Sunday, November 04, 2007

The Week That Was

Interesting week, in that this blog was referenced by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National News Watch, Mark Steyn's Website, The Alabama Deer Hunters website, and the website of Ricky and Bubba.

Traffic-wise, here's how they stack up:

The New York Time's Opinionator, for a post I wrote on James Lovelock's latest blast of climate change negativity. Result: Maximum 10 visits, maybe not even that.

The Wallstreet Journal (sorry, can't find the link), for an post I wrote on Mustaches of the 19th Century. Result: Maybe 10 visits.

The Alabama Deer' Hunter's website, for a post I wrote on the the new "Bigfoot" pictures. Result: Maybe 100 visits over the course of several days.

National News Watch, for my post on how the Post hid its own polling results. Result: Maybe 500 visits over two days, which is about average for this source. If he grabs one of your stories on the weekend, you might get a little less.

Steyn On-Line, for my post on what an prick Mark Steyn is and how MacCleans should fire his butt out the door. Result: about 1,000 visits. Guy's an asshole but apparently possesses a rudimentary sense of humor. Or maybe the devil knows his own.

Ricky and Bubba, two Alabama-based radio humorists, for my post on the new Bigfoot photos. Result, about 5,000 visits over the course of the week.

Note how, as you from the more to less "respected" source, the number of visits go up. And I would also note that, traffic-wise, the most popular material on this blog has always been about Bigfoot. Bigfoot and boobies.

Towards the end of the week, my other computer (my beloved laptop) picked up an incredibly nasty piece of malware called Ucleaner. I think I got it from a fake microsoft security patch that I foolishly downloaded.

Anyway, this sucker starts telling you all about the viruses and "illegal content" you've got on your computer, and suggests that you whip out your credit card and buy "universal cleaner" software. It hijacks your home page and redirects you to the Ucleaner site, which then tells you how many thousand pornographic files you've allegedly got on your PC. If you don't buy right away, it eventually replaces your desktop image with a big red "radioactive" symbol on a black background and a message that you really need to download privacy software.

So far, Symantic didn't do squat, Web Defender didn't do squat, and SuperAntiSpyware has managed to remove some but not all of it. It basically throws so many fake "security alerts" at you that it takes hours to do a scan in the first place, and the computer often freezes before they are finished. At the moment, I know more about the thing than my IT department, but if it isn't fixed by tomorrow it becomes their problem. Any tips on getting rid of this would be appreciated.

Otherwise not much blogging in the next couple of days. I've got an agent interested in reading one of my manuscripts, and it looks like I won't be able to work on it with the laptop in my favorite bar.

9 comments:

JimBobby said...

Try these:

http://forums.techguy.org/malware-removal-hijackthis-logs/625399-solved-how-remove-ucleaner.html

(That one looks complicated)

or

http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/?ref=afl_spywarepedia?gclid=CJLQo9aew48CFREpIgod-m6DQg

or AdAware from www.lavasoft.de (THere's a free version but you need to hunt for it.)

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

so I guess you won't have time to read about how stupid all you Lieberals, socialists & other assorted useful idiots are ??


http://eureferendum2.blogspot.com/2007/11/scared-to-death.html

Hey, I just read McSquinty is going to up your electrical rates in Untario by 20% . . . have fun paying for all those Kyoto driven GHG reductions that don't do anything.

Don't I love it when a plan comes together !!

Möbius said...

I told you to lay off the pornographic web sites, or you'd go blind!

It amazes how much effort people put into writing this shit code, when they could probably do something useful with their lives.

Anonymous said...

Symantec's supposed to be capable of helping, if you did the full routine carefully and are up to date. Bang on them for their promise:

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-062217-0726-99&tabid=3

AVG has had a good reputation for a long while:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-spyware/us/frt/0

Nasty, and probably trying to propagate itself. I hope you're careful to send plain text, not formatted, email, and always use BCC not CC.

Ick.

bigcitylib said...

Mobi,

I went blind a long time ago, but this I picked up trying to analyze the latest bigfoot video. it was all in the pursuit of non-porno truth, dude, I swear.

bigcitylib said...

...which, to be clear, means to say that I downloaded this nasty beast trying to download the most recent "baby bigfoot" video.

Its a long story, which I am incapable of telling at this late hour.

Anonymous said...

HA! I KNEW it! Highest traffic from Bubba's radio station!

If only you could get a picture of a naked bigfoot chick, you'd be set for life! (Hint: check the NDP party member lists).

Chiuk Czlek said...

bigcitylib,

I got that same nasty from that bigfoot site too. Liberals don't lie! Ha. Ha. Well,not in this case anyway. I not a liberal, I'm a Ron Paul guy, but politics doesn't matter in this situation. I sent some emails to you, I'm not sure if they went through. So, this maybe the third time you get the info I sent.

I started a thread at the Spyware Warrior website forum under HyjackThis Logs entitled "desktophijack" requesting help getting rid of this bastard. Maybe by using the same instructions from jpshortstuff you can clean your laptop also. Or better yet start your own help thread.

Good Luck,
franco

Anonymous said...

Maybe your "respected" sites just suck.