a record of thoughts

Since my thought (for an entry) escaped me, I’ll post a simple malware removal tutorial.

A few years ago, we called them annoying pop-ups and now we call them MALWARE. Virus is no longer trendy because it does not rake in revenue; malware does because it mostly contains advertising.

If you are a careless netizen and clicking on any pop-up that may appear in front of you, then you are the best malware victim. IT administrators should block all sites except for the ones that the company would need if their users do not abide by the usage policy. In the office, we are too scared to even use Google because internet usage is strictly prohibited unless needed and we can’t hardly slack because there’s too much work to be done.

One night I was victimized by a malware in my home PC. The site I used to frequent had a hidden malware injector through PDF. I’ve been removing malwares for others, so I’ll share the secret with everyone.

1. Download Hijackthis & SmitFraudFix (Google them)
2. Install Hijackthis.
3. Add an exception in your AntiVirus (add both softwares above).
4. Run Hijackthis & fix processes you don’t recognize.
5. Restart your computer in Safe Mode.
6. Run SmitFraudFix (option 2) and clean registry when prompted.
7. Restart your computer in Normal Mode.
8. Done!

I’m officially unplugged from further inter-networking and computing in the next two weeks effective as of this hour. All of my electronic communication devices will be turned off. I will be unreachable. I may be travelling during these weeks so expect new pieces from me.

Later alligat’r

Syet na malagkit!

Yes, yes… It’s been a while since my last entry and I’m once again nagging about standards. A week or two ago Hotmail release a new version of their webmail and guess what ladies and gentlemen? YOU CANNOT COMPOSE AN E-MAIL USING CHROME!!! I’ve grown to like the browser, y’know. I “exceptionally” love it when I hit the HOME button and Chrome would show me my frequently-visited sites. It’s one of the awesomest feature the browser has. Of course the drag-&-drop feature of its tabs brings more coolness to the experience.

All that became history. I am a huge fan of Hotmail and no browser will tempt me to move out of that service. An email address for me is very very significant. If you can’t find me anywhere else, you can find me @ hotmail.com That has become my permanent address since I started computing 10 (or so) years ago. Yes I’m quite new to computing.

Anyway, if you’ve been counting along with the counter above (the homepage) it’s almost time. What would it be, what would it be?

I had to wait a week before writing about the latest addition in my network — the ASUS Eee Box. If I may, I would say that the Eee Box is ASUS’ answer to Apple’s Mini PC; only smaller. The unit weighs 3lbs and is 1-inch thick (8.8x7x1) only. It comes with two mounts — one is for desktop mount and the other is a wall mount or like what ASUS advertises, the unit is mounted behind an LCD monitor to get the effect of “no box PC”. The box comes with wired keyboard and mouse. Of course if you chose the wireless route, you can do so because the machine already comes with wireless adapter (and antenna for range maximization). Knowing me, this featureis of course disabled. The machine is also very quiet and does not take up so much power consumption. The Box is also DVI ready so if your monitor has DVI, that would be great. For an average user, it won’t be a difficult computing because the Box is pre-installed with Windows XP Home Edition.

The Box!!!

Why did I have to purchase this gadget? For one, I wanted to test it and it’s cheap enough to experiment with. I plan to install other *NIX flavored OS in it instead of Windows. I also needed a PC that can serve MySQL database and it shouldn’t take space in my workspace and won’t consume so much power. Eee Box is the perfect specimen. The Box has been running since I bought it an a few restarts were executed because of Windows’ unfailing releases of bug fixes (don’t they get tired of this why not release a less buggy software instead).

I only recommend the  Box to an average user. Average I mean a user who only does: web browsing, chat, email, music, photos, occasional videos, word processing. I don’t prefer this to a hardcore user who may wish to do audio-visual editing and multi-tasking applications although it’s hyper-threading. However, it’s enough for daily computing.

I borrowed my father’s notebook computer so that I can watch high quality video while I’m lying down on my bed. It’s running on Vista that I stripped off of every silly things Microsoft added. Anyway, I installed an MSNM and during the installation I was asked if I wanted to install the Writer which can be used to jot down offline entries for a blog. I wanted to try, so I installed the software. Here I am on my first entry using Windows Live Writer.

For a Windows user, it’s a great piece of software. Especially for me; I sometimes write my entries while on the ferry. I don’t have Windows in my Eee PC so I had to install an offline instance of WordPress in it. With Windows Live Writer, it’s pretty straightforward. No web server or database engine to run, just let MS do the work for you. I must admit, it may be one of a few software that I like from MS.

I’m already praising the software even before saving and publishing this entry. So here we go…

I can finally come out of the shell and talk about Smart’s latest technology release — Plug ‘n Talk. I met with Smart representatives earlier today and I was able to witness a demonstration of this very cool gadget. It is a hybrid VoIP unit. In a nutshell, the unit which is essentially a thumbdrive accepts a Smart Buddy Simcard, plugged into a Windows computer with internet connection and can take outgoing and incoming voice calls and SMS/MMS messages incurring Philippine local rates. The hybrid nature of the technology is derived from the model whereas the party using the unit uses an over-IP technology which connects to Smart’s network in the Philippines and from there a circuit-switch communication occurs. The reciprocal applies when the unit becomes the receiver. In other words, it’s a VoIP-Circuit-switch technology.

Though I know the launch date, I will not provide that information as well as any pricing. I’m just to excited to post the technology’s overall concept. For more information, visit the hyperlinked site above.

During the demonstration, the call is quite loud and clear, however I won’t be too optimistic. There still is that VoIP characteristic. I’m only after the text messaging because it only costs P1/outgoing message to any Smart/TNT and P2 for Globe/TM/Sun and the MMS which costs the same as what they charge in the Philippines. I’ll have my dongle hooked into my PC and find TXTM8S.

I was looking around WordPress for an idea for today and stumbled upon a bloggers iPersonic entry and thought I’d give it a try. I have the results below. Not perfect, but some are sound. Psychological theories are still a long way to go. I really believe that each individual is a diffusion of each other. They are the same, yet different. It’s like Philosophy. I’ve spent a few years searching for my niche in Philosophy, but I can’t completely pinpoint my loyalty.

Independent Thinkers are analytical and witty persons. They are normally self-confident and do not let themselves get worked up by conflicts and criticism. They are very much aware of their own strengths and have no doubts about their abilities. People of this personality type are often very successful in their career as they have both competence and purposefulness. Independent Thinkers are excellent strategists; logic, systematics and theoretical considerations are their world. They are eager for knowledge and always endeavor to expand and perfect their knowledge in any area which is interesting for them. Abstract thinking comes naturally to them; scientists and computer specialists are often of this type. (more…)