Author: Doug McCaughan

  • Virus Writers Are Criminal

    The dollar value I can assess to lost productivity to myself and my client because of the CWS CoolWebSearch (Inet20001) malware and viruses is ridiculous. Virus Writers and malware writers be damned! The stress of trying to remove this mess has taken time off the end of my life I’m sure. So not only are they stealing my money, they are killing me!

    That said, today’s challenge. Take a windows 2000 workstation that would boot to the windows login screen then restart after reporting "svchost.exe The application failed to initialize properly. 0xc0000142" Booting to safe mode produced the same error (turns out this is from a copy in c:\temp\svchost.exe). Long and short. The machine did not have enough memory to run the Windows Ultimate Boot CD but did run the Linux Ultimate Boot CD and a virus scan showed some potentials. Notes taken. Damn Small Linux refuses to delete files from the hard drive. Go to the magic toolbox and pull out 6 floppies that are a modified set of Windows XP boot floppies with a Windows 2000 registry repair option (search MS.com) Registry repaired and files deleted from within DOS. Reboot reveals I missed much. Persistence prevails. (I’d go more detailed but I was cruising on a web application this morning and didn’t intend to have a 12 hour speed bump).

  • Presidential Approval Ratings Continue to Fall

    GW’s approval ratings shown graphically.

    Special thanks to Tim for the link.

  • Unbelieveable graphic arts!

    I can’t even imagine being this good with Photoshop!

  • My existence

    I made the mistake
    I lived for me.
    What folly!
    I lived for thee.

    I breathe in
    The air you exhale.
    I am indebted to you
    For the honor.

    I live a life
    Planned.
    Altered.
    Unstable.

    I cannot let go
    Things are right.
    Twisted around
    Mind fight.

    I die
    Still alive.
    No afterlife
    Spirit is gone.

    I lived.
    Never free.
    Trapped.
    Slave, of me.

  • HTTPanties

    HTTPanties

    ThinkGeek has really brought it home with their own line of panties [Full Description]. Look out Victoria Secrets!

    We bring you HTTPanties for the discriminating woman who would prefer a web-savvy and somewhat-direct approach in the romance department.

    These panties are W3C compliant.

    And for those of you saying, "huh?" I present the definitions from the w3c:

     

  • Lessons

    All my life I thought I was doing right
    It hurts so bad to find I was wrong.

  • Rebound

    "I know I’ll find it because I’ve been there before."

  • Sticky

    Getting yellow bubble gum off an infant’s delicate skin is no fun.

  • Ooops. Guess I needed that.

    Last night I brewed a pot of coffee at 10pm to assist in my allnighter. I decided then to take a few moments and sit with the wife in bed while I read a chapter. At the end of the third chapter I decided to lay my head for just a moment. Despite waking several times night, I could not motivate myself out of bed. So I finally rise to get to work and moments later Evan decides he needs my attention for a couple of hours. Frustrating and pleasurable at the same time.

  • Sayings that are wrong

    Whoever said "money can’t buy happiness" was never poor.

  • Your thoughts, positive energy and prayers

    April 24th is a very critical day for us. We need good karma sent our way.

  • From the mouths of babes

    Dad: "Amy. Can you say your alphabet?"
    Amy: Sings the abcs
    Dad: "Amy. Can you count to 20?"
    Amy: Counts to 20 skipping 16.
    Dad: "How’d you get so smart?"
    Amy, without hesitation: "Granddaddy"

  • Using Porn to Sell Clothes

    Well now. Someone just sent me an interesting link. Apparently an apparrel company, SHAÏ, has decided to use pornography to sell clothing. Their catalog is a flash movie of people having sex but as they disrobe you can roll over the movie with your mouse to get details of the clothing article and add it to your shopping cart. The concept is extremely sharp in that you have models displaying the clothing in, um, interesting ways and that when you see what you like you can purchase the clothing. This could have been done without the sex and I bet we will see this style of catalog in different formats such as an interactive walkway with models displaying the goods. The catalog is NOT WORK SAFE and for adults only. I can’t tell you much about the clothes but I can say that the catalog is explicit enough that some people will blush while others might get a few new ideas.

  • The Fog

    Through early morning fog I see
    Visions of the things to be
    The pains that are withheld for me
    I realize and I can see

    I try to find a way to make
    All our little joys relate
    Without that ever present hate
    But I know that it’s too late

    The game of life is hard to play
    I’m going to lose it anyway
    The losing card I’ll someday lay
    So this is all I have to say

    The only way to win is cheat
    And lay it down before I’m beat
    And to another give a seat
    For that’s the only painless feat

    The sword of time will pierce our skin
    It doesn’t hurt when it begins
    But as it works it’s way on in
    The pain grows stronger watch it grin

    A blind man once requested me
    To answer questions that are key
    Is it to be or not to be
    And I replied, “Oh why ask me?”

  • Could one evil prevent another?

    So if the IRS freezes my assets, does that prevent the mortgage company from foreclosing my house?