The Start of The NEXT Era

What you see above is my new ride, a 2010 Honda Civic EX! Click the pic to check out the gallery. I didn’t know it until I saw it at the dealership, but that car is the true upgrade I’ve been looking for. When I was on the market for a new car, what I wanted was a model that impressed me not only with its exterior appeal, but also with its interior technology. The 2010 Civic’s  had the sporty shape I was looking for, and I especially liked the in-car technology on the EX models. This includes bluetooth for hands-free in-car calls, a USB interface for my iPod, and even a touch-screen / voice-controlled navigation / entertainment screen. On top of that I get XM free for 3 months. When I saw that car, the search had ended. Either the dealer offered it to me at a decent price, or I drive home in my Volvo. Suffice it to say, I was prepared for the latter, and I used the walkout as my tool to drive the lease price down to something I can afford. By the time I left, I was surprised that I actually had just leased a brand-new car for an amazing $280/mo. for 36 months.

The End of An Era

***UPDATED***

Apparently my car is not the only one leaving my family, as my younger brother’s car has been having some serious issues as of late.

The era of the car that came to be known as The White Blur will soon come to an end. In June of 2004, my dad bought me a 2001 Volvo S40 as a high school graduation gift, and ever since then, that car has been involved in many crazy adventures. In the past few years, my first car has been towed, got its headlight and tires busted, gone well over the speed limit, and even had a human body in the trunk, among plenty of other types of craziness. Read on to find out more about these crazy adventures!

Computer & Network Upgrades: Afterthoughts

It took some time, but I am now done with all the upgrades to my computers and home network. To start, I had to move the all the components from inside my desktop PC (motherboard and all) back into the Compaq case they came in. If you are wondering why I moved those components into my own PC case in the first place, in a nutshell, the Compaq case was too small. I had some extra components I wanted to add to the computer, but simply could not since the case is so small. I then installed some awesome new hardware into my now empty PC case. Once all the parts were in place, I installed Windows 7 and configured it on both machines and installed Windows Home Server onto my test machine. Read on to find out exactly how I did all this!

Computer & Network Upgrades

Being an IT savant, I enjoy enhancing and upgrading my computers and home network, which is exactly what I started doing this summer. My first upgrade was a Westinghouse 47 inch LCD HDTV which is being used as the monitor for my Media-PC, Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3. Yes, I do have them all. Not only is it a great screen to game on, but it is also great for watching online and locally stored videos. My next major upgrade was a Cisco Wireless N router, which not only gave our network a wider wifi radius, but it also enhanced our networks transfer rates significantly. That is what I have done so far. Continue reading to find out about my upcoming projects!

Guess Who’s Back, Back Again?

After what has been an amazing summer, I have finally returned to my world online. If you would like to find out what I was up to this past summer, I will posting those stories to the new Replay section. Click through to see what you can look forward to reading about!

Roll Your Own Firefox!

Do you use Firefox as your primary Internet browser? Would you like to get more out of it in order to make your Internet browsing easier and more productive? Then what you need are Firefox extensions! What are ‘extensions’ you say? Extensions are add-on for Firefox that can increase its functionality! If you are not using any plugins in your Firefox browser, you are missing out!

Click below to see what extensions I’m using and to find out where you can get your own!

Movie Review: Angels & Demons

There are a lot of great movies hitting theaters this summer and, before I saw it, Angels & Demons did not seem like it would be nearly as good as Star Trek and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I felt this way because it’s prequel, The Da Vinci Code, was a bit underwhelming, especially after all the hype it recieved before its release in 2006. I am actually happy to say that I was completely wrong in my preconceptions of what will possibly be this years most captivating film.

Click below to continue reading my review of Angels & Demons and to see its trailer!

Project: Major Server Upgrade

Well, it’s time for yet another upgrade to my home server. This time, however, my server is getting a major overhaul. Click the headline to see a list of everything I’ll being doing in order to complete this upgrade process:

OMG!!! Zeus Struck Me Down!

A couple days ago, when I tried to boot into Windows I was unable to since I was one of 100,000 victims of the Zeus botnet attack. At first, I found it strange that I was suddenly getting the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows 7 which, although a beta, had not given me any trouble since I installed it. However, I later read an article on ArsTechnica.com, entitled “Botnet Master Hits the Kill Switch, Takes Down 100,000 PCs,” where I learned that I was only one of many victims of a botnet attack. For those who do not know, a botnet attack is an attack that uses large groups of compromised computers  for malicious purposes. In the case of the Zeus botnet, it used a software kit, known as Zeus or Zbot, to extract personal and financial data from infected machines. Zeus’ most dangerous feature was the kos, or kill operating system, command that was built into the software and, when invoked, triggered the BSOD, making it difficult to boot into the operating system. In my case, I was fortunate that this attack happened when I was already planning on upgrading my operating system from the Windows 7 Beta to the Windows 7 Release Candidate. After the upgrade, any malware that Zeus left on my computer was gone. In order to stay protected from such a threat, make sure you have some type of anti-malware  ( anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc) software running on your computer and ensure that it is kept up-to-date.

For more info check out Ars Technica

I Graduated!

I can’t believe it, but I am now a university graduate! For those not in the know, I graduated from the University of Advancing Technology with a Bachelors of Science degree in Network Security.

Click this articles title to find out about my graduation ceremony, post-graduation celebrations, and to see my graduation pictures!