| < May 2005 | Matthew Loar > Blog | July 2005 > |
Roomie is in the room, watching TV, with the light off.
No problem, right? I can just go to the lounge to study. Except that the door to the lounge is locked.
Well, there's my refuge in the pressing room. But that's locked too.
So now I'm down in the main lounge, trying to study with a bunch of people watching the TV and talking.
UPDATE: OK, these two guys walked in and asked me to do a survey on sales
taxes. When I was done, everyone had left and I was able to turn off the TV.
So I'm all right now, but I'm still a little angry, and I think I might email
the RA and ask about this.
Winners of the Stuck on Prom contest from a couple years ago:
Guess what?
I got accepted for the Google Summer of Code!
That means that I write a module for Drupal, and Google gives me $4500. Cool, huh?
Anyway, I've been working with VHCS on my Linode, and it's going to take a lot of work to get ready for prime time. This is making me rethink moving all of the accounts over. However, if I don't use it to replace my reseller account, I need to find some lucrative purpose for it, since it is costing SamAMac money.
Well, I'm tired. I'd love to chat tomorrow if anybody feels like calling.
Stolen from Kaplan who stole it from someone else:
"If you build a man a fire, you keep him warm for a night. If you set a man on
fire, you keep him warm for the rest of his life."
Well, here's a quick update on what's been going on with me:
Last night, I ordered a Linode for SamAMac. I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to do with it, but it seemed like a good idea.
Then this morning, I got another customer for SamAMac. Strangely enough, it was a guy who I'd considered purchasing a domain reseller account from. Weird. Also weird that it came just a little bit after I'd done the first significant thing for SamAMac in a while.
I also found out about something called Mono. And no, it's not a disease you get from playing Spin the Bottle. It's actually a .NET Framework for Linux! This could be very cool, because as you already know, I've begun developing a spam-blocking MTA in C#. Now, it wouldn't be very widely used if all it ran on was Windows, now would it? But with Mono, it could potentially run on Linux, BSD, Solaris...you name it. I guess C# is platform-independent after all!
And I still am working on that SAFER program. The holdup right now isn't
actually SAFER, but System Policies. The format of a .pol file is extremely
irritating, but I have to use it if I want the changes my program makes to
show up in the Security Policy Editor. Bummer.
OK, so here's what happened:
I'm working on an application that uses the CredUI. To do so, I need to include WinCred.h. No problem, right? Except that WinCred.h didn't ship with VS.NET 2003. In order to get it, I need to download the Platform SDK.
So I do just that. I download and install the Platform SDK, then try to start Visual Studio.
Except VS doesn't start. Instead it gives an error: "MS Development Environment has not been installed for the current user. Please run setup." I search all over the net, looking for a solution.
I spend all day trying different things: uninstall the .NET Framework manually, uninstall, reinstall, slaughter a goat and soak the computer in its blood - nothing works.
I notice that it only gives this error for my user account. Not for any of the other user accounts that I have set up. So I move my profile to a different folder, creating a default profile for my user account. I figure removing any filesystem documents unique to me and changing out my registry hive would do it, right?
But it doesn't. Finally I give up and delete and recreate my account to get a different SID, and that worked.
But that's a whole day down the drain, and I never found out what the problem
was. If anyone happens to find out, do let me know!
He talks in his sleep. He also goes to bed pretty darn early.
Yay.
Well, let's see how my day went:
8:40 - wake up to make my 9 AM class
9:00 - get to CS 273. The instructor seems pretty cool, but it is boring and I'm already lost. I hate discrete mathematics. Scratch that - I hate ALL mathematics. Except stats. Maybe.
10:15 - come back to the dorm. Almost immediately, I get a ticket. Professor Emeritus. Computer won't boot. Yay. I call and set up the appointment with his wife. Exactly two hours later, I get a call from the OnSite dispatcher. Upon suggestion by my boss, she had called the prof and asked him if he left a disk in the drive again. Turns out he had. I wonder what the story there is.
4:30 - went to release a book in the Siebel Center. On the way out, I checked my ACM office access, and it worked! Yay!
5:00 - trip to Walgreens to buy Diet Coke. On sale for $2.50. Sweet!
And thus continues my horribly pathetic life.
In other news, I'm making good progress on my spyware-blocking application.
Well, I have a roommate. His name is David, he's an Electrical Engineering major, and he's a MacGyver fan. Best. Roommate. Ever. Well, almost. He's also a Cardinals fan, or at least a Cub-hater.
Anyway, I think I'm one step closer to getting this new spyware blocker off
the ground. Yay!
Well, last night I did end up going to Blockbuster (the one in Urbana). They had a 2-disc DVD set of the original BBC miniseries of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So far, I've watched one disc, which was 6 episodes. It ended where the second book ended. The special effects were horrible as I had been told.
Anyway, after picking up the movie, I went to Schnuck's (24-hour grocery store; funniest name ever). There I purchased Diet Coke, potato chips, granola bars, and a loaf of bread. Mmmm, college cuisine.
Tonight I broke down and ordered a pizza for the first time this summer. I
ordered from Pizza Hut, which until today I hadn't thought did delivery. I'm
hoping to contain my appetite and save some for dinner tomorrow. Anyway, I
figure I'll eat pizza and watch the second disc. I haven't accomplished much
so far today, why start now?
Rock on!
I got certificate rules for software restriction policies to work!
For the technically inclined:
[HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiers]
"AuthenticodeEnabled" = DWORD:0x000001
Anyway, I'm one step closer to making this into an application and getting rich. I've already tested the code signing with my SSL server certificate, but I'm thinking I'd just create my own CA if I really got into this.
Anyway, this morning I had to go to Beckman to test the wireless for the conference we're providing support for next week. It was kind of ridiculous. All I did was get on the wide-open network that they had set up. No authentication, no encryption, and SSID broadcast on (though they're going to turn that off).
Now I'm trying to figure out what to do tonight. I've already eaten every bit of food in the care package that I got yesterday, and I'm out of Diet Coke again. I'm thinking Blockbuster, but it's nearly a mile away, and it's been raining on and off.
Oh well.
Well, I haven't posted in a while. I might backpost some things over the next day or so.
Well, today I had the first job I've had all week. I had to go clean some viruses and spyware off some guy's machine. Basically, same old, same old.
Tomorrow I have to go test the wireless at Beckman. They're having a conference next week, and we're providing support. Originally it was scheduled for 10, but I got an email from Judy Lubben saying that it had been bumped up to 9:30, so I need to be at her office by 9:15. Yay. Anyway, about 6 PM tonight she called me to confirm the change in time. She kept apologizing for calling me "at home." I thought this was kind of funny. Does she think I have an office or something?
Got care package from Mom today. Yay, granola bars!
Spent tonight researching Windows Software Restriction Policies. I kept thinking that it was dumb that the only security levels were "Unrestricted" and "Disallowed." It turns out there's a registry hack to change that. I found it on a MS guy's blog, too. Microsoft is still evil and dumb, but the rank- and-file can be pretty cool. Anyway, in case anyone who has a clue what I'm talking about (Kyle) is reading, you can enable three additional levels like so:
[HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiers]
"Levels" = DWORD:0x31000
Anyway, I'm researching the SAFER APIs in preparation for writing a spyware blocking application. I'm also working on a Spam-blocking MTA.
Classes start Monday!
"Less than 20 passengers survived."
Less? LESS?!?! It's FEWER, stupid!
The Plan: National Treasure was due at noon at the Blockbuster on Neil Street. Take bus to boss's office, pick up laptop, return movie to Blockbuster by noon.
What Actually Happened: I got up late. I walked to Blockbuster and returned
National Treasure a couple minutes after noon. Then I proceded to my boss's
office. He was not there; his office was locked. Receptionist wasn't there
either. Figuring he was on lunch break, I went outside and waited for a while,
he didn't show. For some incredibly stupid reason, I decided to walk back
instead of taking the bus and e-mail my boss. Turns out he was never there.
Yay, sunburn!
| < May 2005 | Matthew Loar > Blog | July 2005 > |