mutantmonkey.info

Recently I ordered a new motherboard, CPU, video card, RAM, 2 hard drives, and a new fan for my main computer. It’s over 5 years old and it really needed a new CPU. The last of my order arrived on Thursday. Unfortunately, when I put it together, the PC would not POST; there were no beep codes to indicate a problem, either. I checked Google for my problem, and it appears that this is usually caused by a bad motherboard, and that appears to be the case.

So, my motherboard is going back to NewEgg for replacement. Hopefully the new one will work; if not, either GIGABYTE makes a lot of bad boards or I’m doing something wrong.

I apologize for the spam and the blog going down, but I’m sure no one reads this anymore anyway. Hopefully I’ll start posting on this thing more often, but that’s unlikely seeing as how I often end up abandoning my blogs.

Yay, it’s up! I’ll be keeping most of the packages up to date (at least more up-to-date than the official ones), as I use most of these apps regularly. Enjoy!

Check it out!

The power supply that came with my case (an Antec SmartPower 350) died on Saturday, October 7th, approximately 7 months, 18 days. At first I thought it was my motherboard, but apparently someone had the exact same problem. The only similarity between our two cases: the PSU. I tried all the suggestions in that topic, but to no avail. Testing the PSU worked - the fans would power up, but as soon as I removed the paper clip, the power supply shut off. Unfortunately, I have no idea where the warranty information is, so I can’t use it. >_<

Today I just received an ULTRA V-Series 500W power supply from Circuit City. It’s a great deal - only $10 after rebates (which are a pain in the ass, but still). This power supply was dead on arrival - testing it did not work and I checked my connections several times. Aside from testing not working, it was the exact same problem - the green standby light on the motherboard was on. This time, I do have the invoice and I intend to RMA it - I hope the next one works.

In the meantime, I’ve been using the power supply that came with my original PC - some generic brand and only 270 watts. It doesn’t fit in my case properly, but it works - it has been since I got this PC back in 2001. Why is it that a cheap generic PSU will last longer than “quality” ones you can buy yourself?

I’ve been working a lot on Enteon recently. I’ve been moving a lot over to use “AJAX” (even though I hate that term, but typing out XMLHttpRequest takes too long). I am trying my best to maintain compatibility with non-Javascript enabled browsers, however I don’t think many people are going to try to use Enteon with Javascript disabled.
Here’s a screenshot of what I have so far for the map editor:

A little while ago, David informed me that someone was trying to inject SQL using IceBB’s search function and it was triggering MySQL errors. Luckily, I had code in mysql.db.php that would e-mail the board administrator after 10 MySQL errors to let them know that something might be wrong. I took a look at the error log and discovered that there was a security hole in search_func.php. I had forgotten to run intval() on a variable which made the script vulnerable. I immediately checked the Apache logs and blocked the IP and patched it. Luckily we discovered this before it was too late.

If you’re running any version of IceBB, please patch your board immediately or this might happen to you. I’m sorry I didn’t discover this earlier.

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a rant, so I might as well do one now.

What exactly is “Web 2.0?” What was “Web 1.0?” What is classified as Web 2.0? The whole idea of Web 2.0 is ridiculous. It seems like any site that uses “AJAX” and has rounded corners is “Web 2.0.” For example, take AjaxWhois.com. It’d ridiculous to waste money on a domain name and hosting for something like that. Yet people still use it. Remember DHTML? Well, Web 2.0 is just a reincarnation of it.

I frankly don’t care what is classified as Web 2.0. However, it is extremely annoying to see at least one “Web 2.0″ article whenever I’m on digg. I don’t care! I don’t care if digg is classified as Web 2.0, I don’t want to see useless sites like AjaxWhois (I’m not picking on them specifically, there are plenty of worse sites) on digg.

The Web 2.0 bubble is eventually going to burst, just like the dot com bubble did. Only the useful will survive. I can’t wait.

Well, like David, I too have been working on IceBB. I’ve mainly been focusing on the Admin Control Center, as it’s being redesigned and recoded for IceBB 0.9.2. I really like what I’ve come up with for the temporary skin, but maybe that’s just because it’s based on David’s excellent skin work. Here’s a quick preview:

I’ll try to keep you updated, but as you can tell, I don’t blog often.

Seeing as how I haven’t blogged for a few months, and I just got back from Cancun two weeks ago today, I might as well blog about my trip.

This one was pretty uneventful, everything went smoothly, unlike last time. We stayed at the Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico. We had stayed here the first year, but tried other resorts further south. None of them were as good as the Moon Palace. (And no, I’m not getting paid to say this.) The people their are really nice, pool is great, the food is great, and the beach is good. The only issue with this resort is that, due the currents, seaweed ends up on the beach. This is unfortunate, because besides that, the Moon Palace is perfect.

Also, I must say, American Airlines is the best airline I have ever flown. It was a welcome relief from US Airways. Personally, I prefer Airbus planes, but I’d rather take a better airline than a better airplane. The seats on their 737s are also very comfortable. They have an adjustable headrest! However, we were stuck on the tarmac at Miami International Airport for around 20 minutes because we had to wait for a plane to come out of the “alleyway behind the terminal.” Also, on the way out, they boarded the plane 20 minutes early and they said we would be leaving early, but we ended up leaving on time. This isn’t exactly their fault, the ground crew at Miami just seems to be slow or something.

In conclusion, if you are ever going to Cancun, go the the Moon Palace and fly American Airlines. You won’t be disappointed. (Wow, this really sounds like an ad.)

I haven’t posted in a while (almost two months now), so I might as well announce something I’ve been working on: Sollievo, a simple content management system. I’ve gotten tired of some of the bloated CMSes out there today. Not everyone needs a built in forum, user system, etc. So, I decided to start on my own CMS. It’s still in an early alpha, but I have some of it working. Take a look.