Recent Posts

2876

Living Room / Re: "The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows about you"

« Last post by app103 on April 11, 2010, 03:03 PM »

To me there is only one real short term solution and that is an open source, distributed, uncontrolled, non tracking, open search engine. A search engine that does not keep massive database about visitors, a search engine that does not do anything else beside seaching. Sure enough this search engine should never be controlled by anyone or anything. And if you think that this is tinfoil hat thinking and it is an unreasonable paranoia solution then I really do not have much else to contribute to conversation.

-kartal (April 11, 2010, 02:14 PM)

Yes, but being open means open to all the spammers to see the code as well, and that leaves them free to manipulate things externally to get better ranking on your open search engine. It would quickly become worthless and poisoned by massive amounts of spam. No control puts the blackhat SEO spammers in full control.

2877

Living Room / Re: "The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows about you"

« Last post by app103 on April 11, 2010, 11:19 AM »

No, I don't remember there being a privacy policy when I signed up for mine. I don't remember the form saying I had to put down my real information so I made everything up & the cashier happily took it without checking my identification.  

-Innuendo (April 11, 2010, 09:27 AM)

The one for the store I use most often also comes with check cashing privileges, so not only did the info I gave them have to match what is printed on my checks, I had to show them photo ID to prove it was mine.

I am not saying you shouldn't fight for privacy rights, but is someone knowing that I shop for books by Charlaine Harris for my wife really going to be a big privacy concern? Does the fact that they know I bought Milk, Eggs, Condoms and a book at walmart really impact my life? Has anyone proven that any of these companies are using your data for malicious purposes? If you are worried about people finding out about you online, I really feel sites like Facebook, Myspace and twitter prove to be far more harmful to your privacy than Google knowing I searched for "George Carlin Used Underwear" (NOT A REAL SEARCH I PERFORMED!).

-Josh (April 11, 2010, 10:14 AM)

I got over the privacy issues in my head a long time ago and accepted the truth for what it really is. I am not worried about the normal stuff, like Google knowing my searches and the supermarket knowing what I buy, it's when that info is given to the wrong parties that assume incorrectly that the info means something it doesn't, that worries me.

As far as malicious purposes, that's a matter of opinion and perspective. Sometimes the companies you are trusting with this info have no choice in the matter. The law requires them to give the info to certain government entities.

I am sure the woman that bought a ton of plastic bags at her local supermarket because she was making sandwiches for the homeless didn't appreciate the cops showing up at her house with a search warrant looking for drugs. (don't you know only drug dealers use large quantities of plastic bags?) The fact that she also bought a large quantity of bread, bologna, and cheese completely slipped past them at the time.

And we all know that the Patriot Act made the books you read a matter of national security. You don't remember the reports of the librarians shredding records in order to protect the privacy and 1st Amendment rights of their patrons? Before the law was amended, it gave the FBI the right to conduct a fishing expedition into any library's records, without having any suspicions about any particular individuals.

2878

Living Room / Re: "The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows about you"

« Last post by app103 on April 11, 2010, 01:26 AM »

You know that little tag on your keychain for your local supermarket? The one where they have your name and address on file, associated with the barcode on that keytag? The one where you can't get anything on sale at the sale price unless you give the cashier the tag to scan? The one where they know all your buying habits at their store?

They know everything you buy, how much, how often, what time of the day you like to shop, what day of the week you like to shop.

And if you buy too many plastic sandwich bags too often, the cops may show up at your door with a search warrant, to look for drugs. (it has happened to people already)

Do you remember any sort of privacy policy when you filled out the form for that little key tag? I don't remember one. They don't tell you what data they are collecting about you or what they are doing with it, who they are selling it to, sharing it with, or anything else.

And we don't only have a bunch of Big Brothers watching us, we got a ton of Little Brothers too.

What about the average person on the street with a camera in their mobile phone? Are they snapping pics of you, uploading them to social networks, and making remarks about you? I have seen profiles of guys that do this, snapping pics of women they see on the street, uploading them and tagging them with rather rude/crude captions. And then those pics get indexed by Google and a bunch of other search engines. Then there is the bunch of people that use Google image search to find pics for their blog posts, web sites, school projects, etc. How many people could potentially end up with that pic, using your likeness in ways you would never approve of, and you don't even know the image exists?

In this modern day and age, privacy is an illusion. The only real privacy you have is in your mind (and only as long as you keep your thoughts in there and don't let them out)

2879

Living Room / Re: How do *you* tell when your OS is booted/ready?

« Last post by app103 on April 08, 2010, 09:10 AM »

Hm-m-m ... no one seems concerned about when the autostart apps are finished..  Granted, I don't wait, either, but some of the apps I autostart are for security purposes, and are not truly functional until they have finished starting - ?!? - and thus are not functional when interactive usage is implemented.

-barney (April 07, 2010, 09:25 AM)

Good security tools that are worth their salt start as services before you even log in. They should be the first things that load.

On my system, if a security app isn't ready by the time my xchat opens, there is a serious problem, since the whole process from login to xchat is about 4-6 minutes on a fairly powerful pc. (I have a Q6600, 2G ram, running XP with classic theme)

I moved everything from the startup folder to my Lacuna Launcher app and know the applications in the list well enough to know how long they usually take to load. I do not put any security apps there. It's strictly for all the extras. I have played with the delay and pause to get the right combo and the order of launching has been tweaked to work well with the collection I have. I wanted and needed to have that kind of control, which is why I wrote the launcher.

I have things in the list that take a bit to load. I place them near the top of the list. Some apps rely on other apps to be loaded first, and they are placed near the bottom, with the things they depend on placed closer to the top.

EDIT: FWIW, I use Winpatrol's Delay start feature as well, though I only use it for applications that conflict with others as they load. Currently, there are only two apps managed by WP: Feeddemon and VueMinder Calendar Pro. They've both been updated since they were "sent" there, so any conflicts may be a thing of the past...

-Darwin (April 08, 2010, 08:35 AM)

That was the problem I used to have and one of the reasons why I needed to be able to control the whole process more. I had so much stuff competing to get their icon in the tray at startup that half of them would fail. They would end up running in the background with no way to access them from the tray. I had to kill and restart them. And it was getting to be such a chore to sit there with a txt file check list of everything that was supposed to be in my tray, looking for every icon, every time I rebooted. At one point I had like 40 items with tray icons loading. I even used PS Tray Factory to set the order to make it faster to check for the missing ones. (is it any wonder why I absolutely hate rebooting so much?)

2880

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Just a Cartoon

« Last post by app103 on April 06, 2010, 08:14 AM »

I know this guy...he used to sit on my desktop and went by the name of "ToDo List of Doom"



I had to fire him, since he only talked at startup....once every few weeks.

 

2881

Living Room / Re: How do *you* tell when your OS is booted/ready?

« Last post by app103 on April 06, 2010, 08:07 AM »

My old computer is pretty noisy, so it's easy to tell...it's ready when it quiets down. In order to know when that is without getting anywhere near it, I timed it with a stopwatch and selected a startup wav about equal in length to the average startup time...a full song almost 6 minutes long. 

On the newer computer, I use my Lacuna Launcher application to space out the stuff that loads at startup, which means when the last app on the list loads, it's ready to go. That would happen to be my IRC client, which automatically puts me into the DC IRC channel when it loads.

2882

N.A.N.Y. 2008 / Re: DonationCoder Search Deskbar v1.0.43

« Last post by app103 on April 06, 2010, 03:45 AM »

At long last, it has been updated and improved!

v1.0.43 - released April 6, 2010
             - Fixed: cursor over edit control corrected
             - Improved theme support
             - Removed dead link to Wordzilla's site from menu
             - Fixed copy/paste/select
             + Added "triple click/select all" support

Download attached to first post.

2883

Living Room / Re: Experiment: Weight Loss Software - See Within...

« Last post by app103 on April 02, 2010, 10:32 PM »

I think my hair most have lightened to a slightly lighter shade of blond, recently, because I looked at that pic quite a few times and didn't get it...couldn't figure out how not smoking pie would help anyone lose weight. I don't know any fat people that smoke pie. In fact, I don't know anyone that smokes pie.

Then I just looked at it again and realized what it was. 

2884

Living Room / Re: Important Information Regarding Changes To The Use of DonationCoder

« Last post by app103 on April 02, 2010, 10:27 PM »

For what it's worth, this one was much better.

2885

Living Room / Re: How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords

« Last post by app103 on April 01, 2010, 12:22 PM »

paypal has a wonderful and cheap hardware security key that generates one-time use pins that can be required for login.  i wish my bank and credit card account was so secure.

-mouser (April 01, 2010, 11:04 AM)

Most people don't know about that hardware key.

AOL has a similar key that can protect your account and email, if you use their service. The key is required on accounts for all AOL employees (and they get it for free), and optional for their customers, who get charged for each one. And each screen name needs it's own key, so to fully protect an account containing 7 screen names, it would cost you $140 initially for setup and the hardware devices, and $1.95/month to continue using it. It's not something they advertised all that much, and if you want it you'd have to already know it exists through some other means of finding out about it (like reading this post) and then contacting their customer service and asking how to get one. (this is why adoption by their users has been considered a failure...nobody knows it's available)

2886

Living Room / Re: How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords

« Last post by app103 on April 01, 2010, 10:11 AM »

It still wouldn't work in most cases today... that's why banks have the authorization questions and pins in place, because they figured this out already.  If you try to login from a computer that the user hasn't already used, you'll get one of a series of questions before you get in... questions that are based on the user, not the password.  Then, if your bank is extremely paranoid like mine is, you'll have to enter a pin before you do anything after that.

They have a point, but it's not as big of a deal as it used to be.

-wraith808 (April 01, 2010, 08:21 AM)

Sites like Paypal aren't as paranoid as your bank, but access to a site like that could be just as devastating for some people, considering Paypal accounts are usually tied to checking and/or credit card accounts, and may also contain a cash balance, sometimes a large one if you run a business that accepts payments through Paypal.

How about hijacking your domain name?

How about gaining access to your account at the site you have your car insurance, changing the address, phone number etc, and then canceling your insurance and asking for a refund on unused premiums?

There is a whole lot more than just access to your bank's website to worry about, and a lot of those sites are not as paranoid about security.

2887

Living Room / How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords

« Last post by app103 on April 01, 2010, 06:14 AM »

Stop whatever you are doing and read this article. Then go fix your password issues. Don't wait till tomorrow or next week, do it now.

   * You probably use the same password for lots of stuff right?
    * Some sites you access such as your Bank or work VPN probably have pretty decent security, so I'm not going to attack them.
    * However, other sites like the Hallmark e-mail greeting cards site, an online forum you frequent, or an e-commerce site you've shopped at might not be as well prepared. So those are the ones I'd work on.
    * So, all we have to do now is unleash Brutus, wwwhack, or THC Hydra on their server with instructions to try say 10,000 (or 100,000 – whatever makes you happy) different usernames and passwords as fast as possible.
    * Once we've got several login+password pairings we can then go back and test them on targeted sites.
    * But wait? How do I know which bank you use and what your login ID is for the sites you frequent? All those cookies are simply stored, unencrypted and nicely named, in your Web browser's cache. (Read this post to remedy that problem.)

And how fast could this be done? Well, that depends on three main things, the length and complexity of your password, the speed of the hacker's computer, and the speed of the hacker's Internet connection.

http://lifehacker.co...-your-weak-passwords

2888

General Software Discussion / Re: RTF --> HTML editor

« Last post by app103 on March 31, 2010, 11:11 AM »

If you open an .rtf file in a decent word processing application, you can resave the file as .html. I know both MS Word and OpenOffice Writer can both do this.

Once you have saved it as .html, you can continue edit it in the word processor, or in the html editor of your choice.

And OpenOffice Writer does retain most of the formatting on a paste from a web page (color, size, hyperlinks, bold, italics, underline, etc)...but not the font used. (just tested it to make sure)

And best of all, OpenOffice is free. 

2889

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple CRM and biz management tool for a small business?

« Last post by app103 on March 31, 2010, 10:17 AM »

I found a free CRM awhile back when I was doing some research to find a free one for someone. Don't know if it is quite what you are looking for or could be adapted to your needs.

I posted about it here.

Cream

A free, open-source CRM for media organizations
Cream is a multilingual customer relationship management (CRM) system for media organizations that features powerful modules for sales automation, customer service, subscription management, incoming and outgoing email, template-based HTML newsletters, and a WYSIWYG editor.

2890

General Software Discussion / Re: How long is 'temporary'?

« Last post by app103 on March 31, 2010, 09:59 AM »

If you delete a file with the extension .msi you cannot remove that program later on, because the msi contains the uninstaller.

-Curt (March 30, 2010, 06:00 PM)

If you are worried about that, then just copy the .msi files to a safe location, just in case.

2891

Living Room / Re: How the big boys win the race for most popular website and rake in the dough

« Last post by app103 on March 29, 2010, 03:48 AM »

After the buy out, the big company will either just use the purchased userbase to strengthen their marketshare on other projects, or will turn around and start charging for the services the site once offered for free once they have locked in users and locked in their position as the dominant market force.

-mouser (March 19, 2010, 07:32 PM)

Or it's a pure talent grab and they eventually shut the service down.

On the one hand, I am jealous because I don't have the skills or know the right people to be able to pull something like that off, myself.

And on the other I am annoyed, because those with the talent that have made a long term commitment to what they are building get stepped on by the giants that just keep getting bigger as they buy up more stuff. Even if they have a superior product, they can't compete.

2892

General Software Discussion / Re: How long is 'temporary'?

« Last post by app103 on March 28, 2010, 05:50 PM »

The way I have always done it is to go in there after a reboot and arrange files in order by date modified. Then I delete anything and everything older than a week. I have never had a problem from doing that in the last 10 years, so it's perfectly safe.

2893

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: Twigatelle

« Last post by app103 on March 25, 2010, 08:39 PM »

Level 10 was a hard one! 

Finally got through it and level 11 too. Now I'll get back to my life while I patiently wait for level 12.

2894

Living Room / Re: Facebook 'linked to rise in syphilis'

« Last post by app103 on March 25, 2010, 07:58 PM »

... and ignore the difference between correlation and causation.

-http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/03/25/facebook-shorthand-scandal/

This is even more important to me than using Facebook as a generic synonym as it represent conscious deceit on behalf of journalists and media to misinform the public. Correlation does not imply causation!

-Eóin (March 25, 2010, 03:47 PM)

Yes, it does! And any news site caught doing that loses all credibility in my eyes. I'm not even sure I will cut some slack to the sites that didn't know and repeated the claims. If you are reporting news, you are supposed to check the facts and not just repeat what other news sources report and take it as truth, assuming they checked their facts and therefore you don't have to.

2895

Living Room / Re: Facebook 'linked to rise in syphilis'

« Last post by app103 on March 25, 2010, 11:43 AM »

Interesting twist to this story: http://thenextweb.co...k-shorthand-scandal/

Seems "facebook" has become a generic synonym for "social media site" for news sites looking for more traffic.

2896

Living Room / Re: Yahoo Primary Source of Malware and Doesn’t Care

« Last post by app103 on March 24, 2010, 09:15 AM »

Though I suppose Ubuntu doesn't have to worry about viruses that are targeting Windows systems.

-Deozaan (March 24, 2010, 07:38 AM)

Flash and Java do exist for Ubuntu, also. And while the malware might be currently exploiting issues in those apps to target Windows now, there is still the possibility of targeting issues in those for any OS they run on, if the same exploitable issues affect other OS's as well.

2897

Living Room / Re: Ars Technica on the problem with adblocking

« Last post by app103 on March 24, 2010, 04:53 AM »

I have no sympathy for any site that complains because their viewers use ad blockers unless they can guarantee no ads they place or allow on their site will ever contain or deliver malware.

-rssapphire (March 23, 2010, 04:43 PM)

This precisely the reason why the only ad network I don't have blocked in Ad Muncher is Project Wonderful. They don't use flash ads and it is possible to place their ad codes on your site (or RSS feed) without the use of javascript, either in the code or in the ads themselves.

Besides, most of the ads they show are for small blogs, web comics, and sellers of handmade goods on Etsy. As a publisher, I have the option to check each site that wants to advertise on mine before the ads run, and reject and/or block the ads or the advertiser. They give you a lot of control.

Project Wonderful has to be about the most transparent, ethical ad network I have come across. I wish all the ad networks were a lot more like them.

2898

Living Room / Yahoo Primary Source of Malware and Doesn’t Care

« Last post by app103 on March 24, 2010, 04:14 AM »

You usually expect to catch an infection of malware from some shady unknown website that you shouldn’t have clicked on, but a study done by Avast! has uncovered something disturbing. Popular advertising networks are now being infiltrated by malware and you don’t even have to do anything special to get infected. You don’t even have to click on anything. According to CNet:
   

Found in ads delivered from those networks was JavaScript code that Avast dubbed “JS:Prontexi,” which Avast researcher Jiri Sejtko said is a Trojan in script form that targets the Windows operating system. It looks for vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, Java, QuickTime, and Flash and launches fake antivirus warnings, Sejtko said.

    Users don’t need to click on anything to get infected; a computer becomes infected after the ad is loaded by the browser, Avast said

Where will you find these infected ads? On some of the most popular websites like TechCrunch, The New York Times, The Drudge Report, and Whitepages.com. How could such well-known websites get infected with malware? It seems crazy to think about. They’ve got to be screening their websites and code thoroughly, right?

http://www.blackweb2...y-source-of-malware/

2899

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Greenbox LogoMaker: Free

« Last post by app103 on March 23, 2010, 09:43 PM »

How does a 'Logomaker' work ?

  Does it give you design tips ?
  Does it say - no, dont do that, do this ?
  does it have a bunch of clipart included ?

(just trying to get my head around this, thanks!)

-tomos (March 23, 2010, 11:45 AM)

Comes with lots of objects, shapes, backgrounds, clipart and example logos you can edit to make them totally unique.
Can use CMYK, RGB, or grayscale, making your logos suitable for print as well as web use. (Sothink is only RGB, so it's only suitable for web use)

Normally I agree with most you say, App103, but not on this. I have Studio V5 Logomaker 3 from Avanquest, and I am glad that giveawayoftheday now is offering a better & nicer logo maker...   

Of course I said this a little too strong; What I really mean is that Sothink Logomaker is very nice and easy to use, just not as advanced as Logomaker 3.

-Curt (March 23, 2010, 11:17 AM)

All I can say is to give both a try. You might find one more powerful than the other, you might find the collection of objects in one of them smaller and more limiting, or you might find you like them both. Personally, I am going to keep both of them and use whichever will get the job done for what I need it for.

While the one from Sothink is an easier application to use, I found the size of the object, clipart, and sample logo collection very limited and there is no mention of anything related to providing add-on packs in the future (for either application), which to me means at this time, all you see is all you get. And if that is the case, then Greenbox Logo Maker is giving you a lot more to work with.

To be perfectly honest, if the collection included with Greenbox was included in Sothink, then I would prefer the one from Sothink. Greenbox also includes a vector editor for creating your own objects from scratch, so if you do have some talent, you can increase the collection even more, without having to use an external application to do it. That is something the Sothink application is missing, too.

Mailing list sign-up appears to be optional - or at least I could uncheck it and still proceed to the download.

-Stoic Joker (March 23, 2010, 12:21 PM)

Well, that's good to know, but if they are giving more software away, I want to know about it, so I didn't mind signing up for the mailing list.

Not sure what to do with it - I have 0 art skills - But thanks for the tip!

-Stoic Joker (March 23, 2010, 12:21 PM)

And stuff like this is made for the artistically challenged. Easy to get good results when most of the work is done for you and it's just a matter of snapping it all together.

2900

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: Twigatelle

« Last post by app103 on March 23, 2010, 08:27 AM »

Made it up to level 5 6 10 and now I have to quit, else this game is going to end up taking over my life.  

Much too addictive!  

_{EDIT: Can't help it, had to change highest level completed...again. Damn, this game won't let me get back to my life. Help!}