I Love You Virus

According to Guinness World Records, I Love You Virus was the most widespread computer virus of all time. I Love You Virus, also known as LoveLetter, is a computer trojan worm that successfully attacked tens of millions of Windows computers in 2000 when it was sent as an attachment to an email message with the text ILOVEYOU in the subject line. The worm arrived in email on and after May 4, 2000 with the simple subject of ILOVEYOU and an attachment LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs. A student from AMA Computer College Makati on 1999 named Onel de Guzman submitted a thesis proposal for the creation of a computer program that will hack into computer systems and extract vital information, particularly internet service accounts. The proposal was unanimously rejected by the College of Computer Studies academic board. Onel de Guzman was scheduled to complete his studies in 2000 and an academic subject called Thesis A was one of his final requirements before graduation. On May 3, 2000, an email trojan called ILOVEYOU spread all throughout the globe and caused delays in several online transactions. The I Love You Virus unleashed a flood of email that hit at least 45 million users in at least 20 countries, according to one estimate. The virus started with “ILOVEYOU” in the subject line. The virus both replicates itself and steals the user names and passwords of unsuspecting victims.

The e-mail replies from angry virus recipients to the creator passed through a US email address, isp-adm@mail.com, which then forwarded them to the two Access.Net email accounts used by the virus creator, spyder@super.net.ph and. The final vbs extension was hidden by default, leading unsuspecting users to think it was a mere text file. Upon opening the attachment, the worm sent a copy of itself to everyone in the Windows Address Book and with the user's sender address. It also made a number of malicious changes to the user's system. The virus was traced to an apartment room in downtown Manila. The tenant was Onel de Guzman. Guzman was invited by the National Bureau of Investigation for questioning. De Guzman, in an interview, admitted spreading the virus by accident. In reaction to the news. The NBI charged De Guzman for violation of Republic Act 8484 or the Access Devices Regulation Act on 1998. But due to lack of sufficiency the Philippine Department of Justice dropped the charges as there was no clear laws regulating the World Wide Web. Due to this incident, June 14, 2000, Republic Act 8792 known as Philippine Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 was signed.

Four aspects of the worm made it effective is because it relied on social engineering to entice users to open the attachment and ensure its continued propagation. It relied on a flawed Microsoft algorithm for hiding file extensions. Windows had begun hiding extensions by default. The algorithm parsed file names from right to left. In this way the exploit could display the inner file extension TXT as the real extension; text files are considered to be innocuous as they can't contain executable code. It relied on the scripting engine being enabled. This was actually a system setting; the engine had not been known to have been ever used previously; Microsoft received scathing criticism for leaving such a powerful and dangerous tool enabled by default with no one the wiser for its existence. It exploited the weakness of the email system design that an attached program could be run easily by simply opening the attachment to gain complete access to the file system and the Registry.

Cherry Q7i

When Cherry Mobile had their promo on Q7i and slashed the original price 50%, I had to buy one. The first thing you will notice on Cherry Q7i is that it looks like a Blackberry phone. The similarities are the QWERTY keypad and the size of the mobile phone. And since it is available on white and black, they resembles more. But other features are the television, radio, MP3 player, up to maximum of 4 Gb Micro SD, Dual SIM card.

As I check more of the new Cherry Mobile 7Qi it is almost the same as other cellphone plus above features. But I did not expect a lot from this phone since it is one of the cheapest brand around.

Some of the faults I had notice is that the silver buttons easily fade specially. The antenna end cover lost due to unknown reason. Also, one of the button was also missing from a three months use. The up and down button had shown sign of irregularities.

Stumbling StumbleUpon

One of social bookmarking site I use to distribute my articles and sites is the Stumble Upon. This is my usual routine when I made an article, submit to ping site, yahoo buzz, digg, plurks, twitter and stumble upon. 

I consider this process as one of my search engine optimization or SEO. I get good traffic from this bookmarking site due to many users and people use Stumble Upon when engaging in the internet. Plus the traffic I get from Stumble is increasing as time goes by and I do not need to update or submit my articles.

Bookmark this site now so you will never forget stumbling on this!

Facebook on ECommerce

Over the years, Facebook has grown into much more than a social network, including a place to shop. More and more brands are placing product listings on their Facebook Pages, a phenomenon.

Facebook application for product listings that recently surpassed 1,000 stores.

Facebook is now the most trafficked website in the country, with an audience of hundreds of millions of people that is growing every day. That is an enormous base of potential customers that cannot be ignored by online retailers. And they are not. More and more retailers are experimenting with tools to reach these Facebook users, and incorporate social networking into their operations overall.

Facebook is also a good place to start your search engine optimization due to being a large player on the internet. I usually link my articles on my wall and join pages then submit my websites.

Optical Mouse

An optical mouse that uses light to detect movement. Introduced in the late 1990s, optical mice obsoleted mechanical mice because their sealed bottom surfaces have no mechanical parts to absorb dust and dirt. They work by emitting light from an LED or laser, and a CMOS sensor detects the light reflections as the mouse is moved.

Early optical mice required a special mouse pad, but modern devices can be rolled over traditional pads, as well as over almost any surface other than glass or mirror. Laser-driven mice are even more tolerant of their surface than LED mice. Contrast with mechanical mouse.

Edit Save VFP Code

Most of the time neophyte VFP Programmers know how to add, edit and save data on the table. But how can we improve the form design? This is a sample I usually used, to ask or confirm if the User want to edit dat. A confirmation message box will appear with a 'Yes' or 'No'. From that the User can choose which will be the next function.

lAnswer = MESSAGEBOX("Save and update Counter Dispatch?", 4, "Confirmation")

IF lAnswer = 6

SELECT sviewbranch

LOCATE FOR IdNum = THISFORM.Text12.Value

IF FOUND()

REPLACE branchname WITH THISFORM.TEXT2.Value

REPLACE branchaddress WITH THISFORM.TEXT3.Value

REPLACE branchdesc WITH THISFORM.TEXT4.Value

REPLACE debit WITH THISFORM.TEXT5.Value

REPLACE credit WITH THISFORM.TEXT6.Value

REPLACE netchange WITH THISFORM.TEXT7.Value

REPLACE ending WITH THISFORM.TEXT8.Value

REPLACE branchdescnum WITH THISFORM.TEXT9.Value

REPLACE beginbal WITH THISFORM.TEXT11.Value

THISFORM.REFRESH

ENDIF

Virus Protection and Prevention

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. The original may modify the copies or the copies may modify themselves, as occurs in a metamorphic virus. A virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the uninfected computer, for instance by a user sending it over a network or carrying it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, USB drive or by the Internet. Additionally, viruses can spread to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer. Viruses are sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan horses. A worm can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host, and a Trojan horse is a file that appears harmless until executed.

Many personal computers are now connected to the Internet and to local area networks, facilitating the spread of malicious code. Today's viruses may also take advantage of network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, and file sharing systems to spread, blurring the line between viruses and worms. Furthermore, some sources use an alternative terminology in which a virus is any form of self-replicating malware.

Some viruses are programmed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk. Others are not designed to do any damage, but simply replicate themselves and perhaps make their presence known by presenting text, video, or audio messages. Even these benign viruses can create problems for the computer user. They typically take up computer memory used by legitimate programs. As a result, they often cause erratic behavior and can result in system crashes. In addition, many viruses are bug-ridden, and these bugs may lead to system crashes and data loss.

A computer virus can do extensive damage. It can crash your hard disk. It can destroy all or some of your data. Many viruses do weird little things that adversely affect your computer. The most usual symptom of a computer virus is erratic behavior. The destruction can happen at any rate of speed and can affect almost any part of the computer. Viruses can spread quickly through today's intricate cyber world. If your computer starts to act a little weird, the first thing to do is to check for a virus.

If you are smart, you will stop viruses before they enter your computer. You can do this by purchasing a good virus protection program. Such a program will check all files for viruses. Once installed, an antivirus program can be set to work in the background. It will check all files before they enter your computer and will alert you if a virus is detected before it contaminates your system. If a virus is detected, your antivirus program will quarantine or eliminate it so that it cannot harm your computer.

Be very careful to purchase a virus protection program that matches your operating system. If you use a Mac, buy a virus protection program made especially for Macintosh computers. If you use Windows 98 or Me or XP, select a program that was written specifically for your operating system. Don't try to use a virus protection program that was written for Windows 95 on a Windows XP machine; this will really mess up your computer.