Messages

201

Living Room / Re: New weapons in the file sharing war.

« on: February 09, 2012, 09:21 AM »

Edited my post too, as the problem here is that if torrent 'listing' sites are removed, then they can only go after the users -- and you can bet they will, as they have before. Once you are on the torrent network, you aren't anonymous (unless you were to take great pains to route your connection through intermediaries), so anyone else on the network can know your IP, and know you as a participant.

202

Living Room / Re: New weapons in the file sharing war.

« on: February 09, 2012, 09:19 AM »

The only thing I could imagine them adding is some sort of decentralized 'index' of available torrents, which would remove the necessity for all the torrent listing sites. I bet that is what they did, in fact, as it is the only thing that could be changed, with that claim made.

If so, now, instead of going after sites, they will go after participants.

203

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« on: February 09, 2012, 08:51 AM »

I would agree that Acronis surely works fine most all the time.

(I also use a tiered backup system... I have a copy on a NAS and online in addition to the acronis backups.  A bit paranoid... maybe... )

-wraith808 (February 09, 2012, 08:10 AM)

Not paranoid at all . You've learned (or reasoned), as I have, that backups themselves need backups, lol. The one other thing I'd like to caution people about is making sure your backups are secure, but not so secure that you can't unlock them. In other words, use a password, encrypt, but don't lose your password (or key)! It must be backed up too. Also, account for the possibility of head injury, don't rely only on your brain. As you age, you get more forgetful, and might not remember a password you set 5 years ago ;o.

204

General Software Discussion / Re: Cnet's Download.com and the installer scam

« on: February 09, 2012, 08:46 AM »

@Superboyac but how you get the traffic for your software them ? organic SEO ?

-supermimai (February 08, 2012, 06:40 PM)

OT maybe and old, but: Do not listen to the Black Hat SEO people (like the ones who will call you out of the blue) who will lie to you and do various 'tactics' to get you promoted. If you have something that is *good*, word will spread itself. Google penalizes sites they find practicing Black Hat SEO stuff. Of course, promotion of your stuff is fine, but no tricks!

205

General Software Discussion / Re: ReImage: online Windows repair!

« on: February 09, 2012, 08:40 AM »

The question is one of implementation. If they did a good implementation, then they have potential. If they did a poor one, then they may screw up a lot of PCs in an attempt to 'restore' them. And, yes, this does, in many (or all) ways, overlap the features added in Vista to do this very thing.

206

Living Room / Re: Would you buy me a $0.99 track on Amazon?

« on: February 09, 2012, 07:13 AM »

Sorry to hear you can't use Rhapsody, as it is the best for allowing you to either 'just access' DRM protected music, *or* buy the track in high quality MP3 format. I cancelled it though, as I prefer Pandora streaming. Of course, I'm SoL if there's no net access, but music isn't a high priority for me.

While everyone has good intentions, I caution you guys here. But, break whatever laws you want to ;p. None of my business. I have no love at all for the RIAA or MPAA. They treat their consumers like criminals and have vastly over-priced all multimedia, in my opinion. Still ... I always caution people when they are talking about breaking laws in a public forum. Yes, I know, in my opinion this isn't even breaking a law - it's like giving a gift to a friend. BUT, in their eyes, it is criminal.

207

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« on: February 09, 2012, 07:04 AM »

That's why I don't trust software backup solutions. I do a recursive file system copy with Robocopy (command line tool built into Windows) to external drives *and* a networked PC that functions solely as a backup provider for all data in this household. The one thing you don't want to do is freak out, as there is a way to restore your data (no I don't have precise instructions, but Stoic Joker seems on the right track).

Windows Backup is pretty decent these days, though still I don't trust it either. I just like a 'normal' copy of my stuff that I can easily access and retrieve without needing any supplemental software. I believe a Windows Backup Set could be recovered without Windows Backup, as it stores in common archive formats, but still I don't rely on it for critical data. I do use it though, just as another safety, in case my self-automated backups fail.

208

General Software Discussion / Re: Screenshot Captor "best in class" on FreewareGenius

« on: February 09, 2012, 06:46 AM »

Congrats Mouser

209

Living Room / Re: It's Official - Anonymous are Terrorists

« on: February 08, 2012, 12:52 PM »

Sure, but as the size grows, so does the complexity. Also, you may not have been the target of an exhaustive attack. To claim absolute security, well --- Come on man, that's jynxing yourself.

210

Living Room / Re: It's Official - Anonymous are Terrorists

« on: February 08, 2012, 12:18 PM »

I spotted this one and just had to read more:Hackers take over Boston Police Department website; message cites handling of Occupy Boston protest

Boston police issued a statement this morning that said the department’s “skillful technical staff” was “focused on rectifying this issue.”

-The Article

Seriously?!? ...Who exactly are they trying to fool with that line of shit?? If the "Staff" was indeed all that "Skillful"...they wouldn't be getting spanked every five minutes, now would they? Oh Yeah, and like nicking a few files off a backup is a Herculean effort that requires great focus.

I'd laugh my ass off if I wasn't so preoccupied being disgusted.

-Stoic Joker (February 08, 2012, 11:52 AM)

While what you say is true to some degree, the problem with security is that the weakest link in the chain is all it takes to break it. Time and time again, that's been shown. So, imagine you are running security for a major corporation or government and trying to secure a vast array of systems and less than security conscious users. Imagine management mandating less security because more security is so cumbersome. So, I'd give the security experts a break, as they have a hard job ensuring every link in their chain is secure -- especially when the weakest link is often the user.

That said, the #1 ways most sites are infiltrated is 0-day exploits on common software, like SMF here... SQL injection attacks are less common (though still around for sure), as developers became more aware of them. For instance, a 0-day exploit gets discovered on SMF --- if someone wanted to hack DonationCoder, they'd have until the fix was applied to breach the site. A race against time. This is a scenario that has happened many times, to many sites.

211

ProcessTamer / Re: Reinstall

« on: February 07, 2012, 12:01 PM »

Try c:\ProgramData\...   though I dunno.

212

Living Room / Re: Anonymous on FBI Phone Call

« on: February 07, 2012, 11:58 AM »

@40hz: Indeed! These kids have no idea what the 'system' can, and will, do to them. If you listen to the phone call, they are just that too - kids. One is identified as 18, one as 15. When I was that age I thought I was invincible too. The Man showed me who the man was in short order though . Of course, nothing like what these kids will get from The Man. The Man was already wanting to make an example of them. Now, ...  Well, I anticipate a large roundup of individuals from around the world in the near future. Naturally they'll put some stupid codename on it. Operation Hackercrack or Operation Crackerjack .. Cops love a good 'roundup' name.

213

Living Room / Re: Anonymous on FBI Phone Call

« on: February 07, 2012, 08:44 AM »

Needless to say, this is just going to make them angrier and make it more 'personal' for law enforcement. If I were involved with Anonymous or Lulz, I'd be scared ;o. This is ballsy stuff. I think the people who did this are too young to understand they can indeed go to prison.

214

General Software Discussion / Re: Is WinZip still worth updating?

« on: February 07, 2012, 07:02 AM »

No.

I personally use WinRAR (licensed). It is very affordable. 7z is a great F/OSS alternative, but not quite as mature in the UI department as WinRAR.

WinZIP? Come on ;p. It's been nothing more than revenue machine with little real progression for ages, afaik.

215

Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta

« on: January 28, 2012, 10:28 PM »

Ah, very cool . These little simple effects and all the 'stuff' one would *need* to do to a screenshot is what makes SSC so cool I think, and the way the UI is designed.

216

Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta

« on: January 28, 2012, 10:15 PM »

I will start using and begin testing mouser, as I *still* use this as my screenshot tool. For me, it is the best app you've ever created. It has just what I need, not too much, not too little. Glad to see progress being made and I'm glad to see you with that elusive creative impetus back in your pocket .

And glad you finally got on board with digital signing, the racket it is ;o. I'm hoping it comes down in cost in time, though who knows.

217

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG claims a virus is found in dexpot.exe

« on: January 24, 2012, 03:38 AM »

Please report to http://falsepositivereport.org *if* you have any interest in simply documenting this occurrence. One of the biggest issues is making people aware of how huge this problem is. Us software developers know, the security vendors know, but end users don't.

218

General Software Discussion / Re: Drive Extender replacement due out in 2012. It's called Storage Spaces.

« on: January 08, 2012, 02:30 PM »

It has never went away, and exists in Windows 7 and Windows 2008/R2/Home Server 2011. They just removed the easy interface for it. Simply set up a 'spanned' volume and you can dynamically add disks as you want - including external disks. The intrinsic support for this never really went anywhere.

219

Living Room / Re: Hard drive shortage

« on: December 20, 2011, 11:02 PM »

QFT.  It's all FUD to a large extent from both sides, to get people frothing at the mouth rabid and unable to look at things rationally.

-wraith808 (December 20, 2011, 10:59 PM)

+1 .. heck, we're talking about hard drives, where did this word even come from ;p. I really hate it when the most innocent of social programs (or government regulation to stop abuses like child labor) are called socialist, when we are arguably the most capitalist country in the world. There is no hidden agenda to transform us into a socialist or communist society. It'd be nice if there were at times, to give some counter-balance to our crazy capitalist system where anything goes.. but, it is what it is. I think half those who use the word 'socialism' don't even really understand it to be honest.

220

Living Room / Re: Hard drive shortage

« on: December 20, 2011, 10:56 PM »

Yes, but you see how those are not "normal" consumer items.

-superboyac (December 20, 2011, 10:51 PM)

Simple, short, and sweet answer is that the manufacturers of devices with embedded hard drives (from PCs to HDDs) will forever demand cheaper hard drives, so they can reduce their retail cost, or increase profits. The consumer may not be directly buying a hard drive when they buy a PC, but they are buying a hard drive. Same with a DVR. Thus, I feel it has no chance of being the 'elite' or 'corporate' type advanced hardware you fear, for at least the next 5-10 years. After that, who knows.

As for socialism, that is a dirty word that can be taken out of context in so many ways that I prefer never use it. We're hard core capitalists here in the USA, even the left-wing people who some call 'socialists'. You can bet on that. Real socialism is a totally different ballgame. Sure, we do have a mixed economy in ways, since we do have social programs, as do all first-world countries. However, nothing much has changed, and it really doesn't matter much who is in office. We are nowhere near socialism, so let's not take out that word. That's my take on things. You can say we are in debt. You can say the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You can say lots of bad things about the USA, but we simply are not a socialist economy. We are a blended economy, as is most of the world these days. A pure socialist economy is much different than what the USA is.

221

Living Room / Re: Hard drive shortage

« on: December 20, 2011, 09:51 PM »

Just as many devices start to go without HDDs, more start to use them -- namely DVRs and all sorts of other multimedia and surveillance equipment. So, I'd relax, prices will stabilize pretty quickly.. The HDD remains an essential component. The competition in the HDD market remains fierce (when everyone is up at the plate). They aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Eventually SSDs will start to match their cost per MB value, then we'll see them fade away, and potentially increase in price. That is at least 5 years off, maybe 10.

222

Living Room / Re: Hard drive shortage

« on: December 18, 2011, 05:29 AM »

The price for the 2.5" external self-powered USB 3 drive, WD My Passport 1TB SE, has now doubled even at Amazon, with $199-$219 pricing. It has disappeared from eBay, where as last week it was being sold for prices all over the place, from $99 to $250. A month or so ago I had bought 4 of these units to try to profit off this when I first entered this thread. Two I sold at about even, because I wasn't sure they were ever going to up in price after two/three weeks of waiting. Lost a bit on those maybe. One I sold at a small profit, and the last I'll get a decent profit on *if* anyone buys at such a high price.

However, when you throw in eBay seller fees (7-8%), hassle of dealing with buyers who don't pay, or are just dipshits, it is barely worth the return. Also, in my case, a single 'loss' and I'd have lost all profits. If I had thousands of dollars to invest though, and patience and confidence to wait, the return could have been greater. The one thing about these situations is that you are unlikely to lose *much* if prices don't go up, so I wish I'd have maybe found a way to buy more somehow. Of course, that's after I sold 2 of them off not believing they'd ever go up.

Meanwhile, 3.5" drives have *decreased* or remained stable in price. The WD20EARS (or WD20EARX) is now $135 at Amazon.

223

General Software Discussion / Re: CNET Download Installer Changes

« on: December 15, 2011, 11:59 PM »

Last edit made . Now I'm un-notifying, as this is distracting. I think it's all been said.

224

General Software Discussion / Re: CNET Download Installer Changes

« on: December 15, 2011, 11:40 PM »

It comes down to this, as you said:

There's more than one way to make money ...

The difference is I like the idea of providing a simple service for a fair price. This 'alternate method' of revenue generation, bundling, relies on deception. Further, the introduction of so many bundled apps to a PC is not a good thing. It harms society at large, and thus is unethical. The day may come when no user trusts to install any extra PC software, thanks to bundles.

For paying F/OSS authors, I'm all for that, but we discussed the problems with that above. Free/Open Source projects, by nature, have lots of contributors, and thus division of revenue is more than a little problematic. Bundles are more likely to kill F/OSS than nurture it. Read above for this, and why.

As for the other stuff, you are on a tangent, as we are talking about bundles and software. Not web sites. Not advertising. We are speaking of invasive software seeking to gain entry into PCs, such as the aforementioned Clean Water bundle, gotta love it.

Your spin is quite good though, but it is just that . You can't spin away bundles.

225

General Software Discussion / Re: CNET Download Installer Changes

« on: December 15, 2011, 08:33 PM »

+1

I can only imagine the turmoil in some F/OSS projects right now. Seriously, once you throw money into a F/OSS project, it is pretty much done for. Any F/OSS project must be strictly non-commercial. The ones I've founded (with community participants) don't even accept donations, as that can be acrimonious. Who gets all the revenue from these bundles ... Well, dunno. Evenly dividing it in a way that is fair would be impossible, you'd never please everybody, and everyone would be left with a sour taste in their mouth.

Freeware is more concerning for me. Soon everything will be freeware with strings attached -- strings attached that the average Joe doesn't understand are bad for society as a whole. The practice should be outlawed, though I can't imagine how you'd draft a bill outlawing such. I consider *all bundles malware because they violate user intent*. That's my personal opinion as of today. Maybe I'm forced to change my opinion in the years to come, or maybe people will start waking up and quit being so darn greedy. And, yes, I do call it greedy if you freely give something away, then want to profit from it. If you want to profit, don't make it free.