mdp.org.mv hacked - click image for full page view

Seems like all they did was accessing the admin panel and adding a new article.

The page says that no files has been edited and that they were asking mdp to bring a change for the 30 years!

I am still wondering why maldivian democtrats are keeping this page still… may be they wants to show that they have got fan hackers…xD

Twitter has been a medium for twitterers like us to stay on track with the world wide (web and more). and the most i loved about it was its feature of update/recieve tweets via sms which was discontinued recently.

A lot of twitterers are fed up and showing their anger about this, twitter is getting flooded with these angry tweets. So we all are looking for alternatives.

www.tweetsms.com

tweetSMS is on the way to help bridge the gap. For a low price, tweetSMS can send you individual, hourly or daily updates from all of your friends! tweetSMS havent launched there service yet. But we all are hoping that they would launch very very soon. May google bless you tweetSMS.

So today i thought of checking out my Google Page Rank. I was more than suprised to see that i am having a page rank of 4 out of 10. It was really hard for me to believe even. I was expecting something like 2 or 1.

If you dont know what page rank is..
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E). - wikipedia

You can chechk how much your pages are ranking using the online page rankers like prchecker.info.

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three
As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

Firefox 3 Reaches 20 Million downloads in 7 Days, Opera - 4.5 Million Downloads in 5 Days

Open Firefox 3, Hit Ctrl+T and type “about:config”

1. Disable Extension Compatibility Checks
extensions.checkCompatibility = False
extensions.checkUpdateSecurity = False

2. Location Bar (Set number Auto Complete URL at Address Bar)
This is good for trimming down the huge auto complete bar, the default is 12
browser.urlbar.maxRichResults = #

3. Stop Displaying Favicons.
browser.chrome.site_icons = False

4. Disable Prefetch (Helpful for frequent Google searcher, low-speed internet connection or low RAM)
network.prefetch-next = False


5. Extend Spell check to forms
layout.spellcheckDefault = 2

6. Speed Tweaks
network.http.pipelining false to true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 30 to 8
network.http.max-connections 30 to 96
network.http.max-connections-per-server 15 to 32
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 6 to 8
network.http.pipelining.ssl false to true
network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true

7. Disable Annoying Things that The Browser Does
dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar
dom.disable_window_move_resize
dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar
dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar

Set all to false

8. Disable Delay Time While Installing Firefox Add-on (My favourite)
security.dialog_enable_delay = 0

If some thing should go wrong, you can restore defaults by clicking on the drop-down menu in the right hand top corner and pressing “restore to defaults”.

So I just decided not to use Internet Expirier anymore and thought of blogging about this matter. And ran wordpress using IE and was even telling me to browsehappily and safely.

Browse Happy says “Internet Explorer can make your computer unsafe. Why not switch to a browser that’s more secure?”
So Just switch to firefox!
Note: If you Love Firefox and are in Maldives, why dont you join the open source fans community to celebrate the launch of Firefox 3 in Maldives.

I have been observing sharedzilla.com for quite some days and found it very useful. So i tried here and there and came across this idea of starting this project of sharedzilla search engine. And i am glad to announce the launch of this project at ooopx.info/sharedzilla.

Sharedzilla is one of the best file hosting service available on the internet. I am am sure its better than rapidshare. You can have free direct downloads from sharedzilla.com.

There are lots of other searche engines (even for sharedzilla) available out there. But none of them works better than this one. Check the SearchShared.com. Its just using google to index the results, which very much doesn’t work for sharedzilla.

www.ooopx.info/sharedzilla

So in this tutorial i am going to explain you how to clean the virus manually and how to disable auto-running these malicious viruses when you double click on the icon of the drive.

A. Cleaning the Virus Manually.

First thing you will need to do is to open up Task Manager and close all process run by your user accounts, except explorer.exe and your browser. (if firefox its firefox.ex and in IE IEXPLORER.EXE)

Then Run (Start Menu > Run) “msconfig”. Move to startup tab disable all unknown files in the startup. If not sure click “Disable All”. Exit but donot restart,

I am on Windows Xp Professional with Service pack two and I have got a USB Hard Disk infected with an autorun monster which we are going to find out and clean.

This doesn’t look suspicious. Cox’ there ain’t any Autoplay option even in the right-click menu. But when i select open, opens in a new window. My settings are not configured that way. That makes me very suspicious about this.

So lets check out.

Step - 1

Run “regedit” (Start menu / Run)

Regedit will look something like this when its all collapsed.

Step - 2

Go to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Hidden\SHOWALL

This is how its gonna look when you are in the directory i mentioned. The yellow colored highlighted are the values which we are going to alter.

Step - 3

Double Click on the “CheckedValue”. A small window will open, change its value to “1″.

Click ok.

Now Double click on the “DefaultValue” and change its value to “2″. click ok.

Step - 4

Close the regedit and run “taskmgr” (open task manager) and move to the process tab. End the “explorer.exe” process.

Go to file menu and “New Task” type “explorer” on the box and hit enter. Make sure you do this step before proceeding to step 5.

Step - 5

Now Its time to delete the problematic files. Right Click on the “Start” Menu and “explore”.

Go to Tools > Folder Options > View

- Select the radio button ” Show Hidden Files and Folders”.

- Unmark the check box saying “Hide Protected Operating System files (Recomended)”.

Your Screen should look like this in the folder option window. Click Apply and Close it.

Now you will be able to see the malicious files in the drive which causes you the autorun problem. Usually the virus files will be hidden, so they looks in kinda faded color than other icons and files in the folder.

Go to the Drive which you are cleaning. Check the files your self. In my case i have found 3 hidden DOS files and one INF (Autorun.INF) File.

Autorun.INF file is the file which tells which file to be executed when an “open” or “autoplay” command is given.

Just delete these 4 files (in my case, you might have less or more files. you can open the autorun.inf file in notepad and check which are the exact files to be deleted.)

Note: Once you have run the autorun file, the DOS scripts will automatically copy these files to all other drives and Storage medias in your computer system. So Check all your drives and clean the files.

NOTE: WHILE CLEANING C DRIVE (OR THE WINDOWS DRIVE) DONOT DELETE ANY FILE OTHER THAN AUTORUN.INF UNLESS YOU KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT YOUR ARE DOING.

Step - 6

Reboot your computer.

Its not so easy to do this when ever you get infected by this kind of viruses. So why to ever autorun?

The part B of this tutorial will explain you how to disable the autorun files for ever.

B. Permanently Disable the Autorun.

Step - 1

Run “gpedit.msc” (Start > Run)

Open “Administrative Templates” select “System”

On the right hand side you will see a list of available settings. Find the one called “Turn off Autoplay”.

Enable it and Select “All Drives” from drop down box. Apply it and you are ready to go.

Now you should be safe from autoplay monsters.

Flickr is turning 4 on the 15th of this month and thus Maldives celebrates it!Meet up for a chit chat.. or grab a piece from our anniversary cake :). 

So, Who wants to grab a free drink?

Meet up for a chit chat.. or grab a piece from our anniversary cake :). Where?

- Gather up to meet and introduce each other.
- A massive cake decorated with the flickr turns 4.
- Users leaves with a group photo and a piece from the lovely cake
-  .. the rest… is a surprise..

How can u contribute

Time is short. And we want your support. Find us how you can help us by contacting us. Bloggers! Support us to spread the word.

Publish a badge on your website/blog:

<a href='http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrturns4/discuss/72157604095721278/' title='Maldives celebrates flickr 4'><img src='http://maldives.net.mv/flickr/flickr_4_blog.gif' border='0'></a>

* = Limited

Contact Information

Tel: 7730740 - Millzero
7785878  - Nattu

Official event link: http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrturns4/discuss/72157604095721278/

The very first thing i came to notice was that why a politician needs to meet bunch of kids like us? and of course Dr Hassan Saeed explained that very well. We are the most valuable, most vulnerable assets of the country.

We had a little 2 hours discussion about Dr. Hassan Saeed’s manifesto and as we questioned he and Dr.Shaheed answered and explained more about the points in the manifesto. I was really surprised by how much they have planned for our future in cases of economy, education, housing and urban planing and in every single bit. I was really satisfied by the way they answered us. I felt like my mind just exploded something new. Understanding how much they have sacrificed for this country and are willing to made me feel really greatful for them.

What these doctorates were asking us was not to support them or campaign them. To have an open mid towards the politics.
“..there are two ways to approach this. either to support or to attack this..” Dr. Shaheed.

Dr.Shaheed explained why he joined the government and how he has served to the country in bringing up an individual Human Rights Commission in Maldives and other petitions which he made Mr.Golhaaboa to sign while answering the last question.

So my fellow youths. Please donot just ignore politics. You dont have to be active in politics. But please gain knowledge about how these leaders are going to contribute to our country. Chose wisely to the person you think is the best and who can lead this country out of this critical situation. Voting is a right you have under the Maldivian Law. So tick your vote wisely.