Messages

3126

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Backtracks on phone home WGA ...

« on: June 12, 2006, 05:44 PM »

Statement withdrawn! That is very much backtracking although in the past article they said they would make this check permanent at the end of its testing period. Guess microsoft gave in.

3127

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Backtracks on phone home WGA ...

« on: June 12, 2006, 04:47 PM »

I dont really consider this "backtracking" but more updating the check to a more reasonable time. However, i still see the privacy advocates crying afoul of microsoft for this still being unneeded and a privacy violation.

3128

Living Room / Re: Interesting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 12, 2006, 12:05 PM »

if your g/f is a tech that is like me telling you to send me the army.
There is enough proof on the net. You are going to belive what ever you want Josh, I could show you links, I doubt you would believe it.
I am not going bother

-thunder7 (June 12, 2006, 10:04 AM)

Thunder7

I apologize if you took my comments as a hit against your girlfriend, it was not intended as such. I just wanted to continue the debate by having you or her post links to confirmed backdoors that werent just rumors. I feel, that if a true backdoor were found, it would be much more widely publicized on the news. Anyways, like I said in my private message to you, if you wouldnt mind having her post some links to these backdoors that you mention, I would appreciate it so we can continue this debate. The one posted by Carol Haynes was something the British Gov't WANTED put into windows to give law enforcement a way around the bitlocker encryption for Vista, but Microsoft denied that request saying it would defeat the whole purpose of encryption. That would be like the DoD putting a backdoor into their internal SIPRNet (secure internet) that would allow on the fly decoding. It just wouldnt happen.

3129

Living Room / Re: Interesting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 11, 2006, 03:11 PM »

With a car, if they find a crippling bug, they fix it, just as MS has. They issue a recall. Also, if your g/f is a tech, ask her to give you proof of these backdoors. I guarantee she cant. There hasnt been a single proven backdoor into microsoft software that was intentionally put there, only rumors started by conspiracy theorists that think there are just because it is microsoft.

3130

Living Room / Re: Interesting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 11, 2006, 02:01 PM »

IE6 Gold release wont receive updates as of the date I posted, however, microsoft considers each update a "new release" of IE. Hence, IE6 SP1 will be a new release, IE6 SP2 (XP) will be a new release. Microsoft will be cutting off security updates for XP GOLD sooner than they will for XP SP2 or SP1 (As you can verify by checking update.microsoft.com where they have a box that says only SP1 and SP2 receive new updates).

While your luck with XP hasnt been as good, I have seen (including my pc) uptimes of over 3 months. My PC uptime record is 2 months, 1 week and 3 days a couple of months back on my old PC before the power supply failed. I've also seen win9x stay up for months at a time, we have pc's at work that have been up for 2 years on win95.

Driver rollback is a very useful feature that lets you rollback to a previously installed driver if an upgrade goes afoul. Its saved me numerous times and I havent had to rely on a third party app.

I didnt intend to imply that 2k had system restore, I retract that implication.

With your saying that you were affected by the WMF bug, I dont consider being affected having to install a 3rd party app (THIS IS JUST MY OWN OPINION, Not saying its everyones), I consider being affected meaning that you have had an exploit hit through the vulnerability that was associated with said filetype. Yes, it impacted your system usage as you had to unregister the wmf shell dll, but I dont consider it as you being "hit" by the vuln.

Anyways, glad to see you are having a good time with WinME, but I must say you are in the minority as I've seen and troubleshot many systems in my previous jobs (as well as the 10 years I've been on irc in efnet's #help) where people have had windows ME installed.

Anyways, I await your reply!

3131

Living Room / Re: Want to be a mac? (Broken)

« on: June 11, 2006, 12:32 PM »

If anyone can find a mirror of this site (archive.org doesnt have one), please post it, it was a great flash applet that simulated macos8

3132

Living Room / Want to be a mac? (Broken)

« on: June 11, 2006, 12:13 PM »

This site used to work, it still loads the windows deletion page, but it used to simulate a mac on a webpage. Perhaps someone here can figure out why it doesnt work

http://www.yaromat.de/macos8/

3133

Living Room / Re: Interesting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 11, 2006, 12:01 PM »

Again no disrespect Josh by any chance do you work for Microsoft???.

I understand everything you are saying however, being I only use my PC for Graphic art
http://thunder7.deviantart.com/
http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=24645&SetBG=Yes
http://www.artuproar.com/?profile=thunder7

And they find Windows graphics bug opens backdoor
From this URL http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2145755/windows-graphics-bug-opens

From a graphic now that is very intresting hmmm,...

Then of course here is all this info http://www.google.co...lr=&cr=countryUK|countryGB&start=10&sa=N
I believe Carol Haynes Posted I believe.
129,000 Page hits -  Windows Microsoft Backdoors.

-thunder7 (June 11, 2006, 11:28 AM)

No, I do not work for microsoft. I work for the US Military (Army) doing satellite communications, so I am far from a microsoft employee. I do, however, try and keep an open mind about things and not try and get too paranoid about things.

On that note, You keep pointing to the link that carol posted, Which I have already replied to. That backdoor was a RUMOR and people were discussing whether or not microsoft would put one in. This was for the bitlocker drive encryption software that microsoft will be including in Vista. They already stated publicly that they will not put a backdoor in there as it would defeat the purpose of having drive encryption. The British gov't wanted this hole so they could get access to data on a criminal's pc. Again, this was shutdown by MS, which came to the same conclusion that someone would find this and exploit it.

The WMF bug, was patched immediately by microsoft. All of these exploits you list have all been patched by microsoft. And I ask, were you affected by the WMF bug? Did you have a pc crash because of it or were you hacked? You keep evading points I've made or questions I've asked you, please, I ask that you reply to them next time. You keep going to these same exploits and comments that you've already made. If you are so worried about security, why are you just now getting to installing an update that has existed since early may?

Also, please, post links that you have from your library showing these backdoors that you describe (That were proven to exist, and arent just conspiracy theory type articles or comments). I will be more than happy to discuss them with you.

3134

Living Room / Re: Interesting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 11, 2006, 08:38 AM »

Josh no disrespect
However if you really think about it Windows XP Pro holes in it, "Like pouring water into a barrel watching to see where it leaks, wait it will.
I mean no disrespect.

However if WXP was this safe virus's would have nothing to latch on, and hacker would not be able to hack us, etc etc.
A friend of mine said once Oh you mean like my Apple.
I have never been rich enough to afford an Apple so I can not say.

However being Bill Gates Helped Steve Jobs and wow low and behold, Apple can now run Windows XP hmmm,...Intresting. Now why would you want to run XP if Apple is so good.
Because you can one friend of mine said.
Yeah ok!. I can understand, however is that Apple still as safe?

Any Apple users out running a dual OS (Apple & WXP) ???

I really can not believe Windows is so safe.
Because nothing is ever 100% safe.

Not routers not firewalls.
Not Windows XP Pro

-thunder7 (June 11, 2006, 12:58 AM)

Also, with all due respect, EVERY OS HAS HOLES IN IT. If you subscribe to any decent security mailing list, you will see that linux has several CORE PACKAGES which have exploits every day. I get more daily notifications for patches I need to apply via apt-get dist-upgrade than I do with windows monthly updates. OSX also puts out patches that fix batches and batches of holes. You just dont hear about these because these OS's are in the minority. But again, I also challenge you to write an OS that is used on millions of different hardware combinations with billions of different pieces of software that havent undergone any quality testing, and make it not have bugs or holes. Windows XP is a very decent OS, and the ONLY exploit I have ever been hit by was blaster. Just because these people are finding holes, doesnt mean the OS isnt usable. Microsoft patches the holes, and they do it well, in my opinion. With the advent of XP SP2, I have never had a single problem with winxp that I havent caused by installing a driver that wasnt WHQL certified, or by some oddball software configuration.

I ask you this, how many of these exploits have hit you that werent caused by you installing something, or visiting a site that has "questionable" content? As f0dder says, the main reason windows xp exploits are so widely publicised is that it is used far more than ANY OTHER OS. Another thing I noticed, that link you posted was a patch from APRIL, and you said windows update just now wants to install it. This is a problem, if you arent willing to update regularly (I installed this particular update back in early may), then you are asking to be exploited. A lot of users I see complain about the number of patches microsoft has, then they complain when something hits and that microsoft cant patch fast enough, or that they want to test it to make sure it works. Microsoft is in the unfortunate situation of they're damned if they do, damned if they dont, in the eyes of most tech users.

3135

Living Room / Re: Interesting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 10, 2006, 04:25 PM »

I will post further on your latest reply app, I have to go setup a tent with my wife, but I wanted to hit on the Sasser/Blaster worms that you point out. Those holes were in the RPC code, this has since been patched. Since win9x doesnt have these facilities, of course it is immune. Also, people dont target machines that arent in the majority. Win9x/ME users are the minority. Windows XP is far more targetted since it has wider adaptation.

The NT kernel is far more stable and far more secure than the 9x kernel, that has been proven time and time again. I remember having to reinstall win98 every 3-4 months due to some driver or rogue app that would crash it. In XP and 2k, I have driver rollback, I have system restore, I have a better memory management system. With windows vista, you will see a memory management system that covers the user in case of undiscovered or unpatched buffer exploits (the most common security hole in windows) thanks to the NX coding instruction. IE6 (GOLD RELEASE) support for win9x will cease after July of this year ( http://support.micro...t.com/gp/lifesupsps/ ). So no, they wont receive patches, only win2k/xp will. This is good because the old 9x code bases need to be retired since the XP codebase is proven to be far more stable. While there are more exploits, how many have you been hit by? The only one I was hit by was blaster, and that was an easy patch. Anyways, case and point, 9x is far less used than XP/2K, which is why XP/2K are targetted.

3136

Living Room / Re: Intresting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 10, 2006, 11:59 AM »

app103: i must say that is a very well written reply.

In response to you win9x issues, Since Win98 and WinME have reached their end of lifecycle, there will be no more patches for either OS. This is a good thing, in my eyes, since win9x/me were based on an inferior code base. Security wasnt put into mind when designing these os's. Windows NT/2K/XP were built on an entirely different codebase and as such, had a different goal in mind. Now, the WMF bug was code left over from back when the internet was as known, and as such, microsoft didnt add checks for possible buffer overflow/underruns. That is why that exploit became so widespread, because it was designed to work a specific way on an OS that wasnt designed for widespread net use.

3137

Site/Forum Features / Re: First Fabulous Forum Feature Request From Frover

« on: June 10, 2006, 11:17 AM »

You can use the NOTIFY function (located at the bottom right of the last post in each topic) to receive an email update each time someone posts to the topic. Will that work?

3138

Living Room / Re: Intresting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 10, 2006, 09:03 AM »

There are backdoors in that microsoft didnt account for the various possibilities or buffer overflow/underflows. This will hopefully be fixed with Windows vista's new networking stack and memory management code. But, as for intentional backdoors, I dont think microsoft would be stupid enough to leave one in there, especially being that 55% of the win2k source code leaked a few years ago. Someone is probably still analyzing that. Dont you think we would have heard something by now?

3139

Living Room / Re: Intresting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 09, 2006, 04:52 PM »

Yes, that was a rumor started by an news reporter after the law officials overseas tried to get MS to PUT a backdoor in vista to decrypt bitlocker volumes. Microsoft has already acknowledged that no backdoor would be provided.

3140

Living Room / Re: Intresting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 09, 2006, 04:25 PM »

ok, You keep saying that there are all of these backdoors into windows. Please, name one that you have seen or read about or that has even affected you. Windows has so many exploits because hackers want to exploit what is in the MAJORITY OF USE, so they find exploits in windows, since 90% of the users utilize it. I guarantee you that if linux, or mac osx, were in the majority, you would find the same problem. As it is, linux has new exploits found every day, I get a list of them and the list is larger than any windows vulnerability listing I've seen. .

Also, again, you keep saying windows is telling MS about what data is on your system, do you have proof of this? They admitted that they send a PRODUCT KEY HASH and your IP ADDRESS, which isnt hard to obtain at all, heck you give it to many advertising companies simply by loading webpages. So again, please, provide me proof that microsoft is sending more than they claim, show me a backdoor. I've heard these claims before and you know what, they are all unsubstantiated.

3141

General Software Discussion / Re: Browser racism???

« on: June 09, 2006, 12:52 PM »

Seems pretty silly of the site to do something like that.

-f0dder (June 09, 2006, 05:15 AM)

I think f0dder is the only one who understood what i mean. This is not one of those rendering errors.
I believe this was intentional, since there's distinction where there's no need, since in any other betanews page, i can download the files using opera, this is the only one that redirects.

-jgpaiva (June 09, 2006, 09:06 AM)

My post wasnt regarding the rendering issues per say, but it was more regarding browser identification in general, what you describe is nothing new. Yes, microsoft might be blocking you from d/ling windows vista b2 with opera or firefox, but I dont think they are, as I've successfully done it in both. The only error I've gotten is a download server busy message because everyone and their mothers is trying to d/l it.

Also, I failed to realize you meant the Fileforum link, that is my fault. I would suggest using the windowsvista site anyways, microsoft probably requested fileforum not host the file as they want people to register for a key instead of emailing them complaining about not being able to install because they dont have a key. Either that, or betanews has disabled access temporarily due to the huge amounts of bandwidth that was being used on their servers.

3142

Living Room / Re: Intresting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 09, 2006, 12:36 PM »

Well i look at it this way, "If i wanted ET to Phone." Id call.
I do not want it calling or telling M$ nothing.
Without my direct permission.
That is my right!.

That is your Right as well. If you want them snooping on your PC that is your right.

And as my Right, I do not want them snooping.Period

-thunder7 (June 09, 2006, 11:24 AM)

What snooping are they doing exactly? They specifically tell you what information is sent in the EULA. They retain your IP and a hash of your product key. Again, I restate, what is the harm in sending an IP address and product key hash? They cant track you down from it, they wont be able to disable your windows installation based on this information, all they can do is (if you are running ingenuine windows) stop you from using MS Update and the MS Download center for certain things. What many fail to realize is that you give your IP out involuntarily every day when you visit websites that either, link to off-domain images or files, or when you visit a website with 3rd party advertisements. Either way, you didnt say "The server's that this site links to can have my IP address and know I've visited this website". To me, the tracking, via url and file access, is far more of a privacy violation. So again, I fail to see what snooping they are doing when they specifically tell you what they are doing in their license agreement that YOU AGREE TO WHEN YOU INSTALL WGA. If you dont want WGA, then you cant use windows update (but you can still get critical updates via auto-update, which microsoft has stated they wont prevent). WGA (in my eyes), shouldnt be an issue if you are running a legit copy of windows. I've only seen people who are running pirated keys and some business customers actually be legitly upset about this.

Again, just as with other sites, I see people yelling and throwing (not at dc.com, but other sites are far more juvenille about this topic, betanews.com for example) a fit over an IP address and a product key hash being sent and then claiming a privacy violation. I fail to see how this is so, if you agreed to let MS install it at windows update.

3143

General Software Discussion / Re: Browser racism???

« on: June 09, 2006, 08:28 AM »

This "Browser racism" is nothing new. Its existed for years, back when netscape 4 was king. Sites were either designed for MS IE, or netscape, or even sometimes both, leaving out browsers from alternate platforms such as linux, unix, and mac (or even BeOS). I have downloaded windows vista beta 2 from MS with all three browsers, opera, firefox and IE, no problems at all. I am using opera 9 beta 2, firefox 1.5.0.4, and ie 6 sp2.

3144

Living Room / Re: Intresting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« on: June 09, 2006, 08:25 AM »

I dont consider this a very big issue at all. The only information given is a hash of the key you are using, and your ip address, nothing personally identifiable. I see people all the time complain about an ip address being transmitted, yet they dont seem to realize that its given out EVERY DAY on EVERY SITE you visit on the web. Just by visiting a website, about a dozen or so (on the average) web servers get your ip address because you download ads from them. Did you accept an agreement to let them load the ads and get your ip? no. Isnt that considered the same behavior microsoft is using here? The only function it phones home for is to check to see if several failed attempts to validate have been detected from your ip address (since some businesses proxy out 1 IP) and gives microsoft a way to disable WGA on that pc so that the issue can be investigated by the sys admins.

Again, this is nothing major, but instead provides a way for microsoft to help a company if there becomes an issue with WGA inside their corporation.

3145

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for advice maintaining a small computer network.

« on: June 08, 2006, 08:09 AM »

Why not just trueimage the disk (or ghost, whichever floats your boat) and use that to restore the pcs upon crashing? No, its not automatic, but it does work. Or, if you have the money, consider a vmware solution with their persistent disk which restores the system to its pre-configured state every time you start the vm

3146

General Software Discussion / Windows vista beta preview program begins

« on: June 08, 2006, 07:34 AM »

http://fileforum.bet...h_32bit/1149728719/1

The windows vista customer preview program has officially been launched for windows vista.

We invite you to be among the first to experience the clarity that Windows Vista can bring to your world. The Windows Vista Customer Preview Program makes a pre-release edition of Windows Vista Ultimate broadly available to the public for the first time.

Note: This is beta code and should not be used in a production environment or on a main machine in the home. Beta 2 is intended for developers, IT professionals and technology experts to continue or begin their testing of Windows Vista. Before you decide to use Beta 2, you should feel comfortable with installing operating systems, updating drivers, and general PC troubleshooting. Some risks of using beta operating systems include hardware and software incompatibility and system instability. If you have concerns about installing this beta software on your computer, we encourage you to obtain the final release version of Windows Vista when it is available in 2007.

If you decide to install Windows Vista Beta 2, we would like to thank you for taking the time to test the product. Your feedback is an integral part of our development process. Thank you for being part of the Windows Vista team!

Once downloaded, you must register for a key at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx. Looks like everyone now gets a chance Enjoy!

3147

Find And Run Robot / Re: Using FARR with custom Opera (9b2) searches

« on: June 07, 2006, 06:29 PM »

Easy, modify the SEARCH group under the groups tab on FARR. You can add custom entries with this, just follow the examples listed. Basically, to add a new one it would be in a format like such

fileforum $$1 | http://fileforum.bet...s.com/search?search=$$1

Where you replace the text after ?search= with $$1 to send your input string to the command. FARR then forwards this to your default browser.

3148

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Lock icons in place on desktop

« on: June 07, 2006, 02:49 PM »

Any word on this skrommel? I anxiously await your reply

3149

Living Room / Re: Animator vs Animation - one of the best flash animations i've seen in years.

« on: June 05, 2006, 08:09 PM »

That is the coolest flash video I've ever seen.

3150

Living Room / Re: So....How many processes do you have running on startup and during normal usage

« on: June 01, 2006, 06:37 PM »

Check the "Show processes from all users" box ;-)