*Note if you don’t like geeky, stuff scroll down until you see ‘here’*
Well today has been a rather weird one.. I was expecting a fairly slow day. Alas, that wasn’t to be. I had a call from one of my clients who I do IT Support for, their systems are bulletproof and normally any issues can be fixed with a little ‘LogMeIn’. I got a call saying that someone had clicked on a spam link, and somehow managed to install some nasty malware ‘Malware Scanner’. I had a little look via LogMeIn. It was a mess, all the icons had been removed from the ‘Start’ Menu and Desktop, nothing would open. I googled the process name ‘XapxUnRSMme.exe’ (or similar) and it seemed to be a fairly new virus, all the results were in the last 24 hours. Arse.
After some messing I decided I needed to sit at the machine, in Safe Mode and try and fix it, so I had to rush into London and have a look. Thankfully in Safe Mode I could kill the processes from starting up, although one of them was actually labelled ‘Microsoft Corporation’ as the author! Even stopping the processes from starting t left me with no files on the Hard Drive, or icons anywhere else. Obviously there had to be files on the hard drive or nothing would actually work.. I clicked. The malware had hidden ALL the files. It had. Damn I’m smart! Un hiding them helped slightly, all the folders were there under ‘All Programs’ on the Start Menu, but none of the shortcuts, they’d all been wiped. Fuck.
I did a full virus scan and scan with Malwarebytes, both found some residual nasties which I removed. I decided to try a System Restore and ‘wind back’ to Friday. After 20 minutes or so the restore completed, and everything was back to normal. Yay! A final scan came back clean and the computer was behaving flawlessly. I must admit I did have visions of needing to flatten the machine, but thankfully it didn’t come to that!
Whilst in London I thought I’d pop in to YoYo Tech on Windmill Street, I’d actually been looking at graphics cards on their website last night and was tempted, as I was fairly close I could save on postage! Hooray! It was a damned cool shop, loads and loads of tech, and staff that weren’t at all pushy, nice.
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I must admit when walking around London I was amazed at the volume of ‘Chuggers‘ that were about. I FUCKING HATE CHUGGERS, I really really do. Normally I have my headphones on and they tend not to approach, but as I left in a hurry I forgot my headphones. This left me open for ‘attack’, I’m never rude, or aggressive towards them, there are enough rude and aggressive people to go round, I just want to be left alone to move from A to B in peace. The first one approached,
‘Hi Sir, How are you today?’ said the overly cheery chugger.
‘Wet’ I respond..
‘Ooooooooooooh’ she responds in a saucy way. I thunder on past.
The next (literally 25 metres from the first),
‘Not very nice weather today is it sir?’ said the very punchable looking chugger.
‘No, hence the umbrella.’ I respond.
He mumbled something in response.. I carried on.
There was ANOTHER one again about 25 metres ahead, thankfully they had got some fucking idiot snared with their cheery ‘give us your bank account details’ banter.
The scene was similar on Tottenham Court Road, a long line of them, trying to interrupt people. They really are cunts. If they REALLY cared about Amnesty International, Blind Children, Retarded Dogs, whatever, WHY are they getting PAID? Charity is about GIVING, not TAKING. They bleat on about how important their cause is, but why are they not volunteering? Why are they getting paid by the hour?! I want to give to charity, but I don’t want it to come charging into my day with a winning smile and a clipboard, I’ll sponsor a friend, or make a donation.
The chuggers are similar to those other cunts who try and get you to switch energy suppliers, or broadband service, while you’re out shopping, or minding your own business on the High Street. I don’t want to think about how much my gas is, or if my broadband provider is the best WHILE I’M BUYING FUCKING CAT LITTER. Just leave me be, and I’ll sort my shit out when *I* want to, and not a moment before.
The companies that employ chuggars are really devious. As I understand it, the first 6 months of donations go to the Chuggers and charities only start recieving money after that time.
Of course when you look at the stats most people cancel their direct debits before the six months are up, so the charity hasn't recieve any of their cash.
I'll admit I can remember where I heard this, so I might be wrong…but how else can they afford to fill a street with these people?
It's more than 6 months it averages 1 year before a charity sees a penny with some such as the BHF 18 months. I run an anti chugging facebook group if your interested with all sorts of info and latest news on the issue. In YouTube search for 'newsnight chuggers' as this video is very informative.
I was looking in to this a few days back after reading this entry. I read a stat that the average charity earns £600 per person that signs up via a chugger. Not sure how accurate that figure is, but it certainly explains why chuggers are so common these days.
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