What have you bought recently?


I had an interesting situation. I have some AT mainboards and 3 ATX mainboards, as I have space I decided to get some casings and make computers, especially that I have all other components. I found 3 cheap ATX casings from early 2000s to put Athlon and Pentium II into, and decided to buy them. When I asked about other old computer stuff, the seller replied that he has an old Duron mainboard, but it HAS A VIRUS, so he can give it to me. I agreed of course, as I am just curious how there can be a virus in the mainboard. The seller told me that the virus "puts icons in favorites and changes startup page".
Here's what I found:
The mainboard is ECS K7VZA mainboard with Duron 600MHz (first model). The BIOS, Award-Phoenix 6.00PGN, a very early version from March 2000, is very buggy and tends to do some stupid tricks when two DIMMs of different sizes are present - like flipping one specific bit of the memory during read. I installed a RiVA TNT2 graphics board, a Realtek network card (sound card with SB emulation was present onboard) and installed it in casing. Put a blank drive and made Win98, no network cable attached.
Right after the first Windows 98 boot, something happened. Six files popped into the system: 3 ICO files in Windows directory and a bookmark, as well as desktop icon. Additionally, IE start page got changed to some unknown address (now it's a link farm), but update to IE6 changed it back.
I decided to analyze the thing. Dumped the BIOS, installed a fresh update, reinstalled system, no virus.
The legendary BadBIOS?
Well, I analyzed the BIOS having some fun with my Willem programmer and a few flash chips. In most Award BIOSes there is a module called ROS. ROS starts by supplying the nice graphical layer at boot, and later it manages all things which are done during computer operation, like suspending by SMI or sometimes battery/temperature warning. It also sometimes manages boot block protection routines, installed in a separate module. And the "virus" looks like to be installed in there - replacing ROS with its the newer version from update seems to fix the problem. The virus is quite robust code, it has to generally inject the start page, icons and links and that's all. It gives up if there is a specific CPL control panel file installed in system, there is no modem or there is no network at all (?information from DMI?). The link contains "BID" and "CID" parameters looking like they're dynamic, maybe from BIOS to BIOS, maybe from version to version, I don't know, I have only one and it has these constant.
But who made it? I decided to look at the domain. Who registered it first? Award-Phoenix.
When I entered there with Wayback Machine, I found the typical malware ad-filled screen, but with Phoenix logo! It looks like they indeed had the adware distributed in BIOS in early 2000s!
 
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FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD, 1.5kg of it, I'm never going to be hungry/thirsty again. ;) Amazon link
 
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Anybody else checked out NESMaker, bought it awhile ago but been going through the tutorials and starting a few prototypes :)

Redid my logo for NES
 

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Swordfish II said:
Fractional distillation simply needs a freezer. Water and alcohol freeze at different temps. So you simply exploit that.

Freeze your booze, drain off the alcohol and a small amount of water comes with it. Most water is left behind as ice. Freeze that and repeat. You can get an ABV up to around 40-50%
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I will point out that (a) this method is illegal in many countries: or at least could generate an unwanted large excise bill and (b) concentrates the congeners, that generate hangovers. Distillation leaves most of them behind, when done properly.

Wikipedia on Congeners: Wikipedia: Congener (beverages)
Paper linked-to in Wikipedia article: Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2010 Mar 1; 34(3): 509–518. Intoxication with Bourbon versus Vodka: Effects on Hangover, Sleep and Next-Day Neurocognitive Performance in Young Adults
 
Confuzzled said:
I will point out that (a) this method is illegal in many countries: or at least could generate an unwanted large excise bill and (b) concentrates the congeners, that generate hangovers. Distillation leaves most of them behind, when done properly.

Wikipedia on Congeners: Wikipedia: Congener (beverages)
Paper linked-to in Wikipedia article: Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2010 Mar 1; 34(3): 509–518. Intoxication with Bourbon versus Vodka: Effects on Hangover, Sleep and Next-Day Neurocognitive Performance in Young Adults
Click to expand...

You are correct with B. You are wrong with A. It is an accepted method for making Eisbock, and beer production is legal for personal use in most countries.

Additionally the legalities of distillation are set forth in 27 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 19 for the US. A key with distillation regulations is a still. Freeze distillation does not use a still. It is a grey area at **most** but unlikely to generate significant interest by any authorities as beer and winemaking is legal, no still is involved, it is personal use, a still is regulated but not involved....I could go on but you can read the CFR yourself if it could apply to you.
 
Swordfish II said:
You are correct with B. You are wrong with A. It is an accepted method for making Eisbock, and beer production is legal for personal use in most countries.

Additionally the legalities of distillation are set forth in 27 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 19 for the US. A key with distillation regulations is a still. Freeze distillation does not use a still. It is a grey area at **most** but unlikely to generate significant interest by any authorities as beer and winemaking is legal, no still is involved, it is personal use, a still is regulated but not involved....I could go on but you can read the CFR yourself if it could apply to you.
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I wrote many, not all countries. Indeed, if you have a licence from the local excise organisation, it is a valid method of concentrating alcohol: as used by Brewdog in the UK to produce very high strength 'beers' .

But in many countries it is illegal when unlicensed - e.g. when doing it at home for personal use. There are places, like New Zealand, where distillation by heat or by freezing is ok for personal use. In the USA, Prohibition era legislation is still in force that makes it a federal crime to use a still to produce alcohol-based spirit for personal consumption Booozemakers: U.S. Home Distilling Laws by State. Concentration by freezing aka 'Freeze distillation' is a legal grey area. Boozemakers: Freeze Distillation – How to Make Spirits Without a Still.
 
Confuzzled said:
In the USA, Prohibition era legislation is still in force that makes it a federal crime to use a still to produce alcohol-based spirit for personal consumption Booozemakers: U.S. Home Distilling Laws by State. Concentration by freezing aka 'Freeze distillation' is a legal grey area. Boozemakers: Freeze Distillation – How to Make Spirits Without a Still.
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That's my point though, much of the US CFR hinges on heat distillation or a still. As such freeze distillation wouldn't be prosecuted unless you are say distributing or selling (its super inefficient so it's incredibly unlikely). As you said though, technically a grey area just as roms are.

Like you said, freeze distillation concentrates pretty much everything including flavors, fusel alcohols, ethanol and even methanol (no you won't go blind from it).

For the most part I use my results from that it further spike/enhance another batch of the same thing. Eg make two ciders, freeze distill one and add it back into the full batch of the other, much like an Eisbock.

As with any hobby make sure you are aware of your countries laws.
 
Would anyone like to purchase one of my kidneys, because:

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Vocaloid Spiritale Hatsune Miku (Sakura Fairy Ver.) 1/7 Scale Figure

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Hisense 55" H9G TV. 4K, HDR, full array dimming, runs Android TV.

Nothing to watch on it as of yet, because Spectrum has an Android app, but no Android TV app. :(
 
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