Recent Posts

176

General Software Discussion / Google+

« Last post by Mark0 on June 28, 2011, 07:18 PM »

Will be the right time for Google's take on social web?

The Google+ Project - Learn more

The Official Google Blog - Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

Something seems done really well, like the Circles metaphora to categorize people in different groups - something that Facebook just don't do (right).

BTW, if anyone have an invitation to spare...  

177

General Software Discussion / Re: Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

« Last post by Mark0 on June 18, 2011, 06:06 PM »

One thing to note about Chromebooks is that they aren't necessarily tied to Google and/or even to the Internet.
The "Cloud" term itself just refer to "remote" computational resources (storage, CPU cycles, etc.) accessed via some kind of network.

A lot of companies nowadays relay on web applications that run on some local intranet servers. So they basically already use some full blown PCs & OSs to just run a browser, with the usual and unneeded hardware & software complexities that they come with.
A device that contain the bare minimum to fire up a browser seems to be just perfect for a scenario like that.

178

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

« Last post by Mark0 on May 12, 2011, 06:57 PM »

Starting from June 15 about everywhere:

Google Chromebook

I think it's a great concept for a lot of people / situations. Probably game changing stuff.

179

Living Room / Re: Google Chrome Hacked, Sandbox Escaped

« Last post by Mark0 on May 12, 2011, 06:54 PM »

It seems that things may be quite a bit different than initially reported:

'As usual, security journalists don't bother to fact check,' said Tavis Ormandy, a Google security engineer, in a tweet earlier Wednesday. 'Vupen misunderstood how sandboxing worked in Chrome, and only had a Flash bug.' Chris Evans, a Google security engineer and Chrome team lead, tweeted, 'It's a legit pwn, but if it requires Flash, it's not a Chrome pwn.'

Computer World - Google engineers deny Chrome hack exploited browser's code

As noted also in today keynote at Google I/O, at the moment Flash on Chrome is partially sandboxed; it too (like web pages / tab are now) will be full sandboxed in the near future. Anyway, for the moment, a partial sandbox, in addition to the Flash automated update, is far better than nothing.

180

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Beta new version of TrID file identifier - now with batch scanning & renaming

« Last post by Mark0 on February 20, 2011, 05:01 AM »

Are you saying that the GUI version doesn't have an issue with filesize > 2GB? Not that it's something I run into; just curious.

-Cavalcader (February 20, 2011, 02:08 AM)

Yes, there was/is no problems with big files for TrIDNet.

181

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Beta new version of TrID file identifier - now with batch scanning & renaming

« Last post by Mark0 on February 19, 2011, 02:25 PM »

I think that the main difference is how the library of filetypes is updated.
The idea with TrID was to develop something that had no fixed rules, and basically relied on definitions created by scanning a number of files of a certain type, and automatically detecting recurring patterns.

So, for example, you just have to get some ODT files (the more, the better, usually), run TrIDScan against them, and you endup with a new definition tailored for those files. Then you can edit it, add some info (filetype descriptions, and URL with reference info, etc.), maybe remove the "obviously unimportant patterns & strings" (due to some bytes that just happened to correspond in the small data set analyzed, eventually), and the job is done.

Since it's very easy to create new definitions, I think that probably TrID recognize more filetypes than "file" (the tool).
Anyway, TrID's approach is a simple one that does seems to give some good results. But It's certainly not perfect; for example it definitely not very good with text files, because it need at least some fixed patterns.

BTW, I'm working on something completely different that I believe will results in a much better & complete file identification system, but I haven't anything ready for prime time yet...

182

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Beta new version of TrID file identifier - now with batch scanning & renaming

« Last post by Mark0 on February 19, 2011, 11:56 AM »

Sure. The engine is still the same; just keep it fed with the newest definitions, and it's OK.

183

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Beta new version of TrID file identifier - now with batch scanning & renaming

« Last post by Mark0 on February 19, 2011, 10:22 AM »

I have updated TrID a couple of days ago. The v2.10 mainly fix the problem with filesize > 2GB (a classic!), and add an option switch to change files extensions (in addition to the existing one that added the guessed extension).
As before, it's available both as a Win32 and Linux executable.

Mark0.net - Soft - TrID

P.S. The library of TrID's definition now cover over 4.000 filetypes.

184

Living Room / Re: We are doomed: IBM's Watson debuts on Jeopardy today (14 Feb 2011)

« Last post by Mark0 on February 17, 2011, 12:12 PM »

It won!
77.147$ vs 24.000$ vs 21.600$.

185

Living Room / Re: We are doomed: IBM's Watson debuts on Jeopardy today (14 Feb 2011)

« Last post by Mark0 on February 16, 2011, 11:14 AM »

Youtube - Jeopardy IBM / Watson challenge Day 1 (p1)

(other parts following kindly displayed by Youtube   )

D'HO!
The videos just got deleted. 

186

Developer's Corner / Re: Safe programs for File Recovery

« Last post by Mark0 on February 07, 2011, 08:57 PM »

You can try also Back2Life: the evaluation mode is fully functional.

187

General Software Discussion / Re: Free simple tool for recording audio directly on disk - Recommendations needed

« Last post by Mark0 on February 04, 2011, 06:03 PM »

Many thanks, will try it!

188

General Software Discussion / Free simple tool for recording audio directly on disk - Recommendations needed

« Last post by Mark0 on February 04, 2011, 05:24 PM »

I'm searching a simple application that could, potentially, be used to record hours of audio, directly in MP3 or OGG format.
Bonus points for something that could record in a loop, i.e. keep always the last xx hours, or minutes, etc.
Nothing really needed aside from that; will use some other software to edit the "raw" audio after that.

Thanks!

189

General Software Discussion / Re: My new favorite ftp client: Total Commander (yes, really)

« Last post by Mark0 on January 31, 2011, 07:36 AM »

My outgoing connection isn't very fast, about 70 kbps max, and FileZilla will use all of it, while TC tops at 35 kbps every time. Unless I'm missing something that's going to be obvious in hindsight, there doesn't seem to be a throttle setting in the configuration,  yet some kind of throttling appears to be in effect.

-tranglos (January 31, 2011, 07:31 AM)

tranglos, check if this helps:
Total Commander - FTP upload mistery

For some users, it helped to increase the upload block size. You may try this too: Please add the following string to the file wcx_ftp.ini, section [General]:
UploadBlockSize=32768

190

General Software Discussion / Re: My new favorite ftp client: Total Commander (yes, really)

« Last post by Mark0 on January 31, 2011, 07:12 AM »

Another +1 for Total Commander here!
I use it for all kind of things, and FTP is surely one of them.

191

General Software Discussion / Stacey - An interesting, simple flat file CMS

« Last post by Mark0 on January 30, 2011, 05:58 AM »

Found the other day searching around for some lightweight CMS:

Stacey

Stacey is a lightweight content management system.
No database setup or installation files, simply drop the application on a server and it runs. Your content is managed by creating folders and editing text files. No login screens, no admin interface.

192

Living Room / Re: Real Numeric Statistics for Win, Mac, Lnx, etc. installations

« Last post by Mark0 on January 27, 2011, 07:45 PM »

Maybe you could get some indications from StatCounter's Global Stats.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on over 15 billion hits per month, by a random sample of people worldwide, to over 3 million global websites, covering multiple interest areas and geographic locations.

-StatCounter GS FAQ

For example: Top 5 Operating Systems from Dec 09 to Dec 10

193

General Software Discussion / C gibberish <-> English

« Last post by Mark0 on January 26, 2011, 03:03 PM »

cdecl: C gibberish <-> English

 

194

Living Room / Re: New evidence supports Oracle's case against google

« Last post by Mark0 on January 21, 2011, 05:36 PM »

ZDNet - Oops: No copied Java code or weapons of mass destruction found in Android

Stop the presses! Juicy “evidence” of Google’s evil side turns out to be much ado about nothing.

Sometimes the sheer wrongness of what is posted on the web leaves us speechless. Especially when it’s picked up and repeated as gospel by otherwise reputable sites like Engadget. “Google copied Oracle’s Java code, pasted in a new license, and shipped it,” they reported this morning.

Sorry, but that just isn’t true.

Including quite a debate between the authors of the two articles in the comment sections! 

195

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: JottiQ

« Last post by Mark0 on January 17, 2011, 05:30 AM »

Just found about JottiQ.
Thanks for the very nice tool worstje!

196

Python / PyQuick - Up & running with Python quickly

« Last post by Mark0 on January 15, 2011, 08:14 PM »

I was interested in starting to play with Python for quite some time, but never actually found the time / inspiration to do it.  
Found these videos around Xmas while random-zapping on YouTube and got hooked!  

So, here I am recommending this brief series of videos by Nick Parlante to anyone who want to get the hang of Python.

Here's the link to the first video:
YouTube - PyQuick - Google Python Class Day 1 Part 1

And the associated webpages:
Google's Python Class - Python Introduction

197

Living Room / Re: Should I work for free?

« Last post by Mark0 on January 14, 2011, 02:55 PM »

Fantastic! 

198

Developer's Corner / Re: Every programmer knows there is one true programming language

« Last post by Mark0 on January 13, 2011, 07:48 PM »

I would say that green would have been a better choice for Python's color! 

199

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's try to create our own suite for internet security.

« Last post by Mark0 on January 12, 2011, 03:59 PM »

Since I rarely have any malware, perhaps I shouldn't be so concerned, but I don't like the idea that a malware program that managed to get on my computer could send out information without my knowing it.  Thus, a firewall that works in both directions seems to me a good idea.

-cyberdiva (January 12, 2011, 03:49 PM)

But, I think, that restrictions are so easy to circumvents in some way or the others that's probably not even worth trying, IMHO.
I had coded a (very!) little demonstration tool about 6 years ago, but I believe it may still be working:
http://mark0.net/soft-leakout-e.html

It just try to "smuggle" some stupid data, like Machine name, Windows Directory, etc. using the browser.
I'm curious to hear if it still works on some recent Win configurations.

200

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's try to create our own suite for internet security.

« Last post by Mark0 on January 12, 2011, 02:42 PM »

Next question, is there another on-demand scanner that people prefer?

-superboyac (January 12, 2011, 11:59 AM)

Not really a full blown on demand scanner, but I often use VirusTotal Uploader to double check a file.
Also, I currently don't have any realtime scanner always running, and simply scan files when I download or move/copy them.