Category: Life

Three days ago, I wrote a new filter for Thunderbird (my email program). It’s job was supposed to delete this annoying Spam variant.

Unfortunately, on my first live test, it managed to wipe out every single incomming email. Among the deleted was one from a friend; but it could of included yours too.

I know 6 emails were deleted. I cannot retrieve them. If you sent me an email recently, and I haven’t replied, please send it again. My apologies for the mess.

The filter was supposed to delete any mail with “http://uk.geocities.com/”. Why, you may ask? Because in one day, I received 26 (!!) messages of spam linking to subdirectories of that domain. That’s in addition to all the other spam from previous days.

Why the filter also wiped out legit mail is unknown.

Students – you can go grab the photos from the first lab from the Gallery here!

If you need any assistance, please feel free to contact me by the methods outlined in the “About Me” section.

Update: Get the Lab Two photos here!

We’ve all heard about how Windows Vista will be shipped in countless flavours; presumably as a means by Microsoft to covertly suck more money out of the consumers. Well I wondered: what if Vista was a car?

Windows Vista Editions:
Starter Edition: A car powered by a lawnmower engine.

Home Basic Edition: A car with a decent engine. No steering wheel.

Home Premium Edition: Decent car. Steering wheel. Sound system. No airbags.

Pro Edition: Good car. Airbags. No sound system.

Ultimate Pro Gazookle Super Edition: Car comes with airbags AND sound system! Mind you, that extra difference costs you your new house.

I work on a ship on the Ottawa River. I am a deckhand/tourguide/cleaner/etc.

Well, earlier this summer, a construction truck fell off parliament hill. A cliff maybe 100 feet high – right by our dock. It smashed the upper railing of our dock. The driver was killed.

Today, we found a dead body on the Ottawa River. Nothing much to say really. We stopped the tour to remain at the site, which is a legal requirement of ours. Emergency services showed up within 10 minutes, but it took a further 10 minutes before they managed to get the boat they carried into the water.

I usually leave my PC on at night.

However, one day last week I woke up to find that the computer had been turned off. I came closer to the machine and noticed that the LED was still on, despite all internal fans being off. This was a very, very, bad sign.

I turned the computer PSU off and on again. The computer lit up, all was going fine. For all of 1.5 seconds. Next thing I know the thing powers off and a very suspicious odor eminates from the case. Not good.

Needless to say, the PSU blew. Through testing though, I found out that all other parts were okay. *sigh of relief*. Last Friday, I went out and got a new PSU (Antec SmartPower 500W). I figured that this was a ventilation issue, due to me cramming so much equipment in the last case. So I got a bigger case as well. Small problem: now my IDE cables were too short.

As I was working the weekend, I had to wait until Monday to buy the new cables. Installed it all, and it now works well.