Recent Posts

276

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Insync free for next half day or so (2016-05-18)

« Last post by Target on May 19, 2016, 05:27 PM »

FWIW I had that error yesterday, though this morning it went thru without a hitch

277

Living Room / Re: Freelance Programming/Upwork discussion thread

« Last post by Target on May 19, 2016, 04:19 PM »

I don't normally reply to my own posts, but I thought this was worth a bump. Our second work session was about to start, and I text him letting him know I will be available at the scheduled time. He tells me the day after I worked on his computer his wife downloaded a bunch of viruses on the computer and it no longer functions. Why he failed to tell me this sooner, I do not know. What a tragedy.

-Asudem (May 19, 2016, 03:19 PM)

so, the fix is to get rid of his wife (and collect $20...)

278

Living Room / Re: Good or bad password?

« Last post by Target on May 11, 2016, 09:42 PM »

the difficulty here is that everyone remembers 'correct horse battery staple' and probably always will, but most of us still can't remember our own passwords (or where we put our car keys...)

279

General Software Discussion / Re: advice on security setup for my elderly inlaws

« Last post by Target on May 09, 2016, 05:52 PM »

all very interesting, but largely academic ie I'm not coughing up hundreds of dollars for a new machine when the only problem with the old one is between the keyboard and the chair

A significant part of the problem here is that I don't know what actually happened.  I have a suspicion that there was no malware involved and that she simply responded to a browser popup but I won't know until I can look at the machine (another week), if then

She's not stupid, but she's not very computer literate and she clearly doesn't comprehend the risks (well, maybe she has some idea now) so I've tried to keep things as simple as possible.

I'd like to continue in that vein, so pretty much anything I do needs to be fairly transparent.  I appreciate your assistance so far but security is a complex business (to me, at least) and there's so much contradictory info out there it's difficult to know whats good and whats not so I'm looking for some recommendations that don't involve replacing a perfectly good machine

280

General Software Discussion / Re: advice on security setup for my elderly inlaws

« Last post by Target on May 09, 2016, 01:57 AM »

I did all that when we got the machine, but as I said, you just can't beat the user

This was reasonably serious as she's done pretty much everything she was warned against (many times), including handing over the guest & admin passwords and personal info on the basis of a popup <sigh...>

As a rule I run light on security but heavy on common sense, and now I need to go the other way

281

General Software Discussion / advice on security setup for my elderly inlaws

« Last post by Target on May 09, 2016, 01:16 AM »

looking for some advice on how best to secure my mother in laws laptop, and I know a lot of others here are well versed so I'm hoping someone can come up with a relatively simple solution (I'll have to maintain it, and most likely over the phone - meh...). 

I already use a firewall (comodo) and AV (AVG free) but she got hit with an apparent ransomware attack sometime last week (she didn't tell us till sometime after, and we still don't know exactly what happened).  She doesn't have a network of any sort, so that's not a consideration.

I'm looking for some sort of proxy/hosts solution that will hopefully block a lot of the dodgy domains, and maybe a better AV (payware if necessary).  I know there are plenty of options available, but given that securities never been a strong point for me being able to pick a good solution is difficult

Of course I can't beat the user (hopefully this has frightened her enough to be a bit more circumspect), but if I can cover off at least some of the other vectors it's got to be an improvement

282

Found Deals and Discounts / 10" tablet @ $189...

« Last post by Target on April 21, 2016, 06:44 PM »

dunno if this is any good or not but the price isn't bad...

http://www.gearbest....t-pcs/pp_350211.html

283

Living Room / Re: Android - Observations from Long Term Use

« Last post by Target on April 20, 2016, 08:08 PM »

Same as cranioscopical, root the device as soon as you get it and remove everything that's not required, (or flash a ROM that does what you want, not what the manufacturer thinks you want) - makes for a much more pleasant experience.

this assumes that you can

I had a Galaxy S2 but upgraded to a winphone.  There was nothing wrong with the S2 per se, but there was something about it that never quite sat with me. 

The S2 sold by my carrier also had slightly different hardware to that sold overseas so finding an alternative ROM proved to be too hard.  Could be that I wasn't interested enough to chase it (I have no real interest in tweaking my phone, it's just a phone for god sake!!), but I still have the handset and would love to do something useful with it, but the lack of ROMS is significant hurdle (FWIW I thinking seriously about a 1sheeld...). 

The android platform also seems to be highly fragmented, such that the hardware lifetime is extremely short (in the manufacturers opinion).  Upgrades are spotty, often months late, and the hardware probably won't get much, if any, support past about 6 -12 mths (MAX!!) from date of release. 

284

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

« Last post by Target on April 18, 2016, 07:30 PM »

Large Hadron Collider?

No, LBC!!

285

General Software Discussion / Re: desktop shortcut to do a Simple task

« Last post by Target on April 13, 2016, 08:04 PM »

you don't mention the OS or the applications affected so you're probably always going to get a third party solution

Frankly I'd be surprised if there wasn't a reset hotkey built in to whatever you're using to zoom (eg CTRL+0).  Alternatively CTRL&+ or CTRL&- seem to be pretty standard zoom keys...

286

Living Room / Re: Twist Tie alternative?

« Last post by Target on April 12, 2016, 04:50 PM »

I've also seen cardboard tubes (like toilet roll centres) used to store cables - just bundle the cables and push em through the tube.  Stops anything else getting caught up, but probably takes up a bit more space. 

You would probably need to experiment a bit to find a size that suits (and it doesn't have to be cardboard)

287

Living Room / Re: Twist Tie alternative?

« Last post by Target on April 06, 2016, 09:55 PM »

I just thought someone may have invented a home made thing like a rubber lined alligator clip.

-MilesAhead (April 06, 2016, 08:35 PM)

this reminds me, I saw someone recommending hair clips for bundling cords (though IIRC they were talking about power cords, but the principle applies  )

288

Living Room / Re: Twist Tie alternative?

« Last post by Target on April 06, 2016, 07:58 PM »

a piece of cardboard (or equivalent) with some slots will do the trick, at least for the fine stuff like earphones.  Possibly bulky, but all in one solution

Or velcro, though you would still have discrete bundles

289

General Software Discussion / Re: bookmark management tool

« Last post by Target on March 09, 2016, 11:08 PM »

Xenu, am deadlink, url gather, linkman, link checker...

there's probably more, but they're the ones that come to mind right now...

290

General Software Discussion / bookmark management tool

« Last post by Target on March 09, 2016, 10:04 PM »

anyone got a recommendation for a good bookmark manager?

I've finally gotten to the point where I can't stand it any longer - after many years and movement between multiple machines and browsers it's time for a cleanup.  I've tried a few but they are not generally very friendly or effective - duplicate and/or link checkers that don't tell you where the urls are, or that highlight duplicates that aren't, arent really helping

I'm looking for something that will show me a tree view, AND show the locations of duplicates within said tree (last one said it was doing this, but didn't - thank heavens for backups).  Identifying duplicates is most important, and link checking/validation would be nice. 

291

Living Room / Re: Any Opinions or Thoughts on Infinity 60% Keyboard Kit

« Last post by Target on February 25, 2016, 08:35 PM »

 

292

Living Room / Re: Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone: Choosing between tiny DIY computer kits

« Last post by Target on February 24, 2016, 09:15 PM »

Something new for the IoT crowd among you: Mixtile GENA

-4wd (February 24, 2016, 06:29 PM)

did you just get the littlebird email too?

293

Living Room / Re: Why GOD has not updated the world ?

« Last post by Target on February 04, 2016, 06:51 PM »

Not Glorious Lifeform and Deity Operating System? I hear it's a piece of cake to keep running.

-x16wda (February 04, 2016, 06:09 PM)

no, it's a bear!! (it doesn't have bugs, it has DEMONS!!!!)

294

General Software Discussion / Re: Assemble PDF documents

« Last post by Target on February 02, 2016, 04:15 PM »

I don't know much about authoring PDF's (I have tolerate/hate relationship with the format) so others might be able to comment, but logically I would assume that you would have to rebuild any/all links when your combining content like this.  Clearly there is going to be new content, and existing content is going to move around, so any pre-existing indexing will almost certainly be redundant.

Indexing aside, can I assume that the script is working as advertised as far as the splitting and merging part goes?

295

Developer's Corner / Re: Dice analyzer machine project

« Last post by Target on January 21, 2016, 11:01 PM »

be interested to hear what constitutes a fair toss - several ideas come to mind, but this being 'controlled' I'm guessing there are some sort of expected 'standards'

296

Living Room / Re: Why GOD has not updated the world ?

« Last post by Target on January 21, 2016, 06:52 PM »

Oh! About leaving. If God could change the laws of the universe so that all paths are mobius strips, that'd be just awesome! We're talking major version upgrade here! 

-Renegade (January 21, 2016, 05:50 PM)

how do you know they're not already?

297

Living Room / Re: Why GOD has not updated the world ?

« Last post by Target on January 20, 2016, 10:55 PM »

You go your way and I'll mine yours.

-cranioscopical (January 20, 2016, 09:44 PM)

clearly you're out of your mine

298

Living Room / Re: Why GOD has not updated the world ?

« Last post by Target on January 19, 2016, 09:26 PM »

Thank you so much for not flaming me.  That's one of the things I like about this forum.  Most of the time, things are pretty calm.  But one thing is for sure, the help I have received over the years has been great!

-techidave (January 19, 2016, 09:18 PM)

thanks for not flaming us and glad to hear that you can take it in the spirit it was intended 

safe to say that this is one of those subjects that is potentially sensitive no matter where it turns up

299

Living Room / Re: Why GOD has not updated the world ?

« Last post by Target on January 19, 2016, 08:08 PM »

the platform seems to be pretty good, it's the feature set he/she's struggling with.  He/She is adding and removing people features all the time

granted they seem to be pretty much all alpha versions, and written in basic, but still...

300

General Software Discussion / Re: Assemble PDF documents

« Last post by Target on January 16, 2016, 03:32 AM »

glad to hear you're feeling better

FWIW you probably need to remember that this isn't a pdf authoring tool in the style of acrobat, so bookmarks are likely to be a challenge (by doing this you're effectively building a completley new document)

I'd need to read up on pdftk to be sure but I suspect this might be beyond PDFTK's capabilities (as others have said, PDF's are a bear to deal with)