Google gone Black!!

I just got this email forward that google has come up with a new
search website with an all black background!

Here is the exact email:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi friends..!!



Blackle is nothing but a black version of google.

"A few months ago, TreeHugger Mark Ontkush wrote a post on his blog
EcoIron titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year. The
post lays out the following train of thought. "An all white web page
uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59
watts." Google, which has a white background and gets about "200 million
queries a day" could reduce global energy use by 750 Megawatt-hours a
year by simply changing the color of its homepage to black.

In response to this post a black version of Google emerged called
Blackle.com <http://blackle.com/> . According to Blackle's homepage at
publication time, 4, 408.917 Watt hours have been saved by . Nice ideas.
But how does the search measure up? Very well indeed. Give it a whirl
yourself and start saving energy one search at a time. :: Blackle.com
<http://blackle.com/>

I recommend you all to use this as your home page or default search
engine. Kindly pass this on to people you know and spread the word.

So here's your site: http://www.blackle.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


--
Regards,
Aravind.T.S.
techieturn.blogspot.com

A worm called heap41a

If you are using an USB drive that has already been plugged in to many computers (that are not secure), Think again!

There is a worm by name w32.USBWorm(also called heap41a) that is floating around from system to system through pendrives.It primarily targets your mozilla browser and displays you an error message "I DNT HATE MOZILLA BUT USE IE OR ELSE..." and doesnt let you access Mozilla.In fact, you can't even open the folder in which you have installed Mozilla.

It also disables you from using orkut and youtube.("Orkut is banned you fool!!!", oh.. that's the message displayed by heap41a, I am not scolding you)

I haven't heard of any other serious damages heap41a might cause, but caution is always advised.It might just corrupt your USB drivers making you reinstall your Operating system, or even worse, it MAY corrupt your USB drive and your hard disk and eventually ALL YOUR D-A-T-A!!!

Solution?


First, disconnect all kinds of network connections.

1. Go to command prompt(run->cmd)
2. Type the following commands:
cd\
cd heap41a
3. now fire 'dir' command
4. You will see a list of files and folders. Then fire 'del *' and confirm to delete all the files.
5.Now fire 'rmdir /S offspring' command to delete the folder by name "offspring"
6. Now the dir command shows a file by name "svchost.exe".
7. Rename that file, fire this command : ren svchost.exe ara.
8. Now reboot your PC.
9. go back to command prompt c:/heap41a.
10. fire 'attrib -R ara' command to make the file writable.
11. fire this command : "edit ara"
12. The file opens in the edit mode. Select all the content and delete the content!
13.Now save the file from file menu and exit.
14. Now fire 'cd ..'
15. then fire rmdir /S heap41a!

Congartulations!

You have just deleted the worm.

Now we need to delete the traces of the worm too.

Now go to run-> regedit and that brings you the registry editor.
Navigate to the following key and delete it:
"[winlogon] C:\heap41a\svchost.exe C:\heap(some number)\std.txt"

(Do a search to find it. I am now lazy to type the LONG path).

Be careful while working with registry.YOU are responsible for any harm that YOU may cause.Don't blame me later!

This worm(heap41a) may also lead to malfunctioning of Hide/Unhide folder functionality of Windows XP.You can refer to this thread to for pointers:
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=232457&messageID=2396828

(Told ya I was lazy :-) )

That's it!
If you still have problems, mail me at aravindts1 AT rediffmail DOT com, or JUST POST HERE.

Bye,
Aravind

Broadcast agent is Offline ??

A couple of months back, I faced this situation, where the Business objects returned me an error message “Broadcast agent offline”.While trying to analyze the error, being a beginner, I found out that there were really more than one reasons for this.I summarize a few of them here so that Others can benefit from it.Be sure to add any. if you know of one.This will help other developers out there so that they dont have to re invent the wheel.

Here are some reasons for Business Objects Broadcast agent to go offline:

1. Resource contention

2. Monitoring of Broadcast agent turned off in the admin panel of Business Objects.

3. Broad cast agent disabled

4. There is not enough disk space for log file( Yes, It did happen!)

Some Solutions that worked are:

1. Turn On the monitoring of BCA.

2. Check and rectify any resource contentions

3. Regenerate BOMAIN key??( I havent tried it, but was advised on an online forum )

4. Restart the webiserver.

5. Check the read/write permissions

Well, I will add more as I get to learn more.

Till then, see Ya!

PS: This post is a result of my discussion with my Friends, Colleagues and searching internet. Pls post here or mail me at aravindts1 AT rediffmail DOT COM if you know any more reasons/solutions.