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Last week I announced I wouldn’t be renewing my Norton subscription. Well I definitely won’t be renewing for another year now, because after someone from Norton found my article, I received an apology and was given a free upgrade to Norton 10, with a one-year subscription. I now no longer get the false hit. I am willing to give credit where credit is due, and I thank the member of staff for his very helpful support.
The problem I had has been solved. See here.
This is the conversation I’ve just had, after I’d been getting a false alert.
Lakshmi: You are being transferred to Lakshmi.
Lakshmi: Welcome to Norton Support, my name is Lakshmikanth, Can I please have a minute to go through the information you have provided?
Lakshmi: Thank you for the time. Could you please elaborate the issue for me?
Mr. Timothy Barton : Norton is giving a false-hit Trojan for a registry entry. In “Exclusions” I can add folders, but I can’t work out how to add a registry entry.
Lakshmi: Thanks, your case number is 4953182**, please write this down.
Lakshmi: If we get disconnected for any reason, we’ll call you back within 30 minutes. Can I check that the phone number you have provided is the best number to call you on?
Mr. Timothy Barton : In the “risk details” it says “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionApp PathsTO3000.exe”
Mr. Timothy Barton : Yes, sure.
Mr. Timothy Barton : The best number is 93 721 00**
Lakshmi: Okay. Thank you for the information.
Mr. Timothy Barton : +34 93 721 00**
Lakshmi: Could you please confirm me if you are getting any messages or pop ups showing Trojans or some thing like that?
Mr. Timothy Barton : Yes, I’m getting a Trojan alert.
Mr. Timothy Barton : I want to add an exception so I don’t get the alert.
Mr. Timothy Barton : Because it’s a false alert.
Mr. Timothy Barton : Is it possible to add a registry folder as an exception?
Lakshmi: Timothy, It seems that your computer is infected with Trojans. What I can do is I will transfer this chat to the Virus Removal Team who are trained in these issues. I am sure they will surely assist you in this Issue. Is this okay with you?
Mr. Timothy Barton : No, it’s not a Trojan.
Mr. Timothy Barton : It’s legitimate softwarte
Mr. Timothy Barton : Even when I reinstall the software, I still get the messages.
Mr. Timothy Barton : Please, all I want to know is how to add an exclusion for a registry entry.
Lakshmi: I wish I could have helped you better but the you can get better assistance regarding this.
Lakshmi: It will just take 2 to 3 minutes time to connect.
Mr. Timothy Barton : Is it possible to add a registry entry as an exclusion?
Lakshmi: You cannot add a registry entry in to the exclusion list.
Mr. Timothy Barton : In that case, I think I’ll have to switch to another anti-virus program, because there seems to be no way of stopping this false alert.
Lakshmi: I assure you that the Virus Removal team will help you in this issue.
Lakshmi: They will help you in all possible ways as I am not trained in these type of issues.
Mr. Timothy Barton : That”s a subscription service isn’t it? How much does it cost? If it turns out it’s not a virus (which I’m convinced it’s not), do I get the service for free?
Lakshmi: They will check that and inform you about that. They will only proceed after your confirmation only.
Mr. Timothy Barton : So they check it for free, and only charge me once I give confirmation? How much do they charge?
Lakshmi: Yes.If if requires money charge they will let you know before it self. I wish I could tell you but it depends on the issue.
Mr. Timothy Barton : OK, well I’ll let them have a look then.
Lakshmi: I am not sure of the charges.
Lakshmi: Okay.
Lakshmi: Can I put you on hold for 2 or 3 minutes while I update the records for you?
Mr. Timothy Barton : yes
Lakshmi: I am now transferring this chat to Virus removal team. Thank you for contacting Norton Support.
{ Your issue is being escalated. }
Binumon: Welcome to NortonLive Spyware & Virus Removal Service.
Is this the first time you are contacting us?
Mr. Timothy Barton : yes
Binumon: Are you connected from the computer which has this particular issue?
Mr. Timothy Barton : Yes
Mr. Timothy Barton : Started having the problem the other day. It was saying TO3000.exe was a Trojan. The same thing happened when I reinstalled it (and it is definitely legitimate software).
Binumon: Are you connected from the computer which has this particular issue?
Binumon: I am sorry.
Mr. Timothy Barton : I excluded the folder, but now it comes up with a registry entry. I don’t know how to exclude registry entries.
Mr. Timothy Barton : yes
Binumon: Timothy, dont worry. Let me try and see how we can work this out
Binumon: Is your computer on a network or it is a stand alone PC?
Mr. Timothy Barton : Connected to a Wi-Fi router, but it’s stand-alone.
Binumon: Please tell me which country you are connected from.
Mr. Timothy Barton : Spain
Binumon: Please confirm your email address is timtra****@gmail.com and direct phone number is +349372100**. Is that correct?
Mr. Timothy Barton : yes
Binumon: Please provide me your alternate phone number or mobile number.
Mr. Timothy Barton : +34 616 149 0**, but if my landline doesn’t work it means I’m not in, so I won’t be in front of my computer.
Binumon: Thank you for all the information.
Binumon: I understand that you were transferred to us from our technical support department to diagnose your computer for viruses. Am I correct?
Mr. Timothy Barton : I don’t have any viruses. I’m getting a false alert. All
I want to do is exclude the registry entry, so I don’t get the false alert.Binumon: Are you getting any alert messages like “Virus Alert”, “Your Computer is infected”, “Security Alert” etc?
Mr. Timothy Barton : It says it’s a Trojan Horse.
Mr. Timothy Barton : But I’ve been using the software for four years.
Binumon: Alright.
Binumon: Trojan horses are impostors—files that claim to be something desirable but, in fact, are malicious. A very important distinction between Trojan horse programs and true viruses is that they do not replicate themselves. Trojan horses contain malicious code that when triggered cause loss, or even theft, of data. For a Trojan horse to spread, you must invite these programs onto your computer. For example, by opening an email attachment or downloading and running a file from the Internet, you can activate a Trojan.
Binumon: Are you getting any alert messages like “Virus Alert”, “Your Computer is infected”, “Security Alert” etc?
Mr. Timothy Barton : As I said, I’m getting a Trojan Horse alert
Mr. Timothy Barton : “Trojan Horse has been detected”
Mr. Timothy Barton : I go to Details, and it says it’s the registry entry for TO3000.exe
Binumon: Timothy, please be aware that, once there is an infection on your computer, it will normally try to spread to other files on your hard drive and to other computers/devices connected to your system. Most of the times, it creates or manipulates entries and keys in your windows registry. For these cases we need to manually remove the registry entries and also remove the infected files.
Manipulating the registry is like brain surgery for your computer and is to be done with extreme care, since incorrect changes could mean that the computer’s functioning could be altered potentially unchangeably. It is recommended that only highly skilled individuals make these changes.
Mr. Timothy Barton : But all that the registry entry says is the file path.
Binumon: However you dont worry. We can help you now.
Binumon: If you wish, our expert consultants will do a complete diagnosis of your system, and troubleshoot any malware present on your computer. If required and if your system permits they can connect to your computer remotely and do all this for you directly.
Binumon: Our expert Technicians would provide you the best solutions possible based on their analysis of the threats on your computer. They would also provide you with information to avoid from getting infected in the future. They would advise you based on the specific configuration/settings of your computer and also answer your related concerns and queries.
Mr. Timothy Barton : The data in the registry entry says “C:Program FilesTranslation Office 3000 V8TO3000.exe”. That’s what Norton wants to delete.
Does that look harmful?Mr. Timothy Barton : Please, I just want to know how to stop this alert appearing.
Mr. Timothy Barton : How much do they charge for the diagnosis? What if they don’t find anything wrong?
Binumon: Okay. Our technician will diagnose your computer and will fix the issue for you now.
Binumon: Before we proceed, I would like to inform you that this is a paid consultation service.
Binumon: The Consultation fee for this service would be €99.99.
Binumon: We guarantee to identify any threats that may be on your system. Once we have found them, we will remove them. In addition we guarantee our work for a period of 7 days from the day / time the issue is resolved should you experience any reoccurrence.
Mr. Timothy Barton : This is ridiculous. It’s clearly a false hit. I’m blatantly not going to pay €99.99. What I’d like to know is how to exclude a registry entry, the same way as I excluded a folder.
Mr. Timothy Barton : If you can’t tell me how to do this then I will not be renewing my subscription and will look for a new antivirus solution.
Mr. Timothy Barton : I’m not asking you to do anything to my computer. I just want to know how to do something in the program.
Binumon: Virus and Spyware Solutions is a value added service provided by Norton. Highly trained technicians spend time diagnosing and correcting the problem. As with most highly specialized support, there is a fee involved.
Mr. Timothy Barton : If by removing the software I stop getting any alerts, doesn’t that prove that this is not infecting other parts of my computer? And if by reinstalling legitimate software I still get the alert…
Mr. Timothy Barton : … it means the problem is with the virus definitions in Norton.
Binumon: Norton is protecting you from tens of thousands of existing malwares and from the hundreds of new threats released every single day. It provides among the best security that is available for your computer.
This particular infection could have been caused while subscribing or downloading from free websites or when you download/transfer files such as movies, songs, screensavers, games, etc. from other computers, such as in a P2P system, or from insecure websites.
Normally when you download something, it will ask for your permission to open/install, and accept the license agreement.
When you do so, being the administrator/final authority of the computer you are potentially authorizing an override of the security restrictions in place.
Mr. Timothy Barton : I DON’T HAVE A VIRUS. IT’S A FALSE ALERT!
Mr. Timothy Barton : I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW TO DE-ACTIVATE AN ALERT. I CAN’T BELIEVE NOBODY IS WILLING TO TELL ME HOW TO DE-ACTIVATE AN ALERT.
Binumon: Timothy, you have the traces of the Trojan remains in your computer. Thats why you are getting the alert.
Binumon: So we need to fix it from your computer manually.
Mr. Timothy Barton : Have you accessed my computer?
Mr. Timothy Barton : Shouldn’t the software I bought get rid of it?
Binumon: Please be aware that, once there is an infection on your computer, it will normally try to spread to other files on your hard drive and to other computers/devices connected to your system. Most of the times, it creates or manipulates entries and keys in your windows registry. For these cases we need to manually remove the registry entries and also remove the infected files.
Manipulating the registry is like brain surgery for your computer and is to be done with extreme care, since incorrect changes could mean that the computer’s functioning could be altered potentially unchangeably. It is recommended that only highly skilled individuals make these changes.
Mr. Timothy Barton : You’ve sent me this already
Mr. Timothy Barton : Norton is telling me which registry entry is infected. I can see that it is not.
Mr. Timothy Barton : Please, just say how to exclude a registry entry. If after that my computer gets spoilt, I’ll take full responsibility.
Mr. Timothy Barton : If you can tell me, I’ll renew my subscription. If not, I’ll look for different software.
Binumon: Timothy, the registry editing work can be done only with the help of our technicians. I am not trained to do those type of works.
Mr. Timothy Barton : I don’t want to edit the registry; I want to stop a registry folder from being scanned.
Binumon: Timothy, If you chose to proceed with this Consultation, our expert Technicians will troubleshoot the malware on your computer without any potential loss of personal files or undue risk to your Operating System.
Binumon: So shall we proceed with the consultation and let one of our expert’s diagnose and remove any threat identified to make your computer safe and secured at the earliest?
Mr. Timothy Barton : Do they do the diagnosis free of charge, then charge me for anything they do, or is there a charge even for the diagnosis?
Binumon: Timothy, The technicians do a complete diagnosis of your computer, and if there are malware/threats then they remove them. If required and if your system permits, they connect to your computer remotely, and do all this for you directly. They ensure that any malwares/threats present on the computer are removed.
Please note that due to the nature of viruses/malware, sometimes it requires more than one attempt to remove them, and you might have to contact us again. Should you need to contact any other support teams; the technician will guide you appropriately.
If in the rare circumstance where we are not able to remove the malware present on your computer, despite our best endeavors/efforts, we will transfer your case to our research team, who would provide you with the refund, if necessary.
Mr. Timothy Barton : That doesn’t answer my question…
Mr. Timothy Barton : I take it you’re saying there’s nothing else you can do without me paying. If that’s the case, then I’m afraid it’s goodbye Norton. I don’t have virus or a Trojan horse, and the only annoyance is the false alert.
Binumon: Timothy, we can start the trouble shooting process, only after we complete the transaction.
Mr. Timothy Barton : The only way to get rid of this false alert is to find a new Anti-virus program.
Mr. Timothy Barton : So goodbye Norton.
Binumon: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Mr. Timothy Barton : A shame, as I’ve been pleased with the service I’ve had over the past few years.
Mr. Timothy Barton : no thanks
Binumon: If you need to contact NortonLive Spyware & Virus Removal Service again please visit http://www.symantec.com/vremoval
It has been pleasure assisting you. Thank you for choosing NortonLive. Have a great day.
Why do public bodies assume everybody has Microsoft Word by providing them with documents in Microsoft’s .doc format? This amounts to discrimination. It takes 10 seconds to convert a Microsoft Word document into pdf format.
Aquesta és la pàgina a la qual arribem si utilitzem el web de l’Agència Tributària en català i volem presentar el model 190.
Hi ha un petit problema: demà és la data límit per a presentar el model per a 2008. Però la declaració més recent que podem fer és la de 2006! Què fem? Doncs, com sempre, hem de passar a la pàgina en castellà, on suposem que aquest model sí que estarà disponible.
Fem clic en “Bienvenidos”, i arribem a la pàgina en castellà. O més ben dit, arribem a la pàgina d’inici en castellà. Per arribar a la pàgina que volem hem de fer clic en “Oficina Virtual”, “Presentación de declaraciones”, “Todas las declaraciones” y “Modelo 190”, cosa que acabem de fer en català, però sense haver pogut acabar la tasca. (Si no has pogut arribar-hi, podeu veure la versió castellana aquí.)Quina sorpresa: ara sí que tenim accés a la presentació de 2008 (i la de 2007 també).
El que em molesta no és tan que el model no estigui disponible en català (tot i que m’agradaria que ho estigués), sinó el fet que per voler navegar pel seu web en català, perdem més temps. Per què no crear, en la versió catalana, un enllaç a la presentació en castellà, si no està disponible en català? No passa únicament amb aquest model. Al final és més fàcil navegar en castellà, que a més, és la llengua en què sempre surt la pàgina quan entrem al web, encara que ja hem navegat per aquest lloc web i encara que en les llengües de preferència del nostre navegador tenim el català abans que el castellà.
Many of you probably work with two screens. Does it also annoy you when you have to move a maximised window from one screen to another (in Windows)? First you have to minimize the window, then drag it across, then maximise it. I have compiled a small script that enables you to do this with a shortcut.
Download the following script to any folder, then run it. Now all you need to do is push Windows+1 to move a window to your left screen, and Windows+2 to move it to your right screen.
I have only tested this script on my own screen resolution and in Windows XP. Please let me know whether it has worked on your computer.
If you like it, and would like this tool to be always active, drag the icon to Programs->Startup in the Windows menu. This way, it will load automatically when you log on to your Windows account.
This script does not install on your computer. It is self-executable. So you can even save it on your pen drive and run it when you’re using other computers away from home.
Switch screens tool
Switch screens tool – version for screens with horizontal resolution greater than 1500 (try this if the first one doesn’t work)
Switch screens tool – version for screens with horizontal resolution greater than 1500, with the main screen on the right
The other day my website and blog were both down. I wrote to the guys at Kazix (who have very English names when they write back, but who are clearly not native English speakers, and obviously use false names), and they got my website up and running again.
There were still problems with my blog, however. To cut a long story short, I eventually — after about a whole day of trying to sort it out — managed to get it up and running again by reinstalling WordPress and importing a backup copy.
Two problems: my most recent posts had disappeared, and all accented characters were in bizarre code. After at least an hour reading about all sorts of very complicated solutions, I eventually found this wonderful, easy-to-use plugin, which sorted everything out except the names of my categories, which was quick enough to sort out manually.
My only remaining problem were the missing posts, but I managed to sort this out by finding the posts in Google’s cache, which meant I was even able to recover all the comments made.
Hopefully my blog is now back in order. If anyone spots any remaining anomalies, please let me know, and I’ll try and sort them out.
Finally, I would love to hear proposed translations of “palaver”. Off the cuff, the best I can come up with in Catalan and Spanish are “embolic” and “rollo” respectively, though I’m sure some natives can come up with something better. Also, according to my dictionary, it means something completely different in American English (see below), so what would you say in America?
OALD
pa•la•ver noun (informal)
1 [U, sing.] (BrE) a lot of unnecessary activity, excitement or trouble, especially caused by sth that is unimportant. Syn: fuss. What’s all the palaver about? What a palaver it is, trying to get a new visa!
2 [U] (NAmE) talk that does not have any meaning; nonsense: He’s talking palaver.
A great tool I discovered for Firefox quite a long time ago was Fasterfox. It basically tweaks browser settings to speed up browsing.
It now includes a pre-fetching tool. This means that when you’re on a certain page, it saves all the links on that page into a cache, so that when you want to click on it, the page loads up almost instantaneously.
It is great to browse with it activated, seeing the pages load up so quickly. But I have a kind of moral dilemma as to whether to use it. Some of the problems are:
I’d be interested in hearing other people’s opinions on this. Do any of you use pre-fetching? Do you think it is a good idea?
For professional translations, visit timtranslates.com.
This will be the first of a series of posts in which I will give tips on how to adapt glossaries for importing into our terminology databases. The problem we often have is that the format we find on the web is not suitable — or not ideal — for importing into terminology databases, but there are usually ways of adapting the format so that we can import the glossary.
In this post, we are going to look at this general glossary. It doesn’t look too complicated to import, since the two languages are separated by tabulations, and each entry is on a new line. But some entries contain more than one term, and so if we import the glossary in its current format, we’ll then have to delete one of the terms when we insert an entry into a translation. Or worse: because the entry has five different words, our translation memory software does not pick up that a word in our text is also in the glossary.
What we want ideally is a separate entry for every synonym in one language combined with every synonym in the other. To start with, we need to copy the glossary into a file. For this demo, if you like, start by adding only the A page, then do the whole thing afterwards once you’ve followed these steps. So, paste the entire A page into a Word document, then switch on all characters so you can see the format. As you can see, in this glossary the two languages are separated by a tabulation.
At various points in the demonstration we shall observe how the changes we make have affected the line that currently reads:
aberrance, abberancy -> error; extravío; annormalidad
Save the document in txt format and close it, then download a program for editing files using regular expressions. I recommend using PowerGREP, and I will base the rest of my instructions on this program.
Open PowerGREP, and in the folder bar select the file you have just saved. Select the option to do a search and replace as the action type, and make sure you select Regular expression as the search type.
In the Search box, type in the following query, without the quotes (for “[type enter]”, literally press the enter key to show the carriage return symbol): “[type enter](.*)t(.*); (.*)”.
So, we are searching for any series of characters at the start of a line, followed by a tabulation, followed by any series of characters, followed by a semi-colon, then any series of characters up to the end of the line. I will explain the brackets below.
In the replace box, type: “[type enter]1t2[type enter]1t3”
Here, we are replacing what we have found with: a carriage return to replace the one we included in the search; the 1 means we are replacing what we found in the first set of brackets in our find query, that is, a set of characters before a tabulation; we then reintroduce the tabulation; we then reintroduce the contents of the second brackets (that is, the first synonym in Spanish); this is followed by a carriage return; we then once again introduce the content of the first brackets (that is, we repeat the English); and finally, we introduce another tabulation followed by the contents of the third brackets (that is, the second and any subsequent synonyms).
Before starting the replace process, either make a copy of your original, or better, set up the program so it makes a copy in the same folder each time you do a replace. That way the built-in undo function will work, and it will be easy to delete the backups at the end.
If you like, do a preview to see what will be found and replaced. If you are happy with the preview, click on replace. You will now see that an additional entry has been made for the second and subsequent synonyms.
Our test line has become:
aberrance, abberancy -> error;
aberrance, abberancy -> extravío; annormalidad
But we still have two synonyms in line 2. To create a separate line for every synonym in Spanish, we must keep clicking on replace until no replacements are made. Once you have done a replacement that results in 0 matches, open the file up again and you will see that our test line has become:
aberrance, abberancy -> error;
aberrance, abberancy -> extravío;
aberrance, abberancy -> annormalidad
We now want to do the same with the English synonyms. The English synonyms are separated by commas, and appear before the tabulation, so we will have to change the syntax. Use the following syntax:
Search: (.*), (.*)t(.*)
Replace: 1t3[type enter]2t3
Our test line now shows:
aberrance error
aberrancy error
aberrance extravío
aberrancy extravío
aberrance anormalidad
aberrancy anormalidad
Again, sometimes there are more than two English synonyms, so we should keep replacing until we get 0 matches. Then open up your file again, and it should be ideal for importing. If you did not do so before, copy the whole glossary, letter by letter, into a single file, and repeat the process.
The precise syntax to be used for these processes depends on how each glossary is formatted. I hope, though, that based on this exercise you will be able to convert other glossaries into formats that are ideal for importing into terminology databases. In future posts, I hope to show you how to convert some other glossaries. If there is a glossary you really want to import, but you are not sure how, let me know, and I’ll see if I can explain how to do it in a future post.
Please, please, please, please let me know if you have found this useful, as it has taken me quite a long time to write, and it would be nice to know if people have found it useful. Please also let me know if you can suggest any improvements to my message. Why not leave me a comment on my blog?
For professional translations, visit timtranslates.com.
Sick of your browser crashing when you try to open or close a pdf file? Well, the first thing I recommend you should do is set up your browser so that pdf files open in your default pdf reader. In Firefox, this can be done by going to Tools>Options>Content>File Types_Manage. Type pdf in the search box, then click Change Action and click “Open them with the default application”.
Most of you – Windows users at least – will have Adobe Acrobat Reader as your default application. Today, I came across Foxit, an alternative reader that opens up so much faster. Any translators still using Adobe Acrobat Reader in Windows should definitely give this a try, as I’m sure, like me, you’re often opening up pdf files. Once you install it and open it you’ll be asked if you want to make it the default reader. Say yes, and then all your pdfs will open in Foxit by default, including links on the internet if you followed the steps in the previous paragraph.
Added at 2007-02-25 01:08
It would seem that the search function does not always work correctly in Foxit, which is a bit of a pain for translators, so make sure you keep Adobe installed as well.