Counting down to WHAT?
So the bug — or virus, or spyware, or, whatever it is — is now apparently counting down to something, and that something looks like it's going to happen while I am somewhere in Szechuan province and I can't fix it and yeah it's creeping me out and yeah I'm not happy about this. (The recent appearance of words like "mayday", "metastasize", "hemorrhage," and "classified" isn't cheering me up, either.)
What the hell is this thing. And why would a site as harmless, I mean utterly and completely harmless, as www.ilovebees.com attract its attention?
What the hell is this thing. And why would a site as harmless, I mean utterly and completely harmless, as www.ilovebees.com attract its attention?
27 Comments:
Dana,
no worries.
we are here to help.
sapagoo
We may bee of assistance.
Let us know how we can help.
Firebee
Don't worry honey, there's a group of us (some have already posted) willing to comb through the morass and help ease the sting of this violation of your website. We've got a sort of hive-mind, if you will, that has busted through problems such as this in the past - we're all avid workers in that regard.
You're not crazy seeing things either -- no little men in white or yellow jackets will come after you.
I know it looks like something must abhor netfolk like you trying to talk about honey, but I think that this was possibly a bug in the system somewhere.
Hm, hope I didn't drone on too long...
Chin up, be good.
-Sin Vraal
Very new to anything involving HTML, but I'll help in any way possible.
-Indigo
Dana,
As the others have said above, we ar here to help you. Dont worry
Ms. Gwyn
Dana,
As the others have said above, we ar here to help you. Dont worry
Oh, this will not stand!
NOBODY messes with a producer of my favourite crumpet topping and gets away with it!
Fear not, my dear. help is at hand. My comrades above and I shall see that justice prevails.
PaleFigure
P.S. You don't have any *apple* trees in your garden, do you? No, no, never mind, forget I asked...
My fair lady I and The Knights of the Net shall investigate. We take it on, as a hobby to investigate such bizzare happenings on the net.Will update you with what we Find.
Stay Frosty.
The White Knight Of The Net.
You do realize that if you were to remove the damn counter code at the end of your page, that whole bs would go away right? Of course you do, you put it there.
*hates people who pretend to be 'funni' in order to 'pull one over' on others.
And for the record, its no virus, and not spyware, just a damn javascript counter you put on your own site.
what does http://imaninja.com/ have to do with it?
Personally, I'd blame Microsoft. ;)
So, was I hallucinating when I saw www.xbox.com turn into www.ilovebees.com at the end of the Halo 2 preview before Spider-Man 2 yesterday?
Looks like Anonymous above is so stoopid he misses the point.
-oblivion42
Dana, like many of the others here have posted...there is a rather large group of people here who can help you. We have a large network of 'problem solvers', people who investigate strange internet phenomena, and we will be most happy to help where we can. Perhaps you can contact us to provide us with more information.
ThePhoenix
(thephoenixforever2004 at yahoo.com)
Would not have guessed from the usually humble traffic stats for Aunt Margaret's site that I'd get so many offers of help so quickly — wow. Thank you.
More information: Well, first of all, yes, I did put a "...days to china" counter on the site, a tiny one below the fold. Sort of a persistent thank-you... Aunt M is the fairy godmother of my trip. But MY countdown has suddenly become this THING's countdown... it's barreling towards a different time and date now, and I've certainly never described my departure as "wide awake and physical."
Actually, the more I poke around it, the more it looks like everything on the site has been hijacked. Everything I built or uploaded is still there, it's just been... repurposed.
And yeah, I keep thinking I'm seeing and hearing "i love bees" everywhere, too. I guess the feeling of hallucinating is contagious.
Anyway, I just want to say: when the site meltdown first happened, it was extremely startling, and overwhelming. Finding out now that there are so many people out there willing to throw their oar into this mess, well — that's startling and overwhelming, too... but in a good way. A really good way. Thanks.
I think I speak for everyone when I say we're glad we can help.
- RobMagus
I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it. I have a few questions too.
*What other tech projects have you worked on recently?
*Who else works on/has access to the website?
*Are other websites hosted on the same server?
Thanks
-DocVego
at yahoo
dot com
THEY CALL ME PASTABAGEL
here to help as well. any more symptoms?
-dirk
The more the merrier.
Greyelf
Hello Dana
No worries, there are many of us here who are more then willing to figure all of this out for you ^_^! things may look a bit weird at the moment but all of us will have everything under control
~Blush
"And why would a site as harmless, I mean utterly and completely harmless, as www.ilovebees.com attract its attention?"
Perhaps it wants your love. You can easily guess what that implies about what it thinks it is ...
Maybe it likes bees. ;)
Also here to help,
-Orikaeshigitae
The countdown bug on your website should be quite easy to fix.
it's all genetrated below the html tag . heres the code that is generated: If you remove it and re-upload the page, that should be fixed.
if it comes back, scan your server wits a spyware and/or virus removal application to see if there is unusual files that could generate that bug.
sorry about the previous post... the code didn't show up.
The countdown bug is quite simple to fix. it's generated below the html tag of your page:
FYI here's the code:
(Sorry about the wierd display, I had to remove the "<" and the ">" on the html tagd and replace tyhem by "!" in order to have it showing as text.)
"!div align="center" id="idElement98" style="position:absolute; left:70px;
top:82px; width:600px; z-index:6000; background-color:#000000;"!
!font CLASS=dana_big!
!BR!
HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE
!BR!!BR!
Control has been yielded to the
!BR!
SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX.
!BR!!BR!
This medium is classified, and has a
!BR!
STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION.
!BR!!BR!
!font!
!div!!div align="center" id="idElement98" style="position:absolute; left:70px;
top:82px; width:600px; z-index:6000; background-color:#000000;"!
!font CLASS=dana_big!
!BR!
HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE
!BR!!BR!
Control has been yielded to the
!BR!
SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX.
!BR!!BR!
This medium is classified, and has a
!BR!
STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION.
!BR!!BR!
In 8 days, network throttling will erode.
!BR!!BR!
!font!
!/div!
!div! align="center" id="idElement98" style="position:absolute; left:70px;
top:82px; width:600px; z-index:6000; background-color:#000000;"!
!font CLASS=dana_big!
!BR!
HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE
!BR!!BR!
Control has been yielded to the
!BR!
SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX.
!BR!!BR!
This medium is classified, and has a
!BR!
STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION.
!BR!!BR!
In 8 days, network throttling will erode.
!BR!!BR!
In 22 days this medium will metastasize.
!BR!!BR!
!/font!
!/div!!div align="center" id="idElement98" style="position:absolute; left:70px;
top:82px; width:600px; z-index:6000; background-color:#000000;"!
!font CLASS=dana_big!
!BR!
HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE
!BR!!BR!
Control has been yielded to the
!BR!
SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX.
!BR!!BR!
This medium is classified, and has a
!BR!
STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION.
!BR!!BR!
In 8 days, network throttling will erode.
!BR!!BR!
In 22 days this medium will metastasize.
!BR!!BR!
COUNTDOWN TO WIDE AWAKE AND PHYSICAL:
!font CLASS=TITLE_WHITE!
!DIV id="counter"!
!/DIV!
!/font!
!SCRIPT LANGUAGE="Javascript1.2"!
var chinatime = new Date(2004,7,24,6,7,0);
!/SCRIPT!
!script language=Javascript1.2 src="countdowntochina.js"!
!/script!
!BR!
Make your decisions accordingly.
!BR!!BR!
!/font!!
/div!"
If you remove it, the countdown pop up will not appear anymore, unless a virus or a spyware regenerates it.
If that's the case, you should explore the root folder containing your site for suspect files, or run an antivirus/spyware scanner on it.
Good luck!
There seems to be something more here than just a common bug. An entity of some type seems to be using your Aunt's pages to communicate. In searching the site I have found oddly placed text describing a shipwreck and someone (a woman, the Operator, possibly you, Dana?) being trapped behind enemy lines. There are numerous references to insects and arachnids and you, on your blog, have quoted Kafka's "Metamorphosis."
Before focusing on "the bug (cockroach?), or virus, or spyware, or, whatever it is" I would feel much more confident in searching for a solution before the countdown reaches zero if I knew that you were not "the operator," "the spider" or Gregor Samsa.
Do you need help?
If you are indeed not in troubled and perfectly sane, is it possible that someone or something is using your Aunt's site to get to you?
Have you worked on any other projects?
Have you made any enemies (or friends) who would be capable of such mayhem?
Lots of very specific tech questions and advice coming in lately, think I'll try to address it all in one fell swoop here.
1. The site is hosted using a standard ISP. I really don't want to get too specific given that not all of the attention I've received lately has been what you'd call benevolent. Sorry. That's just the way it is.
2. Nothing unusual about the logs. Good suggestion, though. Will continue to monitor.
3. As recommended, tried deleting my own countdown script. Didn't work. Saved the page without the countdown, but it still shows up on the live site. It's just... stuck, or something.
4. Multiple queries from you guys about other projects I've worked on and other sites on the server, wondering if they may have been infected by the same bug. I've checked this one up, down and sideways, and I am pretty confident saying that I am not aware of any similar occurrences.
please keep uploading your ideas and theories. thanks, guys.
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