Files missing?
My Computer not opening?
Programs not opening?
Installations not occurring?
Task Manager not opening?
System deadly slow?

If your case can be matched with the conditions given above, in all probability, you’ve got the Autoit.BD worm, better known by a file it deposits in your C:\ drive, Funny UST Scandal.avi.exe. Pretty annoying. Almost nothing you can do. Only NOD32 v3 with updates can detect this trouble maker worm. Kaspersky can detect, but cannot remove. AVG, Norton, Avast! - all don’t even detect the virus.

Wait! Don’t format your system yet! Its a pretty simple virus to remove, and won’t take more than 10 minutes. It is recommended that you start up in Safe Mode before you do the following steps to remove the virus -

[scroll down for a file which automates all this]

1. Download and install TaskKiller (326 KB freeware). We’re doing this because we need to remove a few tasks running, and Windows Task Manager (Alt + Ctrl + Del) gets killed by the virus
2. Run Task Killer, and a red skull icon will appear on the system tray
3. Left click it, and click Processes
4. Select to kill these processes -
   • killer.exe
   • lsass.exe
   • smss.exe
5. Now open up Command Prompt (Start>Run>command). Type each command and press Enter to run it -
   • cd\
   • attrib -h -s smss.exe
   • attrib -h -s autorun.inf
     [NOTE : Type each command exactly as its given here]
6. Open My Computer and go to C:\ or whichever partition in which you’ve installed Windows.
7. Delete the following files -
   • smss.exe
   • autorun.inf
   • Funny UST Scandal.avi.exe
8. Go to Command Prompt again. Run this command -
   • attrib -h -s smss.exe
9. Go to C:\Windows or wherever else you’ve installed Windows, and delete the file smss.exe.
10. Now, go to C:\Documents and Settings\All users\Startmenu\Programs\Startup and delete the file lsass.exe.
11. Open Registry Editor (Start>Run>regedit)
12. Delete the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\
    Microsoft\WindowNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon=shell(killer.exe
13. Delete the key  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\
    Microsoft\windows\Currentversion\Run=runonce(c:\windows\smss.exe)
14. You’re done!

OR, you can just download a remover file : Download Autoit.BD remover

• After downloading, unzip, and run the exe file.
• Then, do the steps 11, 12 and 13 as mentioned above.
• You’re done

Thanks to fs6519 for recommending these steps, and making the remover file.

I hope that this post was useful. Cheers

Technorati Tags: autoit.bd, worm, funny UST scandal, fs6519, removal, worm removal, virus removal, installation stopping, task manager not opening, smss.exe, Funny UST Scandal.avi.exe

MPlayer, as I had mentioned in my previous post on my Top 3 Audio/Video players, is a media player for Linux, which supports almost all kinds of audio and video formats. It can even play semi-corrupted, and semi-downloaded files. And it rates # 1, as my most favourite and preferred video player.

It is, by creation, a player for Linux, coded by Astral and team. It is essentially a command line operated player, but later on GUIs were introduced for it. Of late, it has GUIs even in Windows, but these GUIs are not very stable, and often destroy the stable credibility of MPlayer. The MPlayer is now available for all operating systems - Linux, Unix based OSes, Windows, and Mac OS X.

How to install MPlayer -

For Linux, go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html . They have a very good explanation on how to install MPlayer on Linux. Of late, MPlayer comes as the default AV(audio/video) player in many Linux distros.

For Mac OS X, go to http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/ . They’ve developed a very good GUI for MPlayer on Mac. Its as simple as download, install, and drag and drop to play.

For Windows, the procedure is a bit more tedious, but worth the effort.

1. Go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html and download the MPlayer 1.0rc2 Windows.
2. After downloading, unzip the package to somewhere easy to remember. For example, unzip it to C:\Program Files\MPlayer so that its easy to locate at a future date.
3. For Windows XP and 2000, go to Step 4. For Windows 98 and previous, go to step 5.
4. Next, go to your Documents and Settings folder. By default, it will be in the root directory, C:\, but could differ if you’ve changed the location or have installed Windows in a different directory. In Documents and Settings, chose the folder which corresponds to your Windows username. i.e. If your Windows username is Geekboy. open the folder Geekboy in the Documents and Settings folder. Inside that folder, there will be a hidden folder called SendTo. If you can see it, open it. If you can’t, either enable the View Hidden Folders (Tools > Folder Options > View > Show Hidden Files and Folders > OK) or append "SendTo" (without the quotes) in the address bar. Go to step 6.
5. (for Windows 98 and previous versions) Go to your Windows folder (by default, it should be C:\Windows\). There will be a hidden folder named "SendTo". Open it. (if you can’t see it, either append SendTo to the address bar, or enable viewing of hidden files by going to Folder Options).
6. Create a shortcut (Right Click > New > Shortcut) and point the shortcut to a file named mplayer.exe in our MPlayer folder (in our example, C:\Program Files\MPlayer\mplayer.exe). You’re all set to go!
7. Now, to play a file using MPlayer, right click on the file, and scroll over Send To  and click Mplayer. Enjoy!

To get an idea of the controls in Windows, go to Interactive Control in the MPlayer Manual.

But here are a few basic controls -

• f - to toggle fullscreen
• arrow keys - to fast forward/rewind
• Page Up and Page Down - to fast forward/rewind by 10 minutes
• p - Pause/Play
• q or Esc - to quit
• / and * OR 9 and 0 - increase and decrease volume
• m - to mute sound
• o - to toggle timer

Those are the basic controls. There are more advanced controls for everything from increase/decrease movie speed to adjusting hue/brightness/colour etc. Check out Interactive Control for more information.

Supported Media Formats

• Physical media: CDs, DVDs, Video CDs* Container formats: 3GP, AVI, ASF, FLV, Matroska, MOV (QuickTime), MP4, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia
• Video formats: Cinepak, DV, H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, RealVideo, Sorenson, Theora, WMV
• Audio formats: AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR, FLAC, Intel Music Coder, Monkey’s Audio, MP3, RealAudio, Shorten, Speex, Vorbis, WMA
• Subtitle formats: AQTitle, ASS/SSA, CC, JACOsub, MicroDVD, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, Sami, SRT, SubViewer, VOBsub, VPlayer

I hope that this post was useful and informative. Enjoy the MPlayer world!

Technorati Tags: MPlayer, media player for linux, linux media player, MPlayer windows, Windows media, play all formats, movie player, best media player

This is just a few lines of verse…

If you do not understand, my apologies, it was not meant for you…

Welcome to the fold, oh questor young,
You are too close the key; on strong!
The answer lies, in the papyrus among,
Thyself, from whither thy quest began…

In small, of light black; look again,
The words of wisdom, good luck, fare well!

Hi all,

I’ve been battling with a deadly problem for the last few years in one of my favorite hobbies. The problem was too basic for the pros to correct me, and too personal for common advice. But I found quite a few people on the internet who had the same problem as I did, and I found a lot of pros giving advice.

The problem - camera shake.

Camera shake is when the photos you take with a camera appear blurred because of shaking or shivering hands, unsteady breath, instability of the body, and many other such reasons. My problem was mainly the shivering of hands. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get the shivering to stop.

But finally, last week, I succeeded in correcting the problem, and I also understood how to master the shake, to get artful pictures.

(camera shake shot - supposed to be a crab on a rock)

(no camera shake - a girl lighting a firecracker)

Here are the tips I can give to all others who have the same problem -

• Hold the camera with both your hands
• Stabilize your breath, by either breathing in, or breathing out, and holding it
• Tuck in your elbows to just below your rib cage
• Don’t bring the camera to your face, rather, bend to bring your eyes to the camera
• Support the camera lens with your left hand and the left corner of the camera with the bottom part of your palm. Catch the right side with your right hand, leaving your pointing finger over the trigger(shutter button). Make sure that your complete finger is free of the camera body - this will help to prevent shake while pressing the button.
• Forget all about working the camera and about the shake. Focus more on the photo as such. This will help you to relax your hand by not thinking about it, and also, in the process to get a better shot. Ever noticed that whenever you look at your hand, your hand starts shivering a lot more? My theory is that our mind makes our hand ready for use when we look at it - pushing in more blood, and loosening muscles, thus resulting in the shivering hand.

I hope this helps out. You can also try using a fast shutter speed, and a small aperture size, because lesser the time and amount of light the camera is exposed to, lesser the shake captured. Also try using the camera flash in low light shots, which will enable you to lower the aperture size/shutter speed.

Good luck! More tips coming soon… (as I learn them )

Technorati Tags: camera shake, photography, tips, avoid camera shake, picture blur, blur, shake, hand shake, how to

Good evening

Now here’s yet another tip for amateur photographers. There’s this little thing called  sepia which can give a whole new appearance to your photos. A sepia tint is a slightly brownish-red tint which gives your photo an old appearance.

Old photos tend to tint into the sepia shade because of oxidation. But these sepia tinted photos look really good - sometimes. Some people go overboard on the mode, and keep clicking sepia, even when not necessary.

Why use sepia?
Photographers use sepia to impart an ‘old’ feeling to the photograph. It improves the photo in many cases. It also gives a feeling of "timelessness". Wouldn’t you want your love to be eternal?

So when should you use sepia?
Technically, it should be a very well lit object that your photographing in sepia. Or use your flashbulb. Aesthetically, the subjects should be "classical" in appearance. Remember - our aim in using sepia is not to make photos look brownish, but to make them look old! Typically, shoot more than one person/object. Give it a slightly crowded, animated look. Also, don’t use sepia in candid shots. Most often, people posed in old photographs.

Use your brains before you use sepia - do you want the photo to have a timeless/old appearance? I use sepia during parties, weddings, picnics and so on.

 
(good sepia - well lit, classic appearance)

(bad sepia - not well lit, and only one subject)

And HOW can sepia be used???!!!!!
Oops, should have said this first… Sepia is a mode which is available in most of the digital cameras today. Look under Modes in your digital camera’s menu, and it will be there along with Black and White, Vivid and so on…
In case of a film camera, you can use a filter.

If you’ve already taken the photo, don’t worry, we can always apply the effect in good old Adobe Photoshop. Open up the picture in Photoshop. Hit Ctrl + U (Command + U in Mac) to bring up the Hue/Saturation panel. Tick the Colorize option box. Set the Lightness to somewhere around -15 to -7. Set the Saturation to 50. And set the Hue to somewhere around 35 to 43. Adjust the Lightness and Hue until you get a sepia effect to your liking.

Thats it guys! Enjoy sepia!

Technorati Tags: sepia, how to, photography, sepia tint, old photos