jump to navigation

Don’t Mess With A Mantis March 31, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Home.
comments closed

The Mantis

 Not to step on FU Penguin’s schtick, but this was too good not to put up.  Photo courtesy of a coworker’s e-mail.

Computer Problem Found! March 30, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Home.
comments closed

Huzzah!  I just got a call from one of the computer techs at the store and they found the problem:  one or both of the RAM modules is bad so they’re going to figure out which one it is and replace it.  I knew it had to be something like that.  Most of the errors I saw was along the lines of  “memory at 0x045645 could not be read” and whatnot.  Now I’ve got error-free WoW to look forward to tonight!

WHOOT!!

Holy Crap!! March 25, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Home.
comments closed

The tech guys couldn’t find anything wrong with my computer so I took it home to get screen shots of the BSODs when they happen there.  Monday night there was no problem, but last night I got two of them while WoWing.  They obligingly stayed on screen long enough for me to get pictures of them and I called the store to report them.  The first error code didn’t tell them much but the second one was about an attempted hack.  (????!!!!!)  Then this afternoon an article about a new worm that’s been discovered hit my work e-mail.  It seems that this one targets home routers & DSL/cable modems and my new cable modem is one of them.  Gentle Readers – meet psybOt aka Bluepill.  It looks likely that I got a rude introduction myself last night.

We need to seriously ramp up the punishments for computer crimes.  Fuckers who come up with this crap need to pay severely.

Today’s Public Service Announcement March 23, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Home.
comments closed

Tequila and QVC’s home shopping channel does not mix!  Oi.  I’m not looking forward to my next credit card bill.

My Computer is Sick March 21, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Home.
Tags: ,
comments closed

I’m getting the Blue Screens of Death as well as other assorted lockups and crashes. So back to the store it goes for them to kiss its boo-boos and make it all well. I will be without internet access and no WoW for the rest of the weekend!! What the hell am I going to do?

Rootkit Hack Warning March 18, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Science & Technology.
Tags: ,
comments closed

Apparently there’s a very major security flaw in Intel’s CPUs and this vulnerablility to it is going to be published soon.  According to the people pushing this out into the public Intel has known about this problem since at least 2005 and haven’t done anything (or at least not enough) about it.  Go read that article – very scary stuff!

On another matter that I haven’t seen much outside of the computer security sphere is the Conficker/Downadup worm.  This is another nasty piece of work that the last time I checked had infected 10 million plus computers around the world since last October.  One of the things it does is block malware programs from getting updates to be able to remove it.  Another thing is that it’s spread with USB thumb drives.  I’m pretty sure my laptop got zapped with this one.  Right now it’s just spreading itself around but I saw a report that the security experts think it (or at least one version of it) is going to phone home to get new instructions to “do something” on April 1st this year.  What, exactly, that is nobody except the people who created this thing knows.  Could be very bad from all accounts though.

Happy computing!

Trust Us – We’re Analysts March 6, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Science & Technology.
comments closed

I’m putting together a presentation on some of our recent research findings.  There are lots of graphs and each one needs a slug to go along with it to quickly explain what it’s about or what’s most noteworthy.  I struggled a bit with this one until I came up with the perfect line:

Not Important

Poor Little Bunny… March 1, 2009

Posted by Mitchell in Home.
comments closed

Sick again.  With a vengence.  It re-invaded my lungs and set up a garrison there.  GACK!!  102 degree tempurature too.  I have no medicine in the house either so I’m going to have to venture out into the world.  Ehhhhhh…

Oh nice!  A little intense bought of vomiting!  Fortunately I haven’t eaten anything yet so it was (mostly) dry heaves.  Some spew on the only clean shirt I have is a thoughtful touch.