How to fix atapi.sys Packed.Protector.C trojan warning by Avg?

I got some virus called av_dm.exe. Check your startup programs with msconfig to find where it is located, delete it from everywhere and untick these entries from msconfig startup.

It fixed the process which ate the CPU, but AVG still complained about a trojan in atapi.sys


I didn't know what to do with it, because AVG couldn't remove it, so I downloaded the service pack for XP manually (search for it on Google), and renamed it to .cab, so I can look into it. Renamed the trojan atapi.sys to .bak in case the fix doesn't work, copied atapi.sys from the service pack and rebooted.

This eliminated the warnings by AVG. Let me know if it works for you or if you have a better idea how to deal with this pest.

Opera not responding message is annoying

Installed Opera 10 and hoped the dreaded "not responding" message went away, but it happened again today. Unexpectedly Opera stops doing anything and if I click with the mouse the title says "not responding".

I don't know how long it stays this way, because after like 20 seconds I lose my patience and restart it to make it work again.

Anyone else experiences this bug? What is the cause of it?

exiap6415386.exe creeped into my windows startup

During browsing the computer suddenly rebooted itself. This was suspicious, I instantly thought some badware installed itself and rebooted, so it can hook into the boot process. When Windows restarted something started to eat the CPU. Windows firewall warned about Conficker.C. Downloaded Conficker cleaners, they found nothing.

Booted into safe mode, checked startup with msconfig and exiap6415386.exe was there. Removed it and also svchost which was added to startup, but it wasn't there previously as far as I remember. Is my svhcost infected? >:-/

Now things seems okay, but I checked online exiap6415386. It is some new variant, antivirus tools don't even recognize it yet apparently.

Update: Spybot says it's SmitFraud.C Or is it a different one which also creeped in? :P

Update2: Make sure you always have a Live CD at home for situations like this, so you have a clean system to get info from the net about removing the badware. Using the infected OS is not a good idea. I used an Ubuntu Live CD, but any other will do.


Also, check out the comments here. There is good info there.

Importing large mysql database dump into Godaddy shared hosting

So, you have a database dump which you want to upload to Godaddy? There is the Import tab in phpmyadmin, but it often times out for big files, so it's not really good. Luckily, there is a better way using FTP:

Upload your dump with FTP into the _db_backups directory in the root of your hosting account. Then go to hosting management, databases and click on the pencil icon beside the database into which you want to pump data.

Then check out the icons on the top. Select Restore and you'll see your dump file there (possibly you have to give it a .sql extension, I used this extension in the first place).

Next select the file and start the restore. A warning will pop up saying the existing database contents will be lost, but don't worry, it happens only if you restore a complete databse dump with dropping tables and stuff. If your dump contains only insert statements and such then existing data won't be harmed. You can always create a database backup first in database managament if you want to be on the safe side.

The uploading of the dump may take a while, but that's it. I don't know why Godaddy doesn't have this description in their support pages. It's very useful.

How to turn the right control key into a useful key.

For example, into F15 which you can bind with a tool like Autohotkey.

Follow the instructions here.

Use the value: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 66 00 1D E0 00 00 00 00 00

Google Reader update breaks Mark Until Current as Read

Damn! I use it all the time. They could really incorporate it officially into Google Reader. Such a useful extension.

Convert jQuery selector result to DOM object

The result of e.g. $("#id") is not a DOM object, but an array of DOM objects, so you can index it to access the DOM object: $("#id")[0]

Why Google Wave can be bad for freedom of speech

I'm really excited about Google Wave and can't wait to see how it will work in every day life. But one aspect of it is a bit worrying.

I don't know if you have read 1984. In that book the government is constantly rewriting the past publications (books, newspapers, etc.), so they always seem like perfect predictions at their time proving to the government is always right.

In Google Wave waves are stored on the server and clients are immediately updated when a Wave is modified. Suppose a news organization switches to Google Wave from traditional websites. If it happens then they can constantly tweak their publications, suppress unwanted thoughts from their articles if they prove to be controversial, etc. It would be a true 1984 world: the readers would always see fixed articles and they could not tell if it was the original article or a modified version.

Sure, a Wave has a version history, but it may require special privileges to access and it could even be modified.

Wave is a wonderful tool, but I wonder what such a world look like where the government mandated using Google Wave, so it can constantly tweak its propaganda.

A Great Windows Disk Usage Analyzer

WinDirStat is a great little utility. It helped me quickly find 22GB of leftover files on my disk. I recommend it.

The ugly duckling of Google Chrome turns into a beautiful princess OS

Interesting and very good news for Linux, since it will run on a Linux kernel, so Google will surely do some improving on Linux too which is good for the community.

End of an era: Gmail is not beta anymore

Hell froze over.

How to get a new IP address

Sometimes you want a new IP address. For example, if you are especially naughty and want to download too much stuff from Rapidshare then it blocks you if you are over your limit.

Don't despair! If you're on an ADSL connection then you can easily get a new IP address by disconnecting and reconnecting. Provided your ISP is set up this way, but it probably is. Try it.

Route planning for dummies

At this site even grandmas can get driving directions. Just point and click.

Provided there is a route between the cities. :)

Change desktop background color

It's pretty easy actually: right click on the desktop, select Properties from the menu, select the Appearance tab of the dialog and there push the Advanced button.

In the Advanced settings dialog you can change the color of any part of your desktop. Enjoy.

Be a happier clipboard user!

I wasted lots of time during the years with the clipboard, because I often lost text on it when I copied a new block of text which overwrote the old one on the clipboard.

I heard about clipboard manager programs before, but I never tried any. Until now. Do yourself a favour and try ClipX or any other free clipboard manager.

On less thing to worry about. I'm a happier man since then. :P

Quick Window/Application Switcher for Windows

You have to try it, it so efficient. You can have dozens of applications open and still you can get to any of them in seconds:

iswitchw is great

Sorting text correctly according to language rules

Sorting text in different languages into a proper order is a tricky thing. Collation rules can be quite complicated. If you have a static body of text then the simplest way to sort it is by using the relevant Word feature if you are on Windows or Openoffice on other platforms.

So copy the lines to be sorted into world. Select the whole text and choose Sort from the Table menu.

That's it. You can even choose the sort order there.

Finding interesting deleted pictures and videos

Heard about some juicy thing in the news? Like a scandal or a sex video of a celebrity? You see links in the articles, but they are all dead, because the censors were faster?

Twitter to the rescue! Twitter is real time, so it's hard to censor it. Go to Twitter search, input the desired name or thing and there is a good chance you'll find instantly what you're looking for.

Nifty, eh? The dawn of real time search is a nail in the coffin of internet censorship.

Incresase the annoyingly tiny font in Skype chat

Do you also find the small default font in Skype is killing your eyes? Luckily, there is a solution well hidden in the options panel: Tools Menu/Options/IM&SMS/IM Appearance/Change Font.

Much better, eh? Your eyes will be thankful for it.

Python ternary operator syntax

var = stuff if cond else otherstuff;

Why Twitter is vulnerable when reporting from oppressive countries

We hear many stories recently about Twitter used by people in Iran and China to report about issues which the government doesn't want its subjects and the world to know about. Twitter is used very successfully in this fight, but the main problem is the service is centralized, so the government can shut it down and that's it for tweeting.

Google Wave will be released this year and I expect it will replace Twitter for such uses. Why? Because people can run their own Wave servers and those servers can communicate with each other, so there is no central point of vulnerability.

So people run their own servers and they use it for normal communication, but if there is an important event they can use the mesh of Wave servers to distribute information about the event. The government has no central server to shut down, they have to go after each individual Wave server which is much more laborious.

Therefore the future of citizen media is Google Wave, not Twitter. We only use Twitter temporarily until the real thing comes out. Work faster, Google! :)

The reason why PHP Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost'

If you can access the server from the command line with a mysql command issued without parameters then there is a good chance the server is configured to use a local socket or pipe on windows, so you need to specify this socket when connecting.

On Windows it's as simple as this: mysql_connect(".")

Configuring local virtual hosts with Apache/XAMPP

Add these to c:/xampp/apache/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot C:/xampp/htdocs
    ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot path/to/your/project
    ServerName yourvirtualhostname

    ErrorLog path/to/your/project/error_log
    CustomLog path/to/your/project/access_log common

    <Directory "path/to/your/project">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory> 
</VirtualHost>

The second one is your new virtual hosts and the first one guarantees access to non-virtual hosts still work.

You also need to add your new host name to c:/WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 yourvirtualhostname     

Opera Unite turns everyone into a pirate

Interesting announcement from Opera today. Opera Unite turns your browser into an easy to use web server which can be used to shared stuff with your friends and family.

Neat idea, though I don't have my computer switched on all the time, so it's usefulness is limited to the periods when the computer is actually on.

The distributed approach is vaguely similar to Google Wave,  but the details differ, of course.

The main problem I see with the approach is the limited upload bandwidth. I'm on ADSL, uploading stuff is slow, so having my meager upload bandwidth eaten by others is not what I want. Could be useful to people with fatter pipes, though.

Nice work, Opera. You showed them once again. :)

How to survive a Gmail failure with only a few scratches?

Google provides offline access which makes your mailbox available to you even if their servers are down. You won't be able to send mail, but at least you can read the old ones and that's something, isn't it?

Gmail is down again

Can't be accessed from anywhere. Reports are rolling in from all over the world. It's a bad day to be a Gmailer.

How can I extract and view broken RAR files?

It's pretty easy actually. Open the file with Winrar and don't worry when it's complaining about an unexpected end of archive file. Just start the extraction and in the extract dialog box select the option Keep broken files. Winrar will extract the broken file, but won't delete it from the disk, so you can view its contents.
If it's a movie file then you can use VLC player to watch it. It is able to play unfinished files.
Enjoy.

How to preview quickly related Youtube videos

When watching a video on Youtube it's often worth to check out the related videos too. Of course, most of them will not be interesting, so it would be nice if one could quickly watch them without clicking them one by one.

It is possible to do this with a bookmarklet which you can easily add to your browser and activate on any Youtube page.

Click this link: youtube hover with the right mouse button and in the appearing menu select Add to Favorites (Bookmarks). When it's done you can watch any video on Youtube as usual and if you want to see the related videos then you click on the bookmarklet, simply hover over the related links with the mouse and the related video appears instantly in a popup window.

Isn't it cool? Write a comment if you find it useful or you have suggestions.

How to use Google Reader effectively?

If you read lots of feeds in Reader then the number of items waiting to be read can be intimidating. You know you have to process all news items, because new ones are coming continuously and you'll be overwhelmed if you don't read the ones you have in Reader already.

This is very stressful. I know, because I've been there.

The solution: employ a more casual approach to the reading of news. Collect similar feeds (e.g. economics, entertainment, etc.) into a common folder and use the folder to read all the relevant feeds mixed together. The secret is you don't have to read all items. Just skim the river of news and stop at an item which captures your attention. Don't worry about the others.  If something is really important it will come around again.

This way you can use Reader in a more relaxed way. No more stress, more efficiency. :)

How Do I View Full Screen Videos on Youtube?

My older relatives always complain when watching videos on Youtube that they are tiny and hard to see, and they don't know how to make it bigger. Do you also have that problem?

At the bottom-right corner of the video there is a little picture showing a small rectangle within a bigger one. Just click on it and you watch the videos in glorious full screen.

Much better, right?