Elk Cloner (1982)

Elk Cloner is regarded as the first virus to hit personal computers worldwide, “Elk Cloner” spread through Apple II floppy disks. The program was authored by Rich Skrenta, a ninth-grade student then, who wanted to play a joke on his schoolmates. The virus was put on a gaming disk, which could be used 49 times. On 50th time, instead of starting the game, it opened a blank screen that read a poem: “Elk Cloner:  The program with a personality” It will get on all your disks. It will infiltrate your chips. Yes it’s Cloner! It will stick to you like glue. It will modify RAM too. Send in the Cloner!” The computer would then be infected. Elk Cloner was though a self-replicating virus like most other viruses, it bore little resemblance to the malicious programmes of today.

Brain (1986)

Brain was the first virus to hit computers running Microsoft’s then popular operating system MS-DOS. The virus was written by two Pakistani brothers, Basit Farooq Alvi and his brother Amjad Farooq Alvi and left the phone number of their computer repair shop. A boot-sector virus, Brain infected the boot records of 360K floppy disks. The virus would fill unused space on the floppy disk so that it could not be used. The first “stealth” virus, it hid itself from any detection by disguising the infected space on the disk. Due to its partial non-destructiveness, Brain often went undetected as many times users paid little attention to the slow speed of floppy disk access. The virus was also known as Lahore, Pakistani and Pakistani Brain. BusinessWeek magazine called the virus the Pakistani flu. The brothers told TIME magazine they had written it to protect their medical software from piracy and it was supposed to target copyright infringers only.

Morris (1988)

Written by a Cornell University graduate student, Robert Tappan Morris, the virus infected an estimated 6,000 university and military computers connected over the Internet. Incidentally, Morris’s father was a top government computer-security expert, The computers Morris invaded were part of the Arpanet, an international grid of telephone lines, buried cables, and satellite hookups established by the Department of Defense in 1969. Interestingly, Morris later claimed that the worm was not written to cause damage, but to gauge the size of the Internet. An unintended consequence of the code, however, led to the damage caused.

CIH (1998)

Chernobyl virus also known as CIH or Spacefiller was first detected in 1998, however, it first triggered in April 1999, 13th the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (which took place in Ukrainian). It was conceived by a University graduate from Taiwan called Chen Ing Hau (CIH). One of the most harmful viruses, it overwrites critical information on infected system drives. The virus was reportedly the first virus known to have the power to damage computer hardware, with virus attempting to erase the hard drive and overwrite the system’s BIOS as well. The virus is also known as “space filler virus,” due to its ability to clandestinely take up file space on computers and prevent anti-virus software from running. The malicious program caused widespread damage in several Asian countries paralyzing thousands of computers.

Melissa (1999)

‘Melissa’ was one of the first viruses to spread over email. When users opened an attachment, the virus sent copies of itself to the first 50 people in the user’s address book, covering the globe within hours. The virus known as Melissa — believed to have been named after a Florida stripper its creator David L. Smith knew, caused more than $80m in damage after it was launched in March 1999. Computers became infected when users received a particular e-mail and opened a Word document attached to it. First found on March 26, 1999, Melissa shut down Internet mail systems at several enterprises across the world after being they got clogged with infected e-mails carrying the worm. The worm was first distributed in the Usenet discussion group alt.sex. The creator of the virus, David Smith, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment by a United States court.

The USP of the ASUS P565 model is the 800MHz processor from Marvel. In a PDA, 800MHz processor is quite a lot. You will feel the power of processor once you start using this phone. With 128MB RAM (and 256MB ROM) it runs faster than my 2GB RAM and 3.2GHz processor with Windows 7 in my laptop. Look wise this ASUS P565 looks very sexy and with only 120gm weight and just 16 mm thickness it is quite light. My Sony Ericsson P990i was quite bulky as well as heavy. So here a little sigh of relief.

Here goes the details feature and specification of the ASUS P565 mobile:

- It has an ASUS proprietary mobile touch screen technology called Glide.
- High-resolution 2.8” touchscreen for exceptional clarity and brilliance
- A very powerful 800MHz processor (My first PC had only 766MHz Pentium 3 with 64 MB RAM)

Specification:

System HSDPA 3.6Mbps, UMTS 2100/EDGE/GPRS/GSM 900/1800/1900
Operation System Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6.1™ Professional
Dimensions 102 x 60.5 x 16 mm
Weight 120g with battery
Standby Time 3G: 300 hours and 2G: 250 hours
Talk Time 3G: 4 hours and 2G: 6 hours

Display 2.8″ Touch Screen ,65000-color , TFT Resolution: 480 x 640

CPU Marvell PXA930 800MHz
Memory Built-in 256MB Flash ROM and 128MB DDR SDRAM
Expansion Slot MicroSD (support SDHC)
Communication WLAN 802.11b/g, Bluetooth V2.0+EDR,USB v1.1
Battery 1300mAh Li-Ion
Camera 3 Mega-Pixels, Auto Focus (Main) and 300K-Pixels Camera for Video Telephony (Sub)
Video Record:MPEG4@QVGA 24fps / H.263@QCIF 24fps
Playback:MPEG4@QVGA 30fps / H.263@QCIF 30fps
Picture Format JPEG/PNG/GIP/BMP
Audio MP3/WMA/AAC/AAC+/3GP
JAVA J2ME (CLDC 1.1 + MIDP2.0)

I will take some screen shot and image of the phone and post them later, if possible I will write a review of the phone very soon, once I feel that I have used it enough to know about all the pros and cons of this mobile. But as of now I am quite happy with this phone and will do a lot of experiment for few days.

To avoid this discrepancies and to make the iPhone accessible by general public the concept of unlocking iPhone came out. So let me tell about what exactly is unlocking or an unlocked iPhone.  Unlocking lets you place calls with any GSM carrier by inserting different Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) into the phone. Normally these SIMs from unapproved carriers won’t work. When your iPhone is unlocked, just buy a local GSM-compatible SIM, place it in your phone, and make your calls. Most phones in the US are “locked” to a particular network. In the iPhone’s case, that’s AT&T for the US, O2 for Great Britain, and so on. Should you want to use your iPhone with another GSM carrier, you need to unlock.

When Apple released the latest 2.1.1 version of the iPhone firmware it is no longer possible to unlock iPhone via software. But there are iPhone unlocking service providers which provides very reliable unlocking service. The method is thoroughly tested with SIMs from various countries and it is working fine without any hassle. So how does this method work?

The 3G iPhone unlock solution is a hardware unlock solution in the form of a ‘piggy back sim’. This hardware unlock solution is a plug and play solution that will instantly unlock your 3G iPhone. The 3G iPhone Unlock SIM is a super thin ( 0,01 mm.) sim card that slides over the sim card of the carrier that you want to use. It basically “fools” the iPhone into thinking that the original SIM is inserted.

The 3G Unlock SIM unlock sim card will not make any changes to the iPhone software. Its a simple plug and play solution. Just slide the 3G unlock sim on top of your existing carrier sim, and your 3G iPhone will be fully unlocked with all functions working. The main benefit of a hardware unlock solution is so you will not loose any warranty at all.

For more information and demo videos about this unlocking service, you can head over to iPhone 3G unlocking website.

Requirements to take advantage of Windows XP mode feature:

- The PC should be running with Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise edition.
- 2GB RAM and 10-15GB HD space for Virtual environment.
- As it utilizes CPU based virtualization technique the CPU should support it.
- For AMD based AMD-V and Intel based processor Intel-VT should be turned on in BIOS.
- The free download of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode available from Microsoft Download Center.

Microsoft has a detailed document on How to confirm your PC can run Windows XP Mode . Here you can find download of the processor test utility too.

Setting up Virtual XP or Windows XP Mode:

If your PC meets all the above requirements and you have downloaded the 2 set up files from Microsoft, first install the Windows Virtual PC and then install Windows XP Mode. At this stage you might be asked to restart the PC. Upon re start you can run Virtual XP from Start > All programs list. It will ask you to enter the password, in this window check the option Remember credentials (recommended). After this step is complete you will see a wndow that says setting up virtual Windows XP for first use. It may take some time so don’t loose patience.

Now what you will see is a screen like this:

Now you are ready with your Virtual XP set up. It’s time to install a couple of application you wish to run under Windows XP. One thing to remember here is that while installing any apps select All users whenever you are asked else the integration feature will not work properly.

The Windows XP mode has a special feature as compared to Virtual PC or other virtualization technology in which you have to run virtual environment as a separate application. In XP Mode once an application is instaleld in Virtual environment it is published to the host Windows 7 too. It means the application will be availble in Windows 7 start menu. So starting the application will Start the application in Windows 7 but in virtual environment where the virtual PC will be running in the background.

Final thought on Windows XP Mode feature:

It seems Microsoft is not aiming to woo the consumer home users with this feature as it is evident from the fact thatthis feature is available only in windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise edition. So do you think Windows 7 will still be a bete noir to consumers who are upset about Vista’s program compatibility? Only time will tell and we will get to know once Vista RTM is released.

Here I have selected the best of the themes and customization pack available for free. So feel free to download and use them.

Windows 7 theme for XP

This theme will no doubt convert your Windows XP machine into a Windows 7 machine. It has several features like:

The first theme with the correct Taskbar!!!
The first and the only one theme with the same caption and toolbar background image!!!
Got the show desktop button on the extreme left(though it doesn’t works)
The correct and one line systray icons.

Windows 7 theme for Vista

If there is a Windows 7 theme fr Windows XP how can Vista stay far behind. So here is the Windows 7 theme for Vista lovers.  This theme is alos packed with some nice features like:

Windows 7 orb.
Fully-transparent Visual Style.
Left pane with blue and green gradient effect similar to Windows 7.
Windows 7 looks like Shell style.
Taskbar changed similar to Windows 7 Super bar.

Windows 7 complete for Windows XP SP3

This theme replaces many system and dll files of Windows XP SP3 to give some special feature to Windows XP machine.

Windows 7 Theme for Sony Ericsson mobile

Windows 7 Theme for Windows Mobile

Features:

- Taskbar just like in 7 with presed function of the orb
- Start Panel with all functions
- Explorer with all functions (Properties, User folder, Explorer, Games, Control Panel)
- Gadgets just like in windows 7

Windows 7 font Gabriola

This font is specifically developed by Microsoft and it is available as a free font in Windows 7. It supports a wide variety of advanced open type functionality.

Windows 7 user32.dll for XP

user32.dll allows programs to implement a graphical user interface. It contains basic functions, such as window management, user input, text, etc. This hacked version of user32.dll will enable Windows XP machine to give user notification like in Windows 7.

Windows 7 icons pack

Biggest collection of Windows 7 icons pack for all other version of Windows. It contains more than 500 Windows 7 icons in png format. Another icon pack of Windows 7 build 6801 can be found here. If you are looking for Windows 7 build 6956 icons extracted from the build head over to here.

Windows 7 sound

Windows 7 has some cool sound effect, so if you want to replace the sound scheme of your existing windows version, download this pack. The sounds are in WAVE format and contain some extra midi sequence.

Once the PC is infected with MS Antivirus aka AntiVirus 2009, it issues pop up messages with fake notification of malware infection and encourage you to buy the full version of this program to remove the malware. It is very much important not to believe this fake warning and fall prey to this fake Antispyware program. It hinders the normal working of the PC and reduces the system performance. It comes bundled with many malwares and Trojans like zlob.trojan, trojan.vundo and Trojan. Downloader, so in order to completely get rid off this program you need to remove all these malwares and Trojans as well as the Antivirus 2009 component.

There are some tools developed specifically for automatic removal of AntiVirus 2009.  However we will discuss both automatic and manual removal methods. If you fall into the geek category I would suggest you to use the manual removal instruction as there is no other alternative then manual removal method for completely removing this.

The Antivirus 2009 registers some dlls, create some processes of its own, creates a folder in the program files and create some registry entries. So we need to look into all the aspects while doing a manual removal.

Manual removal steps:

I recommend to start the PC in safe mode. This can be done by restarting the PC and hitting F8 key repeatedly till you see advance startup option. Select Safe mode from the list.

Unregister the dll files

The dll files responsible fro Antivirus 2009 are shlwapi.dll and wininet.dll

To unregister these files do the following:

In Windows XP:

Click on Start > Run and type cmd. Click on Ok

In windows Vista:

Click on Start and type cmd in the search box.

From the result, right click on cmd and select run as administrator.

In command prompt type:

regsvr32 /u shlwapi.dll and hit enter and regsvr32 /u wininet.dll hit enter

It will unregister the dll files.

Stop the Antivirus 2009 processes

The processes that might be created after the PC is infected with Antivirus 2009 are

av2009install.exe

av2009install_0011.exe

av2009[1].exe

av2009install.exe

ieupdates.exe

ieupdates.exe

av2009.exe

av2009install_0011.exe

XPAntivirus2009.exe

In order to stop these processes, press Alt+Ctrl+del key together and click on task manager.

Click on processes tab and look for the above processes.

Right click on the process name and select End process.

Delete the files created by it

Generally Antivirus 2009 installs itself inside the program files folder. So look for a folder called AntiVirus 2009 or anything related to this name (or the list at the beginning of the post) and completely delete that.

Also, do a search by going to Start > Search

Click on All files and folders from left and put the file name as the following and search for each of the files and delete them.

Generally the related files are:

c:\Program Files\XP Antivirus
c:\Program Files\XP Antivirus\xpa.exe
C:\Program Files\XPAntivirus\
C:\Program Files\XPAntivirus\XPAntivirus.exe
c:\WINDOWS\system32\scui.cpl
%UserProfile%\Desktop\XP Antivirus 2008.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\XP Antivirus 2008
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\XP Antivirus 2008\Uninstall XP Antivirus 2008.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\XP Antivirus 2008\XP Antivirus 2008.lnk
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\XP Antivirus 2008.lnk
C:\WINDOWS\krln32.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\scvh0st.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\trjdwnl.dll
C:\WINDOWS\shlext32.exe

Removing the registry keys

Click on Start and Run type Regedit and click on Ok.

Click on Start and type Regedit in the search box and hit enter. (In Vista)

In registry editor navigate to the following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Antivirus and delete this whole folder
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Antivirus and delete this whole folder.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Locate ”Antivirus” = “%ProgramFiles%\Antivirus 2009\Antvrs.exe” and delete it.

Automatic removal instructions

There are a number of genuine AntiSpyware and AntiVirus software those are really fruitful in removing spyware infection like AntiVirus 2009. You can use any of the following AntiSpyware program for helping in removing AntiVirus 2009 as well as other malwares:

Super Antispyware

Smitfraudfix

Malware Byte’s Antimalware

Geemail has everything you need to access your gmail email account. It does not require you to configure POP3 or IMAP to access gmail. Just install the program and use your user name and password like you use to login to gmail from your browser and you are done. Moreover it has the same familiar interface of web based gmail so at moment you will feel that you are using gmail in a browser where as you are infact using it ina  desktop client. In order to install Geemail you need the following:

- Adobe Air

Adobe AIR is a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich Internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, or Ajax, that can be deployed as a desktop application.

- Geemail

Adobe AIR serves as the platform above which the Geemail application runs. The Geemail application is available in .air format.

The installation is very simple, first install Adobe AIR and then extract the geemail.air file from the downloaded Geemail file. Double click on the Geemail.air file and the installation will start. In my case the installation did not finish and I received an error that installation did not finish as there might be problem with the installer package. I closed the installer and started the installation again and it got installaed.

Features:

Offline access lets you compose and send e-mail even if the PC is not connected to Internet. Once it finds an active Internet connection it will automatically send the mail.

Zero Configuration does not require you to configure any POP3 or IMAP parameters. Just install it and login using your user name and password and you are done.

Cross Platform available for the 3 most popular Operating systems viz Windows, MAC and Linux.

Familiar user Interface the Geemail user interface is same as the interface you see once you log in to the web based email. So you do not need to learn a different interface.

This Beta version lacks several feastures in Gmail, however I strongly believe that by the time the final version is releassed it will be loaded with many features. This is suitable for those using a dial up connecton or do not have the prviledge of always on Internet connection.

When Microsoft came up with the Surface last year, it created quite a buzz in the community and now this video about Microsoft’s prediction for the future of technology has made every one Ga Ga. And when there is backing of Microsoft with a hoard of great mind behind this, there is not an iota of doubt that we will be seeing all these coming into reality. Thanks Microsoft.

You can also download the details of the Stephen’s Power Point presentation on Microsoft 2019.

OK, so now that we understand the importance of backing up the information, the next big question is where. Do I put in on a CD, DVD, external hard drive, online? Well, the best answer for the home today is to use an external hard drive (e.g. models from Western Digital). But do you back up online or use a local hard drive? What do I mean by that? A hard drive can be located in your house (local) or out on the Internet at a secure location (online).

There are pros and cons to both. Let me outline a few real fast.

Local Back Up

With a local drive in your home, you choose the software and hardware to best fit your needs and expertise. When dealing with your sensitive, private information, the local option gives you the most security. You control access to the actual device, both electronically and physically.

Most of the hard drive solutions are very easy to set up. Some are connected directly to your PC and the others can connect directly to your home network (e.g. Western Digital’s World Edition). These network-based hard drives are the best solution, since all of your PCs, laptops, some game consoles, smart phones, etc. can be backed up in one place. Some devices can back up automatically every time you turn on the device – meaning any time you are connected to the network, the system is working in the background to back you up — and others (e.g. phones) through a PC or laptop.

The local solutions entail an up-front cost for the storage device. But the good news is that some units come with excellent backup software solutions included on the drive. You can get a great 1 terabyte system, that is 1 trillion bytes of information, which could be 250,000 mp3 songs, 285,000 photos — any way, you get the picture – store LOTS of your digital stuff for under $150. Most of us don’t even need that much storage space and can save even more money.

Internet Secure Location (online)

Online backup is a method where you use a secure service located on the Internet. With online backup you have to use the software and security levels provided by the backup solution provider. Your data is very secure but not 100% in your control. On the other hand, it is away from home and safe from any sort of disaster that could occur at home. Set up typically involves creating an account and downloading auto-installing software. You do need an internet connection to recover the data, which reduces the convenience of this approach somewhat. Also your speed to back up will depend highly on the quality of your internet connection, which again can be inconvenient. The costs are typically an annual or monthly charge.

Conclusion

So, in reality, which is the best solution; local, online or both? The answer is “both”. A local centralized backup solution for your home is convenient and inexpensive. Plus you gain the extra value of having additional storage to share photos, videos, music and more [and be sure to back those up, too]. Using an online internet-based solution once a month ensures against the potential home disasters. For as little as $5 per month it’s worth the added peace of mind.

An alternative to paying for an online service is to simply buy an extra storage device and back-up to that device and store it away from your home. These drives are so small & inexpensive these days you could easily hook it up, backup and take it to your office or a safe deposit box once a month. But you have to remember each month and you know how that goes! Most important is to start backing up now before you lose something you will surely miss.

beta is another example how Apple leads the way with it’s innovative product offering. Safari 4 is simultaneously released for Mac, windows and iPhone/iPod touch. How many browsers have this credibility? This latest version of Safari browser has quite a lot of improvement as compared to the earlier version. We will discuss the features and improvements here and I will take you through the installation process in Windows (as I dun have a MAC) too.

Safari 4 is available as a free download from Apple. The size of the installation file is 25.5 MB. Once you download the file, double click on the SafariSetup.exe from the location where you saved it or simply click on run when the installation finished. On the third window of installation process it will ask you to choose to install Desktop shortcut and installation of Bonjour for Windows. This Bonjour helps the browser to detect any shared device in the local

network and make it available to you. Configuring a shared printer is the best example. For taking the full potential of Safari 4, select this bonjour for windows. At the end of installation it asked me to restart my PC (it was bit annoying for me).

I did not start my PC and double click on the desktop icon to start Safari 4. It asked me if  want to make it as default browser. If you do not want to make Safari the default browser Uncheck the option “Always perform this check” and click on No. Now I am looking at the coolest ever interface of a browser and it looks really really cool. Here is a screenshot of the image I took:

Yes, as soon as you open Safari for the first time it will populate some of the predefined sites in the initial window. As my internet connecton is not very fast (only a 512Kbps) it took some time for Safari to generate the preview images of the websites. But as you keep browsing Safari will update these nitial preview with the sites you browse the most.

I will write about the Safari 4 tips and customization in a later post. So for the time being let me take you through a round up of the features in Safari 4.

Top Sites:

This is the feature I told about earlier. The initial screen that appears as soon as you start Safari. Infact the first screen will show Apple Start page(http://apple.com/startpage). This topste feature provides at a glance preview of favorite websites which the browser learns on its own seeing your browsing habbits. Maximum of 24 webstes can be set to be displayed here. Another advantage with this topsite is it will let you know which sites have changed since the last visit and such sites will be sgown with a Star at the upper right corner. To return to the topsites window at any point in time during browsing, click on Show top sites on the bookmark bar.

Cover Flow:

If you have used iTunes 7 or later,  you must be aware of this feature. Like you browse through your titles in iTunes or iPod touch in Safari 4 you can start browsing all your bookamrks and visited site history. This offers a very high level of visual information of all visited sites. So it becomes very easy to identify if you atre looking for a site you visited in your history. Directional arrows let you browse forward and back. Or you can quickly flip through multiple sites using the slider.

Full History Search:

All the features like Top sites, Cover flow and history search is combined here. In the topstes window towards bottom left you can see the History search box. Just type a word or phrase here and Safari will start presenting you list of possble sites, as you keep typing the letters the results will be narrowed down. In fact, you can search for anything that was on a page you visited, even photo captions. To jog your memory, Safari presents the sites it finds in Cover Flow, giving you the opportunity to spot the right site on sight.

Nitro Engine:

Safari uses Nitro Engine and it helps in executing java Script upto 30 times faster than Internet explorer 7 and upto 3 times faster than Firefox 3 as per iBench and sunspider. In addition to Javascript, it gives superior html performance as cmpared to it’s competitor IE 7 and Firefox 3.

Windows Native Look:

If you are using safari 4 in Windows Vista or windows XP, you will notice that the color scheme and look of Safari 4 perfectly blends with Windows. To provide a consistent Windows experience, Safari now uses Windows standard fonts, but you can choose to use Apple’s crisp anti-aliased fonts if you prefer.

Tabs located on top:

The tabs are now located at the top (like chrome) so it gives more viewable space in the browser. With the click of a button new tabs can be opened (the + button at the top right). Each new tab has a close button located towards the left of the tab and a tab handle located towards the right. The close button at the left is bit inconvenient as we are so used to use the right hand close button. And the tab handle at the right can be used to rearrange tabs in the same window as well as to bring the tab to another safari window or to create a new window by dragging the tab handle to desktop or to the taskbar. You can create a bookmark from a group of tabs. Or even tell Safari to open a set of tabs every time you open a new Safari window.

Apart from these most talked about feature, safari 4 has over 150 new improvements like Full page zoom, text only zoom, smart address, smart search and many more. The complete list of features available in Safari 4 features page in Apple.