Scattered Thoughts

That's not why I'm writing now, but man is it cold. I'm at work and just had to walk across campus to get to the Student Building and I felt like I was going to lose a hand. It's not very cold temperature wise, but those damn wind gusts are killing me. I don't want to do anything tonight but sit in a nice warm building and work on group projects…

…Who am I kidding? I want to do nothing more than cover up with a blanket/cuddle up with Erin, sit on my couch, play some Halo 2/watch a movie and possibly take a nap, but that's not going to be happening much for the next two weeks. Granted, I'll find time to spend with Erin if it kills me, but the Halo and napping won't be happening.

It's crunch time here in Bloomington. Also known as the time of year when the I-CORE students invade the computer labs and make doing other group work unbearable across campus. Yes, it's I-CORE time. For those of you not down with the "lingo", I-CORE is short for Integrated Core — a group of four classes taken at the same time covering Finance, Strategy, Operations and Marketing. The last two weeks of I-CORE is focused on a project known as "The Case". Groups have two weeks to produce a 100+ page document detailing a solution to a problem given to them by the I-CORE instructors. The Case integrates all previously learned business concepts in a capstone-esque experience.

Enough about I-CORE, on to why these next two weeks aren't going to have much rest and relaxation for Tom…

I have four group projects due in the next two weeks; that is, four groups of three to five people that I have to coordinate all my free time with so that I can get these projects done. I'm not looking forward to this time of year AT ALL! I currently have a group meeting scheduled for 7:00pm on Wednesday. Wednesday is the day the ACC/Big Ten Challenge comes to Bloomington. The top-ranked Duke Blue Devils will be in THE Assembly Hall for the first time EVER to take on the number 21 ranked Indiana Hoosiers. The game tips off at 9:00pm, so I'm trying to get my group to meet earlier in the day so that I can have enough time to watch the game. We'll see how that goes…

The main reason I'm updating right now is to announce that I will be re-designing this site over Winter Break. During my work shifts, I will be writing XHTML and CSS and PHP and JavaScript and XML and AJAX code to give ScatteredThoughts a new look for the New Year. I will start by placing color schemes on the ScatteredThoughts Development Blog so I can see what they look like live on the web. You will be able to give me input as the design process goes on. After colors have been chosen, I will move on to graphics, layout and finally overall design. I hope to have everything squared away before break so I can spend most of it coding.

I've been using the Development Blog to test WordPress plug-ins before putting them into my "front-line" blogs to make sure I get the desired effect, so you'll see a lot of random crap there right now.

If you're planning on getting me a "Holiday" or Birthday (Feb. 2) gift — that way my Jewish friends can still get me something if they so choose, but I doubt it'll happen — I have put together a sort of perpetual gift list. It is located here. It is also linked at the top of the sidebar under the calendar on this page.

That's all I really want to write about now. I'll be posting to the Photoblog whenever I get a chance to breathe. I have a lot of good photos that I've been storing up for some reason, so there should be lots of photo posts in the next few weeks.

peace out!

The End-of-the-Blog Rundown

Song of the Day — You're Gonna Miss Me — 13th Floor Elevators

Quote of the Day — "Business students like to keep to Kelley just like Pirates keep to 'The Code'" — Me while talking to Aaron about how business students stay on the north side of campus and rarely venture to "Southland".

Co-Quote of the Day — "My name is Aaron and I use Gentoo." — When talking with Aaron about today's Moment of Bliss.

Today's Moment of Bliss — Realizing that the Unix Users Group was called the Unix Users Support Group my freshman year… Think about it and you'll figure it out.

Villain of the Day — The Kelley School of Business for all their damn group projects.

Hero of the Day — Erin because I love her!

Current Mood — —

Until the next post…

I know I said I would post about my Thanksgiving Day last night, but I had some iMac issues. I unexpectedly lost power to my iMac making my iTunes Library and my iPhoto Library disappear, as well as some other things that I'm not going to discuss here. Needless to say, it's all back up and running, except it's missing all of my iTunes Playlists.

On to Thanksgiving Day…

As per usual, we went up to Hartford City for the celebration. We get there, and it's just my family and my grandparents. My grandma just got out of the hospital from having stints placed in the arteries around her heart, so it was good to get to see her. She's on an O2 machine, making her essentially a walking bomb, especially while cooking in the kitchen, but she seems to be getting around just fine. My mom and I kept stepping on her O2 tube thinking it was her feet.

We sat down, ate the cheeseball my mom made, drank some coffee, visited, ate some split pea soup and other munchies (read as fresh veggies and dip) while we waited on my Uncle Glenn to show up to start the turkey. While I was on the phone with Erin, my Uncle Geoff, Aunt Tracie and cousins Elizabeth, Jack and Maggie showed up. As soon as Jack had his jacket off, he ran over and started attacking me while I was talking to Erin. I had to cut the convo short so I could defend myself.

After terrorizing Jack and Maggie for a while, I decided to help the cooks in the kitchen. I made Corn Bread and ate some raspberry candies until Glenn showed up with two of my three other cousins; Heather and Emily. Heather helped Glenn cut up some veggies and onions to put in the dressing and Heather… I don't know what Heather did, but she was there. I think she played with Laura, Jack and Maggie.

Glenn and Heather put the turkey in the oven and then called my Aunt Cindy to have her bring my cousin Travis over along with the Xbox. Cindy's family lives in Hartford City too, so that's where she and Travis were. They get there, Cindy starts helping in the kitchen and Travis pulls out his PSP and starts playing on it. Since there wasn't much going on, I started watching some Aqua Teen Hunger Force. When Travis and Heather heard the ATHF on my computer, they both started quoting it, and so did Glenn when he walked in.

More terrorizing ensued, then dinner. Dinner was good, lots of conversation about lots of things. After dinner, Travis and I played some Halo and then it was time to go.

All in all, it was a good Thanksgiving. I took some pictures that are located in the More link below.

That's all for now.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR PHOTOS!
Continue Reading »

Since most people I have talked to lately haven't heard about the Sony DRM Rootkit, I thought I would mention something about it on my main blog.

First of all, a rootkit is a piece of malware¹ that works like a Trojan² virus. It employs cloaking technologies to hide processes, registry keys and files from system analysis and security software such as a virus scanner. They are the most vial attack that can be made to a computer and are virtually invisible. Rootkits can either function in what is called user mode³ by patching Windows APIs⁴ when a program goes to use them, or in kernel mode⁵ by intercepting calls made to the kernel API. Either way, they are a dangerous tool for hackers, crackers and system administrators.

If you have purchased a CD from a Sony/BMG artist and played it in your computer lately, you will have noticed that in some cases, it requires you to play it in a media player that is supplied by the CD itself. The player incorporates DRM⁶ that will only allow you to burn three copies of the CD as well as some other things. By putting the CD in the drive, you have to click through a EULA⁷ before you can listen to the music. Clicking through this EULA and opening the music player installs a rootkit onto your system. Every time you put a CD or DVD into your drive from this point on, a packet is sent off to Sony/BMG telling them exactly what you did with it as well as what the CD or DVD was; this is called Phoning Home. The rootkit also hides some processes from you and just flat out renames others. You cannot see the processes by even going to the process viewer in the Task Manager.

The rootkit is called Essential System Tools and is published by First 4 Internet. First 4 Internet is in an agreement with Sony and other record labels to package a DRM software application with each CD sold. It uses a file called Aries.sys (also hidden) to open and run the rootkit every time your computer is started — even in safe mode!

How do I know if I'm infected?
There are a couple ways a rootkit can be discovered. The easiest and most common is to download and install the latest version of RootkitRevealer or any other software that you trust to scan your system for rootkits. RootkitRevealer will show a user hidden processes, files, folders, etc.

How do I get rid of it?
That is an excellent question and the answer is "Not easily." Sony has published a piece of software with the purpose of "uninstalling" the rootkit. The software can be found here but does not really uninstall the rootkit. It simply stops the process and installs a new DRM software. Worse yet, it stops the Aries.sys file while Windows is running. This can cause an operating system to become unstable and bring on the Blue Screen of Death as well as the possibility of data loss. Currently there is no easy way to completely remove the rootkit. The more advanced ways to remove said rootkit will be added to my Sideblog as soon as I can get them typed up.

That's all for now. I just wanted to get that out for now. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about this. I'm also curious to know what you all think about having software installed to your system that can possibly cause security problems and make your system unstable without your knowledge. Feel free to comment it up.

Peace out!

1. Malware – software written with an ill intent, usually to disable or destroy a computer's operating system. Examples are spyware, adware, viruses, etc. [back]
2. Trojan – a malicious program disguised as legitimate software. [back]
3. User mode – a non-privileged state where some code is forbidden from being executed or modified to protect the operating system. [back]
4. Application Program Interface – a way for a piece of software to talk to other software without knowing the exact source or object code of the other software. [back]
5. Kernel Mode – the state in which an operating system runs. Code executed in this mode has unlimited access to a computer system. [back]
6. Digital Rights Management – a means for makers of digital media to protect their creation. [back]
7. End User License Agreement – an agreement between the customer and the producer of software as to the user's rights as well as the rights of the software producer [back]