Well shire is finally fully running debian! I spent the last several hours (its 3am now eak! Time for bed after this post) getting lilo back on, getting xp on the lilo bootup menu, getting X to run (fixing the no screens found error), and getting my ethernet card to work. Now it all works!

I'm typing this blog from gondor since I still need to netreg shire.. the system has two nics, the other card is the one that is registered right now.. but I would really like to try to get away from windows if I can.

While we are on the topic of linux I would like to let you all know that a bunch of people here at umass (me included) are about to start a linux RSO on campus. If you would like more details about it hop on the mailing list here. It should be a lot of fun. It looks like we will probably be meeting this sunday afternoon somewhere in the campus center so keep your schedule open! =]

School is just starting to dump a lot of work on me so I thought I'd share a few cool links before I go insane. This week has not been that bad, but looking ahead to next week I have an exam, two homeworks due, a presentation to do, a wemalu meeting to goto (see below), and probably more.

Odd Todd: Great site for some entertainment about this guy who lost his job and knows how to make flash cartoons.

Save Internet Radio: Always wanted to help save Internet Radio but did not want to write a letter yourself? This site will fax the letter over to the government themselves for you.

Interesting Racing Game.. Check it out.. It's strange :)

WeMaLu: A linux users group in the western mass area which hopefully soon will be a RSO here at UMass. Next meeting Monday the 23rd at 7pm in room 150/151 in the compsci building. Be there!

The Project: I really saved the best for last. This site needs no introduction, its amazing! =]

Well there you go. Now when your bored you will have something to keep you busy for a few more minutes.

Yesterday was hell. Class all day then 6 hours of 311 homework.. fun fun.

Today was much better. After classes and work and such I came home and realized that I still hadn't taken pictures of the room for the site. I took a bunch of pictures for a 360 degree thingy but I lack the software to make it look good. If anyone knows of a program that will make a cool 360 degree pic that rotates or lets you turn it let me know so I can get those pics up. For now I'll leave you with a picture from the door looking in. I should probably turn the webcam on again so we can liven that section up again. It was supposed to have 1 snap a day but I haven't updated it in over a month, ugh. Anyway, it's almost 2am so I sleep now. =]

As reported live on The Screen Savers, one of the major things that XP service pack #1 fixes is a bug that lets someone delete any file (including system files) from your hard drive. All you have to do is click a link or read an email to be exploited. You can fix this problem by renaming a file or downloading service pack #1. Details are at techtv and grc.com. The links in this story are safe, trust me. =]

The file you need to rename is \WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\System\DFS\uplddrvinfo.htm. I renamed mine to uplddrvinfo.htm.txt.

UPDATED 2:06am 9/10/02
I tried to post this story to slashdot, but aparently they don't seem to care that if you do not fix this bug, anyone can delete your hard drive on you.

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On a side note, read the End User Licence Agreement when upgrading to SP1 if that's what you choose to do. Supposally if you install it you give microsoft rights to connect to your computer/run code on it/etc whenever they choose. In other words microsoft 0wnz j00. Also, if you are using a less-then-legal version of xp then you can not install sp1. It will not work. Do not try. Just rename that file.

I just got back from the September 2002 2600 meeting which took place like usual in Northampton Mass. This is only the second meeting I have attended but I'm kicking myself for not going to these sooner. It's a great place with lots of cool people talking about technology and other relative topics in today's world. Some of the many things we talked about today included wireless networks, the government's control over our rights, and all-things-debian.

For more info about 2600 visit the ma2600 flyer, the ma2600 main web page, the official 2600 web page, and my pictures from tonight. Also I need to give a shoutout to one of the member's new ezine that will be premiering on 9/11/2002 called Outrage.

Two major events occurred today that will effect me for the rest of my... semester? Today was the first day of classes here at UMass. So far I've only been to my psych class which seems pretty cool and 311 which doesn't seem as bad. We got a new book so hopefully it'll be readable and understandable.

The second thing thats actually rather interesting and groundbreaking happened today on my floor. For the whole last year (and now two for that matter) there has only been one bathroom on my floor, a woman's room. I have had to either go upstairs or downstairs to take a shower, goto the bathroom, or brush my teeth. It's not that big of a deal during the day, but at night it really sucks. Today UMass started a pilot program to neutralize the genderless in the bathrooms. My floor is the first one that is doing it, but maybe/hopefully not the last. Thats right, girls and boys using the same bathroom. It'll be interesting to see how this works out.

Here are the pictures I promised from this summer at software support. Below you will see Liz, me, Mike, and Elliott featured at OIT Software Support.

Apparently someone doesn't care for the opinions expressed on this site since for the past 12 hours urgo.org has been under a DDoS attack. Several other things are hosted off here such as mycmatera.com, dotGET.org, and a few other misc things like an irc bot or two so I have no idea why exactly I'm getting attacked. Did someone really not like my reference to the staples commercial and want to shut me up?

Anyway, their attacks are not working. The site is still up and running w/o much of a problem. Over the past 5 hours I've been banning each ip address they send at me: 24.247.4.117, 68.8.229.131, 12.247.15.183, 68.10.55.230, 66.30.195.246, 24.171.72.146, 65.56.11.19, 207.30.190.20, 65.58.66.185. With any luck this 25k/sec attack will stop over night. Silly script kiddies.

On the other side of bandwith, I'm back at umass and have been enjoying having web pages come up in less then 2 minutes. I finished setting up my part of the room and once martha gets here I'll stick a pic on the blog.

Thats it for tonight. Tomorrow freshmen move into umass and I gotta work 8:30-5 at the helpdesk and count how many people forgot their passwords or are illiterate and can't RTFM. You'd be supprised how many college students don't even bother looking at documentation they are sent before calling in for help. =] Night all. (Goto bed script kiddie, its past your bedtime =] )