I Got the Surabaya Virus!
Unfortunately, my PC got infected with the so-called Surabaya virus yesterday. It happened when my sister wanted to transfer something onto her USB removable drive from my computer. I learned afterwards that this virus spreads through USB devices, so take care when you’re using a USB drive that has been used on someone’s else computer.
The darn virus affects all drives, and hides all folders within. You cannot unhide them using the ‘Show/hide’ command in Folder options. It slows down the computer a lot. It also does the following:
- Disables Task Manager.
- Disables Regedit.
- Deletes all previous restore points in System Restore.
- Closes all processes (programs) that have the words ‘anti’, ’spyware’,…etc.
That’s in order to prevent any attempt of removal.
You know you have this virus when you get this message on Windows start-up:
Surabaya in my birthday
Don’t kill me, I’m just send message from your computer
In addition to a paragraph of indonesian text. Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia, so the origin of the virus is most likely from there.
I’m now trying Windows Live OneCare safety scanner. I hope it sorts things out.
Tekkon Kinkreet — Synopsis
Black and White in their home; a broken car in a backstreet in Treasure Town.
I watched this animated film today, and all I can say is that it was astounding, in every way. The attention to the details is extraordinary; each frame is full of wonderful detail, it can be used as a standalone piece of art. The animation is slick, the music is great, and the colors really stand out.
BORGChat – LAN Instant Messenger
If you’re sharing internet connection with other members of your family at home through LAN or WLAN, and would like to be able to send instant messages to them without signing into any mainstream IM service (like Yahoo! and MSN), then this free program is yours.
It’s very easy to get into and doesn’t require any setup at all. All you need to do is install it on the computers you want connected, and you’re done. Messages and files are sent over the LAN, not the internet, and so they reach other computers in no time, and does not require any internet bandwidth. The program is packed with features like customized fonts, status, and notification options.
I installed it on my computer and on my sister’s laptop. This way we can notify each other when we’ll be consuming more bandwidth (like when downloading something), and so avoid extra consumption on the other side, and best of all prevent frustration over why the speed has become so low. We can also manage when each one will be downloading or playing online, for instance. Yes, unfortunately I’m using only a 512/128 connection shared over 2 computers.
In addition to home networks, the program can also prove very useful to professional people working together in a LAN.
Corruption In Egypt’s Medical System “Unleashed”
Last updated: March 09, 2009
Having received comments from somebody who thought I was lying when I said Egypt’s medical schools are severely corrupt, I had to somehow tell him that I was not lying, and that there are a lot of other people who are saying the same things I’m saying, and may be even more terrible things.
Below are some articles and forum topics (most of them are in Arabic) that I have found. They all talk about the negatives of Egypt’s medical education, schools, and system as a whole. In fact, I haven’t found any articles on the postivies, of course except those written by the officials which you can never trust. I’ll be updating the list as I find more. I haven’t checked newspapers, but I guess it would take me a lifetime to list all the corrupt things in them here.
- The Catastrophe of Medicine in Egypt ( كارثة الطب فى مصر)
- Medical Negligence in Alexandria opens the health folder in Egypt (إهمال طبي بالاسكندرية يفتح الملف الصحي في مصر)
- Medicine in Egypt (الطب في مصر) [in pictures]
- 50 articles on rampant corruption in Egypt’s medical and health systems
- Playing Doctor
- Tales from Abu-Gahl’s (related to pure ignorance) Educational Hospital: Description of Internship in Egyptian Hospitals (حكايات من مستشفى ابو جهل التعليمي)
Black XMB Background for Sony PSP
The PSP has a variety of colors as backgrounds including white, but unfortunately it doesn’t have a real black one. For black color enthusiasts, I present here a small image which can do the trick, and turn the white background into black (like the one shown above). It modifies the other colors as well.
Manga Pick: Land of the Sacred Spirits
Land of the Sacred Spirits is a short manga by Jiro Matsumoto (松本次郎). It was published in his collection Keep On Vibrating (ゆれつづける).
Jiro Matsumoto is known for violent (and often pornographic) depictions in his works, although his works are usually very thoughtful and philosophical. And this short manga is no different.
Baghdad Battery — who made it?
The Baghdad Battery is the common name for a number of artifacts found in Mesopotamia (a part now largely corresponding to modern Iraq), possibly created during the Parthian or Sassanid period (the early centuries AD). These jars were probably discovered in 1936 in the village of Khuyut Rabbou’a, near Baghdad, Iraq. In 1940, Wilhelm König, the German director of the National Museum of Iraq, published a paper speculating that they may have been galvanic cells, perhaps used for electroplating gold onto silver objects. This interpretation continues to be considered as at least a hypothetical possibility. If correct, the artifacts would predate Alessandro Volta’s 1800 invention of the electrochemical cell by more than a millennium.
Because of this, it is considered by specialists to be an OOPArt (Out-Of-Place Artifact). One wonders: Is that a surviving proof of a prehistoric advanced society long gone? and if so, was that advanced society human or not? or was it dropped onto Earth by other intelligent creatures that live elsewhere?
Wikipedia:
Baghdad Battery
Out-of-place artifact
