Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011

I have just seen screenshots of Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 on Cnet. One of my first impressions is that it has a interface that is very similar to Panda Cloud Antivirus.

Just a random thought. :)

Contracted virus: automatically opens www.toughdiseases.com. How I got rid of it.

Introduction
Here I am, reading my daily dose of the Dilbert blog, when a tab suddenly opens to a disease that discusses "tough diseases". Well, I'm not sick so I quickly click the X that exits it in firefox. Wait... how did the tab open anyway.

"Must've clicked a banner ad", I thought to myself.

The process repeats itself over again.

Conclusion
I must've contracted some unwanted malicious application. Argghh *rage*. Anyway, its my fault for disabling the antivirus and threatfire for easy anticheat (what's so bad about gamers hacking anyway?) and forgetting to turn it back on.

This post summarises what I did to remove it. 

First, I did some research. Simple google search of "toughdisease.com" came up with several facts.

• This problem was observed more extensively with Mozilla Firefox but also observed in Google Chrome. 
• Pop-up blockers seemed to have little effect in alleviating the problem. 
• Much of the advice was pretty standard such as run a virus scan/malware scan with these recommended products including adware, spybot, malwarebytes antimalware, comodo etc. An interesting advice was to start Mozilla Firefox in safe mode to determine that it isn't an addon causing the problem.

Next,  I restarted Windows in safe mode and ran a virus scan with my much forgotten Avast! antivirus. (disable for stupids reasons discussed above.) after a long update.You may download it here. Now, in safe mode, run a full scan of all computer hard drives and removable storage devices. Set the scan settings to thorough and select scan archives.

Say good bye to www.toughdiseases.com. I just removed a tough disease from my life.

Overheating laptop solved

I have a HP laptop (its actually the HP Pavilion dv4000 mentioned in one of my earlier posts). Even though it has a manufacturing defect, its still hanging in there. Now, one of the problems I have with this media center laptop is that it overheats a lot.

I have used compressed air to clean the dust out, but the overheating problem persists. My second resort was to enable to a function called "Speedstep".

What is Speed Step?

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology allows the system to dynamically adjust processor voltage and core frequency, which can result in decreased average power consumption and decreased average heat production.                              -Source: Intel

I was interested in the decreased average heat production. Yes, it may result in reduced performances, but this does not matter in my case.

So, how to enable Speed Step?
1. In the bios, set speedstep to automatic. (can't help with this step as bios screens are different)
2. In Power Setting, change the settings from desktop to mobile.

A Course In Pure Mathematics By Margaret Gow- Thoughts on the book

Basic product information from Amazon.com:

Product Description

For students reading Mathematics, either as part of a general degree or as an ancilliary course for an Honours degree, the subject should be presented in as straightforward a manners as is consistent with a moderate standard of rigour. This course in algebra, co-ordinate geometry and calculus is designed to fulfil these requirements for students at Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology.
The book contains 350 worked examples and 1550 practice examples selected mainly from university examination papers. The practice examples have been carefully graded and some hints are given with the answers so that the book may be used for private study as well as for class work.

From the Back Cover

For students reading Mathematics, either as part of a general degree or as an ancilliary course for an Honours degree, the subject should be presented in as straightforward a manners as is consistent with a moderate standard of rigour. This course in algebra, co-ordinate geometry and calculus is designed to fulfil these requirements for students at Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology.
The book contains 350 worked examples and 1550 practice examples selected mainly from university examination papers. The practice examples have been carefully graded and some hints are given with the answers so that the book may be used for private study as well as for class work.

Initial thoughts
My initial thoughts of the book "A Course in Pure Mathematics" by Margaret Gow are that is a decent book covering content in a logical order. It also has exercises after working through some examples with are always good. The exercises after the examples are not extremely hard (referring to the questions I have done so far) and there are answers present at the back.

There are 25 chapters in the book:

• Polynomials; The remainder and factor theorems; undetermined coefficients; partial fractions
• Theory of equations; Inequalities
• Determinants
• Limits and infinite series
• Binomial, exponential and logarithmic series
• Complex numbers
• More complex numbers
• Summation of series
• Differentiation and applications
• Integration
• Expansions in series
• Coordinate geometry of the straight line and circle
• The parabola
• The ellipse and the hyperbola
• The straight line, curve and conic in polar coordinates
• Coordinate geometry in three dimensions: The plane and the straight line
• The sphere
• The quadric
• Partial differentiation
• Application of integration- cartesian coordinates
• Application of integration- polar coordinates
• Curvature
• Differential equations of the first order
• Linear differentiation equations with constant coefficients
• Spherical trigonometry

 **Note: This is an incomplete post. It will be updated as I use the book**

2010 Sace exam too easy

Does anyone agree with me that the 2010 SACE exams are so ridiculously easy its not funny? Take physics, maths studies or biology this year and compare it to last year and you'll know what I'm talking about. SACE exams this year are a joke.

Almost tricked into signing up for TRU energy

Well, I got a knock from a door to door salesman. He asked to look at my electricity bills and claimed that I was entitled to $150 dollars off my energy bills and a $50 rebate on my next electricity bill, which was supposedly a government rebate for pension holders. For those who don't know me, I am 18 and come from a non english speaking background.

Sales person: "Are you over 18?"
Me: "Not Yet (I lied)"

Sales person: "Is your parents home?"
Me: "Ma! (in chinese- calling my mum)"

Sales person: "Well maam. You are entitled to $150 dollar....... (basically, the door to door salesman story)"

Sales person: "Could you sign here please maam"

Please note: mum doesn't speak english very well.

Sales person: "Well, I'm going to call a government representative. They will answer some questions. I will nod for yes, shake my head for no. Just follow me."

Calls up representative
Phone representative: "Could you please give me your name and address"
Mum: " My name is ........................ I live at ...................................."
Phone representative: "Are you are concession card holder?"
*Sales person nods*
Mum: "Yes"
Phone representative: "Do you understand that you are changing your energy supplier to TRU energy?"
*Sales person actively nods*

What? Changing suppliers? I never heard anything like that.I am amazed I didn't jump in and stop the whole thing. Maybe it took some times to register.

Phone representative: "Am I on speaker phone at the moment?"
*Sales representative shakes head*

What? More lies? This is where I jump in and stop the whole event.


DODGY....... never going near TRU Energy again. The guy (Indian) tried to scam us.

Benefits of the docx over the good old doc

What was wrong with the old Microsoft office doc files (prior Microsoft 2007)? This was a random thought I had, so I went out to search for an answer (I sometimes have too much times on my hands)

Here is a quick summary of my findings:

• Improved damage recovery so if a single segment or component of the file is corrupt, the rest of the document can be read.
• Smaller files: files are automatically compressed to smaller files. 
• Easy detection of files that contain macros. This can be like a preview functionality or a security measure. 

So, looks like Microsoft didn't do it just to annoy people.