yandao.com - Memoirs of a player wannabe

January 20th, 2008

Community-Powered Anti-Virus - Who’s Interested?

Posted by Kelvin in Everything

I’ve talked to a few of my very technically inclined friends, and we came out with this funky idea, based on the following pseudo-scenarios:

1. Well, there’s always exponential increase of viruses, worms, and the works.. and there’s never enough people who *can* help them,

2. Many, many people want to help their peers - but they don’t know how to do so. That feeling sucks, doesn’t it?

3. Anti-virus companies do a great job - however, they seem to screw up because they can NEVER have enough resources to analyze viruses well enough. Even if we pay them or blood money.

4. One person can only help so much. We need a whole community to help!

Well then, let’s make a community-powered anti-virus, and push it out then! In non-chim-no-logical terms, that probably means that it *IS* a free anti-virus software.. which the public can freely contribute virus patterns, signatures, and the works to it.

Yup, the public decides the way the software grows, what functions to put into it, and.. well.. essentially, the whole website will be open-source, too. (yes, it’ll function like Digg)

Basically, this idea requires alot of effort on our part, and even more time, and loads of sweat and blood (and sleepless nights) - and little or no monetary returns…

..however, taking into consideration that people get to do the final say, and choose what they want inside the software.. well. your choice!

Let’s see, now…

Will you...


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Also, drop me a message on MSN (not E-mail) at hot_wired13[at]hotmail.com if you’re interested in being a developer/coder/etc for this project.

Thanks guys and gals - your comments are very much appreciated!

January 14th, 2008

Open-Source Fix and..

Posted by Kelvin in Everything

Dear all,

Glad to see all of you still asking me for help… and posting comments. Three things,

First, all old versions of impFix will be made Open Source - meaning I will post up the source code online, together with its algorithms, for everyone to work on, use, and disseminate, only thing is that it will be accompanied by an GPL v3 License -in short, it means that if you redistribute, you HAVE to credit, and you HAVE to include the source - it’s in VB6 by the way…

Props to all those who have asked me POLITELY for it on MSN. Appreciated.

It’s available at http://yandao.com/files/src/ - have fun modifying it..

(Note: No new fixes have been included, due to.. certain people, which I’ll explain below.)

Secondly, I will stop distributing virus or worm or whatever fixes PUBLICLY, due to the very fact that there are people who claim to be “good” and do a better job of it. Fine, go figure. Knock yourself out :)

The only way to obtain ANY fix is to ask from any friend of mine. If you can’t be bothered to add me in MSN (hot_wired13[at]hotmail.com), or look me up in school - for those in Republic Polytechnic (classes are, W67A, W67C, W67D, W64D, E6-24 respectively, from Monday to Friday). Also, friends have my mobile number, get it from them, or else, don’t bother.

Why this implementation? No, it’s not that I’m not getting any money. It’s due to some UNGRATEFUL PEOPLE (click link to see comment) who are once again, fucking up the natural cycle of things. If you’re SO good, do something then?

With that said, I would like to mention that taunting is not the way to get things that you can’t usually obtain - I would like to thank Eclipse-Sama for posting a fix here. I also offer to him my domain, chiobu.net if he is interested to further develop that domain into something usable. Do message me on MSN.

Thirdly, thanks for those who commented on my financial status, and for those who thought that I needed cash, or was probably broke or seeking attention or money. Let me illustrate a little of my background, who I am, where I come from, and what I am capable of.

For those who haven’t figured out yet, I do hold a job, and I do own a large share of a company engaging primarily in web solutions - projects, development and the works, and also quite abit of consultation in the social media marketing industry (i.e influencing people via online means - like the other time I had the $12/hour job - that was for it).

Both job, of course, pays well enough, and both individually, gives me quite alot of free time - but when you put BOTH together, then things get messy, schedules have to be met, and stuff. I’ve just came out doing corporate - and it’s definitely not an easy thing to do - sooo many deadlines to meet, and client expectations to uphold and of course, to entertain.

For those out there who’re doing management and project-related stuff, you’ll know what I mean, and the monetary returns are too much to spend on anything imaginable - but then again, you don’t have the time to even spend it… So, as I’ve mentioned before, if you want something custom made, buy my time, through my company, or as a third party - if you’re NOT my friend, that is.

(For those of you, who are rationale enough to think, and read, I’ll help you too - don’t flame, play nice, ask politely, and things will get done.)

I treat people whom I know very well, ask around… :D ..and yes, free desserts after dinners, too. =X *COUGHS + GRINS*

Still, for those of you who’s been digging around on me - no need to dig, I’ll list down what I used to do in the past.

Several years back, during the time when internet legislation wasn’t anything like it was now, I used to be one of those guys who designed spyware, adware, and much of the malicious software out on the market, of course, during then, I worked for one of the largest companies at that point - which was acquired by another marketing giant in excess of US$500 million…

We worked individually to surpass anti-virus softwares, online scanners, and even individuals from removing it - and although some of the other programmers decided to use more.. threatening means to affect “clever” users like our dear Shaun Wang - meaning that if anyone or anything tried to kill the “threat”, it rendered your whole computer unusable - by blocking your logins, deleting your boot files, and the works.

The world isn’t as simple as you think, my dear. Go back, read the newspapers, understand the ruthlessness of large organizations, and think about it - if the viruses you fix are *so* difficult to remove, why is it so?

Because there hired programmers and paid them in tens of thousand dollars, like what I was paid years back (when I was still in the scene until the laws tightened up.. and local law enforcement stepped in… but that’s another story, lah ;)). Just so you know - On the average, each programmer is paid around $30,000 Singapore Dollars monthly.. that’s around a thousand a day. (I entered the company late, and only lasted for around 3 or 4 months inside before Singapore laws tightened up… So, guess how much I made :D - then again, I spent all of it already =X)

Quite a while back, I was also involved in… some activities in the largely gray area. I was out in the papers before, for that, and no, I’m not proud of it, looking back. If you dig hard enough, it was under the handle, “hot_wired13″ or “_wired”.

Well, now that that’s cleared, and having said my piece - have fun, guys and gals. Year 2008 has just begun, and… semester’s ending soon. I *promise* to develop a new photo database with social networking functions - meaning, you can send an e-mail straight to that person’s email account… and stuff.. Aiyah, just look out for it :)

Last, and not least, the cure for the auto.exe virus…

Start > Run > cmd.exe

Type (or copy and paste) the following inside the Command Prompt box which comes up.

Removal:

 

attrib -R -S -H c:\Autorun.inf &&  del c:\Autorun.inf

[Press Enter - or replace c:\ with whatever drive that you cannot open]

Prevention (thumbdrive or memory stick or whatever.. - to be carried out after removal)

mkdir c:\Autorun.inf && attrib +R +S +H c:\Autorun.inf

[Press Enter - or replace c:\ with whatever drive is affected..]

Removal & Prevention - for your Windows directory:

attrib -R -S -H c:\Windows\System.exe && del c:\Windows\System.exe

[Press Enter]

mkdir C:\windows\System.exe && attrib +R +S +H c:\Windows\System.exe

Basically, these commands unhide the infected files, and.. well, deletes them.. and more or less prevents them from coming back.. The virus should error out if attempting to copy itself to your thumbdrive from an infected computer..

..and… that’s all folks. Have fun, and no, it’s free - just buy me drinks when you see me.

(PS: Once again, I emphasize, if you don’t like me, or this BLOG - it’s not a website, by the way, it’s MY blog, damnit - don’t use ANYTHING of mine, and keep your complaints to yourself or your local MP.)

Thanks and Regards,

Kelvin

Edit:

To remove that “System” folder popping up.. do this:

Run the http://yandao.com/files/wtfIshThis.exe, click Scan and then.. look inside for c:\Windows\System nd tick that box.. and press Fix Checked.

Restart your computer and you’re done!



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