How to issue a time resynchronization in Windows - cmd/batch

 Hello again, I'm back. I found some spare time to add some updated tricks concerning technology, and general tips for Windows or GNU/Linux. :)

I've been having some problems with the time synchronization in Windows 7, which required more often synchronization. So after some googling around, I came up with this little batch commands:

echo Current date/time: %date%_%time%
%windir%\system32\sc.exe start w32time task_started
%windir%\system32\w32tm.exe /resync
echo Fixed date/time: %date%_%time%
pause

Save it as a .bat file and run it as an administrator (right-click on file > Run as administrator).
It's nothing much, pretty dirty scripting I confess, but it does get the job done, at least in my case. I hope it will help someone else too.

See ya!

Hiren's boot cd using unetbootin (missing boot options)

If you try to use unetbootin to copy Hiren's bootcd on a usb flash drive and you boot using the flash disk, you'll notice that some options are missing, especially the "mini windows xp" boot option.

To overcome this problem you have to copy the file "HBCD/isolinux.cfg" to the main folder and replace the file "syslinux.cfg"

Then everything will work as expected.

Bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unetbootin/+bug/971403

Libreoffice recent documents - History manager extension

This solution works for Windows operating systems as well as Linux distributions (It's actually system independent)
If you need to clear or define how many items the recent documents list bears, you can install this easy-to-use extension/addon/plugin: History manager for Libreoffice/Openoffice

- Click "Get it" and download the .oxt file.
- Open Libreoffice writer, menu > Tools > Extension manager > press Add and open the .oxt file you've downloaded.
- Close Libreoffice and re-open it. Go to menu Tools > Add-ons > History manager

Openoffice 3.0 final.. finally!

Today I noticed that the new version 3.0 of OpenOffice.org will be out, the open source/free desktop office bundle (that I adore). As osalt.com describes it:

 OpenOffice provides a great alternative to existing commercial office suites. It comes with word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing and graphing tool (Draw), tool for creating equations and formulae (Math) and finally a database tool which also build reports and forms (Base). All components are multi-platform and multilingual. Development is sponsored by Sun Microsystems.

So I have two events to celebrate today, this and my birthday! :)

Click on the following links to see:
- the release announcement:
www.openoffice.org/news/index.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A//www.openoffice.org/news/index.html

- the new features:
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A//www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

I've enclosed google cache links as an alternative, for some reason the openoffice.org site replies with '403 Forbidden' error.

Update:

You can obtain the openoffice suite from torrents or mirrors such as:
torrents: http://borft.student.utwente.nl/~adrian/bt.php
mirrorservice: http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/down ... ble/3.0.0/
Filehippo (windows executable): http://www.filehippo.com/download_openoffice/

Firefox: "Secure connection Failed"

Visiting websites with secure connection enabled can sometimes lead to problems in Firefox. Websites just link their https certificate to whatever sub-domain they want or they redirect to another website without registering it properly. Mozilla Firefox 3 detects that "glitch" and adds an extra protection layer by stating the following error:

Page load error
Secure connection Failed

*site* uses an invalid security certificate
The certificate is only valid for *another site*
(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)

There's an easy way to resolve this, if you click on "Or you can add an exception" → "Add exception" → "Get certificate" → Read the reason it was invalid and if you're OK with the reason → "Confirm security exception".

Movie codec information - the gspot alternative

To be clear, no, I'm not talking about the ladies' G spot :) But if you're looking for GSpot Codec Information Appliance alternative tool for GNU/Linux, you're definetely looking for a tool like themonospot!

The monospot is written in C sharp (C#) using the MONO Framework and GTK#, licensed under GNU GPL, and it's a tool to extract information about various movie formats and reveals valuable information such as:

• Video codec used
• Frame size
• Average video bitrate
• File size
• Total time
• Frame rate
• Total frames
• Info data
• Packet Bitstream
• User data (in MOVI chunk)
• Audio codec used
• Average audio bitrate
• Audio channels

This could definitely help you dig out the codec used for a specific movie you're trying to view. There various packages available for download, among them Ubuntu, Opensuse, Fedora, Windows and many more!

Software: Autopatcher is long gone, but...

According to this little announcement, it looks like the autopatcher all-in-one update project has gone down the drain. Instead of Microsoft congratulating and embrasing such a kind security offer from a programmer such as Antonis Kaladis, they send an email for "unlicensed redistribution" of copyright work. If you ask me, Microsoft has never heard of the words: promotion developers software
It might be old news, but I want to point something else. Take a look at how many times the world linux is mentioned! It is a fact that GNU/Linux and *BSD distributions are short of desktop users, but that's not a reason for begging!

I just looove the ranting that followed:

The future is Linux. Let Microsoft commit suicide if they so want to. 1

Looks like this guy never tried APTonCD:

And for all the people who are using this as the reason to jump to linux - good riddance. Make sure to post here after you get your Linux distro installed and have to download a number of packages and updates that makes Windows Update look like a blessing. 2

Nevertheless, this is NOT the ending of the AutoPatcher and easy patching era. As Kaladis has mentioned, the team is working on a web-based solution. If that solution can work with grabbing the downloads directly from microsoft.com, then I believe they can bypass that attorney notification. If that solution could also automatically create an iso image at the end, which would be useful in redistribution, then we're back in secure Windows ;)

IRC: mIRC 6.3 released

There you have it, from 6.21 a major jump to 6.3, one of the most popular irc client programs. You can grab it from mirc.com. I'm not a Windows fan, so this is beyond my 'reviewer cap', but I'll present the changelog in short:

1. U3 support.
2. Full Vista compatibility, all your saved data will be in Application Data\mIRC by default.
   
3. mIRC is installed according to your administrator/standard user account.
4. Traytips are integrated and the balloon messages will be available only if mIRC is not the active application.
5. Minor bugfixes and updates

Read the rest here.

Security: undetected trojan - svhost.exe

Some people really believe their antivirus software is the best... Here's a proof that they're not. This malware (trojan) is packed with Themida, which most antivirus companies have not yet bothered to include in their blacklists. Not that I'm saying it's good to blacklist packers, but at times I really wonder if it's better than waiting for someone to use it, pack their malware and start spreading it.

Spammer: Fetitz{-A-}!~Ghici@Lov3You.users.undernet.org
Message: poze cu mine si filumete de sex cu mine http://zenzion.net/filename si pe cine intereseaza id meu sexyandreeeaaa pt cei care vor o noapte frt ieftin :) pt mai multe detali intrati pe id meu :) fac si masturbare prin web ce doriti voi :) http://zenzion.net/filename http://zenzion.net/filename http://zenzion.net/filename (language = romanian, filename = album.rar)

album.rar contained poze.exe, which I've sent to be analyzed using the Anubis project, here are the results.
The executable creates a connection with Undernet IRC Network, waiting for its creator to remotely control and abuse!

Main program: C:\Windows\system32\svhost.exe (the legit one Windows uses is svChost.exe)

MD5 Hashes:
7560272abe35a5b1092779f407c7f03c poze.exe
efc6a66e2884e2d77dab32f7725f31d4 album.rar

I've tried to upload the program to the Kaspersky website, and guess what - it doesn't allow more than 1MB to be uploaded. The archive/executable were about 1.4MB.

Removal tool: Cwean antimalware package

Software: K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.30

Title:	K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.30
File size:	16.00MB
Requirements:	Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/XP64/Vista64
License:	Freeware
MD5 Checksum:	D9F69F391BAF242812E6FF304176ADCA

Mostly updates are packed with this new version.

"K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs, DirectShow filters and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even some rare formats."

The features:
• Player:
- Media Player Classic [version 6.4.9.0+ | Mod by Casimir666 v1.0.9.0]
• ffdshow:
- ffdshow [rev. 1371]
- extra plugins
- ffdshow VFW interface
• DirectShow video filters:
- XviD [version 1.1.3]
- DivX [version 6.6.1.4]
- CoreAVC [version 1.3.0.0]
- On2 VP6 [version 6.4.2.0]
- On2 VP7 [version 7.0.10.0]
- MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 (Cyberlink) [version 6.0.0.3402]
- MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.3+]
• VFW video codecs:
- XviD [version 1.1.2]
- DivX Pro [version 6.6.1.4]
- x264 [revision 606]
- On2 VP6 [version 6.4.2.0]
- On2 VP7 [version 7.0.10.0]
- Intel Indeo [version 4.51.16.2]
- Intel Indeo [version 5.2562.15.54]
- Intel I.263 [version 2.55.1.16]
- Huffyuv [version 2.1.1 CCE Patch 0.2.5]
- I420 (Helix) [version 1.2]
- YV12 (Helix) [version 1.2]
• Real Alternative:
- RealMedia codecs [version 6.0.12.1741]
- RealMedia plugin for Internet Explorer
- RealMedia plugin for Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape/Opera
- RealMedia DirectShow splitter [version 1.0.1.2]
• DirectShow audio filters:
- MP3 (Fraunhofer) [version 1.9.0.311]
- AC3/DTS/LPCM (AC3Filter) [version 1.45b]
- MP1/MP2 (MainConcept) [version 1.0.0.78]
- Vorbis (CoreVorbis) [version 1.1.0.79]
- AAC (CoreAAC) [version 1.2.0.575]
- MusePack (RadLight) [version 1.0.0.4]
- WavPack (CoreWavPack) [version 1.1.0]
- OptimFROG (RadLight) [version 1.0.0.1]
- DC-Bass Source [version 1.0.0.0]
• ACM audio codecs:
- MP3 (Fraunhofer) [version 3.4.0.0]
- MP3 (LAME) [version 3.97]
- AC3Filter.ACM [version 0.4b]
- Vorbis [version 0.0.3.6]
- DivX ;) Audio [version 4.2.0.0]
• DirectShow source filters:
- AVI splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.7+]
- AVI splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.7.189.11]
- MP4 splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.7.189.11]
- MP4 splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.3+]
- Matroska splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.7.189.11]
- Matroska splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.2.9+]
- Ogg splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.7.189.11]
- Ogg splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.0+]
- FLV splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.2]
- MPEG PS/TS splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.3+]
- MPEG PS/TS splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.7.189.11]
- CDDA Reader (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.1]
- CDXA Reader (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.1]
- AC3/DTS Source (AC3File) [version 0.5b]
• DirectShow subtitle filter:
- DirectVobSub (a.k.a. VSFilter) [version 2.37 + fixes]
• Tools:
- GSpot Codec Information Appliance [version 2.70a]
- VobSubStrip [version 0.11]
- GraphEdit [build 041201]
- AVI Fixed [version 2.0b1]
- FourCC Changer
- Bitrate Calculator

The changes:
Changes from K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 2.2.5 to K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.3.0:
- Updated Media Player Classic [version 6.4.9.0+ | Mod by Casimir666 v1.0.9.0]
- Updated ffdshow to revision 1371
- Updated Xvid to version 1.1.3
- Added MainConcept MPEG decoder [version 1.0.0.78]. This will be used only for decoding MPEG-1
- Updated Codec Tweak Tool
- Lots of small changes and improvements
- Increased version to match the version of KLCP

You can download it from filehippo or free-codecs or even majorgeeks.

Bittorrent: Introducing Halite - small yet effective client program

Made in C++ using libtorrent, Halite Bittorrent Client seems very promising, introducing features found in μTorrent, but without the MPAA watching over your back ;)
Halite (named after the mineral NaCl, rock salt) holds the following features:

• Multiple downloads.
• Displays more detailed information for the selected torrent.
• Connection limits both global and per-torrent.
• Transfer rate limits again global and per-torrent.
• Trackerless torrents (using the Mainline kademlia DHT protocol).
• IP filtering with eMule ipfilter.dat import.
• Minimize to tray with transfer rate summary.
• Association with ".torrent" files.
• Option to limit the number of instances to one.
• Estimated time remaining indicator.
• Full Unicode support through UTF-8 and native Windows wide-char strings.
• Login support where tracker requires it.
• Ability to edit trackers specified in the torrent.

The only problem is that, as all open source projects, it needs a lot of volunteers to enrich its code and speed up its releases. They need translators as well. The bad thing is that this open source client is to be used only on Microsoft Windows :(

You can download the latest Halite at sourceforge or softpedia.

Microsoft: Windows XP still being bought

(Pictures belong to Microsoft.com and Microsoft in general, but the ranting that follows belongs to me!)

With all the Windows Vista ranting going around, the public is still buying the Windows XP Operating System. Either it's because 7 years of use made them prone to trying new stuff, or maybe they loved the RPC worm so much that they'd love to have it again. Maybe it's because they don't like to feel stupid by trying to make the user control every single step with a "Cancel or Allow" (Watch the mac advertisement, you'll love it, although I haven't seen such a cancel or allow dialog).

Problems were always part of every major upgrade to the Windows operating system family. So "to ease those [problems], some consumers are seeking out machines equipped with the more compatible Windows XP" (Reuters). Dell and HP started selling Windows XP machines again.

There's a final scenario to this occurance: People may be afraid to try the new thing before a Service Pack arrives, along with a pack of drivers for older hardware. The "fairy tales" about Windows Vista supporting old hardware are not so true, since just the aero theme requires some mega bucks spent on graphics card, not to mention the cost of the RAM required, the new processor and motherboard (these 3 usually go together).

I have the same PC for 4 years now, and I've been using Ubuntu Linux for the last year. It's somewhat more mind-pleasing to get a free operating system and help to spread the word instead of paying up to Microsoft (and pay specifically for antimalware products to feel secure).

Warning: Undetected MSN messenger worm - pic901.com

Hopefully I won't get flagged for this, but it's my duty to warn people about the presence of living or computer virus.

Looking for a sexy 'behind'? Well not here! This is a VIRUS REPORT! The program is NOT DETECTED YET (check out the virustotal.com screenshot) at the time of writing!
likemyass.net (active)
ratethisphoto.net (purged)
ratethisface.net (purged)

I've discovered this while I was checking some links gathered with the help of an eggdrop script of mine
mwrouin-m-!~info@business-67-35.netway.com.cy MSG!#cyprus
hey check :O http://www.likemyass.net/.......

(....... have replaced the filename)
This malware is undetected by most antivirus at the time of writing, so watch it: likemyass.net = BAD

The dude above is not the spammer. The malware somehow is spammed through IRC instead of MSN. This malware/trojan/virus/worm/bad exe, whatever you might want to call it, is spreading around replacing the MSN executable.
Some of my friends believe that this is the 'new' Virtumonde. It might just use its registry keys, but the MSN spamming is a whole new thing I guess!

UPDATE: The website is now down!
UPDATE 2: The website has changed to http://la.gg/UPL/PIC901.COM (but it was down when I was notified)
UPDATE 3: Solutions 1) Vundofix 2) VundoBeGone 3) Uninstall,restart and reinstall MSN Messenger from here: http://g.msn.com/8reen_us/EN/INSTALL_MSN_MESSENGER_DL.EXE
4) Try out one of my generic cleaners, cwean pack: www.erroneous.name

You are encouraged to download the executable and upload it to www.virustotal.com or www.uploadmalware.com

More info about the lil' buger at the Kaspersky's website

Windows' all-in-one patch program: Autopatcher

Even though Microsoft does provide an ISO image of critical updates, I prefer something more human-oriented, less to size, version-specific and better to the eye: Autopatcher

Autopatcher is a full package of all the necessary updates for your Windows version, which might be XP,2000,2003 or even Vista (x86 and x64!) If you're the guy that does a format every 6 months to keep their Windows at their best shape, you'd certainly love this package. Autopatcher comes with Core, Addons and Stand-alone releases.

Core version provides you critical updates, giving you better security and functionality. Addons provide you with the fun stuff, such as sexy registry edits (right-click on my computer and get a "simple" list of powerful frequently used shortcuts). Last but not least, the Stand-alone releases, which give you some free stuff

Autopatcher is pretty slick, giving you the option to update multiple Windows with a "1,2,3: shake, spray and presto!" ease.
You have some lovely screenshots at getautopatcher.com
You can find out more on their website
You can choose one of their mirrors to download
What's more, you can even order a CD

Microsoft Windows XP Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Pack

Microsoft Windows XP Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Pack

I found this for a user over at greek-fun.com, maybe someone else is interested as well :) The link provides direct links to Windows XP Multilanguage User Interface Packs. In plain english: you can change your "Winblows" to something more human-like (yeah, Gates speaks your language :P)

Here's a back-up one, in case some of Gates' workers forget that the website is valuable: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgtnwdqf_0g4hqkj