Recent Posts

2351

Post New Requests Here / Re: Patch to Disable ACL access-control-lists

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2013, 06:42 PM »

I don't think the viral problem is that bad.  Most viruses are spread through social engineering.  Only 3 in a decade were spread through Windows vulnerabilities, and then only if you weren't behind a NAT router.

-mraeryceos (April 24, 2013, 02:32 PM)

I'm not sure on the exact numbers, but there were definitely (many) more than 3 exploited holes in Windows. Not to mention that drivebys (infected banner/ad servers) are and have been quite common for a while. To the point where there really aren't any "safe" sites ...Everybody gets a turn in the barrel as the saying goes.

Also, viruses spread through a land of fully ACL'd computers.

-mraeryceos (April 24, 2013, 02:32 PM)

Yes, but those are the ones which have users with administrative rights, UAC turned off, and some pathetic attempt at a babysitter security suite AV program running (and failing) at full tilt. The bugg, when encountered executes in the context of the current user...with all of the rights and privileges that said user has. These scenario never end well...but they do pay well. ...We had two customers that actually called the FBI when that screen popped up, a third called me first to see if they should call the Feds.

On the other hand...Reduced permissions work perfectly, if the user doesn't have permission to break the machine...then neither does the bugg. I just doesn't get any simpler.

2352

Developer's Corner / Re: Looking for the best widget for numeric input

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2013, 05:18 PM »

4 looks nice, and could be keyboard friendly if set to advance by 1 by default, and then advance by 10 of you hold shift (or some other accelerator key). Biggest issue is usually boring the user to death with the setting crawling across the screen with the +1 default increment (I'm guessing based on what annoys me ), so maybe reverse the above with a +/- 5 default movement and a pres shift + arrow for more granular +/- 1 movement.

2353

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2013, 06:48 AM »

(meaning lost in translation) Which only server to clarify why phone support is so painfully difficult these days.

2354

Living Room / Re: Tip of the Day: How to make your zip files less annoying

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2013, 06:46 AM »

IIRC the _MACOSX folder contains the file system fork content/files that Windows doesn't/can't use and Mac's assimilate back into the file system object at the other end transparently.

2355

Living Room / Re: The 21 worst tech habits [PCWORLD]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2013, 06:40 AM »

I dunno, I kinda disagree with the Printing thing. I print a series of the most important emails with detailed info going on especially to use as checklists and bringing with me to meetings. (See the GTD thread - the unmentioned half of my Notebook of Doom) is email threads which quite often end up stapled into a series with other items such as matching return receipt green postal slips etc.

So that one is more of a "cut down" thing for me, rather than "why on earth would you ever" from the article.

-TaoPhoenix (April 23, 2013, 10:34 AM)

There used to be a problem here with people romping into my office with a printed Email and a question. The problem went away awhile back when I got feed up with it and decided to react "honestly" to this behavior a few times... ...Now they get forwarded with a question attached (which is typically "is this spam"..). That (I believe) is the problem group to which the article refers.

Your situation is different. But I've run across that type of need before. However to mitigate my general distain for hard copy I'll usually either paste together multiple key point emails into a single sheet. Or if the context is critical hit reply to an Email so it can be edited and add notes in a different font color so it's easy to see who said what, and then print it to a PDF and/or save the email as file in the project/client folder. The last bit is particularly handy for documenting license keys since nobody ever seems to be able to find "the box" 4 years later when their system explodes.

2356

Post New Requests Here / Re: Patch to Disable ACL access-control-lists

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 24, 2013, 01:57 PM »

Okay, I'm speechless.

That's basically the equivalent of giving your computer AIDS ... Because the slightest hint of a bug will simply kill the then completely defenseless machine.

2357

Living Room / Re: What to do with an SSD after it fails

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 24, 2013, 11:33 AM »

Zoiks! Thanks f0dder.

On a brighter note, that should be short work for a medium sized hammer.

2358

Living Room / Re: What to do with an SSD after it fails

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 24, 2013, 06:39 AM »

Granted I could be nutz... But I don't think the controller swap trick works on a failed SSD. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the which sections are weak/failed logic was part of the storage chip itself. So the controller could still be fine while the actual data chip has written itself off (so to speak). *Shrug* ...This could be a f0dder question.

Anytime a client's drive has failed to an extent that it cannot be electronically burned, the only option is physical destruction of the drive.

2359

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Windows print pooling application

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 23, 2013, 10:32 PM »

The printers are the same brand and model and have the same driver.  This pool is not in a stationary setting.  I mix and match the computers and printers all of the time

-kuecker2 (April 23, 2013, 09:49 AM)

That strikes me as rather odd, you should be able to just modify to ports as needed to add/subtract devices from the pool. If it's a PCL driver and a network port the driver is quite oblivious to the target. Especially if you use the (non-UPD) Vista driver so it isn't trying to do the bidirectional auto configuration chat crap all the time.

I have scoured the internet and have not found anything quite like waht I want.  I am told Mac has a built in system for this.  But I am using windows computers

-kuecker2 (April 23, 2013, 09:49 AM)

PCL is PCL, reguardless of the OS. PCL gets the job to the print device and the embeded PJL handles how many times what happens next.


Just out of curiosity... Why are you (I am assuming) trying to speed up the printing of a single page job with printer pooling? It would be much simpler/cheaper to just get a single printer that prints faster.

2360

Living Room / Re: The Coffee/Caffeine Thread!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 23, 2013, 07:02 PM »

Samual Adams Alpine Spring ale

-Tinman57 (April 23, 2013, 04:27 PM)

2361

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: activate Windows (7) mapped network drives

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 23, 2013, 05:30 PM »

Also +1 w/4wd when he recommends using UNC. Mapped network drives can be fussy at the best of times. And with the advent of ActiveDirectory and their new security model, Microsoft now recommends that you use UNC for accessing network shares rather than mapped drives.

-40hz (April 23, 2013, 06:28 AM)

That strikes me as quite odd, considering a single GP mapped drive letter to a domain DFS root makes a myriad of problems vanish instantly. Why would anyone want to go back to the administrative overhead of tending multiple (saved UNC) shortcuts...it strikes me as the worst of both worlds.

-Stoic Joker (April 23, 2013, 06:58 AM)

The time I called MSoft's tech support with a similar issue I was told mapped drives were considered "legacy" and were kept mostly for compatibility reasons. UNC and FQDNs were where it was going. So I assumed that was MSoft's official position rather than just the tech's opinion - but maybe it was? Have you heard otherwise?

-40hz (April 23, 2013, 07:10 AM)

I'd have to go with Tech's Opinion...if only from an administrative stand point. Walking a (stereotypical...) end user through \\anything is painfully time consuming. But telling them to go to (GP initiated mapped) drive X: and clicking on whatever-they-lookin-for is freaking cake...especially if you can remotely stuff any DFS link into said target before they get there..

I ain't givin' that up without a fight.

At this point I think the issue is likely being caused by a group policy setting.

Usually when you're having trouble connecting to a share it's caused by an encryption or other security setting. You'll run into that problem with Win7 connections to old Win2K servers sometimes.

Take a look at the connection specs and details on your server. If you gave an old version if Samba, the increased security Win7 looks for might be the problem.

-40hz (April 23, 2013, 11:18 AM)

LM/NTLM vs. NTLMv2? There was mention of that in one of the articles a ran across in a quick google (For Mapped Drive Red X), it also stated that a VB script (and I suspect a .cmd) would execute more reliably than a standard batch file would.

2362

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Windows print pooling application

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 23, 2013, 10:59 AM »

1)  When I have the two printers connected, and the print pooling set up and I want to print more than one copy of a document.  The print pool sends them all to printer 1, instead of distributing the documents between the printers.  If I go in a do a reprint it generally sends the reprint to the second printer.

-kuecker2 (April 23, 2013, 09:49 AM)

That behavior is by design, as you are requesting 2 copies of a single print job...not 2 print jobs of 1 copy. The data is only sent to the pool (and selected target printer) with a PCL command that says make X copies. The printers don't share work with each other, they just do what they're told from the above "command" pool.

2363

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: activate Windows (7) mapped network drives

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 23, 2013, 10:47 AM »

have you tried this? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684

2364

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: activate Windows (7) mapped network drives

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 23, 2013, 06:58 AM »

That can also happen with a Samba share if you have the offline files option enabled in the W7 Sync Center control panel. Try disabling offline files and you should be ok. Unless, of course, you use that feature.

-40hz (April 23, 2013, 06:28 AM)

Might be good to mention that you loose indexing/the ability to search said files from the start menu that way. It also becomes next to impossible to add the target to a library (due to the can't index bit).

Also +1 w/4wd when he recommends using UNC. Mapped network drives can be fussy at the best of times. And with the advent of ActiveDirectory and their new security model, Microsoft now recommends that you use UNC for accessing network shares rather than mapped drives.

-40hz (April 23, 2013, 06:28 AM)

That strikes me as quite odd, considering a single GP mapped drive letter to a domain DFS root makes a myriad of problems vanish instantly. Why would anyone want to go back to the administrative overhead of tending multiple (saved UNC) shortcuts...it strikes me as the worst of both worlds.

2365

Living Room / Re: The Coffee/Caffeine Thread!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2013, 10:08 PM »

In the 80's coffee was demonized and vindicated about 5 times as various research groups persisted in concocting data to fit their theories. Personally I don't think it matters what you do as long as it is in moderation.

Now stressing out about what the latest health craze wants everyone to do more/less of ... That'll kill you.

2366

Living Room / Re: What to do with an SSD after it fails

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2013, 09:56 PM »

I've never had or used a receipt for an RMA in my life. Usually just run the serial number and let their (Seagate/WD/Maxtor) records validate the warranty.

But then again I've also no intention of buying an SSD until these rather common horror stories have disappeared into ancient folklore.

More precisely on topic...I'll also vote ball-peen hamer...or shotgun ... Dealers choice.

2367

Living Room / Re: After Asia and Europe, North America is next in line to run out of IP addresses.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2013, 09:47 PM »

Oh goody, no more of those pesky NAT firewalls seperation public and private systems. With IPv6 everything is exposed as a public interface.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic...(having been stuck studying IPv6 a great deal lately)...but it's also quite true(ly a hackers wet dream).

2368

Living Room / Re: Google forbids resale or lending of Glass

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2013, 06:51 PM »

It will also be interesting to see if Google goes along with such a demand voluntarily

-40hz (April 22, 2013, 02:31 PM)

Define "voluntarily"... You mean the "Official" story ... Or what actually happened when the cameras got turned off (ehm) "spontaneously malfunctioned".

2369

Living Room / Re: fixed glasses

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 08, 2013, 07:03 AM »

I should probably mention that I worked in the optical field for several years, so I've had frequent occasion to watch this end badly.

I've learned to dislike rimless glasses

-40hz (February 07, 2013, 01:01 PM)

I think that the objective fact that rimless glasses do not limit the optical field, should make them number one option

-kalos (February 07, 2013, 02:17 PM)

Purely a matter of personal preference. The thin frames don't impair the optical field because your eyes learn to look around them so to speak.

-40hz (February 08, 2013, 06:22 AM)

Correct, to put it simply the above assertion is more of a subjective 'fact'. Rimless glasses have a very square edge which gets polished for aesthetics. This polished edge however can actually induce glare in different lighting by either catching it and lighting up the edge, or just reflecting it back into your eyes. Granted the effect varies depending on your prescription but the minimum thickness imposed by/for the groove tend to guarantee some hassles...it can also add back the weight to the lens that you though you were subtracting from the frame.

My experience with rimless glasses is that they're too easy to damage and require constant "adjustment bending" since they're a little too flexible. YMMV.

-40hz (February 08, 2013, 06:22 AM)

Correct, drill mounts are another even worse idea for exactly the same reason.

That may also be a problem if you want a headband in the back to keep them on - as the picture you posted seems to indicate. , Since the only thing attached to the lenses would be the nose bridge and side pieces with a rimless design, all the pressure from the headband is going to put be on the bridge, and the lenses will constantly being pulled back and against your face like goggles. That would likely be very uncomfortable.

-40hz (February 08, 2013, 06:22 AM)

This too is an excellent point. Most of the sports glasses one sees these days are of the full rim wrap-around variety. The reason being that the design simply works. I'm guessing this has much to do with why the "style" has remained in vogue for almost 20 years now.

2370

Living Room / Re: Payphones - Thoughts?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 07, 2013, 10:23 AM »

Anyone have any thoughts/memories about payphones?

-Renegade (February 07, 2013, 07:12 AM)

Apart from sometimes finding forgotten change in them, and making prank calls to the police during lunch breaks? Nope.

-f0dder (February 07, 2013, 07:31 AM)

Ah! Yes...the good Ol' days ... Back when innocent fun was still a misdemeanor. I remember them not so much well, as fondly.

2371

Living Room / Re: Legitimate app breaks popular encryption - EFS, BitLocker, TrueCrypt ...

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 07, 2013, 06:59 AM »

Sory guys, I'm actually smiling about this. Encryption has long been spun as a magic bullet replacement for physical security to 'appologise' for people that can't keep track of their shit.

Oh deer... I left my laptop at the ___. What ever shall we do... Not to worry! It's [cue the super hero background music] Encryptified! Yeah!!!

Gag.

Perhaps this (is a good thing) will get people to start thinking seriously about the equally important other layers of security.

2372

Living Room / Re: Free Nationwide WiFi

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 06, 2013, 07:14 PM »

When was the last time you heard about anyone abusing baking soda

-Renegade (February 06, 2013, 05:23 PM)

Does cutting you coke with it count?

2373

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Got Space?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 06, 2013, 07:09 PM »

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it. Altho it looks like I might need to let it scale switch up to TB from your totals. ...Or is having it read x,000 GB just too much fun to let go of?

2374

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Free Linux DNS server

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 06, 2013, 07:34 AM »

(Also, would you want to run corporate infrastructure on BIND? Hmm.)

-f0dder (February 06, 2013, 07:01 AM)

Considering the current stunning lack of performance on their network now, they're already in a bind (sorry couldn't resist).

I'm really just trying to pick a lessor evil here.

2375

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Free Linux DNS server

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 06, 2013, 06:59 AM »

Hm... Light at end of tunnel may not be train after all. Altho I'm not entirely sure if their server is 03 or above...I certainly hope it's at least 08.

So the question remains, what would be the best/most ideal light weight flavor of Linux/Unix to try labing this with? I want to be sure I can get it to work before suggesting anything.