Victor's Blog about the Web, Security and Life

Victor's Blog about the Web, Security and Life http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life The web for me is a hobby where standards and best practices are daily bread. Security is a concern that everybody must be aware of its details for IT in general, and the web in particular, to be a safer place. My life, on the other hand, is that of a regular Lebanese citizen where politics and social issues are discussed on a daily basis. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and make sure to drop me a comment about any topic you find interesting. victor 2010-03-04T18:59:27Z Ziad Baroud Spamming? http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/114_ziad_baroud_spamming.html <img src="/gallery/1/previews/ziad_baroud.jpg" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="120" height="109" align="left" />Today, I received an email from Mr. Ziad Baroud, the Minister of Internal Affairs, asking me to check my listing on the DGPS website. While the majority would like the fact that Mr. Baroud is using a one-to-one communication method to reach as much Lebanese citizens as possible, I did not like the fact that Mr. Baroud is encouraging spammers to send out such emails. Lebanon is already a spammed country. Tens of companies send out SPAM / JUNK emails every day. We all nag and complain from such emails and spend 20-30% of our email time identifying and deleting SPAM / JUNK emails before starting to actually reading legitimate emails. It would have been nice if Mr. Baroud had: <ul> <li>Avoided spamming me by sending me an email that I did not ask to receive (this is what SPAMming is after all)</li> <li>Used a more modern e-Marketing tool to spread out the word. A banner on a few websites (Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Tayyar, Yellow Pages of Lebanon, etc.) could have done the same effect if not better since it wouldn't be dropped into the JUNK folder like what happened with this message. Of course the banner would have cost him a little bit more but I don't believe that budget is a problem in this case. </li> <li>Used this case as an exercise to help him identify Lebanese SPAMMING companies and warn them to stop providing this service.</li> <li>Used this article as an alert to start pushing an Anti-SPAM rule / law into the Lebanese system.</li> </ul> I would love to see a minister / parliament member / president / anybody in the Lebanese government starting to handle rules and regulations related to Technology. Digital signatures and Anti-SPAM rules are just the beginning. General Web Security 2010-03-02T06:32:57Z victor A Couple of Amazing Tricks! http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/113_a_couple_of_amazing_tricks.html  This guy is marvelous! Watch and try the trick. You will like it... <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="355" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/U9lFe504i2s" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U9lFe504i2s"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"> <param name="quality" value="best"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded"> </object> <object height="344" width="425"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U9lFe504i2s&rel=0&color1=0x6699&color2=0x54abd6&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"> </param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"> </param> </object> General 2010-02-23T20:19:02Z victor A New Speed Radar That You Cannot Fool! http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/112_a_new_speed_radar_that_you_cannot_fool.html <img src="/gallery/1/previews/sensys_radar.jpg" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="37" height="120" align="left" />The new Sensys radar (shown in the photo) is a clever radar for speeding drivers. This radar does not flash and, most importantly, does not need to measure your speed at the moment where you pass near it. In other words, if you speed between two cameras and slow when you reach the radar, it will uncover your trick. Most of us, speedy drivers, go over speed between any two radars and slow down when the radar is within range. This radar is a bit more clever in this sense. It will record your speed and time (after identifying your plate number) when you pass by the first radar and  will record your speed ad time when you pass by a second radar. This information is transmitted, through mobile connectivity, to a central system that will analyse your speed based on the given speeds, the distance between the two radars and the time taken to travel between them. If the time taken is shorter than the maximum allowed, the radar will report your car as a speeding one and, thus, you will get the ticket. The ticket has been recently installed in many locations in Doha and I am pretty sure it is either being used where you are or will be shortly deployed. Therefore, it is time for us all to start admitting that technology is finally being used where it is supposed to be used. Drive safely and take care and beware! General 2010-02-22T19:10:36Z victor Standard Chartered Email & Website Phishing http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/107_standard_chartered_email_amp_website_phishing.html <img src="/gallery/1/previews/alert_sign.png" border="0" hspace="5" vspace="0" width="120" height="96" align="left" />If you receive an email related to the suspension of your Standard Chartered account with a link to www.standardchartered.ae in it asking you to login in order to update your account settings, don't click on it. Beware of it. This is a phishing email leading to a phishing website and has been reported as such. Just don't click the link in that email. The website it takes you to is: http://sinhwatech.com/V1/Standardbankae.html I checked it again right now and Google is reporting it as a phishing website but it is good to note it here just in case you didn't have the Google bar installed. General Web Security 2010-02-21T00:39:33Z victor Huge Lighters Security Alert http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/106_huge_lighters_security_alert.html <img src="/gallery/1/huge_lighter.jpg" border="1" alt="Huge Lighter" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="284" height="350" align="left" /> Recently, I am noticing many individual walking around with huge lighters in hands and (barely) in pockets. Huge lighters (similar to the one shown in the picutre) are being considered as pretty cool these days by many. While I agree that such a thing is somehow cool, we must be aware of the many risks associated with this type of lighters especially when using them in crowded places (like restaurants) or when temperature is high (like the summer). It is a well known fact that a small lighter (almost 1/8 the size of the huge lighter) can cause sever damage to the ears if it explodes. Small lighters usually explode under high temperatures only. If a small lighter falls down from a table, for example, it rarely explodes and, as such, you are usually safe carrying it into crowded places as long as you keep it away from direct contact with fire. The huge lighter, however, does not share these same characteristics. The lighter that I bought as tall as a half-liter water bottle (check picture). While experimenting, it exploded from a height of 2 meters as soon as it touched the floor on its base. Another lighter exploded after 1 second from touching the fire. <div> Don't try experimenting unless you are extremely careful. An exploding huge lighter is very dangerous. Tens of small pieces fly around randomly and can cause harm and cause sever damage to the eyes and other body parts. </div> This leads us to conclude the following simple points: <ul> <li>Huge lighters can explode easily if they fall down from low heights (1-2 meters)</li> <li>Huge lighters can explode after 1-2 seconds from being exposed to direct fire contact (unlike small lighters that can bare around 5 seconds)</li> <li>Huge lighters cause sever damage to humans when they explode especially to ears (the explosion sound is very harmful) and to the eyes (from the small flying pieces) </li> <li>Huge lighters should not be allowed in public places (for public safety)</li> <li>It would be better if you simply avoid buying them especially if you have kids around at your place</li> </ul> I hope this helps us all learn about the harm that may be caused by this type of lighters so that we can enjoy the forthcoming summ General Security 2010-02-20T12:01:39Z victor Few Blog Updates to Share http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/105_few_blog_updates_to_share.html Today, I spent some time updating my blog with few stuff that should have been here a long time ago. <ul> <li>AddThis is now active for you to share / bookmark articles</li> <li>A print button is finally there with an empty layout suitable for printing</li> <li>ReCaptcha is now implemented instead of the old AuthImage plugin</li> <li>Related articles are now displayed when you view an article</li> <li>Emails are required now when posting comments (so that I can reply to you at least)</li> <li>A mobile version is now available. To use it, simply go to <a href="http://www.victorsawma.com/mobile/" target="_blank" title="My Blog's Mobile Version">www.victorsawma.com/mobile/</a></li> </ul> General 2010-02-14T22:05:20Z victor NetDesignPlus in Kuwait http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/103_netdesignplus_in_kuwait.html In December 2009, <a href="http://netdesignplus.net/" target="_blank" title="Web Development Kuwait, Lebanon and Qatar">NetDesignPlus</a> officially opened its newest branch in Shuwaikh, Kuwait. With this opening, we will be able to better serve our Kuwait clients by being closer and in direct contact with them regarding our online services including web development, design, hosting and consultancy. Web 2010-02-05T18:53:44Z victor Hidden Fees with Malev Hungarian Airlines Online Booking System http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/102_hidden_fees_with_malev_hungarian_airlines_online_booking_system.html Yesterday, I booked my first ticket online with Malev Hungarian Airlines. My trip is from Beirut to Gotenburg on July 2010. The total fare to be charged "as per the website" was 567 USD for the roundtrip. The confirmation email (and yes I still have it and is attached below) confirms that the total charges should 567 USD. Yet, my credit card was charged 609 USD. Being pretty familiar with Credit Card charges, I decided that this should be some sort of conversion between USD / Euro while processing the payment through their payment gateway. Thus, I gently sent them an email asking them to refund the difference. Today, I received a reply back from them asking me to contact client service on a Hungarian phone number. I did. The woman on the other side simply checked, confirmed the price (567 USD) and said that everything is OK lol I told her that the card was charged 609 USD. She was surprised first but, then, she remembered (surprisingly she did) that there is something that they call a "Service Fee" that is worth 30 Euros for the Lebanon region and that changes from region to region. What a joke! She couldn't even confirm that the service fee is 30 Euros. She said that it should be around 30 Euros but there is no way for her to know the exact figure. The worse part is that she is admitting that they have hidden fees. The worst part is that she cannot now what the exact fee should be. No comment from me on this. I know that this will be my last time to book with them online unless some magic occurs and someone points how something so unprofessional can happen with an airline reservation system.   General Web 2010-02-04T15:18:11Z victor IEEE High Availability Database Workshop http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/101_ieee_high_availability_database_workshop.html Today, I guided a workshop about high-availability database solutions at NDU. The workshop went for 6 straight hours (from 9:30 till 15:30) and was attended by more than 50 students from various universities in Lebanon. The workshop was organized by the NDU IEEE branch in collaboration with the Computer Science Club. I started the workshop with a general overview of availability issues in Database solutions. Then, I moved to a more detailed description of Database Replication and Database Clustering before moving forward to the hands-on implementation that included the following: <ol> <li>How-to install / configure MySQL Cluster on Centos</li> <li>How-to configure a database for asynchronous data replication</li> <li>How-to configure a Cluster for real-time synchronous data mirroring</li> <li>How-to configure load-balancing using the "balance" tool and Linux VFS (overview)</li> </ol> The unique thing behind this workshop was the ability to achieve a working solution that includes a Cluster Manager, 2 Cluster Nodes, 2 Cluster API nodes and a load-balancer while using only 3 server machines. The solution architecture was simple and included the following machines: <ul> <li> 192.168.0.1: this machine acted as the load balancer and the cluster manager. All requests to database operations in applications have to go through this machine which will, in turn, forward them to either 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.0.3. <ul> <li>A slightly different solution will be to use Linux VFS to share a load-balanced IP address (e.g. 192.168.0.10) on 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3. In this case, application database operations will have to go to the shared IP address (192.168.0.10) </li> </ul> </li> <li>192.168.0.2: this machine acted as a cluster node and a MySQL API node.</li> <li>192.168.0.3: this machine acted as a cluster node and a MySQL API node.</li> </ul> Web Programming Software 2009-12-13T08:41:04Z victor Halloween 2009 http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/100_halloween_2009.html This year's halloween gathering was exceptional with the large number of babies present lol Enjoy the pictures ;)   <a href="http://victorsawma.com/1_victorsawmacom_blog_about_web_security_and_life/albums/11_halloween_2009.html" target="_blank">[Visit this halloween's album]</a> General 2009-12-05T08:10:14Z victor One-Million Dolar Picture http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/98_one-million_dolar_picture.html <img src="http://victorsawma.com/gallery/1/previews-med/smoking_1milliondollars.jpg" border="1" alt="The 1-Million Dollar Picture" width="500" height="298" /> The creator of this picture won a million dollar in Van cogh' talents competition which took place in Italy. Please take a closer look at the picture. General 2009-11-16T07:13:58Z victor Google Wave: Social Networking or Cloud Computing? http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/97_google_wave_social_networking_or_cloud_computing.html What will Google Wave's primary power be in? Will it be Social Networking and thus competing with Facebook or will it be Cloud Computing and thus computing with Microsoft Live and Yahoo? Just a note for anyone reading this and willing to give his / her opinion. To get more information about Google's Wave, visit the URL below: <a href="https://wave.google.com/wave" target="_blank" title="Google Wave">https://wave.google.com/wave</a> Web 2009-09-30T19:59:50Z victor How To Recover Your Hotmail / MSN / Live Passport Account? http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/96_how_to_recover_your_hotmail__msn__live_passport_account.html Did you lose access to your Hotmail / MSN / Live account and cannot reset your password using normal techniques (like Secret Question / Answer or Alternate Email)? If yes, here is the link that allows you to "try" to recover your account by contacting Microsoft directly. <a href="https://support.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=wlidvalidation&ct=eformcs" target="_blank">https://support.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=wlidvalidation&ct=eformcs </a> Click on the link above and fill in as much information as possible. Make sure you use an email address that you have access to. The more information you provide (contacts in your address book, folders, email activity, etc.) the more convincing your request will be for the staff member who will be reviewing your request. Normally, if convinced, Microsoft will simply reset your account password and send it over to the email address that you provide. Pay attention not to get confused between the stolen account email address and the email address that you want to receive the recovered password on. General Web Security 2009-09-25T07:13:37Z victor Beirut: CNN's Best Party City http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/95_beirut_cnns_best_party_city.html A beautiful report from CNN about the best party city on earth. No wonder they chose Beirut. <a href="/movies/cnn_best_party_city.ram" target="_blank" title="Watch CNN's Best Party City Report">Watch the Report (Real Player required) </a> General 2009-09-03T06:32:18Z victor The Future of Web Programming http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/94_the_future_of_web_programming.html I was having an interesting discussion yesterday about web programming languages with a friend of mine during which we tackled various programming languages (PHP, Java, VB and C#) and their competitive nature for web programming. I found it very useful to place a summary (yet a detailed one) about this topic due to the interestingly arguable nature of this topic... PHP:Past, Current and Future I will start with PHP simply because it is still my favourite web scripting language. Back in 1998, when I first tackled PHP, many programmers that I knew used to make fun out of it (same way they used to make fun out of Search Engine Optimization back then as well ;) starting from its recursive name (PHP stands for PHP Hypertext Processor) reaching the naive (yet powerful) nature of the language back then. I always had my bet that one day PHP will have to evolve into an application development language (like Java or C# nowadays). Luckily now, I can safely say that is almost here with the presence of the ZendServer, PHP 5, Zend Framework and PHP-GTK. A good business solution nowadays can easily outbeat other applications in terms of performance, stability and speed of production simply by using the tools listed just above. Although these tools are not yet well-know at the commercial levels, they are being introduced (as far as I know) at many academic levels and will make it (in the very near future) to the commercial setting. As far as the community is involved, I can safely say that PHP did a huge progress over the past two years. Back in 2003-2004, many programmers (and I was almost going to be one of them) moved into JSP with the J2EE being so powerful back then giving up while waiting for a mature and stable PHP framework to support them. Being stubborn, I insisted back then on sticking to PHP and worked for almost 4 months (full-time) back then to produce my first set of PHP modules to be used for Rapid Application Development (RAD) within websites. Lately, I ported my modules into CakePHP and Zend Framework whose combined power is ultimate for high-traffic websites that can serve hundreds of thousands of requests / hour peaking at thousands of concurrent requests with as low as 10% of CPU usage and 1 GB of RAM. A very simple, yet convincing example of this are two websites that I developed: www.yellowpages.com.lb and www.al-sharq.com. For commercial confidentiality purposes, I cannot reveal numbers in here. Yet, you can visit these websites to get a glance about the dazzling power behind PHP performance when combined with Linux, MySQL, APC and the Zend Framework.   Java: The Enterprise Programming Language I just love Java! I love its powerful architecture, community and powerful solutions. Yet, one main feature lacks Java to make it into the daily websites that people visit: low resource footprint. Java is well known for its huge resource utilization at the server level. A normal website developed in JSP will require at least 2 GB of RAM to properly cache JSP files. Performance, on the other hand, cannot be surpassed by any other web programming languate that I know about (make sure to add your comment if you know about one). The only thing is that you cannot have 50 websites sharing the same server unless you have at least 8 GB of RAM dedicated for the JSP container.   Visual Basic: Bye Bye! VB is dying. Believe it or not, this language will not make it to the 2015 year. If you don't dump it now, Microsoft will in the few coming years (if not months) to give way for C#. Although it will still be used at the OS level, I don't see any reason why programmers will still be using it (unless they are like some of my friends who insist on using VB simply because they know VB and are too lazy to learn another language :)   C#: The Microsoft Bet! Let us talk some facts here. Microsoft learned a lot from VB and learned a lot from J++ and learned a lot from the various applications / servers / services that were offered back in the recent past. As a result, Microsoft has put all of the experience gained into releasing an object-oriented language that is powerful (like Java), easy to learn (like VB) and with a low footprint (supposedly low) like PHP. I am not claiming in any way that I am a C# expert in here (believe I am not one) but I recently benchmarked a web application developed using C# for one of my clients during a security audit and I was surprised by the various security features that were introduced at the security level (especially exceptions) and at the performance level (the server handled 1024 concurrent requests / second for almost 2 minutes before it crashed). I must mention here that this benchmark is completely related to the way the application was written but it helped me gain a little more experience with how C# handles run-time errors and introduced me to the performance tweaks that IIS can help with if programmers get to know them. This lead me to conclude that Microsoft will be pushing forward with C# for the years to come with the hope to get back the old days of VB programming and move forward from there.   Conclusion Let me make this conclusion short. If you want the details behind it, read the article again. If you are new to programming and are interested in Website development, learn PHP. This is the key to go. If you just love Microsoft, learn C#. If you want to make it into Enterprise programming, learn Java. Better yet, why not learn them all?       General Web Programming 2009-09-02T20:02:01Z victor Ecosystem Virtual Implementation http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/93_ecosystem_virtual_implementation.html Two of my students, namely Elie Khoury and Wissam Salameh, implemented a virtual Ecosystem implementation that simulates life in an aquatic system including Sharks, Fish and Plants. The implementation is so beautiful that it allows any application user to test the proper settings required for an aquatic to avoid extinction or to simply simulate the life in such a medium for research purposes. <a href="/1_victorsawmacom_blog_about_web_security_and_life/resources/ecosystem_senior_study_khoury_and_salameh.pdf.html" target="_blank">The final report can be downloaded by clicking on the following link.</a> Politics 2009-07-04T07:13:59Z victor The 45 Lessons of Life http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/92_the_45_lessons_of_life.html Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer,  Cleveland , Ohio "To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more." <ol> <li>Life isn't fair, but it's still good.</li> <li>When in doubt, just take the next small step.</li> <li>Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.</li> <li>Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.</li> <li>Pay off your credit cards every month.</li> <li>You don't have to win every argument.  Agree to disagree.</li> <li>Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.</li> <li>It's It's ok to get angry with God. He can take it.</li> <li>Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.</li> <li>When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.</li> <li>Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.</li> <li>It's OK to let your children see you cry.</li> <li>Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.</li> <li>If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.</li> <li>Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.</li> <li>Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.</li> <li>Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.</li> <li>Whatever doesn't kill you really, does make you stronger.</li> <li>It's never too late to have a happy childhood.  But the second one is up to you and no one else.</li> <li>When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take NO for an answer.</li> <li>Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.</li> <li>Over prepare, and then go with the flow.</li> <li>Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.</li> <li>The most important sex organ is the brain.</li> <li>No one is in charge of your happiness but you.</li> <li>Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'</li> <li>Always choose life.</li> <li>Forgive everyone everything.</li> <li>What other people think of you is none of your business.</li> <li>Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.</li> <li>However good or bad a situation is, it will change.</li> <li>Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.</li> <li>Believe in miracles.</li> <li>God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.</li> <li>Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now</li> <li>Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.</li> <li>Your children get only one childhood.</li> <li>All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.</li> <li>Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.</li> <li>If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.</li> <li>Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.</li> <li>The best is yet to come.</li> <li>No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.</li> <li>Yield.</li> <li>Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.</li> </ol> Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves   General 2009-06-17T06:40:13Z victor Lynn's Birth http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/91_lynns_birth.html Today, Mark and Lilo welcomed their new GORGEOUS baby: Lynn :) I just love you guys and you both know that! Alla y3ayyesha w terba bdalelkon ;) <a href="http://victorsawma.com/1_victorsawmacom_blog_about_web_security_and_life/albums/10_lynn.html">The first photos are here (the nurse didn't let me take more :( )</a>   General 2009-02-15T09:58:14Z victor Paintball Adrenaline Rush http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/90_paintball_adrenaline_rush.html <img src="/gallery/1/previews/paintball02.jpg" border="0" hspace="5" width="120" height="90" align="left" />Last Friday, the NDP team competed against GM&A's team in Paintball. The score was a stunning loss for the NDP team. Yup! It was a stunning 5 for GM&A against a stunning ZERO (0) for the NDP team. No wonder the score was as such especially that the first phrase that we heard when we arrived from one of GM&A's members was: "Why do we need to play 90 minutes? All Beirut needed 90 minutes!!!" No comment on this though lol Hard luck guys for this time and better luck for next time! <a href="http://victorsawma.com/1_victorsawmacom_blog_about_web_security_and_life/albums/9_ndp_vs_gma_paintball.html">Pictures from the event can be found here.</a> General 2008-12-28T20:25:15Z victor Jesus is the Reason for the Season! http://www.victorsawma.com/1_victors_blog_about_the_web_security_and_life/archive/89_jesus_is_the_reason_for_the_season.html   <div style="text-align: center"> <img src="/gallery/1/previews-med/jesus_christmas.jpg" border="0" width="498" height="355" /> </div>   Today, I received an email from a colleague at NDU entitled "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". The email, like many other emails that you receive around Christmas, is centered around the Christmas spirit. What really got me about this email is that it was the first email that I read trying to get back the Christmas Spirit from Santa to Jesus. I am sharing this email here. I hope you like it and, better of, use it and send it to friends ;)  REMEMBER Jesus is Better than Santa Santa lives at the North Pole. JESUS is everywhere. Santa rides in a sleigh JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water. Santa comes but once a year JESUS is an ever present help. Santa fills your stockings with goodies JESUS supplies all your needs. Santa comes down your chimney uninvited JESUS stands at your door and knocks.. and then enters your heart. You have to stand in line to see Santa JESUS is as close as the mention of His name. Santa lets you sit on his lap JESUS lets you rest in His arms. Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is "Hi little boy or girl, What's your name?" JESUS knew our name before we did. Not only does He know our name, He knows our address too. He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads. Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly JESUS has a heart full of love. All Santa can offer is HO HO HO JESUS offers health, help and hope. Santa says "You better not cry" JESUS says "Cast all your cares on me for I care for you. Santa's little helpers make toys JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions. Santa may make you chuckle but JESUS gives you joy that is your strength. While Santa puts gifts under your tree JESUS became our gift and died on the tree. It's obvious there is really no comparison. We need to remember WHO Christmas is all about. We need to put Christ back in Christmas. Jesus is still the reason for the season.   General 2008-12-18T08:20:12Z victor