Saturday, August 28, 2004
I lost my internet connection after ridding my pc of Prorat and its friends. After picking the brains of a few techy friends, it seems my only option now is to reinstall Windows. If I could get my hands on the b*stards who write and distribute nasty trojans etc I would feed their body parts to my cats!
Anyway, I'm on a friend's computer this afternoon, and it will be a few days at least before I get back online at home, I reckon. Its soo annoying. I've got a week off work and I'll be spending a large proportion of it fixing my computer. And I can't remember the password to my email account (which I access via Outlook Express).
Grr.
I'll be back.
Anyway, I'm on a friend's computer this afternoon, and it will be a few days at least before I get back online at home, I reckon. Its soo annoying. I've got a week off work and I'll be spending a large proportion of it fixing my computer. And I can't remember the password to my email account (which I access via Outlook Express).
Grr.
I'll be back.
Monday, August 23, 2004
What a steep learning curve! We got hit by the Prorat trojan. I spent most
of yesterday (til midnight!) with my very clever friend Gav trying to
remove the nasty little b*st*rd from my pc. Gav succeeded in getting rid of
99% of it, although I found a couple of bits had regenerated when I logged
on this morning. Not enough, I don't think, to cause any more problems -
gives me chance anyway to investigate further.
Prorat disables anti-virus programs, and firewalls. How did it get in
originally? Dunno, but I think it was something to do with downloading
music files via Kazaa. Prorat buries itself into the registry, rewrites
some registry keys and creates a few of its own. I found it after running
on online scan at McAfee, but as my anti-virus wouldn't run, we had to
remove the thing manually. Searching the internet forums gave us some info
- although a lot of people on there obviously struggled and there were no
easy solutions. We followed what directions we could find, but rebooting
showed that it had rewritten itself. Eventually Gav found a further folder
in the registry, called "Search Assistant", which contained bits of all the
trojan files that McAfee had identified (flooder.exe, Inferno Nuker.exe,
Panther Mode2, another one that I can't remember at the moment, and the big
daddy Prorat). Deleting that folder seems to have stopped most of the
trojan files rewriting. The ones that did come back - wininv and
sservice.exe - seem to be impotent on their own.
But I'm still suffering from a browser problem - SpotOn - keeps popping up.
There was a file relating to it in the "Search Assistant" folder but I've
not found any other mention of it anywhere on my system. And my spyware
hasn't solved the problem either. SpotOn is very annoying, but I don't know
that it is malicious.
So I've now installed another firewall. And some more spyware. And an
additional anti-virus program.
of yesterday (til midnight!) with my very clever friend Gav trying to
remove the nasty little b*st*rd from my pc. Gav succeeded in getting rid of
99% of it, although I found a couple of bits had regenerated when I logged
on this morning. Not enough, I don't think, to cause any more problems -
gives me chance anyway to investigate further.
Prorat disables anti-virus programs, and firewalls. How did it get in
originally? Dunno, but I think it was something to do with downloading
music files via Kazaa. Prorat buries itself into the registry, rewrites
some registry keys and creates a few of its own. I found it after running
on online scan at McAfee, but as my anti-virus wouldn't run, we had to
remove the thing manually. Searching the internet forums gave us some info
- although a lot of people on there obviously struggled and there were no
easy solutions. We followed what directions we could find, but rebooting
showed that it had rewritten itself. Eventually Gav found a further folder
in the registry, called "Search Assistant", which contained bits of all the
trojan files that McAfee had identified (flooder.exe, Inferno Nuker.exe,
Panther Mode2, another one that I can't remember at the moment, and the big
daddy Prorat). Deleting that folder seems to have stopped most of the
trojan files rewriting. The ones that did come back - wininv and
sservice.exe - seem to be impotent on their own.
But I'm still suffering from a browser problem - SpotOn - keeps popping up.
There was a file relating to it in the "Search Assistant" folder but I've
not found any other mention of it anywhere on my system. And my spyware
hasn't solved the problem either. SpotOn is very annoying, but I don't know
that it is malicious.
So I've now installed another firewall. And some more spyware. And an
additional anti-virus program.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Went to Lotherton Hall Bird Garden today on the foster carers annual picnic (a work thing). Although we didn't get a great turnout - lots of people away on holiday - and two people got stung by wasps, we all enjoyed ourselves. These are just two of the birds we saw:
A pretty birdy whose name I couldn't discover.
A Southern Ground Hornbill. What a poseur!
A pretty birdy whose name I couldn't discover.
A Southern Ground Hornbill. What a poseur!
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Esther moved in early. Mrs H from next door ran out of patience with her kids and the kittens on Sunday afternoon and knocked on my door very fiercely insisting I take the kitten there and then or she would give her to someone else. Poor little thing is only 7 weeks old and should have had another week or two with her mum, but I couldn't say no. Polly is rather upset. I hope she settles down soon. Anyway, I suppose I should be grateful Mrs H didn't expect me to take her kids too.
Do you like petitions? A Scottish friend sent me a link to this one about a Jewish charity operating in Palestine. I followed this link and found dozens of others relating to everything from windfarms and psychiatric hospitals to Scottish football and a call for a national dance hall.
However, worthy as some of the petitions are, I haven't got all night to be signing them. So I restrained my zeal and had a look at some Cat News. And a few pages of Cats Diary.
Do you like petitions? A Scottish friend sent me a link to this one about a Jewish charity operating in Palestine. I followed this link and found dozens of others relating to everything from windfarms and psychiatric hospitals to Scottish football and a call for a national dance hall.
However, worthy as some of the petitions are, I haven't got all night to be signing them. So I restrained my zeal and had a look at some Cat News. And a few pages of Cats Diary.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Our loyal fish, Michael, who has entertained us and the cats for the past 10 years twitched his fins for the last time yesterday. When we got up yesterday morning he was lying on the bottom of the tank; just an occasional wriggle told us he was clinging on to life. But by the end of the day he was an ex-fish. This morning I flushed him away to fishy heaven and have cleaned out his tank ready to be car-boot saled.
R.I.P Michael.
We are getting another kitten - not as a replacement for Michael, I hasten to add. This one is coming from next door, as did Polly. She's from the next litter so they are sisters. Next door swear this time they will get the mother spayed. I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, the new one is all black like Polly, but without the wobbly back legs. I had drawn up a list of possible names but couldn't decide which I preferred. FK was no help. He says he's going to call her "idiot". I wrote the potential names (not including "idiot") on scraps of paper, screwed them up into little balls and put them in a bowl. When kitten came to visit yesterday I let her choose her own name. She picked out "Esther". She'll be moving in in 2 weeks time. So I'll have Polly and Esther. Think about it.
R.I.P Michael.
We are getting another kitten - not as a replacement for Michael, I hasten to add. This one is coming from next door, as did Polly. She's from the next litter so they are sisters. Next door swear this time they will get the mother spayed. I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, the new one is all black like Polly, but without the wobbly back legs. I had drawn up a list of possible names but couldn't decide which I preferred. FK was no help. He says he's going to call her "idiot". I wrote the potential names (not including "idiot") on scraps of paper, screwed them up into little balls and put them in a bowl. When kitten came to visit yesterday I let her choose her own name. She picked out "Esther". She'll be moving in in 2 weeks time. So I'll have Polly and Esther. Think about it.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Today it hardly rained at all! Just a few spots at about 9pm. Hooray!
Me and Fungus Kitten and the dog took the bus to Otley, intending to walk up the Chevin (a big hill), but it was a very hot afternoon and our poor old dog was puffing and panting so we decided a walk along the river bank would be kinder. The river Wharfe was exceptionally fat and full after all the rain we've had, though by the look of the vegetation along the banks it wasn't as full as it has been recently. In fact, we couldn't walk very far as there were still large pools of water lying on the path. But a very pleasant stroll it was. When we got as far as it was possible without wellies we just sat and watched the ducks and the dragonflys. Lovely!
Afterwards we walked back into the town and had a drink while we waited to be hungry enough for fish & chips. We were watching a family across the road who had a boy of about 11 with a rather unfortunate haircut - one of those two-tone dye jobs that footballers favour. It reminded me of when FK was 5 and I dyed his hair green. I mentioned this to him - did he remember? Yes, he did. He asked me if I had a phone number for Social Services so he could report me (retrospectively) for child abuse!
Me and Fungus Kitten and the dog took the bus to Otley, intending to walk up the Chevin (a big hill), but it was a very hot afternoon and our poor old dog was puffing and panting so we decided a walk along the river bank would be kinder. The river Wharfe was exceptionally fat and full after all the rain we've had, though by the look of the vegetation along the banks it wasn't as full as it has been recently. In fact, we couldn't walk very far as there were still large pools of water lying on the path. But a very pleasant stroll it was. When we got as far as it was possible without wellies we just sat and watched the ducks and the dragonflys. Lovely!
Afterwards we walked back into the town and had a drink while we waited to be hungry enough for fish & chips. We were watching a family across the road who had a boy of about 11 with a rather unfortunate haircut - one of those two-tone dye jobs that footballers favour. It reminded me of when FK was 5 and I dyed his hair green. I mentioned this to him - did he remember? Yes, he did. He asked me if I had a phone number for Social Services so he could report me (retrospectively) for child abuse!
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Still raining.
Polly had her operation and is fine, though looking a bit odd with the shaved patch on her side. She felt very sorry for herself yesterday evening when I got her home but is her usual self again today.
I quite fancy a walk up to the local shops today to have a look in the charity shops, and to take in a bag of clothes we don't want anymore but I'll wait and see if the rain is going to ease off. If it doesn't it will probably be another day curled upon the sofa reading. Oh well, it beats being at work.
Polly had her operation and is fine, though looking a bit odd with the shaved patch on her side. She felt very sorry for herself yesterday evening when I got her home but is her usual self again today.
I quite fancy a walk up to the local shops today to have a look in the charity shops, and to take in a bag of clothes we don't want anymore but I'll wait and see if the rain is going to ease off. If it doesn't it will probably be another day curled upon the sofa reading. Oh well, it beats being at work.
Monday, August 09, 2004
I've got a week off work - hooray! - although we aren't going to be doing much. Lack of cash. Still nice to not get up at 6.30am though. This morning I took Polly kitten to the vet to be spayed. Aww! My little cherub is going to be operated on. I've got to phone after 2pm to check on her progress and arrange a time to collect her.
Its very humid today, despite the fact that we had thunderstorms early this morning and it was raining when I came home from the vet. It was a lovely weekend though. On Saturday I went to Hyde Park Unity Day, an annual community festival that was instigated several years ago after local riots, as a means to unite the people of Hyde Park. It's gone from strength to strength. I hadn't been for a few years because of being away on holiday or a clash with the Northern Green Gathering (the festival I help to organise), so I was amazed at how big the Unity event had got. Saw loads of friends. There were several different stages with local DJs and bands playing, half a dozen food stalls and local campaign stalls. I bought a pitta & cous cous with vegetables, but it turned out to be a bit soggy, and there were no forks or spoons so I ended up eating cous cous with my fingers, while trying to keep my hair out of my face. Cous cous in my hair, then. But a good day was had by all.
Afterwards I went to a friends house where I saw the beautiful M. I met him at a neighbour's a couple of months ago developed a huge crush on him there and then. We chatted for much of the evening that first meeting but I didn't get chance to speak to him much on Saturday cos there were so many other people in the way. I'm told he's very shy, and very single. When my friend Gaynor asked him why he wasn't involved with anyone he told her he wouldn't know how to! (He has a son and an ex-partner, so I think he's just out of practice and lacking confidence). As for me, I just go weak at the knees when I look at him, and I'm terrified that I'd scare him off if I let him know how I feel. Especially with cous cous in my hair.
Its very humid today, despite the fact that we had thunderstorms early this morning and it was raining when I came home from the vet. It was a lovely weekend though. On Saturday I went to Hyde Park Unity Day, an annual community festival that was instigated several years ago after local riots, as a means to unite the people of Hyde Park. It's gone from strength to strength. I hadn't been for a few years because of being away on holiday or a clash with the Northern Green Gathering (the festival I help to organise), so I was amazed at how big the Unity event had got. Saw loads of friends. There were several different stages with local DJs and bands playing, half a dozen food stalls and local campaign stalls. I bought a pitta & cous cous with vegetables, but it turned out to be a bit soggy, and there were no forks or spoons so I ended up eating cous cous with my fingers, while trying to keep my hair out of my face. Cous cous in my hair, then. But a good day was had by all.
Afterwards I went to a friends house where I saw the beautiful M. I met him at a neighbour's a couple of months ago developed a huge crush on him there and then. We chatted for much of the evening that first meeting but I didn't get chance to speak to him much on Saturday cos there were so many other people in the way. I'm told he's very shy, and very single. When my friend Gaynor asked him why he wasn't involved with anyone he told her he wouldn't know how to! (He has a son and an ex-partner, so I think he's just out of practice and lacking confidence). As for me, I just go weak at the knees when I look at him, and I'm terrified that I'd scare him off if I let him know how I feel. Especially with cous cous in my hair.
