CARRICKDRIVE

For some time now I have been having the random BOSD without any consistent reason. I installed blue viewer which did give me some indication of the file that seemed to be giving me the most trouble. More often than not it was (ntosknl) which seemed to be located in the depths of the system with the web offering a lot of suggestions none of them concrete solutions.

Last week the whole system threw a wobbly with the TFT screen showing all sorts of fussy images so I thought graphic card was grubbed (Nvlddmkm driver sent me on a hunt) in the end I put in an old card and I managed to get my system to work to allow me to send off my final paper to OU.

Task now was to decide on a full rebuild which I have managed with a re format of the drive for both win 32 and win 64 systems. Loaded various programmes and did an image of the system which I find includes the win32 & win64. OK so a test was needed which I did and all worked fine taking less than 15mins. to complete rather than the day and half with updates etc.

And then it crashed during the afternoon a couple of days ago – blue screen viewer showed a couple of things like file.sys and the ntosknl again but with 1066 next to it sent me thinking memory.

Downloaded memorytest86+ and ran two of the mem-sticks and showed no errors, good I thought until I did as instructed to do stick at a time – out of the four sticks two will not boot the machine and one has errors and thankfully one is good no errors. Four new sticks ordered.

I was hoping for a series of passes on the good stick but we had a power cut in the early morning so all was down.

Questions remaining after new sticks installed is old GFX card dead, is there anything else on the way out soak test will provide the answer.

I think I did well never beat myself up (age I think) when it all went down last week as I had all the documents on another drive so could access them.

What have I learnt, not a lot other than follow some instincts and at least get some tangible errors.

I ran just about everything last week from malware detection on boot etc. on both 32 and 64 OS showed nothing.

Calling it retired my way of saying OU finished and now time to move onto something different. Since I started back in 2005 I had no idea what was in front of me. The degree I opted for was an open one which allowed me to pick and choose my modules (that is what they call them now not courses etc).

The foundation course was just that a mix of a number of different subjects to get the grey matter thinking again. Next up was Globalisation which I found interesting followed by Governing Europe which I got my best grade for. That gave me 180 points a  further 180 to go for honours my ultimate goal.

Two level three modules were needed Ichose Religion:Modernity, Tradition and Change, this was a module looking into how religion fitted into today’s society and of some religions that were developing as well as traditional forms of religion such as C of E, muslim etc. Final module in the level three was Understanding Cities which looked at six cities (mega) and how each has impacted on the global reach of commerce and immigration etc. The typical mega city is one over 10 million inhabitants and growing daily with influx of the farming population hence the problem. Thankfully I passed all those to have my BSc awarded last December.

To complete the honours I chose Information Computer Technology which has now concluded and I am not sorry to see it go. What did I learn some TCP/IP protocols and what the layers meant (never need). a bit on Wi-FI, a wasted month on WordPress and  a website collaboration with six other students, another wasted period on AVS a programming language (Script) for manipulation of pictures and placing a commentary with it (never use again) and finally two questions:-

Final Examinable element

WiMAX installation in a remote village of 100 residents, report for a committee to consider as they proposed to hook in with a village 10km away.

Six pages of a mockup website in word on the subject of BOTNETS, What are they?, How do they get into your system, Mitigation both as an individual and in the corporate environment, I followed that with a case study of how a firm got shut down by a hacker and three other companies including TUCOWS, finally we needed to provide a question with five possible answers with only one correct. Each of the incorrect as well as the correct one required a comment  to assist students who would study this subject.

I found the botnets fascinating with so much to read and listen to (TED.Com) and to sum up botnets we are in trouble as no system is 100% and the criminals out there are one or two steps ahead of all the security and OS software developers finding those vulnerabilities.

Well that is it till the result in December and the ceremony in Glasgow next May will it be BSc open or BSc Open Hons watch this space.

TTFN  big update re PC coming soon

Just found this on the system from word press so thought give it a go. Seems simple enough but most likely basic. Need to investigate more re albums etc. One week to go before I have to send in the final paper for Hons. Module. It has been quite boring at times but it is now completed I retire from end of the month and concentrate in the garden etc. I am sure I will come up with something else to do soon enough.

Just a test so see how it is received typing on IPad so here goes send button here I come.

TTFN