Messages

151

General Software Discussion / Re: Mustang Browser for Windows (chromium based)

« on: June 27, 2015, 08:22 AM »

So, to reference the OP, what makes this Chromium variant different than the umpteen other Chromium variants out there?

152

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: June 27, 2015, 08:20 AM »

To further add to the "Why isn't the Windows 10 reservation notifier showing up" mystery, my friend who just bought a shiny new Dell XPS 13 a few months ago has tried every trick under the sun and still cannot convince the notifier to show up.

Every trick, every hack says it has completed successfully, but still no notifier.

I guess it's not a huge deal, though. On July 29th the notifier will show up for everyone regardless as it has a Windows 10 compatibility checker built-in so people can see if their PC is up to running the new OS.

153

Living Room / Re: Bing moving to encrypt search traffic

« on: June 21, 2015, 12:36 PM »

And it's quite possible that you're right. The problem is that they passed up the chance to just say that in plain English, choosing instead to dance around the specifics ... And that - These days - throws up a flag.

-Stoic Joker (June 21, 2015, 07:47 AM)

I think, more specifically, these days everything has to go through the marketing department where they sprinkle technical announcements with their special blend of buzz words and obfuscation that blurs the original, intended version of an announcement.

154

Living Room / Re: Bing moving to encrypt search traffic

« on: June 20, 2015, 03:50 PM »

Does anyone have an actual referrer string?

-TaoPhoenix (June 20, 2015, 03:21 PM)

I'd be very surprised if it's anything more than the standard referrer string that informs a web site what web site the visitor is coming from that has been around for eons.

155

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: June 20, 2015, 03:43 PM »

I read some Microsoft blog where one of their programmers talked about how they have been really working on trimming the fat from Windows due to the fact that they are trying to get the resource usage down because Windows 10 is going to be their 'unified OS for all devices'.

I think if your device can run Windows 7 or 8.x comfortably, it should be able to run Windows 10 at least as well. Microsoft has really 'drilled down and tune' the OS to run 'clean' because Microsoft's master plan is to have some iteration of this OS run on every Windows device that isn't a phone.

156

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: June 20, 2015, 10:37 AM »

What I can see here is it seems like a ridiculously easy way to get from the crippled non-Pro versions of XP/Vista to 10 Pro possibly.  Anyway, I'm going to install it on the netbook just for laughs and will see what'll happen on July 30

-4wd (June 20, 2015, 03:09 AM)

You may have a pretty good shot of it working what with MS trying their best to write Windows 10 so it will not only work on desktops and laptops, but tablets as well.

I have a feeling it will all depend upon your netbook. Some netbook manufacturers put the equivalent of a basic laptop inside a netbook shell. Other manufacturers took....cheaper routes and went with more basic components.

157

General Software Discussion / Re: Nifty FREE Utility to do almost anything to a filename in Windows

« on: June 20, 2015, 10:32 AM »

Let me say that DOS is a damned fascinating world.  

-Giampy (June 19, 2015, 08:09 AM)

..so say the people who didn't have to live through it!  

158

Living Room / Re: Bing moving to encrypt search traffic

« on: June 20, 2015, 10:28 AM »

...And just WTF is "Query Term Data"?? They go into 3 paragraphs of smokescreen to attempt to outline what is(/n't) about to happen. But they never clarify - like by example - what it is.

Here's a for instance: I do a bing search for Nipple Clamps, select a site from the Bing results, and Bing tells the site OP that I was looking for what exactly???

-Stoic Joker (June 18, 2015, 11:22 AM)

After reading the blog post, my interpretation of this announcement is, and I'll use your example, this:

If you do a Bing search for nipple clamps and select a site from the results, what's passed on to the site is a referrer letting the site owner that you came via Bing. However, what search terms you used to get there are not disclosed. The site owner can use Bing's query tools and discover that 17 people did search for nipple clamps before visiting their site, but nothing that personally identifies you will be disclosed.

Just my interpretation of my announcement, though. What may actually transpire may indeed be more insidious.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't use Bing as my search engine, have never used Bing as my search engine, and probably never will use Bing as my search engine.

159

General Software Discussion / Re: LastPass hacked

« on: June 17, 2015, 12:38 PM »

The short reply to this problem is that everyone will most likely be fine and you should at the very least change your master password. Best practices recommends you change all your passwords.

Now, let's examine what happened and the statement issued by LastPass, shall we?

Very, very few cyber-attacks are witnessed and monitored first-hand by human eyes on the scene to watch what the hacker does as events unfold. Nearly all attacks are examined by a security team after the fact by analyzing server logs and a bunch of other forensic analysis techniques. These methods are not fool-proof. Some hackers are good enough to erase their tracks behind them either partially or completely.

LastPass's interpretation of events is most likely accurate, but there is a margin of error. Something could have been missed or something misinterpreted. We're all humans and we all make mistakes.

Now I'm sure that LastPass's security team analyzed everything to the best of their ability and made a comprehensive report of everything they know happened, everything they know didn't happen, everything that that probably happened, and everythign that probably didn't happen. However, the public does not get access to that report.

That report goes to the legal team who examines it and decides what needs to be legally disclosed and what doesn't need to necessarily be divulged as it may hurt the corporate image and they compose a detailed report of the facts. However, we don''t get to see that report, either.

That report goes to the principals, executives, and the board of directors of LastPass for further scrutiny and for a verdict on what needs to be divulged to the public. Yeah....we don't get to see that one, either.

Finally, that report comes down off the mountain-top where it lands in the marketing department who puts their own special spin on things to minimize anything that might appear apocalyptic.   That's the announcement the public sees.

Everyone is free to analyze what has transpired and make their own decisions, but if I were a LastPass customer I'd be considering alternatives because this is not their first security breach. Even if nothing was compromised this time or the last, hackers greatest asset is that they have time on their hands. Lots of it. Sooner or later if they are determined enough, they'll find their way in.

In security circles, there is an anecdote that is always said in jest that there are two different kinds of companies in the world: the ones that have been hacked by the Chinese and the ones that don't know they've been hacked by the Chinese.

Safeguard your data the best way you see fit is my advice. Only you can decide how important your data is.

160

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: June 17, 2015, 12:23 PM »

I tried that and it still wouldn't show up on my Netbook. Now I'm even more certain that it doesn't meet the minimum requirements. 

-Deozaan (June 15, 2015, 03:32 PM)

Netbooks are dastardly creations that are the bane of every person everywhere who has to support one of them. One of the criteria of manufacturing a netbook seemed to be to make it barely adequate to run the current Microsoft OS of the time and sometimes they didn't even do that.

I wouldn't have any sort of expectations that your netbook will be able to ever run anything except for the OS it left the factory with.

161

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AdGuard: the better Ad Muncher?

« on: June 14, 2015, 12:04 PM »

Currently it seems adguard supports ssl filtering for all ssl (minus the exclusion whitelist), this seems to be too all encompassing from a security stand point.

-Cloq (June 10, 2015, 09:12 PM)

I see what you want now. You want all SSL sites to be not filtered unless specifically added by the user, i.e. you want it to work the opposite of how it does now.

I hope if they implement your suggestion that they add it as an alternate method rather than replacing the existing one. Ad companies have stumbled onto the fact that most ad blockers cannot handle encrypted content and are moving towards HTTPS ad delivery systems. Having to trawl through web pages looking for HTTPS ad server references does not sound like fun. Heck, even using AdGuard's "Block this element" function numerous times per web page doesn't sound much like fun, either.

162

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AdGuard: the better Ad Muncher?

« on: June 14, 2015, 11:59 AM »

Think I will wait till adguard gives you a way to whitelist sites from ssl filtering.

-Cloq (June 10, 2015, 08:32 PM)

They have offered this feature for a while now. I've had to whitelist a couple financial sites from SSL filtering in order for them to work correctly. Again, you can turn off SSL filtering completely if you wish as well.

163

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: June 14, 2015, 11:54 AM »

Well, I found a fix for those of us who the update notification stubbornly refused to show up. I have tried this method on both of my troublesome laptops and the notification popped up immediately after.

Just copy/paste the updated batch file at the top of this Microsoft Community web page into your text editor, save it, and run it from an Administrator-enabled command prompt.

Provided you have all the required updates already installed, when the script finishes, you'll have the icon you seek sitting in your taskbar.

Hope this helps.

164

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this

« on: June 14, 2015, 11:49 AM »

I'm going to offer an alternate solution...it's what I use to keep track of download URLs. It's a two-prong approach. I use a download manager, Internet Download Accelerator, that saves comments/URLs in descript.ion files. I then use a file manager, Directory Opus, that recognizes descript.ion files to display the comments.

It's an archaic system as descript.ion files go way back to the days of MS-DOS, but they still have use in today's world. I was very sad when ACDSee dropped the feature of supporting descript.ion files.

165

Living Room / Re: The End of my Macbook Pro Experiment

« on: June 08, 2015, 06:54 PM »

The Mac's main remaining advantage at this point is reputation, the *idea* that it's easier to use.

-JavaJones (June 08, 2015, 12:57 PM)

Well, technically the Mac *is* easier to use by virtue of the fact that OS X software usually has one-third the options and settings of something comparable on Windows so therefore, there being less to learn makes it easier to use.

166

Non-Windows Software / Re: Android: recommend form-filler/pasword manager, please?

« on: June 07, 2015, 06:57 PM »

What I really wanted was a password keeper that can automatically fill forms.  From that, it seems that's not universally possible owing to restrictions built into the OS.  Sigh.

-rjbull (June 07, 2015, 04:16 PM)

The floating windows do work pretty well and I seem to remember there being Sticky Password listed in the list of plugins inside Dolphin....

167

Living Room / Re: The End of my Macbook Pro Experiment

« on: June 07, 2015, 06:55 PM »

My Dell XPS 13 owning friend pointed out to me that one can still order an XPS 13 (or just check out pricing) from this web page.

168

General Software Discussion / Re: Newer password keepers/form-fillers - anyone using Dashlane or 1Password?

« on: June 07, 2015, 10:39 AM »

they have it well hidden - but if you click on e.g. the Android or iPhone links bottom of page - both of those are $9.99 for a lifetime license

-tomos (June 06, 2015, 03:42 PM)

Well, that's most certainly a reasonable price, especially since that purchase goes through the Play Store and I have credit rewards sitting there doing nothing. I decided to check it out.

The Good:
- Enpass will import your data from no less than 19 different password managers.
- Watching the 'How it works' video for the Android app shows a lot of care and power went into it.
- Sync devices with a folder or an ownCloud setup. Keep your data on your equipment if you wish.
- Names and number of categories for data is extremely customizable.
- A version for nearly OS imaginable.

The Bad:
- Mandatory provision of your email address in order to obtain a download link for the Windows PC version.
- No browser integration or auto-fill on the Windows PC version.

The Indifferent:
The developer is based out of India. That doesn't matter to me (hence, the indifference), but I mention it here as some people are sensitive about where their security software comes from.

Conclusion:
If this were the mid 00's, I wouldn't be concerned too much about auto-fill browser integration, but it's 2015. If you want to compete in the for-pay space, it's a feature that is a must-have. I'll keep an eye on it, but it's not up for my use case yet.

Also, since there's no good reason to require a person's email address in order to obtain a download link, I hereby by give the Enpass developers a digital neener-neener, by disclosing their s00per-sekr1t download URL for the Windows PC version thusly with extreme prejudice.

169

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: June 07, 2015, 09:51 AM »

We have a couple laptops over here that haven't been used in 6+ months so I dragged them out, charged them up, and did the Windows Update Boogie on both of them...both are on Windows 8.1 Update 1, but after the update process, neither has offered to reserve Windows 10.

Maybe there's a delay or something and the notification pops up after a day or two. I shall wait and see. July 29 is still a long away off.

170

Living Room / Re: End of a good thing

« on: June 07, 2015, 09:48 AM »

To get to a Walmart from here is about a 2 hour journey by train then bus.  That's to get to the bus stop.  It's another 10 minutes or so just to walk across the parking lot into the store.

-MilesAhead (June 06, 2015, 02:06 PM)

You must live in one of the Vaults from the Fallout games. I thought everybody lived 20 minutes away from at least 2 Wal-Mart stores. I'm not even in a large metropolitan city and yet I'm about 20 minutes away from four of their stores.

What Wal-Mart should have done was leave the free shipping to your FedEx location, but just instituted a minimum order amount.

171

Living Room / Re: The End of my Macbook Pro Experiment

« on: June 07, 2015, 09:44 AM »

My best friend just ordered the non-Touch version of the XPS 13 a couple months ago. He absolutely loves the thing. Takes it with him wherever he goes, even from room to room with him when he's at home. He's still in the honeymoon period, though, and he often gets hyper-critical of shortcomings after the honeymoon period is over with his purchases so we'll see...

Apparently, you can still order them, but you have to call Dell in order to do it & they don't take orders on their web site for it anymore. How weird...wonder if a product refresh is in the works for Windows 10? Unless it's a dire emergency, no one should buy a laptop this close to a OS release date.

172

Non-Windows Software / Re: Android: recommend form-filler/pasword manager, please?

« on: June 06, 2015, 03:28 PM »

All my passwords start in KeePass, and I use KeePassDroid on Android.  This works well enough, probably because I also run Clipper+ , but I'd quite like to have an automatic form-filler like RoboForm - preferably without having to pay an annual subscription...  Any suggestions, please?

-rjbull (June 04, 2015, 05:01 PM)

I kindly submit for your consideration Sticky Password. You can buy a lifetime license half-price here.

173

General Software Discussion / Re: Newer password keepers/form-fillers - anyone using Dashlane or 1Password?

« on: June 06, 2015, 03:23 PM »

i like and use Enpass. excellent multiplatform support. it does *all* of them. osx/windows/linux/andriod/ios. even blackberry!  it lets you sync through your dropbox account too.

-Gwen7 (June 04, 2015, 09:04 PM)

This one looked interesting, but I really hate web sites that talk about paying for their product & they never mention a price.

174

General Software Discussion / Re: Newer password keepers/form-fillers - anyone using Dashlane or 1Password?

« on: June 06, 2015, 03:23 PM »

I am trying out Sticky Password as an alternative to LastPass.

-Jibz (June 05, 2015, 01:28 AM)

Dropped in to suggest this one. You can choose to either sync through the cloud or you can opt to keep syncing restricted to your WiFi network.

175

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PowerISO 6.0 (100% Discount) - CD/DVD image file processing tool

« on: June 06, 2015, 02:11 PM »

I'm a huge fan of the Daemon Tools line of products, but they can be expensive if you don't catch them on sale. Although, they have a new release of Daemon Tools Lite in which you can add advanced features piecemeal to customize the solution you want.

I bought a lifetime license to the Pro Advanced product a few years ago at a reduced price and it will do everything PowerISO can and a few things it can't.

Back to PowerISO, though, on the Buy page of their web site I noticed the text:

"After registration, you can:
   Receive the full pure version and the registration code immediately via email."

What manner of sorcery is this? Does this mean you have to buy it before you can get an installer not infested with malware & PUPS?