Messages

1176

Developer's Corner / Re: Software Copy Protection Questions

« on: October 02, 2007, 04:02 PM »

Indeed themida would be he first choice of any cracker-savvy person who does not have an unlimited budget. However, as app has said, it does not address the content-drm issue. There has been advice given on this topic which has apparently been passed over so i will not repeat it.

Ehtyar.

1177

Developer's Corner / Re: Software Copy Protection Questions

« on: October 02, 2007, 06:09 AM »

About the only thing you can do is get a list of the tools they would be using, and try to detect them and shut down the game if any are detected running. (and don't forget to detect if the game is running on an OS in something like VMware)

-app103

Badbadbadbadbadbadbad idea. Users really don't like this, and there's a lot of room for messing things up. And why not allow running on vmware? that's plain lame. And it is not something that will stop crackers, or even slow them down.

-f0dder (October 02, 2007, 03:40 AM)

Now to be honest here, this is the BEST way imaginable to have some reverse-engineering-savvy user to unpack/reverse your app just to get rid of these checks, then crack the game while he/she is at it just 'coz you made him waste his time disassembling it in the first place. As f0dder said, BAAAAAAAD idea.

Ehtyar.

1178

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows XP too good for Microsoft’s own good?

« on: September 28, 2007, 05:59 PM »

That woman writes some exceptionally good material, and she's almost always right on the money. Thanks for the link Carol.

Ehtyar.

1179

Living Room / Re: (Webfind) Programmer Personality Test

« on: September 28, 2007, 05:54 PM »

DLSB here too

Ehtyar.

1180

Living Room / Re: Update on member KenR health status: Surgery went well

« on: September 25, 2007, 04:07 AM »

Absolutely wonderful, come back soon ken man!!!!

Ehtyar.

1181

Developer's Corner / Re: Locking the screen with limited rights and universal password

« on: September 19, 2007, 07:43 AM »

Well, thank you all for your replies, sorry it took me so long to get back here.
I tried them all, and so far I've come to the following conclusions:
Black has too many holes; you can view the start menu, the keyboard still functions even if you can't see what's being typed, and you can use alt+tab.
LockIt appears to be a 200k taskbar icon shell for LockWorkStation, which is unsuitable for several reasons (see first post).
Lock Windows Desktop, however is excellent if i were to "roll my own" as it were (which i have been doing). Thank you very much for that recommendation PhilB66, it will come in most useful.

Ehtyar.

1182

General Software Discussion / Re: Size of Download in Firefox??

« on: September 15, 2007, 05:39 AM »

I did install it (though reluctantly). You misunderstand, it is not the fault of the plugin itself, but the fault of its method of operation. In gathering the headers as it does, it tricks certain webpages into thinking that you followed a link that you really didn't, and thus causes undesired results. The plugin actually works just as advertised, just has nasty side-effects.

Ehtyar.

1183

General Software Discussion / Re: Size of Download in Firefox??

« on: September 15, 2007, 02:56 AM »

Well I'm afraid i just uninstalled the plugin. It was causing just far too many problems related to point two above. Ever since i installed it I've been having a lot of trouble with my forums, I'll explain why. The plugin finds the size of the data on the end of a href you're hovering over by requesting the page, caching the headers, then closing the connection. This creates major problems when the link reacts to being visited. It causes problems with links like "View new posts", "Search", and in particular "Logout". The "Logout" problem was what drove me to uninstall the plugin, as I was tired of being logged out from websites simply because i moved my mouse a little too slowly over a logout link.

Ehtyar.

1184

Developer's Corner / Re: Locking the screen with limited rights and universal password

« on: September 14, 2007, 06:32 PM »

Thanks for the quick reply lanux, even though i wasn't here to see it. Toddler Keys is no good simply because of the way it uses the registry. I found ToddlerTrap during my searches, but without a password it is no use. I have trouble so much as understanding ahk, so editing it myself is out of the question. I assume the hotkey control is a necessary part of ToddlerTrap's operation, thus adding password capabilities to it is out of the question. If anyone is able to add a password to ToddlerTrap, or has another suggestion, I'd be very much obliged. Thanks again lanux.

Ehtyar.

1185

Developer's Corner / Locking the screen with limited rights and universal password

« on: September 13, 2007, 09:32 PM »

Hi all.
I'm having some problems at college. As for the background: My college is astoundingly stupid, in that there are per-computer logon accounts, instead of per-user logon accounts. Leaving out the security risks and plethora of other negative points, the accounts, while unique for each machine all use the same password. The following problem has got me beat: how can i lock my screen.
I have done some googling, but no glory. What I'm thinking is, if i were to install a low level mouse and keyboard hook, could i just eat all the keyboard and mouse messages until the user took an action to disable them (type a password etc)?. I realise that ctrl+alt+delete cannot be caught (short of replacing the keyboard driver), but if the user cannot use the mouse or other keyboard keys, invoking the task manager/windows security panel dosnt help them a lot. As a bonus perhaps i could use ogl or whatever to black the screen (keeping it on top of the task manager/preventing task manager from minimizing it might be a problem).
Anyway, let me know your thoughts/problems/criticism, and who knows one day my college computer will be safe from those nasty little peers of mine.

Thanks, Ehtyar.

1186

General Software Discussion / Re: Size of Download in Firefox??

« on: September 11, 2007, 06:39 PM »

I have to say i would prefer the download box solution, for a couple of reasons.
1. Your browser already knows the size of the file when the download prompt appears, thus you need only get it to display the information.
2. Your browser is not making arbitrary get requests then closing the connection, just to see the headers.
3. This extension appears to be a little buggy in that it displays the size for links that do not appear beneath the cursor when your mouse is just moving over the page, not hovering above a link.

Thank you for your solution lash man, but if anyone else has a suggestion, please do not hesitate to post it.

Thanks, Ehtyar.

1187

General Software Discussion / Re: Size of Download in Firefox??

« on: September 11, 2007, 05:45 PM »

Would be nice indeed, even if the very-large downloads are being done through torrents, and I use FlashGet for things like linux isos or big game/movie trailers...

-f0dder (September 11, 2007, 05:32 PM)

Hah, ditto

Ehtyar.

1188

General Software Discussion / Re: Size of Download in Firefox??

« on: September 11, 2007, 05:27 PM »

I have 9mb, so it doesn't bother me in that regard, i just like to know what I'm downloading i guess.

Ehtyar.

1189

General Software Discussion / Size of Download in Firefox??

« on: September 11, 2007, 05:17 PM »

Hi all,
Ever since i started using firefox, i would infrequently check the addons sections for addons that do things i wanted in firefox. A few days ago i found the second last one i was looking for, Secure Login, thanks to Carol Haynes. I am at a loss however, when trying to understand why there is no way to see the size of a file download in the download prompt, prior to actually downloading the file. This behavior is provided in other browsers, and is the last feature that my firefox is still lacking. If anyone is aware of such an addon, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could link me, because i cannot find one through the addon page or google.
In case there happens to be any firefox addon gurus around, I imagine all that would be required for a plugin of this kind is that if the Content-Length header exists, display its value (properly formatted i guess) in the download prompt.

Thanks, Ehtyar.

1190

ProcessTamer / Re: run as a service?

« on: September 07, 2007, 09:22 PM »

ThreadMaster is similar to process tamer but runs as a native NT service, perhaps it might suit your needs better.

Ehtyar.

1191

Developer's Corner / Re: Best Language for Employability?

« on: August 28, 2007, 03:43 AM »

I'm afraid i can't disagree on anything you've said iphigenie, except for one point. When you suggested creating *more* subjects i almost yelled at my monitor. It is my belief that this is precisely our problem. When i went for my Software Design diploma last year, it infuriated me that out of an entire week, *TWO* periods only were spent in actual software design. Now i understand that there is much material to cover in addition to the software design itself, but to have only a fifth of the course dedicated to the design of software is absolutely outrageous. In my opinion the number of subjects should be cut in half at least with more consolidation and less redundancy in the content of the off-topic (for lack of a better word) subjects and a firmer focus on the core subject of a course.
Aaaaaanyway, getting on to what i intended this post to be...I wish to announce i have officially found my portable C# IDE.

SharpDevelop appears to have covered every single one of my requirements (we can forgive them for coding it in C# ) and then some. It is an open source IDE aimed specifically at C#, but does support various other languages (VB.NET, Boo etc). It has full support for WinForms and the soon to be released version 3 will have full support for dotnet 3.5, though version 2 does support 3.0 in a far lesser capacity. It is fully portable after a couple of modifications to the source and a recompile (by default it saves to %appdata% and %temp%). You may find a list of its features here.

Ehtyar.

1192

General Software Discussion / Re: Licensing add-on, copy protection software, and one specific question.

« on: August 26, 2007, 08:37 PM »

You're questions are totally out of context....Addons for what? COM components for what? Copy protection for what? Be more specific please.

Ehtyar.

1193

General Software Discussion / Re: Ultraedit-32 released for U3 drives (but there's a catch...)

« on: August 16, 2007, 03:43 PM »

What can i say, it's the best   

Ehtyar.

1194

General Software Discussion / Re: Ultraedit-32 released for U3 drives (but there's a catch...)

« on: August 16, 2007, 03:22 PM »

I have made v13 portable using the Application Portable Template (I use notepad++ but shhhh:P). It's quite easy if you know how to use NSIS. I'd post my loader here but im not sure that's legal.

Ehtyar.

1195

Developer's Corner / Re: Best Language for Employability?

« on: August 15, 2007, 04:55 PM »

I was comfortable with these two replies until that third last point from CWuestefeld. What you all fail to understand (despite the fact that i've said it several times in not as many words) is that I am completely aware that i will not capable of functioning in a business environment until I'm using the proper tools. You also fail to take into account that most of the computers I currently use do not have visual studio available to me, which entirely nullifies the point.
I am, however, capable of learning the language my way (which can be done on a machine without visual studio) until i am able to use visual studio regularly. I'm afraid constructive criticism does little when when the person you're dictating to is not capable of what you suggest.
So once again, if anyone has any further suggestions, please bring them up, and if anyone wishes to reply to this post they may, but I'm not particularly interested in hearing more about using the proper IDE. Constructive criticism on other aspects of my learning is welcome.

Ehtyar.

1196

Living Room / Re: Best Freeware FTP client?

« on: August 15, 2007, 04:37 PM »

FileZilla has a really, really, really, really crappy interface and iirc a few bugs... but other than that, it's pretty cool: SSL support, multiple logins on a server (helps with speed-throttled servers), etc

-f0dder (December 04, 2006, 06:52 PM)

100% agreed, though i have found that the beta of version 3 is extremely stable and eliminates all the bugs i was aware of (and is very customizable with the settings; you can make it portable without John Haller's crap).

Ehtyar.

1197

Developer's Corner / Re: Best Language for Employability?

« on: August 15, 2007, 03:39 PM »

I know the SDLC, thank you, in fact i know most of what all of you have told me. Seeing as you're all far more interested in criticizing my current approach rather than making suggestions as was asked, i will have to assume I'm better off continuing down the Systems Administration path as i have been the past year and keep software development strictly as a hobby, to be used in the workplace only when necessary. Thank you to all those who made suggestions.

Ehtyar.

[edit]
You may also be interested to know i was a junior mechanic from age 11, and could replace a fan belt among other things before i received my learners license, perhaps this is just habit for me
[/edit]

1198

Developer's Corner / Re: Best Language for Employability?

« on: August 13, 2007, 07:25 AM »

For the dotNET languages, it would seem silly not to use the IDEs btw., since the GUI designers make everything so easy (and that's the frigging point of dotNET, to be easy and fast to use!)

-f0dder (August 13, 2007, 04:18 AM)

I make it a point to learn languages the hard way before the easy way. In most cases i actually never start doing it the easy way (no radasm for asm and no vs for c). As an example, for my first 6 or so months of win32 development, i did all my dialogs from scratch by hand (i use resed now).
Another aspect is portability, which visual studio is intentionally made not to be, as much of my coding takes place on several computers, many of which i do not have administrative rights on. Reading a C# thread the other day (link) i found an interesting c# IDE (link) that im considering trying which should suit me in the portability aspect.
Thanks for the answers so far guys, your post was particularly reassuring iphigenie, there may be some hope for me yet (better download a perl interpreter huh  ).

Ehtyar.

1199

Developer's Corner / Re: Best Language for Employability?

« on: August 12, 2007, 05:21 AM »

The reason I'm not worried about the IDE is because i need to learn the language before using it, and i'll have no idea what IDE they're using anyway, so i might as well learn on something that meets my requirements, thus making the learning process easier, then when I'm forced to use someone elses IDE, the experience will be unpleasant, but i will have the language down pat

Ehtyar.

1200

Developer's Corner / Best Language for Employability?

« on: August 12, 2007, 03:13 AM »

Hi all.
I am currently nearing the end of my education, and though i am versed in various programming languages, my choices tend to be rather old fashioned. What I'd like to know is what everyone considers to be the best language to learn for the sake of employability. C and/or C++ does not get you employed very successfully anymore unless you are an expert, which i would not consider myself to be. I am not interested in Java, though i could tolerate dotnet if necessary. Particularly, i would welcome the opportunity to learn C#, were i to find an IDE that was not by Microsoft and not written in Java. Any suggestion is welcome, for the sake of others as well as myself.

Thanks, Ehtyar.