Cricinfo and a Virus that looks like an anti virus program (Cryp_FakeAV-11)

My friend checked the India New Zealand score on my laptop last weekend using Cricinfo.com. While he was at it, we suddenly got a message that said that the computer was threatenend and it went on to launch an internet explorer window and made it looked like the computer was being scanned and before you know it, multiple viruses were found in various system folders.

It also had the Windows firewall shield logo (Kid you not!) but the shield was split into four parts and each part had a Microsoft Windows color.

Turns out it was a virus called Cryp_FakeAV-11 . These guys know how to do subliminal messaging! You see the shield shape, the windows colors, the legit looking virus scan, combined with your own Antivirus message (that is telling you that this thing itself is a virus) and you can be overwhelmed... Which window do you close? Which Ok or Cancel do you press? would you wipe out your hard drive with one wrong click?

Worse, why is Cricinfo supporting these guys?

The funny thing was that my MIL got the same warning and she clicked okay in an effort to "protect" the desktop and that installed this virus shield looking virus on our desktop! Took us some time to clean up.

Beware! Go let your six year old little ones and sixty year old seniors know the risk of clicking okay!

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We are like that only !

This phrase is more popular in India.

Do not know if some famous Indian head honcho said this and it became some kind of classic quote, so readers please provide a link to the origin of "We are like that only!", if you have it.

Now, this is used usually in a defensive state, as in "dont tell us how we are doing, dont complain about how we run things, etc. etc." and it ends with "we are like that only!".

It is high time Americans adopted the phrase.

Why?

The US economy is going through its worst time
Taxpayers are going to be taxed more with all bailouts
Money is literally being pumped in to the same channels which got the US in this mess and

While all this goes on two news items today catch my ears:

1. Citibank gives bonuses to employees in the form of cards with $1,000 to $3,000 loaded in them!

2. American express decides to offer 300 bucks to a bunch of American express card holders, if they would close their credit card account and pay their bills.

Here is the funny part according to what I heard on the radio.

Let us say, you have $ 500 left in your amex Card. Now you transfer the balance to another credit card, thereby essentially paying off the Amex card, you get $ 300 from Amex!

You just made 300 bucks courtesy of some bailout money for which guys like me are busting everything they got working 18 hours a day, 6 days a week! It is however sad that you are still in debt by 200 bucks.

If you happened to transfer your balance to Citibank, the guy who gave you that credit card offer will get another bonus for his brilliant ability to get "more business" and they will give him another $3,000 gift card, courtesy of more of taxpayer money. I will probably have to work 18 hours a day all seven days a week!

If the person whose account Amex is trying to close is as fiscally responsible like I expect him to be (I am literally rolling on the floor laughing at my own sarcasm with happy and sad tears), he/she will figure out a way to transfer the balance do some juggling and get a perpetual payout machinery.

Before you know it, a couple of more billion dollars will be syphoned out of the system.

At that point I will be working 27 hours a day nine days a week!

Hi, if you think that cannot happen, think again. There is no bottoming out of this crisis. The next bailout to bailout the previous bailout will be approximately 10 Trillion dollars and it will involve bailing out rotten banks, loan brokers, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, wall street firms, insurance agents, credit card companies, etc. etc.

What to do?

We are like that only!

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Whirlwind week

The last week went by very fast. It all started when San hydroplaned her car and survived a crash. She came out in one piece with minor bruises, and yes, she is fine and back to her normal self and to prove that point, she will yell at me for mentioning this to the world. That will bring her "percentage normalness" from 95.6% to around 98.9%. In a couple of days, we are confident that she will reach 100% !

Work went from hectic to unmentionably busy at the same time. Almost worked two days straight with a few power naps of 30 to 45 mins towards the end of the week. Then slept for 12 straight hours to compensate and the weekend almost disappeared.

The only saving grace was my college roomates visit today! He came from the east coast and spent most of the morning with us. It was a treat to watch him play with the kids. He told my wife and MIL old stories of me, but they always beat him to the punchline! He was so disappointed to see that my behaviour has stayed consistant over the years and that my wife and MIL could guess how the old grad school stories ended! For me, it was a joy to watch them make fun at my expense.

The best part? He could not believe that I don't go near the kitchen anymore. He told my kids "your daddy cooks really well, you know. He cooks great food for you everyday right?" and they had the deer in the headlights look. If Jr. was 16 she would have said "our daddy? cooks all the time? which parallel universe are you from, dude?"

fun, fun, fun, to make up for a nasty week.

On the plus side, we now have a new car, now that the old one is totalled. San has a new algorithm for driving the car:

Pray
Sit in car
check everything before opening garage
open garage
carefully ease car out
check dimensions all around car (this reminds me of how saastrigals ask you to put darbais in all four directions around the fire during a prayer!) San looks at all diagonal points to check for something.
drive out extremely carefully

Everyone at home was upset with my busy schedule at work the whole week. Jr. did come to me once and say "Daddy , look I did something very different!"

She had come up with a novel way to assemble the rings on the toy, just out of pure boredom.

So I promised to tell everyone how she did something differnt. So here it is..

She might check on me tomorrow.. This blog is slowly being taken over by the kids!

This week promises to be less busy, and that means a few posts that never made it out of my head into the draft, will actually get out!

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