this music video was created by my friends thimal and iresha. featuring in the video is thimal with his sweethart prasadi. lyrics, music and voice by iresha.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Trojan-GameThief.Win32.OnLineGames.srhe
recently my PC was infected by a Trojan that damaged some files. according to Kaspersky, the name of the Trojan is "Trojan-GameThief.Win32.OnLineGames.srhe." unfortunately, i was out of the country when it got infected (my friend had been using the PC) and when i returned it had caused a lot of damage.
nature of the Trojan:
1. restarts the PC on its own
2. damages .jpeg files
3. disables the internet connection
4. prevents anti-virus software from updating its database
5. spreads upon disk access
method of cloning:
the Trojan spreads through any portable media (including CD, DVD and flash drives). it uses an autorun.inf file stored in the root of the media, where it executes a couple of batch files (.bat) and .com files. these in turn access other drives connected to the PC and infects them in turn. so just formatting the main drive an reinstalling the system is not enough. when you access an infected drive, the autorun.inf re-activates the Trojan from hibernation.
identifying an infected PC:
an infected PC can be easily identified by using a dir/a command on a DOS prompt. however, this might give false results if used from within Windows. so you might have to bootup to a DOS prompt using a Windows 98 bootable CD.
you should see an autorun.inf, a couple of unidentified .bat files and a couple of unidentified .com files. usually the system doesn't leave any .com files on the root. and the only present .bat file on the root should be the autoexec.bat file. if other unknown .bat files or .com files are present, you can suspect an infection.
manual removal of the Trojan:
if Kaspersky is present and updated, it will automatically remove the Trojan upon accessing the disks. however, if you don't use anti-virus software or if your virus database is out-of-date, you can use this manual cleaning process.
1. disable systems restore on all drives.
2. restart the PC and boot using a Windows 98 bootable disk.
3. type dir/a on the DOS prompt.
4. use the attrib function with the parameters -a -s -h -r to remove all assigned attributes to the autorun.inf and other unidentified .bat and .com files on the root.
5. delete the autorun.inf and all other unidentified .bat and .com files.
6. follow steps 3–5 for all logical disk drives on your PC and those conneted to your PC.
7. once the cleaning process is done, you can remove the Windows 98 CD and restart you PC.
8. re-install Windows. if you fail to follow the process in steps 3–6, the Trojan will re-activate itself from hibernation, upon re-installing Windows. so it is important to follow the steps carefully.
i have just explained how i removed the Trojan from my PC. there might be better methods of doing this. just let me know if you find one. re-installing windows is not a compulsory step, however, if your PC is prevented from connecting to the internet or if you see damaged .jpeg files, you should re-install.
good luck cleaning Trojans.
nature of the Trojan:
1. restarts the PC on its own
2. damages .jpeg files
3. disables the internet connection
4. prevents anti-virus software from updating its database
5. spreads upon disk access
method of cloning:
the Trojan spreads through any portable media (including CD, DVD and flash drives). it uses an autorun.inf file stored in the root of the media, where it executes a couple of batch files (.bat) and .com files. these in turn access other drives connected to the PC and infects them in turn. so just formatting the main drive an reinstalling the system is not enough. when you access an infected drive, the autorun.inf re-activates the Trojan from hibernation.
identifying an infected PC:
an infected PC can be easily identified by using a dir/a command on a DOS prompt. however, this might give false results if used from within Windows. so you might have to bootup to a DOS prompt using a Windows 98 bootable CD.
you should see an autorun.inf, a couple of unidentified .bat files and a couple of unidentified .com files. usually the system doesn't leave any .com files on the root. and the only present .bat file on the root should be the autoexec.bat file. if other unknown .bat files or .com files are present, you can suspect an infection.
manual removal of the Trojan:
if Kaspersky is present and updated, it will automatically remove the Trojan upon accessing the disks. however, if you don't use anti-virus software or if your virus database is out-of-date, you can use this manual cleaning process.
1. disable systems restore on all drives.
2. restart the PC and boot using a Windows 98 bootable disk.
3. type dir/a on the DOS prompt.
4. use the attrib function with the parameters -a -s -h -r to remove all assigned attributes to the autorun.inf and other unidentified .bat and .com files on the root.
5. delete the autorun.inf and all other unidentified .bat and .com files.
6. follow steps 3–5 for all logical disk drives on your PC and those conneted to your PC.
7. once the cleaning process is done, you can remove the Windows 98 CD and restart you PC.
8. re-install Windows. if you fail to follow the process in steps 3–6, the Trojan will re-activate itself from hibernation, upon re-installing Windows. so it is important to follow the steps carefully.
i have just explained how i removed the Trojan from my PC. there might be better methods of doing this. just let me know if you find one. re-installing windows is not a compulsory step, however, if your PC is prevented from connecting to the internet or if you see damaged .jpeg files, you should re-install.
good luck cleaning Trojans.
Monday, July 21, 2008
If KITT Had Four Doors ...
"knight rider industries three thousand" aka KITT, is the next generation of "knight rider industries two thousand," the legendary high-tech car with artificial intelligence.
the "shelby mustang 500 gtr" originally comes with two doors -- of course it is a racing model. this is what it will look like with four doors ...
the "shelby mustang 500 gtr" originally comes with two doors -- of course it is a racing model. this is what it will look like with four doors ...
Friday, July 18, 2008
Ecuador: Best of Dance Music
i listened to the orignal "ecuador" track by sash in 1997... 11 years ago. and now i got a copy of one of the latest remixes, "ecuador 2007" -- one of the best, i repeat, one of the best, dance music tracks i've ever heard. already, i would have listened to it 20+ times ;-)
you can download the track here: Ecuador 2007 (Electro Remix)
sascha lappessen aka sash, is the man behind the original "ecuador" track. i started listening to sash since 1997, when i first got hold of "encore une fois." it was different, a new type of music, and i liked the change.
i'm sure all the dance/trance/electro fans will love this new track :-)
you can download the track here: Ecuador 2007 (Electro Remix)
sascha lappessen aka sash, is the man behind the original "ecuador" track. i started listening to sash since 1997, when i first got hold of "encore une fois." it was different, a new type of music, and i liked the change.
i'm sure all the dance/trance/electro fans will love this new track :-)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Excel Formula: Second Occurance in a vlookup
the vlookup function in microsoft excel is very useful. however, it only returns the first occurance in a range. here i have written a complex formula that will extract the "n"th occurance.
it's easy if you can use named ranges to define the range. defining only the first column is enough as the range for the vlookup is specified through an offset.
=VLOOKUP(J5,OFFSET($A$1,MATCH(J5,$C$2:$C$200,0)+(K5-1),M5,COUNTIF($C$2:$C$200,J5),N5),2+(L5-2),FALSE)
where:
J5 - Lookup Value
K5 - Required Occurance
L5 - Required Column
M5 - Start Column Number in Range for vlookup (Offset from $A$1)
N5 - Number of Columns in Range for vlookup
$C$2:$C$200 - Lookup Range (This need not be the full range, only the column where the lookup value can be found is enough)
note: this is a vector formula; so you should use CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to get it working, if not it will return an error.
i wrote this for one of my projects and may be i havent explained the process clearly; so if you find an issue, or if it is not working, post a note or email me. i can explain how to make it work :-)
it's easy if you can use named ranges to define the range. defining only the first column is enough as the range for the vlookup is specified through an offset.
=VLOOKUP(J5,OFFSET($A$1,MATCH(J5,$C$2:$C$200,0)+(K5-1),M5,COUNTIF($C$2:$C$200,J5),N5),2+(L5-2),FALSE)
where:
J5 - Lookup Value
K5 - Required Occurance
L5 - Required Column
M5 - Start Column Number in Range for vlookup (Offset from $A$1)
N5 - Number of Columns in Range for vlookup
$C$2:$C$200 - Lookup Range (This need not be the full range, only the column where the lookup value can be found is enough)
note: this is a vector formula; so you should use CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to get it working, if not it will return an error.
i wrote this for one of my projects and may be i havent explained the process clearly; so if you find an issue, or if it is not working, post a note or email me. i can explain how to make it work :-)
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