MikeBrum.com

I think I’m going to make a new site (a subdomain actually) for my body mods. I need a new web project and I think this will be a fun one. I currently don’t really have a lot about my mods posted on here because, quite frankly it’s personal and I know that some people visit the site that have no business seeing or really hearing about what I get done. If for no other reason, it saves me a lot of hassle on many levels.

So, right now I’m doing some DHTML research right now for some drop down menus and such. I don’t think it’s going to be a “huge” site, but it’ll be fun and I’ll have everything in one place, which will be nice.

So keep your eyes open the next couple of weeks. Something should pop up.

Well, I’ve been researching different digital cameras for a while. There’s so many of them out there that it makes choosing *one* rather difficult.

Right now, I’m feeling rather partial to the Sony Mavica MVC-FD92. It has some VERY nice features and looks really solid. I’ve only heard positive things about Sony’s Mavica line of cameras, and my interest is definately piqued.

My only concern is that when I compare features to other models of cameras from other companies, it seems that Sony is somewhat overpriced. So what I’m wondering is exactly how much, if any, better is a Sony camera compared to, say, a Kodak or Nikon camera of about the same quality feature-wise.

For instance, when you look at the mega-pixel per cost ratio of Sony to non-Sony cameras, you’re paying A LOT more for the Sony camera for fewer mega-pixels. Is this just because the rest of the Sony camera is just so damn good and feature laden, or just because there’s a small sticker that says “Sony” on the front?

In a lot of my electronics I know Sony is overpriced per brand. Especially in my entertainment center. But I know that in my experience, my Sony products are a lot more durable and higher quality, so I don’t mind spending the extra money on a better product in that sense. But seeing as I know so little about digital cameras, I’m looking for some input and feedback about the Sony line from anyone that might own some and just some general info on cameras themselves.

So if you have a digital camera, leave a message about what you have and how it’s treating you. It’d be greatly appreciated!

Well, it’s holiday time, which means that most of you running around crazy searching for that special something for that special someone. Have I found the gift for you…

Check it out… if nothing else… you’ll be amused.

It’s Tuesday and there’s not much going on. I’m VERY tired right now from some of the worse sleep in a while on Sunday night and very little sleep on Monday night. Hopefully tonight will help put an end to that, though I’m doubting it.

I really don’t have a whole lot to say, actually. My little home network is doing fine and I don’t have any huge issues right now.

I’m just counting down to Dec. 21st… soon… but not soon enough.

Well, it’s Sunday. This weekend has been relatively boring all things considered.

On Friday when I got home from work, I went to town on that whole virus thing. I downloaded the trial version of McAfee Virus Scan and then got all of the updates to the dat files and scanned and cleaned the server then scanned and cleaned this machine. It took a damn while to do all that! But I think I got everything cleaned and it’s been working fine all weekend long with no sign of re-infection.

Saturday and today have been rather boring. Pretty much sat around watching sci-fi and talking online. Flash Gordon is actually just finishing up right now. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s nothing more than a cheesy sci-fi rock opera. It’s amusing… but definately of late 70′s quality. But what can you really expect?

Well, on Wednesday night, I noticed that I was suddenly getting all these whacky files all over the place in EVERY folder on all of my drives. What pray tell could this be – a virus of course!

So, yesterday was spent with my parents in their respective homes and wasting a bunch of time traveling. Eh, I’d rather be doign a lot of other things, but it gets me off the hook until xmas.

So I got home and started really trying to figure out what was going on with this damn virus. After some exhausting research, I found out that I have W32/Nimda.gen@MM. Feel free to read the info on it if you want to see what I’m up against.

The good news is that with the new dat files, McAfee virus scan (which I have) can remove it.

The bad news is that I have Virus Scan v4.0.2 – about a few weeks ago, McAfee is only supporting v4.0.3 and newer. What a kick to the balls!

So, when I get home, I’m going to try to download the evaluation software and clean my computer with that and then replace the fucked up files.

If that doesn’t work, it’s back to the old stand by – reformat my computer and reinstall Windows. I have about 10 GIG on my computer right now… I don’t consider that much of an option… I really hope I can salvage this!

Wish me luck!

Well, this weekend was a rather productive one for me. I managed to screw around with the network again and actually broke it down a few times and changed things up.

I also did some research online about internet sharing. I found a few good “How To’s” about the subject and learned a bit about the difference between routers and hubs and how to build a network and sharing a connection between all of the computers with it. This was very key!

So, I got everything up and running and I have some proxy software right now that’s sharing out my cable connection to the network (which currently consists of all of 2 computers – one server and one client). Everything’s running really smooth with one exception – email.

I need to find some proxy software that has GOOD email support. I’m also looking for a proxy program that A) has good email support and B) has a firewall built into it. I’ve been going the route of free software at this point, but I’m definately seeing the trend of “you get what you pay for” in this area.

So, if anyone has any suggestions, PLEASE let me know. I’m trying not to spend any money right now since things are tight, but it’d be appreciated if you could send any info my way.

Well, last night was 1/2 successful. I got the network running without issue. I can access both computers from the other and have all the permissions set up right. It really wasn’t all that much of a problem and took less than an hour to do. I’m somewhat impressed, but that’s where the good news ends.

I tried for HOURS last night to get internet sharing set up. I think I might know what a few problems are, but I’m really not sure. I’ve never tried any of this before, so it’s really esoteric to me. I think there might be some problems with my TCP/IP settings… but again… I know nothing about it… so who the hell knows. If ANYONE has any suggestions/help they can offer on setting up a small home network with internet sharing or can offer me some tips or helpful sights on TCP/IP settings, it’d be VERY appreciated!

As the subject says, productivity is good. I spent a good chunk of last night setting up a computer for Mariah for when she gets here (December 21). I wiped a drive that used to have Linux on it and then went to fdisk it. Well… that didn’t work.

Reason why, is that Linux requires you to partition the drive into at least 2 partitions. One being for the OS and all the software and the second is what is called a swap file. The swap file is like your C:\temp folder and holds temporary files that processes need. It’s a bit more complex than that, but that’s the gist of it as I understand it.

Moving on, when I tried to delete the extended partition in fdisk and make one partition on the drive, I was told that I still had logical partitions on the extended drive. Then, when I went to delete the logical partitions, I was told I had none. Then when I tried to delete the extended drive again, said I had logical partitions. That went on for about 10 minutes before I gave up and took out the drive completely.

So I took another drive I had and fdisked that, then installed win98 on it. After I had that all up and running, I slaved the first drive that used to have Linux on it and tried to fdisk again. Luckily, that went smooth and I was able to set the first drive to have one partition, and it’s now slaved on there.

It’s quite a sight with the drives hanging out of the case, the case cover off to one side, the front panel is removed and there’s another skeleton of a case behind that one. It’s like some fucked up computer graveyard. Very cool. :)

Well, now that that’s all taken care of, I’m going to try to set up a network to hook up the two computers. Then, it’s onto the daunting task of setting up a connection sharing so both computers can utilize the cable modem. I don’t think the network will be that hard, but the connection sharing is looking like it’s going to be a bitch.

Wish me luck with all of that, and please leave me any tips if you’ve been through this before!!!

Looks like another plane has gone down. There’s a bunch of people flipping out and really paranoid right now at work. (I work at an investment firm in Boston)

I’m always surprised at how easily people freak out and will search for any link from two events that they can. Just because a plane crashes DOES NOT mean it’s terrorism. Granted it might be, but who knows at this point? Why must people always assume the worse case scenerio? I just don’t understand that aspect of human nature; to find patterns in things that have none and give credance to “coincidence” as if it were fact.

I just feel for the families and loved ones of the victims of this crash. Terrorism or not, they are the ones that will be suffering.