Sony Ericsson Club: September 2008

Friday, September 12, 2008

Free mp3

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Madonna biography

Biography
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
After a star reaches a certain point, it's easy to forget what they became famous for and concentrate solely on their persona. Madonna is such a star. Madonna rocketed to stardom so quickly in 1984 that it obscured most of her musical virtues. Appreciating her music became even more difficult as the decade wore on, as discussing her lifestyle became more common than discussing her music. However, one of Madonna's greatest achievements is how she manipulated the media and the public with her music, her videos, her publicity, and her sexuality. Arguably, Madonna was the first female pop star to have complete control of her music and image.
Madonna moved from her native Michigan to New York in 1977, with dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. She studied with choreographer Alvin Ailey and modeled. In 1979, she became part of the Patrick Hernandez Revue, a disco outfit that had the hit "Born to Be Alive." She traveled to Paris with Hernandez; it was there that she met Dan Gilroy, who would soon become her boyfriend. Upon returning to New York, the pair formed the Breakfast Club, a pop/dance group. Madonna originally played drums for the band, but she soon became the lead singer. In 1980, she left the band and formed Emmy with her former boyfriend, drummer Stephen Bray. Soon, Bray and Madonna broke off from the group and began working on some dance/disco-oriented tracks. A demo tape of these tracks worked its way to Mark Kamins, a New York-based DJ/producer. Kamins directed the tape to Sire Records, which signed the singer in 1982.
Kamins produced Madonna's first single, "Everybody," which became a club and dance hit at the end of 1982; her second single, 1983's "Physical Attraction," was another club hit. In June of 1983, she had her third club hit with the bubbly "Holiday," which was written by Jellybean Benitez. Madonna's self-titled debut album was released in September of 1983; "Holiday" became her first Top 40 hit the following month. "Borderline" became her first Top Ten hit in March of 1984, beginning a remarkable string of 17 consecutive Top Ten hits. While "Lucky Star" was climbing to number four, Madonna began working on her first starring role in a feature film, Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan.
Madonna's second album, the Niles Rodgers-produced Like a Virgin, was released at the end of 1984. The title track hit number one in December, staying at the top of the charts for six weeks; it was the start of a whirlwind year for the singer. During 1985, Madonna became an international celebrity, selling millions of records on the strength of her stylish, sexy videos and forceful personality. After "Material Girl" became a number two hit in March, Madonna began her first tour, supported by the Beastie Boys. "Crazy for You" became her second number one single in May. Desperately Seeking Susan was released in July, becoming a box office hit; it also prompted a planned video release of A Certain Sacrifice, a low-budget erotic drama she filmed in 1979. A Certain Sacrifice wasn't the only embarrassing skeleton in the closet dragged into the light during the summer of 1985 -- both Playboy and Penthouse published nude photos of Madonna that she posed for in 1977. Nevertheless, her popularity continued unabated, with thousands of teenage girls adopting her sexy appearance, being dubbed "Madonna wannabes." In August, she married actor Sean Penn; the couple had a rocky marriage that ended in 1989.
Madonna began collaborating with Patrick Leonard at the beginning of 1986; Leonard would co-write most of her biggest hits in the '80s, including "Live to Tell," which hit number one in June of 1986. A more ambitious and accomplished record than her two previous albums, True Blue was released the following month, to both more massive commercial success (it was a number one in both the U.S. and the U.K., selling over five million copies in America alone) and critical acclaim. "Papa Don't Preach" became her fourth number one hit in the U.S. While her musical career was thriving, her film career took a savage hit with the November release of Shanghai Surprise. Starring Madonna and Sean Penn, the comedy received terrible reviews, which translated into disastrous box office returns.
At the beginning of 1987, she had her fifth number one single with "Open Your Heart," the third number one from True Blue alone. The title cut from the soundtrack of her third feature film, Who's That Girl?, was another chart-topping hit, although the film itself was another box office bomb. 1988 was a relatively quiet year for Madonna as she spent the first half of the year acting in David Mamet's Speed the Plow on Broadway. In the meantime, she released the remix album You Can Dance. After withdrawing the divorce papers she filed at the beginning of 1988, she divorced Penn at the beginning of 1989.
Like a Prayer, released in the spring of 1989, was her most ambitious and far-reaching album, incorporating elements of pop, rock, and dance. It was another number one hit and launched the number one title track as well as "Express Yourself," "Cherish," and "Keep It Together," three more Top Ten hits. In April 1990, she began her massive Blonde Ambition tour, which ran throughout the entire year. "Vogue" became a number one hit in May, setting the stage for her co-starring role in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy; it was her most successful film appearance since Desperately Seeking Susan. Madonna released a greatest-hits album, The Immaculate Collection, at the end of the year. It featured two new songs, including the number one single "Justify My Love," which sparked another controversy with its sexy video; the second new song, "Rescue Me," became the highest-debuting single by a female artist in U.S. chart history, entering the charts at number 15. Truth or Dare, a documentary of the Blonde Ambition tour, was released to positive reviews and strong ticket sales during the spring of 1991.
Madonna returned to the charts in the summer of 1992 with the number one "This Used to Be My Playground," a single featured in the film A League of Their Own, which featured the singer in a small part. Later that year, Madonna released Sex, an expensive, steel-bound soft-core pornographic book that featured hundreds of erotic photographs of herself, several models, and other celebrities -- including Isabella Rossellini, Big Daddy Kane, Naomi Campbell, and Vanilla Ice -- as well as selected prose. Sex received scathing reviews and enormous negative publicity, yet that didn't stop the accompanying album, Erotica, from selling over two million copies. Bedtime Stories, released two years later, was a more subdued affair than Erotica. Initially, it didn't chart as impressively, prompting some critics to label her a has-been, yet the album spawned her biggest hit, "Take a Bow," which spent seven weeks at number one. It also featured the Bjork-penned "Bedtime Stories," which became her first single not to make the Top 40; its follow-up, "Human Nature," also failed to crack the Top 40. Nevertheless, Bedtime Stories marked her seventh album to go multi-platinum.
Beginning in 1995, Madonna began one of her most subtle image makeovers as she lobbied for the title role in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. Backing away from the overt sexuality of Erotica and Bedtime Stories, Madonna recast herself as an upscale sophisticate, and the compilation Something to Remember fit into the plan nicely. Released in the fall of 1995, around the same time she won the coveted role of Evita Peron, the album was comprised entirely of ballads, designed to appeal to the mature audience that would also be the target of Evita. As the filming completed, Madonna announced she was pregnant and her daughter, Lourdes, was born late in 1996, just as Evita was scheduled for release. The movie was greeted with generally positive reviews and Madonna began a campaign for an Oscar nomination that resulted in her winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy), but not the coveted Academy Award nomination. The soundtrack for Evita, however, was a modest hit, with a dance remix of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and the newly written "You Must Love Me" both becoming hits.
During 1997, she worked with producer William Orbit on her first album of new material since 1994's Bedtime Stories. The resulting record, Ray of Light, was heavily influenced by electronica, techno, and trip-hop, thereby updating her classic dance-pop sound for the late '90s. Ray of Light received uniformly excellent reviews upon its March 1998 release and debuted at number two on the charts. Within a month, the record was shaping up to be her biggest album since Like a Prayer. Two years later she returned with Music, which reunited her with Orbit and also featured production work from Mark "Spike" Stent and Mirwais, a French electro-pop producer/musician in the vein of Daft Punk and Air.
The year 2000 also saw the birth of Madonna's second child, Rocco, whom she had with filmmaker Guy Ritchie; the two married at the very end of the year. With Ritchie as director and Madonna as star, the pair released a remake of the film Swept Away in 2002. It tanked at the box office, failing to crack seven digits, making it one of the least profitable films of the year. Her sober 2003 album, American Life, fared a little better but was hardly a huge success. That same year she released a successful children's book, The English Roses (it was followed by several more over the coming years). Confessions on a Dance Floor marked her return to music and to the dance-oriented material that had made her a star; released in late 2005, it topped the Billboard charts, and was accompanied by a worldwide tour in 2006, the same year that I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, a CD/DVD made during her Re-Invention Tour, came out. In 2007 Madonna released another CD/DVD, Confessions Tour, this time chronicling her controversial tour of the same name.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Antivirus XP is a new rogue anti-spyware program - a fake spyware remover, which uses trojans, such as Zlob or Vundo, to enter the system. This parasite is a clone of Antivirus 2008, which has been very popular recently - this is more than evident when you count all the clones Antivirus 2008 has produced over the past few weeks.

Antivirus XP uses popups and fake system notifications as a means to intimidate the user by leading him to believe he is infected. This is usually false information, but this method is used to create a reason for the user to buy an antispyware program (to be more precise - Antivirus XP).

Antivirus XP is a scam and should be treated as such: do NOT download or buy it and block it's homepage using your HOSTS file.

Tom’s notes worked for me

Tom’s notes worked for me, but with a couple of exceptions. In the registry, because I was in safe mode under administrator, I had to choose HKEY Local Machine instead of Local user. Also in programs, it wasn’t xp antivirus, but some random name it called itself. I also found that name plus one almost identical in MSCONFIG, and I uncheked them… otherwise all good! I would also recommend running a legit antivirus and antispyware after doing this. Also being in safe mode is critical. I would also consider running ccleaner after you are done… you can get that from File hippo.. it will help clean up the registry mess and any other broken links left over… probably clean up some space on your hard drive too. I have been using it for years and no problem, but I always backup first!

Aloha and thanks

Aloha and thanks to everyone who has put up suggestions. I have used several of them and got most of it off - I hope. I also ran a cleaner and that got some more of but like a lot of people I couldn’t get rid of the ‘box’ with the ‘ad’ in it. Grrr.

I finally went to My Pictures, right clicked a picture and selected Use as Desktop Background or similar and now have a picture I can live with. For how long… I don’t know but at least the box is not there and causing me to go red with rage everytime I see it.

On the wallpaper issue

On the wallpaper issue. I did manage to change it for a while but it kept comverting back and doing odd things with a code screen warning coming up etc. On this site, on the top right hand side, there are RECENT POSTS. Go to the one on ‘Warning spyware, wallpaper error removal message…’.

Thanks so much to Fix it Manually, I finally fixed the last bit with the screeensaver etc, the lurking bits were the screensaver and application. His fix fixed it completely!

I had gotten all the other bits but my computer still had the ‘ad’ on the screen and no screensavers etc. Although I could put my new pic up but it kept reverting on startup and also the odd code screen. My computer was acting really weird, throwing up a warning black and white code screen that some programs were not working properly, dumping the main page screen etc. Very frustrating. Earlier in the day I had found 2 files I couldn’t delete and went back to find them last night. Fix It Manually had the answer. THANKS.

I found the lurking files in Search and putting in phc - which seemed to be the common thread. They wouldn’t let me delete them - coming up with the - check this file is not a read only or copy protected etc. I then went to the msconfig file that Fix It said and unchecked them. Then went back to the search, found the phc again and deleted them and emptied the trash immediately.

Voila!!! All fixed now. THANK YOU!!!

Well, this virus

Well, this virus hit me on Sunday (Aug 24th) and it was because of trying to download a missing codec…I am staying away from those in the future. A friend (my computer expert) ran the roguefix file and it appeared to do the trick but once the machine restarted it was still there. So we had to reformat the computer. Did anyone else see the fake ‘blue screen’ of death? Whoever came up with this really pulled out all of the stops….they should die a thousand deaths. But I am glad I encountered this site with all of the comments and helpful hints. So thanks to all…

ok i think i have sorted i

ok i think i have sorted it, u need tuneup utillities 2007 once u have downloaded it go onto it and go to customize and analyze administer and control then tune up system information then click continue and unclick the antivirus xp 2008 [its under a different name but its got the same icon so u should recognise it] then right click it and click properties to find out where the file is hidden, [keep this up whilst u do the next step as u will come back to is in a second]
now go to administer and control then tuneup process manager then terminate the program under the same name that antivirus xp 2008 was under when we found it earlier. now that u have done that u can successfully uninstall the program in the file that u found it in earlier. after this delete every icon link to it u can find. once this is done close tunup and restart ur computer and it shud be gone.
after this u need to get ur desktop and screensaver tab back. you go to start then run then type in regedit the click HKEY_CURRENT_USER> Software> microsoft> windows> current version> policies> system. then where it says nodispbackgroundpage right click then click modify and change it to 0, now do the same to nodispscrsavpage after this you should have full functions to your background properties. i know this is long winded but this is the only way i could do it. hope this helps. if ur lost at any point or need help lemme know! louise

I have spent almost 24 hours on this PIA

I have spent almost 24 hours on this PIA. The file names are changing and NOTHING on my computer (other than the fake EULA pop up on start up) read as “Antivirus XP 2008.” This thing is actively changing to make removal more difficult.

After much reading on support sites, I copied to disk the Malware Removal software from bleepingcomputer.com and then ran it on my computer.

The virus appears to be eliminated. I can use IM programs, ping websites from command prompt, BUT I CAN NO LONGER OPEN INTERNET EXPLORER! Before I used the Malware removal software, I was able to use explorer.

The hourglass spins for a moment, but then nothing happens, and internet explorer is not active in task manager.

I think the Malware removal deleted a registry key I need to operate internet explorer.

Can anyone help me recreate the registry key? Or do I need to reformat and reinstall the OS?

The registry keys I think I may need for it to work are all:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet(either 001,002 or 003)\Services\sysrest.sys

and the log file in the Malware removal software indicated they were “Rootkit.Agent”

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi, ive been infected

Hi, ive been infected with this virus before and i thought i got rid of it all, i followed all the manual instructions to get trid off it last time and worked…… for awhile. Till now!!!! its back and better then ever (not) i cant access task manager, my c: drive, system tools, run, cmd prompt or anything. the stupid virus has limited me to nothing….

Where do i start to get rid of this thing?

Please

Please, can anyone help me so I can search the web again. I have tried Internet Explorer, and Firefox, and I have tried many search engines and it goes to whatever site that the antivirus xp 2008 wants to. I also can’t go to websites, such as homedepot.com as an example. I can’t download anything either. Please help! I got rid of the main virus, as far as I can tell, and I just need some help with this. I have backed up my files and I’m willing to strip my computer if I have to, but I also don’t know how to do that really lol Please, if someone can help, I’d really appreciate it! Thank you!

I have 3 computers

I have 3 computers, a Dual core pentium Q6600, an AMD Athlon 3000+ and an old POS IBM 2.4ghz. My first 2 computers are fine, untouched by the AV2008 virus. My IBM on the other hand keeps getting this virus, no matter how many times I remove it and reformat my hard drive (I wonder if it leaves traces in my Bios/flash memory). Just having the IBM hooked up to the net will inffect it.
I removed the virus the first time myself, then reformatted my hard drive, and updated XP. I went to the store and when I came back my comp was infected, AV2008 was running a scan, I hadn’t even been using it, but it was hooked up to the net. (I doubt I got it from SP1a or SP2.)

If you load up into safe mode it makes it 10X easier to remove the virus, you can change your background and get the name of the file they used for their background picture. Search for the first four to six letters of that name and you should find 6 to 10 other files with roughly the same name. These files will be located in your WINDOWS/PREFETCH folder and in your WINDOWS/SYSTEM32 folders.
I use Zone alarm Pro, which lets you shut down every executable (file) program on your computer with it’s program control feature. Find the AV2008, and kill the program…will remove the registry entries and most of the other spyware files that came along with AV2008.
If you need to do it manually, load up into safe mode and follow the instructions found at the top of the page. Safe mode doesn’t load AV2008 or any of it’s components and lets you remove the files without getting any errors.

Thank you for providing this manual removal site.

This crazy

This crazy thing is totally screwing with my main computer i didnt even get it from the site it was attached now my desktop backround is the stupid XP antivurs thing and i cant open any folders or even my Recycle Bin i tried delteding the processes and i even tried reinstalling my OS but it wouldnt even let me do that i really dont want to have to spend hunderds of dollars on a 200$ pc it just wouldnt make sense ive read alot of these and i still havent gotten any closer to fixxing my computer my 60$ antvirus cant even find this thing…

i am not much of the computer

i am not much of the computer wiz but my security system did pick up a little something that caused the little tray on my desk top to go away(i have xp) and well, it was fixed. im still doing a last minute scan to make sure everything on here was COMPLETELY elimated from coming to my CPU again(so far so good). i used this antivirus system *am i allowed to name it or will i get in trouble?*(it might have to be payed for *sorry*). its a legit system because its been in business for an amount of years that it even tracked down the old version of the same software but of what u are witnessing here(it was like 2001 or something). anyhow, i believe it will solve a great precentage of the problems. im not saying that u HAVE to buy it or anything, but it worked for and i believed it only because a family member of mine told me(who could u trust better than family=). all in all, it will remove that pesky wallpaper and clear up the same pop up over and over again.

My daughter

My daughter got this crap off of a redirector from my space watching a funny video. I can’t uninstall it out of my programs. This is my first dealings with this monster and norton 360 can’t get it out of my programs.

Please help!

Please help! I need advice. I also got this anitvirusXP2008 i think from a link on allfreelogo.com. AVG detected it, so i moved it to vault but then noticed it had installed itself anyway. The picture from the desktop dissapeared it was blank white, I did a search and deleted all the files I thought pertained to it. I removed it from add/remove prog., then I tried to do a system restore to a couple days back which I had made a restore point… heres the thing, It didn’t let me go back to other dates, the calendar was there but with the only restore point being right after antivirusxp08 was installed. I did an AVG complete scan and nothing was found, then I restarted the computer. So here is where I’m at and what I need help with…

My screensaver and desktop tab is missing from the desktop properties, my desktop is brightblue but my icons are there, and I can’t restore to a certain date at all! Please help.

Crap

Crap… this thing install itself without me knowing while I was online… By the time I realize it, I can’t uninstall it and it keep scanning my laptop. crap. I’m not a computer expert so I don’t really sure I can use the instructions without killing the laptop by accident. now I have to reformat the whole damn thing since it’s better and furthermore this is my dad’s laptop!!!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Friday, September 5, 2008

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