Problem: I have to get three Windows servers patched up to date tomorrow. I found this out about 3 this afternoon.
Second problem: No network connection to the outside world, under any circumstances.
Third problem: Any rewritable media used on said servers must be destroyed after use.
Impossible? Believe it or not, no.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/updating-windows-without-a-network-connection/
I’ve seen this done before, but this is currently the only guide I can find to Installing Windows XP from a USB drive.
If your computer has USB 2.0 ports and can boot off USB (true of most recent PCs), this is not only convenient–it should also be very fast.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/installing-windows-from-a-usb-device/
My wife and I decorated for Christmas today, which used to be something I didn’t look forward to, but today I do, because it means I get to have a train upstairs for about six weeks.
I kept it simple this year.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/decorating-for-christmas-again/
Although a lot of people, including money saver types, recommend against buying anything at all on the day after Thanksgiving, I rolled out of bed and fought the crowds early this morning.
I think I came out ahead.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/what-i-learned-today-about-black-friday-sales/
So it looks like someone in Kansas is building diesel-electric hybrids. Just not really from scratch.
Johnathan Goodwin converts vehicles, new and old, to diesel-electric hybrids. His clients include Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and Neil Young.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/saving-the-world-but-not-necessarily-your-wallet-with-biodiesel/
So I’m sitting at this 2 GHz PC with 2 GB of RAM and a reasonably fast video card, and the audio in Railroad Tycoon 3 skips and sounds a little bit distorted.
It’s maddening when the game played fine on 400 MHz systems. I did some digging, and bad audio seems to be a common problem in XP SP2, but solutions are rare.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/fixing-choppy-audio-in-windows-xp-sp2/
All indications are that the people who taunted Megan Meier to suicide on Myspace are getting plenty of harassment themselves now. Some would call it karma; but breaking more laws doesn’t make things right.
Buried in the comments on a couple of stories, I found perhaps the only legal and ethical way of getting back at the Myspace hoaxers.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/a-safe-legal-even-ethical-lynch-mob-justice-for-megan-meier/
My good friend the Meiers’ neighbor (close enough, at a mile away) and I keep talking about this case. Hopefully you’re not so sick of Megan Meier to indulge me, because this appears to be a case of a parent being an ally, right or wrong, rather than being a parent.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/my-children-right-or-wrong/
I can’t stay away from this story, partly because I can relate to it, and partly because a good friend’s daughter goes to the same school Megan Meier did.
The story is getting a lot more attention now. And a good number of people believe they have the name and address of the unidentified hoaxers, based on clues in the article.
So now what?
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/more-on-the-megan-meier-myspace-suicide/
The Megan Meier Myspace suicide, 10 days later
It’s been about 10 days since the story first broke about 13-year-old Megan Meier being harassed online by a 48-year-old neighbor posing online as a 16-year-old boy and eventually being driven to suicide. The blogosphere has gone nuts, the story has national and even international attention, and while none of this will bring Megan Meier back, at least there’s been some progress.
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2007/11/the-megan-meier-myspace-suicide-10-days-later/