Feb 28
EricGeneral
I have been building computers for more than 20 years. I am also getting to the point where building computers doesn’t have the same thrill that it once did. I just want the darn thing to work. The computer has to have the features I want, which is why I still generally build my own. On December 31, 2009 I decided to buy a pre-built HP computer because it had all the features I wanted. It was a quad core AMD with 8 gigabytes for memory. I was in computer heaven. It was fast and all I had to do when I got it home was connect a couple of monitors and the network. Viola! Instant PC!
Now fast forward to January this year and the computer begins a series of BSOD. I haven’t installed any new software in a month or so. I pop the cover off and find a wire has fallen into the fan on the video card heat sink. I untangle the wire from the fan blade and try to spin the fan with my finger. The motor is burnt out and it stinks of burnt varnish. I pull the very hot video card from the motherboard. It’s not looking good. I plug my monitor into the on-board video card port. Now the computer gets to a certain point in the boot process and blue screens. I decide to use the restore discs to do a complete restore. I have all my important files backed up on Carbonite, source code in a subversion repository on a different server. After a couple of attempts at restoring the original image the computer will no longer power on. When I pulled the hot video card out of the motherboard I was hoping only the video card was bad. By now, I am certain the motherboard is toast too. More
Jun 22
Eric.Net, Development, General Asp.Net Mvc, Hawai'i
Well, vacation kind of got in the way. We spent three weeks in the beautiful islands of Hawai’i. There are several pictures after the jump if you are interested.
Part 16 will probably be a couple of weeks out before it’s complete. I am in the process of adding specs for the custom providers data repository. While I make sure the specs complete successfully I am writing the repository code using NHibernate. This is a new experience and I am running into a few issues. First and foremost the many-to-many records are not being written to the database. A check on StackOverflow among other places has not yet provided a solution.
More
May 12
EricGeneral iPhone
I originally thought it should be a top ten list, but after getting to number six I was just too discouraged to go on. Six items were enough. I’m afraid if I went to ten I may have ended up throwing it against the wall.
There is no doubt the iPhone is an amazing device. There is no denying the impact it’s had on the mobile phone market. It’s not perfect, not even close, to the ideal mobile phone. I will also concede that what is ideal for one user will not be ideal for another. It’s a really cool device, but it’s also like not having a Phillips screwdriver in your toolbox or missing the masking tool in Photoshop. More
Apr 28
EricGardening, General cherry, fruit, Gardening
I love cherries, especially Rainier cherries. Having recently been infected with the green thumb virus I thought I would try and grow my own. The trees were planted last spring and are already producing a few cherries. I wasn’t expecting any fruit until next year at the earliest. But, here they are, fruit bearing cherry trees in their second spring! More
Apr 02
EricErictopia, General
When the site got hacked I took several steps to limit access to various areas of the site. One of those actions was prevents comments from being posted. I have corrected that specific issue, so you should be able to leave comments now.
Mar 23
EricErictopia, General WordPress
Well, we’re back up and running. I can’t say that all the holes have been plugged, but they will be as they come to light.
The articles listed in the Reference section have provided a wealth of information on how to make WordPress more secure. You can bet that I have implemented most if not all of these suggestions, plus a few more not listed. While it’s not guaranteed the site 100% hack-proof, maybe we can get three 9s from these changes (i.e. 99.999%). We’ll see.
References
Mar 23
EricErictopia, General
It seems that some joker who goes by the name Pinky Hacker was able to hack my site over night. The hack appeared in the index.php file of the Tarski theme. How it got there, I’m not sure yet. I’ve shut down nearly all my plugins while I search for security holes.
Mar 16
EricErictopia, General
More adventures from real life. I hope to post informational items, plus the absurd, ridiculous, and funny stuff from the world around us. You can’t make this stuff up!
We hope you enjoyed your stay and will come back soon!
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