What’s with the title?

My son James asked me the other day what was with the title on this web site, specifically “Com/Net/Org” … What this means is that this site is available at www.davidpierron.com, www.davidpierron.net and www.davidpierron.org … I have run the gamut on this particular domain … I wasn’t interested in the other TLDs that are available … (.name, .us, .biz etc.) … Well, that’s about it …

Paper week

It’s that time again … Out On the Town Entertainment News … Mike got me some ads early … 9 to be exact, and they’re the simple ones that take less than a couple minutes per update … I have about all of the ads at this point, and written on my worksheet is 32 total ads … A slim and trim issue … I should be able to knock it out in a couple hours … I have been doing a lot of computer work today (web stuff) and yesterday was the laptop fiasco … I had to re-install the HP from scratch before I returned it to get all my crap offa there … Then bring the new one up to speed … So, we’ll see how this issue goes … This is also a test for the electronic issue … This should be the last paste up one according to Mike … Again, we’ll see …

New Laptop … Again

So I took the HP back to CircuitCity and picked up the Toshiba … They even matched CompUSA’s price on it and I got money back! I also avoided the 15% re-stocking fee … I have always praised shopping online, but in this instance, I am so glad I didn’t … I would have gone through a nightmare returning the Pavilion through an online company I’m sure … The Toshiba is bigger and runs hotter although it’s lighter … I spent last night loading it up and checking things out … I will know more in a couple days whether it is a decent machine … It would suck if it wasn’t … It’s a very large investment into my computing career … The HP was a fine unit … too bad there are so many reported problems with it and it’s not a stereo device … Maybe they will make better models in the future?

Another resume

Again with another resume … this time in MS Word format, and I sent another in PDF format for good measure … Each time I send this thing off, I have this feeling that it isn’t good enough … Like it doesn’t include everything I am capable of … So, I hope it’s good enough to get an interview … BTW, I originally posted about this job Monday, May 17th …

Still waiting

I spoke to “my buddy” a day or so ago, and I said that since I hadn’t heard anything, I guess that job has been filled … He assured me again that they’re just slow there in hiring … He said he was looking at the empty desk right then … So, kinda concerns me that this job isn’t so important that they’re trying to fill the position, but I guess keeps me optimistic in that it still could happen … It certainly would be a nice alternative to the jobs I’m doing now … (That’s putting it nicely without any rants) …

Returning Laptop

Looks like I have finally been dissatisfied enough to take this laptop back … I am now installing the XP Home that came with the machine and all of its drivers, etc … If the Toshiba’s Line-In isn’t in stereo, oh well, but the headphone port is certainly identified as stereo in every description I’ve read about it … The other determining factor is that I have searched the Internet, and it appears that HP laptops are shutting off unexpectedly the world over in all sorts of scenarios … It seems I bought into a bad line of laptop so I am getting out while the getting is good (within the 14 day return policy) … The Toshiba has done me fine the last 3 years, so I expect the same reliability fom a new one … I have decided to go with the one linked below since it has a line in as well as a 17″ screen … oh, and that stereo thing … How can HP release (sell) a laptop that doesn’t have a stereo headphone jack? Isn’t that just wrong? … and how much money could that possibly save in the production? Oh well …

Recording live bands

Sorta related to the laptop, I have acquired a Sony MZ-N10 to record bands via the board … I could have done this on the laptop, but this one isn’t stereo … The Toshiba is, but it is 3 years old and only has a 20G drive … The new one also has a 17″ screen (1440×900) but I have considered replacing it with this Toshiba … Anway, the Sony MiniDisc is cool in that it doesn’t take up any HD space since it’s its own self contained unit … I can get a whole night on LP2 speed (160 minutes) … the thing is, I can’t get the recorded material in computer form without re-recording it via some other method … I have been using the mini line out of the MiniDisc into the mini line in of another computer (a stereo one) … So in recording the live bands I have been able to hear my mix at a decent volume outside of the club, and in this method able to hear what goes to the system and how it’s reproduced … Interesting …

Return the laptop?

I am so torn between whether to return the laptop or hang onto it. The reasons to hang on to it are the laptop and features itself including the full size keyboard that allows me to put in ALT sequences easily and type IP addresses faster … The downside is that HP and Adobe don’t seem to get along for HT technology … The HP will just shut off like a breaker has been tripped while working in the image editor … The other thing that upsets me about it is that it is not stereo … The headphone port and the mic/line in port while they support stereo, everything is in mono … So, do I take it back? I have until the end of the month … Purchased on the 17th, I have 14 days to decide … I could buy an external sound card for $99, but do I want to do that? I read the reviews on it, and they’re mixed … Way I figure it, I don’t want to carry around another USB device cause the laptop didn’t come in stereo like it should have … I am still torn …. HELP!

Virus

So I got a new laptop yesterday … A HP Pavilion zd7160us … It comes with XP Home, and, well, who the heck wants to run that? So, I blow away the heavily overloaded full featured system and wouldn’t you know it … While installing the new system, I am hit by an exploit … Once I had the machine semi-configured where I would use it, I notice that it’s trying to contact all these other machines on port 445 … So, even after installing firewalls and all the Windows Update stuff, it’s still doing it, and on boot, it’s trying to access port 445 on a local machine on the network here that it has no business trying to connect to … At times the machine would hang, etc … So, I go to Symantec, and lo and behold, there it is; W32.Korgo.L is a variant of W32.Korgo.I. This worm attempts to propagate by exploiting the Microsoft Windows LSASS Buffer Overrun Vulnerability (described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011) on TCP port 445. It also listens on TCP ports 113, 3067, and other random ports (256-8191). Found YESTERDAY! I read the removal instructions, etc … and to me that’s a hassle … What if I miss something? What if it doesn’t completely remove stuff and since I updated with the thing active, maybe other symptoms will come of it … No! I want a clean system fully patched and ready to go to hit the ‘net … So I pop in the install disk and begin again, although this time I unplugged the network cable … I’ll get a firewall going before I connect the cable … This has never happened to me before … getting pounced on before I got a chance t put all the protection in place … It sure is frustrating, or … disheartening that this goes on …