Category: Computers

Donating my free time

I’ve been helping simpsone and his parents get stuff moved up to Petaluma the last couple of days while frostedlexicharm has been down in LA deailing with nurses, surgeons, hospitals, and thier sick son. (For more info on that, check lexi’s blog – linked above.)

I tend to dislike dealing with simpsone’s father, but I’ve found that I can at least be civil towards him. (Even if he tends to be an ass towards me – well, towards just about everyone, really.) I’m actually taking a bit of a break from moving stuff right now, (and helping out my mom’s school to boot.) Anyway, we got (most of) the heavy stuff out of the way last night and this morning, but there’s still about 1/2 a garage and 3/4 of a storage area woth of stuff to get moved. (If I understood simpsone correctly.)

I’ve also spent the last couple of days working in the computer lab at my mother’s school, trying to undo some of the damage that’s been done to it throughout the year. I’ve been cleaning off the spyware, uninstalling apps that don’t need to be on the machine, “unifying” the desktop, and installing critical updates.

There’s more that I want to do to these machines, (like getting current virus definitions, tweaking thier network topology, and possibly even wiping all the machines and doing a fresh install of the OS and the basic software the lab needs,) but I don’t have the permission/funds to do that yet. (The scool needs to renew it’s site license to get current virus updates.) Getting the virus protection updated is the main thing I want to do but can’t yet – everything else would just be gravy.

I’ve actually enjoyed doing this stuff. It’s giving me a chance to get off my but and out of the house, and I actually feel useful. My job hunt is not going too well so far, but the last couple of days have kept me occupied – so I’m not spending all my time stressing about that.

I guess it’s about time for me to get back to working on the computers. Looks like I need to kill the spyware on the teacher machine as well. There’s been 5 different pop-up ads in the time it’s taken me to write this. (DEATH TO GATOR!)

Working in a school computer lab

I’m helping my mother today. It seems that the “child protection” software the elementary school she works in is not as effective as they thought it would be. Since I don’t really have anything better to do, I’m helping her out by running ad-aware on all these machines, and uninstalling the stuff the kids have added throughout the year.

I’m adding the link below, because “g-blog.net/user/hooloovoo” is easier for me to type (and remember) than http://download.com.com/3001-2144-10186632.html

Also: all the machines should have this as thier hompage: http://www.husd.k12.ca.us/

Edited on Jun 16th 2003, 19:56 by Hooloovoo

It’s gotta be the pc card

I went for a bike ride this afternoon, and then went to my mom’s house to help her and my stepdad get thier new home network set up.

The OS X laptop is connected to the router via ethernet, the WinXP laptop is connected to the router via the new wireless card. The win98 desktop is not set up yet. (This blog enty is basically a test of the wireless connection.)

This is with the same basic euipment that chutta and I were using when we tried set up a wireless network at his place, only the wireless card plugged into a pci slot. We never did get it to work properly, however this afternoon has given me some hope.

Now I just need to see if the 98 machine has an ethernet card or not, and I need to get a length of Cat5 to connect it to the router too. (I’m not going to reccomend a wireless pci lan card untill I find one that actually works.)

I should probably set a WEP pasword on the router before I leave, too.

Mozilla Firebird 0.6

That’s what I get for spending a few days off-line, Mozilla Firebird 0.6 was released last Saturday.

I’ve completed the download, and I’ll be running the installer just as soon as I’m done writing this, and I finish reading the other tabs I’ve got open.

wonders if it’s about time to check out thunderbird as well…

I think I’ll wait for at least one more build before I really take a look at that.

T -60 Days and counting

I wasn’t going to post about this for a couple of weeks, but…

Is anybody interested in hiring a web developer with 4 years experience in the video game industry? There’s probably going to be a blue-haired-freaky one available to start in early July, (or possibly sooner.)

Sucky way to end the week, but at least I got some warning.