The first digi invasion in a long time.

Just when I least expected it, and of course, not at a good time by far, one of our tower computers was invaded with a nasty of the most insidious kind.

[P.O.I.--I do want to point out that it was neither mine, nor of my doing, that the little bugger decided to try to make itself at home.]

Here we were, with company, the holiday bearing down on us, and in the last throes of the 2009 nanowrimo, and then company we most certainly did not want just popped on in and made a nuisance of itself.

I tried all the usual tricks. We seemed to make headway, and then BAM, it flaunted it's AI intelligence by adapting to our attempts to wrench every last egg it tried to lay, so that after each shut down (to complete the removal, ya know), once again, our latest foray would now be a method of attack we could no longer use.

Making matters worse, of course, was the fact that immediately we could not start in safe mode. (Yes, a windows machine.) Quite frustrating in and of itself.

Also frustrating was all the materials I found that pointed towards naming the culprit we seemed to have little luck evicting, none of them seemed to be up to speed on its intelligence level, so I eventually hit a hard brick wall as to where else to go for suggestions.

During our repeated failed attempts at eradication, it really was humbling feeling like we'd forgotten to study for a scheduled test. We shut it off for a while, and tried to ignore the white elephant that also happened to have really creepy antennae hiding in plain sight under the desk.

After we cooled our jets, cooler heads did indeed prevail.

We pulled a few rabbits out of our collective hats, and the menace and its offspring seem to have been swept out with their residual trash, but I still have a bad feeling we missed something.

Time will tell.

Dusting off my brain.

Given all that's happened, I've really let myself slide when it comes to my geek and the web.

Yeah, I've kept up with my reading, but mostly the news kind, not the learning kind. So I'm actually really glad I did pick this name because once again, I am nothing if not a n00b. I"m trying to remember the exact quote, but once someone told me when they were showing me a bit of code, "I know just enough to be dangerous." My goal is still to be smart enough to not be dangerous, but in this wonderful jungle of the internets, I also know how darn hard it is to be safe.

I've got a lot of projects on my plate, and this is very very much at the bottom. But, being the variety nut that I am, and knowing that some day I need to not only get my sites back up, but updated, I'll most likely be posting some tidbits about that journey here.

Do not expect any kind of a regular posting schedule. If you do, you're only a masochist of the oddest kind.

Joe Stewart's eye chart conflicker test

Sometimes a simple approach is the best for n00bs like us.

I found out about this via cnet, and had I a concern, I don't now as I passed my eye test just fine. (Article here: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10212286-12.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0)

Given how smart the creator(s) behind this are touted to be, by the time you find this, they may have designed a work around, but it's worth a check if you've been confused by all the other info that tries to help you figure out if you've got it or not.

Want to try it for yourself if you haven't already?
http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html