Wow, there are just a lot of lazy/stupid people out there. I don't know how, in this day and time, you can go to college without knowing computer basics:

1) Install updates to Windows and any other programs.
2) Run a firewall. You're connected 24/7 to the 'net. Protect yourself.
3) Run anti-virus software. Come on people...how hard is this?
4) Be smart - don't open attachments you're unsure of. Don't download programs from unknown websites. Just use common sense.

Maybe, just maybe, in four years the students entering college will be a bit more schooled in common sense and computer usage. If not, then we'll continue to have virus problems, continue to see hackers easily take control of thousands of computers, and maybe, see every university require mandatory software that monitors your internet usage to prevent computers from being hacked/infected/backdoored.

URL: Universities Rush to Protect Networks (TechNews.com)

Just one last thing before going to bed...

Are you ready for some football?

URL: NFL.com

What a long, frustrating, odd day. It all started this morning as I woke up early to see if the file transfer had gone through from my computer to my dedicated server (all 1,140 megabytes). It hadn't yet (I actually got up before my alarm thanks to the road contruction outside - new slurry seal on the street), so I waited half an hour. After it had gone through, I used SSH to import the database and everything worked like a charm. Needless to say, I was quite happy - though the forum was moving slower than I had hoped (see post immediately below). I figured it was just the new users coming to the site, logging in again, downloading the new skin, slowing it down and it would speed up later. Well, two server crashes later, I gave up. I shut down the boards on the dedicated server and redirected people back to my old, shared server.

That pretty much ruined my day, so I left my computer as I was about to throw something through a window. I came back and weighed my options and decided a server upgrade will probably work, but I just don't have the cash right now for it. So I've got the boards open on the old server - for now. Thanks to gertiebeth from Alias-Media, I have tweaked some settings on my server and will be installing an accelerator to speed up delivery of PHP pages and hopefully an upgrade won't be necessary. After that was all said and done, I watched some more baseball (it had been on in the background earlier) and did nothing for the rest of the afternoon. I had planned on watching K-19 around 9:30 with a friend, but then I got an IM from another friend asking if I wanted to participate in a Scarcity League draft.

Of course, I did, as I was only in one other fantasy football league, so I got out my sheets from my first draft and turned on the monitor to the second computer (so I could draft for Greg as well) and got ready to draft. The only problem was, we didn't have enough people. After waiting about an hour for 12 people to join the league, we drafted - all 22 rounds and 12 players (12*22=264 picks) worth. It went well, but I wasn't used to the league setup (2 QB, 3 RB, 4 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF) and I got stuck with a couple of crappy quarterbacks, though my running backs and wide receivers are quite strong. It should be interesting to see how things turn out with my crappy QB's, but I'm projecting myself to win in week 1.

So my day started good - the database transfer finally went through without a hitch. Turned ugly - the dedicated server couldn't handle my discussion boards. Degenerated into oddness - the football draft didn't go as planned and I got stuck with Jay Fiedler & Quincy Carter as my QB's. Then finished just fine - got to watch K-19 as planned and now I'm hitting the sack.

URL: SD-1.com: Alias Discussion (Powered by Invision Power Board)

Well, it only took a couple days and way too much frustration, but the boards are up and running. They're moving a bit slower than I had hoped for, but I might add 512 megs of RAM to it and hopefully that'll help. Stop on by, register, post, have fun.

URL: SD-1.com: Alias Discussion (Powered by Invision Power Board)

It'd be interesting to see what Cruz Bustamante's stance was on Proposition 34. The proposition limited financial donations to a campaign to $21,100 and has gone into law, however, the Viejas tribe of Indians here in Southern California has donated over $2.1million now and it's quite alarming. How could $1.62 million be donated without violating the law? Well, apparently, if you created a committee before the proposition went into effect, that committee is exempt from the new law. So Cruz Bustamante's organization, a 2002 reelection committe received $1.5 million and Cruz' 2003 election campaign received $21,100. An additional $500,000 was donated to another group that is not affiliated with Cruz, but advocates his election. There was an interview with Cruz on the news tonight and he said that everyone has multiple committees and it's all within the law. To me, this seems like a blatant rejection of the voter's word. Here he is opposing the recall, a recall called for by the voters, ignoring a proposition, a proposition passed by the voters, and expecting the voters to vote for him.

URL: NBCSandiego.com - Politics - Viejas Indians Pledge Millions To Bustamante Campaign

Not sure if this is just pathetic or hilarious. It's a little flash movie that pits Arnold and his Hummer vs. Arianna and her hybrid. Apparently, because Arnold drives a Hummer, he can't be governor because he'll a) eliminate all nature preserves (he's shown driving through one killing animals), b) collude with gas stations to raise prices, and c) help George W. Bush to apparently take over the Arabian Peninsula for their oil. It's actually quite lame as the video repeats the same thing over and over again and really has nothing to do with an election, but apparently, because Arnold drives a Hummer, he's against anything environmentally sound and because Arianna drives a hybrid, she's the perfect fit for the government.

URL: Hybrid vs. Hummer --The Movie

Mmm...time for sushi...

URL: TustinToday.com - Restaurants

I've determined that there's really nothing more frustrating than trying to backup and import a large MySQL database. Trying to move it from one server to another is just, quite simply, a pain in the ass, and then, when there's just one little error in the database, the whole import will fail. So, after transferring 1,138 megabytes last night from my computer to my new server (which includes blakex.com), I wake up this morning ready to import the database, and have the sd-1.com boards on a nice, new server. Unfortunately, one little character was out of place or one little character didn't get transferred, so the whole 1,138 megs are pointless and I have to repeat the process tonight...what fun.

URL: MySQL Manual | 4.8.6 mysqldump, Dumping Table Structure and Data

Hey! It's finally September. Why didn't I think of registering this URL way back when? Oh well, only 13 days until my birthday, 18 days until the San Diego Beer Festival and 23 days until school starts. Goes from great to good to crap in just about 10 days.

URL: ::::::: september productions launcher :::::::

Not much to report today - I got up waaaay too early to go say goodbye before Scott flew back to Florida as his parents hosted a breakfast. I was pretty surprised there were so many people there (mostly his family), but I guess they planned this a while ago, not knowing that in just 10 days, he'd be back in SoCal for a 10 day leave. After that, he'll be transferred to Central California until December and then he'll get his final orders (he's hoping for Miramar). But since I am not used to waking up at 7:30am, I couldn't get to sleep until 2am last night, so I'm really tired right now, but I can't go to bed until I get the database from the discussion board downloaded.

After the database is downloaded, I'm going to start the upload to a brand new server (see link). I'll sleep quickly while it transfers and then import the data and then the boards should be open again at my new server, with a new skin, and a new look for the whole SD-Network coming soon. Oh yeah, I got another domain name today - sd-net.net. I'm going to use it as an ad server for the SD-Network. I was quite surprised by how many other SD-Network type URLs were taken.

URL: (OFFLINE) Board Offline

How insanely hypocritical is this? Sharman Networks, owner of Kazaa, has forced Google.com to take down URLs that were included when someone searched for "kazaa lite." Apparently, said URLs featured downloads for Kazaa lite, a spy-ware free version of Kazaa that features faster downloading, none of the ads, and none of the spyware. Now that Sharman has gone completely commercial with Kazaa Plus (or whatever they call the paid version), apparently, they can't let people distribute Kazaa lite, even though, everyone who runs Kazza lite shares files over the whole Kazaa network, thus giving Kazaa Plus greater value.

That point aside, I find it absolutely hilarious that they forced Google to take down links to these sites because, apparently, they're stealing code from Kazaa and redistributing it in another (free) way. Hmm...kind of sounds like exactly what everyone is doing on Kazaa which has led to its success. People ripping MP3s from CDs and then distributing them freely. How ironic that Kazaa thinks they're being threatend by people stealing from them, when all they do is facilitate theft from the music companies. And please, don't leave a comment telling me that there are legal uses of Kazaa. I know that there are most likely legal files being shared and there are most likely people using Kazaa for the download of only legal files (as Kazaa claims). But I can guarantee you that 97% of all people on Kazaa are either a) sharing illegal files or b) downloading illegal files.

URL: Kazaa Owner Complains of Copyright Infringement -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

This is just a great breakdown of the Dvorak keyboard. Many times I've thought about switching to Dvorak - I know it's better on the hands, has a much more logical layout, and enables faster typing. But the problems are easily laid out as well. I love my Microsoft Natural Keyboard - I can't find a date on it, but I've had it for a good seven years now - I really could use a new one as this one is quite nasty and in need of cleaning, but the new Microsoft Natural Keyboards have a strange arrow key layout I don't like. Enough about my keyboard - back to Dvorak. I've never switched because I love my keyboard and I'm quite good at touch-typing with QWERTY (anywhere from 70-90 wpm). If I switched, it would take some learning and I'd probably revert back to QWERTY every so often, forgetting I'm on Dvorak. If only I had learned Dvorak as a kid growing up with my first couple computers, I'd be set today. Yet another reason to dislike Apple (I learned most of my computing skills on an Apple ][c at grade school and an Apple ][gs at home). From there I graduated to an IBM 386-25mhz and from there to a Pentium I-100mhz and then my Pentium II-350mhz (still running in my mom's room) and then to the computer I'm on now, though I've upgraded the crap out of it and there isn't one piece of hardware (other than the case) that is from the original computer - the original parts are scattered throughout my other machines. Perhaps I'll document my computing history in another entry.

URL: kuro5hin.org || An Argument for Dvorak

Wow, yesterday was the first day without a post - my reasons? Woke up, went to lunch with visiting friend from Florida, went to work at NTN and called the Colorado/Colorado St. game, went to the Irvine Spectrum for some games at Dave & Busters and then a beer and appetizer at the Yardhouse. Time left to blog? None. But to the link, Colorado at Colorado State - probably the best college football game of the day. Each team had over 500 yards, each quarterback with 3 or more passing TDs, each team with 35 or more points, an infuriating 30 minute lightning delay, and a great ending, almost sending the game to overtime. It was a fun day, and here I am, after midnight, thus the next day writing my first post for the last day of August.

URL: ESPN.com - NCF - Recap - Colorado at Colorado State - 08/30/2003