Recent Posts

326

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 09, 2014, 02:41 PM »

Andreas Antonopolous is signing copies of his book "Mastering Bitcoin"...

-Renegade (October 09, 2014, 11:22 AM)

I got a kick out of this disclaimer:

The author wants you to know that his handwriting is that of someone who has typed almost everything (including grocery lists) for the past 20 years. This means your message might be as legible as a prescription note from a doctor (not at all). Near illegibility serves as proof of authenticity!

-https://www.bitcoinbook.info/shop/author-signing-and-10-charitable-donation/

327

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: NaNoWriMo Scrivener Offer

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 09, 2014, 12:33 AM »

Thanks for those links.  It looks very interesting. I don't think it'll replace Surfulater as my keeper of my universe of random bits of information, but I think Scrivener has a good chance at managing the various assortment of artifacts related to work projects.

I think I'll give it a go during the extended trial period they're offering now.

328

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: NaNoWriMo Scrivener Offer

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 08, 2014, 05:52 PM »

This might be heresy in this thread since it has nothing to do with writing novels, but when I look at the webpage for Scrivener, it looks like it might be a good general purpose note taking tool.  Maybe even a task manager (index cards on a bulletin board is a pretty good real-world way to manage tasks).

Is anyone using it like this (or tried and failed) that can give some opinions?

329

Living Room / Re: Movie Trivia: How Many Can You Get?

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 07, 2014, 11:47 PM »

The ones I got different from Edvard:

Spoiler

I had no idea about:

23. Happy Feet

Here are ones that Edvard didn't guess that I think I got:

6. Pearl Harbor
8. Thor (well, he sorta didn't guess it)
9. Planet of the Apes (a late guess)
12. Eat, Pray, Love
14. The Ring
19. 27 Dresses
21. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
24. 2012
28. Final Destination

And one that I think Edvard got wrong:

29. Benjamin Button

So that leaves the following unknown:

3, 4, 9, 16, 20

330

Living Room / Re: Samsung pays MS $1 billion in royalties for using Android. wtf.

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 06, 2014, 03:14 PM »

I don't know how much comes from Samsung, but MS definitely makes a ton of money licensing intellectual property to Android device makers:

  - http://www.businessi...yalties-2013-11?op=1
  - http://www.fosspaten...ts-21st-android.html

Update: a link to some Samsung details, including documents filed in court by MS: http://www.fosspaten...-over-1-billion.html

Apparently one of the patents that applies to Android devices is the patent on long file name support in FAT file systems.  I'm sure that there are a number of other ones.

331

General Software Discussion / Re: Beyond Compare v4 Open Beta

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 04, 2014, 06:01 PM »

P.S. The intellectual level of this site really went down these last weeks; I very much hope my reading experience here will improve by remaining posters striving to amend their argumentation... and if they don't have got any, by their refraining from posting to begin with. Thank you so very much.

-peter.s (October 04, 2014, 07:17 AM)

I, for one, shall indeed strive to restrain from posting any communication here that impairs your reading experience.  You are very welcome.

332

Living Room / Re: Win9 will be FREE!

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 30, 2014, 02:05 PM »

The new Windows, which it's calling Windows 10. The company looks at the new number (yes, it skipped a number) ...

-http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/30/microsoft-windows-10/

Well, no wonder that Win9 will be free.

333

Living Room / Re: File too long for Recycle Bin

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 27, 2014, 03:20 PM »

If I recall right, Shift-Delete in explorer will delete a file without putting it in the recycle bin which might workaround the problem.

Or you can delete the file from a command line window which doesn't know anything about the recycle bin.

334

General Software Discussion / Re: Linux bash exploit discovered

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 26, 2014, 10:53 PM »

Most of that video overstayed its welcome, but the bit at 0:25-0:32 is priceless.

335

Living Room / Re: Kevin Mitnick Is Now Selling Zero-Day Exploits

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 26, 2014, 12:54 PM »

It's like a real life Bond super villain business plan. And this is just the kind of phrase such a character might utter: “discerning government and corporate buyers”

336

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Toolsley - browser based tools

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 23, 2014, 03:44 PM »

Nice - thanks for posting and welcome to DC.

Only problem is that I was hoping that "JPEG Stripper" might make my photos more interesting.  But unfortunately, it just strips meta-data.

337

Found Deals and Discounts / 50% discount on XYplorer for 5 days

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 18, 2014, 01:32 PM »

10 Years Mouse Down Blow Up!

The famous feature has been invented already in v3.02.0035 (2000-02-21) but the trademark "Mouse Down Blow Up" now marks its 10th birthday.

Let's celebrate one of XYplorer's top features with a 5 days 50% discount! Discount ends Monday, 2014-09-22 23:59, UTC+1.

-http://www.xyplorer.com/purchase.php

The discount applies to both the standard or the lifetime license.

338

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sublime Text Giveaway

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 14, 2014, 07:06 PM »

Interestingly, the Sublime Text forums are broken for a couple of days now. Intended?

-Tuxman (September 14, 2014, 08:18 AM)

This kind of thing seems to happen every now and again with the Sublime Text forum, but usually it's back in a day or so. The forum seems to be largely an afterthought for Jon (the ST dev). I get the feeling it's an annoyance that he only begrudgingly lets exist.

ST fans make it a useful forum in spite of that.

339

Living Room / Re: A warning to anybody who is looking to purchase a VPS.

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 10, 2014, 10:58 AM »

Low End Talk, their sister site, is a good place to do any research on a provider, eg. FortaTrust

-4wd (September 10, 2014, 06:10 AM)

And one thing that's clear from reading Low end Talk for a bit is that the low end VPS market is littered with sketchy vendors.  There are vendors who provide what they say they will; but there are a lot who don't, who are fly-by-nights, or are simply in over their heads.

Low end VPS is a real buyer beware situation.

340

Living Room / Re: A warning to anybody who is looking to purchase a VPS.

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 10, 2014, 12:31 AM »

All I can say is that I'm glad you didn't get stuck for 394.41 like poor Virgil.  Yikes!

341

Developer's Corner / Re: Markdown (and what do you do when a community outgrows your contribution)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 09, 2014, 04:55 PM »

Onward!  

342

Developer's Corner / Re: Markdown (and what do you do when a community outgrows your contribution)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 09, 2014, 01:01 PM »

Did they try to take the name?

-wraith808 (September 09, 2014, 11:50 AM)

It would be similar to someone setting up a website very similar to DC and calling it "Super DonationCoder".  Whether or not that would be illegal, it wouldn't be right to do without Mouser's permission.  And even if Mouser took DC in a direction that many people didn't agree with, it wouldn't be right.

343

Developer's Corner / Re: Markdown (and what do you do when a community outgrows your contribution)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 09, 2014, 10:55 AM »

Open sourcing something doesn't necessarily mean that the name of a project is up for grabs.

I think there's a good chance (based on my very limited knowledge of IP law), that Gruber has a legal right to "Markdown" as a trademark.  However, even if doesn't have a legal claim, he does still have a moral/ethical/community/goodwill/whatever claim to it, and it shouldn't be co-opted by someone else against his desire.

Now, any number of arguments can be made that's he's being unreasonable, stupid, passive-agressive or worse.  But that still doesn't mean you should be able to take the project name.

Also, I think there are reasonable arguments that can be made that Atwood acted improperly or worse.  Though I do think he's less intransigent (did I spell that word right? did I use that word right?).

I think the current state of things (using the CommonMark name) is a good enough situation, and as I stated before I think that over time, "CommonMark" will become the defacto standard over "Markdown".  Both in terms of the software implementation and in terms of the 'brand' this think becomes commonly known as (ie., people will actually say that an editor or whatever supports "CommonMark").  I think this will happen because CommonMark will be at least as good as Markdown (it's probably already there), and there will ultimately be less confusion about the various flavors.

344

Non-Windows Software / Re: LINUX: Remarkable - a very simple previewing Markdown editor for Linux

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 08, 2014, 02:30 PM »

Wow - I had no idea.

I might look at that Sublime Text setup for Markdown - I like that it's cross platform.
 

345

Non-Windows Software / Re: LINUX: Remarkable - a very simple previewing Markdown editor for Linux

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 08, 2014, 01:56 AM »

Is it for Markdown, Standard Markdown, Github Flavoured Markdown, YankeesSuck, Dicknose Flavoured Markdown...?

-Renegade (September 08, 2014, 01:39 AM)

Github Flavoured Markdown

I wish it supported Windows.

346

Developer's Corner / Re: Markdown (and what do you do when a community outgrows your contribution)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 05, 2014, 07:12 PM »

The people who want to extend and standardize markdown seem to be bending over backwards to acknowledge and show respect for Gruber's contribution when they could have just as easily forked and been done with it. But they very much wanted to keep "markdown" in the name and involve Mr.Gruber in the process. However, for some reason, Mr. Gruber seems to be highly offended by their overtures.

-40hz (September 05, 2014, 04:05 PM)

Personally, I think it would have been nice for this standardization process to be allowed to use the name Markdown.

However, Markdown was created by Gruber and the Markdown project belongs to him. He therefore has the right to decide how the name for that project should be used.  I think this 'fork' should simply use a different name.  I have no doubt it will become successful (since it'll be used on StackExchange, Github, and Reddit).  And it appears that this is the tack that they've taken - the fork is now called CommonMark.

I actually think that in the long run, Gruber's Markdown will largely become a note in the history of CommonMark.  But that doesn't give them the right to the project name.

347

Living Room / Re: What age is too young for a mobile phone?

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 03, 2014, 07:33 PM »

At the risk of this degenerating to a basement thread, police, parents and/or cell phones were not involved in any way in escalating what happened at Sandy Hook: http://www.cnn.com/i...sandy-hook-timeline/

Cripes - there are plenty of more common and more mundane situations that happen every day that a phone would make things easier for kids or parents.  For example, missing the bus or letting a parent know that you're going to stay after for some special project. 

348

Living Room / Re: Game (& reviews) industry's silent scandal

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 02, 2014, 02:13 PM »

+1 for skwire.

And which definition for "silent" does this scandal fall under?  Even the tl;dr's need a tl;dr summary.

349

Living Room / Re: Android security mystery – ‘fake’ cellphone towers found in U.S.

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 02, 2014, 12:38 PM »

I'm not sure what's going on with the towers mentioned in the article, but a related concern that I've heard next to nothing about (and nothing at all as far as a security concern) are the network extender devices that are available, such as:

  - http://www.verizonwi...etwork_extender.html

What is the Verizon Wireless Network Extender?

The Network Extender enhances indoor calling and 3G data coverage to provide better service for your Verizon Wireless mobile device. It’s an extension of our network placed directly in your house or small business office. The Network Extender is compatible with all Verizon Wireless devices and works like a miniature tower. It plugs into your existing high-speed Internet connection to communicate with the Verizon Wireless network, which makes it easy to install.

These things are essentially small network towers with limited range and capacity that plug into an internet connection.  The intended use is for when you have poor cell coverage at your home, you can get one of these things and your cell phone will see it as  a tower and the cell communication will be routed over your internet connection.  As far as your cell phone is concerned, it's just another tower that it's connecting to.

So say a black hat gets one of these - now they can see all traffic between the extender unit and the internet.  Presumably that traffic is encrypted (though I haven't seen anything from the vendors that explicitly say that), but how often have we seen such embedded encryption be done in a way that can be cracked?

Also, since the unit is relatively cheap (a couple hundred dollars?), an enthusiast is very likely to be interested in tearing one down - who knows how easy or difficult it might be for them to tap into something that leaks information before it's routed to the internet?

Anyway, some food for thought.  I don't think you need access to an actual cell tower to have some (or even a lot) of the capability that the article hints at.

Actually, after a quick search, here's a white paper that seems to describe just this sort of attack:

  - https://media.blackh...obile_Attacks-wp.pdf
 

350

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AdGuard: the better Ad Muncher?

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 01, 2014, 02:19 PM »

On one hand it is annoying that AM does not filter https, on the other hand from what I understand, AdGuard does it by installing its own certificate and doing a man in the middle on all your https connections, and I don't know how I feel about that.

-Jibz (September 01, 2014, 12:03 PM)

I believe that's the only way to do it via a proxy.  The only other option would be to do it inside the browser.

Either way you're giving the ad removal software the ability to deal with data that is ostensibly private, so you have to give that software some measure of trust if you want it to remove ads from HTTPS connections.  I'm not sure sure which method might make things more vulnerable to other malicious software that might want to exploit the ad removal software's position of trust. 

My gut feeling is that it's the proxy with the MITM certificate, but that's just a feeling.

Does anyone know if AdGuard allows you to disable this behavior of proxying HTTPS traffic?  I'm currently using Ad Muncher and I don't have any complaints about HTTPS connections having too many ads.  However, I think I'm seeing the writing on the wall for AM, so I figure that I'll be moving to something else at some point and I'd rather that my HTTPS traffic just be left alone since I'm not seeing a problem with it.