Electronically Transmitted Disease

[SOteric]

I've spent the better part of the afternoon trying to clean a worm off my hard drive. Sneaky bastards.

There is apparently a bug in the Windows XP buffer over-run that allows something called 'blaster' to wiggle its way into your stuff and crash your system.

If I had known, I would have downloaded the patch.

People who are running any of the newer Windows () products may want to visit this site:

http://msn.com.com/4520-6600_16-5062407.html?part=msn&subj=ns&tag=msn_home

and download the patch. I like y'all too much to want to have you go through an afternoon such as have I.

According to the remediation sites I've read, it's important for anyone who may have been exposed to patch this and/or remove the worm from their hard drive before the end of August, or before the 16th of any month. It's set to wreck particular havoc after those dates.

Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm going for a bit of the ETD penicillin.

[DemoTex]

1. I've had a purulent discharge from my lap-top hard-drive lately

Of course it is a Windows 98 system, hardly worth spending the money on the penicillin.

[SOteric]

2. *LOL*

Well heck, the martini was the fun part.

[DemoTex]

3. If I dip my hard drive in the Martini, will it kill the C.L.A.P.?

Computer (Laptop) Attack Programing (CLAP). Will it hurt? Will I go blind?

[SOteric]

4. No,

- but your expansion slot will never be the same again.

[short bus president]

5. what's that, DemoTex?

a dishonorable discharge?

[ForrestGump]

6. No, that's the clap of one hand sounding

'Pounding,' perhaps.

[ForrestGump]

7. This all sounds so very scuzzy

I'm shocked. :o

[DemoTex]

8. Hey! I'm right-handed!

Never mind.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

16. Man get with the times... no one uses SCSI anymore

it's all firewire and USB now...

:evilgrin:

[Armstead]

9. Wewll it is inspecting my computer and installing as I write..

So it is now patched. Says it has "cleaned up" my system. Hope it left the good stuff alone.

Anyhew, thanks for the tip So..

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. Ouch, that sucks, but again, a firewall would have stopped it

it does not spread through email, but scans networks looking for an open port 135

get a firewall.

zonealarm is still free for non-commercial use

www.zonelabs.com

[DemoTex]

11. Computer corpsman said "skin it and wring it."

What did he mean? Does that refer to the very hard drive in my lap ... er, I mean laptop?

[SOteric]

12. Yeah baby...!

Who's your motherboard!!

[Dookus]

13. I had....

two big problems recently. One, was a trojan called Xupiter that screwed up everything.

I did two things and things are great now:

One, download a free program called Spyware Search & Destroy:

http://spybot.eon.net.au/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Then... I bought ZoneAlarm Pro for $49.95 and installed that. They have a free version, but the Pro version does pop-up blocking (excellently as far as I can tell)and is a very customizable firewall.

You MUST get the Spyware program - it's awesome. Now if I could just find a good spam filter, I'd be set.

[GOPisEvil]

14. Yikes!

Glad order has been restored! :-)

[LuLu550]

15. slightly off-thread

but I love your smilies..especially the Borg..where can I find them?
LuLu

[Kellanved]

17. some good sites:

www.emoticons4u.com
www.mysmilies.com
www.clicksmilies.com