Into the Void

Microsoft Dreamspark Student Software

August 12th, 2009

Dreamspark is Microsoft’s program for getting free development tools into the hands of students, in hopes that when they get out in the business world they’ll ask for the tools they’re familiar with. Or in Microsoft’s own words:

It is our hope that the DreamSpark program will spark your creativity and help you harness software’s transformative magic to turn your good ideas into reality, by equipping you with the tools you need to succeed and excel during your academic experience and skills you will need after graduation.

Are you a student? Here’s what you can get:

Visual Studio 2008 Professional
Microsoft Virtual PC
XNA Game Studio

… and more.

That’s right, these are the same goodies that old women like me have to pay hundreds of dollars for.

Tags: DreamSpark, Microsoft, Software, sql, Visual Studio, windows server
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Thinking Machine 4: Chess Visualization

March 9th, 2009

Thinking Machine 4: Play the game.

Chess visualization

I don’t have the patience for chess unless mentally enhanced by certain herbs. Until my local health food store starts selling it, I’m not going to be playing chess.

Nonetheless, I found this site interesting. The picture above visualizes a computer opponent’s “thought” process as it examines series of moves and responses.

Tags: chess, Software
Posted in Games | No Comments »

Microsoft DreamSpark

July 25th, 2008

Microsoft DreamSpark

Dreamspark is Microsoft’s program for getting free development tools into the hands of students, in hopes that when they get out in the business world they’ll ask for the tools they’re familiar with. Or in Microsoft’s own words:

It is our hope that the DreamSpark program will spark your creativity and help you harness software’s transformative magic to turn your good ideas into reality, by equipping you with the tools you need to succeed and excel during your academic experience and skills you will need after graduation.

Are you a student? Here’s what you can get:

Visual Studio 2008 Professional
Microsoft Virtual PC
XNA Game Studio

… and more.

That’s right, these are the same goodies that old women like me have to pay hundreds of dollars for.

[ad]

Tags: DreamSpark, Microsoft, Software, Virtual PC, Visual Studio, XNA Game Studio
Posted in Koolaid Test Kitchen, Products, Software, Technology | No Comments »

Gusano Bagel

December 2nd, 2007

It would, of course, would have been far easier to reformat my hard drive.

The problem seems to be a bagel variant and has something to do with files named
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\hidr.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\srosa.sys
and possibly an infected NETWAITING.EXE file.

I have tried multiple rootkit detection and removal programs with varying degrees of success.

McAfee Security Center says that no parts of my McAfee software are enabled. It says that parts of the software are missing and I have to reinstall.

McAfee Rootkit Detective 1.1 flagged hidr.sys and said it would remove it, but it didn’t.

F-Secure Online Virus Scanner is unable to download all its files – I suspect the bug is blocking them. Their Blacklight program has been integrated into the new scanner. Oh well.

AVG Free won’t install – it can’t find one of its installation files – I assume the malware is deleting it. AVG is my number one favorite free antivirus program.

Panda Anti-rootkit, available from Download.com, found the files and renamed one of them, but the problem came back next boot. Panda offers a number of free tools too, including an online scanner called ActiveScan and a beta online scanner named nano-scan. The big thing they offer is repair utilities for specific infections.

EliBagle v10.75 located the files and a registry entry. I rebooted in safe mode. I deleted the files. I deleted the registry entry. And just to be certain, I deleted the preload file for hidr.exe.

At this point IE is no longer going out to strange web sites. I can only hope that it was unable to download something even worse while McAfee was down.

My McAfee subscription is still active, but I haven’t decided whether to reinstall or to switch to something cheaper and just as useless.

Technorati: bagel+variant rootkit Panda+Anti-rootkit Panda+ActiveScan Rootkit+Detective F-Secure trojan

Tags: anti-virus, bagel, hidr.exe, McAfee Security Center, Online Virus Scanner, repair utilities, rootkit, Software, srosa.sys, trojan
Posted in Geekess, Meta, Software | 2 Comments »

Code Snippet

December 14th, 2005

This is what I do at work.

/* For instructions on use, read article * "Computer Program Virtually Eliminates * Machine Errors" * http://www.aa6e.net/msewing/orema.html */ void orema() { short invocation; }