JR's Dropbox

An interesting article from WIRED on how the thieves do it.

(Snip)

Nine times out of ten, the words “hot wire” summon images of car thievery. Of course, anyone who’s been stranded in a hostile environment without their car keys knows better. Here’s the trick to getting your vehicle moving again.

(snip - article from Geeks are Sexy website - copied here without permission but so I could find it more easily for reference purposes  Please visit their website for other articles of a sexy geek nature)

Have you ever run into a situation where you wanted to delete a file, but Windows simply wouldn’t allow you to do it? Personally, these things happen to me all the time, especially when I’m at a client’s house trying to get their machine clean of malware. Have you ever tried deleting a locked file using common windows commands? If so, then you’ll know that this is just not possible.

The main reason behind this is that the explorer.exe process locks files that are in use, effectively preventing you from deleting them. Usually, these files should not be touched, but sometimes, situations arise when you really need to erase some troublesome ones.

Fortunately, there are a few easy solutions to delete those files.

Solution #1: Kill explorer.exe

• Open a command prompt
• Navigate to the location where the locked file is
• Press CTRL-ALT-DEL, click on “task manager”, select the Processes tab
• Kill the explorer.exe process via the “End Process” button
• Go back to the command prompt and delete the file
• Bring up the task manager windows again
• Select file->new task
• Type explorer.exe in the “create new task” field
• Press OK.

Solution #2: Use The Windows Recovery Console

Just stick your Windows CD in your CD tray, boot on it, and at the “Welcome to Setup” screen, press “R“. Once the recovery console has started, navigate to the location of your locked file, and delete it. Since WRC does not really start the system, the files will not be in use, and you will be able to delete them

Solution #3: Use unlocker

Unlocker is a very useful freeware that will allow you to unlock any files that are currently in use by Windows. You’ll know if this is happening if you are getting any of these messages when trying to delete a file:

• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• There has been a sharing violation
• The source or destination file may be in use
• The file is in use by another program or user
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use

Unlocker will make things right again for you.

You’ll notice that right after installing the software, a new option named “unlocker” will appear when right clicking any files or folders in Windows Explorer. To unlock a locked file, just right click it, select unlocker, and the unlocker software will start. Then, click “unlock all” and close the software. Now that your file is unlocked, just delete it in Windows Explorer, as you always do. This is much simpler than solution #1 or #2, isn’t it?

Here’s a download page of some software you might find useful for cleaning up a friend’s PC.  There’s an all-in-one cleanup tool downloader, and a number of specific trojan cleaners.

For future reference.

Also, see this artist’s awesome flickr set.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.

Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC’s review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

Otero’s ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no anti-religious bias in the university’s system of reviewing high school classes. Now that the lawsuit has been dismissed, a group of Christian schools has appealed Otero’s rulings to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

See link above for more.  Via SFGate.

An interesting 10 question quiz from the NY Times Science section. I got 6/10.

There’s also an essay question at the end.

From the Borowitz Report.

A new medical report showing that excessive cell phone use may increase the risk of cancer has sparked widespread fear among the nation’s assholes, prominent assholes confirmed today.

For years, America’s assholes have talked relentlessly on their cell phones - while waiting on supermarket lines, sitting on the bus, or even crossing the street - regardless of the effect their annoying chatter has had on those around them.

But with a new doctor’s warning that cell phone use could pose a serious health risk, many jerks and douchebags are considering changing their ways.

Sample info available at this webpage:

Major International Transport Hub Censors Political Websites

Paul Joseph Watson
While media accuses China of blacklisting sensitive information, censorship is taking place right here at home.

MySpace Is The Trojan Horse Of Internet Censorship

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com
MySpace isn’t cool, it isn’t hip and it isn’t trendy. It represents a cyber trojan horse and the media elite’s last gasp effort to reclaim control of the Internet and sink it with a stranglehold of regulation, control and censorship.