General Computer Stuff

New Trojan: MS Removal Tool

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I’ve been busy the last couple of days fixing client’s computers that have been infected with the latest Trojan. It is the newest in a line of extortion Trojans to infect computers. Yes, this is another Windows Trojan. Read on to learn what it is, how to recognize it, protect your computer and how to remove the MS Removal Tool Trojan.

Extortion Trojans are the ones that tell you how horribly infected your computer is, usually reporting dozens of virus. They then promise to remove them, if you pay some money to buy their software. If you don’t pay, you basically can’t use your computer. The problem is you computer is infected with their Trojan. Paying them is like paying a blackmailer, never ending and ineffective.

MS Removal Tool's Fake Report
MS Removal Tool's Fake Report

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Video Recorder for Second Life and Myst-Uru

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  Screenr Logo
Screenr Logo

I came across Screenr this morning. I tried it out. One signs up using a Twitter account. This seems to be an nice free service. It has some problems. But it seems to work well.

The recording was certainly easy. There is a record button. It gives you a ‘frame’ you can slide around the screen and resize to let you capture the part of the screen you want. You can start and stop recording, pausing. The max recording is 5 minutes. Surprising how fast that goes by.

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TR.IM is Gone

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I liked Tr.im. It was may favorite URL shorting tool. The home page now says they have closed and will be completely gone by the end of the year. See: Tr.im R.I.P. The reason? Spammers. Too many companies were using Tr.im to push their advertising and get around various spam blockers.

The ‘Thanks for all the fish.’ page provides a list of services you can use as replacements. Since I’m a Twitter kid I decided on bit.ly.

Getting OSGrid Running

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OSGrid
OpenSim

Running a standalone grid on your home computer is not big thing to do. Finding all the information you need to get it working as you want is a bit of a pain. All the people that are working on OSGrid know where everything is. So, they don’t write it down.

When I reinstalled my OpenSim server (I broke mine upgrading) it did not let me walk on prims. Everything was phantom. Setting things to physical did not help, they were still behaving as if phantom. So, I started looking for how to fix that.

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Another Step in the 3D Internet

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Various groups are working on ways to turn the Internet into a full 3D virtual world. The Guardian (UK based) has just written about one effort. One group, which the Guardian article by Victor Keegan fails to name – cause it has no name, is creating software that uses public information to make a 3D model of the entire planet in which your avatar can walk. (For a better write up than the Guardian see the same Victor Keegan’s blog: Building the planet – on a tight budget) You can see an example of it in action on YouTube video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tVcAuNpgk8]

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