Recent Posts

1126

Living Room / Re: How many germs are living on your keyboard?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 01:38 PM »

There are about 1,842,540 germs on your keyboard right now!
That's equivalent to the number of germs on 369 toilet seats.

I guess if I cleaned the computer daily, the number would go down fast

1127

Living Room / Re: Another cody spotting? CAPTION THIS PICTURE CONTEST

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 01:33 PM »

Tim Schaffer takes Cody as inspiration for his major videogame hit (at least it's always better than taking Jack Black as your next inspiration )

I'm the milkman, my milk is delicious!

1128

General Software Discussion / Re: windows security - what's really necessary?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 01:19 PM »

ROFL

1129

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera Browser Power-User Mods

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 01:17 PM »

o_O, so many tips! I'd have to take a look to that toolbar, looks impressive.

1130

General Software Discussion / Re: Best free firewall for Windows?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 01:14 PM »

Last time I installed the Network Access Manager the only things I could configure were some of the most advanced options of the Ethernet ports. Can you really activate the firewall from there? Even nVidia doesn't mention nothing about their Firewall in the documentation and features pages for the later nForce chipsets (IIRC, the firewall was introduced with the nForce 4).

1131

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your boot time?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 01:10 PM »

You guys don't auto-login?

-zridling (February 01, 2008, 01:11 AM)

Yup, I'm the lone user of this machine, and it's highly unlikely someone could use it without me being aware of such pretension

1132

General Software Discussion / Re: Audio format (batch) convert/transcode

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 01:07 PM »

foobar also has a plugin to verify sound files, so you can use it for now with WAV. Don't expect a very thorough analyzer, Peter says it reports only decoding errors that could stop the playback process. Well, and with MP3 it also shows inaccuracies in reported lengths and such (side effects of buggy encoders and an overly abused format).

1133

General Software Discussion / Re: windows security - what's really necessary?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2008, 12:58 PM »

Considering how quickly a computer running IE6 got infected, you can say that the browser was warez from the start

That said, I'm going to get IE7 serial key generator. I need to crack that b****, and M$ is not getting a single € from me, hah!

1134

Seedling's Software / Re: New App! WTF!? Music Info

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2008, 01:15 PM »

Gosh, another bug. The new version does not read FLAC files at all

Also, are you planning to add Unicode support?

1135

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your boot time?

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2008, 11:13 AM »

Lashiec: i don't mean scaning the actions of the software, that makes sense.
What i meant was that it scans the executables themselves, and the disk boot sectors, something that doesn't actually need to be done at that time, and i have delayed for 10 minutes (at the time, it was set to 1minute: the time where all the programs were starting).

-jgpaiva (January 31, 2008, 10:51 AM)

Ah, OK. Now that's overkill. Actually, those scheduled scans built into most security software are quite curious, it's like they're saying "Yeah, my realtime monitoring shield is pitiful, so that's why I run this scan to assure nothing got past the shield". They steal lots of resources and are woefully inadequate, because they kick in at the worst moments.

1136

General Software Discussion / Re: https by default?

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2008, 10:44 AM »

But GMail is https by default...

1137

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your boot time?

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2008, 10:42 AM »

That makes more sense, I was thinking into stealing your laptop for those 10 seconds . Scanning startup objects is pretty normal for an antivirus, every other one does the same, as that's one of the key moments in which malware starts to act up after infecting your computer.

My rig takes between 1 and 1.5 min between pressing the button and it finishes loading the startup programs. Of course, my boot sequence is pretty light in software, as most of the software I'd use on a daily basis (Locate, Rainlendar, AM-Notebook, etc.) is launched when I need it, they're only a few keystrokes away. They launch faster, and don't delay the other apps

1138

General Software Discussion / Re: windows security - what's really necessary?

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2008, 09:35 AM »

Why stop there?  

I usually set my privileges to user (OK, <i>power</i>-user...) - this should stop (some?) nasties from installing/running, and
I can log in as the administrator if I need to...

-Target (January 30, 2008, 09:51 PM)

I run all time as an administrator, because of various reasons like I'm very lazy to create another account, press Windows + L to change to it, recreate all the options of my apps for another profile, don't know how many privileges I lose with a limited account (as I like to tinker with the innards of the OS while doing something unrelated), etc.

Besides, DropMyRights would only be used for Internet-facing apps, which I feel is a good thing, and doesn't demand too much from me (setting up a few shortcuts and it's all done). It's a good compromise, zero effort, some security benefits.

1139

General Software Discussion / Re: Thoosje Quick XP Optimizer

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2008, 09:24 AM »

i remember an old tweaker program called X-Setup that showed you what are the changes it is going to make to your system and also had a "recorder" function to revert the settings. i think the program has now changed from freeware to shareware.

you can check out this web-site for useful tweaks (but a bit dated): http://www.mdgx.com/wxp.htm.

-lanux128 (January 30, 2008, 09:23 PM)

Yes, X-Setup Pro is what I've been using for years, precisely because it's very safe and it specifies what it's going to do. What's more, the code for every plugin is available at the click of a button.

MDGx is also an old friend, was very useful back in the 9x days, not only for tips, but also for information, software, troubleshooting, etc.

Lashiec: "disable last access" is a nice thing indeed, and most people don't really last-access timestamp anyway. Remember that turning of last-access timestamp doesn't turn off last-modify timestamp, only "I have to update filesystem metadata because the user looked at this file."

-f0dder (January 31, 2008, 05:06 AM)

Yep, but it registers the last timestamp for everything, whether is an user peeking at the file, or a program accessing it. Programs like jv16 PowerTools or TuneUp Utilities use that timestamp to decide if they should delete a temp file or not, so that's why I don't use it. Of course, all files residing in the TEMP directory are mostly safe to delete, but those programs search for files in other parts of the filesystem.

1140

General Software Discussion / Re: KDE 4 out, and my, it looks gorgeous!

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 07:32 PM »

The important thing IS... Amarok is coming to Windows

And KOffice, and maybe I could kick out that monster called OpenOffice, and use it as office suite. And KDevelop, an IDE for a zillion languages which does not use Java. And Kopete, and, and...

1141

General Software Discussion / Re: Thoosje Quick XP Optimizer

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 07:25 PM »

Maybe it would be appropriate to distinct between this, these and some.

-Curt (January 30, 2008, 05:01 PM)

These, as referring the program that titles the thread. Why? It gives you a set of options and says "Click here to optimize x", "Click here to optimize y", then press "Apply", and your computer will go faster. Whoo, and the program did, what? Optimize hard disk -> Disable registering last access (I guess), that it's a good thing for performance, but if you use temp files cleaners, we have a problem. Optimize processor -> Set the size of the L2 cache in the registry (a classic), that does absolutely nothing. Oh, and it prevents from getting miselanious cookies, great.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, but I know these programs since a long time, at the turn of the millennium, tweaking Windows was the coolest thing ever, and the net was blooming with these apps, that did absolutely nothing, or totally obscured what they did, something that pissed me off. Of course, there are apps that gives you access to system tweaking, but without using empty tricks and telling you what are they going to do, and they're highly useful for various things, not only for making Windows run "faster". A good example? TweakUI or the same XPConfig that lanux mentions.

I understand cmpm concerns and we're not criticising you, but only giving some warning about possible problems that such software could inflict on Windows. I mean, in Curt's case, it brought the whole system down

1142

General Software Discussion / Re: windows security - what's really necessary?

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 07:09 PM »

I was reading some literature during these days, and I think we're overly paranoid, really. There are only three vectors of attack right now in a computer (at least feasible ones, we're not talking about an entire botnet targeting you): you activate the malware, your software is not up to date, and your software or machine is misconfigured. That's all.

Actually, if you think about it, most security software is being designed not to protect the user and its software, mostly because things as a complete firewall or a HIPS are overly complex for a normal user, but to protect yourself about these zero-day exploits, those ones that are unpatched and spread over the Internet (case in point: the worm spreading over the servers using cross site scripting, and that no one knows how it infects the servers). But look, that worm is not going to target your computer, although it can probably deliver some side effects using the sites he infected.

Reading some experts' information, I was surprised at how little security some guys use. The most striking one was Bruce Schneier, he didn't even use a personal firewall (yeah, yeah, he uses a NAT router), despite being a security expert, and everyone knows it's one of the most intelligent in the business. His updated guidelines and the older ones. I guess he considers the Windows Firewall as good enough recommending it to protect your laptop, though he advised the use of a personal firewall in the other list. Then again, Windows security started to drop to low levels at that time, and the XP firewall was a mess.

BTW, something that I'll install soon: DropMyRights. Now this thing is useful, and it does consume zero resources. Perhaps I should start to practice what I researched (and preached up to some point), and use what I've been using until now. After all, in all this time, I wasn't infected (except for a trojan, but that was very stupid on my part), and the scanners didn't warn me of anything while working (except for malware embedded in JavaScript, but that was miscontrol on my part). So, I'll raise up my logical defenses, and will knock on wood.

1143

General Software Discussion / Re: Thoosje Quick XP Optimizer

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 02:01 PM »

Really, stay away of these auto optimizers. They never say what they change to achieve these magic results, and always fail. Plus, they could be using one of those optimizing myths that do exactly the opposite.

If they don't say what they do, or lack a open backup system (based on .reg files, even if they're ZIP compressed), give them a thumbs down.

1144

General Software Discussion / Re: Visual Studio Uninstaller Tool

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 01:56 PM »

If it bothers you, it's simple: grab Total Uninstall (either the last freeware version or the paid one), and monitor the installation. Uninstall as usual and then clean up the rest with it.

Adobe and Corel with good uninstallers? I can assure you that Adobe is as bad as the rest and Corel used to be the same when I used PhotoPaint

1145

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: AVG reckons the latest CH+S installer has a trojan in it

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 01:49 PM »

Oh, I thought you were still using ASPack (or was PECompact?) in your software... Then I guess AVG does not handle too well LZMA in Inno Setup but then, it would start to flag every installer out there. Who knows, AVG needs a serious update fast anyway, they're catching too many things, and losing too many others.

1146

Living Room / Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOTHIC!!!

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 01:43 PM »

Happy happy! Let see what presents we have here... *starts to search around the room*

Cody wanted to do something in Blender in gratitude for his animation movie, so he came up with this one:



Uh, I think app's cake is better

1147

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: AVG reckons the latest CH+S installer has a trojan in it

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 01:33 PM »

Don't worry, AVG is currently beta testing AVG 8, which (hopefully) will sport a redesigned antivirus engine, and this never-ending flood of false positives on its part will finally end.

I guess the program is reacting to the executable compression, something which at this point in antivirus development is a bit unbelievable. Supposedly AVG does support executable compression, but seems it's a bit flaky.

1148

General Software Discussion / Re: Audio format (batch) convert/transcode

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 01:04 PM »

Who said gigabytes?

Yeah, Peter should include a help file like God intended, or at least provide some more documents on advanced configuration with the package. I think the quotes trick was mentioned somewhere with foobar 0.8.3, though.

1149

General Software Discussion / Re: Audio format (batch) convert/transcode

« Last post by Lashiec on January 30, 2008, 08:44 AM »

Straight brackets? These ones: [] ? You enclose them in quotes '[' ']', like this. Some more information. Em, bummer, Dirhael beat me to it

BTW, the Reference version of dBpoweramp supports commandline encoders

OMG, still using WAV? Hundreds of megabytes wasted, no metadata...

1150

General Software Discussion / Re: windows security - what's really necessary?

« Last post by Lashiec on January 29, 2008, 09:45 AM »

I'm a bit with my feet in the paranoid and logical fields. Since I don't have a router (I should have chose the Wi-Fi option instead of the cable ), I prefer to have a bit more security that it would be normal, not that much, but a bit more.

So apart from Opera and Firefox, both running adblocking, avast! fully activated and Windows Defender in testing (I'd probably move to test Spyware Terminator next, Defender is beginning to piss me off with its zero possibilities of configuration), I have another antivirus (AntiVir, completely deactivated), and several other scanners, all free of course. I'm thinking in eliminating a few of those and leaving only the best or the ones with the most useful functions for manual analysis, since I don't like having too much software sitting in there doing nothing.

I used to have Internet Explorer protected with URLs blacklists, but since I almost never use Internet Explorer, seems SpyBot's download blocker does the same work and I don't like the prospect of having 80,000 URLs in the registry for nothing, all that is disabled right now. Besides, it seems the future is leading us to have blacklists built into the browsers and updated via Internet daily, like Firefox 3 does thanks to StopBadware and Google. Besides, those lists are far bigger than those compiled by security software makers, so that's another side covered.

I'm still thinking what to do regarding the firewall. I'm not a fan of having programs pestering me up with constant dialogs, and as I argued in the other thread, most firewalls do this. If I can find a light, quiet firewall, I'll use it, programs like Kerio or Sygate could fit in the category, but I don't have the time to put up them to test right now. If I can't find one, an antispyware with behavioral analysis will be more than enough.

Something that I'd like to see someday is a proper security test, instead of those synthetic ones. Like, for example, how well it would fare a PC with the basic Windows Firewall, an antivirus and some passive protection after navigating in dangerous sites. Or how good is a HIPS without any other protection. And other variations. That would be refreshing, and would give some real feedback over how good particular combinations of software are, and if those highly touted security apps are really so good as the virtual tests suggest. Gizmo did some of those, but more of this kind are necessary.

Finally, a good security guide. It's amazing how many free security software exists, I didn't know there was software to control the Windows Firewall in depth (a weak point of it IMO). Darwin, don't check up those lists unless you want to have app's taskbar

Whee! Another long rant