Today I noticed that my mom’s laptop had the well known malware Babylon.

It usually comes “free” with any software.

When you installing your favorite software, if you do pay much attention to the button to which you click “yes” to, malwares like this may get installed in your computer for “free”

After getting installed, Babylon changes the default search in all the browsers and also installs a toolbar/addon in all the browsers you have in your PC. Apart from Internet Explorer, it may be Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera etc.

In Google Chrome, to remove Babylon, you have to do three things

1) Click on the wrench icon on the top right, then click on “tools” and the click on “extensions”. There you will find Babylon. Click on the tiny basket icon next to it and remove it. But you are not done yet. Your default search engine and new tab page are still in the hijacked state.

2) Then click on the wrench icon, then click on settings and the click on manage search engines. There you will be able to change the default search engine.

3) To change Babylon search engine from appearing in the new tab page, in the same “settings” , under “Appearance”, you will find the option “new tab page”.  Change it to your preference. 

Now you breathe a sigh of relief, that you have removed Babylon from Google Chrome.

For Internet Explorer

For Internet Explorer, it is a little more complicated. 

1) Go to Start in Windows and the go to Control Panel. There you will find “Add or Remove Programs” . Give it some time to scan all the programs installed and after the scan is finished, you will find two items related to Babylon (Babylon toolbar and  something else) Remove both of them.

2) Then go to Internet Explorer, click on “Tools” and then “Internet Options”. Under the “General” category, you will find an option “Home page”. Select “Use blank”

3) You are still not done yet. You need to make some changes to the registry to completely remove Babylon from Internet Explorer.

I have shown step by step screenshot on how to do this.

Warning : BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY SETTINGS BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS. MESSING WITH REGISTRY SETTINGS IS RISKY IF YOU ARE A NEWBIE AND YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS

How to access Registry Editor

If you are on Windows XP, the click on start and the click on run and then type “regedit” (without quotes). Then registry editor opens.

If you are on Windows 7, then just type “regedit” in the start search bar and you will get it.

After you open it, this is you first back up the registry

You then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft and under there you will find the entries for Babylon. 

HAVE YOU FIRST BACKED UP YOUR REGISTRY? THEN CONTINUE AS BELOW

So this should hopefully solve the problem.

Run a anti spyware software. Spybot Search & Destroy is free and it is good.

If you also have faced/facing a problem with Babylon, please leave a comment below and share your experience, if you wish.

But wait, this is not an advice. This is just a story I would like to share :)

This morning, there was a discourse by Paripoornananda shown on TV. He told an interesting story about attitudes.

It was a very hot summer day in South India. During peak summer, temperatures easily soar to more than forty degree celcius. It was about 10am and Paripoornananda was walking in a brisk pace along a barren road, wearing his usually saintly robes. 

Just then, a man was passing along that way in his car. On seeing the scholar, the man immediately recognized him. He ordered his driver to stop the car and approached the saint.  He then sought blessings from the saint and humbly enquired where he was going. The swami replied that he had been invited for lunch at a place and he is going for the same. 

The man told Paripoornananda that he would drop at his destination and that he would consider the same to be an honour. Paripoornananda agreed and then the man sent his driver to home and drove the car himself. When they arrived the host’s house, the host and his family welcomed Paripooornananda with joy, love and respect. The saint introduced the man who dropped him in his car, to the host,  and requested them to accept him too as their guest for that day. The host family gladly agreed and said that they have prepared more than enough food for serving both of them. 

When the food was about to be served, Paripoornananda made a request. He said “As we two have come together, we have to eat together. I want you to serve food for both of us in the same plate”. 

The hostess was intrigued by this strange request, But since they honour and respect the saint, she did as she was told and brought food served in a single plate. Now they had a dilemma as to in front of whom should they keep this plate. When the hostess was thus standing contemplating on this, Paripoornananda asked her to keep the plate in front of him. 

The erudite scholar then started eating the food served and he told “If I eat, then it is equivalent to you eating”. The man however felt bad and he disagreed with this

Then Paripoornananda smiled and told him “Yes, You are right. If I eat, your hunger will not be satisfied. You have to eat for your own hunger. Similarly, there will be so many people to give you advice. But for your own betterment, you have to accept good advice and then follow them. Otherwise none of them will make any change for you.”

So the moral of this story is, there is lot of good advice. But it is upto us, whether we accept them and follow them.

For more wisdom, you may watch Paripoornananda’s discourse on the Bhagavat Gita in SVBC TTD channel everyday from 7am to 7.30am. The discourses are in Telugu.

His official youtube channel can be found here http://www.youtube.com/user/Paripoornananda.

kichuku

How did I get the name kichuku?

My parents and my sister used that name when I was little. It was like a pet name or a nickname. Infact they still use it.

kichuku has no meaning. Not any meaning I know.

But I like the name very much

I do remember that many years back when I opened a account somewhere in the web, maybe a mail account or a social network or something else, i first used that name just to differentiate myself from the others. As there are so many srikanth or krishna around. Also I liked the name very much (and also I like it always)

Eventually I started using it in more and more services in the web.

It was not until a year ago, that I realised that I might have actually set up a web presence with a unique nickname. Then I googled the word kichuku and I was surprised by the result. Many of my online activity is publicly visible on the web. I started becoming afraid. What if someone tries to troll me with this?Having a unique nickname on the web is like having glass windows on your house all over. You can never really be private.

But then I realised another side to it. Oh! I can also use it to my advantage! There is NO OTHER kichuku in the world. Well..for me if google doesn’t find in the first few pages, it doesn’t exist. So I am the ONLY kichuku in the world. I felt special.It gave me a ego boost. I started using the nickname even more extensively. But I became conscious on how I am using it. I shouldn’t be “misusing” it if you know what I mean. 

My writings on this blog may be random and inconsistent.

But if you follow my blog, I can guarantee you one thing.

I will always express my thoughts from the bottom of my heart without all the sugary coating and I have some pretty interesting thoughts to share too. 

So until my next post,

keep smiling

with lots of love, 

kichuku

Though I opened a tumblr account, many months ago, I never really used until now.

Blogs are very special. They are personal. They are mostly thoughts straight from the heart. And they give those thoughts audiences. Strangers who can connect with those thought patterns. 

I had never ceased to be fascinated by the power of blogs. I am a voracious user of google reader. There are tons of subscriptions on it. And I have probably spent more time on it than any other website. 

And tumblr is kind of unique. It somehow connects with the inner feelings of the user.

Is it just me? Or do many people feel a emotional connection when they read blogs that somehow miraculously seem to convey their own inner feelings? I want people reading this to answer me.  Aren’t reading blogs indirectly a way of searching for oneself? 

I feel there is a inner voice within all of us which is waiting to come out. All of us are born artists and creators. We all have ideas and creativity inside us.

But there are two kinds of people in this world according to me. 

1. people who take pleasure in bringing out that creativity in different forms.

2. people who take pleasure in exploring the creativity brought out by others, because it is somehow a reflection of themselves that they are seeing.

I am going to write a post later on discovering oneself.

Until then,

With lots of love,

kichuku

I have been using blogger for many many years now. I have more than 3 different blogs. But for some reason I have them all hidden as a private blog, just using it for private thoughts or like a personal diary.

But I also have been wanting to start blogging for a long time. I didn’t quite get around to do it.

One reason may be that I am a person who likes to take in information and talk less

Even when I am with a group of people, you will find me more listening than sharing my own ideas. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have any worthwhile ideas to share. It is quite the contrary. Since I listen a lot, I do have a lot of ideas.

But it so happens that I become so engrossed in listening that I even don’t bother sharing my own views.  I am fascinated by new ideas, new technologies, new possibilities.

I mostly live in this sort of dreamy world where it full of possibilities. I am still a child in that sense. For a child, anything is possible. A child believes anything is possible. The difference with me is that I KNOW that anything is possible. And the more I discover and explore, I also discover new ways to make happen seemingly impossible things.

But there is a difference between ordinary people and great people. Great people act on their ideas, no matter how foolish it may seem to others. But there are some people who have numerous ideas but just have them, that’s it. They don’t do anything with it. Sadly I have been one of those people who doesn’t work on implementing the ideas.  It is truly unfortunate that I have wasted a lot of time. But even more unfortunate are those people who live in their own cocoon not taking in new ideas and completely closed to new ideas. I really pity them.

While I am writing this post, I am realising that this is the first time that I am actually speaking this succinctly and clearly on my thoughts.

Why, why am I having difficulty expressing my thoughts and ideas? This is a question that I have been trying to answer for myself for years and never got an answer. Even my family, my dear father, mother and sister find it intriguing that I don’t share my views or speak out as much as they would want me to do.

I really do not know. Am I spending too much time alone? But whatever be the reason, I should really not let this trait of not sharing enough get the better of me. I should somehow change it. But how? Again, I do not know