How did I get here?

Ok how random a post title is that and how random is this for a post? You can sort of blame Wahwer & Melonie for this, kind of anyway. I was chatting this morning to my good friend & colleague at work, Susan. We were just chatting about random things, when I go "How Stupid can I be!" (Moogie, Sharon, Melonie & Wahwer - don't even THINK it!!) Refering to a piece of info I'd asked someone for and realised I actually just needed to go look it up again as it's not written down anywhere not even on my PC, how strange eh!
So this then launched somehow into a potted history of how I got to know Melonie, Wahwer, Sharon & Moogie as well as the rest of y'all. I think this is going to be a series of posts about my life (not sure yet) a bit along the lines of my Honesty post. So how did I end up with a blogspot blog anyways? Well I could go back to '92 but for now we don't need to go that far just yet. I'll go back to '99 instead. This was when I didn't have gainful employment, was on a government funded training course to get me my wonderous NVQ Level III in IT. This is also back when I got my first pc thanks to my good mate stu, it wasn't the Ub3r 1337 thing I have now! It was only a little P1 150 with I think 32Mb of Ram, 1Gb of HDD and running Win 98. I met my good friend and tutor Richard on this course and he persuded me to start doing something useful with my pc, start "crunchinG" SETI@Home work units. The first took 80hrs and I thought why! We then discovered a faster smarter way to crunch them and it took me only 25hrs to do 1. My good friend stu gave me a free upgrade to a shiny AMD K6-3-400 with more HDD space and more ram. Now I'd joined up in the same team as my mate Richard and we weren't doing too well as well being as the team were a subteam of Uber Geek Squad - Arse Technica - Team Lamb Chop to be exact. We then formed our own team before finding Team Free-DC just the kinda team for us. We both then eventually moved to other project as we found out there was more to do than just SETI, I got to know Moogie through Richard and well e-mail and comments left on moogie's blog and my Dear Diary pages. I only had a DD thanks to the persistance of my adopted lil sis and good friend Jen. I then read Moogies post about sharon and her struggle to help Bing, Chatter and Leo in the world. I again left comments, was asked if I minded comments being left, e-mails being exchanged not me. So I eventually moved to Blogspot and set up shop so to speak. That's where I got to know Melonie, and through her, sharons & Moogies blog got to know Heather, Chase, DB, Fiesty, Miss Zooty, Zonker, Acidman, Dax, Ward and whole heap more besides (even if I don't leave a comment I may read your blog now and then). I then one day clicked on Wahwer's blog and well things have never quite been the same. I don't regret anything I've done then, okay maybe some of you will disagree and I'm sorry if I've upset anyone with my actions (many of which don't see the light of the blogsphere). I suppose you could say I'm a bit like an over enthusiastic puppy dog, eager to please and bounding about with loads of energy, I suppose I can say I can be a bit full at times, but that's me..

Hugs to ya all, and don't think you can hide, just come here and get your hug it won't hurt a bit.

Power Blip Panic!

Well I got home, noticed that the programs I had set running on my PC weren't running! Thought hmm it's reset - it's got a virus / spyware / trojen / malware etc.. Thought maybe not but run system checks anyway.. Check another PC - it's was sitting at the XP log in screen (gotta love remote admin that loads as a service before anything!) logged me in, checked the other pc's the same thing. Thought hmm power blip! I was right just enough to make lights flicker but long enough to make PC's go reset :(. Oh and the drive home wasn't much fun either...

It's Snowing!

Yup it's offical it's snowing in my part of the World..
It's just a little bit (well anything under 3 feet is just a little bit to some people :P)
Well I've actually had to move my PC temporarly back to my room from the attic due to this as well it's too cold for the poor thing, that will teach me for misplacing the cover for it. It was well lets just say unless I had the thing running full pelt i.e running the D2oL project it well crashed, reboot......rebooot.......reboot sometimes it would get to windows splash screen often not. So it got moved so I could check it in a warmer place. It works fine - darn cold.

Even I get it wrong sometimes..

Okay confession time. Time for me to fess up to a recent Balls up I did which resulted in this here pc Im typing on, being left in a state of non-bootable ness..
Here's the story, Im love Win 98se (I know it's old hat now but It works, does all that I need it to do, and I can protect it way easier than XP). I decided to go install XP so I thought I'll duel boot the thing with 98 (defaulting to boot 98 if no key is pressed). I decided last night that hmm I can upgrade to XP from 98 as it's got a wizard and stuff to do it for me, so why not "copy" my current windows setup to the same space as I have XP on - wiping out XP 1st, and then remove XP's boot loader type thing. I did all that, removed the bootloader files (oh silly me!), used my trusty (or so I thought) Win98se Bootdisk that should boot me nicely into a Command Prompt to let me type the 2 commands I knew I needed to do... Only for it to say "Error unable to read file MODE.com page not prepared" etc.. darn Disk Corruption! which left me with a problem as it couldn't actually read and unpack files it needed to the Ram Drive it had created so I couldn't type the following commands:
FDISK /MBR <- this fixes the Master Boot Record to be marked as 98se bootable
SYS C: <- to copy over the Windows 98se system files and make it bootable once more..
Didn't have the time to mess around with attempting to make a boot disk on the 2 other PC's I have that run 98 as well erm they are linked via a Keyboard/Video/Mouse Switch that does it's job but can be a bit of a pain - Me thinks me didn't follow instructions right (Typical!) so I machine been offline all day and has done no work for my Team (Free-DC) and no work in the project this machine does (D2oL - Drug Optomization Lab), Argh there goes a 1/3 of my daily output... Not Much really is it.. But a few units here and there, I will remember next time.. Now just to get Win XP to "upgrade" my 2nd "Install" of windows I hope it works else Im gonna be pissy with it.

For Some Strange Reason....

For some unknown reason I decided to check my guestmap (hmm noticed it was fairly empty - HINT!!)..
Noticed Wahwer's Entry and wondered why exactly it meant.. Hmm then for some unknown reason the song "Country Roads......" came in to my head and I just had to listen to it. That does it 1st place I visit in the US, IF I ever have the money, time and inclination - hmm I can muster 1 of them, the other 2 are harder!.

Suggest ya Go listen to the song and just Smile ;)

Hmm chillin' out (literally!)

Hmm reason for low post rate, well it's getting colder here and hmm been busy adding insulation to various places so I can stay warm(er) than it is outside..
I'll let you know how it goes once I've Finished it all off ;)

I blog there for I am.

Weel Im sorry chase that ya dinnae understand ma lingo, bit weel it's kinna hard tae read yon southern bit I manage nae bother, ken. Oh wait ye'll nae ken will ye, ya've nae idea whit Im on aboot dae yea.
Noo i kid go on bloging in broad scots bit a think I'll gee it a bye. That's better it's not actually that easy to type in broad scots believe it or not you really have to think what it is your typing and how exactly the word is spelt, now that sounds like simple don't it, it's not being as I am used to speaking it but not writing it.. This could of course be worse, I could as easily attempt to write this in Gealic but even I would have difficult understanding it, or worse yet Doric which is a bit like Gealic but they speak it around about Aberdeen and the like. Now Britian is really nice it has well lets see now 6 languages all of it's own, maybe a few more if you count localisations of english. Well we have English, Scots (localization), Gealic, Doric, Irish and Welsh. So watch out because next time i may not post in english :P I may post in welsh or irish, probably welsh although Im sure one read would annoy me by pointing out all my mistakes I make in welsh, but I'll let her off as she's allowed ;).
Oh I am still alive and with it, just have had nothing to report well saying that the server at work throw a disc, not nice it's not responding at all even when something that should have worked was done it didn't - blames the stupid ass that set the thing up in 1st place for sticking OS and Data in the same Raid set, but enough as I don't wanna go over too many heads..

I've Fixed it (well just about maybe)

I've fixed it or at least put a work around in that will force the issue ;) gotta love javascript and the ability to write bits of the entire page on the fly ;). Basically It's a "hack", a fix, a patch, it checks to see if your using IE and writes one style for sidebar otherwise it writes another (proper one :P) darn IE and it's PITA CSS stuff.

Okay Here's what It should look like...

I've grabbed a snapshot of the blog as looks to me as I write this post...

This is a thumbnail link so you can click to view fullsized 1024x744 image..

I've been playing some more...

I've fixed the font size problem and I think it's looking good, the colors actually work now might just need a minor tweak but I think it's looking good.. little tweak here and there and minimalistic imaging :)

I've been playing

Okay I've been playing around with my template, I had a few ideas and got them to work independantly from blogger so I shoved them in, i know the colors are all out but I'll fix it as soon as I figure out the colors I want and the sizes and well lol....

Argh!

Okay I give up I'm just gonna bloody well find a template close enough to what I want an re-do and then add back in what i have on my sidebar..
Any hint tips or otherwise point me, else say nothing!

It's Oooooooonnnnnnllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy Ffffffriday...

Well it is Friday, darn it I've seen this quiz in a few places and well darn it I thought what the heck - I'm a fruit n' nut case anywayz - no need to comment I know I am.
I am the following Fruit


You are a Pomegranate...unconventional, unique, and
just a little bit tart...you know how to make a
lasting impression and often do so with your
zest for life...


What Kind of Fruit Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

In Light of Recent Posting (Pt. 3)

Okay Now for Part 3, I think you have absorbed the other parts (or your ignoring them totally cos your a smug git!)
Okay Now to get you away from the spyware causing program Internet Explorer (which I only use to read my Hotmail (via MSN Messenger) and Launch.com for radio stations since it dont' work well Firefox due to them being RETARDED!

1. Go Get Firefox Here


2. Install it


3. Run it


4. It will import all your IE cookies, passwords, Favourites etc Over :)


5. Go to tools Menu & Click Extensions then get more extensions in the bottom right


6. Grab what you think you might want,
   
   like Adblock - Get it Here it's the latest version
   
   Download Manager Tweak - nice tool lets you put the downloads as a tab rather than a seperate window
   
   Foxy Tunes - Lets you Play your favourite player from within firefox - I use it for Winamp controling - setup is a bit tricky.
   
   PDF Download - lets you save the pdf to your HD rather than load it - gives you the option :)
   
   Forcast Fox - need I say anymore ;) Nice Tool
   
   Media Player Connectivity - Smooths out a few bugs with some sites and Firefox if you don't got Media Player 9+ installed.
   
   Play Launch - Fools Launch.com and lets you play videos with MPC
   
   Blog This - Tool of use to us bloggers Im sure lets you grab bit to blog not 100% sure on this tool not really played around with it.
   
   Oh and View in IE - just in case for old time sake


7. Once you got all the Extentions you want - Go grab some nice themes, oh and anything you install to firefox requires you to close and restart firefox for it to be available.


8. If you download adblock, you may also wanna download this adblock list and import it - Tools > Adblock > Prefernces > Adblock Options > Import and load the file (saves you having to write all them darn hard regular expresions)

Now I've got you off IE and on to a nicer browser - watch how your blog breaks maybe..
Okay Onto Firewalls and the like, Me I use Zone Alarm Pro from Zonelabs, there is a free version or you can evaluate the Pro version, it's at least 10x better than XP's firewall, evan the free one is way better and both will stop stuff that XP won't but it might bug you to begin with when it's not got all the stuff you use that requires net access - instantly be able to tell if you have a trojen / virus though ;).Suggest you read the help that comes with it to understand it fully.
Now there are many virus scanners out there but well heck even Norton's Own Tech support says Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) is crap - So Avoid, McAfee is good but you pay for that, AVG is good free, you can pay to get the Pro version with addition features:). There are free "online" scanners and virus removal tools generally you got a specific Problem you google the "problem" and you find a fix. Once you get the AV keep it up to date
Trojens are a pain but I think between Spybot SnD, Adaware, a good Anti-virus solution you should be able to avoid them but there is a program called "The Cleaner" by Moosoft that will scan and clean them trial available but you need to buy this not free.
Okay I think I've cover it and given you a free firewall, browser + tools, Anti-virus, spyware scanner, and an ad removal tool all free :) (or nearly free).

Blogger Templates

Anyone got any ideas, I've decided to screw the idea of having a Template with tartan in it in fact the idea of any Images other that my what I put on the blog as images, basically no images just colors ideas in comments please.

In Light of Recent Posting (Pt. 2)

Okay Now on to Adaware SE

1. Download & Install Adaware SE here it's free also - gotta love good freeware.


2. Run the software on first run / if not been run for a while it will tell you that the defintions file is x days old do you want to update, update it


3. Click Start, 1st run do a full scan, subsequent runs do a smart scan but go make a coffee while it's scanning.


4. Once it's done it will show you number of objects found and what types they are, click "Next"


5. It will give you a list ignore "Negligible Object" just click on the box(es) with Critical objects in them and click "Next"


6. IT will show a ? box with X objects will be removed. Continue? Click "OK" and your done

Now remember to regularly run both Spybot SnD and Adaware to keep the system in top condition, updating both as needed and Immunizing with Spybot SnD..
Next... Antivirus Solutions and Firewalls oh and a nice browser that actually works and is fast Firefox (Incase you ain't used it yet)

In Light of Recent Posting (Pt. 1)

In light of a post I made at BWTP and the fact that some people's machines run slower than they should I've put together a small plan

1. Download & Install Spybot Search n Destory it's free.


2. Run Spybot - click on Search for Updates and check all the update boxes Download updates.


3. Hit Immunize it will say something like 0 bad products blocked 2160 possible Click "Immunize" at the top and it will Immunize, put a check mark in "Enable permanent blocking of bad addresses in Internet Explorer"


4. Now for some work, Click the "Search & Destroy" Button in the left panel and hit "Check for problems", let this run it will find anything that shouldn't be there..


5. Once it's done it's work, you can see what it's found click on "Fix selected Problems" and let it fix them, sometimes it can fix them due to the spyware being smart and having windows load and lock the file as in use, let it scan again on startup.

Coming up Next
Adaware SE.

Tuesday Already I think.

Hmm well lets see now it's apprently Tuesday well now technically on write this is wednesday but erm Monday well let's just say I've had better days at work, having to work when Ill is no fun at all - but no-one to cover me if I go home kinda means I just gotta wing it and pray I stay in once peice 24hr bug thing again, I won't go into details just that hmm my stomach disagreed with a few things I ate that day to try and calm it down also headache didn't really go away either :( As for Today (well yesterday now) 12hr shift that's right you do the math it's after midnight and so thus I've been up about 17 hrs feeling much better today obviously thank god, So no need to worry they ain't ready to cart me of just yet. I think that would take a lot I came kicking and screaming into this world (I was quiet but well i was fight another battle - being the small new kid on the block was a tough job back then).
Words now banned on this blog until futher notice are the "W" word aka W O R K... it's banned in any shape or form so I won't be talking about it from now on..(please not blog may get boring but heck I won't need to start muttering curses sometimes)
L8rs

Sunday Sunday

Well that was a fun 6hrs at work, had to relax so been playing World of Warcraft for past few hours. It's also a friend of mine's 21 so well let's just say Melonie ain't the only who's gotten flowers from me this year. One in a list of many.. Well what can I say it's a 21st don't happen that often do they..
I had an idea for a post but hmm it's gone..
Oh Chase I think the clock should read right now if it don't then the darn well code is gonna have to have a major re-write :|

The Week So Far.

Well let see the week so far.
Monday: Worked 7-7 half asleep looking, feeling shit but I made it, local holiday and It was my turn to work it.
Tuesday: Worked 7-9 and then got sent home but the Boss, got home, went to bed watched a few DVD's, had some food, felt better..
Wednesday: Worked 7-4 back to normal hours only to fucking find out I may have to work Sunday Mornin' :| I'm saying NO More.
Sharon is alive and posting :)
Thanks Boss.