Well, I managed to find something to take up my free time.

When you need something to do, just screw up your computer! It worked for me!

Yeah, well, there's a decent chance that I might lose all the data I worked on in the last couple months, but that's not the end of the world. In the meantime, though, I'm learning alot about fixing computers and recovering data from a hard drive that I screwed partitions and boot records on.

Probably the coolest thing I've found is Bart's PE Builder and it's companion, UBCD4Win. Basically, it's a CD you can create to load Windows off the CD and includes a whole bunch of diagnostic tools, file recovery tools, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and can even repair a broken Windows install in some cases. I think I'm gonna keep this just in case somebody asks me to revive their screwed up computer. It's the perfect companion for a computer support person. Plus, it doesn't seem to hard to customize so I could build in some of my own tools in the future.

My next project? Install and play around with Slackware Linus. I've got the CD set of 10.1 built and I'm gonna install it on an old computer and play around with it really soon.

The only thing I wish I had the mondy for right now was a nice 4-system KVM switch like this one. Then I wouldn't have to fool around with cables when switching between computers. Of course, Bjorn thinks I should get this one instead because then I can run all of 'em in Dual Monitors if I like. ;-)