Recent Posts

251

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AdGuard Premium Lifetime on sale at StackSocial.com

« Last post by mwb1100 on May 03, 2015, 11:51 AM »

it intercepts HTTPS traffic.

-mwb1100 (May 03, 2015, 03:10 AM)

This feature is particularly interesting as neither of my other two ad blockers (AdMuncher and AdBlock+) do this.  Youtube ads have become really annoying.

-Midnight Rambler (May 03, 2015, 11:36 AM)

Right, but some people are concerned that it does this by replacing certificates so it can be a man-in-the-middle and that can be a security issue.  However, I think the bottom line is that if you want ads blocked in sites that use HTTPS, the blocker needs access to the stream, so that means either doing this or being a browser extension so it can have access after the stream is decrypted.  Either way you need to trust the blocking software with access to the https-protected data, so I think the remaining issue is whether or not the technique potentially opens the https-protected data to other entities (be it malware on your computer or something monitoring the network). I have no idea if that's the case with AdGuard.

252

Found Deals and Discounts / AdGuard Premium Lifetime on sale at StackSocial.com

« Last post by mwb1100 on May 03, 2015, 03:10 AM »

AdGuard (http://adguard.com/en/welcome.html) is being sold on a 'deal' site I haven't heard of before - StackSocial - in some sort of partnership with BitsDuJour.

A lifetime license to AdGuard Premium for 2 PCs and 2 Android devices is being sold for $40:

  - https://bitsdujour.s...ifetime-subscription

This license normally sells for $90 on the AdGuard site (the StackSocial page claims it normally sells for $120).  My recollection is that AdGuard sold these Premium licenses in a way that you had to choose whether the license would be used on a PC or an Android device - not on both concurrently.  AdGuard may have changed that (or I may have misunderstood). Anyway, this sale is being pitched as you can install on 2 PCs *and* 2 Android devices.

I myself have not used AdGuard on either device type, but it seems to be generally well received in the several posts I've read about it here and on Wilders, though some have concerns about the way it intercepts HTTPS traffic.

The sale lasts for another 2 days.

253

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Packt is giving away a free ebook each day until 17 May 2015

« Last post by mwb1100 on May 03, 2015, 02:57 AM »

Both your points are correct.  The account is the same as you would set up if you purchased an ebook on their site.  Once purchased, the ebook is made available in your account for download.  You can also read the book online from the account in some sort of browser-based reader, but as far as I know all of their ebooks are available for DRM-free download in PDF and other formats (such as ePub - I'm not sure if all formats are available for all books).

And yes - you have to visit the site each day to find out what the book is. I believe the new book is made available (and the previous one unavailable) at 4:00 PM Pacific time.  Kind of a drag, but oh well.

254

Found Deals and Discounts / Packt is giving away a free ebook each day until 17 May 2015

« Last post by mwb1100 on May 02, 2015, 11:03 PM »

Each day until 17 May 2015, Packt is giving away a free programming ebook.

I have found that the quality of Packt books varies greatly, but they sometimes cover stuff that no other publisher does (like using the Android NDK for native programs). And it's hard to argue with free - if the book is junk, then delete it.

  - https://www.packtpub...offers/free-learning

255

General Software Discussion / Re: MS-DOS Player for Win32-x64

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 30, 2015, 10:04 AM »

And source is available!  Maybe one day I'll get to poke around in it.

256

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft is releasing a cross-platform code editor

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 29, 2015, 06:42 PM »

I learned a new word:

desideratum

via http://research.micr...efault.aspx?id=64346

-ewemoa (April 29, 2015, 05:35 PM)

I doubt that I'll ever use it (or probably ever see it again).  Why couldn't she have said, "In 1977 Dalenius stated that statistical databases should have the following property: ..."

257

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft is releasing a cross-platform code editor

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 29, 2015, 02:30 PM »

The spying comment was just joking. 

It looks like this is a stand-alone version of the javascript based "Monaco" online editor that MS has been using on various websites for a while.  Not that I know anything about Monaco.

258

General Software Discussion / Microsoft is releasing a cross-platform code editor

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 29, 2015, 01:23 PM »

MS is releasing a cross-platform programming editor (in preview stage right now)

  - https://code.visualstudio.com/Download
  - http://arstechnica.c...sual-studio-2015-rc/

And to make it clear, they are spying on you:  “When this tool crashes, we automatically collect crash dumps so we can figure out what went wrong. If you don't want to send your crash dumps to Microsoft, don't install this tool.”

I haven't tried it out yet, but if it comes close to the editing capabilities in VS, it'll be interesting to me.

259

Living Room / Re: Automakers Want to Outlaw Gearheads From Working on Their Own Cars

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 29, 2015, 12:19 PM »

In that regard the cash for clunkers program really screwed me over. Thousands of perfectly good candidates that were the right age and while quite travelled still had plenty of useful life were collected and intentionally destroyed in the name of government subsidy. Since then the price of old cars has gone way up because an entire decade's worth of easily repaired used cars was lost.

-SeraphimLabs (April 28, 2015, 01:08 PM)

I had never thought of that aspect of the cash for clunkers program.

260

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYplorer lifetime license PRO 50% off

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 21, 2015, 05:07 PM »

He really needs new customers, hm?

-Tuxman (April 21, 2015, 03:04 AM)

Don't know - I often encounter businesses that appear to have no problems with customers and which still have sales. So I'm not sure I'd infer that there's some sort of problem.

All I know is that Don is still churning out an amazing number of updates with new features on a regular basis.

261

Found Deals and Discounts / XYplorer Lifetime Pro licenses %50 off on BDJ April 21, 2015

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 19, 2015, 07:01 PM »

On Tuesday, April 21, 2015, XYplorer's Lifetime License Pro will be available on BitsDuJour with a 50% discount. You can save $40...

-http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13818

262

General Software Discussion / Re: Comodo Internet Security -- a cautionary tale?

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 18, 2015, 12:49 PM »

To throw in my 2 cents:

I wasn't happy with MSE - my wife's machine ended up with some difficult to remove garbage while using it.

We have been using Webroot for about a year now, and I've been happy with it.  I tested it against some of the installers that infected my wife's machine, and it performed admirably.  I did have some small bit of trouble with it blocking copy/paste between programs that I wanted to copy/paste between (it has some sort of module to prevent programs from stealing credit card numbers using the clipboard or something).  It was easy enough to configure the program to stop blocking those operations but it was a pain understanding what was going on since it just seemed like the clipboard was broken, and I had no idea it was Webroot.

263

General Software Discussion / Re: Solved: Visual Studio Toolbox Blues

« Last post by mwb1100 on April 11, 2015, 12:17 AM »

this subscription shit gives me the willies

-Stoic Joker (April 10, 2015, 11:20 PM)

You don't have to deal with subscriptions for Visual Studio Pro - you can get that SKU for $300 (upgrade) or $500 (full, non-upgrade):

  - http://www.microsoft.../productID.284832200

Also, the Community edition is essentially the Pro SKU - it's free for many uses. The main exception is that no more than 5 people in an organization can use Community edition (and if your organization is 'enterprise' sized, then Community can only be used for open source, academic or classrooms purposes): https://www.visualst...io-community-vs.aspx

For SKUs higher than Pro (Premium, Ultimate, etc), then you do need an MSDN subscription.  But if it makes you feel any better, you could consider it a purchase of Visual Studio that comes with a 1 year access to the MSDN downloads - the license allows you to continue using whatever software you downloaded from MSDN after the subscription expires.  You aren't required to renew unless you want continued access to the downloads and to any new download offerings.

264

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 31, 2015, 05:08 AM »

Make the 8 a 10 and break down the 5 into 2 and 3, with the 2 going into the 8 to make 10, then add 3 to the 10 to get 13.

Who thinks like that?

-Renegade (March 30, 2015, 09:16 AM)

I didn't watch the youtube, but I will admit that this is the kind of logic that my mind goes through for a lot of arithmetic.  It works for me, but I'm not sure I could explain it well to someone else. And I am certain that it's not a mechanism that works for everyone.

A possibly better example than solving 8+5 might be how would you solve 97*3 in your head?  I think that many people would juggle the numbers so that it's 100*3 - 3*3, which is easy to work out in your head (or mine at least) as 300-9 = 291.  I know that how I'd do it, and it's a similar transformation to 8+5 being the same as 8+2 + 3 = 10 + 3 = 13. It's just that the 8+5 problem is pretty simple by itself, so there's probably less need for the transformation 'trick'.

I think that there are different ways of approaching arithmetic, and that there's not 'one-true-method' that works for everyone.  Each person should find their own best way to working out basic arithmetic, and I think the best elementary math teachers are the ones who are able to somehow guide different students to the different ways that work for them.

265

General Software Discussion / Re: SoftMaker (makers of SoftOffice) moving away from eM Client to Thunderbird

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 18, 2015, 01:59 PM »

Thanks for posting, Martin Kotulla.  I hope that this works out to benefit both SoftMaker and Thunderbird.

266

General Software Discussion / SoftMaker (makers of SoftOffice) moving away from eM Client to Thunderbird

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 16, 2015, 04:48 PM »

SoftMaker has been bundling the eM Client software with some versions of SoftOffice to provide e-mail functionality.  They have apparently decided to end that arrangement and will be bundling a customized version of Thunderbird in future versions of SoftOffice:

  - http://www.softmaker...english/ofwtb_en.htm

As part of this they are also dedicating some development resources to Thunderbird and will be contributing fixes/enhancements to that project.

Seems like good news for Thunderbird. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I had gotten used to the eM Client.

267

Living Room / Re: Interested in doing my own car maintenance.. Advice?

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2015, 04:10 PM »

Some parts stores will rent you the "one time use" tool rather than making you buy it.

-MilesAhead (March 09, 2015, 12:03 PM)

Yes - keep this in mind for those oddball tools that have a single, specialized purpose.  Some of the parts stores around here (Seattle area) will 'rent' these tools for nothing - essentially you pay for the tool then return it.  While this might sound like a scammy way to borrow a tool, it's the way the store has designed their loaner program.

And personally I like the Haynes brand of repair manuals, though I often combine using a Haynes book with the official technician's manual from the manufacturer if it's not too expensive.  I'm not really a mechanic, so I find it helpful to have a couple different perspectives on how something needs to be done.  But like you said, youtube makes this kind of thing a lot clearer than just going by books.

268

Living Room / Re: Use a unique password for this site

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 07, 2015, 12:55 AM »

Not that anyone probably cares, but here's my basic website password security scheme:

  - sites that I deem important/sensitive, such as my banking sites, paypal, work, etc. get unique, strong passwords
  - sites that I consider to not be highly sensitive, ie., I won't lose money if someone gets into my account, such as DC, or cracked.com, or whatever, gets a password that's mostly the same as every other similarly non-sensitive website.  I do change the starting letter of the password to match the site's domain name - that gives these passwords some very small measure of uniqueness.

This works well for me because I don't have to work at all to remember most website passwords.  Of course, I'd rather those accounts not get hacked, but I won't be seriously hurt if they do so I don't feel I have to put a lot of effort into password security for them.  However, those passwords are still generally different enough from one another that if one site gets hacked and a list of userids & passwords gets into the hands of hackers (such as with the Adobe breech), those hackers won't get into *all* of my website accounts.  And the few that they might get a match on will be more or less worthless to them - at least as far as bringing any kind of harm to me.  Getting one of those passwords does nothing to help them get a password for any of the sites I consider sensitive.

The key is that the "common" password I use has a mix of letters, letter case, numbers, a punctuation character, and a length that's long enough, but not too long.

This lets that password get through nearly every 'password strength requirement' filter out there, but still fits constraints that some sites have.  It probably doesn't happen too often anymore, but in the past I have come across web sites that don't allow password to be longer then 8 characters or don't allow characters like quotes or slashes.  So my common, base password doesn't violate those rules.  But it's still complex enough to make most sites happy.

Anyway, that's how I deal with password management.

Irritating password constraints trivia: I recall one website that wanted passwords to be no shorter than 6 characters, but no longer than 8 characters - what???

269

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Total Uninstall 50% off at BDJ

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 28, 2015, 02:00 PM »

Note that it requires a hardware footprint and does not allow re-installation on a computer if you move the license to another one

-xtabber (February 28, 2015, 07:19 AM)

According to the developer in the BDJ comments section, the license isn't quite as restrictive as that sounds:

  - you are permitted to move a license from one computer to another, but it may require logging onto the vendor's website and disabling the old license
  - one of his comments indicates that after some period of time license 'slots' become available again, so that a reinstall might not even require manual license management.  This behavior might apply only to the family license.

Still more licensing headaches that I prefer, but it's not as draconian as it first sounded.

270

Living Room / Re: Preloaded spyware, courtesy Lenovo

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 24, 2015, 12:40 PM »

There are 100 or so certificates (including 27 "Untrusted certificates") installed on my system - and I think that my anti-malware should tell me if they're OK or not.

-mwb1100 (February 23, 2015, 11:50 PM)

Why? SSL Certs only serve to verify the identity of the entity on the other end of a connection ... Not the purity of their intentions..

-Stoic Joker (February 24, 2015, 06:31 AM)

Because a company that is in the business of to helping deal with malware on my computer is in a better position to track certs that are known to be used for MITM schemes than I am.  Or they could track certs that are trustworthy and flag the other ones as something suspect.  That's what some of the more aggressive anti-malware does with programs.

I'm not sure how it would work. I'm just suggesting that it's a service that I would like to be included in the package for the fee that I'm paying.

271

Living Room / Re: Preloaded spyware, courtesy Lenovo

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 23, 2015, 11:50 PM »

So when will legitimate security vendors (whoever they might be) start reporting when there are fishy root certs installed?  Because I don't know about you, but when I look at the collection of root certs installed on my machine (run the certmgr.msc management console plug-in program), there's no way I could say which (if any) didn't belong. 

There are 100 or so certificates (including 27 "Untrusted certificates") installed on my system - and I think that my anti-malware should tell me if they're OK or not.

272

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 22, 2015, 01:28 PM »

Another Aussie flick that I watched a few days ago, The Rover

It's one of those movies that I felt was too slow moving and even boring while I was watching it, but I keep thinking about it. The thing that make me very glad I stuck with it is that it has many story lines that are just hinted at and characters that you wonder about how they got to this point - what's their back story?  You are only given some small bit of history on the main character, Eric.  Everything else if left for you wonder about, and I think that makes this movie finish like a great short story.

273

Living Room / Re: Preloaded spyware, courtesy Lenovo

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 19, 2015, 12:46 PM »

I hope that this behavior is found to be against some anti-hacking laws somewhere and that Lenovo can be hit with something more damaging then bad press.  Certainly, a MITM attack breaching secure banking sites must be against the law?

274

Living Room / Re: Cell Phone Questions

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 17, 2015, 05:33 PM »

In all seriousness, if cost is the only issue (you might want the bike for other reasons), a $20 or less phone along with the $30 Truphone SIM should last for years if the use is minimal. 

If I get 4wd's Nokia 6320 working again when the battery gets here, you're welcome to it, in which case the total outlay is $30 for the SIM.

275

Living Room / Re: Cell Phone Questions

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 17, 2015, 04:52 PM »

Crabby3 + cell phone = vehicle assist.  Easy, convenient but not free... (after purchase)

Crabby3 + bicycle + plus land-line = assist.  Semi-easy, semi-convenient but free... (after purchase)

-crabby3 (February 17, 2015, 04:08 PM)

You must have quite a large glovebox!