Josh-Kerr.com

I bought a new PS2 over the weekend and happy times are here again. With the new PS2 I received the network adapter and an AV Off Roading game for free. Not to shabby for $150. Since then, I’ve been busy playing Metal Gear Solid 2 and watching the DVDs I couldn’t on my old PS2. Now the only thing to decide is what to do with it. Some have told me to just throw it away. But there has to be some use for it. It plays 45% of my movies and games, and about 90% of my PS1 games…. Only time will tell.

Recently my boss asked if I would install Microsoft IIS on one of my machines. I was perplexed to say the least as to why he would ask me to do such a thing. It turns out that I might start doing web development on M$ IIS. We’ll right after I installed it I had this deep feeling of guilt, like I had sold out. I’ve used Apache for some time now and its nice. Bloated with options but nice. What have I done, I’ve installed IIS, probably the most insecure web server known to man. Script kiddies rejoice, you know have a new target!

Slashdot | Corporate Servers Spreading IE Virus

“…the flaws affect every user of Internet Explorer, because Microsoft has not yet released a patch. Moreover, the infectious Web sites are not just those of minor companies inhabiting the backwaters of the Web, but major companies, including some banks…”

Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside doesn’t it?

When the PS2 first came out at $300 I told myself that I would only buy one if I was in the right place at the right time. I wasn’t going to be like some of the freaks out there that called every store everyday just to here the same thing, “They will arrive in x days.” So one night after work I went to the local ‘Wally World’, that’s Walmart for those who have never heard that expression, and there it was. A couple of PS2 sitting right in front of me. Needless to say I bought it that night and was awed by its power. I’ve played many games and watched many movies on my PS2 but no more. Some of the games I used to play and movies I used to watch are no longer playable on the PS2, Disc Read Error! I can play/watch them on other people’s PS2 but no longer can I on mine. This just perplexes me. I’ve taken care of my PS2, it cost me $300! I’ve kept it in proper storage conditions, haven’t dropped it, hit it, or anything like that. It just doesn’t work! Any ideas/hints/do this/etc would be greatly appreciated.

Alright, now that I’ve had my GMail account for a couple of hours, I can only say one thing. WOW! Not just a wow, but a WOW! 1000Megs are very nice to say the least. I have a yahoo account I use for business and it has a nice 100Megs. I’ve just read on Slashdot that msn is increasing their free accounts to 250 and paid members to 2Gigs. So in the long run I’ll have 1600Megs of email storage, 2 hotmail, 1 yahoo, and a GMail :-). So how does GMail stand up against the mighty M$ and Yahoo? I’m glad you asked.

Storage - This is a no brainer, 1000Megs vs 250Megs vs 100Megs. I would take the 1000Megs for free over the rest of the competition any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Point Google.

Conversations vs Emails - For the most part there is no real difference. A conversation is an email. There are some cool features that conversations have but I haven’t messed with them yet….

Folders vs Labels - Almost everyone has used a Yahoo or M$ account. You know how to create folders, mark them read, and move them around. We’ll you can do the same thing with GMail but it might take some getting used to for all the n00bs out there. In GMail you don’t have folders, you have labels. Labels are essentially folders. The big hurdle to get over is that you don’t actually have folders, you apply labels to conversations. For example, I apply a Slashdot label to all conversations that I get from slashdot. If I want to see every conversation from slashdot, I can simply select the Slashdot label.

Searching - GMail is into searching. This makes sense since GMail was developed by Google, the world’s best search engine. Basically, if you want you can keep all of your conversations in the Inbox and when you want to find something, just search for it. This allows for fast and easy means of finding any conversation. Point Google.

Starring - Haven’t messed with this yet but from what I can tell, its marking an conversation as important. An yes, there is a Star link that will display all star conversations.

Conclusion - So far GMail is on top. I’ll be sure to update this in the near future.

Bad news sports fans. Last night I placed my MGS2 disc in my PS2 only to have it tell me that there was a Disc Read Error. Disc Read Error!!! Could it be that my disc was scratched? No, the disc was clean and scratch free. So what to do, what to do. I reset my PS2, place the game in the tray, and bam! Disc Read Error! OK I thought, I’ll just try it again, make sure the tray is clean and what not. After inspecting everything I put the disc in the tray, reset and lord and behold, Disc Read Error! Why I ask. Why is this happening to me? The game works, I’ve played it before on my PS2 and have kept it in the proper storage container in the proper temperature, so on and so on. WTF?!

Script Kiddies, script kiddies, everywhere I turn I see script kiddies! GO AWAY! I have just recently set up apache on my Gentoo box and have hence forth been subjected to a great array of scrip kiddies. 99% of the kiddies are using Windows ‘attacks’ and the one in a million that actually try to ‘attack’ Linux are pretty lame. ‘Sigh’ - What the hell are you people thinking?! Either do some research about the place you’re trying to ‘attack’ or get some better scripts!

Success! I have landed me my very own Gmail account thanks to one individual Dan. Dan, you’re the man!

This game look awesome! I stayed up the other day to watch X-Play’s MGS3 preview and man does that game look Bad A$$. The graphics have always been great but the game play looks sweet. This will be the greatest Metal Gear game to date.

I’ve played the original MG for the NES and at the time I was too young to know that it was a good game. At the time I was into Mega Man, Zelda, and Super Mario Brothers. I was 7 years old! Time went on and I played MGS for the PS1. That was a milestone game. Admist I never beat it, due to many outside factors, it was still a cool game. The same can be said about MGS2 for the PS2. I get really into it and play it for hours. However something always happens that takes me away from the game. School, work, family, friends, just too busy, etc. For me, I can’t play a game, stop playing for a couple of months, and then pick right back up. Its just not the same. The same thing happened to me with Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and The Legend of Dragoon.

I promise this now, with God as my witness. I will not only buy MGS3, I will beat it! I will then proceed to play it again and beat it again. And so on and so on.

I’ve decided to take down my other blog, Give Me GMail Please. Why, because I was browsing different peoples blogs and found some really desperate people begging for GMail. There was one site, that I can’t remember where it was right now, where the author posted “Gmail” or “GMail?” every hour on the hour! I don’t want to be associated with these people. Google, forgive me!