Recent Posts

2051

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you a hardcore software fanatic or a poseur?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 12, 2007, 03:55 PM »

J-Mac, you look like you need a virtual machine for all that testing. It would save you some time of cleaning hassle

2052

General Software Discussion / Re: Seeking opinions about combination antivirus/firewall products

« Last post by Lashiec on July 12, 2007, 03:52 PM »

Prevention of spyware... the same Windows Defender, Spyware Terminator, the aforementioned Spybot, Ad-Aware, AVG Anti-Spyware, a-squared, SpywareBlaster (for IE)... Pretty much you can protect the computer with good free software, or paying some dollars for a little more protection (including trojans and other malware). If you can don't install SpySweeper or Spyware Doctor, not only for the bloat and slowing factor, but for other (possibly paranoid) reasons

About firewalls... you might as well go with the one built in Windows. Seriously, nowadays firewalls are not firewalls, but clumsy "I'll protect you from everything, but you'll get no productivity at all" suites. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but for example both Comodo and Outpost carry HIPS modules (very talkative things), and in the case of the latter, they also include the kitchen sink. For now, use a router (until I get my hands onto the subject, it's what I'm using), or light firewalls, if you can find one, of course. Scot Finnie is also conducting a firewall test on his own computers, so check up his website to see what he recommends. Word of advice: It seems the guy fall in love with methodology used for testing over there at Matousec, which means a firewall is an application monitor, and not a piece software that should prevent the bad guys for getting in there at first.

Or you could as well go with nothing. Yesterday, in the main page of Ars Technica they featured this discussion about the need of security software, and the conclusions are rather surprising. Who knows? Maybe we're a bit paranoid, but frankly, having to wade through a flood of popups just to have the feeling of security makes me uncomfortable. Probably, it's better to practice safe computing, and stop worrying about the bad guys. Or switch to Linux . Gizmo is going to kill me if he reads this

And then you read this other article, it scares the hell out of you, and you put walls around the computer.

One more thing: Layered defense (one application taking care of every type of malware) is better than a multi-layered suite, although this might not be true about Kaspersky.

2053

General Software Discussion / Re: How to Slow down "notification area"?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 12, 2007, 03:03 PM »

Not to mention that as long as you keep the cursor over the system tray, the icons will not hide

2054

Living Room / Re: Flash game/fun: The Cadaver Calculator

« Last post by Lashiec on July 12, 2007, 11:40 AM »

4975$

2055

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the Switch-05: Ten Great Ideas of GNU/Linux

« Last post by Lashiec on July 12, 2007, 09:34 AM »

That Basket thing looks nice, it seems like a cross between AM-Notebook and Surfulater. Pity that the project is semi-dead, as the developer doesn't have time for it anymore.

2056

General Software Discussion / Re: Perl scripting using Vista's speach recognition! Awesome!

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2007, 01:25 PM »

I think it works by default. It doesn't work with all programs, though. Winamp, for example, doesn't work at all, and I suspect the skins have something to do with this.

2057

General Software Discussion / Re: Perl scripting using Vista's speach recognition! Awesome!

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2007, 01:03 PM »

That reminds me of the most hilarious phase during our test (me and some friends) of the speech capabilities of Vista. We wanted to control Windows Media Player, and everything was going well, until we tried to "Pause" the song. I'll tell you, it was simply impossible. We tried every single pronunciation of the word, and everytime we tried, WMP closed itself. And according to the PC owner, in Spanish it was even worse, as the player just sit there, while the control window screamed that it didn't understand

Imagine what could happen in a car...

2058

General Software Discussion / Re: "XPLinux" Running Windows XP and Kubuntu on one joint desktop

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2007, 12:44 PM »

Judge by yourself

2059

General Software Discussion / Re: ZipInstaller: Install Windows applications from a ZIP file

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2007, 12:14 PM »

Whenever I encounter a Zip file containing a folder with a lot of exucatuables, it has worked for me.  Other than that, just browse to the folder, sort by type, select all executables, right click, create shortcut.  Then move the shortcuts to where ever you want them....

-y0himba (July 11, 2007, 12:05 PM)

Thanks! Now let me go to the nearer wall to do something...

Jesus Christ! It was one of those simply logical things...

OK, done!

2060

General Software Discussion / Re: Perl scripting using Vista's speach recognition! Awesome!

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2007, 12:01 PM »

Not to spoil the party, but to those who can, try the speech recognition in Vista to see how far it is from science fiction concepts. Could be a side effect of a poor implementation, so probably the experience with ViaVoice or Dragon Naturally Speaking is far better.

Anyway, the predictions of death for the mouse+keyboard combo are greatly exaggerated. Controlling a computer via speech is the slowest thing I saw since I tried to work with 20 tabs open in Firefox. Really, it transforms a brand new computer in a Spectrum. That said, it's pretty cool

2061

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Snailware: Newer Software for Older Slower PC's

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2007, 11:36 AM »

Great idea, App! I could give you a helping hand writing a review or two as I my old computer is still chugging along in another room. And I am a serious fan of optimizing systems to run as fast and lean as possible (even with the rocket I'm using right now ). Of course, as always I need some time, something missing this week, as my nephews have reclaimed possession of most rooms in the house

Oh! I see I need to have a P-II... and I have a P-III

2062

General Software Discussion / Re: ZipInstaller: Install Windows applications from a ZIP file

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2007, 11:03 AM »

I liked this program when I tried it some time ago, but I deleted it after I found that it didn't create shortcuts for every file I would want to put in the programs folder, because it only scanned the home directory, not the subdirs. Do you know if there's some program capable of scanning a folder, listing every file contained there, and giving you the option of setting up links to a set of those files?

Another feature that could be really nice is one that allowed installations from RAR and 7Z files. And if it allowed the edition of the uninstall entry fields, it would be perfect.

2063

General Software Discussion / Re: Which MP3 player/management software do you use?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 07, 2007, 02:44 PM »

foobar2000 of course, combined with Mp3tag. A thread here with some discussion about the first one, including urlwolf before he abandoned us

2064

General Software Discussion / Re: Anybody use FileHippo Update Checker?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 07, 2007, 01:53 PM »

FileHippo tends to offer newer versions of the software before they were announced, it happened with Opera 9.21, for example. Regarding SpywareTerminator, it's probably because they are using different servers for updating the application and for new downloads, and they didn't add the necessary files for the update. But this is only a guess.

2065

General Software Discussion / Re: Detecting RootKits

« Last post by Lashiec on July 07, 2007, 01:44 PM »

Curt, that's the Internet Security suite, which includes lots of things like a firewall or a antispam filter. The one justice is using costs 39.95 € for a one year license.

2066

Living Room / Re: OWNING "hacker tools" illegal in Germany as of TODAY (jail & fines for everyone)

« Last post by Lashiec on July 07, 2007, 01:34 PM »

If you listen to security experts, much of "hacking" (which should be cracking, BTW) is just social engineering. Does that mean it will now be illegal to own a dictionary?

-tinjaw (July 07, 2007, 01:21 PM)

A Spanish author not long ago said that writing (especially with pen and paper) is still considered a subversive act by certain society sectors. Tha interwebs are flooding with hackers!

2067

Find And Run Robot / Re: An idea for FARR "with this file do.." type actions

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 08:10 PM »

You can use a key modifier to select the file you want to work, like "I want to open the second file in PSPad instead of Notepad", you press Ctrl+2, and then using shell extensions, you use the "Open with" dialog.

I was thinking in what character to use time ago, when I read the different discussions. How about going the UNIX and C++ way? That is, using "<<". But I think this was a bit unreachable in certain layouts. To use "|" here, I've got to resort to Alt Gr, but thanks to programming, I have it mastered.

2068

Find And Run Robot / Re: An idea for FARR "with this file do.." type actions

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 07:57 PM »

I guess this is somewhat related to the ideas for FARR 3 to be more like Quicksilver. That aside, I think it's quite neat. The alias file, on the other hand... I guess for the moment the actions related to the file types should be provided and restricted by the plugins. You can also use the shell extensions you have installed to provide the right actions.

2069

General Software Discussion / Re: Detecting RootKits

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 07:41 PM »

HIPS programs you're talking about... I don't know if they would go so down in the stack. They're quite capable of detecting software trying to launch other apps, code injection and such, but with rootkits it would be another story. Who knows? If Gizmo says they would prevent them, then take his word for granted. The guy lives of that.

Besides, actual rootkits are much more sophisticated than this. I think Altiris would be something like in the league of Norton's Antivirus Recycle Bin, which intercepted the files going to the bin, and rerouted them to his own directory.

Sysinternals tool is quite capable, but in the end, you're alone, unless you post your log in their forums. It's not easy to understand, and you've got to remove possible rootkits by yourself. I wouldn't count too much on Resplendece tool as well, this is not their field of action. F-Secure on the other hand, was (I think) one of the first scanners, but according to an article f0dder linked:

btw it's not just a coincidence that the Ad-Aware engine uses another PR crap firm F-Secure in their products for fighting with spyware. Nice simbiotic

... who knows, it could be true, or it could be some guy crying because he can't bypass F-Secure detection algorithms. Another search showed me that rootkit authors are in a rat race with security software writers, as always. WinHex could be also a helpful tool, but it's also difficult to use.

Enough senseless chit-chat. Where is f0dder?

2070

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: ProcessKill 0.0.0.2 - My FARR2 Plugin Contest Submission #4

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 06:46 PM »

OK, I think I know who should receive the Visual Studio package. Well done

And thanks to this plugin, I finally have a quick way to kill processes like I used to do with EDXOR. Cool!

2071

General Software Discussion / Re: hibernate, damit! or a nice tool called wizmo...

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 06:41 PM »

Uhm, killing them one by one? (if they resist, ya know there is this article about zillion ways to kill something)

You can also use stronger words like "hibernate, motherfucker" or your blasphemy of choice

2072

General Software Discussion / Re: deleting files from DVD/CD?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 06:33 PM »

f0dder, that's one funky coaster

2073

Living Room / Re: OWNING "hacker tools" illegal in Germany as of TODAY (jail & fines for everyone)

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 06:23 PM »

cmpm raised an interesting question with it sarcastic comment

What happens, for example, with "legal" software designed to protect THEM for what US could do to their intellectual property? What happens with the Sony rootkit, the Cactus protection embedded in one of the releases of my beloved Natalie Imbruglia that install itself in the computer without asking me anything, Starforce (!!)? They're also hacker tools by their own definition (well, and by everyone), that could be used to commit crimes (uhm, I wonder what rootkit used certain viruses...)

nudone, I think this law is much more like the anti-piracy laws USA's general attorney is trying to impose there. You get in problems if you attempt to commit a property theft. I wonder if the plague would continue to infest the world...

2074

General Software Discussion / Re: Multisession burning

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 06:12 PM »

Did you check the CD with IsoBuster in the Plextor drive? I wouldn't blame the drive anyway, things like that happened time ago, although I used an unnamed drive and a Sony burner...

By the way, forget about XP burning as I suggested, I just remembered that it only works with CDs, not with DVDs. You have to use Vista for that

2075

Developer's Corner / Re: Create web2.0 style stripe textures online with this fun tool

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2007, 06:02 PM »

HUH? XOR encryption, easily discernable password, poor checksum routines?? What the hell were they thinking? And that inflated number of entries? Are they scared of a-squared numbers?

My god, I could extract the file myself without coding anything. Anyway, I hope they fixed THAT in 2007 version... although they introduced another problems (this time at user-level).

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