Well, it was working for a day, my Inspiron E1705... enough time for me to at least get 3 book packages labeled up and mailed out. Though I only got halfway in the quest to backup the hard disk. :(

See, Mike was able to get me back up and running yesterday with the replacement video card (which began exhibiting the same problems as the original) and also cleaning out more gunk from the fans than I had. He also cooled down the entire system and the chip area on the motherboard around the video card, and removed a stray lead (which he said didn't look like it was touching anything or shorting anything out) from the motherboard. So I was up for just about 24 hours and then it started again. In the middle of working in Windows, the display just went completely blank again. Exact same symptoms as before with the original video card so now I know that's not the source of the problem. Unfortunately, even a full power down won't bring it back up anymore.

We'll have to do more work on it tomorrow. But unfortunately I wasn't able to get a backup from it yet, so all the data I was so happy to finally be able to get at again... bye bye again! Hopefully we can get an external display up and running off it tomorrow. I think we might have better luck using a DVI connection to a newer flat screen display instead of the crappy old 15" CRT I was hooking it up to for my previous testing (which wouldn't run once Windows booted). If I have to send it back to Dell for out-of-warranty repairs, I need to get my data off it first, especially since the hard drive is still good and I can't chance them wiping it.

I'm not sure how much a new LCD screen will cost if it's that. If it's the reed switch problem I read about, that would be cheaper. When I bought this system though--a Dell Inspiron E1705/9400 1.83 GHz Dual Core Processor with 17" widescreen WUXGA Truelife screen--I pretty much maxed it out with all the best equipment so it cost over $3,000 when all was said and done. So even if the display ran me upwards of $500-$800, I'd still be better off than having to buy a new system.

But anyway, all I can say at this point is.... WAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tags: tech
I'm feeling: frustrated

No, I'm NOT responsible for the eBay and Wachovia Bank phishing schemes on my site.  It would appear that someone hacked my gallery and was able to place these files there.  I've removed them, but I'm not sure if I've blocked the exploit completely without further research.  Right now, the writable directories are gone so I hope that means the phishing pages are gone too and aren't gonna turn up in another directory somewhere.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize when I set this site up that it would be a constant struggle to stay on top of all the security issues that crop up for exploits.  Especially since I customized the code of my gallery, I can't just drop patches in without significant modification. 

So for the time being, the gallery's offline.  I'll have to see if I can find backups of the pictures.  But it's not top priority at the moment as I've got too many other things to deal with back here on the home front.  It's really aggravating having these hackers take advantage of an exploit somewhere against lil ole me, just trying to mind my own business and post my pictures on the web to share with friends and family.  Attack the big guys, who can afford full time security people to monitor their network.  I have enough of a time staying up on security with my own local network, and now I have to deal with remote exploits on my web server located down in Florida too?  *sigh*

So to all the messages I've been getting, thank you for the kind ones that are just letting me know.  And to the others comments, that assume this is of my doing and proceed to insult me, well... you can just stick it where the sun don't shine!!

PS - It's possible the spam is still going around even if the directories aren't there anymore, so if you find a current directory that's still hosting one of the scams, please reply to this and let me know.  Matter of fact, I just found that they somehow got into my images directory as well, whereas before I thought it was just my gallery directories...

Tags: security, tech
I'm feeling: aggravated

So I was sick for awhile... never did pin down exactly what was wrong though I'm figuring it must've been the flu as it's not uncommon for that to hang around for 2-3 weeks.  Though the one flu symptom I didn't have was coughing, and if it were the flu, I'd have thought Mike would've caught it too.     I had went to the hospital to get checked out; they drew blood, made me pee in a cup, and the diagnosis came back all clean.  The rash/bite on my leg turned out to be fungus the doctor told me.  I was like "HUH?"  That's not anything I've ever seen before.  Apparently, our bodies always have a bit of fungus in them, but it's kept in balance by the other things.  Except when your immune system is down, like mine was, then it can take over... this is what I understood from what she told me.  So she gave me a prescription for some cream to put on it.  So at least I'm feeling better now and that darn thing on my leg that I thought was a lyme disease rash is just about gone.

But just as I'm getting over all that, some BookCrosser on her moral high horse decides to dis me publicly... well me and a couple other crossers/relayers.  See this thread in the BookRelay forum.  You'll see I come forth on page two.  But anyway, she starts spewing off a bunch of bullshit and twisting things to put her own take on it and claiming it as true.  As if she's got a freakin' clue!  Unfortunately, I still have to deal with the bitch over on Club VLAD and though morgaine made me a mod there, I wouldn't use my "powers" in retaliation of a personal vendetta she has against me.  But there's a bunch of us who just wish she'd go away and get a life.  It's sad when someone like that has nothing in their life but books... no friends, boyfriend, husband, etc. and thus has to become so obsessive about some things, and be such a busy body trying to cause trouble.  Freakin' bug!

Now I'm also dealing with hardware problems with one of my servers here at home, the one that serves as my Internet gateway, as well as a Windows Directory Server, DFS (Distributed File System) server, DHCP server, and so on.  So I've had to implement some temporary workarounds while I get another server built to provide the Internet gateway and then I can rebuild the content from the bad hard drive onto a new one.    When it rains it pours!

Fortunately, I've got Halloween/Samhain and my birthday to look forward to... try to keep this winter depression away!

Tags: books, just life, tech
I'm feeling: aggravated

I've been researching cell phones again because both batteries on my Sanyo 8200 are pretty worn out. But I think i'm gonna just buy a new battery from eBay for my 8100 for now and wait for the Sanyo 8400 (due around September) which will finally have Bluetooth along with Ready Link. For some reason, Sanyo hasn't had Bluetooth in any of their phones, nor have they released a phone for Sprint's Power Vision (EV-DO) network. But I'm partial to Sanyo over Samsung because of the user interface and the strong signal they always get, plus I hear the speakerphone on the Sanyo is much better than on the Samsung. I also like the 2.5 mm universal jack the Sanyos have, which allow you to use a number of standard accessories without needing a special adapter or hardware designed specifically for your model phone.

I'd been hoping to get a phone that had both Bluetooth plus Ready Link (the walkie talkie feature), but so far, you've had to choose either one or the other. But the upcoming 8400 should remedy that. Some other features that are important to me are Dual-band/Tri-mode (2 digital bands plus analog)--I've been camping in remote areas where the only signal available is analog so I'd hate to have only digital. Sanyo has been pretty good in this department so I can only hope that the 8400 will continue to have the analog capability like my 8100 does. Also tethering, aka Dial-Up Networking capability, so you can use the phone as a modem if necessary.

Tags: tech
I'm feeling: geeky

Woohoo!  I just got back from Toronto, having attended the 2006 BookCrossing Convention, and meeting up with a lot of people that I've only been talking to online for over a year now.  :-)  It was so rainy on Saturday and Sunday that I didn't really take many pictures then.  Besides, we spent most of the day Saturday at the presentations, and Joanne, Tanja and I only skipped one so we could go to the mall and pick up a cell phone charger since I had forgotten mine at home.  And unfortunately, my batteries are so old, they don't maintain a charge for more than a couple days.  I know I should just buy new batteries, but I actually want a new phone instead, so I don't want to spend $ on batteries that most likely won't be compatible with the new phone I get.  Now if I can just find a phone that has all the features I'm looking for.  So far, those requirements are Dual-band/Tri-mode (at least 2 digital bands plus Analog), Bluetooth, Walkie talkie (push to talk), Speakerphone, and Tethering (DUN) capability.  I'd prefer a Sanyo or Samsung as they're really the best phones, and since I'm not tied to Sprint PCS in any way, I'm willing to switch to another provider, though Verizon is probably the only other one I'd seriously consider.

Tags: books, tech, travel

I just updated the software running my Gallery at Cherie-n-Mike so let me know if you see any problems with it.  Cuz I have a few custom mods I had to put back in by changing the php code so just in case something isn't working right...

Anyhoo, I'm back from my 2nd trip to Key West now as of last Wednesday, so I'll get the pictures from that part of the trip posted soon.  (The older gallery software was having issues so I decided to update it first before adding more.)

Tags: tech
I'm feeling: geeky

Well, it's taking me forever and a day to put my system back together... oh I hadn't let you know I had to rebuild it to begin with?  Well I did... my laptop... my primary meat and potatoes, which was customized to the hilt.  So it's been slow going but I've been getting all my apps reinstalled, and copying my configurations back over for any of the ones that have been highly customized.  (Though the disk was unusable, I was able to get a disk image with DOS so I can even load a registry snapshot and copy entire keys from there as necessary.  But enough about that.  I just wanted to bring it up to mention what I've been up to.  Now on to the fun stuff...

Woohoo!  Mike and I are going to Key West in October.  We're staying right in downtown, at the very end of Duval Street--Zero Duval to be exact--at the Ocean Key Resort.  And even though I thought it'd be impossible, we were able to get at least 1/2 of our time down there to be during Fantasy Fest as well.  Now to get back my sexy bathing suit physique so I'll look good in all my pictures.  :)

Tags: tech, travel, vacation
I'm feeling: excited

oy, headache today... :(

I've been busy trying to fix a number of problems with my friend Kathy's computers and wireless network.  I couldn't believe it when I saw that the guy who they had set up their wireless network initially set it up without any form of security whatsoever, no encryption of the data, no authentication, and the SSID for the wireless segment was left at it's default of Netgear.  Poor girl has been doing her freakin' banking over this connection for the last few years.  Fortunately, her bank caught some fraud going on with her credit cards and promptly sent her new ones.  I'm only glad that there wasn't more damage caused beyond that which is fixable.  Whomever hacked into her network also took over control over the Netgear wireless router, and totally blew away all the TCP/IP settings, like they're totally missing from the registry, from her desktop system as well.  The desktop itself is running XP Home Media Center Edition, had file sharing turned on, and no firewall in use, even the Windows one was turned off!  No passwords on any of the accounts, and all of the user accounts were configured as Administrator.  Un-fuckin-believable!  Not that Kathy would know better of course, but the fact that the guy who left the system in that insecure of a condition used to be the I.T. guy for Jimmy's company??!!  Well, he was fired now, or laid off or something.  Shee-it! 

I had went over her house Wednesday night and worked right through the night, leaving there about 2 in the afternoon on Thursday.  I took a couple hour nap once I got home, but I didn't get much time in there, and thus, by 11pm last night I was beat!  I saw bedtime by midnight for the first time in a very long time.  I'm going to try to use this to readjust my body's schedule a bit, so I'm not awake till 5 or 6 in the morning as I often am. 

But anyway, I ordered some new wireless equipment for Kathy's network, some 802.11g stuff supporting WPA encryption.  (Yeah, I know that n is on the way soon, but since it's not my equipment, I can't have her dealing with pre-release standards, flashing ROMs, and shit like that.  Besides, the g stuff is pretty cheap right now and will still be supported for a long time to come.)  That equipment should be here by Monday and I'll be back over there on Tuesday finishing up.  I ended up having to completely wipe the desktop system I mentioned above so I'll be reconfiguring that when I go back over too, and make sure it's as secure as can be.

Whenever I do work for my friends, they always offer to pay me for my time.  Hey, I do this stuff for a living right?  And get paid for it from others... However, I feel like a heel accepting $$ from friends, so I usually bargain for a nice dinner out or something like that.  With Kathy, I'm shooting for either a couple more laser hair removal sessions at the salon where she works, or maybe even a membership to Costco or a new all-in-one printer/copier/fax.  We'll see what pans out.  :)

Tags: tech
I'm feeling: tired