Over the past month, myself and several acquaintances of mine - all with ThinkPads have been infected with a similar trojan/spyware infection. This trojan constantly opens up windows telling the user that the machine has been compromised and opens up an IE window directing the user to order a particular virus scan program.

For the most part, the trojan is more of a nuisance than a critical problem - the computer will still function despite the annoying prompts. However my infection was severely worse in that the trojan disabled control panel, task manager, and even locked me out of editing the registry. This meant that I couldn't remove the trojan either with an anti-virus program or manually.

When I was first infected with the trojan, I needed to pay someone to recover data and reinstall the machine. The second time - yes it happened twice - I was able to handle it myself, though the process was still time consuming. If you're having trouble with your thinkpad, here are my suggestions for the homemade nuclear option:

1. Backup Data Files: Fortunately I recently purchased an external hard drive (I can officially recommend the Lacie Rugged line). As far as I can tell the trojan will not be transmitted through an external backup of data files.

1a. Backup Installation Files: If you have "must have" programs on your machine, it's sometimes useful to save the installation files so that you don't need to spend time redownloading everything. Furthermore, if you're using a free anti-virus or spyware program, you'll probably want the latest versions installed immediately as well. Even with the trojan, you should still be able to download the exe files and backup to your hard drive.

2. Reboot Computer, Press F11 While Rebooting: This will effectively wipe your machine to the system defaults from when you first got the computer. Yes, you will need to reinstall all programs but you'll also find your computer will work faster.

Like I said, this solution time consuming and it's technically not really a "fix" in that you're wiping your machine and starting over. However, I can say that it works and you can do this without paying anyone.

As a final aside, I should hope that none of my Loyal Readers are gullible enough to shell out the $50 to purchase the advertised anti-virus program. The techie who fixed my computer said that there were people who did get the program, and surprise surprise, it didn't help.

Now that I've moved to a more mature web space, I've decided to formalize some official commenting policies. Thankfully I've never had much of an issue in the past, but it's probably useful to have something on the books.

I'd consider it a work in progress so any feedback or comments would be appreciated.

Within the new guidelines, that is.

Dear Loyal Readers,
It's been nearly five years since the big move from first moved domain names from Blogger to YUCS and we've had a great run on the 'ol server. Sadly, the future of YUCS is uncertain at present¹, which meant that I needed to start looking for actual paid hosting to handle both the blog and the Jewish guitar chords archive and then to port everything over.

Today I am very pleased to announce that the transition appears to be complete. Thanks to a great deal of hacking and the good support people at tweakedhosting.com, both the chords and guitar database are up and running at their new homes:

The new site for YUTOPIA is:

www.JoshYuter.com

The Jewish guitar chords can be found appropriately enough at:

www.JewishGuitarChords.com

For the time being YUCS is redirecting all traffic to the new site,² but since I don't know how much longer YUCS will be in operation, I'd like to ask if you could please update your links and feed subscriptions accordingly.

I don't have metrics just yet, but it does seem the site runs slightly slower and loads a little weirder than before. On the plus side, I've sorted out most of the new glitches and thanks to the new system I've even added some cool features such as this nifty little new contact form for direct spam-free feedback.

It also seems to be a good time to update the Blogroll on the side. If you'd like to exchange links or if you're already linking and would appreciate the reciprocity, please let me know.

Thank you all very much for your help and support. It's been an exciting time lately, and it doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon.³ I hope I'll be able to continue sharing in the next adventures of my little YUTOPIAN world.

1. And if and when it ever does go down, I'll write up a history. Tentative title: "From 501 to 404." (Yes, that's an obscure but relevant reference).
2. Some pages might not be working due to previous movabletype upgrades. I'll fix those as they come up.
3. Another big announcement forthcoming, and no I'm not getting engaged.

It's that time of year again for the annual birthday introspection. Last year I turned 30, which led to my completely fabricated "Big Round Number" theory. This year I turn 31, which as a friend pointed out to me, means that I'm "in my prime" in the mathematical sense.

As I hope everyone knows by now, a prime number is "a natural number which has exactly two distinct natural number divisors: 1 and itself." There's something pure about a prime number, a number distinct such that it stands alone. It's identity is not determined by other numbers, but rather a prime number exists only in relationship to itself and the core identity of 1.

I started ruminating about ideas of identity: what makes us who we are, and how we define ourselves etc. Ironically, today's summer addition to Hulu.com was the 1993 classic Groundhog Day which deals with identity defined by knowledge and actions, such as the identities we form through sheer mindless repetition and predictability.

This past year for me was anything but predictable. It was only March when I was still working at a cushy stable job at JPMorgan Chase with a nice apartment and simple routine. Since then I got laid off, wrote three master's theses before passing, found out I needed to move, and we're not even close to being done with more big changes coming (details to follow shortly). In general, there does seem to be a sense for me this year of forcing myself to break some patterns, accepting new challenges, and being in a position where I'm forced to be more independent and proactive in determining how the next year will progress.

For now I will simply thank everyone for the multitude of warm birthday wishes¹ and I look forward to sharing what promises to be an exciting year with everyone.

1. Thank you Facebook