Geek speak (Trojans)

I hate trojans just like everyone else but I'm impressed with the creative ways people come up with to hijack a PC. Tonight I zapped one off my PC that took on the name svchost.exe. It used a directory called !submit to send passwords and other information about my system over the internet through a background running program. Nothing too exciting there, but I'm impressed that it protected itself by disabling the Windows Task Manager. This made it extremely hard to tell if I had a trojan running. In fact, I never would have known that I was hit if it wasn't for the !submit directory. Good show you piece of shit hackers.

Other impressive trojans I've caught:

- Mapped google.com to a different web address that looked exactly like google, but prevented any searches about the trojan running.

- Ran two processes and anytime you deleted one, the other would re-start the killed process.

- Renamed itself to a different random process name on startup.

- And the best I've ever seen, VX2. Some how the creator figured out a loop hole in Windows XP that allowed his program to load as a system level process. It used to be, and might still be, a huge pain in the ass to kill a system level process in Windows XP. If I ever meet you, Mr. VX2 creator, I'm applauding you and then punching you in the groin. You fucking costing me an entire weekend.

I hate chaches

I hate people who use sports as a means for violence. Earlier today I was in a bar fight.

It's a Michigan tradition to play a cowbell to show your support for the team and a guy at our table brought the bell. Every touchdown he played the bell, but as the night wore on the Ohio State fans got more and more agitated by this. It started with menacing chants of "where's the cowbell" after every big OSU play. Later it escalated to snippy comments as they walked past our table. And on a late touchdown by umich all hell broke lose. My friend went to play the bell as he had done previously when a grinning OSU fan darted for him. The fan grabbed his bell, knocked him in the face, and then tried to run off with it. I shoot up after the stolen instrument, grabbed it, and got pulled over the booth and into the center of the OSU fan's screaming posse. I get to my feet and am immediately shoved into a table behind us. Like an old country movie, the table goes flying into the air as I landed on top of it. I tried to prevent the fall, but consequently lost control of the instrument. Inspecting the damage, we noticed that my friends glasses were ripped in half and he's slightly cut up. I'm ok and am now listening to the OSU fans chant "Where's your cowbell? and Where's your glasses?" We eventually find the other half of his glasses and engineer a way to keep them together. The neanderthals continue their tackless mocking for the rest of the game.

It's not just OSU fans either. Michigan fans have their share of suckiness too. I'm leaving the bar with my dad and heading to the car when a huge Michigan fan comes shooting past us screaming "I'm so pissed, I just want to beat the crap out of someone OSU affiliated." He finds three petrified high-school aged OSU fans in a 7-11 parking lot. The four of them begin arguing and pushing each other. I head for the car. My faith in humanity is lost. Fight over something worthwhile, not over a stupid fucking sport.

Brief update

I understand that it's been a while. A brief update.

Work
Most of my work is out of New York right now. The development takes place in Chicago but the end users are out of NYC. I've had to take a couple of trips out there to discuss projects with them, and these trips have completely opened my eyes. Chicago feels way behind in terms of where it could be as a major city. New York has a better public transportation system, their neighborhoods aren't horribly segregated, and they banned public indoor smoking which is a law I strongly support. Not to mention they have things open all hours of the day for the nighthawk in me. Perhaps a move is needed.

Travel
I toured the south central with Han's brother. We hit up Nashville, Memphis, and New Orleans. Got to see Kami, meet some European travelers, and hear some first hand accounts of how Katrina really effected New Orleans.

Despite my protests, I went apple picking in MI with the invincible sword goddess. And you know what? I actually kind of enjoyed it.

Going skiing January 3rd in Vail.

Outside work
I've been on a quest to collect more "1020" like people. People that are hard working, determined, giving, and aren't primarily focused on accumulating as much money as humanly possible. I've been amazed as to what I have found. Had no idea how cool a composer, an opera singer, a recycled dress maker, etc. could be.

Speaking of opera. I saw my first, Il Trovatore, last Tuesday.

My sister now lives in the city. Her friends live in a building two down from mine and she's moved into the same one as them. How's that for random? In a huge city full of places to live, her friends and her pick a spot right down the street from me. Weird.

Random
I've listened to the song "Mad World" by Gary Jules on loop for the last two and half hours (not exaggerating). I know, I'm obsessed. (that commercial featuring the song rocks btw)

My 2nd mother

She's dying. I know it, you know it, we all know it.