Virus

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

My laptop has a bug.

Its a real bastard :

Can't browse to antivirus sites, in fact if you type in the name of any antivirus products into a search engine and hit submit, it closes the window.
It won't let me access the windows firewall or security center settings.
I can't access the firewall via the command prompt.
The processes window in the task manager comes up blank.
Won't let me install AVG.

I just installed windows on this machine a week ago and haven't installed any antivirus. Anyone know what it is? Anyone know an online scanner that might not be programmed into this little bastard?

Edit : After rolling XP back to SP1 Ad-Aware now picks up 31 objects. A bunch of Alexa trackers, two windows vulnerabilities listed as regedit access disablement. When the regedit disablement is removed, regedit is still unavailable. I'm pretty sure this is a virus rather than spyware.
Considering I have the latest windows updates, have not opened any email attachments, have been running the windows firewall every time I've been connected and have only been connected for short periods browsing fairly inoccuous sites, I'm going to have to assume its some sort of worm.. It seems made for SP2.

Grah.

[verata.livejournal.com]

My company has a dress code, which was recently changed to revoke the right to wear jeans in patient care areas on Fridays. This rule applies to all employees who aren't uniformed per their position. PC techs, though technically in that category, are permitted to wear jeans on days when they know they have to do an install. Granted, I don't always know in advance when I'll have to install or replace a PC, but it's a rare day when I don't find myself crawling under someone's desk. So I'm wearing jeans today, which was the first thing one of the receptionists noticed when I just went upstairs to our radiology reception area to replace a PC. When I informed her (as I was kneeling on the floor) of the reason why we techs are allowed to wear jeans on occasion, she shot me a very disdained look and then proceeded to mention it to her supervisor... I came so close to telling her, "Look--if your job required you to crawl on your hands and knees instead of sitting at your desk playing solitaire half the time, they'd probably let you wear jeans, too."

No chance!

[djomp.livejournal.com]

The most rediculous request I've heard so far is as follows. Note that the standard quota is 200Mb...

------------------------------------------
Hi there,

My quota on xxxx won't be enough to save my files and my mail. I am trying to import my old mail to xxxx but th quota does not allow me to do it. Also, my files (backups and stuff) does not fit in the serve. Is it possible to get a much bigger disk quota (say 10GB) in xxxx. I really need it.
------------------------------------------

I pointed him towards his local disk. I'm quite tempted to ask where he's bringing this 10Gb of stuff in from...

They're burning the pieces of me which remain inside...

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

One.... year....

One... FREAKING.... YEAR

One year ago, I was working where I am now; on a BlackBerry program for a government agency which shall go nameless.  At the time, we were running the 957 models, which operate on the quite antiquated analog Mobitex network.  One year ago, they had us investigating next generation devices; that being devices which operate on the modern digital CDMA/GSM networks.  They wanted us to find out which carrier was the best option to go with.

At the time, we had under 400 users.

Now we have a little under 1000.

That's 1000 next generation BlackBerries out there.

One year ago I, me, hoffman_log, said that we should use a two-pronged approach; I said we should use T-Mobile BlackBerries for our clients which frequently travel overseas (since T-Mobile has the best international coverage) and Verizon for clients which never travel overseas (since Verizon has the largest network in the USA, but doesn't work outside of the country).

My manager at the time, loved the idea.  LOVED IT.  He proposed it to our government customers and said that it would be in the best interest of the users to use two providers.

They came back and said we had to choose ONE.

We chose T-Mobile since it's better to have international coverage and spotty US coverage, than great US coverage and no overseas coverage.

We chose T-Mobile.  We recommended it.

They went with Cingular.

They went with Cingular because they "already had an existing telecommunications contract with the company".

This was one year ago.  One year ago they spit in the face of our research and went with a company that was recognized by the wireless industry as the "worst provider of BlackBerry Wireless services".

As insulting as that was...  today I almost died.

My new manager was on the phone with our government customer.  I say "new" manager, because within the course of one year, we've gone through three new managers because nobody could tolerate the working conditions.  Why am I still there?  That's another story for another day.  He's on the phone with our government customer, and the customer is ripping him a new one about how "unreliable the blackberry network is".

Excuse me?  Cingular's crappy coverage isn't our f*cking fault.  Obviously I didn't say this, as I was sort of eavesdropping on the speaker phone conversation.  Then I hear him drop the bomb.

Our government customer says "Well, what if we changed carrier?  What if we had more than one carrier?  You know... Like T-Mobile for frequent travelers and Verizon for those who don't travel overseas?"

The sound of a whip cracking in the air came from my mind SNAPPING CLEAR IN HALF.

This is the same guy who told us to pick ONE carrier!!!  This is the same guy who decided to screw all our research and go with Cingular because of a pre-existing contract!  ONE YEAR LATER, THIS IS HIS "BRILLIANT IDEA"!??!?!?  IT WASN'T EVEN HIS!!!  ONE YEAR OF FRUSTRATED CUSTOMERS HAS PASSED BECAUSE CINGULAR CAN'T DELIVER WHAT WE NEED!!!!

So what's involved in switching to a two carrier system!?  Well, first we need to find out who travels overseas and who doesn't, then we need to establish accounts with the carriers, then we need to purchase the units, then we need to recover and replace ALMOST 1,000 BLACKBERRIES.

Look, I'm a graduating college senior.  I'm an intern and NOT supposed to be serving as the Assistant Manager of a huge government contract, but I am!!!  Think I'm sticking around when I graduate?  F*CK THAT!  I'm not going to put up with a customer who I try to save, but they're so intent on screwing themselves over only to come back ONE YEAR LATER and suggest WHAT I ALREADY SUGGESTED without any recognition that it's what was originally recommended!!

Sorry for the rant...  It's been a while since I posted in here, but I just had to get this crack-monkey of dispair off my back...

So the next time you have a friend or buddy who wonders how our tax dollars are at work...

POINT 'EM HERE!

_MaH