PolyMorphic Win32:Vitro Most Viraulent Virus

This seems to be an virus that is getting some people hit hard.   I wanted to blog about this because of the nature of Virus and Trojans.   I have read reports that this might be from Online Movies, and I have to say this is one reason why you must stay away from certain online movies.  I am going to take a guess that this virus requires a special CODEC, and you downloaded it and installed it.  It Could also be the update the Adobe Flash player idea to but still results in getting the Virus.

As I said before you take a risk when you go to sites you don't trust or know anything about.   You also should know that if you need a "SPECIAL" codec, you should just go on to another site.  These sites that claim they need this special codec means only one thing they want to install something without your Knowledge.

So what is this Virus:

The Virut family of viruses uses polymorphism to hide from all anti-virus protection, it infects executable files. File infection makes it very hard to repair a system that has been infected. W32/Vitro injects code in running processes and hooks the following functions in ntdll.dll which transfers control to the virus every time any of these function calls are made.

* NtCreateFile
* NtCreateProcess
* NtCreateProcessEx
* NtOpenFile
* NtQueryInformationProcess

[via Avast Forums]

After you get this very bad Virus you are done for.  You would need to install the Operating system from backups or even start a new.   This seems to be building this week and there isn't much you can do once your infected.  I do recommend a good Anti-virus and Firewall but that wouldn't fix the problem right now.  You will need to pull your backups out and start the process.  I suggest a complete wipe and then do the Restoring the backups.  This little virus likes to infect any .EXE it can so just restoring the Windows Directory will not help.  Remember only you can prevent from getting infected.

Google let your work from home with Task Lists!!

As the day go by we have all have tasks, and that means we have to keep a way to remember them.  Google decided to add that to there Google Mail.  Pcworld said it the right way:

[ad#ad2-left]If keeping Gmail open all the time just wasn't enough, Google gave us one more reason to stay glued to our computer screens. The Labs Team have released yesterday a new feature for Gmail - Tasks - basically a To-Do list manager. But besides the usual task list bonanza, the new feature can also associate emails with tasks and create multiple to-do lists.

[Via Pcworld]

[ad#ad2-right]So how do you get that to work.  Pcworld has a great resource for people to find out how to get it to work.   Just think it gives you one more reason to work from home.   Google actually did something quite nice when it comes to mail.   It can even convert email into tasks.  If you know of any good uses of this little feature leave a comment.

Cricket USB UM100 Broadband Wireless Modem Review.

The UM100c is No Longer Available, Please check out the Cricket [intlink id="3059" type="post"]A600 Modem Review[/intlink] Or the [intlink id="4523" type="post"]UM185 Broadband modem[/intlink]. The UM185 modem might be a replacement to the UM100.

After a full week of playing around with this USB wireless, I wanted to talk about it. So let's break it down into pieces.

1. [ad#text-broadband1]


2. Installation --  The installation of the USB was not to difficult.  I did have to do some more steps than this:  Install the Software, then hooked up the USB device to the USB port.


3. Manual Activated the Broadband --  For some reason in my area they had several people have problems with the broadband activation.  So I had to activate it manually!!

After that all went well, I was on the internet just a cruising along.  I did however wonder why I was getting such a slow response speed.  When I went traveling I thought I would share some of my local results with you to better show you my speed.  All these test were done at



Please see an updated post on how to get even more speed from the broad band modem.
This speed is not the true speed for the broad band modem.

The Percentages over the results are showing you just what my signal strength was when I was doing the test.  Two of the 4 were traveling on the highway and the other two were stationary.  I also know that my speed will vary along with signal strength, I know I have to be a mile or less from a tower to get 100%.

*Update* 12/21/08

[ad#cricket-1]In my other post I talk about why I didn't get the speed I expected, but after I did the activation I went to normal Mobile Broadband speeds.   I also now have been using the USB Modem for my main internet without any or much problems.   I know I can't play any major online games but I can at least have the internet with me were ever  I go.   As long as you stay in the coverage area, you should be in good shape.  .  Like I Said I've used it in my area for over a 1 month and with the small little problem, the speed has been really dependable and I haven't had any major issue with connectivity. I've been using this modem as my main internet and have not seen any major internet and have not seen any of the cap come my way.   I think they won't mind to much as long as you don't ABUSE the internet, for example don't use it for bittorrent downloads and you should be fine!!

Update 12/24/2008
I also did travel with my laptop to another city, and I got to say it was really good and how it did when I went from one city to another. Check out the report here.
According to some post and forum talks around the the internet they are talking about the soft cap of 5 Gigabytes but that seems to not be so important right now.   After all, they have to make money some how.   I will update as necessary when I find anything else out.

update 1/01/09

I also did a video and uploaded it to youtube using the broadband connection. I had no problem uploading this video to Youtube. I've embedded it in this web page. See it on the bottom:



I also bought the [intlink id="3059" type="post"]A600 Cricket modem[/intlink] and I absolutely love this modem because of the things you can do with it.

Stargate Atlantis ends after the 5 Season!

[ad#ad2-left]After 5th season there will be no more weekly shows of Atlantis.   According to Gateworld:

Atlantis remains an extremely strong performer in DVR-delayed viewing, though, often building as much as 25 to 30 percent on its premiere night audience.

I kept saying Atlantis should of been on Hulu, just like every other show they would have a more solid audience and more  viewers to count.  The only reason Eureka and others got more ratings was because they could watch the latest shows on Scifi or Even Hulu.  Unlike Stargate Atlantis on Hulu, they only have small clips.   In order to build a fanbase, you need to build around the most current way to show the show off.   Granted it still did rather well with ratings and all but it could of done better by putting it on HULU.   There are sites out there that would like to Save Atlantis and I agree with them.  I would love to see more seasons of Atlantis, and see it on HULU.

Mattel introduces the new Welfare Barbie.

[ad#ad2-left]Mattel will be introducing the new welfare barbie doll,or laying off 1,000 jobs. According to Bloomberg and I'll quote:

Mattel Inc., the world's largest toymaker, said it would cut about 1,000 jobs, or 3 percent of its global workforce, as it faces higher manufacturing costs amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

[via Bloomberg]

If you're like me and you want to cringe every time you hear another place is laying off people. I say we are still in a downward spiral. Everyone is saying that even Jason Calacanis, in his recent email he sent to all his fellow readers, he talked about the Rich not buying anything they didn't need. He said that is good, I however wonder how far the hole goes before we hit rock bottom.

[ad#ad2-right]According to some analysts, they are talking about this lasting another year or more. On another note, according to Kotaku and I'll quote on this one to:

We have received a letter purportedly sent by THQ CEO Brian Farrell to explain to his employees the reasoning behind the company closing five studios and laying off staff from two others. The closed studios are Helixe, Sandblast Games, Locomotive, Mass Media and Paradigm.


[via Kataku]

Now I've talked enough about Layoffs in the past and I won't talk to much but I do hope this changes in the new future. If you want to find the other ones that I talked about just search my site, they are all there with out any problems.

[Thanks to Kyle Rees for the suggestion on the heading]

Economic Death?

Are we having an Economic Death?  If so how could we change that?  Is it to Late?  In a recent CNN release President Bush talk about the Economic Depression of the US.

And you know what. I am not sure how to feel about this. Should I be worried or do I have any reason to worry? Having said that I like to talk about the problems that we might face if we go into a more economic depression and how might that affect your lifestyle.

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Having seen this coming the past year, I have been growing more and more uneasy with the way the U.s. Economy is turning out. Worried about paying bills off and earning enough money for my kids and wife. The typical situation for the average family. If your like me you have been struggling to pay bills and deciding on what is more important. You fixing your car or upgrading your PC/Laptop. These questions are undoubtedly going to cause problems with people who do work on computers to become almost non-existent. Not saying that is going to be to difficult to become truth.

It however will make peoples lives much more harder to deal with, or at least motivate people. Ever wonder what people would do if they were not motivated to do anything. Would they walk about the house naked or in there underwear?

You see there is always going to be a time when there will be hardships.  We must fight through them to see the other side.  They say the grass is always greener on the other side.   That is like the economy, it will fix itself over time.    I wonder how many of you are having to create a lean bank book?  Have you bought any new games or PC hardware or For that matter Software lately?  Are you planning on doing that in the next few weeks?  Are you worried about the finanical situation and do you think it will impact you?  Thease are all very good question to consider in the coming months.

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What are you going to do differently and why?  I encourage you to discuss this  in detail.  I want to see what people think and why?

Fixing the Adobe Problem!!

If your have been having problems with Flash Players stoping after 2 seconds of playing.  I have a few ideas to try to get rid of the problem.  It used to happen all the time with Vista in the early days.  Here's what I did to occasionally get the flash player to work:

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  Cleaning out the Prefetch Directory! -- Having seen this from time to time. If you have programs startup that might need to be refreshed this will refresh them so that they run like new. You occasionally can get programs that will load in a odd way and this will fix that also.

  
  

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  You want to be more anonymous? -- Cleaning out your cache on your browser can sometimes fix the problem. It's like anything else it can sometimes be corrupted.

  
  

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  Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! -- Having seen this with my own two eyes, if you have a viruses or malware on your system that too can cause problems with playback of flash media.  So just double check making sure you don't have any viruses.
  

  
  


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  Adobe Flash tips and Tricks! -- Also having found this out.  Adobe actually keeps the flash video on there servers cached or sometimes somewhat buffered to help with playback.  Clean the cache out at the source sometimes fixes the problem also.

  
  

[ad]

Now having used some of these tricks to get flash players to run has on occasion worked for some strange reason or another.  Although I don't know if this will fix the 2 second playing video problem I get the feeling it should since in theory it has everything to do with cache and corruptions of the files. If you can come up with some other tips or tricks to fix the problem let me know!!

Hulu United States Only -- FAQ

In a Comment on there Hulu Blog,

August 16th, 2008 at 08:52 AM Umm, when exactly did Hulu decide to shut its doors to everyone outside of America? The site's title is "Watch your Favorites. Anytime. For Free". I'm sorry Hulu, this is a complete lie, as anyone viewing your site outside of the US is banned from viewing your videos. All the time. So that you know, I intend on writing a letter to Joss Whedon asking that he pull his Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog video from your network and redistribute it to a video site that isn't run by people who embrace the philosophy "Defective By Design". That way, the thousands of other people wanting to see this video, like me, don't have to resort to downloading the thing via the piratebay.

Well, This is something I wanted to discuss for everyone who reads my blog why Hulu isn't allowing anyone outside of America to see the videos.   It's all have to do with there contracts they have with certain providers.

Let me explain it to you another way, Hulu is now being watch all over North America.  Hulu is obligated to make sure no one out side of the US can watch these movies because they have "NO RIGHTS" to share this with anyone out side of the US.  When Hulu makes deals with these major distributors, they sign a contract.  In the contract somewhere at sometime, they are explicitly forbidden to stream this material outside of the US.

Is there ways around this?

Having experience in the computer repair and understand of what is required for someone to get around this type of "Protection" is somewhat hard.  Here is the reason, when Hulu banned people from watching outside of the US they did so by banning a group of Internet Protocols.

Here are Three ways at which I know you can watch HULU programming.  Be advised that these are ways to get around the protection and by doing this, You hold me not responsible for any and all actions.  I talk about this because it would be unfair not to, I've got to have some responsibility to my readers.

• USE A PROXY Server in the United States --  Now this one is the hardest because I don't know of any.  I am not going to do your homework for you, but I will say there has to be several in the US.  Be Warned that using this will greatly reduce quality and speed.  You will sooner or later be found out and blocked, so use this one is at your own risk.


• Ask Major Media Distributors to join HULU -- Writing to them and asking them to join Hulu will increase the likely hood of them opening up the resources to let people view outside of HULU.  You see the other distributors have the rights to distribute outside of the US.  If you get them to come to Hulu, you will be giving them the power to allow certain content to be streamed outside of HULU.  If you want to contact the distributors and ask them to join Hulu, by all means go through the IMDB and look for the distributors you want on HULU and find out how to email them or Snail Mail them!!


• USE an VPN to Access HULU -- This one is like Proxy Servers but this one is most often used by people who are traveling outside of the US.  That's right if your company has a VPN inside of the US you can watch shows.  This too could get your IP banned from Hulu, although I tell you this for those business men and women who are traveling and live in the United States and Military people too.  Has all the same flaws as Proxy, will slow you down, and quality will take a hit also!!
  

These are just a few of the ways you could stream information from HULU but use at your own risk.  If you have any other comments to add just go ahead and add them.  I want to hear what people think or what they want me to talk about.

Tips and Tricks to Shut down Windows Vista!

Yes we will be talking about why Vista won't shut down properly.  It is a common problem in all models.   It has been know to cause some issues with boot up.  In the past, Vista when you hit the shut down or you did the short cut Windows key>Right Three Times>Enter, it wouldn't shut down instantly.  I've recently found out how to fix this problem and why it comes and goes.  Here are some great ways to get Vista to shut down properly.

• Boot into Safe Mode --  Yes booting into safe mode will fix the problem to a point.  Here is what you need to do at start up of computer.  Press F8 as soon as you see the screen flicker black and you will be given a choice.  Choose Safe Mode.  Once done booting into safe mode.  Log into you user name.  There you will want to check with Msconfig. Make sure you aren't loading up anything that might stop shut down from happening.  Once done they do the shut down procedure.  By doing it in safe mode you have vista reset all procedures to shut down.  This sometimes resolves the issue.
  

• Don't Shut down Vista improperly -- having seen this from time to time.  If you do a hard shutdown, which you drop power or remove the battery.  This has been know to cause a issue with shutting Vista down properly.  There seems to be a correlation with vista and hard shutdowns.  I do not know how or why, I just seen that with my current Vista machine.
  

• Make sure you exit out of legacy programs before you shut down -- legacy programs are programs that aren't designed for vista but are designed for Windows XP, 2000, 3.1, 3.0.  I don't recommend using programs that are designed for Windows NT and nothing else.  If it's in the list when you buy a program.  NT and Vista are siblings, they both use the same kernel.  Microsoft has said that in the past and I believe it.  So it only comes with reason that NT programs can work with Vista.  I've not tried but I'd be willing to say it could be done.

• Let it think about shutting down -- I find if I tell it to shut down and walk away it will eventually shut down.  I think it has a long wait time before shutting down.  Some program has to time out before it can shut down, or it has to tell vista that it needs to unload a program from memory.

• Try using the registry hack -- I've not tried this one but some say they get Vista to shut down properly and quickly by cutting the wait time out protocol in the registry.  I've seen it done on some Windows XP, it will shut down almost instantly because it doesn't wait for the program to say anything.  It forces the program to quit.  So it could very well help you with shutting down Vista if your in a hurry.  Also try this: Faster Shutdowns using the Run Dialog
  

• Don't put the computer in sleep mode -- This is only good for those who have laptops.  It seems putting the system in sleep mode slows down Vista when you are ready to shut down.  It seems to have a conflict in the system and has been know to cause interference with other shutdown procedures, so I recommend if you are done with your system to either leave it on, or shut it down but not to put your system into hibernation.

If you follow these steps you will find that Vista stops having this shutdown issue.  I had the same problems as others but after doing these steps myself, I've found Vista to shutdown faster and quicker and not hang during shutdown.  If you have any other ideas feel free to email me or make a comment on how to get Vista to shutdown quicker. If you like what you've seen by all means click on one of my ads to show support to my site.