The Russians have a security problem. Terrorists bombed a railway station (awful video showing the bomb flash and smoke is on TV) and then bombed a trolley bus. Thirty or forty people dead. These atrocities occured in "Volgograd" , "400 miles south and east of Moscow".
It wasn't until the next day that one newsie finally figured out that Volgograd is better known in the West by it's Word War II name, Stalingrad. The newsie vaguely mentioned that a battle had been fought there.
The newsie didn't mention that the battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in World War II. It was the first time the Russians managed to beat the Germans in a big standup fight. Before Stalingrad, the Germans beat the Russians every time. That turned around after Stalingrad and the Russians beat the Germans every time. The Russian victory at Stalingrad was crushing, they surrounded the German army and took them all captive. Germany lost 250,000 men at Stalingrad. The movie "Enemy at the Gates" was about the battle of Stalingrad.
You would think that after such a legendary victory in the Great Patriotic War, the city would still be known as Stalingrad. But, when "deStalinization" happened under Khrushchev in the late 1950's, part of "deStalinization" involved taking Stalin's name off his city on the Volga.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Combofix
My computer survived Combofix. This car climbed Mt. Washington. Poor old desktop was still sluggish so I tried the roughest toughest anti virus out there. Combofix, spoken of in awed tones by computer geeks. I downloaded it from Bleeping Computer and turned it loose. It took it's time, made at least two passes. On pass one it reported another rootkit Zero.Layer.something or other, hiding in the TCP-IP stack. Claimed to have killed it. Warned that I might encounter some problems getting back on the internet, but promised a fix.
Any how, after a long run it reported success and printed out a LONG log file. It listed a lot of files that it zapped, all the "run" keys it found in the registry, and a bunch of other Windows files. Surprisingly it didn't list the rootkit it claimed to have zapped. You would think the programmers would be happy to claim a trophy like a root kit. The log file looks a lot like the file created by Hijack This, in fact the Combofix developers may have borrowed all the Hijack This code to print the log. I haven't acted on anything in the log file yet. I recognize all the run keys, they are running legitimate programs like the wireless modem driver.
I'll Google on the windows files it lists, and see if I can find Microsoft certified, pure as the driven snow, replacements, just in case.
But not tonight. It's bed time. And the desktop is running better. Quicker keyboard and mouse response.
Anyhow, if you have a really tough virus that ordinary anti virus programs cannot see or cannot zap, try Combofix. It's powerful. And free. Just running it ain't hard, just click on it and it goes to work.
The log file is kinda cryptic and you do have to know stuff to understand it. Don't blow anything away just cause it shows up in the log file.
Any how, after a long run it reported success and printed out a LONG log file. It listed a lot of files that it zapped, all the "run" keys it found in the registry, and a bunch of other Windows files. Surprisingly it didn't list the rootkit it claimed to have zapped. You would think the programmers would be happy to claim a trophy like a root kit. The log file looks a lot like the file created by Hijack This, in fact the Combofix developers may have borrowed all the Hijack This code to print the log. I haven't acted on anything in the log file yet. I recognize all the run keys, they are running legitimate programs like the wireless modem driver.
I'll Google on the windows files it lists, and see if I can find Microsoft certified, pure as the driven snow, replacements, just in case.
But not tonight. It's bed time. And the desktop is running better. Quicker keyboard and mouse response.
Anyhow, if you have a really tough virus that ordinary anti virus programs cannot see or cannot zap, try Combofix. It's powerful. And free. Just running it ain't hard, just click on it and it goes to work.
The log file is kinda cryptic and you do have to know stuff to understand it. Don't blow anything away just cause it shows up in the log file.
Monday, December 30, 2013
MSM is STILL out there selling Obama Tales
The New York Times on Sunday published a big story to support the original Obama excuses for the Benghazi disaster. As you might remember, at the time, the Obama folk blamed the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on an obscure video posted on the Internet. They sent Susan Rice, high ranking adminstration official to appear on all five Sunday pundit TV shows to push the video theory.
Anyhow, the Times just printed a big story retelling the "nasty video caused attack" theory.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is even handed MSM support for a beleaguered Obama administration.
Anyhow, the Times just printed a big story retelling the "nasty video caused attack" theory.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is even handed MSM support for a beleaguered Obama administration.
Microsoft Security Essentials
Poor old desktop, just hasn't been the same since the root kit got into her over Christmas. So I been looking for virii, anti virii, rootkit killers, anything. There is something in her that makes her boot slow, load slow, and its so bad it makes the sound stutter. Just the the normal Windows "Ka-ching" boot noise comes out funny sounding.
So I tried the Microsoft Security Essentials package, from the Windows Update site. It took an hour to download, another hour to update itself, and another hour to scan my hard disk. Didn't find anything. Speedy it is not. Typical Microsoft. So I shut down last night and went to bed.
This morning I boot up to check email and the slows are worse. Like really bad. It's good old Microsoft Security Essentials, it's hogging up to 95% of CPU time. Apparently it loads itself and starts a disk scan every morning whether I need it or not. It' not a polite program, it hogs so much CPU time as to freeze the mouse and everything else. So I removed it this morning. I don't recommend it to anyone.
So I tried the Microsoft Security Essentials package, from the Windows Update site. It took an hour to download, another hour to update itself, and another hour to scan my hard disk. Didn't find anything. Speedy it is not. Typical Microsoft. So I shut down last night and went to bed.
This morning I boot up to check email and the slows are worse. Like really bad. It's good old Microsoft Security Essentials, it's hogging up to 95% of CPU time. Apparently it loads itself and starts a disk scan every morning whether I need it or not. It' not a polite program, it hogs so much CPU time as to freeze the mouse and everything else. So I removed it this morning. I don't recommend it to anyone.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Real jobs vs Govt Jobs
Real jobs. Take a manufacturer for example. They make valuable product. Proceeds from product sales pay the work force, buy raw materials and parts, pay the bills, and buy production machinery. If the product is a good one, sales increase, the factory expands, more people are hired. The money that sales brings in, goes right out again, increasing demand for food, clothing, housing, raw materials and so on.
Govt jobs. Take a bureaucrat for example. They don't produce anything valuable. There are no proceeds from sales. The bureaucrat's pay is money taken away from the citizens by way of taxes. The citizen's could have spent that money just as well as the bureaucrat does. The more bureaucrats the government hires, the more money it takes from working citizens. Government workers are a drag on the economy, they consume but they don't produce.
And yet, lefties will tell you that government hiring is required to "get the economy going". I heard that a couple of times over Christmas.
Govt jobs. Take a bureaucrat for example. They don't produce anything valuable. There are no proceeds from sales. The bureaucrat's pay is money taken away from the citizens by way of taxes. The citizen's could have spent that money just as well as the bureaucrat does. The more bureaucrats the government hires, the more money it takes from working citizens. Government workers are a drag on the economy, they consume but they don't produce.
And yet, lefties will tell you that government hiring is required to "get the economy going". I heard that a couple of times over Christmas.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Rootkit.bout.cidox.b
Nasty virus. Lovable daughter, who is up for Christmas, was web surfing on my machine. One website she surfed thru infected my trusty Compaq 1750 NX
. It's nasty. It slows down the boot, slows down loading programs, slows down the internet, freezes the mouse, and crashes the whole machine erratically.
It's a rootkit, which means it hacks out a piece of hard disk to live on that is not part of the Windows file system. This means that Windows, and Windows tools like Explorer cannot even see it on disk, even if you knew where to look.
I tried Anti Malware Bytes (that crashed before it finished) Spybot Search and Destroy, Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool, and Regclean without any luck. But Kaspersky's TDSSKiller nailed it, or at least crippled it a lot. Trusty Compaq is now running mostly normal, although there are moments of sluggishness that make me think the damn thing is still active.
Damn Microsoft for making Windows so vulnerable. Damn virus writers. Writing a virus ought to be a felony punishable by stoning to death in the public square.
. It's nasty. It slows down the boot, slows down loading programs, slows down the internet, freezes the mouse, and crashes the whole machine erratically.
It's a rootkit, which means it hacks out a piece of hard disk to live on that is not part of the Windows file system. This means that Windows, and Windows tools like Explorer cannot even see it on disk, even if you knew where to look.
I tried Anti Malware Bytes (that crashed before it finished) Spybot Search and Destroy, Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool, and Regclean without any luck. But Kaspersky's TDSSKiller nailed it, or at least crippled it a lot. Trusty Compaq is now running mostly normal, although there are moments of sluggishness that make me think the damn thing is still active.
Damn Microsoft for making Windows so vulnerable. Damn virus writers. Writing a virus ought to be a felony punishable by stoning to death in the public square.
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