In 1992, I started creating my own electronic music using a 'module' technology of the time that was quite popular on machines such as the Commodore Amiga, Macintosh, and Atari ST.

Today, my musical focus is very different and very non-electronic. Still, it's nice to have an application that will play my old, dusty electronic music module files when I feel like reminiscing.

Thanks to Sven Janssen we now have an excellent module player for Mac OS X.



CocoModX plays all the old module file types including many I've never heard of: MOD, IT, XM, S3M, MTM, 669, STM, ULT, FAR, MED, AMF, ASY, DSM, IMF, GDM, STX, OKT files and zipped MOD files named MDZ.

He also has an image viewer in the works, CocoViewX, that is definitely worth checking out.

This week, in addition to painting our kitchen, I also found time to do some "digital painting" to the family web gallery.



Many thanks to the blog thread going on at daltonlp.com and its excellent alpha-transparency .png wisdom!

Ernest: "Blog!"

Blog: "Yes, my master?"

Ernest: "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise!"

My Art | My Music | My New Tub

A few days ago, I was in the process of fixing yet another Windows XP box when I stumbled upon a simple method for locating and removing malicious applications hidden in the system's start-up list.

1. Download RegCleaner or other Registry-snooping application.

2. Find the 'Startup List' section. In here, you'll have a list of the applications that are run during your system startup.

Most of the items here are necessary for basic system operation and usually relate to legitimate software reminders and scanners like virus scan, Quicktime, bill reminders, etc. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case as malicious applications like viruses and spy-ware can hide here.

Fortunately, we can remove them!

In this particular situation, I found two items that appeared to be suspicious:

sdbot05b.exe & llass.exe

Still, I wasn't 100% sure about their purpose so I performed a Google search on each name. It was clear from the initial search summaries that these were indeed malicious pieces of software.

To remove them, I checked the boxes for each item in RegCleaner and clicked the 'Remove Selected' button. Voila!

Though this particular machine had Norton Anti-Virus and Lavasoft's Ad-aware installed, it still failed to detect these exploits.

Ultimately, computers, like our automobiles, require the proper preventive measures and maintenance to continue running well. This is true for any operating system but applies especially to Windows machines given their exposure and lack of built-in, well conceived security measures.

It's official, I have completed my kitchen countertop and sink replacement project with a budget of under $400 for materials! Overall, I'm exhausted but actually quite proud of the work, especially when I'm such a neophyte when it comes to home repair. Fortunately, Josie's very encouraging and if it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't have even considered doing this. ;-)

Yesterday was definitely a warm up for today. Today, I had to embark into two daunting areas... Plumbing and the use of electric saws. I don't know a single person who loves to do plumbing. Fortunately, those summers I spent working with my dad when I was a teenager are proving to be invaluable now! Overall, I don't mind plumbing so much as long as I have time to run back and forth to the local hardware store. Fortunately, I only had to run to Home Depot once today.

I try to avoid electrical saws as often as I possible. I just don't like 'em. I love my fingers as they are... attached! Generally, I'd gladly hand saw away for hours than to resort to using an electric saw. But today, I had no choice but to put my Dewalt jigsaw and drill (for boring) to use. Being forced into it made a difference and, fortunately, it all turned out for the better.

In the end, we have a much more comfortable kitchen and, when it comes to home repair, a far more confident and able Ernie.
























(Yikes! Now that this is done, we've really gotta paint!)

Today, I took a step into the physical world of hacking and completed 'Day One' of my kitchen countertop project.

Day one consisted of a laminate replacement for one of two pieces of countertop. I decided to begin with the smaller piece as a warm up.

Fortunately, the installers of the old laminate had the good sense to use screws to attach it to the cabinets. After removing the existing countertop, I cut my new piece to size with a fine-tooth laminate hand saw. After a bit of sanding to account for 50 years of wood and wall warping, I popped in the new countertop and screwed it into placed.

Michelle's Halloween ran literally for three days straight thanks to a few pre-Halloween festivities. First, she attended a Gymboree Halloween party, then a Stroller-Strides get-together and finally, several "trick or treat" visits to loved-ones on the 31st.

She had a blast and was quite the party "animal"!