I HATE VIRUSES!

Unfortunately I’m not talking about the kind you actually get as a human but the ones for the PC.

Recently my wife was researching some stuff on the CBS Reality Show Big Brother and stumbled across a site that had, in my opinion, the worst of them all. It comes disguised under the following titles Windows Antivirus, AntiSpyWare (like in this example) Win Antivirus, Antivirus Pro, Antivirus Pro 2009, Antivirus Pro 2010 and I think there is an Antivirus Pro 2011.

Its “M.O.” is to pose as an antivirus application from Microsoft and scare you into thinking you have a gazillion viri and malware. I will give the designers credit as they have done a pretty good job of making it look like a Microsoft product, complete with drive icons and everything.

As you can see from the screen shot above, there are ways to tell that this is not your antivirus application warning you.

“Why didn’t my antivirus or anti-malware program detect this?” Good question. It’s basically a simple web page designed to look like your system. Anyone can make a page like this and run either javascript or VBscript in the background which controls the scary warning stuff. This is not technically a “virus”. However, if you download the so called “fix” and install it, you’re now infected.

“Ok, so I panicked and downloaded and installed the virus. What can I do to get rid of it?”

Just follow these steps. (More detailed guide at bleepingcomputer.com)

1. Don’t panic
2. Immediately download (if you don’t already have them) MalwareBytes and CCleaner.
3. Unplug your computer from any network connections
4. Install MalwareBytes and CCleaner
5. Run your regular antivirus application on a FULL SCAN
6. Don’t panic
7. Let your regular antivirus program do its cleaning.
8. Install MallwareBytes and CCleaner
9. Run MalwareBytes and let it do its cleaning
10. Run CCleaner’s Registry portion. Don’t worry, it’s safe.
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11. Restart your PC
12. Repeat steps 5 through11 if necessary

This should have removed it completely. This virus is really a PITA! (Pain In The ASS!) It has a bad habit of leaving little files on your system which re-installs it upon the next boot.

As far as I know, MalwareBytes is about the best tool to remove this virus. CCleaner is great for the “followup” in removing any registry files that may get left behind. With some calm nerves and a little determination, you can avoid getting this thing and if you do, you can remove it with confidence.

If the tech world ended, what would you do?

I was talking to a friend the other day and he was telling me about how he would like to start doing some leatherworking. No, not the stuff in World of Warcraft but the real type of leatherworking. I mentioned to him that I have a box of leatherworking tools somewhere in my garage and he’s more than welcome to them as I don’t really see myself doing anything with them anytime soon.

This, along with some recent events in the technology world got me to thinking. What would happen if we lost all of our high tech gadgets and technology? Now I know what you’re thinking, “Oh jeez, another one of these survivalist nuts.” but hold on, I’m not really one of those guys, I do think its good to have some skills and things to fall back on but seriously, what would todays world do if we lost our internet, computers, TV and other things?

Not to long ago our local Wal*Mart had a major failure in it’s point of sale system. They were unable to process any purchases for well over 2 hours. Now you old timers would simply say to just take cash and finish the sale, well that’s easier said than done. They weren’t even able to get into the registers not to mention most of the cashiers probably didn’t know how to count or make change. Not really their fault but today’s technology has virtually eliminated this skill.

As some of you may already know, one of my hobbies is woodworking. I’m mostly focused on learning hand tools and joinery. Nothing wrong with power tools but thousands of years ago they didn’t have power tools and all that really beautiful old furniture or buildings had to be made somehow. This could be something I could fall back on if all of today’s technology was lost.

So what “old world” skill do you have? Have you participated in it lately? Are you teaching younger members of your family your skill?

HP Discover 2011–Get ready

Well I got approved to go to HP Discover 2011 this year and I have to say I’m really excited to go. I’ve got my schedule all filled up with the most prominent events and sessions related to HP Quality Center and ALM v11.

Its funny because it’s in Vegas this year and everyone is thinking I’m going to have all this fun. Actually I won’t be. Well, I’ll be having fun in the sense of learning as much as I can about Quality Center, upgrading to ALM and getting a chance to talk to other Quality Center admins and sharing our failures and successes of administrating Quality Center and attempting to achieve my certifications in Quality center and QuickTest Pro.

As for Vegas, Nah, I’m not going to have much time for anything outside of the conference. My schedule is pretty much booked up from 8:00AM to 9:00PM plus I promised my wife I wouldn’t have any fun since she can’t be there. (although I am going to Margaritaville! SHHHHH! Don’t say anything though!) We didn’t get to go when we got married last year and that was one of the only places I wanted to go.

besides that one of the things I’m looking forward to is participating in the Vivit Tweetup on Tuesday night at the Triple Crown Event.

Not to mention the blogging I’ll be doing from there. So if you want to follow along then follow me on twitter @b4d93r and once I get the info on the blogging I’ll post that. I believe it will be on the HP Community Forums but I’m not sure. However I will have updates of the days events on my personal blog right here.