Representative Expression

For all of those who have virus updates set to once a day, I would recommend running a manual update.
I received a new version of the I-Worm/Bagle.HV which was not initially detected by AVG. After performing a manual update it did download a High Priority update which did pick it up.

In my case, the email arrived with the To: address set to chris.a.wright@unilever.com.
Now the unilever.com part of it is faked, as were most of the headers, but the IP address I traced back to a PC which has been responsible for other attacks recently.
It also came within a zip file called Health_and_knowledge.zip and contained an executable loader.exe.

Below is the output from Virus total which as you will see shows that not all of the AV vendors are catching it right now.

Also, there is a link to their site at the end of the report. If you ever receive a suspicious file and you are not sure, then you can upload it to their site and it will run a virus check using a number of AV vendors. Whilst it is not 100% accurate, it gives you more confidence than none. But even if it comes back safe and you do not recognise the sender, ditch the file or send it to your AV vendor to have it checked. In fact if you recieve any sort of attachment from someone you don't know, BIN IT !!

Jay just sat there on the sea wall looking up at his ‘3 lucky stars’. The same stars had looked at for at least the past 28 years when he felt like he needed someone to confide in.
As to whether or not they were lucky, that was a matter of opinion. He just called them his ‘lucky stars’ after seeing them one night the first time he ran away from home, sitting in the middle of the field staring up at the sky hoping someone or something would take him away from ‘here’. And after 28 years, he still didn’t even know the name of the constellation. The only time he had trouble finding them was during the 2 years he lived in Australia working on what was supposed to be a long term project. On his first trip to the outback he had gone into the bush to answer the call of nature and away from the camp fire his eyes caught the magnificence of the display of stars. Being so far away from any form of light pollution, or even good old regular 20th century smog, there were stars visible that he had never send before. That was until he realized that the whole sky looked different and it took a long while for it to register that he was now in a different part of the hemisphere and that every star looked like he had never send it before. When he did notice his lucky stars, they appeared different to him, but it still brought a smile to his face. Once again he ‘thanked his lucky stars’ for giving him the opportunity to see them in such brilliance. One day he again promised himself that he would find out the name of the constellation, the same promise he had been making every year since he first saw them.

Not that when he was 7 years old laying in the field did he feel the way he did now, nor did he have any of the thoughts that now passed through his mind. It was just that things happened during his time growing up, throughout his college years and eventually when he married and settled down to bring up his two children. Events that just didn’t seem to be normal, to be fair, to happen to anyone else, these were the things that built up over the years and had started his quest to find out who he was, where he was, and why. For the last 4 years he had been searching the hardest for those answers, but the hardest part of the search was in trying to find him self. That would prove to be the most difficult part of his challenge. For in order for him to answer any of his questions, he had to find himself.

He had come back to Portsmouth where he and his wife first lived after marrying. This though had been the first time he had visited what used to be the area of the estate where they had their first flat together. He had been to Portsmouth a number of times but couldn’t face revisiting any place that brought back those memories. Leaving the sea behind him he walked the couple of hundred yards from the sea wall to what used to be the old Royal Navy and Marine married quarters estate. The shop at the entrance to what would have been the road they lived on was still there, but beyond that everything had changed. Where once stood a series of the most basic 3 storey flats that the Navy supplied to their ratings, was a rather expensive modern looking set of apartments over looking the marina and leisure area. He was sure he was standing at the location of where the flat was. In fact he knew he was there, he could feel it, and although he was still practicing the skill, he was sure he could see the entrance, the stairs to the 3rd floor where their flat was. He could smell the disinfectant that was used by the cleaners daily. Whereas previously he had been told by many of his doctors and professors that he was just recalling the memories, he now knew different. It would take time, but he was sure he would improve that skill, but how much time did he have?

Well you can tell it is the night before the 5th of November. Not because it is the 4th today, in fact you could have spent the last few months on the moon and arrived back today, taken one step outside and it would be obvious. It sounds and looks like World War Three has kicked off. I live in a village of about a 1000 people and the skies are lighting up for miles around.

Nearly every year I have always bought some fireworks to have a display for the kids, (ignoring the fact that most dads usually end up buying them just as much for themselves. Must be a testosterone thing). Apart from the 3 years we were in the US for, since we've had kids old enough to appreciate them, we've had fireworks at home. But not this year. For some reason I just can't justify to myself the point of basically burning the money when there is so much suffering around the world. I'm especially thinking of those in Pakistan suffering as a result of the earthquake. I don't feel comfortable going out and spending £50-£100 on fireworks when there are people over there with their lives in tatters. So this year, I'll be donating some money to the Red Cross or similar, on top of what I have already donated so far.

I'll be taking two of the kids to the village school to watch their display tonight (as the weather forecast for tomorrow isn't looking too good). It has nothing to do with the safety of home displays versus an organized display. I would rather help support a local school and not 'burn' money that may help others.

I'm either getting old and responsible, or the kids are rubbing off on me. They were in one of their rooms talking about what they wanted from Santa (well two of them were, the other was playing along if you catch my drift). They decided they wanted one present each, and they would ask if Santa could give the presents they would normally ask for to kids around the world who would usually get nothing.

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A 20-year-old man accused of using thousands of hijacked computers, or "bot nets," to damage systems and send massive amounts of spam across the Internet was arrested on Thursday in what authorities called the first such prosecution of its kind
Read Original Article Here

One down, 3,450,342 to go. (Judging by the number of attacks being made on my network each hour).
But this is a start I suppose, let us hope that there are many many more.

Mind you, in saying that, the amount of SPAM hitting my addresses this past few weeks has dropped to less than 10 a week !! It has not been this quiet since I first went online. I haven't changed anything, added any new protection. All I did was create a honeypot@thenameofmydomain.com for each domain I run and enable a spam trap on it that forwarded to SPAMCOP

And after more than 8 new variants of the Bagle virus landed in my mail this week, it appears to have gone quiet again the last few days.
So don't forget to update your virus definitions several times a day and if you can configure it to do it automatically during the day, more the better.

Whenever he was scolded as a child, Jay took it more personal that you would normally expect.  He could not understand what he would do that was so wrong.  He would make a simple mistake but when asked to explain it, he could see that he had done the right thing. Yet despite that, he could also see he had done the wrong thing too.  It confused him as to what had really happened. 
He continually felt like he could do no right in the eyes of his parents yet he was sure he had done no wrong. 
That was when he started running away from home.  After each telling off when sent to his room, he would climb out of the window and on to the roof of their shed. After making sure the coast was clear he would jump over the back fence of the yard and run as fast as he could down the alley that ran past the back of his house.
He would run and run until he reached the fields at the end of the road where he would keep to the trees until he reached the clearing.  It was a place where he felt safe, despite the darkness and loneliness.  On a clear night when the moon was visible, as he lay down on the ground staring at the stars he could see the bats flying around over head.  So quite and isolated was it that you could even hear them clicking as they searched for their prey.
He often wondered what it must be like to be free to fly wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted.  It was his feeling of always wanting to escape.
The woods were part of an old Army base and there were a few old shelters dotted around which came in handy when it rained.  He had often awoke in the early hours of the morning having fallen asleep when at last he felt in touch with reality again.
On a clear and dry night he would lay outside at stare up at the stars, wondering if there was something or someone out there.  Had they visited the earth some years ago and left him with his parents taking their real baby back with them to what ever planet they had come from.  There had to be a reason why he was so different and he never felt like he really belonged anywhere he went.

At school, he was the quiet one. Considered quite gifted when he first started school he already proficient at reading and basic mathematics.  All they wanted him to do was play with the water and sand, but he just wanted to read or paint. 

The teachers were always amazed at some of the images he produced.  Some were even disturbed by them and looked at him with trepidation wondering whether this was an indication of some evil spirit within him.  He was in no way a budding Picasso or a Van Gough, and you could tell they were the pictures of a 4 or 5 year old. But there was something about the images that disturbed those who looked at them.  A frequent drawing would be of people in matchstick form but he somehow managed to blur them so they appeared to be moving in varying directions.  He would paint his mum and dad with himself and brother and sister, but the blurred images would all seem to go in the same direction.  He would spend ages drawing each figure in gradually fading to a point where it disappears to nothing.  Each blurred layer could have been a picture in its own right. In fact, it was as if he had drawn a frame of a picture, rubbed it out and then drawn the next frame over the top.  Sometimes when you take a picture on the old 35mm camera and the film doesn’t wind on you get two images superimposed on the same picture?  Each of his drawings looked like a collection of multiple captures with each frame being slightly different.  He lacked the knowledge and skill at that age for the subject or point of the picture to be instantly recognizable, but there was something about them that looked slightly disturbing.

He remembered one lunch time at school when the boys from his year were playing their usual game of soccer in the school playground.  The two regular ‘captains’ would stand in front and pick from the boys lined up against the school walls.  He would get picked and walk towards the team, but often they would look at him and say “Hey, were you going, get to the team you were picked for”.  He was sure that’s what he heard. He would replay it over in his head and was certain that’s what he heard, but then he would also see he was picked for the other side.  Then he would get upset because he couldn’t work out what was going on. Finally, no-one wanted to pick him for either team so he never got to play at all.  In the end he withdrew from similar situations and pretty much became known as a bit of a loner.

Even in the classroom he would soon learn to keep quiet.  When teachers would ask a question if he was not the first to answer, he would always be the second if someone ever got it wrong.  Sometimes he never knew the answer until someone had incorrectly answered, he would see them answering it correctly only to look back and see the teacher say that it was wrong.  He would then raise his hand and repeat what he was sure he heard his classmate say, but the teacher would tell him he was right.  Did the teacher not hear what his classmate had said the first time? He would think back to check, but he would hear them say the wrong answer this time?
Soon his classmates would avoid him for being a teacher’s pet, for always answering the questions. He would get teased about it all the time and when he mentioned it to his parents, his dad just replied, “Well no one likes a smart arse son”.  Probably the only advice he knowingly took from his father when he was young, but he soon learnt to keep his mouth closed during lessons.  Then his teachers began to say he was falling behind, or not showing the same enthusiasm as he had previously done. He felt he couldn’t win at whatever he did.

As more and more of these events happened, he gradually withdrew more and more from socializing with the children around him and this just confirmed his loner status.  In a way this actually reduced his problems, since the more people around him at anyone time, the more images he would see and the more confused he would get.
Now that he would spend more time alone, it allowed him to experiment with what he was seeing.  He was far too young to understand it at first, but as he aged, he began to gain an understanding.

It is day 5 of the NaNoWriMo month of hell. (www.nanowrimo.org). I should be up around the 10000 mark I suppose, but I'm down at the 2000 mark (well, published. In fact, its a few more than that).

The one thing that anyone who does read my attempt at the 50k mark is that style will vary between each and every chapter.
For one I have never attempted to write anything non-technical in my life, so this is a first for me. I won't say it hasn't been an ambition of mine, but without the prodding and encouragement of Chris York, I would not have thought of signing up for the NaNoWriMo workout.

I won't be posting them to the main pages of the blog, because it will just bloat the main page with my feeble attempt, but there is a category link in the right hand column somewhere on this page. Or you can find it by clicking here.

"The act of transferring your personal thought process to another form is a fullfilling act".
or
"The act of conveying a personal thought process to someone or a some group is the best thrill a creator can experience"

Here are some links to a blog from a good mate of mine down in Swindon. He actually has some other people contributing to his blog (without having to pay them either).
Great for printing out for reading when you are in the Twyfords Office. (Unless you are sad like me and take your wireless laptop to 'that' office, only to find burn marks on my bear legs when I stand up with a numb arse).

Hearts Football club today announced that Graham Rix is to be the new boss. Graham Rix was charged and found guilty of indecent assault and sex with a girl of aged 15 six years ago. Since he was placed on the sex offenders register, he is unable to work with kids under the age of 16.

I followed this case back then, not only because I am a father, but as a fan of Chelsea football club with whom he had strong ties, (he was also the manager of Portsmouth FC). Now one thing I must point out is that I am not saying he is 100% innocent. He did himself admit that he slept with the 15 year old, but he has always maintained that he did not know she was 15. After the initial court case, there were several reports in the paper about there being some collusion by the child's parents after it was found out who Rix was. He claimed that she always said she was over 16 and there were reports in the papers saying that her family push this point in order to gain from it later on. Whatever the true facts, there was always something dodgy about the facts that were presented, but as I stated before, he slept with an underage girl, admitted that (because you can't hardly deny it really). For that he was punished, and has suffered as a result of it.

Personally, I believe this was the start of many claims against high profile players. Because of the laws in the UK, the defendants name is not with held, therefore if you are accused of such crimes or similar, your name will be dragged through the courts. So you either have to go to court to clear your name, or settle out of court. There are many cases which are not reported through the media, but they happen.

Since the Rix case there as been a major increase in the number of claims against premiership football players. Many of these have failed to get to court, or have been thrown out in court. There have been many more than have settled out of court for money in order to protect the name of the player and/or club.
Again, don't get me wrong, as I do believe there are players who are both abusive and/or guilty of such attacks. Some of these are probably settled out of court, but we will never know. Our judicial system is fast following the media frenzy that surrounds the US court system and we must put a stop to that now.

It is time that both the victim and accused ID's be kept secret. In conjunction with that, I think it is about time that any previous convictions by the accused should be taken into account. (That is worth another post on its own, since I can't believe they don't tell the jury or previous convictions in case it biases there opinion. Erm, excuse me, the fact that a rapist has 8 previous similar convictions tells me that along with the evidence presented to me might actually be relevant. If they don't have the evidence to convict him, then previous convictions should not matter. It has to be beyond reasonable doubt).

Rix was found guilty mainly on his own admissions because it is something he could not deny. That and the evidence of one other person. In truth, only they will ever know the true story. Thanks to press coverage it was over hyped and we shall never know the truth.

Rix has done his time, served out his punishment and has the right to a second chance. He will be watched like a hawk, he will also be hounded by those who don't agree with it. But would someone so guilty come back into the limelight? They would more than likely go hide somewhere and keep out of the spotlight knowing of their own guilt.

Rix has had his family with him all the time, and it must be really hard for him. I really hope he gets a chance to do his job. It will be hard, there will be taunts (far worse than Beckham, Posh and anal sex). He's brave man and I wish him good luck.

Now if it was my daughter, then I don't think I would be saying the same things. I'd probably be calling for him to be hanged or worse (or even doing it myself). Thanks to the UK press, we will never know the true outcome.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2215702005
http://www.football.co.uk/hearts/rix_set_for_jambos_job_208214.shtml
http://www.lasalute.net/article47362.html
http://www.soccer365.com/EUROPEAN_NEWS/Scottish_News/page_111_108810.shtml
http://www.soccer365.com/EUROPEAN_NEWS/Scottish_News/page_111_108803.shtml
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/scorecard/11/08/truth.rumors.more/1.html

It is absolutly tators outside. I've not felt it this bitter since last winter, so I guess the cold snap is on its way.
The following is an except from the Met Office webiste.

Low pressure is expected to remain to the north or northwest of the UK, with higher pressure to the south over southern Europe, ensuring a run of westerly winds across the country. Gales are possible in some places, especially over northwestern districts. For the first week or so this general pattern will lead to above average values for rainfall across the UK. However, rainfall amounts should revert to near average for most after the first week. Temperature values across the UK will be generally above average for the first couple of weeks, with few frosts expected. Later, however, temperature values will fall to be nearer average for most districts.

The wildlife in the village is going nuts. Actually, they are going for my nuts, well the nuts I have put in the feeders. It usually takes a few weeks for them to empty the feeders during the winter, but they've been empty after a few days. Squirrels, robins, tits, finches, woodpeckers and a few more I don't know. (I'm not a twitcher).
All I know is that they appear to be definetly stocking up for a long winter period. Even the field mice are getting braver, though this year they've had to find their own food since I have pinned hidden the feed this year. (Last year that had a right feast).

The fire was lit as soon as we got home from school tonight and its now as warm as toast in here. I've been stocking up the wood pile this year a bit earlier than normal. Usually the 'logman' gets busy around christmas time, but is saying it business is crazy right now.

Tampax have replaced the string on their tampons with a piece of tinsel.
They say it's only for the Christmas period

Ok, I have been quite delinquent in my posting to my blog of late. The cold weather seems to have affected my ability to sit at this computer for longer than necessary and what time I have had on my hands has been spent on various work projects. I have a number of web sites I am working on, and am busy preparing quotes for a few new jobs. Can't say much about them on here, but two of them are the biggest contracts I have worked on so far. Should keep me working from home (or a new office) for at least the next 18-36 months. Imagine that, not having to work for anyone again for at least the next 18 months!

We finally got the fence replaced to the left of the house this week. A company called Bob Berry Fencing Specialists carried out the work and they did a great job. Two guys (Scott and Frank) came round to do the job and it was bitterly cold in the mornings hardly getting about freezing all day. They replaced the complete fence and used concrete posts, which meant digging 2ft holes in not very good soil. (More trees and roots than you can shake a stick at). It's one company that I will be keeping in mind for all future work while I am in the Basingstoke area. While they were working on the fence I decided to tidy up the yard and use the old wood from the fence to help burn off a load of rubbish out back. I thought I was coming down with a cold the next day from standing in a field when it was -4 next to a roaring fire..Talk about going from hot to cold and back again. The cold weather is really making my arthritis show up and it didn't help working out in the cold (Lesson Learnt).

Blatent advert for Bob Berry - Forgot to post the details earlier... Hopefully it will also push Bob up the Google Search order. (Might as well use my page rankings for some good every now and then).

I've not been bothered to get a Freeview Digital box because I know that there are some new ones coming out in a few months that will make the current ones obsolete. They will still work, but the newer ones will have a lot more features than the current models. But as I was looking up on the Savastore website, I noticed that they had a USB Digital TV Reciever for £42.89 inc VAT. (Freecom DVB-T USB Stick)

Ok, you can pick up a receiver box for much cheaper than that, and I was in some doubt as to the signal quality that could be picked up by a USB Device.
I ordered it on the Monday, and it arrived mid morning today (Tuesday).

The installation procedure is very easy indeed. Insert the USB device, wait for it to be detected and then point the driver installer at the CD supplied with the unit. The only problem I had was in entering the serial number bcause the one on the device would not be accepted. A quick trip to the website of Freecom and a browse through the forum showed I was no the only one to suffer the same problem. As it turns out, you are meant to enter the serial number that is printed on the cover of the CD with the software on it. Not so obvious until it was pointed out. (There was also a few people on the forum asking for replacement serial numbers since they through the paper CD cover away

After a quick reboot of the PC, and then starting the TV Application, it presented me with a config page where all I had to do was hit "Start" to begin scanning the UK frequency list for available channels. Now here it did find about 10 channels, and 10 radio stations but I must stress that I live in the middle of nowhere and I didn't expect to get much of a TV signal inside the house, surrounded by walls, trees etc, so I was surprised to see it found anything at all. I then hooked it up to the main TV aerial that is situated in the loft of this house. A quick rescan and it found every available TV and Radio station possible with excellent signal strength and quality.

I have to say for a unti no bigger than a USB memory stick, it works very very well. I can record from any channel, listen to any of the available digital radio stations. In fact I have the Man Utd match on ITV playing on the laptop next to me now while I am working on my main desktop machine.
I am quite impressed with the performance of the device and would recommend it to everyone as a quick an easy method of adding digital TV to your machine. It can be moved from machine to machine with no problem, and doesn't take up any space in your laptop bag and would be great for going on trips with. It is claimed to work on pretty much all of the digital TV standards world wide (but I can't verify that just yet, so I will take their word for it based on the success of their other claims).

Have a look the specs on Freecom and check it out, you won't be disappointed with its performance. (But remember, if you live in an area where Digital coverage is weak, or not yet supported, it won't do much for you).

Added 25/11/2005:
George Best lost his fight for life this morning. Actually, I think it was more his body lost the strength to carry on. Even at the end I reckon George was still a fighter and would have grasped any chance he could to carry on, as his doctor said, "His heart was strong". He knew he had done some wrong things in his time, but he was honest about it. He openly warned people away from the pitfalls he suffered.
Now he is at rest, so let us remember George Best for what really made him great - His Football.
My thoughts are with his family and friends at this very sad time. No father should ever outlive his son, no son should ever lose his father. Now the press and the rest of us need to let them grieve in peace.

According to the news on the way home from picking the kids up from school, George Best is not expected to last much longer.
The lung infection he is suffering from at the moment has left him unable to fight any further infections.
It's bad enough when you hear that a celebrity/idol etc has passed away, but knowing that he is dying seems to make it a tadge more saddening. It must be a very tough time for the family and friends and I hope the media give them the space that they deserve.

Besty had his problems, he would be the first one not to deny that. The Oliver Reed of the football world. An extreme talent on the pitch, but a wild side to equal it off the field. I was born and grew up towards the end of the Best era but he was one of the names on the radio/TV that was mentioned much in the same way as Rooney is talked about now.
No one will ever doubt the level of his skill on the field, and there will be many people saddended to hear this news, let alone close family and friends.

I hope his final hours are in peace, and my thoughts go out to his family and friends.
Best was Simply the Best - nuff said.

UPDATE 2-Rallying-Former world champion Burns dies at 34
Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:52 AM GMT

(adds David Richards quotes, byline)

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Richard Burns, the only Englishman to win the world rally championship, has died of a brain tumour at the age of 34, his family said on Saturday.

Burns died in London's Wellington hospital on Friday evening with family and close friends at his bedside. He had been in a coma for some days.

By a sad coincidence, his death came on the fourth anniversary of his championship win with Subaru in 2001.

The Briton was diagnosed with the astrocytoma, a form of brain tumour, after blacking out at the wheel on his way to the British Rally in Wales in 2003 where he could have won a second championship with Peugeot.

Reuters

Two posts about a death in two days. It's not all doom and gloom, honestly but this is still very sad to here of someone so young, and so talented as Richard.
World Rally had a tough time this year and the news of Richards death will hit home hard within their community.
I was shocked when I first heard the news when he pulled out of the Welsh Rally in 2003 because of a brain tumour, but at the time they thought it would respond to treatment, but alas it turned out not to be the case.

Hmmm. When I first checked the scores during yesterdays match, 0 - 0 didn't look too bad to start of with. A temporary manager who is hoping to get the job full time. Saved themselves from going into adminstration (which would cost them 10 points they can't afford to lose). I read a report on the Gills wesbite about how they just need to string a few results together and they could be in the playoffs.

So when I check the scores at full time to see that they lost 5 - 0, I suppose I am no longer surprised. They'll be playing in the same league as Basingstoke before too long. God knows what has happened to them, things looked to be on the up for a while, but now they can't beat an egg. (They have a lot of injuries in the squad right now, and as my dad said, its serves the manager right for buying in players that were crocked to start off with.

BBC Website Match Report
Gillingham FC Official Site

Go here and check out an open forum by Sarah (from the Yahoo Blogger Support forum).

Sorry to post yet more news about doom, gloom and death, but I learned today that John Vlissides who had a major part to play in Design Patterns passed away on Thursday 24th November 2005 after a long illness.

The Design Patterns project discovers and documents common solutions to problems in object-oriented software design. We document this information in pattern form—a semi-structured format that characterizes a single problem and its solution, the consequences of that solution, and variations on the solution's implementation. The pattern form helps the reader find specific information quickly, and it makes comparing patterns easy.

Go to http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?JohnVlissides where they are collecting articles about him in a very fitting memorial.