Wow! It's been awhile. I'm at work. Yeah, I got a job as a network security analyst. Read about it at my Xanga site...the link should be on the left of this page.

I've done next to nothing but work....LOTS of work. I get paid well though.

What's new in my tech world besides my job? Not much.

I bought a DVD burner: Sony DRU500A. It supports DVD reading at 8x (I think), burning of DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. It also burns CD-Rs and CD-RWs. It has burnproof technology (supports CD-R/CD-RW only) and has an 8MB buffer. This drive does it all and does it well. I haven't run into any problems yet and burned my first archival DVD last night. The drive burns DVDs at 4X so it was a bit slow. This drive also can use almost all brands of media for DVD burning but Verbatim (cheap quality media anyways). I dunno if I'll do any movies yet.

I had to break my network before I left TX, just so I could bring my AMD box with me as a playtoy. I've got it and my notebook tapping into my brother-in-law's network. If and when I want to experiment with things relating to work, I'm going to probably get my own cable access, as I will have to ask my bro-in-law to open the firewall for http, ftp and anything else I want to play with.

One thing that's developed regarding my AMD box: only in XP, the mouse doesn't seem to like rapid movement. When it was networked in TX, I had that one mouse on a KVM using it on two boxes. It's a USB optical mouse (Belkin) and I'd used a USB-to-PS/2 adapter to plug it into the KVM. Well, I don't need the KVM anymore and plugged the USB mouse into the box's USB port...it works but goes crazy when I move the mouse rapidly, which means no fast and furious gaming like Q3, UT2003, or MOH for now. I just found out that I actually brought my USB-PS/2 adapter with me...I'll try using the adapter to see if that solves anything. I'm thinking I shouldn't have to do that and it probably won't work anyways. It may well be a registry entry conflict. The drivers are current. The mouse works fine and fast in Linux, so it's not a hardware issue, most likely.

Other than that, that's it for tech since I've been in VA. Well, I've started playing Medal of Honor. That's a NICE game. I'm playing Medal of Honor: Spearhead also. I play it on my bro-in-law's box. Speaking of which...

He bought a 17" flatscreen monitor last night. I saw how it looked an fell in love. I'd been meaning to get a monitor anyways and didn't want something bulky. Maybe next month as a self-birthday present. :o) One thing I noticed about flatscreens is that when they mean 17", THEY MEAN 17"!! Those screens look huge, even next to a 17" CRT monitor. The glass frames cover less glass than CRT monitors...provides more viewable glass to utilize for your entertainment or work. I know one thing...I'm gonna get one and SOON! After that, I'll need a desk...

My rig is sitting on the floor...it's kinda hard to game lying on your belly on the floor.

That's about it. I can't think of anything else I may want for my system. I've already got a DVD burner and will be getting that monitor soon. Maybe one of those new clamshell Zauruses, or a digital video camera. I'm thinking a cheap small box so I can set it up as a firewall (need to develop some ipchains/iptables skills). We'll see.

Well, I have to go...second shift person should arrive soon, then I can go eat.

Oh yeah, I can't believe I spent $140 in books at Barnes and Noble yesterday!! I bought a book on Linksys networking, Apache, and network intrusion detection...and my monthly LinuxFormat magazine (a $14 mag!). Each one is good reading, although I may take the Linksys book back...it contained mainly equipment configuration, although it did explain a good bit about adhoc/infrastructure modes and WEP for wireless and also a good sized security section. It also talked about XP network tools that I didn't even know existed! I think I'll keep that book, on second thought! :o)

I'm out!