Mapping made stylish and simple with MindMeister

I simply love this tool. I think it's even better than Bubbl.us...don't take me off your delicious bookmarks just yet (!)... MindMeister offers something a little different which Bubble.us, at least for the time being (see their blog for updates about the new version), does not.

These are the features I particularly love:

1. Work on your mind-maps off-line: with Google Gears off-line library, you can work on all your maps wherever you are. Although Bubbl.us maps can be added to even if off-line (as the main flash files have already loaded) you cannot save the work without going on-line again.
2. Add ideas to your maps on-the-fly: Insert ideas into your default mind map on MindMeister directly from your Mac Dashboard or Windows Sidebar.
3. Easy images into mind-map: Insert images from the default library, have MindMeister insert an image based on the key word of a node or just upload your own photos or illustrations - fantastic!

And many other tools...



Here is one mind-map that I made for a job interview a couple of days ago (got the job too!): Tom's Learning Journey. Just click the image on the left to see a larger version. There are many possibilities with this online tool; I have only used the basics!


The only catch, if you want to use the free version, is that you can only store 6 maps. Mind you, you can export your brilliant creations in various formats incl. .pdf or as an image so you could always get rid of a mind-map and keep creating new ones. It is rather cheap to upgrade though, take a look on the main site.

How to find and remove a Gumblar.cn injection attack

Gumblar.cn is a website that's been listed as suspicious and contains several exploit scripts and trojans that might harm and infect computers. You may have come across it or noticed that a site is 'connecting to gumblar.cn'in the left-hand corner of the Firefox browser? The scary thing is that 99% of browsers never spot it. If you regularly scan your server for vulnerabilities and have tight security then you should have noticed it by now, but it's always useful to check.

If your site has been 'injected' with the script there are several forums currently trying to solve the problem. As yet I haven't come across a solid solution as it appears that the script which is injected (which hijacks the site) changes from the original code to which pages it affects. Annoying if you have 6000+ pages of course : ) . As the virus obfuscates the script (some characters are replaced with their numeric codes) it's very hard to find it, let alone remove it!

How to find it:

As the script varies from machine to machine it's of course tricky to locate so I will only mention how I discovered the virus on a colleague's website. I first came across a file named image.php which was stored in the images folder (which now has been renamed to something else) which stored this code section:


base64_decode( mumbo-jumbo here)

This basically decodes whatever the main code is elsewhere in other files and sends the info to the Gumbar website to do, most likely, unpleasant things with your information.

So, I found the decoder, now all I had to do was to locate the main script. After reading a wide selection of posts about the topic (some listed below) I started searching for different script snippets using Windows Search (words and phrases in the file) and eventually I found the one that matched my files:

.replace(/#/g,'%');eval(unescape

...and there it was in the middle of the code: 75mbla#hidden!

I am not sure how it managed to get in, so to speak. Various posts suggest different things. The best thing to do it seems is to:

- Keep a tight ship: scan and check your server regularly and keep a secure password which cannot be guessed or hacked easily.

- Keep User Input Secure: Most sites have some form of user interaction so make sure that your script filters metacharacters from user input.
- Validate users' input to remove harmful code (thanx deKay for useful bit of information).

It doesn't seem that this virus is either keylogging your machine or collecting data, however info is still not 100% solid. Google reports the site:

"Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this website may harm your computer. [These] [a]ttack sites try to install programs that steal private information, use your computer to attack others, or damage your system.

Some attack sites intentionally distribute harmful software, but many are compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners."

but also states that:

"Over the past 90 days, gumblar.cn did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites."

Here are a few tools and websites that are useful to the problem:

Discussions about possible solutions:

Virus-Code Injected in PHP File of website

Great post: 12 Facts about the injected script

Good tools to get you started:
Top 10 Web Vulnerability Scanners

The Acunetix free edition has been used by a colleague of mine
Acunetix Security Scanner - Free Edition

Good luck!

E-Help online video ICT seminars

This is a great site: http://www.e-help.eu/seminars/index.htm particularly if you are interested in wider issues to do with ICT and History across the Key Stages and Levels. We hope you find them useful!

e-Help is a European Union funded project designed to promote the use of ICT in the history classroom. In addition, e-Help promotes ICT strategies for history being taught in a additional language context.

e-Help constitutes the work of 10 educational institutions: schools, universities, a professional association and an educational publisher, from six European countries.

Established in 2004, e-Help hosted seven conference meetings until September 2008, the end of the Comenius funding period. The videos and interactive seminars from those meetings are hosted here. e-Help also inspired a number of websites or 'microsites', pedagogic materials designed to case study good practice in history teaching and ICT.

In 2010 there will also be an e-Help book written by some of the members of the project and e-Help 'associates' many of whom have an international reputation in the field of history and ICT.

But the primary goal of e-Help is to produce a residential course for European educators. This will provide intensive hands-on training on the skills and applications modelled by this e-Help website.