MSN.COM - W32.Spybot.Worm in the wild

There appears to be some malware in the wild.  I received a MSN note from one of my MSN Contacts this afternoon.  The FQDN for the link was gallery.aokhost.com and the link includes my MSN e-mail address and it has a sentence about "Hey, is this really your pic?" or a similar phrase.  The URL includes a PHP script and the users MSN contact (username@domain.com).  It appears the PHP script loads the malware and the user Contact is used only to lure you to click the link.  The malware is dumped to C:\Windows\msn.com on my Windows XP Pro system.

I am running Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 with current virus definitions. It appears to have run once, then SEP11 quarantined it, but a system restart was required to fully remove it from my system.

It does not appear that any other damage was done to my system other than hitting my Contacts and spawning the IM's to everyone on my list.

Symantec Corp Edition 10.1 with current virus definitions will remove the infected file after a system restart.  The Symantec link is below and they have a whole page of remediation tools for W32 malware.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2003-053013-5943-99

Technorati Tags: malware,MSN,software,antivirus

Vista SP1 Install

I am in the process of installing Vista SP1 on my HP AMD laptop.  The process is rather tedious, but you run a CMD script which updates your registry.  The update preps your system so you receive up to four hotfixes which are prerequisites for Vista SP1.  I applied two out of three required a restart.  I restarted after the third and my system was able to see the SP1 update when I forced a Windows Update check.

The download was ~300 Meg, and it was 'stuck' at 95% for the better part of an hour. 

After the download, you walk through an SP1 install wizard.  After the update is applied, you restart the system.  It restarts in character mode and applies 66,829 file updates which display on the top of the screen.  The last update is a registry update and the system automatically restarts into graphics mode.

After the restart, it updates the system in three stages, the progress is displayed as the Stage number and the percent complete for the stage.  The last phase took about 30-35 minutes and at this point, the update has taken several hours...

I was one of the many people who experienced the joy of the Vista "unauthorized change" feature and I'm not happy.

I'm not sure what happened, I install *lots* of beta, Microsoft, and third party software on all my systems.  I know what I am doing - aside from an engineering degree, I have been an MCSE since 1996 and MCT since 1998, teaching server and client operating systems.

Currently, my system is still unusable.  I will work on it later today and re-install an operating system if I am unsuccessful in fixing the Vista SP1 upgrade.  I may just choose to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, using an unused license I already own.  I am NOT happy.

Technorati Tags: Vista,SP1,XP,operating systems,Windows,Microsoft

Macs are more expensive

I frequently have this discussion with "Mac People".  I don't argue that Apple has a great design group, but I don't believe they offer the value for money I receive from other vendors.

Dave Winer is a pretty savvy guy, and a big Apple fan, so I was pretty surprised when I read his article detailing his Mac Book repair.  It's just my nature, but I would probably have my hands around the throat of the Mac support person.  At a minimum, I want a new drive in my system and some assurance, in writing, that data on my original drive will be scrubbed, or the drive destroyed.

The other factor that keeps me away from Mac stores is the "Genius Bar".  Let's face it, these guy (and women possibly) aren't geniuses and calling a 20-something college student (or recent grad) working in retail a genius just sets unreasonable expectations from a customer and dilutes the term 'genius'.  None of these folks have an IQ higher than mine and they don't think out of the box because Apple doesn't want someone like that working in retail in the first place.

The last time I was in an Apple store the little freakazoid manager (Marlton, NJ for anyone interested) asked me to stop taking pictures.  Bugger off, Apple Boy!  I have shoes older than you.

Technorati Tags: Apple,Mac,fanboy,hardware

(Scripting News) " href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/12/22/macsAreEvenMoreExpensiveTh.html">

32 bit Windows memory support

This subject has come up on several occasions, so I'm posting a note with several references on the topic.

Basically, 32-bit Windows desktop operating systems (XP, Vista) will not address more than 3 GB of installed memory.  You can add the /3GB switch to your BOOT.INI file, but hardware constraints, including your video card and BIOS will limit how much RAM above 3GB is available for the operating system. 

NOTE:  This is particularly an issue for high end video cards because the amount of video RAM is deducted from the 4GB theoretical limit for 32 bit operating systems, so even if you have 4GB installed, a 512 Meg video card could reduce your available ram to under 3GB.

Microsoft MSDN article: Memory Limits for Windows Releases

Microsoft MSDN article: 4-Gigabyte Tuning

Dude, Where's My 4 Gigabytes of RAM? - this article includes a nice Intel map of the 32 bit address space memory allocation details.

Personal Computing Experiment

I am in the process of re-architect my personal computing life.     Over the next 3-6 months I want to re-focus on technology.  Partly this is a response to my attending Microsoft TechEd 2007 this past June.  The last time I attended TechEd was in June, 2003.  This was when Microsoft released Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003.  This year, I was very, very impressed with not only the depth, but the enterprise quality of the products.  I feel that doing a 'Total Immersion' in Microsoft technologies will help me become a better technical resource for my group, and also improve my ability to provide comprehensive, cost effective solutions to our clients.

Starting this week and through the end of the year, I plan to move from a 'best of breed' approach to a pure Microsoft environment for all aspects of my personal and professional computing.  I will document the process and note exceptions and challenges as they occur. 

I am starting by converting all my tools to Microsoft and upgrading my home network to Windows 2008.  We will be All Beta All The Time!

I am posting this with the latest release of Windows Live Writer.  This web site is running on a CentOS server I share with Peter Gamble.  I will maintain this site, but also experiment with Microsoft Live Spaces where I have a site.