, is that it is just too small. This is really a personal preference. I know quite a few people who prefer the smaller seven inch form factor to the nine or ten inch tablets. I am not one of them. It is great that I can slip the tablet into my pants pocket or easily hold it without any arm fatigue, yes. On the other hand I find myself zooming in far too often. Often enough that I notice it; it interrupts my experience, and makes me switch over to my laptop. On quite a few occasions as I have been lying in bed using the Nexus 7 I have found myself setting it aside to get up and retrieve my laptop. That boils down to the tablet just not working for me. And when I have wanted to do simple book reading I still prefer the non-backlit basic Kindle or … horrors … a real book!
Ok, other than the size we could talk about apps. Google Play, the Android app store, has come a long way. I have to say that there is almost no app that I want that I can’t find. Play can be a bit cluttered and hard to pick through at times – kind of like searching for a gem in a flea market – but in the end I do find what I need. The good apps are free or reasonably priced, and I have never had any complaints with what I have found. I stopped using alternatives, like Amazon’s app store, simply because I didn’t need them and I didn’t like have to go to multiple sources for updates or searches. My summary of the app experience – great. Not an issue at all. Oh, and I love Chrome. Best mobile and desktop browser there is. Read the rest of this entry »
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