Changing background image on Twitter

It seems that Twitter does not accept background images with metadata, which unfortunately, is present in all most pictures taken by today's digital cameras. Some have advocated using Photoshop to remove the metadata. Since not all of us have Photoshop, a simpler way is to use a public domain software known as jhead, which removes all metadata from your JPEG files so that they can be uploaded as a background image to Twitter.

Here's how it is done:

1. Download jhead to a folder on your PC (eg. C:\downloads).
2. Open the command window in Windows (click Start - Run, and type cmd into the box).
3. Navigate to the folder where jhead was downloaded. If it's C:\downloads, type cd\downloads & press ENTER.
4. Assuming your JPEG file is named twitterpic.jpg in C:\data, type jhead -purejpg c:\ data\twitterpic.jpg & press ENTER.
5. You should see a message as follows if it's processed successfully:

Modified: c:\data\twitterpic.jpg

Now you should be able to upload your JPEG file as a background image in Twitter.

1. Click Settings - Design - Change Background Image

2. Click Choose File to select your image file. I suggest you also select Tile Background before clicking save changes. It seems that without this option selected, the upload sometimes fail. You can always de-select Tile Background after your image has been uploaded successfully.

Thomas

k4l0n62.sys.vbs (autorun/VBS) virus (a.k.a W32.SillyDC, W32.SillyFDC by Symantec)

1. Introduction

This virus goes by various monickers. It is recognised by some Indonesian text "wahai anak2 ..." appearing in the Internet Explorer window title as shown in a sample screenshot below:

The following procedure describes how we cleaned up the effects of this virus. Our PCs are installed with Symantec Anti-virus Corporate Edition which detected and the virus files, but did not revert the Internet Explorer window title to its default. This procedure may not be true for all circumstances. You should check with your anti-virus solution providers.

Useful Ref: http://virscan.org/report/0f14e9dd1094b56b076606eed159362c.html

2. Registry entries affected

Windows Registry key for IE Window Title
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Window Title key = Wahai anak2 Triakti... Belajarlah yang rajin. Jangan ngebokep mulu...

In some cases, there was also an entry in the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Key value was Ageia pointing to recycle.vbs in C:\Windows\System32, but recycle.vbs already removed by SAVCE.

3. Key files dropped by virus

k4l0n62.sys.vbs (can be deposited anywhere in user's folders)
recycle.vbs (normally found in C:\Windows\System32)

4. Actions taken

a. booted up and scanned PC with Avira, Avast, Spybot S&D from UBCD v3.50
In some instances, trojans were reported on Temporary IE files, and removed by Avira. None reported the k4l0n62.sys.vbs or its alias.

b. In some instances, k4l0n62.sys.vbs files were found on PC but with ZERO bytes.
booted up PC normally, updated Symantec AV Corp Edition's virus signatures, and ran a full scan. No virus was reported.

c. Reviewed Threat History in SAVCE. Found several reports of W32.SillyDC & W32.SillyFDC infections from external drives & C: that were cleaned.

d. Configured Scheduled Full Scan in SAVCE to take place at 12pm daily.

e. Verified that Windows Registry configured to disable Autorun as follows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf - value set to @SYS:DoesNotExist

f. Deleted HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main - Window Title key so that IE displays default title in window.

g. Searched and ensure k4l0n62.sys.vbs and recycle.vbs are not found on PC.

h. Scanned external drives with SAVCE to ensure W32.SillyDC/FDC & other malware not found.

Problems updating ZoneAlarm 8.x on Windows Vista

1. When prompted to update ZoneAlarm (ZA), select Download only, instead of Download and Install. This is because updating ZA directly after downloading will fail in some cases at various points 11%, 15%, 98%, etc due to True Vector service problems.
   
2. Completely uninstall and remove ZA in Safe Mode as described here http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=77735
3. Start up Windows normally and run the installation package downloaded in Step 1.
4. Installation should complete without any problem.
   

Free SMS alerts for system monitoring

To send SMS alerts to myself when a system event occurs (eg. Server or website not available), I currently use the following method:

1. Event triggers an Email to Gmail
2. Gmail filters forward only qualified messages to Hotmail.
3. Hotmail sends SMS alerts to my mobile (each SMS is chargeable by Hotmail)

However, I'm not happy with this method for 2 reasons:

1. SMS chargeable by Hotmail
2. Delays in SMS up to several hours after email was received

As such, I'm now exploring another method which is free (charges from your Telco maybe applicable though) and using Twitter.

1. Email to Twittermail with @Replies in subject
2. Configure twe2.com to send SMS alert to mobile

Will see how reliable the SMS service is.

Check out that TinyURL before clicking on it

While URL shortening services takes away the need to post an ultra-long URL link, it also serves up a security blind spot in that you don't know where the shortened URL will lead to.

Thankfully, for TinyURL which is the default URL shortening service used on Twitter, you can configure it to show you what lies behind a TinyURL link before being directed to the actual URL referenced. Here's how:

1. Go to www.tinyurl.com.
2. Click Preview Feature.
3. Click "Click here to enable previews"as shown below.


Now when you click on a TinyURL link, you will be shown a preview similar to the following:

You can then decide whether it's safe to go to the actual URL.

Have fun:)

Thomas