A 128MB SDRAM chip just fucked me out of a day's work

I just spent nearly a whole day installing Kubuntu on my second machine. After finally getting the base system to install, I managed to get a halfway working system by installing the rest from the internet (I thought it was a problem with the CD-ROM). Several segfaults and lockups later, I found out the dpkg database was corrupted, so I could no longer install any more packages. I finally said "fuck it", wiped the hard drive, and started up the installation again. After about 5 or 6 times trying to install the base package, I started getting kernel panics. That's when it struck me that it might be bad memory. So, I started Memtest86 from the Kubuntu disk, and it found several locations that were dropping bits. I took the chip out, and Kubuntu installed without a hitch.

So, my lesson for the day is that no matter how stable and robust the OS is, on flaky hardware it's about as stable as Windows 95 is on good hardware.

BTW, if you haven't tried Kubuntu, I highly recommend it. There is a live CD available if you want to try it out before you install it.

New page URL

I just registered jspenguin.org, so my blog URL is now http://blog.jspenguin.org/. The old URL will redirect to the new URL for as long as cjb.net is around (which should be awhile).

Power outage

The power went out at home while I was gone. I don't know when, but my machine was off when I got home. To top it all off, when I started it back up, my IP address had changed. Ever since I have had Cox, the only time my address changed was when I changed NICs. What happened this time? I didn't even get a 68.103 address -- it's in a completely different block. Oh well, it will be changing again when my DSL modem arrives from SBC. Hopefully, they'll be a lot better.

Yin-Yang Cats

This is too cute: Yin-Yang Cats. Those are my cats, but I didn't see the Yin-Yang right away.

I posted this picture in a Totalfark thread, and somebody else posted it on this forum. How did I find out? Web server logs. Gotta love 'em. Just be warned that I can change these images at any time to anything I want. If I didn't think this was so cute, I would have changed it to this image if I was feeling nice, and another image otherwise (I won't post it here).

Idiot bus driver leaves child on bus

From today's Eagle: Bus driver quits after leaving sleeping child

When I was in elementary school, I knew a girl that got left on a bus all night. This has got to be scary as hell for a kid. I'm just glad this kid was OK.

Ok, I'm pissed. Already.

I was setting up my profile, and apparently, Blogspot does not think the URL http://jspenguin.cjb.net:8080/imgs/me-small.jpg exists. It didn't even check! There are no hits in my log for that url. I had to get my picture hosted somewhere else. But, if for some reason the free image host dumps my picture, it will always be available at that URL.

Hello World!

Hello, world! I created this blog because I got tired of updating my page by hand every time I wanted to say something. So, if you want to learn more about me, visit the about page on my site. You can also read my rants page to see some of the stuff I don't like. The front page doesn't have much content right now.