Messages

126

General Software Discussion / Re: Help/Advice with TrueCrypt (and free space wiping)?

« on: June 28, 2009, 03:18 PM »

Late reply, have been getting backed up with email (8 accounts and AOL's spam filter sucks big time...)

-wreckedcarzz

If you are on AOL you've got bigger problems than I thought. 

-Innuendo (June 27, 2009, 03:06 PM)

No longer as my ISP (thank heavens ), but I do have 4 remaining e-mail accounts with them...

127

General Software Discussion / Microsoft Security Essentials (Morro) Beta

« on: June 25, 2009, 09:10 PM »

Well, I missed the set ~48 hour (I've read 75k download limit) download window from Microsoft, however I did still manage to obtain a copy and have it running on my machine now (alongside Spyware Terminator and Threatfire, no problems).

Figured I would give my opinion/experience thus far and maybe PM a link to the installer to those that may be inclined to give it a test of their own...

My experience:

The setup is straightforward and fast. It takes a whole 60 seconds from launch (of Setup) to launch (of MSE) - Windows Validation is tested before installation, and since mine has already passed it took ~1 second to see that and pass me on through. Once finished, it prompted me to start MSE and download updates + run a quick scan.

Home screen and idle tray icon:



The checking+download+installation of updates took maybe 2 minutes,

Update screen:


with the scan around 10 (I didn't watch the window, MSE allows you to even completely close the GUI and the scan will continue, as seen via the Notification Area icon). No threats found.

Scan screen:


I disabled ThreatFire and Spyware Terminator so that they wouldn't do anything and went off to do some work - I am also giving Google Chrome another shot at defeating Firefox (unlikely, but Chrome is fast... different topic, different time), so I used Windows Explorer to browse through my Downloads folder on my Server. I opened the "Programs" folder, sorted by "ILikeToMoveIt" (available here at the forum) and Explorer seemed to freeze in time. about 15 seconds later I got a scary message from MSE - it found 1.... no, 2 threats. Viruses in my downloads folder! I opened up the Details pane to find it flagged 7-Zip Portable (from PortableApps.com) and my ATI Catalyst Drivers as threats. But wait, now 2 more are here! Another portable app installer, and my printer drivers! I told it to Allow all 4, and hit the button to "Apply Actions". Somehow ignoring 4 things takes a lengthy ~45 seconds, but it informed me that my system was again "Secure" and I closed the window.

A few minutes later I got a MSN Messenger (the old school one that came with XP... yeah, that dinosaur) style popup from MSE - all I saw was a line of text and the green checkmark computer image from the MSE Status tab - I was typing and it was dismissed somehow

The settings page, although appearing at first glance to be tweak-mania, will disappoint most everyone above a casual user (pretty much everyone here at DC). You get the basic run of the mill options, and Microsoft's SpyNet option (that you are UNABLE to opt-out of, and MAY send personally identification information to - however it supposedly won't be used for purposes other than MSE and Defender ).

Settings pages:









A scheduler and history of what you have Quarantined and Allowed recently are also available in the GUI,

History page (scheduler above, top Settings page screenshot):


but other than that you can't even exit the application (unless you use everyone's favorite key combo, C-A-D, and kill the process).

My opinion:

While it isn't great, it isn't as disappointing as I was expecting - false positives aren't automatically removed (ONLY because I changed the option before it found them, OTHERWISE it would have removed them permanently, so take note of that! ) and it gives you a nice little window when it finds something. The GUI, while basic, keeps it just right for always-on protection and the occasional scan.


Anyone else have MSE? Have an opinion? If you would like the installer, send a PM my way and I'll get you a link (or some googling may work, but Microsoft may be tearing it down from 3rd party download sites already).

128

General Software Discussion / Re: Help/Advice with TrueCrypt (and free space wiping)?

« on: June 24, 2009, 05:48 PM »

Late reply, have been getting backed up with email (8 accounts and AOL's spam filter sucks big time...) so I forgot about the notification

The flash drive is FAT32, not NTFS, so that limitation would be invalid... correct? I'll run a full Checkdisk on the drive tonight before bed just to make sure.

129

General Software Discussion / Re: Help/Advice with TrueCrypt (and free space wiping)?

« on: June 15, 2009, 01:17 PM »

And how is an absent-minded person going to remember his TrueCrypt passwords? Forgetting those would be a bad thing.

-Innuendo (June 15, 2009, 08:37 AM)

  Repetition is my friend

Another question: I ran Eraser on the flash drive before bed last night (morning, was 3AM when i posted) and when I woke up it said that it had successfully wiped the free space, however it could not delete the folder entries and recommended I run CheckDisk on the drive. Is this something that I should be concerned about at all, and should I really run CD? I've read where some people here at DC have had less-than-positive experiences with it

130

General Software Discussion / Re: Help/Advice with TrueCrypt (and free space wiping)?

« on: June 15, 2009, 05:18 AM »

Out of curiosity (I'm not this insane/worried), could one create a TC volume contained within the hidden TC volume? (Thereby making a volume, in a volume, in a volume - it would be interesting )

Also, TC is on the flash drive itself and not on any of my computers, so anyone that was looking for it would have to have the drive itself to find it. But I'm not hiding from the tall black men in the big black van that are "here to help you" , just other overly-curious kids at school that have the want and knowledge to rummage through my data like it is a toy store (we have some high level tech classes that can be twisted to assist in hacking and the like, and I had a 120GB hard drive stolen (at school!) last year with some data on it), as well as simply losing the drive and not having to freak out because of the couple GB of personal data on the drive is now in someones possession.

f0dder, I don't have any direct or indirect experience with any of this, but it strikes me that it doesn't matter how big the man is who is after you, but rather how big of an example they want to make out of you. 

-Innuendo (June 14, 2009, 09:06 PM)

Heh, that's true. But in that situation if you could turn the tables, you could make a complete idiot out of whomever was after you (look, he says this this and this, but it's not true because this this and this! <begin media attention swarm>)

...
you can run TCHunt over a drive to find likely TC containers.
And I'm sure any Federal Authorities would have even better versions of similar software.

-4wd (June 14, 2009, 10:44 PM)

TCH found my volume, but it also found about 15 more false positives. It also detected a couple corrupted files (in addition to those 15), making it somewhat arguable that your file is really just some corrupt data (and by creating corrupt data with it within the same folder, that would assist in the argument, would it not? Some whacked-out software went bananas on this folder and you're to blame because it looks like it could, possibly, hold encrypted data?? ).


Off-topic: I'm really absent minded... I started typing this reply about 12 hours ago and completely forgot about the tab

131

General Software Discussion / Re: Help/Advice with TrueCrypt (and free space wiping)?

« on: June 14, 2009, 03:43 PM »

Okay, I'll go with a simple one-pass, all-zero wipe on the free space for both drives. I don't need to completely wipe all the data (DBAN), but I might make a backup of the data and do it anyways. Not sure yet. Nothing illegal (I'm not storing like a GB of torrents or something, but I know some that do ) or anything that would cause legal issues; just taxes, (almost all of my+parents+computer) passwords, important data files, etc. Stuff that has the potential to wreck the family's online, and offline, assets. Hence the reason I'm trying to be as thorough as possible.

@f0dder: I did the multiple-algorithm setup because it appeared to be the most "secure" of the options, providing what (if I read correctly) appears to be 3 layers of 512-bit cryptic security. But I could be completely off on that- this is new ground for me (haven't tinkered with encryption for the last 5 years or so).

132

General Software Discussion / Help/Advice with TrueCrypt (and free space wiping)?

« on: June 14, 2009, 12:28 AM »

Okay, I'm going to try and explain this in the least confusing way that I can and see if someone can provide me with some guidance, as this is my first attempt at really locking down data and utilizing a form of encryption for important use (not experimentation).

I have a FAT32 formatted 16GB flash drive that I carry around with me everywhere. Over the last couple of months I've saved some important data onto it that I can't have anyone unauthorized getting to. I'm looking for advice as to what I can do in addition to what I am doing now, and what precautions I should take. Basically, if anyone were to get hold of my flash drive at this point, it would not be very difficult (although not exactly easy, either) to get access to ~75 passwords, data files, personal info and other stuff I have stored away on it.

What I have done so far:

• Downloaded TrueCrypt and extracted it via the installer, than fired up the Traveler Disk Setup and plopped TC into my PortableApps directory, allowing me to run it easily from Geek.menu or the PortableApps Launcher.
• Started it up and created a hidden volume (invisible, encrypted volume inside a volume) with the external ("decoy") volume size being 2.5GB, FAT (10 char alpha password and AES-Twofish-Serpent encryption and the Whirlpool hash algorithm).
• Created the internal/hidden volume, using a 22 character alpha-numeric password, at a size of 2.0GB with the same AES-Twofish-Serpent/Whirlpool setup.
• Moved the sensitive data to the hidden volume with TeraCopy

What I need to do/know:

• I need to wipe the "real" drive's free space contents beyond recovery (as well as my C:\ drive); I plan on using Eraser to do that, however it is a flash drive and I don't want to wear the read/write cycles out too quickly - what deletion technique is most effective, and how many times should it be run (for a flash drive, and a regular hard drive)? I have read that a single, all-zero free space pass proves to be unrecoverable, but I need to ensure that this data can not be recovered and read from the "real" drive.
• Also, can tools like Eraser and Defraggler/<your defragment tool of choice here> work on TC volumes, or will those possibly corrupt/cripple the volume?
• And a final, and very important question, how can I make sure that the TC volume (and the program itself) cannot be deleted under any circumstances (ignoring formatting, unless that can be blocked, too? ) unless the command comes from my user account on my home computer? I would assume it would be permissions-based, but I don't know how that would work on other computers... suggestions?

For those of you wondering why I do not simply encrypt the whole drive and be done with it, it is because that would deny me access to the contents of the drive when I am on a machine with Limited/Standard user privileges (ex: school) and that would defeat a large purpose of the drive (as well as TC being on the drive in question... kind of like locking your keys in your car, except your car has a briefcase of papers that you need really badly, sitting on the back seat taunting you ).


Guidance, anyone? Anything I can change, do better, modify? I'm open to anything that will help

133

Living Room / Re: An unusual "Recent Items" context menu option

« on: June 09, 2009, 08:16 PM »

@MilesAhead:

Didn't think of a registry scan.. plus it is in multiple locations so that might cause issues.

@4wd:
Google would have been the logical way to go, but for some reason it slipped my mind and I came right to DC

Actually, from your first link, a comment says that the option "only shows on folders set as "Music details"" - right clicking Recent Items and choosing Properties -> Customize shows that it is, in fact, set to "Music Details"; changing it back to "All Items" fixed it.

Thanks

134

Living Room / An unusual "Recent Items" context menu option

« on: June 09, 2009, 05:08 PM »

Alright, I've been racking my brain for a week or so trying to figure out what- or more specifically WHY- I have this context menu item in my "Recent Items" list.



"Shop for music online" is the entry in question. It *only* appears in the Recent Items right-click context menu or when I right click on a folder in Music, nowhere else. I didn't notice it at any specific time (unsure if a certain software caused it) so I'm not sure what created it. My dad's Vista machine (also Home Premium SP1) does NOT have the entry. Both machines have WMP11 and iTunes 8.1, and upon clicking the option I am directed to a Microsoft page to buy music, looking somewhat like a primitive Windows XP-themed music store



So I guess my question(s) is... does anyone else have it, and how can I remove it? And why is it here if it looks like it was designed for XP (wouldn't it be more logical to detect the OS and switch to a Vista-themed site instead)?

EDIT: Also, there are NO music or video files in Recent Items, only some images. Regardless, the entry appears even on a fresh boot or after a CCleaner run, when the list is empty.

135

Living Room / Re: Where did your DC user I.D come from?

« on: June 03, 2009, 08:30 PM »

I made mine up back when I was 7 (nearly 10 years ago now) when I had to get a kids-AOL account (knowing my dad's password defeated that, but, moving on..)

I have always been big into racing games and I crash a LOT in them (well, less now, but back then ) and decided to base my Username on that. The AOL Usernames "wrecked", "wreckedcar" and "wreckedcars" was taken - so I decided to get creative and make "wreckedcarzz"; the "wrecked" obviously meaning crashed, "car" just explaining that it was a car crash, and the two "zz" symbolize the two crashed and mushed up cars within this ideal scenario.

And "wreckedcarzz" was born

Other usernames I have/used:

Spoiler

Alternatively, over the years with AOL and the various times I tinkered with it, I also ended up with some other usernames based off this one:

wreckedcarzzz (no longer active)
wreckedcarzzzz
wreckedcarzzzzz
WreckedGTACarzz (from my GTA3-crazy phase)

Also, at OMGPOP.com you can find me under the name BabyTiger, and at various sites now I go by the name Midnight Wolf (also my Xfire nickname); both derived from my fursona (nsfw)

136

Living Room / Re: Need help finding a Windows XP Home Edition ISO (for LEGAL use)

« on: June 02, 2009, 01:36 PM »

Were you able to get it?  I've been trying to solve this same problem- installing with only a key not a cd.  But deposit files doesn't have the ISO posted anymore.

-wraith808 (June 02, 2009, 10:18 AM)

My friend said he started the download (he is on a 200MB/day cap) so I'm not sure yet if it is working. I linked him the Retail version of Home (the ISO and not the Torrent)

Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3 (x86) Retail CD (English)

Direct Download via HTTP: en_windows_xp_home_with_service_pack_3_x86_cd_x14-92413.iso
Size: 564.72 MB
SHA1: 5a6b959ad24d15dc7ebd85e501b83d105d1b37c6
ISO/CRC: FFFFFFFF

so hopefully he can get it downloaded and burned and everything will go to plan...

137

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: June 01, 2009, 08:32 PM »

Some of my demotivational posters; for anyone into racing games or the like, these might make you chuckle (the first will make adults cringe )

America's Future Drivers - Speeding past you, one teenager at a time


NOS - Helping me pwn you since 2003


Nitrous Oxide - You may have a V12 and over 1000 horsepower, but I've got NOS


[Alternate] Nitrous Oxide - You may have a V12 and over 1000 horsepower, but I've got NOS


(221MPH is 355.66KPH, and 235MPH is 378.19KPH)

138

Living Room / Re: Need help finding a Windows XP Home Edition ISO (for LEGAL use)

« on: June 01, 2009, 07:20 PM »

Just what I was looking for - a clean, retail ISO

Thanks

139

Living Room / Need help finding a Windows XP Home Edition ISO (for LEGAL use)

« on: June 01, 2009, 06:40 PM »

Hey all,

A friend of mine is getting a new computer (used) in about a week and the current owner says that it has "a bunch of stuff on it" and we both think it would be best to start off with a fresh Windows install - except the machine only comes with the Windows Product Key (no disks/recovery partition at all). I have been surfing torrent sites for a Windows XP Home Edition SP3 ISO, but all I can find is cracked/illegal versions. Can anyone help me out? It doesn't need to be SP3 (that would be best, but it isn't a problem otherwise) as long as it is for Home Edition and is a legal/non-cracked copy.

Anyone?

140

General Software Discussion / Re: Mozilla Contest: How Would You Improve Tabbed Browsing?

« on: May 31, 2009, 09:25 PM »

Well, I have Tab Mix Plus (a great little add-on, customizable in every aspect) and I found myself being drug into a debate on Firefox themes by a friend of mine - it went from a small IM battle to a full-scale "this theme is better than yours" and in the process I actually found several very nice themes that I installed, putting each one in it's own new tab as I went browsing...

The result? (Non-trimmed version here: ImageShack)


I think I've hit the limit of "tabbed browsing" as-is

141

Site/Forum Features / Re: DC Server blocking sessionid - requiring cookies enabled to browse forum

« on: May 31, 2009, 06:45 PM »

Not sure if it is related, but I got a random "403 Access Denied" (I think that was the number, but it *was* Access Denied) error yesterday when loading up the forum (my homepage) - a refresh fixed it, but that was the first time I've ever seen anything like that here...

142

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of GTAIV for PC [Ranting]

« on: May 31, 2009, 12:13 PM »

Just for show, here is one of the two screenshots I took while I had GTAIV installed...

800x600 with low settings and I was getting 7FPS



(FPS counter is from Xfire In-game)

143

Site/Forum Features / Re: Ability to copy geshi formatted code text.. help me test?

« on: May 30, 2009, 12:06 AM »

Actually, it doesn't work for me. Just makes the page jump to top.

-app103 (May 29, 2009, 09:54 PM)

Same here, Firefox 3.0.10 on Vista SP1

144

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of GTAIV for PC [Ranting]

« on: May 29, 2009, 02:47 PM »

@Innuendo:
I didn't notice I put the wrong spelling of role I'll fix that now

I've played GTA2, GTA3, Vice City, Liberty City Stories, San Andreas and now a tiny bit of GTA4 and I still find it fun, but I'm in it for the free roaming world and not the actual storyline or anything. (GTA3 was the sh*t, I still play it as well)

I got off of console gaming due to my want to mod/hack/tweak/etc, but the point of consoles not being upgradable (the next big thing? ) is something to point out as well.

I might go and re-install GTAIV and grab some images (with Xfire In-Game on, showing the horrible FPS count) and maybe use my small camera/camcorder to get some video (letting the CPU take video as well would lead to a possible hard lockup). It took me the better part of 45 minutes to get from the menu through the first mission

145

Living Room / Re: Wow wowowowowow!!!!

« on: May 29, 2009, 02:37 PM »

Abundant win can only be achieved in the absence or lack thereof of fail, however in rare cases both can apply when all logic is lost to the LOLs

Epic is unrelated to both and can be applicable to either

Example:


Versus:

146

Circle Dock / Re: Rotation in Circle Dock.

« on: May 28, 2009, 01:12 AM »

Rotating the mouse wheel up/down should cause CD to rotate. If you're on a laptop with a trackpad, I'm not sure...

147

Circle Dock / Re: why can't run nfsmw & pes6

« on: May 27, 2009, 11:59 PM »

NFSMW is Need for Speed: Most Wanted (a great game)

That's all the insight I can provide though... need more details!

148

General Software Discussion / Re: Wakoopa's First "The State of Apps" Report

« on: May 26, 2009, 08:18 PM »

Interesting article but something else bothers me: is Wakoopa tool working on PC all of the time? Does it report loaded software continuously?

...

PS. I wonder how many users have something like "crack.exe" in their stats

-fenixproductions (May 26, 2009, 05:34 PM)

Yes, it runs and tracks constantly (unless you close it, of course). It uploads stats every couple hours to update your profile. I like it because it is interesting to see my work-to-play ratio (work being anything non-gaming, ex: Firefox, OpenOffice, Postbox, Visual Studio, etc) as well as being able to find new programs related to ones that I am using that may be better suited to what I need.

And you would be surprised at the number of keygens and cracks I have seen on profiles; Wakoopa even has a generic "Keygen" program page... not that you would find that on my stats.

(Interesting that the Keygen page has a download button... )

Also, on a related note, Wakoopa Tracker for Linux came out last week. You can see it tracking Nautilus and GNOME Terminal, as well as some other things, if you look at my stats overview.

149

Living Room / Re: Wow wowowowowow!!!!

« on: May 25, 2009, 02:36 PM »

This whole thread is LOL-worthy

But DC is full of uber-epic-win and awesomeness

DonationCoder.com - a dish of AWESOME AND WIN, served with a pint of iced PWNT.
...that could be a 4chan slogan or something.

-f0dder (May 25, 2009, 04:14 AM)

 

150

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Sort files into folders based on type

« on: May 25, 2009, 02:28 PM »

Glad someone else got some use out of it as well, I thought it would be too specific. wr975 really did a great job with it- I have modified it slightly to run automatically and let Task Manager run it at midnight every day, and it works EXACTLY how I needed

EDIT: And ILikeToMoveIt is managing 13.6GB of data for me (and counting) - still running blazing fast every time