Messages

76

Living Room / Re: Facebook tries to block NYU's research into political ads

« on: October 26, 2020, 06:16 AM »

^ This.

77

Living Room / Re: Slightly warm computer killing my internet speeds...I have no idea why.

« on: October 07, 2020, 07:30 PM »

I've tried it on another machine (laptop) but not able to reproduce at all on there. 

-Stephen66515 (October 07, 2020, 10:42 AM)

Definitely try another nic if you have a slot, or a usb nic otherwise. They're cheap and it's good to have a spare anyway, the USB ones especially. Maybe it's old enough to have been affected by the 2011 floods in Thailand, or e-caps degrade over time anyway.

78

Living Room / Re: Slightly warm computer killing my internet speeds...I have no idea why.

« on: October 06, 2020, 05:20 PM »

I should have mentioned this is a wired connection on my desktop (which has just been cleaned today) xD

-Stephen66515 (October 06, 2020, 04:22 PM)

So where does the wire go once it leaves your desktop? Do you have a router or using your provider's router? Is it cable, fiber? (Not DSL! heh)

Can you have someone with a laptop come over and see if they get the same speeds? That would be helpful to narrow down what end of the wire is the problem!

79

General Software Discussion / Re: How to delete a folder that Windows can't find?

« on: October 06, 2020, 05:58 AM »

For a GUI, try Helge Klein SetACL Studio. It will delete anything. Product page here, no cost (used to be commercial).

80

Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« on: October 01, 2020, 09:21 PM »

Newest member of our household. She has grown a little since this was taken, still very much a kitten though. They grow up so quick!

81

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

« on: September 20, 2020, 08:09 PM »

82

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Windows 10 Professional for $40 PCWorld??

« on: September 15, 2020, 07:04 PM »

@Sphere, thanks, that is very good to know. I am happy to hear this first hand information instead of just speculating what could go wrong (I think I am an optimistic pessimist).

83

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple version of a folder lock utility that would require a password for access

« on: September 12, 2020, 01:16 PM »

Self extracting archive is the way to go. If you compress the file/files/folder with 7-zip, just check the box that says Create SFX Archive. It will create an exe, when it runs it asks where to extract the files (defaults to wherever the exe file is), then asks for the password. Easy peasy. The hardest part will be getting the password to the people in a secure way (not just emailing it). 

84

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

« on: September 10, 2020, 08:59 PM »

85

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Windows 10 Professional for $40 PCWorld??

« on: September 07, 2020, 03:05 PM »

1 - PC World is huge, however it's likely they sell the ad space on their site to an ad network or broker, and and it is unlikely they they have a staff that checks out every ad that is shown on their site.
2 - Technet was discontinued in 2013. MSDN is still around. But selling MSDN licenses is still not legitimate.
3 - Keys from OEM machines are tied to those machines, so selling those is not legitimate either.
3 - Whatever happened to "if it's too good to be true then it probably isn't"?

86

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Windows 10 Professional for $40 PCWorld??

« on: September 07, 2020, 10:44 AM »

It's not from Microsoft. Possibly it's an EOM key that was scrounged from a junked PC, so it was valid at one time, but only for that PC.

I would be <<<highly>>> surprised it it is a valid license. Remember that a lot of sites rent out their ad space to a third party that you don't see. A lot of malware was spread this way at one time.

My wife took advantage of something similar awhile back, it promised a subscription to one of the newspapers (NY Times, WSJ? I forget) that financial people look at. Normally like $300/year, this was 40-50. It let her set it up and sign in once. Next time she tried it, it wouldn't work. Maybe they buy once subscription and resell it forever, the last person to buy it uses it.

87

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I connect an XP rig with a Win10 machine?

« on: September 04, 2020, 09:11 PM »

On your Win 10 box you need to install the SMB 1 feature. Go into add remove programs (run Appwiz.cpl, I forget how you get to it in the settings), click Turn Windows Features On Or Off, it is in there somewhere. That'll fix you up.

88

Living Room / Re: Android 11 forcing people to only use the built-in camera

« on: September 01, 2020, 06:43 PM »

Is there any guidance on what ill they are treating here?

89

General Software Discussion / Re: Non-elevated woes... How can I get the most from my laptop?

« on: September 01, 2020, 06:40 PM »

They marked my encrypted password files as malware and deleted my passwords.

-wraith808 (August 31, 2020, 11:58 PM)

Oh- why... yes, that would make for a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. 

90

General Software Discussion / Re: Non-elevated woes... How can I get the most from my laptop?

« on: August 31, 2020, 08:31 PM »

Your lucky, the education institution I was at didn't even allow binaries unless they had been vetted and approved by them.

-ferretau (August 31, 2020, 08:18 PM)

That's the most secure way to do it. Nobody wants ransomware to hit.

91

General Software Discussion / Re: Non-elevated woes... How can I get the most from my laptop?

« on: August 31, 2020, 06:22 PM »

What's worse is when you not only have that to deal with, but also the malware protection that is installed marks everything you want to run as a PUP and deletes it. (Bad enough for anyone but utterly ridiculous for a senior tech support lead.)

92

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

« on: August 23, 2020, 05:00 PM »

 

93

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« on: August 23, 2020, 02:08 PM »

  What he said! Thanks folks!!

94

General Software Discussion / Re: Ventoy - The Last Bootable USB Software You'll Need?

« on: August 21, 2020, 05:24 PM »

  Nice find, will have to try this out!

95

General Software Discussion / Re: Programming software for schools

« on: August 17, 2020, 07:09 PM »

I'd like to recommend Rexx, but back in my day "tutorials" were called "language reference manuals", and I am not sure that has changed much for Rexx. 

96

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

« on: August 14, 2020, 05:56 AM »

can't find the bug... 

97

General Software Discussion / Re: Cyren ends F-PROT Endpoint Antivirus for home users

« on: August 12, 2020, 05:49 PM »

I think in most cases, "Endpoint" is synonymous with "Individual monetary stream to be exploited".

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General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« on: August 07, 2020, 05:19 PM »

PAExec is a legally redistributable clone of the Microsoft Sysinternals psexec remote execute utility. Totally drop-in compatible plus has some additional options.
https://www.poweradmin.com/paexec/

99

Living Room / Thoughts on cryptocurrencies

« on: July 30, 2020, 05:30 PM »

Anyone have any random thoughts on cryptocurrencies, specifically which variants will tend to be long-lived, and which will actually give you a chance to realistically mine a little? Bitcoin is of course the old master but a "real person" (without hard core hardware) will never mine one unless you're in a pool and get a fraction of credit. Is Litecoin defunct? Looked to be $50-ish per when I last checked, but I don't know how the cost/benefit works for it. Ethereum seems to be the current sweetheart, but we've seen those come and go. While you can't guarantee the worth over time, you'd like to choose a coin that would be difficult to hijack.

I had mined about a bit-dime's worth of bitcoin but stopped for a year or two when I changed hardware. When I picked it back up there were like two levels of update for the bitchain client software, and while my wallet showed that it was not corrupted, and showed the amount properly, the password that I had noted (and literally a hundred variations on it) weren't accepted for a transfer. I found that to be less than optimal.

Anyway I have some hardware sitting around, including a middlin' GPU that I used for some john and hashcat for work, but that's finished. Seems I ought to do something with it but since I'd start fresh, I thought I'd ask folks more knowledgeable than me. Some of the coin algorithms don't benefit from a GPU I understand.


PS- Anyone suggestions on cracking that bitcoin wallet? Try hashcat (passphrase was 22 characters)? Is there a way to use out of date software to pull the data from it in a form I can use? Whenever I tried to install old versions it insisted in updating due to blockchain changes.

100

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« on: July 27, 2020, 07:21 PM »

Brynhildr - A fast and lightweight VNC server/client that supports both audio and video

-Zero3K (July 27, 2020, 10:00 AM)

Been using this for several years for various reasons. When you have a session it tends to use a good bit of cpu (25-50%) and some memory as well, but works great and no significant resource drain when it is just waiting for connection.

The main down side to me is that it does not add an entry in the system's event log when a session starts or ends.

Please folks don't start submitting it to a/v engines or they will start marking it as a PUP and it will be a pain.