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2002-10-20 15:01:20
The recent hack on my comp had also brought an annoying little virus >_<
I managed to clean it using NAV, but I couldn't get rid of the bug it had made. Windows always try to access the removable drives before it goes into GUI. It loads up slower than usual.
Now, I actually had that kind of symptom years ago, and it was also caused by a similar virus. The only solution was to delete files in WINDOWS and the SYSTEM before reinstall everything again. Ugh! Having to reconfigure the PC back in 2 days was tiresome. I don't want to go through the hassle anymore. So, think I'll leave it at that, for now.
Another thing: Windows memory management sucks d33ck!! I'd migrate to Win2K + SP3 but the d4mn SBLive DE5.1 can't work on it!
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Since last week I went browsing at hotscripts to checkout some BBS for my future website (^_^ you'll find out someday.) Although I already have YaBB Splinter on my webhost, I thought it doesn't really suit to my preference & site design. So I went to look for the others.
Some of the boards which I have experienced:
Gamers.com - used to be my fav over ezboard. But it's not quite user-friendly, and not very customizable.
ezboard - uh, it's nasty. But I admit the their servers are very reliable, and better customizable than gamers.com
vB - My all time favourite BBS. Easy to use, clean interface, plenty of hacks and skins etc. I first know about it from TotalFF, I tried them at Bincang.net, YaXaY and Pergh.com. Way very cool. Too bad it's a pay-software. I once obtained an illegal version (just for testing) but later decided not to take risk.
YaBB Splinter - is feature pack & perhaps the fastest of all boards. Its interface is also original. Mods are easy to implement. But I found the topic display webpage looking quite ugly compared to the others. Also, there aren't that many good mods around.
YaBB Gold - Flat file and powered by Perl. It's slow and resource-hungry. Only good for non-db servers.
Ikonboard - I've only tested the old, Perl version. Similar performance to YaBB Gold. Cleaner, but a bit too simple and buggy. There's Ikonboard 3 now but I've yet to d/l it.
miniBB - Very... um, mini. Enough features, but the codes are unfriendly, making this one not easy to hack.
AhdBB - The most simple of all board. Flat file, no compression. Completely customizable. Only suitable for small sites.
phpBB - Well, I only have very few experience with this board. Only tried version 1.x. last year. The phpBB2 used by AMV.org looks pretty good & clean. I especially like the reply list under topic reply webpage, and the Profile view, but I had experienced bugs so I decided not to go with this now.
Invision Board IBF - What I am testing at the moment. Awesome default template, looking very organized, simple to understand admin CP, as fast as YaBB SE, ibresource, etc. The cons: complex template structure, cluttered-looking profile view, lack of multiple group feature.
Am waiting for IBF v1.1. If there's a multiple group hack and if I managed to combine the site backend with IBF then I might transfer to this one. -
2002-10-15 13:55:18
Oh, so the forums are down again?
By this time you should vent some new rules.
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4 days ago, my computer broke down. Some hacker (and a stupid one) got into my PC and messed up the hardware, causing my comp to reset and unable to boot into WinME. At first I thought this could be corrupted files in OS, but something strange happened when I tried to scandisk. It couldn't scandisk!! "Oh no, could it be a boot virus!? Damn!"
So I brought the HDs to my friend's and scanned em' there, but there was none. After that I tried to boot on his comp and it worked. From there I was a bit confused, thought it might have something to do with my hardware. I brought it back home and placed it back, fiddle around the BIOS settings, and later, found the source of all errors -- it was in my external cache. My comp booted up fine after I disabled it. What a relief!
What I learned:
VMM32 error could mean:
- the SDRAM
- a memory-resident virus
- corrupted files in OS
- int/ext cache (New!)
- anything else?
I should have installed a firewall... Or at least should've prepared a counter-attack.
I should update NAV regularly.
hax0r other ppls comp is r lame. Shame on you newbie hackers.
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"Friends and Foes in post 11 September era"
2002-10-05 12:58:18
In mid-June 2002, the AP international news agency carried an article by one Sally Buzbee of Washington entitled "Strain in US-Saudi relationship".
According to Buzbee, "The US-Saudi relationship may be headed for trouble because of growing differences over the Mid-East and continued strains because of the war on terrorism."
Human affairs are full of irony; so are politics and relations between nations and governments. US-Saudi relations go back long way to the beginning of oil exploration in the Middle East. The relationship between the two countries was strengthened year after year since then, until Saudi Arabia become a very close and important ally of the US.
Since the Gulf War in 1991 to get Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, in addition to the oil she provides to the US, Saudi Arabia has also been providing strategic sites for American military bases and facilities. However, since September 11, 2001, the US government and media have been waging some kind of critical campaign against Middle East. Why?
As Buzbee has pointed out in her article, "US lawmakers, as well as the public, continue to complain that Saudi Arabia isn't doing enough to rein in support for al-Qaeda, discourage suicide bombings by Palestinians or support US military operations in Afghanistan."
Ted Galen Carpenter, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, has been quoted as saying that US-Saudi relations are very tense at the moment. The Saudis, according to him, "want the Bush administration to put far more pressure on Israel than the administration has done at this point."
The May 6, 2002 issue of Newsweek carried a report that the Saudi government has launched a multi-million dollar ad blitz in the United States designed to portray the kingdom as a close partner with the US in the war of terror.
And an AFP report of July 4, 2002 says that Saudis and other Arabs have announced that a US$160 million English-language Arab satellite TV station would be launched from London in the near future to help clear misconceptions about Arabs and Muslims after the September 11 attacks.
The AFP report adds: "Saudi Arabia sees itself as the primary target of a concerted US media onslaught launched mainly because 15 of the 19 suspected hijackers who attacked Washington and New York are believed to be Saudi citizens.
"The fact that Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terror network and suspected mastermind of the attacks, is the action of a prominent Saudi family, although he had been stripped of his citizens, fuelled the Western media blitz against Saudis, Arabs and Muslims."
It seems unfortunate that US makes no distinction between a government and its dissidents, naively and lazily lumping the two together.
Regarding the Palestinians issue, the US should realize that it is not just the Saudi government but the whole Saudi population who are staunchly behind Palestinian people, as evidenced by the US$98 million donated by Saudi citizens in a three-day TV marathon recently, towards the Palestinian cause.
And it is not just the Saudis who are so passionate about the Palestinian issue; similar to TV appeals recently in Abu Dhabi Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar have also raised huge sums of money for the Palestinian cause. Why?
If after more than half a century of political interaction with the Arab world, the US still doesn't understand that the passionate intensity of the entire Arab world over the Palestinian issue has to do with a deeply perceived injustice, then the US understands very little about some very basic principled motivations which propel human feelings and actions.
The US doesn't seem to realize that she is perceived by the great majority in not only the Arab but the entire Muslim world as a biased and less-than-honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And that is a tragedy.
Instead of attempting some form of self-reflection and self-examination of its foreign policy, particularly with the regard to the Middle East, the US seems to continue with its arrogant way with her fixed attitudes; if you're not with us, you're against us; or, might is right.
Hence, the Saudis, who used to be considered by the Americans as moderate Muslim allies, are now increasingly looked upon by some US leaders and the media not only as Islamic fundamentalists but also as sheltering terrorists, or at least as not doing enough to counter terrorists.
Significantly, the brand of Islam that the Saudis adopted and used to preach and promote and was acceptable to the US before, is now looked upon by the US critically and derisively as a religion of hypocrisy and of terrorism.
There are reports that Saudi citizens in the United States are treated badly or at least with suspicion by the Americans.
What is perhaps galling to be Saudis is that their government has even been asked by the US to change their Islamic school curriculum to suit the American notion of what an Islamic education ought to be!
Under the present climate of suspicion and strained relations, the US seems to have forgotten among other things, that it was Saudi government which supported the Americans with billions of dollars in their campaign against the Soviet Union's military occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
What are possible reasons behind the current US campaign against their traditional ally? Perhaps, this campaign against the Saudis in particular and the Arabs in general is aimed at:
- Dividing and destablishing Saudi Arabia, and eroding the legitimacy of its government;
- Getting rid of established Arab leaders like Arafat and Saddam Hussein and others and establishing new regimes in the Arab world which will be more amenable to American dictation and American interests;
- Presenting Islam and Muslims in a generalized or even sweeping manner as being prone to terrorism or at least sympathetic to terrorism; and,
- Paving the way for Israel to dominate and control the Middle East not only militarily but also politically.
From another angle, it is interesting, surprising even, to note what seem to be positive signs of an improvement in relations between the US and Libya. It was recently reported in the international media that American and Libyan representatives had reached some understanding on issues of mutual interest in London, including the need for co-operation to combat terrorism.
How durable this warming of US-Libyan relations will be is still too early to judge, It can only be hoped that it will not develop into relationship which is as brittle and capricious as the one between the US and Saudi Arabia. Perhaps it will depend on whether the US prefers to see things through a pair of Israeli spectacles. -
"Hikaru No Go" IS R COOL!
2002-09-27 17:36:13
I never thought I could be so addicted to HNG. This is the third manga I can't keep off from reading all of it. Before that, DragonQuest & I"s.
I had a copy of complete set manga, got from my friend long ago, but never bothered to read it until today. The artwork isn't my kind taste, and I first thought the story about Go board aint going to keep me interested. But after going through 3 chapters I started to like it, and now I can't stop reading even it's now 5:30AM! Whaa...!!! @_@
Must... reach bed... sleep.. .. argh, can't let go of the books!!!
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If you haven't read HNG and you like manga, then you should get this! Just donn't buy a complete set straight or else you'll become like me @_@
=P
Ciao. -
Oh, the .org is back!
2002-09-25 01:56:31
I don't know what happened here before, I thought my username had been deleted or something. But when I visited the forums I was sure thought they must've let MySQL server off, for cleaning maybe. I'm glad it's working now.
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Finally, LC at AlienHelpDesk had came up with a solution for my problem using his ahd scripts. Now I can continue with my site project =)
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No AMV/VGMV progress at the moment. Since I'm using P166, I don't have the mood to make one. Am still detest my old comp. Maybe I should light it on fire and let it burn for hours to calm myself down.
JOURNAL: Eek-1 (Ikhwan )
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