benj

Over the past few days news about the latest “super-worm” called Conficker has been spreading. It’s supposed to go live on April 1 and do all sorts of damage, but so far so good. Or is it April 1 US time? Anyway, here are some general tools you can use to get rid of or minimize the effects of viruses and worms:

1. Windows Update - Make sure you’re using a licensed copy of Windows though

2. HiJack This - This is a slightly more complicated tool to use, but so far it has been able to clean up everything I’ve encountered. Be sure you know what you’re doing before you even attempt to use this tool. Misuse can lead to a total system crash.

3. Trend Micro’s Cleanup Engine - I haven’t actually used this tool yet, but Trend Micro knows their stuff, so this should be pretty good.

4. McAfee Stinger - This is a tool to scan for and get rid of certain viruses and worms. As stated in their website, it’s not a substitute for a full anti-virus system.

5. Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - I’ve had quite a bit of success with this. Mostly it seems to fix some of the effects of worms like disabling the task manager, disabling the different options of the control panel, etc.

What would you do if you were snorkling in the middle of ocean, got separated from your buddies, and started getting circled by a 12 foot long tiger shark? Would you try to swim away or try to find a way to get to your boat? Apparently this guy engaged the shark for 2 hours, spearing it 7 times before finally finishing it off with a knife. Can you say badass?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03122009/news/nationalnews/moment_of_tooth_159201.htm

I came across these pretty cool images on the net. Some guy decided to illustrate what 1 trillion dollars actually looks like, in light of all this talk about bailouts amounting to at least that amount.

Here’s a $10,000 bundle (100 pcs of $100 bills)

Here’s a million dollars (100 packets of $10,000) -> I think there’s something wrong with this pic, it doesn’t look like 100 packets…

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Ian King’s E39 M5 drifting…

400BHP from a 5.0 V8 with an aftermarket full exhaust kit that sounds like hell unleashed. I cannot stress how menacing this car sounded.

Taken last March 8, 2009 at SM Marilao.

I came across these pictures recently while browsing for stuff about my favorite game Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on Playstation 3. Apparently the developers of the game (Polyphony Digital) use Autodesk Maya exclusively for creating the models of the cars and environments. I think it’s really cool that a game such as GT5 Prologue, which is known for extreme attention to detail and for being one of the first games to harness the full power of the PS3, uses an off the shelf product available to most consumers in creating their models.

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I was watching CNBC Squawk Box again last night when the news came, AIG posted a record loss for the 4th quarter 2008 to the tune of $62 Billion (around 3 Trillion Pesos)!!! That is the biggest quarterly loss ever recorded by any company in history! That is more than the entire net worth of America’s richest man Bill Gates (who’s worth around $57 Billion).

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I have this new nightly habit of watching the CNBC show Squawk Box for news about the economy. It’s an interesting program with a bunch of very knowledgeable hosts and guests. It’s also actually very entertaining considering the topics that they discuss, it sure beats getting bored to death watching Bloomberg.

Anyway, I was watching it the other night and it reported that General Motors Corp., the 2nd largest automaker in the world and manufacturers of cars such as Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, and Daewoo, among others, posted a loss of $30.9 Billion Dollars last 2008. This equates to them losing roughly $84.7 Million in a day! Think about it, that’s 4.1 Billion Pesos everyday! If that doesn’t blow your mind I don’t know what will. The amount that they lost last 2008 is more or less equal to the entire GDP of the Philippines. That means if we measure the total value of all final goods and services produced in the Philippines in 2008, we would more or less get the value of what GM lost last year.

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My first post in this blog is going to tackle something that is very dear to me.

I know that student life here at Informatics is an incredibly busy one. Each student has his/her own classes with different teachers. Although a student may spend upwards of 6 hours in school, most of the time is spent inside the classroom in the company of teachers. Most of the contact students have with me is done at the office for strictly academic concerns. In short, I have not been able to talk to students as much as I would like. Our duty as educators is not simply to impart knowledge on the latest technology but also to impart wisdom and life learnings to help students grow up and realize their full potential. Hopefully I can start doing that through this blog.

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