Jun
29
Man, ACPI sucked when it first came out.
skankin and I fought this renegade Gateway machine yesterday... it was a first generation P4 (<2GHz). It was working fine... until SP2 was installed.
Then, on bootup, it got the following error [paraphrased]:
c0000221 unknown hard error - NTDLL.DLL
This error is fully reproducable (format, install XP with SP1a, working fine, install SP2, boom || format, install XP with SP2 slipstreamed, boom) and is always the same. It's definitely hardware-related.
Tested the memory thoroughly, replaced the optical drive, even tried another power supply. I had the idea to flash the BIOS, since that's usually where the original SP2 problems came from [not SP2 itself, but shoddy BIOSes]. I'm skeptical because I know that SP2 brings out the bugs that already existed in hardware [and people usually just blame Windows for "sucking", when in reality it's the hardware that sucks].
We toiled away playing with hardware for a while, and skankin had to go to an appointment, so I started experimenting with it on my own. I decided to force a different hardware abstraction layer [HAL]. To force a different HAL, tap F5 while Windows setup is starting up [at the same point where you would normally press F6 to install a mass storage device driver, scsi, sata, etc]. I chose to force ACPI, to see if Windows was simply detecting it wrong [read: BIOS reporting it wrong]. No go. In fact, it was even worse. I got a STOP 0×8E instead of the hard error, and I got it much sooner than before. Ok, now I've proven that this BIOS' support for ACPI sucks. On to the meat of the experiment:
Standard PC. ACPI is usually tied to APM, and as such, will always present you with the "It's now safe to turn off your computer" message when you go to turn off the computer - which is pretty much the only setback I can think of when not using ACPI. As an added bonus, IRQ sharing is impossible while under 'Standard PC' HAL. Hooray! [IRQ sharing should be abolished. Actually, IRQs should be abolished. Go Mac!]
After installing the Standard PC HAL, the thing ran like a dream. Guess what? The BIOS on this motherboard sucks. Another one bites the dust...
Jun
28
Dial-a-fix
Filed Under Dial-a-fix, Software | Leave a Comment
Jun
28
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/nikki/ and mspaint art.
Very impressive.
Linux hippies can continue throwing around flowers and dancing all they want.
I like this guy's attitude ;)
Jun
27
Legomania
Filed Under General | 3 Comments
Good freaking god man, this is brilliance!
Lego mecha, weaponry/ordinance... brilliant!
Nick, this post's for you. GET CRACKIN'. See, people are very creative. Now you've gotta do something creative!
Jun
27
WEP sucks
Filed Under Technical | Leave a Comment
This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while (because it's hilarious): FakeAP
If one access point is good, 53,000 must be better.
Black Alchemy's Fake AP generates thousands of counterfeit 802.11b access points. Hide in plain sight amongst Fake AP's cacophony of beacon frames.
I love the word cacophony.
Anyway, I found Fake AP via this page on tomsnetworking.com, which describes how the feds [and of course, leet hax0rs] are able to bust 128-bit WEP keys in just minutes. That's funny too. I found *that* page via 62nds.com, the authors of Windizupdate [mentioned on the forums here, prior to my site's shift into a blog]. Their site is kind of weird, and contains basically useless, archaic information about old viruses, how to make Grolier's Encyclopedia 7.0 for Windows 3.1 work in Windows 95, and other drivel, but Windizupdate is definitely a gem on their site.
So we should all be using WPA now (not WPA-PSK).
Jun
26
Does this bug you, I'm not touching you
Filed Under General | 3 Comments
Everyone thinks I'm harsh an asshole on the CCleaner forums. Am I too harsh? Screw you. :P
Anyway, don't take things so seriously. I guess everyone finds me real irritating lately, but this has never been a problem before. Also, I wonder why this here [ins] tag is producing a +0:00 time difference when it should be -04:00, I think... I'll go check that out now. Edit: it's already set to -04:00, but the datetime param for the ins tag is stating UTC+00:00, which right now would be 7:28 (it's 3:28 in EST), so wtf.
The following [with emphasis added] was excerpted from Eric S. Raymond's How To Ask Questions The Smart Way:
Much of what looks like rudeness in hacker circles is not intended to give offence. Rather, it's the product of the direct, cut-through-the-bullshit communications style that is natural to people who are more concerned about solving problems than making others feel warm and fuzzy.
When you perceive rudeness, try to react calmly. If someone is really acting out, it is very likely that a senior person on the list or newsgroup or forum will call him or her on it. If that doesn't happen and you lose your temper, it is likely that the person you lose it at was behaving within the hacker community's norms and you will be considered at fault. This will hurt your chances of getting the information or help you want.
Jun
25
www is deprecated
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
Please use "DjLizard.net" when referring to this site [rather than "www.DjLizard.net"]. Thanks! :D
Jun
24
The trouble with MSXML3
Filed Under Technical | Leave a Comment
Go here.
Jun
24
cdtray
Filed Under Software | 11 Comments
cdtray is a small program I wrote for a friend. It's pretty crappy. You even get to see a console window for a moment while the drive opens. All it does is open and close whatever drive you tell it to. That's what he wanted, that's what I gave him. I'm sure I could have made it prettier. I didn't. It was a 5-minute program. :)
To Protocol: the link has been fixed. You can now find the cdtray program here. In the future, please leave comments on an existing post rather than writing a draft post ;) [I fixed the problem that allowed you to do that in the first place].
Syntax examples:
cdtray.exe open D:
cdtray.exe close E:
The [lame] source code! :
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program ejectcd;
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uses
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SysUtils, MMSystem;
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var
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str, str2: string;
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begin
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if (ParamCount < 2) then halt;
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str := lowercase(trim(ParamStr(1)));
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str2 := 'open cdaudio!' + uppercase(trim(ParamStr(2))) + ' alias thedrive';
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mciSendString(PAnsiChar(trim(str2)), nil, 0, 0);
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if (str = 'close') then mciSendString('set thedrive door closed wait', nil, 0, 0);
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if (str = 'open') then mciSendString('set thedrive door open wait', nil, 0, 0);
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end.
Jun
24
As you can see on the sidebar, I have posted an article I wrote [in all of 10 minutes] about all the information I've gathered regarding Windows Product IDs. It focuses a lot on Windows XP [and a little on Windows 2000] because those [and higher] are the only important operating systems anymore. Nobody needs to know anything about the Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Product IDs.
http://djlizard.net/tech/product-id/