AlanBarber.Org
Monday, November 29, 2004
Free Anti-Virus Software
For those of you too cheap to buy anti-virus software do everyone a favor and go download a free AV program. PLEASE! I don’t care how safe you think you are, PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE just use AV software.
Onto the point of this post. The fine folks at Grisoft have updated their free AV software AVG Anti-Virus. The free version has been updated and based upon the commercially available version AVG 7.0.
On a side note they’ll be ending support for all 6.0 versions of their software the end of the year. If you use either their commercial 6.0 or free AVG program you will have to move to the new versions in order to get new virus database and program updates next year. So you might as well get to it and update right now!
You can get your free version of AVG right here
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
on 11/29/2004 at 08:23 AM
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Tutorials and Guides for BSD
I found an interesting site full of Tutorials and Guides for BSD called conveniently BSD Guides.
There aren’t a ton of guides but they do cover common tasks that users will want help with. Things like an intro guide to vi, hardening FreeBSD, setting up a webserver and even general security tips.
If you’re new to using any BSD be it Free, Open, Net or Mac OS X it’s worth taking a few minutes to browse the collection and learn a few things at BSD Guides.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!
I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday. No burned down houses or injuries or anything else here!
This year was an interesting turkey day that’s for sure. First off my GF, who’s in New York City this fall, made a surprise visit home to her family. Two weeks earlier when I came to visit her we decided she should come home for the holiday. She hasn’t seen her family since August and we both knew it would be a good idea to come home.
So, with my help we got her a plane ticket home for that Monday morning before T-Day. She ended up telling her father she was coming home because he kept bugging her to come home and she was feeling bad lying to him but rest of the family was in the dark. Come Monday I drove up to the airport and picked her up. She hung out at my place for the afternoon. Dinner time came around and her father took the family out for dinner. Little did they know that we would be there waiting for them at the restaurant.
Suffice to say the family was surprised and quite happy to have her home.
On Thanksgiving I went to her family’s get-together. I drove across the state to the festivities that were at my GF’s uncle Al’s place.
There were several rather interesting coincidences that I noticed. First off we are both named Al. Next we are both into computers. He actually helped setup the original Computer Science curriculum at the same college I graduated from. He flies airplanes and I thought about getting my pilots license. I’ve just never had the money to go do it. Finally, ok this one is a bit of a stretch I admit but I used to go to Kent State University. At the turnpike exit you get off of there’s a road, route 43, you normally drive south about six miles to get to the city of Kent, Ohio. Well if you drive north about 10 miles you get to her uncle’s house.
The food was great. Ok, I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed with it. Not to say the food was bad. Not by any means at all! It was good but just not what I’m used to. It was just fancier. At my family’s Thanksgiving it’s all about simple comfort foods. Dressing, mashed potatoes and desserts out the wazoo!
It doesn’t really matter. The point of going to my GF’s dinner wasn’t about the food. It was about meeting her extended family and spending more time with her immediate family. It’s the way I show my intentions of where the relationship with my GF will go. For me I wanted to show that I believe that our relationship is serious. It’s not just some casual dating thing; we are a couple that loves each other and see a long future together.
I handled all the flight arrangements and transportation to get her home in order to make her and her family happy. I was willing to sacrifice spending the holiday with my family in order to be with them. These are things someone does for someone they love and hopefully they will start to see this is the case.
So, anyhoo I took her back to the airport Friday morning so she’s back in NYC again. I’m just spending the weekend relaxing and chilling out. Work start early Monday and I know we’re going to be pounded. UPS shut down Wednesday so there’s going to be a backlog of packages to move from the four day break.
I can’t wait! NOT!
Monday, November 22, 2004
ExpressionEngine 1.2 and Photo Gallery Now Available
quote:
ExpressionEngine Version 1.2 has officially been released. Version 1.2 comes with the ExpressionEngine Photo Gallery, enabling users to display their digital photos on the web.With its intuitive interface, users can upload, edit, and display photos organized into categories. As an ExpressionEngine Module, the Photo Gallery integrates seamlessly into the ExpressionEngine publishing system.
The ExpressionEngine Photo Gallery supports advanced features such as image watermarking, cropping, resizing, rotation, thumbnailing, user commenting, nested categories, batch importing, multiple galleries, and more. Photos
can even be emailed to the gallery!Version 1.2 also delivers several new core features and improvements. For a complete list please see the change log in the ExpressionEngine user guide.
Version 1.2 is a free update for existing ExpressionEngine users. It can be downloaded by visiting the download page at www.pmachine.com.
I’ve already downloaded 1.2 but it’ll probabbly be another week before I update this website. I’ll install the new version on my private test server to play around and check for any bugs/quirks plus just wait to see if they release an update between now and next weekend. If all looks good then I’ll switch over.
I’m really excited becuase I’d like to start using the built in Photo Gallery to manage all my picture archives. It’s an impressive list of features and something I’ve been waiting a while for.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Scarlet and Gray the winners of the day!
The greatest college football rivalry game in the world between The Ohio State University Buckeyes and The Michigan State Wolverines is over. In an amazing upset the Bucks managed to pull a 37 to 21 victory.
Considering that Michigan has been playing awesome this year and Ohio has been well, pretty crappy it’s impressive to say the least to see them win the game. Ohio has always had a mental problem when they play Michigan. They could be playing their greatest season ever and just kicking the pants off every team they play but soon as they go against Michigan they completely fall apart.
So congrats goes to the boys in Ohio. You did good guys but don’t let it go to your head! You still have plenty of games to play that are just as important.
O… H… I… O… GO BUCKS!
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Isn't red a pretty color?
I always find these maps interesting. Not so much the fact that it’s mostly red. It just illustrates the difference in lifestyles of Americans. Those blobs of blue on each coast represent probably 90% of the votes for Kerry. You quickly come to a realization that as much as liberals want to think that the country is bitterly divided, it’s really just the two densely populated coasts where liberal ideas are prominent. The rest of the country has very different ideas of what are important in our lives.
Anyhoo, I just wanted to share this cool map.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
It's a gamers weekend!
Hi, my names Alan and I have a problem.
An EB Games opened up 5 miles from my home. It’s now become even easier to get my gamer fix than ever before!
Today I spent nearly 100 bucks on games. I got four Nintendo Gamecube games. Zelda: The Windwaker, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II plus and Megaman: Network Transmission.
Allright it isn’t that bad of a problem. Considering the last game I bought was Simpsons Hit and Run back in like march I think. It’s not like I blow tons of cash all the time on games. I decided to treat myself. Now that I have a job I can afford a luxury every once in a while. These games should keep me happy and busy for a while.
Maybe I’ll do some reviews of the games later or something. For now I’m off to go play!