Burn books, buy Kindle?

By Giedrius on August 30, 2010

I have read Frédéric Beigbeder article about paper books dying and losing the battle to electronic books, and the grim promises that this is very horrible. Beigbeder compares it to Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451″, and argues, that lack of paper books will make the world worse.

However, I strongly disagree with him. Gutenbergs invention was created for the same reason electronic books are: faster copying and distribution. It had not sucked the “life” from books compared to ones handwritten on pergament, it had given a new life to them. The books are alive only in the minds of the reader. A much bigger problem is a lack of books that are worth reading, though.

The issues with lack of sufficient attention span on IPAD are real. But there are kindle and other dedicated readers (I wish to purchase a kindle soon, even if there is no free data transfer for Kindle in Lithuania or other Baltic states now). Electronic reading brings books for new generation of people, which want to stay mobile and still want to have a good read.

Personally, I read some books on my Nexus one, some books on my PC. I do not have an urge for paper versions of many of the books. They are unnecessary. The majority of red ones will not be open ever again. But some I will reread, most often more than once. I want to have them close to me. I am not a paper fetishist.

That is one of the reasons I love Kindle store, as I can download the book to various devices (theoretically). I can enjoy reading them and I do not need to think where I will move them when there is no space in my apartment. And I can read them anywhere, at my pace. My attention span is sufficient to read for hours getting bored as long as book is good. One should stop reading crap on any medium, though.

Also, there is a huge misconception that there are “necessary reads”. Is reading “War and Peace” a must for new generation? No. One has to read books that touches one intellectually or emotionally. Skipping some of the classical books is not a sin. Reading against ones will is.

There are groups of people that will suffer from electronic books. These groups include librarians, book printers and some of the sellers. The process is slow, but it is there. It is not a bad thing – some professions got extinct or changed in the past. However, noone wishes to be in the generation of change on the losing side.

There is still space for paper books. Noone tells you to burn them. And if you enjoy reading paper versions more, you should read. Just do not get too attached to medium, rather than content of the book. Forcing people using specific medium is bad, mkey?

And remember – you should pay for good books. I do, even if I could download them from torrents. You should support authors you like. And they will support your brain with good and valuable read.

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How to uninstall Security Suite

By Giedrius on August 18, 2010

Security Suite is a misleading rogue antivirus program that uses bunch of trojans to peddle itself. Typical security suite infection starts after visiting pretty harmless-looking sites that hosts Javascript or PDF exploits. Next thing you know, you start seeing lots of popups and alerts claiming about various infections that try to steal data. Security Suite screenshot

The worst thing is that Security Suite tries to disable real security programs like antiviruses, antimalwares and similar. All of these programs fail to launch with message that the executable is infected or an error occurred. Most of the websites are unavailable as well, except ones that sell Security Suite’s “full version”. They are common phishing websites : no real key exists, nor security suite has any capabilities to delete a real infection.

Here a guide how to remove security suite:

  1. Reboot, press F8, choose safe mode with networking. If it fails, continue anyways
  2. Open Internet Explorer, choose Tools menu and select Internet Options, Click on the Connections tab and then on the LAN Settings button. Uncheck the checkbox labeled Use a proxy server for your LAN under the Proxy Server section and press OK. This should temporally fix internet connection. If not, you will need TDSS killer run on your PC, use Flash disk to install it on the infected PC. TDSS killer can be downloaded from here : http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684
  3. Then start task manager or process explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx  )  and stop all processes that are like combination of random letters.
  4. Start MSConfig and disable all startup entries that launch processes from within your user directory, for example App Data folder… You might need to reboot after this step, to safe mode with networking again.
  5. Scan with Spyware Doctor and remove everything it finds.

I recommend having full version of Spyware Doctor and ESET smart security to prevent such infections in the future, or decrease the risk to the minimum.

More information on how to get rid of security Suite can be found here.

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How to stop listening to bullshit and make your PC secure for real

By Giedrius on August 17, 2010

I own 2-viruses.com, and, partly, I promote the site myself. Thus I am exposed to lots of bullshit advices, misconceptions in security market.  And there will be no affiliate links in this post, thank you for your attention.

First, stop looking for best security product. The status “best” is temporal at most. It also depends on your own needs for support, speed, level of protection  and configuration of your PC.  The key is having something that works and knowing its limitations. That way one can cover the unprotected holes with different software.

I use ESET’s Smart security as first line of defense. Having good antivirus is important, and ESET is known to provide quite good protection over the years. But Smart Security provides firewall functions as well. We started using it in 2006 or 2005, I believe. I have not used Kaspersky for a while, but it was long time ago. It is still good, though. As there are lots of other good tools.

Free  antivirus choices work well too. I have installed AVAST, Microsoft Security Essentials on different PC’s with quite good results, though most of Security/Internet Suites are paid. MSE is great as it does not asks for email. You could use PCTools Antivirus as well.

However, there are antiviruses, that have holes in free versions. For example, AVG lacks rootkit protection, but has a strong community that promotes it. It will remain a popular choice.

So, you have chosen antivirus, but there is a need for second opinion tool that targets fresher parasites and does not interfere with antivirus. There are couple categories of such tools. For example, Threatfire uses behavioral detection, which helps against new parasites.

Another class of second-opinion tools are Anti-malware tools. This term is misleading, though. Anti-virus tools protect from broadest spectrum of parasites. Typical Anti-malware tools protect from parasites that are not viruses (that is, modify other executable content). Though the term Malware includes viruses as well.  The problem is that while viruses are geared towards spreading around, malware is geared towards you: either steal or extort your personal information, get paid for advertisements that are shown to you.

Which anti-malware to choose? Personally, I run Spyware Doctor, and it is the tool I install most often for this purpose. I install free version from pack.google.com on all PC’s except mine usually, even if it is older and limited one.   My friends and family like free software :) Another free choices would by Spybot S&D, Spyware Terminator, etc.

Commercial anti-malware choices would be the Spyware Doctor, Spyhunter (though highly expensive), Malwarebytes anti-malware, Superantispyware. Although last 2 are marketed as free tools, they are not. Both of them are commercial tools without any real time protection in free version.  The free versions are great for malware removal, though. I have free versions of both installed for testing purposes, but  I am not planning on buying full versions of these.

For me SuperAntiSpyware is somewhat misleading, as it’s  free version starts at system startup and is running all the time. But it does not actively protect the PC, which might be missed by many users. My free version of Malwarebytes started at system startup as well, however exited soon after. I am unsure if this unnecessary startup was removed in fresh version.

There are also toolbars, like SiteAdvisor or MyWot. They might provide some insight for safer browsing, but they will not protect from infected domains that fast. SiteAdvisor is more suitable for this, as it actually scans the websites for malware rather than being community opinion based.

To wrap it up, get Internet Security suite from any of major antivirus vendors. If you want to save some money, get free antivirus, and get firewall separately. Then you will need a second-opinion tools like threatfire and a good anti-malware with real time protection.  And some self-control not to click on every advertisement on the net :)

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Google Maps mobile: why there is no updates for non-USA Android phones?

By Giedrius on July 29, 2010

I am a happy owner of Nexus One, though I have written about some quirks in the past. Now it is time to discuss one problem deeper: common software availability outside USA and couple other lucky countries. And the worst of it is that it affects software, that comes preinstalled in our phones.

For example, it affects Google Maps in Android phones. If you have tried updating this application from outside USA (and several lucky countries), you could not find it in the market. You get Google Maps with your phone, you get it updated during system updates. But you can not get an update through Android Market here – the application is unavailable.

And I do not know any good reason why Google does this. It is not payment collection issue: Google maps is free application. The navigation is one of the few services whose availability is problematic worldwide, so it could be disabled outside USA/UK, that would make more sense. Even then, some workarounds are posted.   The issue is not the driver’s original country, but the maps and understanding the routing in the countries.

There are plenty of other services where country-based availability does not makes sense whatever sort. For example, Google Places, Google Buzz, which is available through web interface anyway. Any user could use it through web at limited functionality.

Sigh. I do not expect an explanation from Google about this. I guess we will have to wait and see if something changes, or other applications will take its place locally.

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Do not copy others, surpass them

By Giedrius on July 19, 2010

People do not want to buy copies that cost that much as original. The same is true for the web. There are plenty of copywriting sites, and each year it is easier and easier to create another copy of website and try to get some market share.
For example blogging. 10 or so years ago there was livejournal – a wonderful blogging for all platform with paid accounts where one had to beg for invite to get a free limited one. People could skin them a little – change some colors, at some point layout as well. Then came wordpress, blogger, etc. Now anyone can get blog in 5 minutes, skinned to their likes. There are hundreds of thousands skins to choose from. And blog on itself is no longer special.
Same goes for more generic CMS’es. Before that, programmers would code a news portal for month. After that you just install drupal or joomla, configure them a bit and you got a new news site with lots of plugin choices. And a hundred or so similar sites doing the same. The technology improves, it value deflates over time.
This is the true with copywriting as well. You can write the best copy in the world, but the question is how it will stand out? How it will be different from others, that will copy same source, or maybe you? Can you offer something better?
This is the most critical question for successful site : individuality, originality, the brand. You have to answer for yourself and your readers how you are the best. And the answer should be good enough to convince yourself and your staff. Noone else knows everything so in depth as you and the guys in the same room. And if you do not believe in your site, no one else will.
By the way, cheating yourself does not work that well in a long term. You have to get a good understanding what you can do differently from competitors. Counting on being older, having better SEO or Social Marketing skills do not count- most of this do not matter or is achievable. There is always a chance that competitors would hire someone that knows better than your employees do. Heck, they can hire someone better than you to do things that you do now. And you will have to improve, find new things.
Shouldn’t you do same things as competition does ? Absolutely, but you should do them better. Using rewritten copies? Write better ones, gather more information. Presenting news? Get a person that can add unique and useful touch to them. Reviewing something? Think what customer wants to see in a review that is not at your competitors webpage. In terms of business management, raise the cost of entering this market. This will help you in the future.
And yes, I had to do that in the past, and I will have to do this again with one of my projects. I can’t tell if I do everything the best way. But I am trying to do it better.

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Antivir Solution pro – new rogue mimicking legitimate antivirus

By Giedrius on July 16, 2010

Antivir Solution Pro is a remake of Antimalware Doctor and Antispyware soft. It is a fake antivirus, sharing the name with legitimate Antivir made by Avira. While Avira’s Antivir is one of the most widely recommended free antiviruses packages, the Antivir Solution Pro is dangerous for the PC.

First of all, Antivir Solution Pro is distributed by security vulnerabilities, like infected Adobe PDF files, Javascript ads on various websites. This is a first sign that a software can not be trusted. Secondly, it will start showing popups and alerts blocking normal processes and limiting access to legitimate websites to scare user into downloading and buying its full version. Thirdly, Antivir Solution Pro might reconfigure the PC to allow easier reinfection in the future, by changing proxy settings, modifying way DNS addresses are recognized and downloading other parasites to weaken the PC.

Antivir Solution Pro can be removed by rebooting into safe mode and scanning the PC with Spyware Doctor or Malwarebytes. Full scan is strongly recommended. As the trojans might block the scan, it is highly recommended to disable the processes before the scan by killing all processes named with random letter strings (especially ending in tssd.exe). If such processes are successfully killed, One can run msconfig and remove startup entries referencing such processes. Still many of the infected files might be missed by manual removal, thus a single secure way is scanning with several automatic removal tools for Antivir Solution pro.
Full removal guide is available here : http://www.2-viruses.com/remove-antivir-solution-pro

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NDrive Contest : win free lifetime maps (ending 13.07.2010 )

By Giedrius on July 8, 2010

I have written about Ndrive in the past. It is one of the best available navigations for your Android phone outside USA and “lucky 11″ (countries, from which google accepts payments in their Android Marketplace). Most of other map software processes payments through google market thus they are not available in most of the countries. This is a shame.

This week there is an exciting opportunity to win a free map of your choice from Ndrive. You need to do following:

1. Download Ndrive on your phone, use it (7 days – all maps free).

2. Register at AndroidForums.com

3. Write a comment at android marketplace and rate Ndrive. Mention your AndroidForums username as well. It is required that comment would be made from your phone (to identify your phone I assume).

4. Write in the thread dedicated to the contest in Android forum: http://androidforums.com/android-applications/116315-ndrive-contest.html . You will have to register there.

Simple, eh ? The best part is there will be more than one winner, in fact it is promised that there will be more than 20! You will be contacted in AndroidForums by administration staff if you win.

I would participate myself, however, I have purchased all the maps I will need in the close future myself (Western Europe + Eastern Europe) .  They are worth the money. And even better if you get them for free :)

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Global unlike: it does exit as MyWOT toolbar

By Giedrius on July 1, 2010

Most of my income is done in computer security market, and I have follow various tools and events to stay on the top. As with any other market, there are very interesting how the computer security is reflected in social media or how Social media is used in it. Security market got it all backwards and released semi-global unlike button for its own market in terms of MyWOT.

I have reviewed MyWOT positively in the past, and the points are still valid. However, it is time to talk about several downsides of it (and why I see no real use for it in the future).

First, it works as global unlike button in security market. Lots of people know about it in this area and use it to manipulate listings. Experts do not rate good sites in this area – there are too many, and no one cares if they are not their own. For example, one negative review of one Rogue cleaner in my blog resulted at negative review in MyWOT of my site by him (with several accounts). I know pretty much, that some of other ratings are voted by people advertising similar or same products:)

Second, the toolbar itself is made in the way that suggest auto-confirming votes. It blocks all sites with negative ratings, and many of the negative ratings are reconfirmed by users which do not see the site itself. I had a looong discussion with MyWOT platinum member to remove his comment (and rating), which was made WITHOUT checking website. The mailing forth and back lasted couple days, and I the last mail I got was that he removed the comment and will check the website once he has time.

Third, the sources of auto-rating. MyWOT uses 3 sources (maybe more) to confirm that site is valid : hphosts, delicious and digg. First one is negative, other ones have no bigger impact. All of them have no real basis. Everyone can submit to digg and delicious. Listing in hphosts is not purely black or white either: some of listings are irrelevant (“marketing strategies”) , some are out of control ( IPs history) , some are valid (distribution of malicious software). However, I haven’t seen users evaluating these properly. Everyone would just vote all bards the same.

4th, the site banner issue. I do not think it is ok, but whatever. If people would like to pay for displaying how crowd things the site is secure, then it is great for mywot. All banners based on real testing are much more useful.

5th. Malware, response time and such. MyWOT will not rate sites at once. Thus malware sites will not be rated as dangerous on first vote. Next, lots of malware is spread through sites with good reputation. Like facebook. Thus it will not make web any safer.

To summarize, to protect from parasites I would advice to use Site Advisor Toolbar and not Mywot. However, MyWOT could become much better if adding some changes. For example, incorporating Site Advisors ratings (including possitive and negative sides), checking spent time on the site on rating, checking overall distribution of ratings, etc.

Somewhat funny note is that my site was rated badly by Site Advisor as well, as I have provided a link to Malwarebytes executable or download page (can’t remember). Later on I get my WOT ratings because I am one of the few people that does not advertise Malwarebytes as “the best single protection” or smth.

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Avoid AV Security Suite infection!

By Giedrius on June 23, 2010

Have you heard about AV Security Suite? For me this program appears to be a fake spyware remover which should be threatened by deleting all its files and also ignoring its scanners. It is clear that AVSecuritySuite comes from the same family as Antivirus Soft and Antispyware Soft malwares, because the same GUI has been simply applied just like for its earlier variants.
Trying to rip people off, scammers have also chosen for AVSecuritySuite the same misleading plan based on fake system scanners and alerts. First of all, malware typically gets installed through the use of trojans that come into potential host computer after security vulnerabilities are found. Just like its predecessors and other rogue anti-spywares, AV Security Suite then will try to mislead computer users that they have numerous viruses on their machines. AV Security Suite will popup on your desktop time to time and will also show system scanners and fake alerts announcing about serious computer problems. As a result, you are expected to install AV Security Suite commercial version if you want to “save” your PC. However, only more problems you will find on your computer after doing this. Save your money instead. The only thing which is recommended is to delete AV Security Suite.

Additionally, recently it started using name “Green AV security Suite”. It looks like it is same parasite in general.

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Marriage, the trip to Portugal and vacation

By Giedrius on June 18, 2010

So, I am married man. That thought still has to sink to me fully, but I am perfectly happy with that. The marriage commenced at 29th of May in the circle of family and friends in Kaunas, my hometown. Everything was perfect, including the fakir show in middle of the night, which was our surprise to the guests. We would like to thank “Ugnies ratas” for spectacular performance.

2 days after ceremony we left for the portugal with a pair of our friends. That was a honeymoon trip for us all, although they have waited for 9 months for us!. The trip was great, we made around 2700 km with a car there.

We flew to Porto, a bigger city in the Portugal north. The narrow cobblestone streets, lots of churches, great meals and very nice, helpful people: that was our first impression of the country. We started by visiting Porto itself and some neighborhood cities like Lamegos and Amarante.

Here is a photo of us in unknown restaurant in Sao Nicolaus, Porto.

After Porto we went to Praia de Mira – a nice resort close at the coast of ocean. Due to weather we could not enjoy the beaches, but the food there was great. We still remember the largest plate of seafood we ate at “Polar” and perfectly made Grilled Sea Bass for two at another place which name I can not recall. During that stay we visited Coimbra first time, a student town and a former capital of Portugal. That was a place we liked most in the whole Portugal and it is perfect city for buying gifts for family and friends. I can recommend restaurant Restaurante Praca Velha there, for perfect service and very tasty steak.

The next hotel was in Peniche – a nice resort for surfing and resting. The weather was much better than in Mira, and we had a very nice company there. Although we had not seen much of Peniche itself, we visited Obidos, old Roman road (twice!) and some other points from it.

Lisabon. There we had an apartment in the center of the city. The parking was terrible, but the place was in one of the main pedestrian streets. Everything was close by: the Cathedral, other historical churches. We visited sea park with aquarium there, which is one of the biggest in Europe. Sadly, the food in Lisabon is terrible, but I can recommend driving to Cascais and eating at Apeadeiro ( Avenida Vasco de Gama 252) – one of the most pleasant places during whole trip.

The last stop was Portimao – a town in the very south of Portugal. It was one of the longest trips as we have visited Evora on the same day. We were promised a bath there by my wife, however we found out that this particular bath was not used since roman times.

The south of portugal is quite different from the rest of it: cleaner, spacer and less more modern. The last apartment was located 100 meters from the ocean so we spend a lot of time enjoying sunshine and beach. It was perfect place to rest and enjoy the weather of Algarve. We had a mad ride on the boat in ocean from Lagos – the watter caves are great, and the boat captains are fearless.

I am really happy with everything concerning my marriage and trip, although it is kind of good to be back and start implementing new ideas again.

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