Category Archives: Blog

PSA: A New Mac Virus

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There’s a new Mac virus out there that could be infecting up to 1% of all Macs. The virus is a trojan called Flashback that tricks users into installing it by masquerading as an installer for Adobe Flash. The latest iteration of the virus is a bit more rude though: it uses an unpatched Java vulnerability to install itself whenever a user visits a compromised website.

Macworld has a pretty good article detailing the virus here. Once you’re infected, Flashback harvests your internet browsing information, which includes username and passwords and sends it back to its evil overlords.

If you want to check if you’re infected, F-Secure has detailed instructions on how to detect and remove the virus on their website here. Caution: some tinkering about the Terminal required.

With Macs getting more ubiquitous these days, its not surprising that Macs are becoming a target for malicious coders. Be vigilant: just as you don’t allow any stranger from entering your house, treat your Mac the same way too. Always keep your software updated, make sure your software isn’t from dodgy sources, and don’t enter your admin password when your system prompts you unless you have a darn good reason for doing so.

Update 11.04.12: Apple has issued a statement saying that they’re working on a patch in addition to working with ISPs worldwide to shut down Flashback’s command and control network. Apple recommends disabling Java in the meantime.

Update 12.04.12: Apple’s released a security update for Java that removes the common strains of the Flashback virus. Check your software updates.

Next Level Artwork

Aside

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My divelog looks like this:

Divelog

Its unruled pages are awesome for sticking pictures, drawing fish and getting awesome dive buddies to scribble all over them once the dive trip is over. This beats the hell out of having an official PADI divelog with set boxes and lines for documenting your dive depth, surface intervals and what not. I much prefer the option of having the page as canvas that I can scribble anything on.

But this concept isn’t new. People have been sketching on notebooks forever. But this new app could take my Moleskine wannabe divelog to a whole different level. Just checkout the video on the page and you will be blown away. It’s called Paper by Fifty Three Inc and it just looks gorgeous. The app is free, but some of the brushes and effects are not. If there is a reason to be bringing an iPad with you on divetrips to do just more than log your dives, its this.

Disaster averted!

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With the icky Google malware warning finally disappearing overnight, I now begin the loooooong task of restoring stor.my back to its original host. I think this is probably going to be more difficult than I anticipate…

Update 23/3: Restore complete! Purged the root folder of all files, reinstalled WP, imported  all old posts, restored all content images. Luckily for me, the original stor.my backup kept hyperlinks to the images to this domain. This recent event is a reminder that part of being a responsible domain owner is to ensure that the software should be well maintained and monitored!

Update 23/3 11am: In my zealousness to purge the root directory of stuff, I inadvertently deleted stor.my’s YoURLs installation! So while the database is live, the files and what not are gone. /sad face

Update 23/3 2pm: Yep, I confirm that any effort of mine to restore the old URL shortener would involve a wee bit more work than I expected. So that’s outta the window. Looks like the old URLs which I have shortened before will now be consigned to oblivion…

Restoring from backup

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So my inactiveness in maintaining the blog has come to bite me in the ass. Found malicious code injected onto the website and Google has a nice big malware warning. Pretty much renders the old stor.my URL useless for all intents and purposes. So here I am on WordPress again trying to backup the old posts. Hope this goes well!

Excel: Average() and rank

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My high-school batch has a football league going on the official Fantasy Football website. This year, the organizers proposed assigning points to teams representing our respective sports houses with bragging rights at the end of the season. Now, while the official league does a pretty good job at keeping track of individual scores, it doesn’t have a way to group teams into “groups” so I came up with this Excel spreadsheet.

We decided to assign 10/7/5/3 points to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed houses each game week, with each house’s score each week being the average score of the top 3 performers in that house. At the end of the season, the house with the most points wins!

My initial thought process led me to think that the solution to this problem would be a combination of average() and rank(). The deliverable being, “return the average score of the top 3 teams in house X”. Turns out, rank() isn’t required at all! The solution was as follows, and must be entered using Shift+Control+Enter as it is an array formula:

If you’d like to toy around with the formulas, the excel spreadsheet is here: week1.xlsx

An Old Spice ode to London

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Hello Rioters. Look at your friend, now back to me. Now at your friend, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped used petrol bombs and started using the job centre he could potentially be me. Look down, back up. Where are we? You’re at an interview with the man your friend could work for. What’s in your hand? Back at me. I have it. It’s an application form to that job you need. Look again. The form is now money. Anything is possible when you get a job, stop looting and grow up.

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I don’t claim originality for this! First seen by Marc Penny on the “Scotland, where we don’t destroy our own city cause we’re no mongos” fan page.

London Riots

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As a Londoner, the recent events have been appalling. The people involved have stopped being protesters and have turned into opportunistic looters and thieves. The scariest thing to me though, is that the riots are symptomatic of a far greater threat to our society: that of the lack of respect for authority. I think we as a society have failed to create meaningful lives for a growing underclass of individuals and that this growing resentment will continue to fester and blow up again in our faces again at some point in the future.

Here are a few pieces which I think communicate the issues pretty well:

Max Hastings from the Daily Mail:

If you live a normal life of absolute futility, which we can assume most of this week’s rioters do, excitement of any kind is welcome. The people who wrecked swathes of property, burned vehicles and terrorised communities have no moral compass to make them susceptible to guilt or shame. Most have no jobs to go to or exams they might pass. They know no family role models, for most live in homes in which the father is unemployed, or from which he has decamped. They are illiterate and innumerate, beyond maybe some dexterity with computer games and BlackBerries.

Zoe Williams from the Guardian:

I think it’s just about possible that you could see your actions refashioned into a noble cause if you were stealing the staples: bread, milk. But it can’t be done while you’re nicking trainers, let alone laptops. In Clapham Junction, the only shop left untouched was Waterstone’s, and the looters of Boots had, unaccountably, stolen a load of Imodium. So this kept Twitter alive all night with tweets about how uneducated these people must be and the condition of their digestive systems. While that palled after a bit, it remains the case that these are shopping riots, characterised by their consumer choices: that’s the bit we’ve never seen before. A violent act by the authorities, triggering a howl of protest – that bit is as old as time. But crowds moving from shopping centre to shopping centre? Actively trying to avoid a confrontation with police, trying to get in and out of JD Sports before the “feds” arrive? That bit is new.