I spent hours upon hours working to isolate the issues and hand-remove the malicious code only to have it reappear a week later.  I ultimately had to bring on the “big dogs” in Wordpress blog security, Sucuri.net.  David and the rest of the Sucuri Crew were able to solve all site issues within 30 minutes.  It was a beautiful thing.  You see, although I managed to remove most of the “malicious eval code” during these attacks myself, there appeared to be a snippet of code eluding my capture.  This code, also referred to as a backdoor by many, was hiding in the shadows of unending lines of code.  Its really too much code to parse through with the naked eye…nevermind the fact that manual removal like that is likely not the most efficient method when time (and money) is of the essence.  What can I say, I was stubborn.   Needless to say, the Sucuri Crew was very efficient and truly a life saver on that day.

Below I’ve outlined some of what I found online pertaining to the malicious attacks as well as some portions from my personal experience with the nefarious code.

Some of the malicious strings of code which were present:

“http://holasionweb dot com/oo dot php”

There are a few mentions of solutions you can try but, in the end, the only solution which seemed to work in my case was enlisting Sucuri’s help.  However, I’ll list a few better known solutions for this type of Wordpress attack:

1. completely deleting your Wordpress install and reinstalling on your hosting account (note: not fun)
2. logging into your hosting provider and accessing an CLEAN archive version of your website. (note: you’d need to know an archived date in which your blog was completely clean and free of the bad code)
3. Sucuri offers a free “cleaning” script which you can run yourself and seems to have helped quite a few people resolve their issues

Additional documented information which may prove useful for others is shown below.  You may see some similarities.  If you’ve collected any additional information or have a similar story to share, we’re all ears.

More information on Sucuri Security:

“Sucuri Security is the leading provider of web-based integrity monitoring and malware detection solutions – delivered as a service. Sucuri solutions are deployed remotely in a matter of minutes anywhere in the world, allowing our customers to immediately detect web-based malware and monitor their internet presence. Sucuri’s web monitoring solution is used today by more than 8,000 sites worldwide. Sucuri was founded in 2008.

In simple terms, we clean up the mess. If your site got hacked, blacklisted or infected with malware, we fix it for you. If your site is clean, we monitor it to let you know if a problem ever happens. We work fast, we are affordable and we get things done.”

Click here to check them out:

While surfing the internet with my “lab rat hat” on, I came across various articles and videos on “How To Build An Oil Cooled PC”.  I thought to myself, OMG seriously?

Apparently, not only to hardware gearheads do this, but they sell these pre-made PCs online.

They also offer DIY computer kits for the adventurous ones out there.

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So, you may ask, how is this aberration of nature possible?  Well mineral oil is non-conductive.  It is actually possible – though potntially mind-bending – to submerge your PCs shinny parts into mineral oil (cleanest option).  Though I doubt I’ll even be moved to attempt this myself, I do find it strangely interesting. 

Here are a few brief videos on hard-core enthusiasts at work!

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:the End :: :: swytch ::

4Square Day 2010 is approaching and the buzz around the social networks is really starting to pick up.  Interestingly, though, its not just about “social”.  This morning I noticed tweet after tweet from local businesses offering discounts and deals for the nationwide 4Square event.

If you surf over to their website, you’ll find a listing of the “Top Participating Cities” such as:

• Tampa
• Miami
• Atlanta
• North Andover
• Clearwater
• St Petersburg
• Portland
• Beijing
• Chicago

(big props to FL & GIT Tampa!   ;P  )

There are also currently some “4square swarm parties” scheduled:

Tampa Bay, FL USA Swarm

Foursquare Day Global Swarm

There are a few other sources for information such as:

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/4sqday

(hashtags: #4SQDay, #4sqday

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FoursquareDay

For more information on the 4Square Day events in your area, visit:  http://4sqday.com/

:: swytch  ::

I’m sure many of you have encountered this devlish BSOD (blue screen of death) at least once in your lifetime.

In my line of work, people tend to come to me in utter anguish praying they haven’t lost their files. Most of the time I can get the user up and running again within a short period of time but there are those times…. well, I’ll just re-emphasize the need to BACK UP YOUR DATA. :0)

Here are a few steps which I used to get my laptop back in shape. (steps below reference Windows XP but can be help troubleshooting other operating systems)

Step 1 – Located my Windows XP operating system disk. With my XP disk in the CD-rom drive, I powered up the computer. When prompted, I booted to the CD drive and not the internal hard drive. At that point I began to see XP starting its boot and restore process.

Step 2 – When prompted, select “R” to repair the current XP installation. You will then be brought to the Windows System Repair prompt shown below.

Step 3 – I resolved the situation using both the FIXBOOT and FIXMBR commands.

original photo: http://www.windowsnetworking.com

I ran the FIXBOOT command first, then rebooted the machine to see if it solved the problem. It didn’t so I proceeded with the FIXMBR command and tested again.

Step 4 – I returned to the Windows Recovery Console and ran the chkdsk command with a ” /r ” for recover.

After I completed the steps above, I performed a full shutdown.
I booted the laptop and we were back in action! These are the steps that I took but know that there are many more commands you can use in the Windows Recovery Console.

Check out some of these sources for additional information:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Windows-Recovery-Console-from-XP-CD
http://commandwindows.com/recovery.htm

Many of you, myself included, have run into pretty interesting jpgs or gifs created using pure ASCII text. I have always wondered if there was a free and easy way for me to create my own ASCII text without losing my mind completely and attempting it “by hand”.
Well, when wondering the ether recently I discovered a free program called “pic2ascii”. Information on the program and its creator:

During my first complete run of this program, I used the following scooter graphic as a target.

I simply clicked ASCII-Table in the top bar and chose “fill with all possible characters”. This loaded the ASCII information I needed to complete this process. I also saved that table as a text file (option available through the ASCII-Table drop down).
Next I browsed to my target graphic and chose the preferred font for this run.
Click START and wait for the pop-up box stating the process is complete!
Pic2ASCII rendered the following ASCII image relatively quickly.

The ASCII image the program rendered was quite large so I decided to decrease the size of the target scooter graphic. This rendered a slightly more manageable output. See below.

Now, being relatively excited about ASCII rendering, I decided to take it up a notch and find a program which would do this in color. I came across the free ZW Text Mosaic program.
Once installed, I decided to demo the program with the same scooter graphic used previously.
Using the same picture but rendering it with ZW Text Mosaic

In addition to the color option, you can actually type in text you wish to use during the rendering process. Of course, I used she-geeks.com as my text.
Once the image has been generated, you can choose either Show or Open to view the graphic.
All in all, these programs are straightforward enough that anyone can have a bit of fun using them. Get creative and enjoy! J

Taking a break from tech for a minute or so to ask for some help. On Thursday June 9, 2009 my ex brother-in-law Richard Langdeau was killed on his motorcycle by a careless driver. Record-Journal Story His daughter Samantha is now without a father. A college fund has been established for her through TD Banknorth. Any type of donation would be greatly appreciated. She’s still a long while from college, so even a few dollars now will be a big help by the time she needs it.

If you’re not able to help financially, and yes I know times are tough all around, you can help by sharing this information with others through your social networks.

Please send donations to: The Samantha Langdeau College Fund c/o TD Banknorth, 826 Wolcott Rd., Wolcott, CT 06716

If you’d like to send your condolences to Rich’s family, you may do so through Woodtick Memorial

Thank you

I love Skype! It’s the main communication method the she-geeks use to chat with each other. But now thanks to Ring2Skype it’s even more useful. Read on to find out this service can help save you a lot of money.

Skype is great for free PC to PC communication, but you must open your wallet for a Skype-In number to enable your friends to reach you on skype from their mobile or landline phones. Not anymore…

Ring2Skype will give you a free skype-in number, actually they’ll give you multiple skype-in numbers. US numbers are available at this time in: NY CA FL ME.

If you don’t live in one of those states, then obviously it will be a LD call from a landline, but since most mobile phones have unlimited LD it won’t be an issue for your friends to call your skype-in number from their cell.

The number you will get requires an extension, but it’s not really an issue for a cell phone. Just have your friends program a pause or two before the extension number when adding your skype-in to their contacts. I put two pauses into mine and it worked like a charm. I’ll admit I was skeptical about what the call quality was going to be like, but surprisingly it was crisp and clear.

Now where this program really kicks azz is with international numbers. If you have friends abroad, this service offers numbers in a slew of countries, so many I won’t bother listing them. What this means is, you sign up for a skype-in number in your friend’s country and they can call your skype-in number as if it’s a local call. And vice versa, they can sign up for a US skype-in number which you can call toll free from your cell.

In this crappy economy I’ve been reading so many posts by people who have lost their jobs and have had to give up their cells or drastically cut their minutes plans. Some have had to cut phones altogether. How do you job hunt with no phone? For people in these situations this service can be a real blessing.

I’ve also seen a lot of talk from people who have had to cut out their text messaging plans. Now that google labs has pulled the sms feature of gchat, these people are scrambling to find solutions for free online texting. Although there are a plethora of websites that offer free online texting, people are complaining of having real issues receiving texts back. AIM, MSN and Yahoo have texting options in their messenger services, but if for some reason you can’t use those (work restrictions or whatnot) you may want to give textem a try. Once you sign up you are given an inbox, unlike most of the other online text services. Your inbox page will update as replies are received, so your friends will not have issues responding to you. It works via proxy as well, so even if you are just someone trying to find a way around IT policy at work to get your texting done while gchat sms is down, this could be a solution for you. And if you’re someone without a cell, or on restricted minutes plans, using your new skype-in number, you can shoot off free texts to your friends telling them to call you since you can’t dial out for free with skype.

The rest of my existence may be a shambles, but my desktop has to be clean. I just can’t stand crap all over the place. However, this feeling is often at odds with my need to have stuff readily accessible that I’m working on. Luckily I have two awesome apps that free my desktop to be as clean as my house should be. And the best part is – they’re both free….

Hopping on my pc is blissful cleanliness:

How do I get it like that? It’s a combination of two great free programs. One handles my programs, the other handles my works in progress.

First up: programs. I hate the start menu-I’m a shortcut girl, but I hate having shortcuts everywhere. Obviously I needed a launcher app. The issue I have with most of them though is the hotkeys. I’m old, my memory sucks, I don’t want to have to memorize a bunch of different hotkeys to start up the apps I want to use. A few years ago I got lucky and found a launcher I could customize to my liking that would appear with one hotkey and give immediate access to all the programs I wanted available.

And there it is. When not in use it disappears, when I want it, it shows up. It allows you to customize many features such as categories, icon size, folders etc. You can have static categories or dynamic ones. There’s a built in notes function which can store your web links, pictures, documents…whatever you want to put in it. I’ve been using it for several versions over the last few years and it’s always worked flawlessly. If you want it too, head on over to 8start. It’s skinable and many skins are available via the site. So if you want your launcher to look like an iphone, or media player, or whatever-you have that option.

My programs are all neatly organized by 8start, but I still find that I need stuff I’m working on placed on my desktop. If I put stuff elsewhere I forget where I put it, and I hate having to search for it. Fences allows me to actually keep stuff on my desktop that I need to access quickly-and then make it disappear when I’m doing something else:

This great little app is made by stardock and allows you to put your works in progress inside these neat little fences that appear and disappear in a click. You can have as many or as few as you need, they’re resizable, replaceable, and customizable. Once you’ve made your fences, any new additions to your desktop can be easily dragged into a fence for instant organization. Of course, you can use these fences for whatever you like. If you don’t want fences and a launcher, you could move all your desktop shortcuts into categorized fences and be done with it. Go ahead and grab your free version of fences here: fences

This is how I make my desktop work for me, and only need to remember two hotkeys. So how do you organize your desktop? Share your thoughts and program recommendations with us in the comments. Need help getting started? Feel free to post on our forum and we’ll be happy to assist you.

you can make any e-mail address you want…
I have been chatting with this awesome guy indagator & he sent me an interesting MSN trick. It’s a pretty cool thing:) Hopefully, it will stay open for awhile. So, here is how you make an msn.com email address instead of hotmail.com:

Simply go to:

https://accountservices.passport.net/reg.srf?ns=msn.com&sl=1&lc=1033

1. First start the Internet Explorer & go to: http://get.live.com/getlive/overview and click “Register”.

2. After that copy the the following code:

javascript: var p = ‘fake-msn.’; var ds = new Array(‘dl.am’); for (var i = 0; i < ds.length; i ++){document.getElementById(‘idomain’).options[i] = new Option(p + ds[i], p + ds[i])} alert(‘domains added’);

& paste it into the address bar, after that you can change fake-msn. & dl.am to whatever you want , it will be your email hostname later – press enter.

3. Now check the availability of the adress after you filled in the bar for your nickname. If the address is available, go on & fill in the other fields.

4. Register the Account.

5. Log in to Windows Live Messenger with your new created account.

6. Now if you want to change your nickname you have got to use windows_enabler.

7. To change your nickname, go to the options where you can change your nickname. As you can see you can’t change it, now start the windows_enabler and click on the minimized symbol, it will change to “on”. Now you can click on the nickname bar & you can change your nickname.

8. Now press OK, there will be an error message..ignore it (don’t klick it away). Now logout & login again, the nickname will be changed.

9. done! Now you have your own cutsom e-Mail adress for your MSN account.

Credits to: Msn-fake[.dl.am] | powered by dL.am Free Subdomains