Sure this might sound a little surly but hear me out

Cue rant in 3, 2 …..

As you all know the economy is a little tight and we thought that we could come over to craigslist to drum up some business

We are developers and designers who really live and work in Los Angeles not freekin’ New Delhi

We’re also English fluent and some of our guys are really named Jeff, Scooter & Dave not Punjab a.k.a. Jeff, Scooter or Dave

You then get these techno-tards who think LAMP is something you put on your nightstand and just because they have a computer they know stuff

They figure “Hey Nephew Joey spends A LOT of time on the computer let’s have him do our Corporate site”

Sure Joey is just lifting music and watching porn but he must be some kind of freekin’ expert because he spends SO much time online and yet no one has ever checked his browsing history

They offer him like 7 bucks an hour because “that’s more than he’s making now delivering newspapers plus he still lives at home”

Then all too soon they figure out little Joey is a little unreliable.

Between after school sports, popping zits and being locked away in the bathroom for “extended” periods of time he can’t get the job done

Sure Joey can’t get the job done because he doesn’t have any experience in programming, business, life or ANYTHING outside the comforts of mommies house

So, what do the Corporate techno-tards do who have a launch date next week and about 3 months worth of work to get done?

They come to craigslist with some really unhealthy and UNREALISTIC expectations

They figure they offered Joey 7 bucks an hour so they’ll offer a WHOLE BUCK more and want

1) A Resume

2) A Masters/Ph.D in Computer Science or similar with a minor in like sandscrit (look it up) to narrow down the field of candidates a little

3) Whatever done yesterday with little or no direction let alone an ACTUAL request for proposal

4) A creative flair like with EVERY freekin’ neuron in the right hemisphere firing

5) A programmers OCD to write code like a machine with every neuron in the left hemisphere firing at 150% of capacity

6) You to work on site because the trolls they hired in the past couldn’t be trusted to come back from lunch – EVER

7) You to be fluent in EVERY flippin’ computer language to include Fortran IV

50 WPM typing skills

9) You to accept a promise of payment sometime in the future when they “hit it big”

10) SEO experience so no matter what you type their site shows up number 1 on Google

11) Something about being a ninja

12) You to give a c**p more about their business then they do

13) You to be a self starter, friendly individual with multi-lingual capabilities being a plus

You then have to “compete” with EVERY freekin’ idiot from the 623, 435, 902, 817 and other area codes from gawd knows where

I think you get the picture…

He’s what I think I’ll do the next time one of these d-bags offers 8 bucks an hour

I just tell them it’s going to take 10 to 15 times longer to get the work done

Maybe I can tell the property management company for our office space

I’ll give them 5 cents a square foot triple net and see if they go for it

Plus the sad thing is there will be some dillweed from the 623 responding to this telling us they’ll “take the job”

AAAAHHHHHHH!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming

A new year, a new decade, a time to trim the spending.

We have had Time Warner Cable as our cable television, internet and phone for the past few years under the “all the best” plan. According to Time Warner the “all the best” plan is a cheaper alternative to have TV, Internet and Phone service, bundled though them as aposed to having three service providers.

We have 4 tvs two of which are HD, and two are SD we had 3 digital cable boxes and one tv on basic cable. For the internet we have a wireless router, and a gigabit wired LAN. The phone was

digitalphone using the cable network. All of this was costing us about $170 a month.

Now that would not be to horrible if it worked all the time, but there was always issues with our service. During the time we have had Time Warner Cable we have made probably over 10 service calls and had just as many techs out to our house to fix the same issue over and over, weak signal…

Our neighborhood was built in the 1940′s and its aging infrastructure is starting to show its age, the city is constantly working on improving services and ripping the road up replacing sewer, and street lighting. But you rarely see Time Warner Cable upgrading there hardware.

Our tv’s where constantly breaking up and showing blocky digital snow, the internet was slow and unreliable especially during peak hours (6 – 10am and 5 – 12 pm), the phone service was working fine but it would hard to mess that up.

The last few techs to come to help with the low signals said that the level from the pole was marginal but just good enough for them to not send a maintenance crew out to fix the issue.

So now that it is the new year we wanted to see what services we could give the axe and ways we could save some of our hard earned money.

I spent a few days researching and came up with a solution, cancel Time Warner Cable and get DSL for internet and Satellite TV, we will not have a home phone as we primarily use cell phones.

Here is the setup we just finished installing:

• DirecTV, two HD receivers, two SD receivers. $56 a month with 12 month promo and AAA discount
• DSL Extreme, 6/768 DSL month to month no contract for $37 a month
• Phones, for now we will not have a land line, but an alternative would cost $11 a month from VoicePulse Connect

So we have taken our bill from $170 a month to $93 a month that is a $77 a month savings, and we really arent sacraficing service quality.

DirecTV is 100% digital unlike Time Warner Cable that uses analog for all their standard channels, and we now have a tuner box on all the tv’s in the house. The picture quality on the DirecTV is so much more crisp and the blacks are not fuzzy like Time Warner Cable was.

DSL Extreme is a slower rated speed than Time Warner Cable but it is a dedicated ADSL line that will not slow down during peak hours, and from my line tests it provides a lower ping and better line quality. Even with the slower rated speed it appears faster then Time Warner Cable.

If we had chosen to sign up for phones it would have been $11 a month using a VOIP solution designed for businesses, I would have to run a PBX but i can get the sof

tware for free (trixbox) and i would have a lot more freedom than I ever would with Time Warner Cable.

To end this post I am happy to have finally cut the cable and try something new.

I shop on eBay about once a month and normally pay with PayPal in the last 6 years making and receiving thousands of transactions, using PayPal I have had a few small issues but nothing that could not be cleared up by a phone call. But my last experience with PayPal will change the way I look at that company, and may influence the ways I purchase online in the future.

On Dec 22 2009 I had purchased a 1.75″ shackles & spacer lift for my jeep cherokee, during checkout I wanted to use a new credit card. So like most people would do I clicked on alternate payment sources, and entered my cards information, and then hit save and submit. Little did I know that once I hit the submit button all hell would break lose…

To my knowledge the transaction worked as planned the next day my credit card showed a pending charge from PayPal, but it was for only $1. At this point I still thought it was working as I see a $1 charge all the time as merchants use that to authorize the card.

About four days later I get an email from my bank that I have been overdrawn and has over $100 in NSF fees, this is when I discovered PayPal made a big mistake.

I logged  into my PayPal account and reviewed the transaction and sure enough it says instant bank transfer, but then why would they be charging $1 to my credit card? I thought it was time to call PayPal and get to the bottom of this mess.

Calling PayPal was a challenge, it asks for a code that I did not have, but after screaming operator and pressing “0″ multiple times I got a person that was able to help me. After about 5 minutes on hold I was told that I had not selected the credit card as the payment source, I responded by asking if I had not selected it why is was $1 charged? Again I was put on hold and this time got a more real answer  from the representative  ”after adding a new credit card you must wait 1 to 5 minutes before using that payment method and you clicked submit order only 15 seconds after adding the card, so our system used the payment on file”, “our system must validate the card is not stolen and that it is valid”. As a web developer I have worked on and managed many online shopping and payment systems, one of the tasks is to make sure it verifies payment and “then” charges the payment, if it cant charge it the transaction will fail.

I then asked if they can see what payment method I selected and the response was “Our system does not keep that information”, a payment processing system the size of PayPal does not store the payment method the user selects!?

I find this a huge flaw in the PayPal system, one large enough that I will not be using PayPal in the near future.

But what to do about the NSF fees and the fact that they took the money out of the wrong account, I ask PayPal what they will do about it and they said “you will have to contact your banking institution” basically saying that they are not the ones that messed up and that I am out of luck.

Well little did they know I dealt with issues like this before and know that the bank will always side with the customer, I decided the way PayPal handled this required action. I called my bank and said this transaction was not authorized and that I would like to put a stop hold on all PayPal transactions.

This is where it gets tricky, if I had wanted to use my bank account for the purchase I legally would not be able to do what I did as it would be perjury. But because  I had wanted and tried to use the credit card this bank charge was technically unauthorized.

I tell the bank the story and after only 5 minutes on the phone I get a Stop Payment order, and they are doing an investigation for the ACH withdraw she says it will take ten days to complete and I will get the NSF fees back like nothing happened.

Ten days later I logged into my bank and the money was returned to me along with the fees, so now that I got my money back the seller is probably wondering where his money is. This seller is a company and takes credit cards so i give him a call and explain the story and then make the payment over the phone, and we both hang up on a good note.

But this leaves me wondering how safe PayPal really is, I easily got my money back from a bank transfer and put a permanent block on PayPal transactions. What is stopping people from buying using PayPal and then taking the money back and disappearing? I actually found the whole process faster and easier then doing a credit card dispute.

In my mind this is a major flaw in PayPal system and makes me wonder how safe my money is when I sell on eBay. What do you think about this PayPal issue?

How "healthy" is our health care in America today?

It’s difficult to understand why the word “socialized medicine” strikes such fear in Americans.  It’s almost a visceral response, negating what most of us know and have heard about other successful plans in other countries that most folks here would brand “socialist”.

Let’s take Canada for instance.  If we look at the numbers, we see that  spending in Canada is projected to reach $160 billion, or 10.6% of GDP, in 2007. This is slightly above the average for OECD countries, and substantially below the 15.2% of GDP taken by up healthcare in the United States.  This should go aways towards quieting some of the accountants amonst us, and should be looked at by congresspersons that are freaking out about “cost”.

Canada’s system is known as a single payer system, where basic services are provided by private doctors (since 2002 they have been allowed to incorporate), with the entire fee paid for by the government at the same rate. Most family doctors receive a fee per visit. These rates are negotiated between the provincial governments and the province’s medical associations, usually on an annual basis. A physician cannot charge a fee for a service that is higher than the negotiated rate — even to patients who are not covered by the publicly funded system — unless the physican opts out of billing the publicly funded system altogether. Pharmaceutical costs are set at a global median by government price controls. Other areas of health care, such as dentistry and optometry, are wholly private.

Considerable attention has been focused on two issues in Canada: wait times and health human resources.

There is also a debate about the appropriate ‘public-private mix’ for both financing and delivering services. Studies by the Commonwealth Fund found that 57% of Canadians reported waiting 4 weeks or more to see a specialist; 24% of Canadians waited 4 hours or more in the emergency room.  I’ve heard many horror stories from friends and family here in Los Angeles, where they spent more than 12 hours waiting in an emergency room at local hospitals.  A 4 hour wait seems trivial.  I also know from first hand experience that getting into see a specialist is often just as difficult.  One of my family members needed to go to a specialized clinic rescently, only to find out that “new patients were no longer admitted” due to the current waiting list of existing patients.  Hmmmmm. Of course, this doesn’t even address the issue that close to 50 million Americans can’t get access to health care at all!

In regards to health-care professional shortages, their is some issue here,  With 2.1 doctors per thousand population in 2006, Canada is well below the OECD average of 3.1. Canada’s 8.8 nurses per thousand was also below the OECD average of 9.7.  However, here’s an interesting statistic: According to a 2007 article from CTV News, the Canadian medical profession is suffering from a brain drain. The article states, “One in nine trained-in-Canada doctors is practising medicine in the United States.

Now if the U.S. implements a plan similar to Canadas, and health care costs become more contained, it only seems logical that Canada’s “brain drain” will slow considerably.  Doctor’s in Canada average an income of $202,000/year.  I think that kind of income should go a long way in keeping the financial incentive alive for new, young doctors.

And Canada’s system, although better than ours, is still ranked below other “socialized” countries, such as England and France.  So what part of a “socialized medicine” approach here in the U.S. is so worrysome?   That statistics stated above are a vast improvement of what we have going right now.

The Car Allowance Rebate System is a US federal program that helps US citizens to purchase a new, more fuel efficient vehicle when trading in a less fuel efficient vehicle.

Thousands of Americans are rushing out and trading in their old cars to receive a $3500 or $4500 discount towards the purchase of select new cars. This may sound great at first but there are many hidden facts the majority of the population may not be aware of.

• The program is designed to get old cars up to 25 years old with under 18 MPG off the road and replace them with brand new cars that have a higher MPG rating.
• Depending on the age of the vehicle you will ether qualify for $3500 or $4500 off of the purchase price of the new car.
• The old car must have been owned, registered, and insured for the past year.
• The dealer is required to disable the old cars engine by draining the oil and replacing with a water and silica solution, permanently destroying the engine.
• The old car must the crushed and the engine and drivetrain cannot be sold for parts, this prevents the sale of the car in the United States and elsewhere as a vehicle.

Many of the cars being turned in as “Clunkers” to this program are still perfectly fine and are being turned in just so the owner can get a new car, but because the car is required to be destroyed hundreds maybe even thousands of cars are being destroyed. But is this really the best way to get people to buy new cars? Why go to the effort to destroy perfectly fine cars that may only be 4-5 years old.

Let’s say all the cars that went to the program that were newer then say 1998 were taken into a low income car program, helping get the “real clunkers” off the road.

It could work as follows:

• The total household income is less then a certain level.
• Each household would qualify for only one vehicle trade.
• The traded vehicle must need more then $500 in repairs to qualify.
• The car must be less then 35 years old, but mileage does not matter.
• The car must be owned for the last year but is not required to be registered or smogged.

This would help get the “real clunkers” and unsafe cars off the road and help clean up the roads. But why was this not the way the Cash for Clunkers program was designed? We can only guess that it has to do with the fact that the Government has recently bailed out both GM and Chrysler. By requiring people to purchase a new vehicle they are protecting there investments.

Another theory about why they don’t want to have a low income program is “Keep Them Stupid and Poor” consperacy that has been floating around the internet. I think the government has been brainwashing the population, there is so many stupid laws and programs right now and the majority of the population appears to be going along with it.

I see this first hand as I am an unemployed, student. Like many others I have been in search of a job for many months, but because of the current economy there has been very little interest. Another major issue is the cut to education budgets, just this summer I had a class I was attending get canceled after the first week was over because they were two people short of the twenty person quota. I feel that as an American I am not getting what I should, if I pay my taxes I should be able to use that money, and I feel it unfair to allow this program to only benefit the people capable of making monthly car payments. What about the rest of the population?

Life in America

Interesting idea, but why hasn’t it worked?  The answer is simple; Greed.    The majority of a corporations profits go to the top executives for allocation.  That part works fine.  But then, IT STAYS THERE!  NO WAY DOES IT “TRICKLE DOWN”!

It’s no secret about  the enormous salaries, bonus, and benefit packages received by the top guys and gals in major U.S. corporations.  Ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina comes to mind.  She got a severance package worth about $21.4 million, but stood to get another $21 million after she was forced out by the company.  Nice pay for messing things up royally (consider the logic of such packages: the board hires a CEO, gives them an incredible golden parachute.  If they fail and are thrown out, they get rich.  If they succeed, they get rich.  What a Motivator!).

I was a first hand witness during that time, working for HP as a consultant, and it was a blood bath.  I’ll never forget the pain she caused thousands of employees as she ruthlessly changed HP’s gentle and relatively caring culture to a culture of “the bottom-line”.  What did she bring to HP as a result of all that pain (besides a lighter corporate pocketbook as she exited stage left): nothing.

Of course our more current stories come from Wall Street and the banking industry, and of course good ol’ AIG.   The Feds pump millions into these companies to cover for basic failure in their management, and, of course, the ravages of Greed.

I also witnessed Greed at work first hand, when working for a small tech firm in Colorado.  When I first joined up, the company was small, with only 5 of us working hard to build up the business.  The owner at that time, was very humble, and appreciative of our efforts.  What profits we did have, he shared generously.  However, over the years, he (the CEO/President), changed.  As his own personal fortune grew, he grew more and more reluctant to share the wealth with the rest of us (“exit strategy”?, what exit strategy?  Stock?  No way!).  Getting a raise was like pulling teeth, and he became unilateral in his decision making, not wanting to make things messy by input from “the rabble rousers”.

To add insult to injury, he was from India, and got most of the companies work through a federal program that gives minorities a competitive edge during the bidding process for federal contracts.  His “payback” to America?  Keep the majority of profits for himself and his family, send massive amounts back to family members in India, and what was left, might, if it was a good year, result in a 1 or 2% raise for us working-stiff American citizens.  “Much thanks America!  Adios!”

Greed is the sand in our industrial wheels.  Unfortunately, it is now up to government to come to our rescue and regulate against one of the worst of the “7 deadly sins”, greed, and with these insane bailouts,  to regrease the wheels in hopes we can live for another day.

PS for MBA Students: Case Study: “The Carly Strategy”:  Come into the organization like a whirlwind.  Be authorative.  Create massive amounts of smoke, dust-in-the-air, and fire people so that no one (esp. the members of the board) can tell that you have no clue what you are doing.  Rape, pillage, and create massive amounts of personal wealth for yourself.  Exit.  Write a book telling the world how tough it is to be you.

Christian Conservative Right, would you like to get back in the game? Maybe win a few elections? Have some significant influence over frail humans? Then you need to change your mindset. The recent presidential election shows us that most Americans are tired of fear, intimidation, and most of all, anger. We don’t want it anymore. It is destructive, and ultimately self-defeating. In other words, it is a waste of time, and time is what we are beginning to run out of.

Molly next door is thinking of getting an abortion. Guess what, God doesn’t care. Get over it. GOD DOESN”T CARE! Such thinking is full of human conceit and a mindset that suggests HE is up there watching every little move you, or any of us make. And further more, if we don’t follow all these “rules” that we seem to make up on his/her behalf, that we will somehow get struck down by and angry God and surely go to the fiery depths of hell. Sorry, not true. Such thinking is relegated to human thought, not something that fits well with a supreme force. If an abortion will ultimately help Molly reach her personal spiritual actualization, then so be it.

Why are you beginning to lose elections? Well, for one, the Republican “core” that politicians seem to keep bowing to, are changing demographically and philosophically. The ones that adhere to a ferocious damning God are dying off, and younger, more enlightened individuals are taking their place. Have you noticed that people describe themselves these days a “spiritual”, as opposed to “religious”? Why do you think that is? Old fashion religion is fundamentally judgmental and damning, and fraught with so many “rules” its hard to keep track off. Religion says “do it my way (if you can figure out what that is)….. or else!”. Spirituality suggests an inner voice within each of us. It is our individual “guiding light”. No more dictates from various “religious leaders” telling us what is right or wrong, it is our OWN voice, our own dictates that must be followed in order for us to gain spiritual enlightenment (one soul at a time).

If the get_flash_update.exe file is downloaded and installed on your computer, it will proceed to download further malware that are set to start on your computer automatically when you reboot. When the whole infection process is complete, you will notice a variety of changes have occurred. The first change you will notice is that your Windows desktop background has been changed to a warning stating that Spyware was detected on your computer. Next, your screen saver will be changed to use SysInternals BlueScreen Screen Saver, which when running, emulates your operating system crashing into a blue screen of death.

Some of the messages that will appear on this blue screen are:

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
PANIC_STACK_SWITCH
MAXIMUM_WAIT_OBJECTS_EXCEEDED
NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS
BAD_POOL_HEADER
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
BOGUS_DRIVER
SYSINTERNALS_GREAT_SITE
UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP

Though the screen saver will make it appear that your computer has crashed, and even make it look like your computer is rebooting, in reality it still is only a screen saver. Simply press the space bar and you will go right back to your desktop. The malware will also disable your ability to change your desktop or screen saver by modifying the Windows Registry so that the tabs to change these settings are not visible. Last, but not least, the CNN Daily Top 10 malware will also download and install a rogue anti-spyware program onto your computer. Currently the rogue being installed is one called Antivirus XP 2008. This program will automatically run and scan your computer. When done, it will display a variety of false risks on your computer that cannot be removed unless you first purchase the software. Please do not buy this software, but rather use the guide below to remove all of the malware installed by this SPAM.

CNN Daily Top 10 Spam Email Message
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 7 images you can view.This guide will walk you through removing the CNN.com Daily Top 10 malware pack .

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

For full instructions go to http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-cnn-daily-top-10

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

Some of these entries are random:

O4 – HKLM\..\Run: [lphcjkrj0etfg] C:\WINDOWS\system32\lphcjkrj0etfg.exe
O4 – HKLM\..\Run: [SMrhcnkrj0etfg] C:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\rhcnkrj0etfg.exe
O23 – Service: CbEvtSvc – Unknown owner – C:\WINDOWS\System32\CbEvtSvc.exe

Associated CNN.com Daily Top 10 Files:

Some of these entries are random:

c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\database.dat
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\license.txt
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\MFC71.dll
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\MFC71ENU.DLL
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\msvcp71.dll
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\msvcr71.dll
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\rhcnkrj0etfg.exe
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\rhcnkrj0etfg.exe.local
c:\Program Files\rhcnkrj0etfg\Uninstall.exe
c:\WINDOWS\system32\blphcjkrj0etfg.scr
c:\WINDOWS\system32\CbEvtSvc.exe
c:\WINDOWS\system32\lphcjkrj0etfg.exe
c:\WINDOWS\system32\phcjkrj0etfg.bmp
c:\WINDOWS\system32\pphcjkrj0etfg.exe
c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\54c70b2e.sys
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\Antivirus XP 2008.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus XP 2008
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus XP 2008.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus XP 2008\Antivirus XP 2008.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus XP 2008\How to Register Antivirus XP 2008.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus XP 2008\License Agreement.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus XP 2008\Register Antivirus XP 2008.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus XP 2008\Uninstall.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Autorun
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Autorun\HKCU
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Autorun\HKCU\RunOnce
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Autorun\HKLM
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Autorun\HKLM\RunOnce
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Autorun\StartMenuAllUsers
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Autorun\StartMenuCurrentUser
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\BrowserObjects
c:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Application Data\rhcnkrj0etfg\Quarantine\Packages

Associated CNN.com Daily Top 10 Windows Registry Information:

Some of these entries are random:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sysinternals\Bluescreen Screen Saver
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\rhcnkrj0etfg
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\rhcnkrj0etfg
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_CBEVTSVC
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\54c70b2e
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\CbEvtSvc
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_CBEVTSVC
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\54c70b2e
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CbEvtSvc
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System “NoDispBackgroundPage”
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System “NoDispScrSavPage”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “lphcjkrj0etfg”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “SMrhcnkrj0etfg”

I posted this to serve as a reminder to always check who the email is from before clicking on the links included, even if they are from a reputable source.

A note from one of the users:

The subject lines of these e-mails vary, but some examples
include “CNN Top Ten”, “Beijing Olympic Videos”, and other
subject lines referencing the Olympics. The e-mail prompts readers to
update their “flash player” or software that will allow the viewing
of videos. Please delete these e-mails immediately and refrain from
clicking on anything that asks you to update “flash player” or any
other software. These malicious attempts can result in the download of
what is referred to as malware, which can shut down the functioning of
your computer.

UPDATE: Removal instructions if you are infected with the virus, click here.