Today, Laura got a new fish.

Laura: I got a new work fish.
Laura: It’s a beta.
Me: A beta?
Me: Why would you want a pre-release fish?
Me: What does it do, eat 50% more food and sometimes swim upside down?
Laura: *pee*

Sometime Sunday, Laura’s MoveableType barfed. Any MT action, such as posting or editing posts, yielded the following error message:

Statement has no result columns to bind (perhaps you need to successfully call execute first) at /usr/hosted/abracapocus.org/cgi-bin/mt/lib/MT/ObjectDriver/DBI/mysql.pm line 224.

After some investigation, it appeared that the problem was with the actual MySQL database, rather than the MT backend.

The solution was to use the myisamchk utility, from the command line, to repair the tables:

cd to the directory where the database lives.
myisamchk -q -r *.MYI

This repaired the corrupted database. However, it also seems to have deleted all of the comments on the site. This is why you should always make a good backup.

If you’re a tech, you’ve probably run into Windows NT, 2K, or XP machines that have had unknown Administrator passwords, especially in the case of job turnover. This situation can be extremely frustrating, and can waste a lot of your time trying to fix.

Check out pnordahl’s Offline NT Password Recovery Disk. It’s a free Linux-based boot image that can be written to either floppy or CD, and allows a tech to change passwords for any account on a Windows NT-based machine, as well as perform registry editing.

I consider this to be an indispensible tool of the trade.

Check out the StClaire.com Safety Sign Builder for great time-wasting fun!

After several weeks of study [many more than it should've taken], I took the CompTIA Security+ Exam, and aced it with a score of 820/900.

I spent about three weeks longer to prepare for the exam than was really necessary, because I made the terrible mistake of purchasing the Wiley Security+ Prep Guide. This book is crap. It appears that the authors wrote an “Intro to Security” handbook, realized they couldn’t sell it, and slapped a “Security+ Prep Guide” moniker upon the cover. The book is very poorly organized, with large chunks of the material spread throughout the book and referenced by “See Chapter X”. It does cover about half of the information required for the exam, but that information only takes up a tenth of the book. The rest is filled with useless trivia that is only obliquely referenced in the exam.

After three weeks of battling the Wiley book, I finally caught on to my mistake, and picked up the Exam Cram2 Security+ guide. I highly recommend this book, if you intend to take the Security+ exam. It’s very dense and assumes you understand the concepts covered. After going through the book, I took the chapter-end quizzes several times, and then drilled on the practice tests and the included CD. After taking the exam, I’d say this book covers about 90% of the material — there were two questions that I’d not seen covered in any test prep material, anywhere.

Next up, either Checkpoint CCSE, or Cisco CCNP. Any opinions?

Last night, geeks congregated at my place to eat meat.

Laura made the world’s best salsa. Finally, after much coercing, Daniel, Dori, Chris, James, and Robert showed up.

The result was to be expected: James repeatedly shot himself in the toe, Robert tried to play with James’ gun, and there was a general argument over whether IPX/SPX sucks more than TCP/IP.

The only casualty was an unfortunate [and very ugly] insect.