Category: MakerBlock

All things MakerBlock: RepRap, MakerBot, Cupcake CNC, open source, and plastic building toys!

Impecible logic

A conversation from bedtime:

  • “Did you ever break a toy when you were a little boy?”
  • Yes, honey, sometimes I did.  And my daddy was pretty good at fixing things, but we didn’t have a robot.
  • “I have an idea!”
  • Oh?  What’s that?
  • “We’ll get a big box and a pulley and a rope and tie one end to your house when you were a little boy and pull on it and put the other end in my house and then you’ll have a robot when you’re a little boy!”

Well, that didn’t work

As a last ditch effort, I just tried to swap the hard drives from my Dell Mini10 into my craptop case.  The screen on the Dell Mini10 is really that bad.

In doing so Windows said I needed to re-activate it.  Why?  Just because I swapped hard drives?  Are you kidding me?  I tried to reactivate via automated phone,  system no go – it claimed my 36 digit code was invalid.  Then I tried via live MicroSoft Indian support.  Here’s the thing.  I’m Indian and I can’t stand Indian support.  It’s not the accent, it’s the constant confirmation and affirmation and interruption.  They’re always too busy saying, “Yes sir, thank you sir, I understand.  Your problem is X.  Please <insert instruction here>”  The problem is that if you have any question that deviates from their script things quickly spiral out of control.  The thing that’s almost amusing is that the base operator’s method of dealing with things is to simply repeat their script.  *sigh*

Eventually they confirmed that the code on this perfectly legitimate copy of Windows from a factory-direct Dell computer was not recognized by their system.  So, I just swapped the hard drive back into the Dell and put the craptop’s hard drive into the enclosure.  If I can’t boot from it, I’ll just treat it as a big external drive.  Thankfully, I’m running a portable copy of Thunderbird which means I could run it off that drive without a problem.

Almost 4am.  Ugh.

The long road to recovery

I’m trying to recover my laptop drive from a ridiculous malware infection.  It’s something called “System Tools” and it does everything.  Browser hijack, disallows Ctrl-Alt-Del, disallows access to most system functions, disallows Task Manager, disallows the running of anything that even looks like it could be helpful in removing it.  It shows the most insanely over the top message about your system being infected:

System Tools screenshot courtesy of BleepingComputer.com
System Tools screenshot courtesy of BleepingComputer.com

I’m scanning through that drive using Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware tool.1  Oh, and the program was kind enough to completely corrupt the NTLDR on the root of the drive ultimately making it unbootable.  Since the file was corrupted, I couldn’t install a new file over it.  I ended up doing a disk scan of that laptop’s drive, fixing those errors, copying a fresh version of the NTLDR file over to that drive where the corrupted one was, and hours later I’m still scanning through that drive using Malwarebytes’ software.

It’s 2AM my time and there’s no real end to the scan in sight.  Even after I’m done scanning and fixing and deleting those files, I’ll need to reinstall that drive into my laptop and see if it will boot.  If not, I’ll need to copy out all of my e-mail files from Thunderbird for use on another computer.  It’s not ideal by any means, but at least I’ll be (eventually) able to access my e-mails.

MWB has located 11 infected files so far.  I’m thinking it’s nearing the end of its scan because it’s now on the Windows directory and it was appearing to work in alphabetical order. 2 Still, the Windows directory is enormous.

So…  while I’m waiting for it to finish…  There’s really only so much you can do to prevent something like this.  Obviously, patching and updating your operating system, browsers, and security software is a must.  As Cyrozap suggests, frequent backups are critical. 3  You could switch to a Mac or Linux/Ubuntu/Debian.

I’d consider switching OS’s, but networking with the PC’s in my home as well as using my network printer seems like they’re right at the top.  Most of what I do these days is (a) e-mail via Thunderbird (b) web surfing and blogging via Firefox (c) word processing and spreadsheets via OpenOffice and (d) printing via ReplicatorG.

Okay.   Malwarebytes says it’s removed 11 threats.  What a rogue’s gallery.  Blech.  Time to disconnect the drive, pop it back into the laptop and see if I can boot it up.  For the sake of you, dear reader, consider this the bit on a cooking show where something that takes me time to prepare is instantaneous for your viewing pleasure.

…

Okay, Windows says the file “hal.dll” is missing or corrupted.  I’ll copy it over from this computer.

Dang.  I did that.  I’m getting a repeating pattern of boot, windows start options (safe mode, etc), windows loading, BSOD (blue screen of death) flash, and back to boot…

Dang.  I can’t break this cycle and the BSODE flashes way too quickly for me to tell what file it might be causing the problem.

Hoo boy.  This isn’t going to be fun.

  1. It’s an anti-malware tool by Malwarebytes for removing malware using anti-malware techniques to for malware byte removal. [↩]
  2. I would have started in reverse chron, but whatever.  I’m not a malware expert.  I just play one on this blog. [↩]
  3. Dang.  It’s not going in alphabetical order. [↩]

Grumble grumble

Be warned, dear reader, this is a grumbly post. 1

This song just perfectly sums up my day:

My platonic ideal of a rain forest is a place where I just run away to and live like the Swiss Family Robinson. I, along with my family and monkey pals, would bask in the warm tropical sun and play on the beach every day. I realize none of that makes any logical sense, but there you have it. 2 If you ever hear me say, “Oh, screw this, I’m running away to the rain forest” you’ll know what I’m talking about.

There was nothing tragic about today, nothing catastrophic. 3 Just a bunch of things that all needed urgent attention and prevented other things which were damn nearly almost as urgent from getting done. It wasn’t a bad day, it’s just that, as the song suggests, “just can’t seem to get it right today.”

Please forgive the following litany.  This is as much catharsis for me as it is schadenfreude for you.  ;)

  1. Lady at the post office.  It was 4:45pm.  Everyone’s in a hurry.  I had just performed one transaction and declined all the extras.  No stamps, no commemorative anythings, no packing materials, it was an envelope.  My second transaction was equally simple.  And yet, you felt compelled to go through it all over again.  Overnight?  No.  Second day?  No.  Stamps?  No, no thank you.  Anything else?  No, thank you.  Anything at all?  I swear upon all I hold holy, I actually said, “Well, now that you mention it, I’d like to ship this overnight via kangaroo.”  Her response: Um, I don’t think we can do that.  “Oh.  Okay, then.  Well, whatever’s cheapest then.”  It’s the line at the post office, not your five minutes of stand up comedy.  People don’t like the post office.  They only reason they rush there is because they want to get out even faster.
  2. A client called with a support question. 4 5 6  Look, it’s a web based service – if I can run it properly in my browser you can too.  The thing where you can’t reach the internet?  Yeah, I can’t help you with that. 78
  3. Brand new coffee table.  Why must you bang my shins so much?  You’re only a single 1cm taller and wider than my old one.  Was I truly that in tune with the dao of the old coffee table that I never banged my shins on it? 9
  4. My dear dear dear craptop.  I rescued you almost three years ago from your former owner.  You’ve been my loyal companion since then.  Your plus sign/equal sign button doesn’t work10 , you look like you went ten rounds with a toddler with a two by four, you’re missing hinges, the optical drive only works half the time, and your battery lasts less than five minutes.  But, you’re lightweight and run Windows XP and have all my stuff on your harddrive. 11  You’ve caught some kind of messed up browser hijacker that screws with my search engine results.  Now I never know if I’m going to be redirected to some kind of shenanigans just for looking something up. 12  I’ve tried Ad-aware, HijackThis!, and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware without success.  At first it only affected Firefox, now it’s hijacked Internet Explorer too. 13
  5. Oh, I could go on…  but I actually feel somewhat better.  Thanks for listening internets.  You’re my only friend.
  1. Got to love the foreshadowing with the subject, eh? [↩]
  2. Seriously, this post is actually in the category “Random Nonsense” [↩]
  3. That was last week. Har har. [↩]
  4. Totally different website, totally different service, no relation to this. [↩]
  5. I tell you what though, you should see the crap I say about you guys over on THAT website! [↩]
  6. I’m just kidding.  No one reads that one either. [↩]
  7. I swear to god, I actually put that in the contract.  I mean, you have to, right?  It’s a web service – BYOI. [↩]
  8. Bring your own internets [↩]
  9. One of my favorite stories about the dao is how there’s this butcher with a knife that never needs sharpening.  As the story goes, the butcher is so in tune with the knife, the meat, the bone, and his work that he never hits anything but the meat – so he never needs to sharpen his blade. [↩]
  10. Which makes programming a total bitch, BTW [↩]
  11. I wish I knew how to quit you. [↩]
  12. I just want to know what the hell a “whistle pig” is?!!! [↩]
  13. Yeah.  It got that bad.  So bad I used Internet <shudder> explorer.> [↩]

747

I’m 7 for 7 on the Thing-A-Day challenge.  I originally didn’t think I’d be able to do this – making something new each day.  However, I’m dusting off old things that I haven’t uploaded yet, designing new things in OpenSCAD as tests and proofs of concepts as part of my research for upcoming tutorials, and it now seems very manageable.  In fact, I’ve build up a small reserve of things I haven’t had to tap into yet.

Most stressful week evar, day 5

Google tells me that John Wheeler said, “Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.”

Apparently at some point on Sunday afternoon Time got all huffy, picked up its toys, and went home since just about anything that could have happened since that time has.

Hopefully cheerfully ridiculous posts will resume shortly.  As in, whenever the heck it is Time returns.

Yet another cynical thought

As I’m re-watching the Doctor Who 2010 Christmas special1 I suddenly caught myself thinking…  Wait a second, he just broke his sonic screwdriver.  Again.

The last sonic screwdriver was good for two doctors and four seasons.  This last screwdriver lasted only a single season. 2  There was a reference to his screwdriver trying to regenerate itself, but who knows.

The cynic in my wonders if it was all a ploy to sell yet another sonic screwdriver.

  1. It was really good. [↩]
  2. Well, I suppose it lasted 1.09 seasons if you don’t count the Christmas special as part of the 2010 fifth series. [↩]