Feelin' chipper...
Jul. 7th, 2007 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI have decided to stop work for the day, with just over 3500 words left for tomorrow. Comparatively speaking, that ought to be a walk in the park.
My French client offered me a job for delivery on Monday, which I declined unless the deadline could be made Tuesday. Son-of-a-gun if I didn't get an email today agreeing to a Tuesday deadline.
Somewhere along the lines, Natalie's old Dell (as opposed to her home-brew gaming machine) picked up some malware that nothing - not Ad-Aware, not Spybot - could successfully delete. So, I downloaded and used the BartPE package that, in conjunction with an XP install disk (or suitable install files on your hard drive) will create a rescue CD of impressive proportion. As far as I can tell, the troublesome malware is now gone.
What had gotten me started looking in the corners, so to speak, of the Dell was some very strange behavior having to do with networking. Specifically, the network connection was being made and broken at a regular interval (about every 20 seconds).
This behavior continued after the last of the malware was gone, so I logged in to the house router and noted that the addresses being assigned by the DHCP service were perfectly normal, with normal expiration times. On a hunch - Natalie hadn't deleted the software that had been installed to expedite connection to her old ISP - I went in and changed her network preferences from a dynamically assigned IP address to a static IP address.
The problem went away immediately.
My hypothesis was this: there is probably a piece of code in memory that periodically polls the machine's dynamically assigned IP address (if there is one), and if the address is not one of those assignable by her ISP, the connection is terminated. In any event, the cycling has stopped, which makes me happy as now, the machine can link to any other machine in the house and stream audio or video to the Dell, which is connected to Natalie's Sony Trinitron television.
* * * We went looking at cars for Natalie today (not that I'll be involved; I just went along for the ride). She's had her eye on a Toyota (I forget the model), which she was told she could lease at a cost of, nominally, $10K over 4 years, but after the numbers were run, the actual expenditure was $16.8K, which means the difference represents (effectively) an interest payment to Toyota, which provides the financing.
OTOH, if Natalie were to buy an $18K auto on a 5-year basis at 7% (which is what her credit union offered her), Excel tells me that would run her just about the same, on a monthly basis, as the lease (though overall, it would involve the expenditure of more money).
Meanwhile, for now I'm getting by with no car at all, which has its pluses, and its definite minuses.
* * * When Feht undertakes something, he does not employ half measures. So far, I've received three boxes full of VHS tapes, most of which, frankly, I'd like to watch. Unfortunately, I failed to take along the requisite cables from Pagosa, and it is likely they are currently stowed inside the container that Galina ordered to store our/my "stuff." Perhaps I can cobble something together after doing a more thorough survey of available wiring, I don't know.
Enough babbling... time to hit the sack.
Cheers...
My French client offered me a job for delivery on Monday, which I declined unless the deadline could be made Tuesday. Son-of-a-gun if I didn't get an email today agreeing to a Tuesday deadline.
Somewhere along the lines, Natalie's old Dell (as opposed to her home-brew gaming machine) picked up some malware that nothing - not Ad-Aware, not Spybot - could successfully delete. So, I downloaded and used the BartPE package that, in conjunction with an XP install disk (or suitable install files on your hard drive) will create a rescue CD of impressive proportion. As far as I can tell, the troublesome malware is now gone.
What had gotten me started looking in the corners, so to speak, of the Dell was some very strange behavior having to do with networking. Specifically, the network connection was being made and broken at a regular interval (about every 20 seconds).
This behavior continued after the last of the malware was gone, so I logged in to the house router and noted that the addresses being assigned by the DHCP service were perfectly normal, with normal expiration times. On a hunch - Natalie hadn't deleted the software that had been installed to expedite connection to her old ISP - I went in and changed her network preferences from a dynamically assigned IP address to a static IP address.
The problem went away immediately.
My hypothesis was this: there is probably a piece of code in memory that periodically polls the machine's dynamically assigned IP address (if there is one), and if the address is not one of those assignable by her ISP, the connection is terminated. In any event, the cycling has stopped, which makes me happy as now, the machine can link to any other machine in the house and stream audio or video to the Dell, which is connected to Natalie's Sony Trinitron television.
OTOH, if Natalie were to buy an $18K auto on a 5-year basis at 7% (which is what her credit union offered her), Excel tells me that would run her just about the same, on a monthly basis, as the lease (though overall, it would involve the expenditure of more money).
Meanwhile, for now I'm getting by with no car at all, which has its pluses, and its definite minuses.
Enough babbling... time to hit the sack.
Cheers...
