Journal Entries
Argh
Posted Jul 27, 2001
I've just spent the whole day trying to rid our system from the SirCam virus. It's darned clever, I have to admit. Even the latest update for Norton Antivirus was completely useless against it (it could detect it but not get rid of it), so I had to get rid of it with DOS and the registry editor.
If you want to know the gory details: it alters the registry so it's run every time you run an application (also meaning that if you delete the virus executable, Windows complains that it cannot run anything, including regedit); puts itself in the recycle bin, which isn't normally scanned for viruses; replaces rundll32.exe and a few other critical files with a copy of itself; repeatedly inserts itself in autoexec.bat; contains its own smtp emailing program, meaning it bypasses your regular email program, so you don't have a clue about all the emails it's sending until you start getting panicky replies from people; grabs email addresses not only from your address book, but from your internet cache too, meaning it gets sent to a hell of a lot of people if you're not careful; and attaches random documents from your hard disk - meaning some fairly sensitive business documents were sent from here; alters the wording of the email and document name each time, so it's hard to recognise; disguises itself as a common-looking document; and uses less known executable names such as .PIF and .LNK, meaning most people won't realise that it's a program not a document even if they are aware that it has double file extensions.
Bleh.
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Latest reply: Jul 27, 2001
Huzzah! Whoopee!
Posted Jul 24, 2001
After seven hours of struggling, I have finally got my new internet connection working. It's ADSL and is extremely fast 
(well, compared to my old connection, anyway)
Trouble is, now I've got this fantastically fast connection, I can't actually think of anything to do with it. Hmm. Any ideas?
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Latest reply: Jul 24, 2001
Meetup, stuff, things
Posted Jul 8, 2001
At last! My computer is working (at least for the moment) and our phone has been connected, so I can go online for the first time in weeks.
I'm sitting in my new bedroom surrounded by boxes of Stuff, as I haven't had time to unpack yet, even though I've been here for a week. Too busy cycling, working and going to the h2g2 meetup yesterday...
...which was nice. Got to see lots of old friends, and even one or two new. Got to meet Tinkerbell at least, albeit briefly. Got ritually attacked by Galaxy Babe and Mina (but survived to tell the tale), met one researcher who I had always thought was a gal but turned out to be a bloke (I won't say who to avoid embarressing them and me!), got to laugh (lots) at the italics (especially Ashley who I imagine has a bit of a headache this morning), and of course got to chat with a whole load of others who I won't bother naming now as there were so many of them. The biggest meet up so far, definitely, I wouldn't be surprised if there were twice the number of the last one, and the official count was 42 then. (although I suspect the statistics were fixed a bit to get that number 
)
Anyhoo.
It's a lovely day today, even if the landlord for the house next door is taking advantage of the fact that the tenants are away on holiday to sunbathe naked in the garden...
I heard that Tim Henman lost but ah well maybe next year...
My computer's let me write this whole message without crashing but I can guarantee the blue screen of death will pop up as soon as I press the buttony thing so I'm putting it off as long as possible, which doesn't make sense, but oh well.
Anyway, that's enough about me. How are you?
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Latest reply: Jul 8, 2001
Things are looking up
Posted Jun 3, 2001
Tomorrow I start a new job... the kind of job I've always wanted and never been able to find (well, actually I'd really like to be a professional rock climber but the webmaster job will do for now ). The pay isn't great but hopefully I'll enjoy it; and enjoying life is far more important than money! 
The last few years have been strange... but hopefully this is a turning point in my life. Going back into full time work will be hard but the challenge will be good for me.
Things I'll miss? Not daytime TV, that's for sure. But I'll miss lying in my hammock in the sun... I've found the perfect place for it, in a birch tree in our back garden. (Up the tree actually. I haven't grown out of climbing trees yet 
)
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Latest reply: Jun 3, 2001
Peregrin
Researcher U40382
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