Month: November 2008

Alien file: Remv.php

Blogging in general

Yesterday morning, I got an email from Bluehost Support as follows…

Dear Webmaster for (deleted),

It has come to our attention that an exploit for WordPress 2.6.3 and below is running rampant through the internet, and has been discovered on your account for (deleted). Due to the upcoming holiday we have decided to allow your website to stay online, the current file remv.php.hacked will be in your homedirectory under (deleted)/wp-content/themes. You have seven days to remove this file and update your version of WordPress and any modules you are using. If you have not performed the removal and update by the end of the 7th day, out of respect to other customers we will be forced to shutdown your site until the requested removal and updates have been completed.

In addition, Fantastico does not have the latest version of WordPress which is 2.6.5. This means you will need to upgrade WordPress using SimpleScripts. You can easily do this from the cPanel. Go to SimpleScripts under “Software Services” and click on WordPress under “Blogs.” At the bottom you’ll see an option to “Convert a Fantastico Installation.” Clicking on this will list the installations available for conversion.

*deleted - blogs concerned

I set aside the email thinking I’d deal with it when I get home from my movie date with my girl friends. But while inside the movie house, Tita Liza texted me telling me that this blog as well as two of my other blogs were showing a syntax error. I immediately thought of the email I received from Bluehost.

When I got home, I checked my blogs right away. Yes, it was showing a syntax error. I checked my files and I saw a remv.php file in the themes folder. The same thing happened to my border. So I immediately upgraded my blogs to the newest version of WordPress (2.6.5) and I used Simple Scripts this time, instead of Fantastico. I deleted my entire database and created new ones for each blog.

A couple of hours ago, I talked to Reyna Elena about his site being hacked. When I read his post, I saw that the same thing happened to him. So I was thinking (and still speculating) as to what truly happened. Reynz is also using Bluehost for ReynaElena.com and I am using Bluehost as well. Is the security breach a fault of Bluehost or we were chosen by this hacker, if it’s even hacking at all?

Did this happen to your blog? How did you solve it? Let’s compare notes.

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WAH Moments: Diversion

Work at Home

I have a short attention span. I need to have several things going on at every given period of time, otherwise I’ll go crazy over what I am doing for hours. If you are someone like me, you’d know what I am talking about.

Anyway, another advantage of working at home for me is that there are a lot of things that can divert my attention. TV shows, loud music, a neighbor popping in, a relative calling, a friend sending me a barrage of text messages, newspaper in the morning, a book that I can pick up anytime of the day… A 5-15 minutes diversion can do a world of good to someone like me who gets stuck in what I do if I just go at it for hours.

In a corporate set-up, you cannot simply walk away from your work to take breaks when you want to unless you are from upper management. There are coffee breaks, cigarette breaks and other in-between breaks one take. But can you really pick up a book and then read a chapter when you want to? :)

Happy Friday and have a great weekend everyone!

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Can you feel it?

Society at large

Hope is felt everywhere. I mean, the Barack Obama win has created a tide of positive feeling not just in the United States but everywhere in the world.

Here in Manila, I don’t know if you noticed it but there is just something different these days. A slight change in the atmosphere despite the Senate coup, the botched prayer by Dureza… Or it could be that oil companies are implementing price rollbacks left and right.

Maybe, it’s just the holiday spirit spreading. And it might be it.

Still, here’s hoping the positive feeling will really translate to something concrete soon.

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DHL cutting 9,500 jobs

Society at large

Have you read this news?

Global delivery company DHL announced Monday that it was cutting 9,500 jobs as it discontinues air and ground operations within the United States.

DHL said its DHL Express unit will continue to operate between the United States and other nations. But the company said it was dropping “domestic-only” air and ground services within the United States by Jan. 30 “to minimize future uncertainties.”
Source: money.cnn.com

So sad. My uncle has two friends working for DHL somewhere in the US. Just imagine 9,500 people will lose their jobs! Thank goodness we are not hearing this kind of news here in the country. Think how many would lose their jobs if say, Airfreight 2100 would close its operations here?

I just wish everything will turn around for the better soon.

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Rampant robberies

Community issues

I will tell you something disturbing that my relatives from Bulacan narrated to us a few days ago when they were here for their medical check-up.

Robbery is rampant in Bulacan these days!

Our relatives are from Bustos, Bulacan. This was a place where we (me, my siblings and my cousins on my mother side) go to in the past and our parents would let us wander by ourselves even at night. The place was safe and people know each other. But it was different now.

Ate Linda, my mom’s aunt, told us that they would often hear their doorknobs being turned slowly in the middle of the night. Family members have their own duplicate key to the house. Ate Linda thought it was just an isolated incident but it was repeated several times since. They have reported the incidents to the barangay but we all doubt if there is something being done about it. Imagine the bravado of the robber(s). They are going to pass through the main door. What if Ate Linda or one of them at home opened the door? I am sure the robber(s) will do something to them! It was really scary.

A block away from Ate Linda’s is our Ate Lita’s home. She is my mom’s cousin. She and her 4 daughters are the only ones at home daily. Her husband died years ago and her siblings moved to another place in Bulacan. They also experienced the same thing. But only once. Another time, she woke up because she heard something downstairs. Do you know that she found half of their window jalousie already off? It really scared them so much they called the police but whoever was trying to get in their house was gone by the time. One morning, her daughter was taking a bath and looked up the ceiling. She found a pair of eyes looking back at her. When they called some neighbors to check, they found a chair at the back of their bathroom wall.

The nerve of these robbers and maniacs who prowl Bustos, Bulacan is really something. They even do their robberies at broad daylight! A neighbor of another relative lost their newly purchased bag of rice a few minutes after arriving home. Another relative lost her coin purse sitting on the dining table.

Scary and very dangerous. We were advising them to lock their doors at night and get some dogs. We can’t rely on local officials and policemen all the time to safeguard our place. We should start by ourselves.

And this should serve as a lesson to us all. Check your locks at night. Check if your doorknobs are sturdy. Check your window jalousie if it’s still intact and make it more secure. Get your family members duplicate keys so as not to expect them knocking at night (and open the door to robbers instead). Double check everything and make sure our homes are safe and secure all the time.

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US voting machines

Society at large

It is always good to know that the people of a country can voice out their choice. That is what happened in the recently concluded US Presidential Elections.

What I noticed while watching the news was the machine that they used in the elections. It made counting all the more easy for them. Imagine, they started the voting yesterday and just this noon they have the results already! Fast!

So I was wondering while watching the news, why can’t we invest in those machines? Instead of the numerous machines that the Comelec bought a couple of years ago and still remain unused to date. The Comelec should look into investing in the machines the US use. It might be the solution to the widely feared cheating that happens every damn election that we hold.

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