Thursday Night Virus (update)

My computer got hit with a ‘SWP 2009′ virus on Thursday night, and boy is it a nasty little bug.

This virus poses itself as a virus scanner. Yeah, real convenient. It pops up, saying that your virus protection is out of date, and that you have 60 some viruses on your machine. It een looks like it is scanning your hard drive file by file, discovering new viruses. Of course, this is all a ploy.

The virus then recommends that you purchase their anti-virus software at $50 for a three month subscription. Way overpriced, and just a way to capture your credit card.

The tricky part comes in here. When you launch internet explorer to look for information about this virus, it has already hijacked internet explorer, and won’t let you surf around. Microsoft “is unavailable,” Google “is unavailable,” and so on and so on. And if you try to run your programs, even hitting a Ctrl-Alt-Del or the Start button, it pops up a message box saying that executable is infected, click here to protect yourself. Yikes!

Luckily for me, I run two other browsers besides Internet Explorer on our machine, and I was able to launch those to figure out what was going on. I downloaded some new tools, but I couldn’t get them to install because of the virus. Since at this point it was 12:30 AM Friday, it was time to turn of the computer, and attack it later, which is right now, Sunday morning.

I am typing all this from my laptop, which is sitting next to my home PC while it is running a scan in safe mode. Hopefully I can get an update soon as to the progress of my work.

For file backups on my home PC, I use an online tool called Mozy. I am restoring files from that site right now to my laptop so Melody can get some work done that she needs to do this week. As she said again this morning, what a bad time for a virus. But is there ever a good time for it?

Update: It took about four hours, but I got my PC back with no ill affects. 5 system scans, two of which did automatic cleanings, and one required manual cleaning. Also, I had to manually change the proxy setting for IE, as the virus set it to 127.0.0.1. No wonder I couldn’t get to the internet when the virus had my machine. But it makes me wonder, how does somebody clean and get rid of this kind of thing if they are the “typical user?” I guess it just sucks to be them.

Update2: I am now researching a External Hard Drive. Anybody have any recommendations out there for me? I don’t think I need Network Attached Storage (NAS), and I don’t need it to be portable, just a good review and decent price. Anybody?

Hyundai (rhymes with Sunday) rocks

What a horrible drive this morning!

Come on people, we live in Wisconsin! Do you really have a problem driving over 40 mph? Where are all those people who brag about their 4 wheel drive?

Actually, my commute wasn’t so bad. That is until I got to Sun Prairie. Before that, I was comfortably going 65 in the right lane, which was in “good winter condition.” When I was in the left lane, which I would call “snow covered and slippery,” I dropped down to 55, but still felt comfortable at that. Maybe it is just because my car is so light and nimble, it floats over the snow and drives fine. Maybe it is because I enjoy winter driving. Maybe it is because I know I live in Wisconsin, and therefore expect and anticipate the roads to be slippery, so I don’t FREAK OUT when the weather turns slightly for the worse.

Even once in Madison, I was moving at a decent pace when I didn’t get stuck behind someone with their hands clenched on their steering wheel and foot always on the brake. I anticipated lights being green, so I started a slow crawl while it was red, so I wouldn’t spin my tires just jumping on the gas. It worked, and nobody, even the 4 wheel drive people, beat me off the line this morning.

I can’t wait to go out for lunch!

Happy Birthday Gus

Today is Augustus’s 5th Birthday. Happy Birthday Big Guy!

It was 5 years ago today that Melody and I braved driving the snow covered roads to get to Madison. Of course, we were slightly worried about landing in the ditch, and having Gus at the side of the road, but everything turned out well.

Today he is excited about bringing a birthday treat to school. He also is looking forward to his special birthday dinner tonight: Chinese food! I can’t complain, as I am eager about that too.

It is hard to believe that our middle child is turning 5. The years have flown by. But I guess they always will.