Wertytrew's Life

1. My PC is a Zombie!

Define Botnet:

Botnet is a jargon term for a collection of software robots, or bots, that run autonomously and automatically. The term is often associated with malicious software but it can also refer to the network of computers using distributed computing software.

While the term "botnet" can be used to refer to any group of bots, such as IRC bots, this word is generally used to refer to a collection of compromised computers (called Zombie computers) running software, usually installed via worms, Trojan horses, or backdoors, under a common command-and-control infrastructure.

[Continue reading from Wikipedia]

Recently, I have been complaining my computer slow like an undead snail. And I’m pretty sure you guys notice that as well. I blaim Streamyx all this time. But, why I’m the only one experiencing this while my friends are able to have a Damn-good Streamyx internet connection. Today, I read about this article from ReadWriteWeb. The article’s title is:

Is Your PC Part of a Botnet?

Some extractions from the article;

So how can you tell if you're machine is part of a botnet and what can you do about it?

Statistically, Macs are safe from botnets, although not completely immune to all threats as we noted here. But if you have a Windows based machine, Prevx suggests you stay on the lookout for an Internet connection that seems inexplicably slow when you are online as it may be that a botnet infection is using your connection to send or receive data.

"If this happens, stop surfing, close your email software (e.g. Outlook) and try and open Task Manager by pressing the CTRL, ALT and Delete keys at the same time then selecting Task Manager," the company wrote on its blog recently. "When Task manager opens click on the Network tab and see if your PC is using the internet network connection, if it shows more than a few percent usage then this could be further evidence of something using your internet connection without your knowledge."

[Read more from “Is Your PC Part of a Botnet?”]

(don’t sue me from extracting from your site, I’m helping people to educate themselves. I will write if I already got that knowledge but if I just put a link there, people are lazy to click it---99% sure---because I’m of them.)

After I read the article, I felt there’s not the problem. And this partly-conclude Streamyx is still the main foe.

WATCH THIS INTERACTIVE VIDEO ABOUT BOTNET FROM SYMANTEC

2. 'Star Wars' scientists create laser gun to kill mosquitoes

Scientists in the U.S. are developing a laser gun that could kill millions of mosquitoes in minutes in London, England.

The laser, which has been dubbed a "weapon of mosquito destruction" fires at mosquitoes once it detects the audio frequency created by the beating of its wings.

[Continue reading from CNN]

3. Readability

Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you’re reading.

[Readability]

1) Downadup Virus[Edited]

I’ve read a lot of articles about this worm attack recently. According to ComputerWorld, reportedly it has infected nearly 9 million PCs in just two weeks. [Updated from PCWorld]This latest malware has the ability to spread via USB flash. drives.

Signs

a) Account lockout policies are being tripped(because your password's been hijacked, and changed, by the attacker).

b) Automatic Updates are disabled(because Downadup tries to keep the PC unpatched by turning off Windows Update's automatic update, as well as Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), the Windows component used by Windows Update to actually deliver the updates).

c) Various security-related Web sites cannot be accessed(because Downadup blocks access to a whole host of security companies' sites in an effort to prevent antivirus software from being updated, which could result in the worm's detection and eradication).

Ways to Protect Our Computer

a) Download MS08-067 Microsoft patch. You can verify that the patch has been installed by bringing up Windows Update, then clicking "Review your update history" and looking for a security update labeled as "KB958644.

*Xtra: You can download this Firefox-like search in IE named FindAsYouType, so that you can find the labeled patch in your update history easier.

b) If you are only now installing the patch, you might want to take Microsoft's advice and also download and install the January edition of its free Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), which was updated last week so that it can detect, and then delete, Downadup infections.

c) Security experts have recommended that users disable both Autorun and Autoplay in Windows.

[Source: How to protect your PC against the Downadup worm]

2) A Week of Holiday

People starting to blog back. Ya, why? Thanks to our celebration: Chinese New Year! Thanks goodness, this year I didn’t suffer from ousel ulser---is that how you spell when you got a “hole” at your lips?!?. I remembered every CNY, I will get at least 1 ousel ulser in my mouth. Very hard to even taste my mom’s chicken curry.

Somehow, I got different “CNY-present” this year, diarrhea. Not just me, everyone who went to my cousin’s house warming---sin chu--- got diarrhea as well. I diarrhea-ed about 5 times on Wednesday afternoon. I was white as a chalk when I got home because I have been “tahaning” the AWEFULLY PAINFUL stomachache from school and waited in the bus for 1 hour++. After that, walk back home from the point my bus dropped me. I kept thinking the world is ending soon.

What about homeworks? I think people should not whine about a lot of homeworks thing. For me, appreciate it while you know how to do them. It’s sucks (like me), having lots of homeworks and at the same time, I don’t know how to do most of them.

Anyway, the best part, my brother’s coming back today. Reunited as a family back again.

3) Personal Favourite Articles/Stuffs From The Web

News [Gizmodo, CNN]

• Murdering in Virginia Tech
• False News on Steve Jobs Heart Attack
• World's Smallest Fuel Cell Could Power Your Gadgets
• Trojan hides in pirated copies of Apple's iWork '09
• Rare glimpse shows thinner Kim Jong-Il
• Children dead in Belgium nursery attack
• Obama retakes oath after Robert’s mistake

Window 7 [Gizmodo, MyDigitalLife]

• Win 7 Tip: Now You Can Choose Which Folders to Back Up and Create System Images
• Win 7 Tip: Fix That MSI Installer Bug And Get Apps Running Again
• How to Display Text on Taskbar Buttons in Windows 7

Cool Stuffs [Gizmodo]

• Giant Laser Cloud Takes Over Helsinki's Sky

• Universal Connections Concepts: USB in Everyday Objects

• A Beautiful Sunset, Painted in Fluorescent Bacteria
• Scientists Grow Doll Out of Living Cells, Complex Organisms Next
• Quicksnap Ice Tray Releases One Cube at a Time

Web [Six Revisions]

• 12 Useful Web Tools for Designers

Astronomy [Astronomy.com]

• Super-Neptune Planet Found
• Astronauts Watch President Obama's Inauguration from Space

1. My Newly Personal Computer

HOLY F*CK! I knew my brother was going to change for me a “new” com. Just didn’t knew it was that GOOD! If I’m not mistaken, he got the com from his own cybercafe’s shop. Let’s just say it’s an upgraded version, not a new com. But, practically the whole damn system unit has changed now. Remember, I said I wanna sell my handphones and MP3 so that I can buy a new video card. Now, I got more than what I bargained for. See below:

OLD COM’S SPECS

• AMD Athlon Processor  1.66GHz
• 512MB of RAM, then upgraded to 1GB not too long ago
• 64MB video card memory

NEW COM’S SPECS

• AMD Athlon Dual Core Processor 2.70GHz
• 2GB of RAM
• 512MB video card memory

I didn’t write down the full scientific name. Just focus on the numbers, alright. From 1.66GHz processor to 2.70GHz. How cool is that..As for the RAM, an added total of 1GB of RAM to become 2GB. Awesome. What I really didn’t expected the new com is the the video card part.

I thought the com would only have about 128MB or 256MB video card of memory. But, instead I got a total of 512MB MEMORY!!! Never ever that number comes through my mind before this.

Pretty sure a lot of you people will have much, much better com than this. But for me, from a very old com to this “masterpiece” free-of-charge com(since I’m not the one that is paying), I think there’s no other better deal that you can get in this world. Unless of course, you’re from a richy generation.

I was so happy and excited because I can play all those high-end games like Fallout, Far Cry2, Battlefield 2142, and other minority good games. It’s too bad that I still can't get to play GTA 4 because of the too high requirements. Nonetheless, upgrade can still be done if I have the money. Good example of :Human’s desire is never to be fulfill completely.

*Sorry, for some rudely words in this post. A way to express my feelings*

Xtra Info

CanYouRunIt is a site where you test your computer to know whether your com can run the game.

It's been 3 weeks since I last updated my blog. Well, not much did happen. But, there are few things that I wanna write about:

1) My PC
It broke down twice in a period of about 2/3 weeks time. I know I did install some stupid DVD burner software that caused the first breakdown. About the second computer crash, I'm not sure about it. It happened 2 days ago. I don't think any new installing caused the crash. So, be careful for those who loves installing new stuffs in their computer like me. I'm just glad my brother did backup-ed my hard drive using the Acronis True Image. He did all the backup-ing for the two breakdown although I really wanted to learn to do it myself.

2) New HP
My brother gave me his old handphone that is very bulky and heavy, but it looks cool for me. This Nokia 6680 has these features that I copied from this website:




* Two integrated cameras: 1.3 megapixel and VGA
* High-speed connections with 3G and EDGE
* Two-way video call capability for face-to-face communication
* Video sharing capability
* Nokia XpressPrint printing solution including PictBridge direct printing
* Fast, convenient email access
* High-resolution, 262,144-color display
* Music player with stereo audio

In fact, I wasn't really plan to use the phone. First of all, I don't really use hp to phone my friends nor to SMS them (I'm the worst SMSer ever). Even, my father SMSes more than me. Here's actually what I planned. I want to sell off my MP3 and this handphone. So that I can upgrade my graphic card(64MB) to a better 256MB and play more nice games on my old PC.
I really don't know about all these hardware computer thing. This means I need my brother help again and most probably need his permissions to sell both brother-bought-MP3&handphone.

I know I could keep this handphone for future use. But, for now I'm not really into hp. Plus, I might have to buy a laptop later for my college/university usage. That's when I'm gonna "pek-tai" this stone-age computer. I should be glad actually to own this computer. I got it when I moved to this new house in late 2005. Back at my old house, I do have an even older (ice-age) computer that isn't connected to the internet. I just use it to play some BeeGees's song. So, the young generations should be thankful to have internet-connected computers.

Right now, I'm not sure what to do. Whether to sell the handphone+MP3 since somebody interested to buy my MP3(right, Dianne...?) or just keep using my old graphic card and continuing playing the getting-boring Sims 2?!?

3) Quitted Maple
At last, I was able to quit Maplestory after playing for erhm...not close to even 5 months... I just can't stand doing those stupid PQ that brings us no benefit in learning knowledge. My parents nowadays said I wasted a lot of time playing but they didn't notice that I learnt a lot of new things by just playing games. For example;

Sunday, 25 May 2008
MapleGlobal vs MapleSea....
Only, at 7am this morning I went to sleep until this afternoon at 3pm. I practically didn't sleep last night as I was determined to finish downloading the MapleGlobal. At last, I finished downloaded the thing, I couldn't login because it said "Unable to login to the server". So, I guessed the problem was with my location. I was supposed to download the MapleSea version but instead I had downloaded the MapleGlobal. The reason is that when I download the MapleSea, the downloading process stopped halfway and I can't resume it because it doesn't allow me to use DownloadAccelerator. I have no choice and choose to download MapleGlobal.



So, then I decided to ask my brother about it and he said that the problem is that I have downloaded the wrong version. As I expected....Fortunately, he said he already downloaded the MapleSea into his computer last time and he allows me to use it. Then, I thought "Why didn't I ask him earlier???"(ket sam). Problem arise during the patching process because it says the new patch is not compatible with the old version of my brother's downloaded MapleSea.

Haiz...lagi ket sam. Right now, I'm not even sure whether my brother is downloading the new version for me or not. I know if I use my computer to download the new version, the downloading process will never ever complete. Forget it.....who needs the game when you have so many online games?(What a sad side of MapleStory)

Cleaning my computer.....
Last night, I cleaned my computer parts and the table too. Not exactly a computer table. I think it is more to like a shelf for me. Lots of hard work but satisfaction in the end. When I was cleaning, I didn't realized there were so much of dusts that covered the computer and worse, I needed to rub hard in order to get rid of the oil-like substances on my keyboard. The substances were like our body's "laki". The things were so stubborn to leave my keyboard. I wonder why the dusts like my keyboard so much?? Get lost!!! Don't ever return....

Xtra: Computer Cleaning Information

Face-Alike...
Yesterday, I was watching Zathura on Astro. Then, I spotted this girl whose face is so alike as Avril Lavigne. Her real name is Kristen Stewart and she plays as Lisa in that show. The more I look at her, the more I think she looks like Lavigne. I even try to compare their faces by combining these two pictures side by side:

Sources:-http://www.kristenstewartpictures.com/2007/10/28/
glamour-picture-of-kristen-stewart/
-http://www.teenhollywood.com/wallpaper/370/
avril-lavigne-wallpaper.html