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2376

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2013, 05:57 PM »

I heard it's been attempted. And it's not worth the effort based on everything I've ever read about it by those who tried - and failed.

-40hz (February 05, 2013, 04:31 PM)

Crap, I was hoping it would at least point to the DC properly so I could use caching for the rest.

The present setup you're describing is absolutely doomed to failure. As in epic. No two ways.

-40hz (February 05, 2013, 04:31 PM)

Count with me brother, 5... 4... 3... (hehe) Why is it that nobody ever seems to read that chapter of the manual?? DNS really is simple as hell.

Holding out false hopes only gets your client pissed off. Best just let it happen and skip the science fair projects. Once it really tanks on them they'll let you fix it correctly.

-40hz (February 05, 2013, 04:31 PM)

I hear Ya. I just thought it might be a (cheap fix) fun place to stick Linux ... Did I mention that they have 6 locations this into this mess?

2377

General Software Discussion / Looking for Free Linux DNS server

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2013, 03:30 PM »

Okay, I'm probably completely nuts on this one...but I thought I'd ask anyway.

We have a client that got talked into going with a cloud server for their Windows domain via VPN. ...I'll pause here a bit so you can cringe to...

... ...

...So as to be expected, the tunnel goes down from time to time (daily...) which prevents the client machines from accessing the (remotely hosted - cloud situated) domain DNS which is of course running in the remotely hosted (cloud situated) DC. So whoever set this (kluge) up made the obvious (mistake) assumption that they could just add the ISP's DNS server as the secondary DNS server for the client machine (turning everything to shit) so that the users could still access the internet when the tunnel went down...in what was described as a daily fashion.

Is it even necessary to say that the aforementioned configuration is doomed to fail (catastrophically)?

So anyway, just for a bit of cost cutting fun (server OSs being $$$), I thought I'd inquire if any one could think of a free Linux/Unix based DNS solution that could properly handle the DNS records for (_msdcs.*) a Windows domain. GUI-less CLI preferred.

Thank you,

2378

General Software Discussion / Anyone using NovaBACKUP Business Essentials?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2013, 03:11 PM »

Greetings
    I recently ran across a HIPAA situation in which it is required (read mandated) that the backups be encrypted to at least AES 128 bit. Now trying to find something that will do that, and play nice with a SQL (or Exchange) server for under $1,000 has proven to be a bit of a bitch.

   So far the initial test with NovaStor's NovaBACKUP® Business Essentials have gone well ...(I've backed up our production SQL server with it 3 times and it hasn't killed it...yet)... But I was wondering if anyone here had or has been using this for any length of time that can shed some light on any antics it may be prone to.

Thank you,

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone wishing to suggest an alternate product with the same capabilities please feel free.

2379

Living Room / Re: Yet another reason why I often wish I lived in Massachusettes

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2013, 11:51 AM »

As shown by the fact that at least in my case, I'm more pissed at the local business associations now after their 'success'.

-wraith808 (February 05, 2013, 11:29 AM)

+1 - It does sound a bit like (ultimately only the lawyers win) a pyrrhic victory doesn't it.

2380

Living Room / Re: Suggestions for low vision problems while working on a computer

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2013, 07:01 AM »

IIRC Macular Degeneration leaves one with an ever decreasing field of vision, so don't get too large a screen. I'd stop in the 21" range.

I thing Deo had a good idea with the TV angle as most of the LED TVs these days do have VGA ports and work well at low res.

Have you tried using a colored font (like Orange or a Medium blue) for the Email that shows up acceptably on both black and white backgrounds?

Could also give these folks a call (they're friends of mine) as they've been specializing in low vision equipment for the last 20 years.

2381

Living Room / Re: 50's military computer porn

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2013, 06:34 AM »

 I remember in the late 70's, the CD's the military used were about the size of a garbage can lid.  And I don't think they stored as much information as a regular CD does today.

-Tinman57 (February 04, 2013, 07:29 PM)

I'm going to guess no..:


1GB drive 20 years ago and today.

2382

Living Room / Re: Global Warming & Statistics

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 04, 2013, 05:34 PM »

So a 1/4 acre is a ~52' square .

-Stoic Joker (February 04, 2013, 12:00 PM)

~104', it's a square

-AndyM (February 04, 2013, 01:04 PM)

Ah! yes, true ...(that is a bit closer to the suberbes)... but it still ain't alot of room.

I've spent to much time with base 2, 8, & 16 ... I can't seem to do base 10 anymore.

2383

Living Room / Re: 50's military computer porn

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 04, 2013, 05:27 PM »

Now that's a cool story!

2384

Living Room / Re: Global Warming & Statistics

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 04, 2013, 12:00 PM »

if you divided the world's population of 7 billion into families of four, and gave them each 1/4 acre to live on

-CWuestefeld (February 03, 2013, 07:53 PM)

Um... how big is an acre where you're from? Because a 1/4 acre for a family of 4 would leave them in a tent best I can tell.

A square plot of ground, 208.7 feet on a side, will cover an acre

So a 1/4 acre is a ~52' square ... Zoiks!

2385

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 04, 2013, 07:03 AM »

Ww seemed to work end of last week...

-TheMen (January 28, 2013, 05:45 AM)

Glad you posted that, I was beginning to think I was nuts. At this point I've got no idea what is going on, and no time to poke through the code to find out.

2386

General Software Discussion / Re: Lock PC during Boot. ???

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 03, 2013, 08:21 AM »

Another +1 for f0dder:

I heard about a program that would require a pendrive to unlock the PC during the initial startup

-hulkbuster (February 03, 2013, 07:32 AM)

Assuming you hardware does not have a TMP chip, that is precisly what BitLocker will do. Otherwise (with TPM chip) it's just an additional PW prompt during the initial boot.

Now how to figure out if your hardware has a TMP chip I never have been clear on. Especially before you buy as it never seems to get listed anywhere clearly.

2387

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 01, 2013, 11:30 AM »

https://www.donation....msg316624#msg316624]see attachment in previous post[/url])[/i]
http://www.dailymail...t.html#ixzz2JbGCeq6F

It don't get funnier than real life~!

-Renegade (February 01, 2013, 08:34 AM)

Well what-da-ya-expect for a damn dollar ... Friggin lucky it didn't contain roadkill.

2388

Living Room / Re: Homeland Security: Disable UPnP

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 01, 2013, 11:27 AM »

The other network protocol based eyesore that I'm waiting to see ripped apart is Bonjour. Because it's basically self exploiting by design - New device appears on the wire...Bonjour responds with ~hi~~Here's all my stuff...wanna hook up?

2389

Living Room / Re: Debate: Effects of technology on modern youth

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 01, 2013, 07:03 AM »

As a 25 year old, I just missed the online/technology social revolution.

The main thing I notice is that young people (and a lot of older ones) don't get the concept of criticism and mild insults.
People get so used to disconnecting/blocking any negative that they can't don't know how to deal with it properly, AND then are scared of giving a negative comment in fear of being deleted.
So people are used to a diet of 'likes' and no longer know how to turn criticism into a joke and deal with it.
Which leads to emperors new clothes scenarios, everyone too scared to say anything but the person is actually totally useless.

This is written without any qualifications and shouldn't be considered a critical study unless you agree with it.

-Fred Nerd (January 30, 2013, 08:12 PM)

Well, I'm 48 ... and I'd say you friggin nailed it man. 

2390

Living Room / Re: Homeland Security: Disable UPnP

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 01, 2013, 06:58 AM »

I'm not a gamer so I can't really speak to that but I've never forwarded any ports to my torrent client yet it seems to work just fine.

-Stoic Joker (January 31, 2013, 06:45 PM)

Well, as long as you're only interested in leeching, and are dealing with well-seeded torrents, sure. But if you want to give a bit back, or are dealing with something where you need the protocol's "tit-for-tat" to kick in effect, you really do want to be able to accept incoming connections, not just initiate outgoing.

Keep in mind I'm only talking small home networks here - I definitely wouldn't want UPnP on a business network or something connecting a public wifi hotspot.

-f0dder (February 01, 2013, 03:25 AM)

By "it seems to work just fine", I meant that it is accepting incoming connections. As I generally host anything I download for a day or so...and there is usually quite a bit of activity considering I cap the upstream at 10Mb (my fiber connection is 40Mb symetrical).

2391

Living Room / Re: Mp3 File Format Issue Split From Silly Humor Thread

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 01, 2013, 06:31 AM »

It played for me in WMP on Win7, but it wouldn't play in WMP on my Win8 laptop.

2392

Living Room / Re: Homeland Security: Disable UPnP

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2013, 06:45 PM »

It's still a pointlessly dangerous protocol IMO. Because anything that shows up on/from a web page is already on the LAN, and this "service" is just begging to be exploited. How many people really need to open a port that often?? Damn few I'd suspect.

-Stoic Joker (January 30, 2013, 03:20 PM)

Show me how to do nefarious things with UPnP via JavaScript, and I'll reconsider (not saying it can't be done, you can - after all - do AJAX requests from JS... just haven't seen/heard about it).

-f0dder (January 30, 2013, 03:44 PM)

Just because neither one of us can think of a way to do it doesn't mean it can't be done. Not to mention that most people have many more exploitable (Java/Flash/Adobe Reader) options. Anything that affords the ability to just drive by, pop open a port, and setup shop is a definite risk.

Need to open a port? Whenever I start my torrent client, actually (randomized port range). Often when installing a game or some application. The crappy web-based GUI of my router is bad enough that I take the lazy way... and for "normal" people, who don't set MAC-based IPs and are tech illiterates, it's a wonderful protocol - even if has security implications

-f0dder (January 30, 2013, 03:44 PM)

Here's a thought. If it really is too much of a PITA to log into a router to open a port...then it's safe to assume that you'll not login to close one either ... So how many port do you really have open, and what are they exposing access to?

I'm not a gamer so I can't really speak to that but I've never forwarded any ports to my torrent client yet it seems to work just fine.

To me for average folk the occasional quick call to tech support is safer. Because the chances that they'll find out what they're hosting aren't real good.

2393

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Office Subscriptions Now

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2013, 06:00 PM »

SaaS? Kill it with fire. Then roast the inventors over a slow fire. Then torch the term out of existence.

-f0dder (January 31, 2013, 03:12 PM)

Couldn't we lightly eviscerate them first just for effect?

Damnedest thing ... End of the day I was on the phone with a client that uses one of these remotely located LOB services. Yet even though I know the term (SaaS), what it means, and how it's pronounced...I could not for the life of me make it come out of my mouth. Every time I tried I just felt like retching, stammered a bit, and called it something (like above) else.

I don't know if that qualifies as a syndrome or a complex but I kinda like it.

2394

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Office Subscriptions Now

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2013, 02:31 PM »

Sorry guys, I like bolt-in parts. They remind me of the good ol' days when I was a mechanic.

Take part out of box.
Bolt part in place.
Part is mine...just so long as I don't break it, fry it, or wear it out.
I didn't subscribe to a parts list.

Now granted I actually did just have a really good time with an Exchange OnLine migration. Pulled all the clients data off of Yahoo and Googles servers (good bit of it too)...and sent it on over to the MS cloud. It went quite smoothly server to server, and synchronized with the client side cache at the same time.

But that's kinda the point really. Because with a client side cache...it's "our" data...not my data...not your data that I need because I created it that you rent me access to. Our data is ok because I still have a copy...and therefore can't get completely screwed. That and Email really was originally designed to be a web based service. So a 5-10 minute outage isn't really noticeable more often than not. Other -mission critical line of business applications - service however are not so flexable.

I've seen several doctors offices experiment with cloud based EMR systems. I have however not yet seen one of those experiments end well.

2395

Living Room / Re: Software & Sensors to Monitor Old Folks

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2013, 05:20 PM »

Eew. If they're in that bad of a shape that someone feels the need to remotely monitor all that, then Give Someone a "Jerb" (HomeStarRunner) and hire an Assistant Home Health Care Aide to live in the house. Because someone who needs to be monitored if they left the house needs someone to wipe up the spilled cereal that will sit there for weeks because the Schmancy monitoring system doesn't have a setting for "cat puke" after the cat decided to scavenge it.

-TaoPhoenix (January 30, 2013, 09:52 AM)

I get where you're coming from but I think there is plenty of room between the extremes for this type of solution. Remember just because the folks aren't that agile anymore - Help I've Fallen... - Doesn't mean that they're automatically daffy as well.

-Stoic Joker (January 30, 2013, 03:27 PM)

This is an ideal solution for the folks that need help standing up to use the restroom that are still sensible enough to drive an assistant into medical leave on suspicion of mental instability.

These are people who still know what they need to do, just they are physically incapable of reliably doing it by themselves. The device would let them call someone when they need assistance, but spares the expense and stress of having assistants on site 24/7.

-SeraphimLabs (January 30, 2013, 03:44 PM)

That's pretty much were I was headed - 24/7 care is expensive as hell - Did you mean to quote Tao?

2396

Living Room / Re: Scientists test functional 'tractor beams'

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2013, 03:28 PM »

He was atractored to the light.

2397

Living Room / Re: Software & Sensors to Monitor Old Folks

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2013, 03:27 PM »

Eew. If they're in that bad of a shape that someone feels the need to remotely monitor all that, then Give Someone a "Jerb" (HomeStarRunner) and hire an Assistant Home Health Care Aide to live in the house. Because someone who needs to be monitored if they left the house needs someone to wipe up the spilled cereal that will sit there for weeks because the Schmancy monitoring system doesn't have a setting for "cat puke" after the cat decided to scavenge it.

-TaoPhoenix (January 30, 2013, 09:52 AM)

I get where you're coming from but I think there is plenty of room between the extremes for this type of solution. Remember just because the folks aren't that agile anymore - Help I've Fallen... - Doesn't mean that they're automatically daffy as well.

2398

Living Room / Re: Homeland Security: Disable UPnP

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2013, 03:20 PM »

It's still a pointlessly dangerous protocol IMO. Because anything that shows up on/from a web page is already on the LAN, and this "service" is just begging to be exploited. How many people really need to open a port that often?? Damn few I'd suspect.

Most people leave their home routers with the default password...because it's "easier to deal with". So add to that a handy-dandy helper that's just begging to play poke-N-hope and Um... Yeah -Gee Wiz- can't fathom why that wouldn't get beaten like a dead horse at a zombie christmas party.

2399

Living Room / Re: Homeland Security: Disable UPnP

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 29, 2013, 09:15 PM »

(hay DHS-> Holy no shit batman!

...and they're here to "protect" us. [facepalm]

2400

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 29, 2013, 09:12 PM »

Found this interesting