Spyware, Malware removal [from: del.icio.us]

Last night I had hours of fun cleaning up the house PC after a combination virus-malware attack. I run AVG on this PC. I'm pretty good about keeping windows update up to date, and I also run Adaware and Spybot every so often. I still don't know how it got there but I suspect it had something to do with the kid's party a couple of weeks ago. The first indication of something wrong was that it wouldn't close down properly and then wouldn't complete scandisk.

This one was distinctly evil.
- An extra web search toolbar in IE6
- A "Play Bingo" icon on the desktop
- Rundll32.exe deleted so that you can't run anything in control panel like Add/Remove Programs or system properties from My Computer.
- System restore turned off and all previous restore points deleted.
- A bunch of extra startup services and programs running in background.
- On every boot, it would install the files again.

Eventually I had to:-
- Copy rundll32.exe fom the windows install disk
- Use the task manager to kill any odd looking running programs
- Remove odd entries from the registry in local machine, software, microsoft, current control set, run-runonce-runservices
- Boot into safe mode
- run Scandisk
- Use Add/Remove programs to remove a bunch of toolbar and web search "helpers"
- Run the anti-virus program and the malware checkers which found 4 infected files with premium rate dialler trojans. Thankfully this machine no longer has a modem link.
- reboot, reboot, reboot... ...reboot, reboot...
- Turn system restore back on
- Save a restore point
- Run Windows Update. Nothing to install so I was already fully patched but despite that and a running AVG it still got infected.

Needless to say I didn't find all that in one go and I was on the verge of starting a windows re-install.
Aaaarrrgghh! Talking to my kids it turns out that all their friend's PCs have died and won't work properly any more. Given the effort it took me as an IT professional, I'm not surprised. How is the average family supposed to cope with all this?

Anyway I've had enough of this game. IE6, Outlook, Outlook Express, Real Audio are now officially banned in this household. [from: JB Ecademy]

My new fresh Suzuki Burgman 400 [from: Flikr Photos]

My trusty combined top box and backrest. This one's followed me round for years but has served as a backrest on a Helix and Burgman AN400X. It's held on with a metal strap underneath that ties into a bolt in the bum rest. The side straps just hold it steady and straight. The new Burger has a huge luggage compartment, but you can always use more storage space. [from: Flikr Photos]

The standard mirrors are stupidly wide. I've replaced the stems with a short cut down bolt. Great for squeezing through London traffic. [from: Flikr Photos]

I like Skype. I really do. And I've enjoyed making long and extremely cheap phone calls to the USA using it.

But what's up with this? Skype Account Overview : You have 85 days, until December 29 2004, to use this credit.

As Guy Kewney says in this fine rant about IM programs. "My money does not expire, guys, and if I don't get it back, you'll hear from my lawyer." [from: JB Ecademy]

Slashdot | Redmondmag on Dumping IE has a pointer to an article from RedmondMag which describes itself as "The Independent voice of the Microsoft IT community", entitled "Time to Dump IE? Internet Explorer is a hacker's dream. Can you (and should you) drop it right now?" The same article is in "Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine"

It's a well written exploration of the issues with switching from IE to an alternative.

The Slashdot comments included this.

Being more serious. How to migrate a clueless n00b from IE to with minimal future support:

1. Download/Install Firefox itself
2. Download/Install Sun Java Runtime, do necessary fiddling to get Firefox to use it
3. Download/Install Flash plugin
4. Download/Install Shockwave plugin
5. Download/Install all necessary streaming media plugins
6. Download/Install Googlebar plugin. This is optional but probably a Good Thing. Configure until said clueless n00b offers free coffee.
7. Add 'obvious' trusted sites like mozilla.org to trusted sites list (I can't believe mozilla forgot this!) Be very careful here.
8. Turn on all automatic updates (remember, we are talking about clueless n00bs here)
9. Make sure all bookmarks, cookies etc have been correctly migrated by checking with, yes, you guessed it, the clueless n00b... (I've never had a problem).
10. Delete all unnecessary IE icons (or if they are really clueless then just redirect them to Firefox)
11. While you're at it remove PDF from MIME associations, Acrobat takes zonks to load up, make sure it doesn't load in a tab but downloads as necessary. [While you're at it why not clean Acrobar of the unused plugins? It'll make it load an order of magnitude faster]
12. Set default download directory to something more sensible than the desktop (optional). Go through the options (possibly consulting your n00b), configure.
13. Teach n00b how to use tabbed browsing, integrated searching, pressing '/' to find something etc etc. Teach common keyboard shortcuts. RSS bookmarks if not THAT much of a n00b. Watch n00b face light up with unrestrained glee! Relish free food, foot massage etc by n00b.
14. Explain your undying hero worship for Charles Babbage, why Darl McBride is Satan, the contents of Bruce Schneier's latest cryptogram, and why Eberlin's Slashbot rhyme r0xxors. Attempt explanation of the concept of bash.org. Get kicked out by increasingly freaked out n00b, safe in the knowledge that you are battling Evil.

WARNING: above not to be used in ALL situations, only for the 'I want my IntarWeb' types. [from: JB Ecademy]

What is Metroblogging London and it's 17 siblings in atlanta, boston,
chicago, houston, istanbul, los angeles, new orleans, new york city, orange county, orlando, san francisco, seattle, tokyo, toronto, vienna, washington d.c.? London at least seems to be looking for writers. [from: JB Ecademy]

[from: del.icio.us]

Mark Pesce on Emigrating from the USA and other topics.

Time to Dump IE?
Internet Explorer is a hacker's dream. Can you (and should you) drop it right now? [from: del.icio.us]

Summary: Audio content on the internet is in chaos. To reign in the chaos, and to capitalize on internet audio file assets, Google will launch an audio search engine or audio file search tool by 2006, but probably sooner. [from: del.icio.us]

Chocolate and Vodka :: iTunes, MusicBrainz and metadata : I detest the arrogance of software developers who create a default preference of 'Please Mess With My Stuff'. I know how I want things organised, and I don't appreciate software that comes along and screws up my filing system.

Quite so. Microsoft, Real and quite a few others please note.

BushCo keeping America scared [from: del.icio.us]

[from: del.icio.us]

Anyone with a Slashdot account, especially if you are a moderator, could you mod this comment up? [from: JB Ecademy]

Woot! My first mention on Slashdot!

Slashdot | The
Google News Dilemma

Ooo-Err! It looks like I've just got a mention in Wired.

Wired News: Google News: Beta Not Make Money : It's hard to feel sorry for Google, though. In April, lawyers for the billion-dollar search engine company that Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded sent their own cease-and-desist letter to Julian Bond, a British programmer who had created customized RSS feeds from Google News.

Ironically, the letter informed Bond that Google does not permit "webmasters to display Google News headlines on their sites."

For those who don't know I have some source code on my own site that scrapes Google News and turns it into RSS. Strictly for personal use of course. Google doesn't like people using it to re-publish their results on other people's websites. The source code is now running all over the place so trying to stamp it out completely is probably impossible.

The article asks how Google will ever make money out of Google News and you'll note that there's no advertising on the news pages.

So if there's no money in it, then there should be no issue with producing advert free RSS from it either. And then I can retire my scraper program. [from: JB Ecademy]

Can anyone point out the missing countries in the following list? It's the list of countries that Ecademy members claim to belong to.

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Channel Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Columbia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote D, Croatia, Croatia (Hrvatska), Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, France, Metropolitan, French Guiana, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, ivory coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Korea (South), Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, LT, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Niger, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Norway, Oman, Other, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Russian Federation, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, scotland, u.k., Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Sudan, Sultanate of Oman, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad. West Indies., Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, UK, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, US Minor Outlying Islands, USA, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe [from: JB Ecademy]

Links: Locative Media [from: del.icio.us]

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, but he had something bigger in mind all along. He tells TR how his 15 years of work on the "Semantic Web" are finally paying off. [from: del.icio.us]