Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in alpha_zulu's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, December 18th, 2011
10:14 pm	Intelligent People Got a call last week from a customer I had done work for just before moving. Seems that their desktop is 'broken', and they wanted me to fix it. Unfortunately, I don't live anywhere near there now, so I referred them to a friend I knew who could both do the work and lived near there. Got a call today from that friend asking me why I was busting his balls. What? Me? Busting his balls? He'd have to clarify that one, since the last thing I recalled doing was recommending him to a client who paid cash. Apparently, that was me busting his balls. 'Dude, why didn't you just SHOOT those idiots to keep them from breeding?' he asked. 'What do you mean? They aren't any stupider than most people,' I replied. I sort of recalled that they were kind of ignorant when it came to tech, but still, cash is cash, right? 'You worked on their laptop, right?' 'Yeah, so?' 'What was wrong with it?' he wondered. 'HD controller took a dump, so they asked me to replace it with a SSD, why?' 'They wanted me to fix the laptop because the HD was vibrating.' Say what? Vibrating? An SSD? That I have to see! 'Since I know that you know that an SSD doesn't vibrate because it has no moving parts, what was the problem?' 'Staple in the cooling fan,' he replied. 'So, you got some extra cash, big deal,' I was not impressed. 'The idiot then told me to reset the SSD so that it would boot.' 'Reset? What is that supposed to mean? Was there a problem with it?' I wondered. 'Not that I could find, but he said his boss had told him that SSDs needed to be reset every few months or they would die.' Ah. So. 'What did you do?' 'I opened BIOS, changed the boot order, restarted, went back to BIOS, changed it back and told him it was reset. Oh, and charged him $40 for the reset.' 'Very good. That is why I referred them to you. His wife still flaky as hell?' I wondered. 'God, I would KILL that bitch if I were married to her!' Smells like a story there. I encouraged him to share. 'Guess what happened with their desktop,' he begged. Oh, they did say their desktop was broken, didn't they? Ok, I'm game. 'Tried giving it a beer and it shorted out?' I opened. 'No, but...wait, did they do that before?' he wondered. 'I don't know for sure, but they would probably try...' 'Yeah, I can believe that. But keep trying to guess,' he laughed. 'Well, if they didn't give it a beer, did they put magnets on the case again?' 'Again? You mean they did that before, too?' 'Yep! Eleven frige magnets on the case - two of them right over the HD cage. It was what happened before, actually,' I admitted. 'Well, shit, man, that explains a lot...' 'Indeed, my friend. So, what was it this time?' I asked 'Don't know about original problem, but they tried fixing it themselves, and I had to clean up the mess.' 'Yeah, I warned them not to do that just because it looked so easy when I did it,' commiserated me. 'Should have beat it into them with a hickory stick,' he grunted. 'They took the HD out tried to fix it.' 'With their grill?' I hazarded a guess. 'No, the ditzy daughter saw a video on YouTube about 'repairing' a HD problem by putting it in the freezer,' he began before sighing. 'Well, that can temporarily allow you to access a failing drive in certain circumstances,' I reminded him. 'Yeah, but you don't put in the microwave after you freeze it!' he yelled. Microwave? To fix a HD? After you have frozen it? Seriously? 'You're shitting me, right?' 'Wish I were. That thing was CRISPY, man. Totally nuked to hell and gone. They told me their microwave must have caught whatever virus was on their HD because now it is acting screwy, too.' 'You get the most interesting calls, damn it,' I complained. 'Fuck you, you sent them to me, asshole.' No gratitude! I tell you...! 'So, what was the end game?' 'New HD, reinstall from branded media, configure and close. Got them for just over three bills.' 'Well, that's good, isn't it?' 'They asked me to reset the CPU as I was getting the new HD in place.' 'Reset a CPU?' Do I even want to know? 'So I unplugged the CPU fan from the mobo header, left it for a sec, then hooked it back up and added $20 to their bill.' 'That's what I like to hear! Upsell, upsell, upsell!' gloated evil AZ. 'Want to guess where they heard about resetting a CPU?' 'YouTube?' I wondered. 'Bullseye.' 'Well, what can you say? If it is on YouTube, it MUST be true, eh?' I snickered. Like I said, intelligent people. So, what have we learned? We have learned that you can 'fix' a 'broken' HD by freezing it and then microwaving it for a half hour or so, though it could infect your microwave with a virus as it smokes, sizzles and flat-shorts on its way to hell. We have also learned that new HDs and CPUs need to be 'reset' before they work. This is done by swapping boot order in BIOS and unplugging the CPU fan from the header. Last but not least, we have learned that if you don't know what you are doing, just watch YouTube and sooner or later, you will see a video telling you how to do what you want to do - and it MUST be true, because it is on the internet! Oh, the joys of working for Intelligent People... (and yes, I did a quick search of YouTube for the videos, but didn't see any right off the bat) (then again, I didn't check all 5,000+ videos returned on the search paramater 'microwave a frozen HD' either, so who knows? Maybe it is there...) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
11:09 pm	Unexpected Path I tried a new approach to the problem I am having with the wireless network. Instead of moving the NAS and core into my (temporary) office and doing hardlines with an inverted AP for internet, I tried a few swap-arounds instead. First, I disabled the 5GHz N-band on the ISR. Then, I locked the 2.4GHz N to 40Hz (default is auto), disabled QoS on the LAN router segment, enabled TCP/IP proto management and shut down a few services (SNMP, TFTP, Telnet, etc) that I didn't see the need for, enabled fast-forwarding on the packet transfer and assigned the Wireless connections a higher block of addresses on a subnet (/22) and created a static route that piped all LAN addresses in the /22 to wireless. I got into the NAS units (my trusty Synology and the LG unit I got to handle an issue for the client), assigned static IPs to both units within the /22 group, locked out all services except for the network TCP/IP group, disabled auto server time synch on both units, disabled remote access to the LG NAS and then rebooted both the NAS units and the ISR. As they were doing that, I removed the WLAN PCI-E card from the main box, replaced it with a spare and then added a USB G/N dongle adaptor. Booting it back up, I enabled both adaptors, set both to max power, adjusted for max performance under wireless management, then manually spread the channels using the device config tabs so one was on channel 2 and the other on channel 10 groups. Windows 7 asked if I really wanted to use both, and I told it yes. So it wanted to restart. I let it. I had originally planned to trunk the bandwidth of the WLAN adaptors, but I couldn't find a way to do that with the ISR. Turns out that Windows 7 Pro apparently understands the concepts involved, because both adaptors came up green and enabled and were BOTH in use. Transfer speeds are better, but I am still getting a bit of lag in the big BD rips and the high-compression transfers. I wonder if I mapped the NAS as group of network drives through the static if that would help? Alternately, I begin to wonder if it isn't partially an issue with the NAS unit (it is down to 3.12% free, and because it uses ext3 as the file format, it doesn't defrag - and I have done a LOT of file swapping, cleaning up and the like). I know that the slow processor and small RAM size are contributing factors to lag, but I think that it might be compounding the issues with Wireless. I need to get a new NAS unit up - like a DS1511+. Or, if I can find a paying job in the IT field before too long - an actual Domain Server (Server 2008 R2 x64) controlling a dedicated, subnetted private network with the NAS units and client machines all done through ADM and high-speed managed switches with the appropriate trunking, spanning and blocking to give true, constant wire speed on a dedicated GB network. Of course, I am already wanting more bandwidth than GB. I would love to have a fiberoptic 100GB network feeding at least ONE 8-core main running RAID 0 SSD for the sys drive and dual 10GB optic cards... (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
9:18 pm	Huh! I was in Wally World the other day, and happened to glance at the gun case, and what did I see but an AR rifle. Yeah, really. I double-checked to make sure it wasn't some Airsoft or something. It wasn't. Yes, Wally World is carrying an AR-15 class rifle. Bushmaster. Carbine version. Basically an M4 without the full-auto and heavy enviro package. Everything you need, though, in a handy package. I suspect that you could change the lower have a Class III as well. Did I mention that it is less than $900 new? Most AR pattern rifles hover in the $1200 - $2200 range. Carbines are usually a bit MORE expensive from most makers. I have never owned a Bushmaster make, but I might just have to get another non-Class III AR pattern at that price. Well, and because I might need the firepower down here. Just wish they had one in 6.8 SPC2 or one with a chromium-lined chamber and short-gas rod operation. Oh, well. I know the AR/M platform pretty well, and I can make it do what I need. And if I need more firepower, I found a Springfield Armor dealer here that swears he can get me an M1A Scout for only a grant more than this rifle.... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
11:00 pm	Drastic Measures This shit has gone on long enough. It is time for drastic measures. What do I mean by drastic measures? I mean I am looking at separating my NAS and core from the shitty, low-end wireless network. Right now, my NAS and core are connected through the ISR. This was important because I was using the NAS to stream data (movies, files, music, etc) to the various computers. Wireless is flatly incapable of meeting my needs. It is time to return to wired - where the REAL power is! So, I am beginning the process of pairing off and separating my gear. This means my NAS will be on a wired line through a GB switch to the two PCs that I need streaming for the most. I might have to use my GB wired router, though, since I plan to maintain my internet connection by inverting the function of my wireless AP (it can serve as a client device, and connected to a router, it will serve to give me internet on the machines wired together). There are a few small issues. One, is the laser printer I have hooked up through the NAS to the network. I just don't have the realestate I need to put it all in my office area, and frankly, I can't just run wires anywhere it strikes my fancy to do so. I had thought to just put the NAS on a GB switch and rock on, leaving the wireless to handle internet, but I think the more stream-lined approach is to invert the AP and run the router route to keep just ONE connection running. This will fix the painfully-slow wireless speed problem, to be sure. However, I am out of room on my NAS. So, I need to get a new one before too long. If I am going to get a new one, I will need a LOT of bandwidth to transfer and balance out files. This demands nothing less than GB wired. So, how I will physically arrange all this, and how will I tunnel the internet connection for the HTPC, laptop and main box? I have a few ideas, but I need to test them a bit. Speaking of my wireless issues, I have been using WireShark and a few Cisco tools to try and figure out what is up with the insane swings of the network. I have discovered that the amount of network status packets steadly increases when trying to stream media (especially the high-compression HD ones) and THOSE are choking the network down. That is kind of ironic in that none of this ever happened with wired networks, and furthermore, it never happened before the new router went in. Back to pattern-chasing for me, I guess. I think the issue is that the LAN to WLAN is not working correctly inside the ISR. WLAN to WAN is fine, but not the intranet connections. Another puzzling thing is that QoS settings do neither jack nor shit to solve this issue. Just to try and get a grip on this, I gave my main box top priority under network traffic shaping, gave it full QoS and allocated ALL available resouces to feed it (knocking the other users off the network and generating complaints - but fuck 'em!) Nothing changed. Not quite sure what to make of that at this time. I can't stand being knee-capped by piss-poor transfer rates. After so long being GB and running rough-shod over HD content streams, it is unacceptable to be back on a connection media that cannot perform for shit. And I need a new NAS. I think a DS511+ this time, stoked with 5x 2TB Hitachi 7200rpm units in RAID 5... (Comment on this)
Monday, October 24th, 2011
8:10 pm	Wireless Sucks No, I am not dead - just very much like it. Wireless sucks. It is slow, it is unreliable, it is obtuse and it is practically a dial-up connection speed. Why am I so irritated with wireless? Because I am currently forced to deal with it, that is why. Having been used a REAL network - a full-spec gigabit wired network - this whole wireless thing is like going back to dial-up. The ONLY thing it has to offer in defense of itself is that is easier to WIRE than a wired network (that means it has NOTHING to offer, in case you missed it). Let me explain what is happening. See, I am having to share someone else's broadband internet connection. Generally that is ok. But the network in place is wireless. Ok, I can deal with that - I am trained for it, after all, and have been doing networks of both types for years. First problem was that their ISR kept freezing up and dropping connections and refusing genuine connections in favor of trying to connect to machines that were powered off. Dynex ISR. Old. Total crap. When it worked, it was sort of ok for email and surfing the web. I, however, use HTPCs and streamed media from my NAS unit - have for years, in fact, and it worked flawlessly over wired (even when I had a 10/100 wired network, to say nothing of the GB one). I had to get some USB dongle adaptors for my boxes because I had NO wireless cards in them. Had enough (fortunately) for all the boxes, using a mix of Cisco and TrendNet G-standard USB2.0 adaptors. Connection showed 54Mbps, which is pretty standard. When it wasn't dropping the connection, the ISR was ok for email and net surfing. Not for torrenting or streaming or administering the network or using remote VMs to practice my IT skills. Fine. I upgraded to PCI-E N-spec cards. Got better connection, and showed 97Mbps, but still streaming from the NAS was choppy, laggy and prone to making the connection drop. I played around with the settings, then dropped the entire ISR for the Netgear one. It is not the Dual-Band one, but it is MIMO and can run N and G in parallel mode. Supposedly excellent for HD streaming content. Got it up and configured and tried again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. No pattern or cause apparent. Tried swapping cards and changing every setting on both adaptors and the ISR. No discernable difference. Ok, fine. I fired up my laptop and tried it. It can USUALLY stream HD without problem, but every so often, the damn thing drops to something like 66Kpbs. In case you didn't know, that is only SLIGHTLY faster than a dial-up modem in terms of transfer speeds. Having spent four or five days neck deep in this, I have eliminated cards, adaptors, settings and equipment from the suspect list. That leaves one thing: format. Wireless sucks. If I could, I would set up my wired network, but I can't for reasons I won't go into. I hope to be in a position to return to REAL network speeds soon, but that is not now. For now, I must suffer the indignity of having to use wireless as if it were a real network. Feh! It is fine for lazy, stupid idiots who only want to surf the web and do emails between watching flash vidoes on their smart devices. Real people use wired networks that can actually WORK - including streaming 1080p HD full-frame-rate video while ALSO torrenting, surfing the web, chatting with several people, working their email and usually having a few instances of Office open and working. All without a single hiccup or twitch. I know this because I have become so used to doing exactly that. And it sucks not being able to because of wireless. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
2:08 pm	Ok, Then... Busy as hell all of the sudden, but that is a different story. I decided to share a series with you that was shared with me by nugarwrites. How and why we do this sort of thing are not important. Last time, I pointed him toward Strike Witches with a warning. This time, he pointed me toward a little anime called 'Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt'. Yes, you read that correctly. And no, it is not a Hentai title in spite of sounding like one. Nugar told me a little bit about this one, but I wasn't paying that much attention at the time, being more involved with other things. It has sat on my NAS unit for a while now, but the other day, I wanted something new to watch, and decided to give it a try. After all, it came recommended so it should be at least decent, right? How should I put this? It belongs on the same shelf as Strike Witches, but for DIFFERENT reasons. And of the two, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is the better of the two for most viewers (myself included). Now, if the viewer is a basement-dwelling otaku-type with multiple raging fetishes, Strike Witches will inevitably prevail. What is Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt about if it isn't a hentai title? Good question. I guess the most correct answer would be 'anti-angels slice-of-not-quite-life'. Probably. It is hard to describe, but if you took the scenario format from Lucky Star, used the humor approach from Seitokai Yakuindomo, cut it with a little Dead Leaves to touch up the edge, and then served it on an art-style plate that is half-way between Power Puff Girls and Soul Taker, and that is what you get. Two angel sisters who are living in a city on the fault line between heaven and hell and who fight (that is, KILL) 'ghosts' for credit coins called 'heavens' but who have the worth ethics of Mika and Mew (that would be Hyperdolls, if you don't know) and who are nominally under the supervision/direction of a afro-sporting 'priest' with more than a few problems of his own and you have the setting. Oh, and there is Chuck. I will not attempt to describe Chuck. Even though I have seen the entire series (in one sitting, no less), I still am not sure what Chuck is supposed to be other than fucked up. Episodes are two-parters, and they spoof everything - from both Japan and America. TV, movies, pop culture, cars, everything. It is very...eclectic. I probably forgot to mention that Panty and Stocking (the sisters) (older one is blonde Panty who is a slut, younger one is raven-haired Goth-type Stocking with a serious sugar addiction) fight using weapons made from their clothing. Panty turns her panties (yeah, bet you didn't see THAT one coming!) into guns (she also can do this with OTHER PEOPLE'S underwear) and Stocking turns her stockings (yeah, you didn't see that coming either, did you?) into swords. Well, ok, when they lose their panties or stockings, they have been known to use improvised weapons like their Hummer H2 and buildings and by-standers and Chuck and anything else that happens to be handy or that they feel like abusing the fuck out of. Yes, that means when Panty is fighting, she is running around raw - with news cameras and photographers and the like taking panty shots; just, you know, without the panties. But fear not, the series is NOT a hentai title. Ecchi perhaps like SYD, but not Hentai. Besides, the art style doesn't lend itself to hentai. It is like watching a train wreck: you don't want to watch, but you can't look away. The humor is all over the place, and in several different forms, too. Hope you have FAST eyes - there is a lot going on and you need to read the subs fast so you can scan for the OTHER visual gags, jokes, cameos and the like. Oh, I didn't tell you about the ghosts that they fight, did I? Um. Well. They are ghosts. And the Anarchy sisters (that is the family name of Panty and Stocking - fitting, but out of place for angels from heaven, no?) kill them for money. As for the exacts...watch the anime. I dare you. I'd screen cap like Nugar did for Strike Witches, but I don't know where I could host the images. I will let Nugar do that. If you want a fun (sick, twisted, but fun) anime series that treats religion with the proper respect, give Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt a try. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
12:02 pm	Yep! That's a Ford! Note the ragged-assed engine, the nose-dropping, the constant contact with walls, banks and cameras...no doubt about it, that is a FORD!! And Saudi Arabia? Seriously? WTF, man. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
9:29 pm	Plenty For All http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43536286/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?GT1=43001 So, what? Are liquor stores no longer good enough for these freaks? There is a marked increase in pharmacy store robberies. Opiates are the targets, of course. Bunch of damned druggies. This is exactly the sort of behavior that drove liquor store owners to become well-heeled. And isn't it great to know that you can lose your life for stopping off at a drug store? Let's just hit the highlights, shall we? The "street value" of some of these pills are $80 each. Pharmacies typically have large dispenser packs of the damn things for filling perscriptions. So, a jug of about 500 or 1000 pills could - under optimal circumstances - net the perp between $40K and $80K. Not bad for less than five minutes of work. EXCEPT. Most of these druggies are boosting for themselves because they lost their health coverage and suddenly find they have a $3500/week habit. Thanks to the ever-vigilent DEA and FBI cracking down on shady pharmacy sites on the internet and making it harder to order in bulk from Canada, the addicts go all ghetto gangsta and shit. There are two obvious and fast fixes for this: either curtail the fucking endless perscriptions or curtail the damn pill-pushing. Let me explain. If health coverage would have a standard policy about opiate-based painkillers (say, you only get a MAX of two months of free pills before any opiate becomes a you-pay-it-your-own-damn-self deal), then the number of addicts would drop like a rock. Some would say 'but then they would just sell their stolen pills instead of stonking on them like pez'. Perhaps, but the market would implode from the flooding, and suddenly, it wouldn't be worth it to play drugstore cowboy for a bunch of pills that suddenly aren't worth the risk. Alternative two is to stop the damn pill-pushing. Doctors get drug samples from pharmacology outfits like they were beads during Mardi Gra. If you have ever been in a doctor's lounge in a hospital, you will know what I am talking about. I have a brother in the medical field, and I have visited him at work a time or two in the last few decades. In one of the hospital, there was a three-door, seven-foot tall, five-foot wide steel cabinent in the doctor's office FULL of every kind of drug you can image, all in 'trial kits' or 'evaluation program samples' or 'Field Trial Supply' containers. And that was just the shit that didn't require refrigeration or other special handling. While I was there, talking to my brother, a doctor walked in with a freaking foot locker worth of brand new drugs, sent Fed Ex from one of the big companies. What does that mean, exactly? It means that the doctors are expected to give the patients a 'trial' supply of a new drug or a new version of an old drug, or a slow-moving drug. This is free for the hospital and doctors, and the first dose is (usually) free for the patient. 'Try this and see if you feel better. If so, I'll get you a perscription for it,' is the norm. Sound familiar? Yeah, exactly like street drug pushers. By cutting back on the endless supply of starter drugs, the number of unnecessary dosing would drop, and that in turn would lead to fewer addicts. Don't expect that to happen, though. 'You heartless monster! Those people are in PAIN!' some of you might accuse me. Shut the fuck up! If they are in pain, then they need to do something about it. Crawling into a fucking pill bottle is NOT a solution. Also, while I am no friend of pain, pain alone does not justify endless narcotic perscriptions. Refer, please, to the addict that was trying to bash in the bullet-proof drive-thu window on the pharmacy. Obviously, she isn't hurting THAT badly! Also, once the body heals, that is as good as it gets. So, while narcotics are useful short-term, if you need them long term, you are not fixed. And don't come to me with the old 'but it HURTS!'. Life hurts. Either deal with it, or don't, but becoming a fucking dope fiend is NOT a solution. As it stands now, pharmacies are the new liquor stores. Seems like the terroritory is being divided up by the hoodlums: ghettos get the liquor stores, suburbs get the pharmacies. What next? The lesson of the liquor store can (and should) be applied to the pharmacies. These fuckers are already dead, they just need a little help finishing the job. Carry a gun, be damn good with a gun, and use the gun if you want to keep from being robbed. Note that the gunman opened fire without warning. That means situational awareness. Because they were not aware or prepared, four people died. Several other pharmacies have been hit multiple times, with the violence growing. Quick solution would be to take the layered approach, with the narcs locked inside a room in a secure section physically isolated from the rest of the pharmacy, which would have bank-like security features built into it. This provides FOUR layers of protection. Coupled with the proper security procedures, it would take at LEAST an hour to defeat them all, and even the most donut-ladened cop can usually show up by then; especially since these stores were not in 'bad' neighborhoods. Yes, I have always been in favor of killing the idiots than suffering them to live. Not resisting only makes it worse - NEVER better. Also, passivity sends the wrong message. And anyway, a bullet is cheaper than decades of incarceration. Not that that will happen - it is too 'insensitive' or some such bullshit. Oh, and because they will likely be high as a kite on pain killers, remember the tried-and-true rule: two the chest, two to the head, one more to the head to be sure. Hot-loaded JHP is preferred, though body armor can be a nasty surprise, so NEVER forget the last three shots (those are the 2 + 1 to the head - best results are obtained by confirming either brain matter over a large surface area or their head looking like a canoe). For the nervouse, a 12ga with 1B at close range will usually completely remove the head with one shot; two at the MOST. Did you catch the bit about 'height signs'? They are those stupid yardstick stickers by the door. The theory is to help accurately determine the height as the attacker leaves. Problem is, there is no guaruntee that anyone will be alive to notice, and most cameras are pretty useless for court-level positive ID. Best thing they do is provide footage for sensationalist fluff shows for TV. A cool head, well-oiled gun and a steady trigger finger work MUCH better. Even more so when coupled with a keep eye for what is going on around you, a will to let the other idiot die for their choices, and a sound security policy. Like the article says, there are some who worry that higher security standards will alienate the legitimate customers. Well! We wouldn't want to alienate them, would we? I mean, being shot in the head or mugged won't alienate them or damage their relationship with their pharmacists, will it? And they will certainly understand the wait when their pharmacist turns up dead, right? Honestly, it doesn't make legitimate customers feel alienated in a bank, so why do you think it would in a pharmacy? As for me, I just avoid the damn places. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
2:26 pm	Was That A Fleeting Moment of Common Sense...? So the military has decided that cyber attacks can be treated the same way as military attacks. In the wake of what happened with L-M, and a string of other such incidents, the light bulb finally comes on - no matter how dimly. Cyber attacks have, for too long, been treated as a kind of prank or social attention disorder, sort of like bullying or acting out. It is not. It is a deliberate attack by hoodlums and should be treated as such. In my personal view, virus coders, crackers and those of similar ilk should be treated the same as every other terrorist. To be more clear, they should be shot dead. By SEALs if necessary, but anyone can do the job in most cases. Bottom line is they are terrorist, you do NOT deal with terrorists beyond the necessary act of killing them. Fire is nice, too, if bullets are too scarce or loud... As always, the military has only decided that cyber attack COULD be treated the same as an act of war. Doesn't mean it will, but the idea is at least out there now. Took 'em long enough. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43224451/ns/us_news-security (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 29th, 2011
7:20 pm	Ah, Hell! Goddamn Linux. I decided to try out an idea I had about setting up my NAS so that it acts as a domain server for the virtual machines that I have. I set up the right configurations for the XP and Vista VMs on my main and on the living room HTPC (strictly as a control measure for testing purposes), and got the VMs doing the basic functionality as domain systems. Kind of nice to have four PCs in a domain with only two physical PCs running... Then, I decided 'hey, might as well get the Linux VMs in on this, that way I can have domain models without having to spend a single penny.' Honestly, I should have known better. Linux has always been a glitchy, twitchy hobby-code OS outside of slaver servers or dedicated-tasking servers. As a desktop OS, it is a JOKE. Still, I had the Linux VMs able to access the NAS in a peer scheme like the windows machines (physical and virtual, both) do, so I thought it wouldn't be that hard. Turns out, even though the NAS has a Linux-based bare-bones OS in it, it seems to have a special kind of hate for Linux desktops; not that I can blame it. Getting four virtual Windows machines in domain mode with the NAS domain server took me less than an hour. Trying to get ONE Linux VM to authenticate and access the NAS as Domain server wasted over six hours of my time. I tried the Ubuntu VMs, the SUSE VM, and the Fedora VM, but not one of them would authenticate under Domain model. I followed every process I could find for all of them, spending hours with the stupid terminal box, sudo'ing, gedit'ing and all that other linux bullshit. All for nothing. So, I reverted the NAS and the Windows VMs back to normal mode (it was, after all, just an idea I wanted to play with) (which took me less than ten minutes to fix all the Windows machines and the NAS) so that it was back where it started. Guess what? Now the Linux machines - ALL SIX OF THEM! - can not only NOT access the NAS at all, they can't even FIND it, OR EACH OTHER! Shit, man, I am running three instances of Linux (Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora) on my main box, all three in VirtualBox 4.x, and they CAN'T SEE EACH OTHER. I can 'see' the windows networks, but can't access them like I could before. I can get to the internet (even if I am forced to use Firefox), and I can ping all the physical PCs and all the open VM PCs, but I can't see them in the Linux VMs. Incidentally, the Windows machines - real and Virtual - can see the Linux VMs just fine. Can't access the shared folder any more, but that is a Linux issue. I would ask what is wrong with Linux, but I already know. I even tried wiping out and re-doing the samba from start, using the command file I created the FIRST time I got all those pieces of shit talking. Man, that sucked...! No dice. Something is wrong somewhere, and I can't find it. It is in the linux machines, though, so fuck it - who cares? There is a simple solution to this, of course. Not quite as simple as just tossing the hobby-code OS into the trash, but simple all the same. The reason that I like VMs so much is that when things like this happen, I just delete the VHD file and copy the original back from the NAS into the Windows folder that houses the VHDs for VB and I am right back where I was. Well, except for the stupid updates. Damn linux hobby-code half-assery...! On an unrelated note, I finally managed to max out my main PC. Got it at 100% CPU usage and 100% RAM usage and kept it there for minutes on end. Seven VMs, IE9 on host, Windows update on three of the VMs, two Linux VMs doing download-and-install work, Notepad++, Media Player on host, two chat clients on host, Word, VirtualBox 4.x on host, network monitoring app on host, DVD drive in use, background utility working and file transfer across net with host as source. Even then, the CPU didn't break triple digits in heat. Neither did the NB or SB chips. It is obvious, however, that I need more hardware to keep doing this. Since 4 cores aren't enough, I think I need to be looking to dual 6-core CPUs, and 8GB of RAM runs out too quick, so maybe 16GB or 32GB is more appropiate. My board supports 16GB of RAM, and it can handle the Thuban 6-cores with no problem, but I begin to think that that is not enough. *SIGH!* Can't do anything about that right now. Still need to get a second NAS up and running. I am down to less than 200GB on my DS410j. I have four 2TB HDs, but I need the NAS unit. I had planned to have it up and running by now, but it isn't working to schedule. Fuck it. Enough experimenting for tonight. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 28th, 2011
8:36 am	L-M Breached http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43199200/ns/technology_and_science-security Nice little game, that one. First, breach the locking company. Then, phish for the users of the SecurID tokens so you can map the network access portals. With that done, it's raiding time. It should be noted that the point of failure in this was not the SecurID - which, by itself is not valuable - but the fact that the malware phishing was successful in mapping tokens to users. That means that the users were the ones that broke security. Ah, the idiot users... Just goes to prove that you can't protect an idiot from themselves, and you can't secure a network if you allow users on it. As for who did it, well, I am leaning toward a certain commie nation in Asia, myself. Terrorist and gangsters can't really use anything they might have gotten from L-M research, but that certain commie Asian nation could certainly use the technology. While it could be someone else, the probability and odds favor fine china, not paper plates. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
11:36 am	Bullshit Artist At Work Spotted a bit of comedy on my homepage this morning. I scanned it and found it so hilarious that I had to share. It deals with Terd's favorite hobby-disaster: the oil issue and its impact on life. Basically, the article was a list of the UP SIDE of $5/g gas prices. Yes, up side. As in good things about high gas prices. Even though the article claimed to be only partly serious, it was all bullshit and comedy with ONE (1) lone exception. Here are a few highlights: >>The less you drive, the more likely you will survive,...>> Bullshit. If that were true, joggers and skateboarders would be immortal. This was the one with a grain of truth in it, from the next paragraph. >>...with many turning to more economical modes of transportation, motorcycle deaths rose 2.6% in 2008 and bicycle deaths 1%.>> See? Motorcycles are not the perfect answer. And it would appear that the statistics were split to support the desired conclusion by ruling that 'drive' can only apply to cars and SUVs, while 'ride' is the terminology that is applicable to bikes. 'There are lies, damn lies and statistics'. The reasons so many people love statistical models is that you can make they say ANYTHING you want them to by manipulating the data selection and filtering of the data. >>Soon, hardly anyone will be able to afford to fly willy-nilly around the country or globe. You will breeze through the maze of airport checkpoints.>> That is just sad. Even if there were only ONE person boarding a flight, they would still have to go through the red tape bueacracy so loves. That one person boarding the flight would be strip-searched, x-rayed, interrogated, probed, interrogated again, searched again, allowed to board, be hauled back off the flight for another round of searching, probing and interrogation, allowed to board again, have his or her luggage held for inspection while they fly to their destination, have the originating airport call ahead to have them arrested upon arrival at the next airport at which point the whole thing would start over. Why? Because you know damn well that the TSA won't want to lose any budget dollars, so fewer people in line means more rent-a-cops available to concentrate on the few surviving fliers. Soon, people will rather go to jail or lose a business deal than fly due to this harassment. And once the commercial lines are dead, the TSA will move to the private plane sector. County airports will gain metal detectors, x-ray machines, security checkpoints, interrogation cells and the rest as they are moved out of the defunct international airports, and there will be air marshalls on private aircraft flights - to protect you from those nasty, nasty terrorists of course! And don't think the government won't try to keep their jackboot thugs employed by trying to kill off all air flight of any form, either. They will. And when the government finally manages to kill off all air travel, they will move into the public transit sector. How you like THEM apples, Terd? Next thing you know, you are having to line up for cavity searches and x-rays and metal detactors before you can board the bus or the train or the sail-powered ship. ^_^ >>Less congestion.>> HA! Fewer cars, maybe, but then you have more people on bikes and mopeds and push-carts and rickshaws and skateboards and powered wheelchairs tying everything up. Don't believe me? You'll see. If people can't drive, they will just find another way to annoy others. And if they lose their job because they can't drive, they will have a LOT of time on their hands to cause mischief - just look at jails. >>Mackubin Thomas Owens, a professor of national-security affairs at the Naval War College and the editor of Orbis, the journal of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, theorizes that if gas prices rise enough, the government will open up areas now closed to oil production and oil companies will be able to invest in more-expensive methods of extracting oil. Soon we will be drowning in the stuff, and prices will drop again.>> Where to even begin with that one...! Words like 'theorizes' when coupled with Naval War College and Foreign Policy Research Institute automatically flags it as bullshit, and how they arrived at the conclusion that opening up more US-owned areas to drill for oil means that we will 'be drowning in the stuff' I can't understand unless large amounts of very powerful psychoactive narcotics were used. Let's assume that Alaska is floating on oil. Even if the center of the fucking Earth were oil, it would still run out because it doesn't renew on any time-scale that works for humans. Yes, it might gain a few decades, but that doesn't fix the problem. And it would likely lead to other, more serious problems. Fuck, where do they FIND these people?! >>"Bike commuting jumped 44% between 2000 and 2010, with a big part of that in 2008. Still, more than half of all bike trips are three miles or less, so we're seeing racks and baskets (sold) for those who have multiple stops to make on the way home.">> Gee, would that have some sort of bearing on the increased number of bike deaths, Mr. Wizard? And racks and baskets are not going to fix the problem, especially since they invite casual theft. >>According to National Defense Magazine, the cost of "in theater" gasoline to our troops in Afghanistan can range from $100 to $600. The Army estimated fuel can cost up to $400 a gallon if the only way to ship it is via helicopters. (Black Hawk helicopters get 0.74 mpg, while F15-E strike fighters get 0.41 mpg.) And that was last year's prices. Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya might get too expensive for America's taste.>> Oh really? Seriously? You can end war by making it expensive? Let's see. We are running out of a non-renewable energry source that underpins nearly all modern societies, and is fueling the growth of a few new, nasty ones (China, that means you!) so when the cost of cheap fuel goes up, war ends? I don't see that. What happens is that the ones with the least stable governments and most precarious situations lash out and take what they want; or try to, anyway. Human nature. Look at the Middle East for an example of this principal. >>If you can't afford to drive out to Wal-Mart or Home Depot, you may be buying instead at the local supermarket or neighborhood hardware store.>> And how do you pay for the PRODUCT, if you can't pay to shop? >>It's all about democracy. If we let up on the gas pedal, we'll starve those oil-rich despots out of existence. Oh, we import as much from Canada as from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela combined.>> Ah, yes! The old 'eat all the food to keep Billy from coming to the party' ploy. Seemed stupid back in kindergarten, seems more so now. Starve those oil-rich despots out of existance? Nice theory. I would like to see it happen, but the odds of that working out as envisioned is pretty much zero. Even if we didn't import a single drop of oil from ANYONE - Canada included - we would still not starve the brain-dead despots out. Why? China, India, Pakistan - they are all willing to step up and buy if we don't - that's why. Oh, and China has the economic clout to do that thanks to certain stupid choices by companies and politicians. Quite the belly laugh in that one. Source: http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/article.aspx?post=e04807fc-e307-45c7-a3b0-9fdabfac3518>1=33029 As a side note, I was putting my last few dollars in my car the other day, and the person at the pump next to me was talking on her cell phone. She was driving a Suburban, and trying to find enough money to fill the tank. She was telling her friend or whatever on the other end of the line that she had maxed out all her credit cards putting gas in the 'car', and how she would make it to the end of the month, she didn't know. Think about that for a moment. Credit cards for gas. Talk about double-fucking yourself. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
10:08 am	Movie Post I was told that I would probably enjoy an older movie called 'Boondock Saints'. I was also told in the same breath that it was a 'old school action'. Perhaps the person recommending this to me fails to understand my perspective. It is not uncommon for me to watch movies made in the days of black & white. I have movies in my collection from the 30's, as well as the examples from most decades since. 'Old school action' for me is probably pretty different from most others. But that is irrelevant. Boondock Saints turned out to be an OK sort of movie. Neither great nor bad, being simply OK. Two Irish lads as 'anti protagonists' and a lot of stupidity mixed in with some social commentary, poorly-done suspense/drama, and the Tarentino school of 'action'. Superficial dressing was as as a crime story, but that was no deeper than lipstick on a tranny. Funny in places, actually. After I finished watching it, I didn't feel like I had wasted the time, though I also didn't feel like I had made the most of that time, either. Ah, well - what do you expect these days? (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 21st, 2011
6:09 pm	Get Your Laugh On http://www.slate.com/id/2223285/sidebar/2223286/ One hundred forty four amusing jokes. terdwilicker's favorite falls at lucky # 13. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
10:35 am	Calming You know, there is just something calming about killing everything that moves after getting some bad news. I found out this morning that a job that I had felt pretty confident about getting has been given to another person. So much for human networking, eh? To blow off some steam, I have spent the last hour blowing heads off. Relax, it wasn't my neighbors heads. Or even squirrel heads. No, I broke out my old tried and true Red Faction and racked up a body count. Since I have used this for relaxation so much, just playing the game is not very effective. Of late, I have been trying out ideas like trying to go through the entire game using nothing but the fusion rocket launcher (yeah, you have to use the cheat code to rearm it in most levels, but that isn't what makes it relaxing - it is the challenge of using the heavy gun without frying yourself in tight areas and against mob attacks), or by seeing if I can run the levels with the precision rifle doing only headshots (challenging - especially in the higher levels) or trying to find a way to bring the machinegun to the office shooting spree. I really want to do that... Not that going through the office complex and just killing everyone isn't entertaining. Oh, well. Guess I should root around for any new job opportunities. Fucking unreliable 'friends' and their assurances. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
2:00 pm	Housekeeping Post I watched two recommended anime series the other night. These were recommended by a trusted source with a good track record. The two anime series in question were 'A Certain Magical Index' and the spin-off of that, 'A Certain Scientific Railgun'. Having watched all of Railgun and 3/4 of Index, I am of mixed opinions about them. Railgun was ok. Nothing spectacular (for anime) in it, but entertaining and containing at least a few novel ideas. Plotting was solid, if somewhat uninspired (formula plotting is never anything special, but usually reliable), and the characters had some engaging characteristics to balance out the blantant copy/paste parts. The primary character and her sister kept me entertained throughout, and it was also enjoyable to see some inappropiate sexual content evenly distributed throughout the series between the sisters. Index just didn't deliver on the majority of the hype. Yes, the main lead was novel and of a type rarely seen, but damn it all, I was promised nun slapping, and it never delivered! Instead I got this twitchy, quirky plotting attempt muddied with tie-in scenes for Railgun (odd, given that Railgun is the spin-off) and a lot of recycled conceptual work. I kept finding myself thinking things like 'Did I remember to format that flash drive like I have been meaning to for a while' and 'Do I want to make supper or just scarf down some frozen pizza?' while watching the episodes. That is never a good sign. I feel that had it delivered the promised sacriligious content (I was led to believe that in one ep, about 20 nuns got pimp-slapped by the hero), I might have enjoyed it. The astute among you will notice that I have not finished it (I have the last few eps remaining, but I doubt I will bother watching them). That should say something about the problems with Index. Since my mind was wandering, I dumped Index and tried out a series I have had for a LONG time, but never got around to watching. It is called 'Uninhabited Planet Survive', and it - like 12 Kingdoms - is one LONG motherfucker. Fifty three eps or so. I wasn't expecting too much, but I ended up watching the entire fucking series last night. I was up until about 2am doing this, but it was worth it. UPS is a fairly typical early-2000s anime sci-fi message series. Group of kids (like you didn't see that coming) on a school trip from their colony (in space, in a different galaxy) and hit a gravity storm. There are the usual suspects - good kid, bad kid, spoiled twit, shy kid, over-achieving loser kid, stiff-upper-lip kid, loner - and they all end up in a group (of course). The group ends up being swallowed by the gravity storm after twit does his thing, and find themselves on an empty planet far from home, with little more than the clothes on their back and a busted shuttle. Think illegitimate love-child of Gillian's Island and Survivor after being finger-fucked by shady-uncle Lord of the Flies a couple of times. Of course there are alien ruins on this planet, but they don't know that at first... It is surprising engaging. Some filler eps sort of like Naruto is known for, but not nearly as bad or long. The group is surprisingly hearty and hale for a bunch of snot-nosed spacer kids on their own on a strange, empty world. There are plenty of times that it reminds me of something a friend was telling me about, where the hero goes around killing and eating things. The group start on an island, and before the first four eps are over, they are grazing their way through the island... There are more than a few parallels with Cast Away (the movie with Hanks) though none of the kids knock a bad tooth out with an ice skate and a tree limb. Lots of stuff from Survivor and Survivor Man and Man Vs Wild (I honestly expected them to eat the giant beetles and bugs, since they were so low on fruits and meat at that point). After much fucking around, they go from the island to the mainland (its part of the alien plot element), fuck around there, shades of Odin (old-school anime title), big show-down, climax, and post. Good the whole way through, though. One of the things that kept me loading ep after ep into the playlist was that I kept wanting to see the spoiled twit Howard get what was coming to him. He remained the same the whole way through the anime: a cowardly, back-stabbing, clumsy, stupid, manipulative parasite. But none of the others did what they would have had to do in anything approaching real life and either kill him (might as well eat him, too, since that was all he would have been good for) or let his own stupidty kill him. Many, many times they could have either rescued themselves or gotten rescued but for him. This is not so much a case of Gilligan, but of Gilligan as a socio-pathic madman with a reduced IQ. The very first ep, I would have snapped his fucking spine. By the time they get from busted shuttle to the beach of the island, I would have everiscerated him and used what was left of him to distract the sea serpent. By the time the house is made, I would have used his fucking corpse to choke the giant meat-eating lizard to death so the others could eat the lizard for dinner. When he tried to back-stab everyone by trying to trade a gyroscope to the escaped criminals for passage off the world, I would egged the criminals into killing him on the spot just to be rid of him (and thus saving the others and giving them time to get the alien ship working, instead of trying to save Howard and thereby losing the alien ship and the ship the criminals had hijacked both). Good series. The final few eps were the standard tree-hugger shit in terms of message, but enjoyable in spite of that. You know a series is good when you keep going to the next ep because you want to see a character get fucked up, but don't stop watching when he is allowed to live. In other, non-anime news, I have received offical confirmation today that I have completed all requirements and will be conferred two degrees from the local college. Yay. Now to turn those into a job before my loans come due next month... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
9:31 pm	Most Asinine Remark In Recent History Quote: "If you can’t trust a huge multi-national corporation like Sony to protect your private information, who can you trust," Maksimovic said in a press release. "It appears to me that Sony focuses more on protecting its games than its PlayStation users." You don't say...! Golly gee, miss, you must be really sharp to see that! Why, I bet you could sue them over that! Quote: The Toronto law firm McPhadden Samac Tuovi says it has filed a proposed class action against Sony "for the breach of privacy." The lawsuit claims damages in excess of $1 billion, which includes having Sony pay the costs of credit monitoring services and fraud insurance coverage for two years. The plaintiff in the action is 21-year-old avid PlayStation user Natasha Maksimovic. Where do they FIND these special people? God...! Source of Quotes: http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/03/6577819-sony-declines-to-testify-before-congress-as-1-billion-lawsuit-filed (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
11:19 am	Well.... Just finished watching the RAW of the HotD OVA (drifters of the dead). No subs, of course, and I don't speak Japanese, but even so. Words fail. The first thought to surface after it ended was '...what...?' Oh, there is plenty of fan service... ...but also a lot of WTF?! moments. I can't help but wonder if what the characters are saying will make this any more lucid. Either way, there are sights in there that will leave you reaching for the nearest sharp instrument or the closest bottle of industrial bleach. It isn't the girls - it's the guys. I can only say that I am thankful I have a callused mind. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 25th, 2011
10:31 am	More Food For Thought Just stumbled across an interesting article. Interesting in light of the on-going debate between terdwilicker and I over his collapse dream, that is; otherwise it is no interest to anyone who isn't into bikes. Terdwilicker envisions a future where the crash of oil has reduced us to pretty much tribal structure, with the most prepared - or perhaps lucky, depending on your particular definitions - driving around on motorcycles because the roads are all decaying, gas is extremely expensive, and cars are too expensive and don't get enough mileage. He believes that a good motorcycle is the key answer to transportation in Collapse State. Well, I disagree. There are too many limitations with a bike, with the short list being carrying capacity, controlability, inclement weather protection, conditional variable tolerance and general stability. Four is greater than two. The primary arguement from him has been that the mileage is not there. Well, I had always assumed that the figures he was giving for bikes were more or less correct, given that I don't care for bikes and never got into them at all. Seems far too Darwin to me. And yes, I rode Honda and Suzuki and Kawasaki dirt bikes when I was younger, and have straddled a Hog and a Goldwing a few times in my younger, dumber days. There is just no appeal there for me. But that isn't the issue. Getting back to it, Terd postulates that multi-mode bikes would be the workhorse transportation model, since they can handle what little decent road would be left, but be equally at home on dirt or gravel or off-road. Not too big, but not too small, either. Range would also be important, and he figured a 60+mpg framework on a 3 to 5 gallon platform, for a range of about 250 miles or so. In retrospect, I should have been more suspicious about those claims. I knew a guy I went to high school with and part of college with that was a mechanic. He got his dad's old 1984 Toyota light pickup - the one with the 2.2L straight 4 and small bed, I think it was a T100 or something like that - and began to tinker with it his senior year in High School and throughout two years of college. By the time he was done, the truck had been modded for dual-use on-road/off-road and was still giving him just under 40mpg on the roads, and about 34mpg off road. Yes, he messed with the engine, tranny, chassis, gearing - hell, everything. But that isn't the point. The point is, he had it so it would easily handle everything proposed in Collapse State with ease, and still provide all the advantages of the motorcycle with none of the drawbacks, save for the claim of mileage of the bikes. The article I read today tells me that the Collapse State will likely not be running as many bikes as light-duty pickups and maybe mod-rail type buggies. Why? Seems there is already a class of bike that fits what Terd proposes. It is apparently called an 'adventure-tourer' bike. Designed for dual-mode, big, but not cruiser class, light but not a dirt bike. Displacement varies by model, but seems to fall mostly in the 900-1100cc range. A few lighter, a few heavier. All apparently very capable in either mode, with plenty to offer; for a bike. The problem is range. Not ONE of those bikes exceeded an average of 44mpg. The longest cruising range was 400 miles off a HUGE tank - and that required PREMIUM FUEL. Somehow, I don't see that being available in Collapse State. My friend's truck ran off base 87 octane and we discovered that it would even run off ethanol-mixed and even run with water in the gas. (don't ask) With this information in hand, it looks bad for the bike theory in Collapse State. Consider: If you could get 44mpg on a bike, or 40mpg in a 4x4 standard-cab light truck, which would rather have - bearing in mind that you be traveling in all weather, in all seasons, with cargo to carry and likely people as well, on roads of varying condition and likely some off-road as well. Don't know about you, but riding a bike in a sleet storm sounds unpleasant, same for when the ambient temp is 30 degrees F and you are going 40mph or more. And if you have an injury...? How about needing to haul more firewood or seed or ammo or whatever? What if you need to transport four people besides yourself? Can't speak for you, but I would rather have the light pickup with 30" tires and the I4 and just sacrifice 4mpg or less. I should have been a bit more critical about the claim of 60+ mpg, but then, I am not a bike person. And even the light dirt bikes didn't have much range relative to the mileage. Article: http://editorial.autos.msn.com/listarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=1182533&icid=autos_0497>1=22021 (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
7:18 pm	Comment Issues Well, this is certainly an odd post. I have found it necessary to disable anonymous commenting because of a recurring - and growing - problem with troll posts and spam posts. Just recently I had to delete four posts by anonymous posters for being totally irrelevant to anything. An example of that was my post about telecommuting. I found that three posts were awaiting my approval to be publically visible, and upon checking the posts, I find that the posts were made within three SECONDS of each other, and all said basically the same thing: 'Wonderful article! Your skill and sense of style are modern as alway! If you liked this article, there is more to be had here: (hyperlink to Canadian Viagra for cheap)' Ok, normally, I would think one of my online buds was jerking my chain, but even they wouldn't call that rant an article, and they certainly wouldn't categorize my style as modern. And viagra? From Canada? Seriously? I am not that old, kids. A third was written entirely in Cyrillic fonts (that's Russian for those that aren't familiar with alphabetical lineages), with another link to a worm site. No, I didn't need to click on it to know that it was a worm site - I have seen that on other computers, and both MS and the AV client had it listed as such. Honestly, I don't read or speak Russian, so why would anyone post a five-paragraph, probably about 250-word comment in Russian, followed by a bug link if they knew the slightest thing about me. It, too, was from commentor Anonymous. Well, the easiest way to deal with this is to go to disallowing anonymous posting. Probably for the best, really, though I hate to do it because it is like giving the ass-fairies behind this a small victory, but I hate panning through the damn screening processes more. Alternately, I could just go to the posting habits of some of my friends, and post about once a year or once every five years, or once every OTHER five years. I'll have to think about that a bit more... (7 Comments |Comment on this)