Fix it: Hacked Twitter account

Recently there is a spate of Twitter account that has been hacked and spewing out spam tweets and direct messages to followers that says

Hi someone is posting horrible things about you... bit.ly/LKOFNj.

The shortened URL (address) and message may vary. Here is another variant:

Hi someone is saying nasty rumors about you... bit.ly/LKOqSG

But they all lead to tvvitiler.com/1w/ and have a similar suppose: to steal your Twitter account login details so they (the hackers) can pose as you.

How to fix it? Well, the solution is easy, change your Twitter account password. Also, change any other accounts that use a similar password. If you don't know how to do this, see this Twitter support article. For your convenience, the instructions have been copied over.

1. From your logged in account, click on the "more icon" in the navigation bar and select Settings and privacy.
2. From the account tab, click on Password.
3. Enter your current password.
4. Choose your new password.
5. Save your changes by clicking Save.

If you are unable to log in to your account, you may try resetting your password:

How to send yourself a password reset via email:

1. Click the Forgot password? link. Or click here. 
2. Enter your email address or Twitter username.
3. Enter your mobile phone number, if prompted, in the format suggested. (Forgot your number? Contact support for assistance.)
4. Check your email inbox. Twitter will immediately send a message to your account's email address.
5. Click the reset link in that email.
6. Choose a new password. 

How to send yourself a password reset via SMS:

If you've added your mobile number to your account in your Mobile settings, you may receive a password reset via SMS/text message.

1. On a computer, go to the Forgot password? page and enter your username (or email address).
2. Enter your mobile number.
3. Select Reset via phone.
4. Twitter will text you a six-digit code that is valid for 15 minutes. 
5. Enter this code on the Twitter website. Use the code given and enter it in the space given. You will then be prompted to change your password.

Not receiving the SMS code?

• It may take up to a few minutes for you to receive the code.
• If you do not receive it after a few minutes, try texting HELP to your Twitter short code to ensure you are receiving SMS notifications from Twitter. If you do not receive anything back, please review our SMS troubleshooting page or use the email password reset option above. 

If that doesn't work you may try contacting Twitter customer service. You may also want to check the apps you authorized to your account and remove any you don't recognize. To do this see this Twitter support article. For your convenience, the instructions have been copied over.

How to revoke access or remove an application

1. Review the applications you've connected in the Apps tab of your account settings.
2. Click the Revoke Access button next to the application.

Log out of other sessions

You might want to also log out of other sessions too.  To do that go to https://twitter.com/settings/sessions, scroll to the bottom of the page and hit "log out all."

Clean up

Now that you've secured your account, you may want to clean up your post by deleting all the spammy tweets and direct messages. This can be done by either clicking on delete or on the symbol of the trash can or clicking on the tweet to expand it and then deleting it.

Prevention

To avoid falling for phishing scams, always check the address bar of the browser or URL. Most try to use a URL similar to the site they are trying to imitate. Therefore, check carefully. Avoid phishing, malware, and viruses by examining short URLs before visiting them. Find out where links really take you by expanding those pesky shortened URLs with CheckShortURL. Also, it is always best to go to the main website itself. In addition, ignore such message as others are spreading rumors about you since it is most likely fake and the account sending the message is compromised. It is also a good idea to keep an up to date AntiVirus on your computer, regardless of your operating system; yes, Apple Macs can get viruses too (see my list of blog posts debunking that myth).

Fix it: Bricked computer after installing the AMD Catalyst 14.4 update

After installing the AMD Catalyst 14.4 update on my HP P6792uk desktop, I found the computer completely bricked.  It won't proceed further than the Windows 7 "flag" bootup animation.  I tried booting to safe mode by bashing "F8" and selecting "safe mode."  However, the computer hangs at ATiPCie64.sys.

I was at wits' end.  With an SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) Reasoning coming up, I did not want to do a complete rebuild a computer.  Then I figured a way of bypassing the driver from loading.  Going to the same "F8" menu, I instead selected "Repair PC." That brought up the following screen:

 

I selected "System Restore" and chose a time before the update.  After a tantalizing wait, I was greeted with the Windows 7 desktop.

 

After the successful restoration of the computer, I reinstalled the AMD Catalyst 13.12 drivers.

 

I did an uninstall through the add / remove program.  And after reboot, I scrubbed the last remaining trace using DriverFusion.  Then I reinstalled the program.

Fix it: Deleting manufacturer bookmarks

I bought a Sony Xperia SP and when I launched the browser Chrome, I noticed there was a folder named "Sony" that I couldn't delete. Nothing in the browsers could be deleted. And to make matters worse, Chrome keeps defaulted to that folder most of the time I launched it.

I searched Google and I came upon this forum post on the XDA forums. As mentioned in the forum, to disable the folder, go into settings then apps find the app "com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks." Then click "Disable" and then "force stop." You could reboot the phone if necessary.

Fix It: Changing the size of the icons of Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10

Update

This hack does NOT work in Internet Explorer 11 (IE11).

Ignore this bit. This is to help people find stuff faster using "ctrl" F. This is just a list of keywords. Size, icon, Internet Explorer 9, bigger, smaller, big, menu.

This "fix it" article will attempt to enlarge the size of the command bar in Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10 Unlike Internet Explorer 8, in Internet Explorer 9 and later, there is no easy way to enlarge the icon size.

Is your icon in your version of Internet Explorer 9 as small as in the below screenshot?


 And do you want to make it large again as in the below screenshot?



Well then I have a solution for you, but it ain't pretty.

You would have to manually edit the registry. Open up registry editor by typing in "regedit". Then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\CommandBar. After that right click on SmallIcons and select modify. Change the value from 1 to 0 [don't type in this part ("zero")] to renable large icons. Or else, just download the below file zip and merge the included registry key with your registry. The zip file also contains the registry to make your command bar small again.

The file reads:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\CommandBar] "SmallIcons"=dword:00000000

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1Tan13i1a63Njk2ZGI1NzktNTJhNC00MzU4LTgyZmUtZTAxNTA4ZTYzOTFj&hl=en

In Internet Explorer 8, to make Command bar icons larger follow the below procedures

1. Right-click the Command bar
2. Point to Customize
3. Click Use Large Icons (after clicking there should be a checkmark in front of it)

To make the icons small, follow this procedure and click Use Large Icons again.

Fix it: Hijack of the "default" page on stock Android browser

After installing some Android apps, you may notice that the "default" home page has been changed to www.searchmobileonline.com or the likes. To get rid of the "default" home page, perform the steps below.

1. Open Settings > Applications > Manage applications > All (tab on top) or Settings > Application manager as shown
   
2. Go to the "All" tab on the top and scroll down to "Internet"
   
3. Click "clear data" in the resulting window
   

Credits for the instructions go to Getting rid of "search mobile online" browser hijack in Android.