"Perfect Security" malware deserves it's own dark corner of Hell

Let me make something perfectly clear - Hell is a real place, and I'm convinced that the authors of the malware software package known as "Perfect Security" have a special little corner reserved.

Why? I recently discovered this little gem on the computer of a friend. Masquerading as something that looked deceptively similar to Windows Security Center, it managed to get installed and hijack web requests, disable CLI access, and generally slow the affected computer to a grinding halt.

I know, I know...that really is par for the course for this type of software, right? Nope - these jokers take the cake because if you attempt to remove the application via Add/Remove Programs, you are shown a dialog that informs you that you're using the unregistered version, and because of that *uninstallation is not available*, and you're required to go online to purchase an activation key! It actually tries to make you drop almost $60 just to uninstall!

I couldn't believe the audacity of whoever developed this garbage, but I can tell you one thing. Their mommas are *not* proud.

A valued member of the Tea Party Nation, Dr. G, has a blog post on his site that everyone should read. It is absolutely amazing that this type of action can go on in any nation that considers itself to be of first-world caliber, and it disturbs me greatly that nobody did anything about it.

It reminds me of a poem called "First they came...", often attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller, and one with which many are familiar in some form or another. It is transcribed below:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.

Folks, we have to start standing up for what we believe and stop being the silent majority. We have to begin to challenge those that would seek to undermine the Judeo-Christian principles on which our country was founded. We have to take to task those that preach of tolerance and equity in all facets of life except for Christianity. We should not forget the instructions provided to us by the Holy Bible, which tells us:

Revelation 3:16 (NLT): But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

James 1:6-8 (NLT): ⁶But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

I'm concerned that we're becoming lukewarm. We see and tolerate things every single day that are detestable to our Father in Heaven. That worries me, because our sin (and our tolerance of sin) is what keeps us from entering into the glory of a relationship with our Creator. Hebrews 10:26-39 (NLT) simultaneously fascinates and convicts me, as it speaks not only to God's undying love for us and the boundless rewards that can be expected by those that do His will, but also of the judgment that awaits people that fail to do His work (emphasis mine):

²⁶Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. ²⁷There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. ²⁸For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. ³⁰For we know the one who said,

“I will take revenge.
I will pay them back.”

He also said,

“The Lord will judge his own people.”

³¹It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³²Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. ³³Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. ³⁴You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.

³⁵So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! ³⁶Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

³⁷“For in just a little while,
the Coming One will come and not delay.
³⁸And my righteous ones will live by faith.
But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”

³⁹But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.

Sometimes I feel like it's a losing battle trying to stem the tide against us. Sometimes I want to give up. I know where those feeling come from, however...the Devil is clever in how he tries to weaken us in an effort to break us down. I know that because fear is not a fruit of the spirit.

We have to put on the whole armor of God, and stand.

Dynamic list of years in T-SQL

I have many SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services reports that include a year value as a parameter. Recently I was asked to make this more dynamic, allowing for a rolling list of years from which the user can select.

Here is the table function I created, which I think should only work in SQL Server 2005 and up because of the parametrized TOP value:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udtf_GetDynamicYearList
(
    @StartYear INT -- The first year you want in the list
    , @NumberofYears INT -- The total number of years you want (from the Start Year)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
    SELECT
        TOP (@NumberofYears) *
    FROM
    (
        SELECT
            @StartYear + n1.num AS [Year]
        FROM
        (
            SELECT 0 AS num UNION ALL
            SELECT 1 UNION ALL
            SELECT 2 UNION ALL
            SELECT 3 UNION ALL
            SELECT 4 UNION ALL
            SELECT 5 UNION ALL
            SELECT 6 UNION ALL
            SELECT 7 UNION ALL
            SELECT 8 UNION ALL
            SELECT 9
        ) n1
    ) GenCalendar
    ORDER BY 1
)
GO

Simple! Now you can call it like so:

SELECT * FROM dbo.udtf_GetDynamicYearList(2006, 10)

If you want it to be more dynamic (say, to start from last year), you can do:

SELECT * FROM dbo.udtf_GetDynamicYearList(YEAR(GETDATE())-1, 10)

ODBC Connection to Informix 7.2 Server

I recently had to figure out a way to connect remotely to an Informix 7.2 server running on AIX 4. After struggling a bit, I finally got it working. I thought a checklist might be useful on the off chance that someone else has to do something similar.

Prepare the Informix instance for remote connectivity

Step 1: Ensure that an entry for the network-enabled version of the Informix instance exists in $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts. Mine reads:

tcpipserver onsoctcp rs6000 on_socket

Entries in this file are in the following format :

[Database instance alias] [Protocol name] [Host name] [TCP service name]

Step 2: Add the database instance alias name to the list of server names in your onconfig file. This is found in the $INFORMIXDIR/etc directory as well - its extension is often the name of your database. Find the DBSERVERALIASES line, and (in our example) set its value to tcpipserver. If this key already contains a value, you can add tcpipserver to the list (and up to 32 total) by separating the aliases with commas.

Step 3: Edit your /etc/services file to include a service name and port for remote connections. The most common port to use is 1526/tcp. In our example, we'd add:

on_socket 1526/tcp #Informix TCP/IP Socket

Step 4: Restart the Informix database service.

Get an ODBC Driver

Step 5: Download the IBM Informix Client SDK 3.50 from IBM's download page and install.

Step 6: Set up the Informix connectivity parameters using the "Setnet32". You can launch this utility either via the shortcut in the "IBM Informix Client-SDK 3.50" folder in All Programs, or by launching it directly from C:\Program Files\IBM\Informix\Client-SDK\bin\setnet32.exe (if you didn't change the default install path).

On the "Environment" tab, click the line that reads "INFORMIXSERVER=", enter the value "tcpipserver" (without quotes) in the box that appears in the "Edit Environment Variable" section, then click the "Set" button.

On the "Server Information" tab, enter the following info:

IBM Informix Server: tcpipserver
HostName: ip address of server
Protocolname: onsoctcp
Service Name: 1526

Click the Make Default Server" button.

On the "Host Information" tab, enter the following info:

Current Host: ip address of server
User Name: enter a valid AIX username with access to the Informix database
Select "Password" in the "Password Option" dropdown list.
Password: enter the password associated with "User Name" above

Click the "OK" button.

Connect to your Informix database server

You can now either set up an ODBC connection (using the "Data Sources (ODBC)" applet in Administrative Tools - use IBM INFORMIX ODBC DRIVER as the driver for the data source), or you can set up the Informix database server as a linked server in Microsoft SQL Server. In 2005, you can use the following script to set up a linked server named "RS6000" (change the values of [DatabaseName], [AIXUser], [AIXUserPassword], and [LocalSQLServerLogin] to appropriate values):

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
@server = N'RS6000'
, @srvproduct=N'Ifxoledbc'
, @provider=N'Ifxoledbc'
, @datasrc=N'[DatabaseName]@tcpipserver'
, @provstr=N'Provider=Ifxoledbc;Data Source=[DatabaseName]@tcpipserver;User ID=[AIXUser];Password=[AIXUserPassword];'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin @rmtsrvname=N'RS6000'
,@useself=N'False'
,@locallogin=NULL
,@rmtuser=NULL
,@rmtpassword=NULL
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin
@rmtsrvname=N'RS6000'
,@useself=N'False'
,@locallogin=N'[LocalSQLServerLogin]'
,@rmtuser=N'[AIXUser]'
,@rmtpassword='[AIXUserPassword]'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'collation compatible'
, @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'data access', @optvalue=N'true'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'dist'
, @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'pub'
, @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'rpc'
, @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'rpc out'
, @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'sub'
, @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'connect timeout'
, @optvalue=N'0'
GO
EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'collation name'
, @optvalue=null
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'lazy schema validation'
, @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'query timeout'
, @optvalue=N'0'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption
@server=N'RS6000'
, @optname=N'use remote collation'
, @optvalue=N'true'
GO

You can now access this linked server from a query window with a statement like:

SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY(RS6000, 'SELECT * FROM SomeInformixTable')

Happy Hunting!

My Testimony

I'm being considered as a new Deacon at church. As I haven't been ordained, I have to attend an "ordination committee" meeting, at which I am supposed to present my testimony. While it's not earth-shattering, it was at least an interesting and somewhat cathartic experience. As religious topics are fair game here I've transcribed it below, if anyone would care to read it.

My testimony is not a riveting tale of triumph over adversity or an account of the conquering of insurmountable odds. I would opine that my life has not been nearly as challenging as the lives of most people. I have been extraordinarily blessed; my family is a very close-knit group of caring individuals whose influence has taught me how to love and respect others. In college I was fortunate enough to meet and marry my wife Sarah, one of the people to whom a great deal of credit must to with regard to my evolution as a Christ-follower. Having been raised in the Methodist church and baptized as a child, I have always believed in God and in His son Jesus. I think the most significant way in which God has changed my life is in how he has shifted one of the most central parts of my personality.

I have always been a left-brained person, with a bias toward scientific and technical reasoning. One of the great struggles I had with God and The Bible was the lack of substantive proof of some of the miraculous workings described therein. It was always very difficult for me to believe in something to which I could not apply the scientific method and reproduce the results. Needless to say this caused me to seriously doubt the veracity of such events as the virgin birth, the parting of the Red Sea, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Trying to exercise my logical mind, I recall at around the age of eight asking Reverend Jim Parks of Normandy United Methodist Church that if Hell was bad, and bad people go to Hell, wouldn’t they like Hell because it was bad? While I don’t recall his exact response, it seemed to satisfy my curiosity while providing an adequate explanation. He helped me understand that it wasn’t sufficient to just label Hell as “bad”, and that one of the worst aspects of Hell was the separation from God experienced by those that suffer there.

Many people that have known me for a long time would typically separate my life into two sections: “B.S., or “Before Sarah”, and “A.S”, or “After Sarah”. After Sarah and I started dating, I was brought into a family that practiced religion and Bible study much more diligently than I ever had before. As I began to really start to study God’s Word, I began to realize (perhaps also due to the fact that I was getting older) that not only am I not required to be able to understand everything that God does, but it is arrogant for me to even think I could understand it all. A scientific inspiration of mine, Richard Feynman, once wrote a famous phrase on the chalkboard he used – “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” For years, this was my credo. I soon discovered, however, than there are many things beyond my understanding, but there is nothing that is beyond God’s.

Another area in which I have grown spiritually is in the area of faith. With the birth of my daughter Hadley, as a father I have a much more heightened sense of the sacrifice that Jesus made to forgive my sin. I can start to better understand the love that God has for each and every person, and struggle daily to see others in the same light as I do my little girl. I also realize my infancy in the area of faith, especially when compared to that of Abraham.

I have also experienced positive change in my business life as well. For a long time I have felt led to venture out and use the gifts with which I have been blessed in a way that would glorify His name and provide a Christian example of how a business can operate. Through a tremendous amount of prayer, the support of my family and friends, and by acting on a little faith, I have been able to begin that process. While this change came at a very volatile time in my life, I don’t regret the decision; I knew that God was leading me somewhere, and I just needed to let go and take His hand. I am confident that the growth I have experienced has made a positive impact on my family, friends, and coworkers. I know that the example I set is more important than ever now, as I try to teach my daughter how to live a Godly life and what to expect from others that proclaim a belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Understanding that my level of responsibility for others has increased has only amplified my desire for growth in my spiritual maturity.

God has been at work in my life even before I realized it, and certainly in times when I didn’t deserve it. Only lately, with my family’s help, have I started to appreciate God’s intervention without needing any explanation or justification. I now thank God daily for both the peaks and the valleys, as I know I wouldn’t appreciate the former without the latter. I pray for his continued blessings on my family and church, and look forward to what the future holds.

The reason I started Techometry

As I've been filing paperwork, crafting business plans, and trying to learn corporate tax law, I've been thinking about how to explain why I wanted to start Techometry. There is a bible verse that I think really hits the point well - it is Matthew 5:16 (from the NIV):

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

It's that powerful? I feel that is the reason we should do anything we do. Techometry has a goal of providing great works that further God's kingdom, and to do so while being good witnesses to His greatness and being Christian examples in our business dealings.

That's the goal - now let's see if we can make it happen. All we want to do is change how people do business with one another...is that so hard?