Me too. It's the only $10 a month service worth giving money too. Obviously not enough people are giving them the $10 for streaming and music to go (downloadable).
Yeah, I lived in England during the IRA bombings and they never reacted as scared as this. 9/11 is when America went from "Home of the Brave" to "Home of the afraid". It was used as a government power grab of our individual rights and freedoms in the name of security. It was the beginning of the "Forever War".
I mean getting the people affected by the social media ban to say they aren't going to watch (18 to 30 is the desired demographic) or buy sponsor's products. Unless the sponsors are motivated to change there will be no change.
There is going to be a market for a super-secure digital vault that is outside of all nations legal influence. It doesn't meant that the US gubment won't still try to sieze their DNS records or something but you can always get there by using an IP address..
Try turning on the encryption just for your password to you ISP provided email account. Oops, now you can't log in any more. When they won't let us use even the most basic security for our accounts how are we supposed to be secure?
They could easily have a Shared Calendar in a Public Folder in Exchange or one on a SharePoint server. Just because it doesn't start with an "i" doesn't mean that the IT department can't get it to support an iPhone. iPhones are what most of the folks I support use and I have no Apple products.
Sure they can. It doesn't have to be jamming. It could force "airplane mode" for all phones in a car. It's easy to determine if a bluetooth or cellular signal is coming from inside or outside a vehicle, you just need 3 or 4 directional antennas at the perimiter of the car. The no communication mode could be enforced if the car was moving more than 5mph for example. Think a little bigger, these are more like computers than the phones of old, anything is possible.
Test the theory out on the space station. They have had a fair share of issues with their solar panels, maybe this alternate power supply could create enough energy to not only run the space station but some ion rockets to keep it in the proper orbit.
Agreed, a strong installation document, good Dev and Test environments, separation of duties between programmers and installers and strong change control make a MUCH more stable environment.
But you do take a performance hit on writing as two sectors have to be modified and rewritten if any data changes. This is why VMWare places such a priority on you getting it right. EMC and NetApp also have a lot of technical literature on why it is so important.
Michael Bristow says: 2010-02-12 at 11:48 I had a machine come across my bench with this issue, first thing Wednesday morning. One of the first things I tried was running SFC form an ERD boot disk. it replaced several files including atapi.sys, but was still would not boot. only way to get the PC back up and running was to remove the patch.
Multiple scans, with no infection detected, and I tried re-installing the patch, only to get right back to Blue Screens.
In short, there is obviously more going on than just a problem with infected atapi.sys files.
Jim Blizzard says: 2010-02-12 at 12:00 Very nice work Patrick,
We have seen this occur on a few machines at the FAA so I wrote a vbscript to loop through an.xls of machines and record the MD5 Checksum. Thought it may come in handy for yourself and some of your readers..
Microsoft Update KB977165 triggering widespread BSOD
One of Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday" security fixes is triggering a widespread "Blue Screen of Death" problem. The cause is not the update itself, but an existing infection. So far, reports suggest that this problem affects Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Once the update is applied and the system rebooted, Windows will bluescreen at boot. When booted to Safe Mode, the system will freeze.
Removing the update from the Windows Recovery Console or using live media will get the system booting again, at least until the update is reapplied.
I have found that the root cause is an infection of %System32\drivers\atapi.sys, and that replacing this file with a clean version will get the system booting normally.
This is not the first time that an infection hitting atapi.sys has caused updates to trigger bluescreens. If you are running Windows and have not yet applied this update, make sure you scan your computer thoroughly for infections before applying this update. If you are experiencing this problem, get your computer to a professional that can replace the infected atapi.sys and clean any other malware from your computer.
References:
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=8209http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistawu/thread/73cea559-ebbd-4274-96bc-e292b69f2fd1
Detailed Repair Instructions
Using the Windows XP Recovery Console
1. Boot from your Windows installation CD
Insert your Windows installation CD and boot your computer. If your computer is not set to boot from CD first, you may need to reconfigure your BIOS or press a boot menu key (often F12, F8 or Esc). If you are unsure of how to do this, consult your favorite geek. As soon as the boot starts, you should see a message like "Press any key to boot from CD..." - press a key.
2. Start the Recovery Console
After the CD loads (it may take a minute), you will be presented with a few choices. One of these options is to start a recovery by pressing "R". Press "R" to launch the Recovery Console.
* You may be asked to choose a Windows installation. If so, choose the damaged installation (probably "1).
* You may be prompted for the Administrator password. If you do not have one, press "Enter".
3. Identify your CD drive letter
You should now be at the command prompt. Enter the following command:
map
Look for the drive letter for your CD drive. It may look something like this:
D: \Device\CdRom0
In this case, your CD drive is "D:".
4. Replace ATAPI.SYS
Enter the following, replacing "D:" with your CD drive:
cd system32\drivers
ren atapi.sys atapi.old
expand D:\i386\atapi.sy_
You should see the message "1 file(s) expanded." - this indicates you have succeeded.
5. Reboot and scan for malware
Reboot your computer. With a little luck, your computer will now boot normally. Because this problem is caused by malware, you should immediately scan your computer with up-to-date antivirus software.
Tags: Malware, Security, Windows
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 17:22 and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Kind of like the "free" digital copy of Harry Potter that comes with the latest Blue-Ray? The download sits at 0% forever on Windows 7 x64 and their site states they only support XP. Now that I have "redeemed" my code I can't use it on an old XP laptop that would at least be a supported OS. Big media are asshats.
that have led us to this. Certificates should cost no more than $10 yet Verisign wants $1000 for a 1 year enhanced web site certificate. Thawte wants $995 for 2 years. Out and out piracy is my opinion. I'm pretty sure that there would be a lot more security in the small businesses I support if I could buy them certificates for $25.
I beat it because I went in once I found a lump in my neck and they were able to claim "early detection". Most people ignore things until they get painful, I didn't and that has lead to to survival. I was treated with surgery (a radical left neck dissection), Radiation (primary treatment, 71 rads of IMRT proton beam radiation over 33 doses in 6 weeks) and chemo (secondary treatment, cisplatin once a week for 6 weeks). Pretty much any cancer found in the head/neck will be at a stage 4 level because it's big and has a very good blood supply. I was given anywhere from 60% to 90% odds of 5 year survival depending on the doctor. I am at 4 years since diagnosis right now. It wasn't genetic, smoking or drinking caused. It may have been caused by the HPV virus but as far as I know that testing wasn't done. My tumors are in a tumor bank though so they can be used for research.
Slashdot Mirror
Me too. It's the only $10 a month service worth giving money too. Obviously not enough people are giving them the $10 for streaming and music to go (downloadable).
Yeah, I lived in England during the IRA bombings and they never reacted as scared as this. 9/11 is when America went from "Home of the Brave" to "Home of the afraid". It was used as a government power grab of our individual rights and freedoms in the name of security. It was the beginning of the "Forever War".
I mean getting the people affected by the social media ban to say they aren't going to watch (18 to 30 is the desired demographic) or buy sponsor's products. Unless the sponsors are motivated to change there will be no change.
A good reason to form a FaceBook boycott of the Olympics. If people say they won't watch maybe the advertizers will demand change.
There is going to be a market for a super-secure digital vault that is outside of all nations legal influence. It doesn't meant that the US gubment won't still try to sieze their DNS records or something but you can always get there by using an IP address..
They should buy a mobile phone company and torpedo the price structure for mobile data plans. They should buy Sprint or T-Mobile.
Try turning on the encryption just for your password to you ISP provided email account. Oops, now you can't log in any more. When they won't let us use even the most basic security for our accounts how are we supposed to be secure?
I think they meant Billion.
I won't buy!
Half the population has an IQ LOWER than 100. Just sayin...
They could easily have a Shared Calendar in a Public Folder in Exchange or one on a SharePoint server. Just because it doesn't start with an "i" doesn't mean that the IT department can't get it to support an iPhone. iPhones are what most of the folks I support use and I have no Apple products.
Hardware: SanDisk, Nikon and Sony are Developing a 500MB/sec 2TB Flash Card specification
There, fixed that for you.
Sure they can. It doesn't have to be jamming. It could force "airplane mode" for all phones in a car. It's easy to determine if a bluetooth or cellular signal is coming from inside or outside a vehicle, you just need 3 or 4 directional antennas at the perimiter of the car. The no communication mode could be enforced if the car was moving more than 5mph for example. Think a little bigger, these are more like computers than the phones of old, anything is possible.
Test the theory out on the space station. They have had a fair share of issues with their solar panels, maybe this alternate power supply could create enough energy to not only run the space station but some ion rockets to keep it in the proper orbit.
Agreed, a strong installation document, good Dev and Test environments, separation of duties between programmers and installers and strong change control make a MUCH more stable environment.
I think the word that should be here is animosity (i.e. hatred) and not antipathy (dislike). My $.02.
But you do take a performance hit on writing as two sectors have to be modified and rewritten if any data changes. This is why VMWare places such a priority on you getting it right. EMC and NetApp also have a lot of technical literature on why it is so important.
And some other salient responses:
Michael Bristow says:
2010-02-12 at 11:48
I had a machine come across my bench with this issue, first thing Wednesday morning. One of the first things I tried was running SFC form an ERD boot disk. it replaced several files including atapi.sys, but was still would not boot. only way to get the PC back up and running was to remove the patch.
Multiple scans, with no infection detected, and I tried re-installing the patch, only to get right back to Blue Screens.
In short, there is obviously more going on than just a problem with infected atapi.sys files.
Jim Blizzard says:
2010-02-12 at 12:00
Very nice work Patrick,
We have seen this occur on a few machines at the FAA so I wrote a vbscript to loop through an .xls of machines and record the MD5 Checksum. Thought it may come in handy for yourself and some of your readers..
http://home.comcast.net/~jblizz/Atapi_MD5_Checker.zip
Microsoft Update KB977165 triggering widespread BSOD One of Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday" security fixes is triggering a widespread "Blue Screen of Death" problem. The cause is not the update itself, but an existing infection. So far, reports suggest that this problem affects Windows XP and Windows Vista. Once the update is applied and the system rebooted, Windows will bluescreen at boot. When booted to Safe Mode, the system will freeze. Removing the update from the Windows Recovery Console or using live media will get the system booting again, at least until the update is reapplied. I have found that the root cause is an infection of %System32\drivers\atapi.sys, and that replacing this file with a clean version will get the system booting normally. This is not the first time that an infection hitting atapi.sys has caused updates to trigger bluescreens. If you are running Windows and have not yet applied this update, make sure you scan your computer thoroughly for infections before applying this update. If you are experiencing this problem, get your computer to a professional that can replace the infected atapi.sys and clean any other malware from your computer. References: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=8209 http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistawu/thread/73cea559-ebbd-4274-96bc-e292b69f2fd1 Detailed Repair Instructions Using the Windows XP Recovery Console 1. Boot from your Windows installation CD Insert your Windows installation CD and boot your computer. If your computer is not set to boot from CD first, you may need to reconfigure your BIOS or press a boot menu key (often F12, F8 or Esc). If you are unsure of how to do this, consult your favorite geek. As soon as the boot starts, you should see a message like "Press any key to boot from CD..." - press a key. 2. Start the Recovery Console After the CD loads (it may take a minute), you will be presented with a few choices. One of these options is to start a recovery by pressing "R". Press "R" to launch the Recovery Console. * You may be asked to choose a Windows installation. If so, choose the damaged installation (probably "1). * You may be prompted for the Administrator password. If you do not have one, press "Enter". 3. Identify your CD drive letter You should now be at the command prompt. Enter the following command: map Look for the drive letter for your CD drive. It may look something like this: D: \Device\CdRom0 In this case, your CD drive is "D:". 4. Replace ATAPI.SYS Enter the following, replacing "D:" with your CD drive: cd system32\drivers ren atapi.sys atapi.old expand D:\i386\atapi.sy_ You should see the message "1 file(s) expanded." - this indicates you have succeeded. 5. Reboot and scan for malware Reboot your computer. With a little luck, your computer will now boot normally. Because this problem is caused by malware, you should immediately scan your computer with up-to-date antivirus software. Tags: Malware, Security, Windows This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 17:22 and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
By using vacation time you could double your income and spend your days on an extended vacation from your dual monitors. Win - win.
America: No longer free, no longer brave.
A sad time to be American IMHO.
Kind of like the "free" digital copy of Harry Potter that comes with the latest Blue-Ray? The download sits at 0% forever on Windows 7 x64 and their site states they only support XP. Now that I have "redeemed" my code I can't use it on an old XP laptop that would at least be a supported OS. Big media are asshats.
that have led us to this. Certificates should cost no more than $10 yet Verisign wants $1000 for a 1 year enhanced web site certificate. Thawte wants $995 for 2 years. Out and out piracy is my opinion. I'm pretty sure that there would be a lot more security in the small businesses I support if I could buy them certificates for $25.
They should build it in Washington DC
I beat it because I went in once I found a lump in my neck and they were able to claim "early detection". Most people ignore things until they get painful, I didn't and that has lead to to survival. I was treated with surgery (a radical left neck dissection), Radiation (primary treatment, 71 rads of IMRT proton beam radiation over 33 doses in 6 weeks) and chemo (secondary treatment, cisplatin once a week for 6 weeks). Pretty much any cancer found in the head/neck will be at a stage 4 level because it's big and has a very good blood supply. I was given anywhere from 60% to 90% odds of 5 year survival depending on the doctor. I am at 4 years since diagnosis right now. It wasn't genetic, smoking or drinking caused. It may have been caused by the HPV virus but as far as I know that testing wasn't done. My tumors are in a tumor bank though so they can be used for research.