Whining

[niko]

You don't realize how important Google is to existing on the internet until it's taken away.  *sniffle*

Currently going through some weird malware that's undetectable by no less than six different methods I've tried to sniff it out.  Whenever I search for anything on Google or Yahoo, the results look normal EXCEPT that the actual URL's are all going to places like "extracheapdrugs.com" and "monstermarketplace.com".  I can't tell you how many times I've done a Google search in the last couple days, even *knowing* that it's not going to work properly.

This on top of some ongoing problems with Windows Media Player being hosed six ways from Sunday is making me not a happy computer owner right now.

In other news:  Got my Ryuk figure the other day.  It wins the Coolest Thing Ever award for the month, hands down. :)

Also had a great meetup this past weekend.  The shows that we watched weren't that great, actually.  In particular, the episodes of Full Metal Panic we watched were the two lamest in the entire series, imo, and then we watched Samurai X, which is not a favorite of mine.  I'd like to find an English language resource that would tell the story of the shinsengumi in some way that would help me care about that period.  I've seen it dramatized often enough in anime that I get the basic historical details, but the way it's presented always assumes that the viewer is aware of all the undercurrents and ramifications of the various historical figures and events.  Makes it hard for me to connect on the right emotional level.  It'd make a pretty cool big-budget actioner for Hollywood, if it hasn't been done already...

Comments

Hoping to help...

[jnutley.livejournal.com]

Scanning Wikipedia and Google and the Symantec threats and virus database did not come up with a real match for your problem. I'm guessing that you are the victim of a "hijack" trojan on your browser. If your browser is IE, then CNET has this program:

http://www.download.com/Browser-Hijack-Recover-BHR-/3000-8022_4-10422752.html?tag=pub

which you can download and use for free for 15 days. It has a wizard to walk you thru the process of cleaning most known hijack threats out of your browser.

If instead you're not using IE, then post your browser type and someone here may be able to help you.

Also, if you are using IE, consider dumping it and going to Firefox or Opera. Your bookmarks can be moved and fewer bad guys target the other browsers. Using IE is exposing yourself to more web snipers than you need to.

Re: Hoping to help...

[nikojen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll have to give that tool a try tonight.

I'm also finding the forums at "bleepingcomputer.com" are pretty cool for this sort of thing. There's some tool called "Hijack This", apparently, that will spit out a log of stuff on my PC that the folks there can then look at to help figure out what's going on. *Fingers crossed* :)

The thing that freaks me out most, I think, is imagining my 75-year-old grandmother and people like her running into this sort of thing. Where for me, it's a (relatively) minor inconvenience that I'm sure I'll work through eventually, what must it be like for people who aren't really technical and suddenly their computer is spewing all this garbage at them. It's pretty heinous.