Recent Posts

3251

ProcessTamer / Re: Process gets not killed despite explicit rule

« Last post by f0dder on August 31, 2009, 11:17 AM »

You'll probably want to clean up the media codecs you've installed on the computer - a prime reason for the behavior you explain is a codec that bugs out while trying to show a video thumbnail. I've often seen this on computer where people have installed codec packs instead of grabbing only the codecs they need.

It could also be an indication that some of your media files are (at least slightly) broken/corrupt, but decent codecs still shouldn't bug out that way.

3252

fSekrit / Re: ThreatFire Antivirus can cause data loss in fSekrit.exe data

« Last post by f0dder on August 30, 2009, 01:49 PM »

Thanks for the heads-up

It's understandable that threatfire balks at fSekrit, since writing to executable files can be seen as pretty darn suspicious. But that it causes it to lose data, even though you answer yes to the modification attempt? That's plain old nasty!

Sounds like I need to review the file save code though, there might be some corner cases where I don't detect an error; on errors, fSekrit definitely shouldn't think it has saved the file properly and thus allow the user to discard modification.

3253

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend file shredder?

« Last post by f0dder on August 30, 2009, 01:42 PM »

there's plenty of interesting security holes in OS X allowing for privilege escalation etc

-f0dder (August 30, 2009, 12:48 PM)

I thought current Mac OS was based on Free BSD, and that that was fairly good for security.  Not so?

-rjbull (August 30, 2009, 01:06 PM)

OS X is based on different bits of pieces, including some FreeBSD code (but it's certainly not "based on FreeBSD" in the sense of being a *bsd kernel + extra userland stuff). Mac users are smug and want you to believe their system is secure, while in reality it probably has bigger problems than Windows... especially since Vista introduced various hardening efforts. They just recently fixed a kernel bug allowing arbitrary memory overwriting - things like that are dangerous, since they allow you to do basically anything, including local privilege escalation.

It's not like linux is all that hot either - bug in all kernel versions since 2001 not fixed until Aug13 this year.

Remember that just because you haven't heard about an exploit in the wild doesn't mean it's not been discovered and is being abused. With small(er) marketshare OSes, it's far more valuable to keep 0day flaws to yourself and target special victims for blackmailing, espionage, whatever than it is to try and do botnet harvesting.

Btw, HAL.DLL missing? Let me guess, either running XP with administrative privileges,

erm, probably - I was one of the few people that were allowed to install anything, so had at least some level of admin privileges.  I don't know much about that level of operation, and rather assumed I didn't have full power...

-rjbull (August 30, 2009, 01:06 PM)

Well, the techie shouldn't be making smug remarks about OS stability if users are allowed to run with admin privileges - that's equivalent to giving somebody a root account and claiming that *u*x is insecure after he does "rm -fr /"

3254

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend file shredder?

« Last post by f0dder on August 30, 2009, 12:48 PM »

He, who spends his time supporting Windows and Unix systems, told me he doesn't use Windows at home, but an Apple Mac!  Paraphrasing: "It just works, and you don't get viruses."   

-rjbull (August 30, 2009, 12:38 PM)

Only because the marketshare makes it non-worthwhile... there's plenty of interesting security holes in OS X allowing for privilege escalation etc

Btw, HAL.DLL missing? Let me guess, either running XP with administrative privileges, or Vista/Win7 with UAC turned off? Bad bad (if not one of those, then you've had some form of filesystem corruption - that hasn't happened to me in ages without flaky hardware).

3255

Living Room / Re: Autotune the Cats!

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 08:59 PM »

That was one of the scariest things I've seen in a long while - not only does it feature those psychotic evil mutant creatures, but those voices... man, the voices! PURE SATANIC DEMON VOICES! That made Norwegian black-metal bands seem like pink-wearing cheerleaders.

Mouser, you have just ruined my chances of getting any sleep tonight. Thx.

3256

Site/Forum Features / Re: Badge/Award Mod Rewritten

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 08:49 PM »

i think penguin would be best, but preferably one without a lobotomy.

-mouser (August 27, 2009, 06:52 PM)

Seems kinda fitting, though?

3257

General Software Discussion / Re: Dying technologies: do you still use a printer much?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 05:14 PM »

btw for those who haven't seen one of these ebook readers like the kindle with special grayscale screens -- they look completely different from a laptop lcd -- they are much closer to looking at real paper -- it's quite impressive.

-mouser (August 27, 2009, 02:36 PM)

Yeah, it's E-ink - pretty great stuff. I have still to see on IRL, but it's my understanding that because there's no refresh (which even TFT/LCD screens have), you get a 100% rock-solid flicker-free display, just like... paper. "Flipping to a new page" is supposedly still pretty slow, though?

3258

General Software Discussion / Re: Dying technologies: do you still use a printer much?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 12:31 PM »

mouser: problem is the devices kinda tend to support only DRM'ed crap - which I guess is 40hz's point (and definitely mine).

3259

General Software Discussion / Re: Dealing with HUGE text files?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 11:05 AM »

https://www.donation...x.php?topic=14263.25

I knew I saw this once before :-)

-qwibbles (August 27, 2009, 05:08 AM)

...and I even posted in that thread

It was mainly a thread about viewing though, this thread also hints at editing

3260

General Software Discussion / Re: Dying technologies: do you still use a printer much?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 11:01 AM »

Like Mouser, I keep looking at all those e-book readers. But until they drop those asinine DRM schemes (or somebody figures out a way to jailbreak the Sony reader) I'm going to have to take a pass on them.

-40hz (August 27, 2009, 10:02 AM)

Hear ye, hear ye!

I'd want a decently sized (but lightweight) one with good resolution e-ink, no crappy DRM, and support for pdf, chm, txt and perhaps standard html... that would be reading heaven for me

3261

General Software Discussion / Re: Dealing with HUGE text files?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 04:35 AM »

http://en.wikipedia....ison_of_text_editors

Look for Large file support

-qwibbles (August 27, 2009, 04:13 AM)

Well, I looked at that, but I'm not sure the feature matrix is so useful... what do they mean by "large file support"? Is it 2GB, 4GB, or "available memory"? It says nothing about memory vs. diskbased either

EditPad I think was ok

-qwibbles (August 27, 2009, 04:13 AM)

Their site says: "Edit huge files without breaking a sweat. EditPad Pro will instantly open files up to 2 GB in size, even if your PC has less than 2 GB of RAM." - what is with people using 32bit signed integers for file sizes? As if 32bit itself wasn't bad enough, wtf use SIGNED integers? Ever seen a negative-size file? >_<

TextPad and UltraEdit are also generally ok with this size of file.

-qwibbles (August 27, 2009, 04:13 AM)

TextPad doesn't seem to do the trick, quoting their features: "It can handle file sizes up to the largest contiguous chunk of 32-bit virtual memory."

LTFViewer sounds like something that could be useful

PS: thanks for your effort, even if this post sounds a bit critical overall

3262

General Software Discussion / Re: Dealing with HUGE text files?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 04:03 AM »

From what I know, vim does work with large files.
It does take a while to load the file, however.

I've just found this plugin which will probably solve that problem

-jgpaiva (August 27, 2009, 03:48 AM)

housetier already posted that script - taking a while to load kinda indicates to me that it does full loading? I can't see why disabling an undo system would make initial file opening faster, for instance.

3263

General Software Discussion / Re: Dealing with HUGE text files?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 02:57 AM »

Doesn't VIM load the entire file into memory?

EDIT: I know UltraEdit can handle files > 4gig, and doesn't try to load the entire file... but I'd like to see other alternatives

3264

General Software Discussion / Dealing with HUGE text files?

« Last post by f0dder on August 27, 2009, 01:07 AM »

I've seen a few inquiries here and there for people who need to deal with huge text files - we're talking the multi-gigabyte range here. Usually it's for log files and the people really just need viewing (and grepping) and not editing, but edit facilities might be necessary every now and then.

Does any of you guys know a text viewer (or, better, editor) that handles such files without hiccup? We're obviously talking something that doesn't use 32bit variables for file size or line count, and doesn't try to load the entire file at once... I'm pretty sure I bumped into such an editor years ago, but haven't had the need for huge files since.

Freeware would of course be preferred, but any suggestions are welcome. Some people seem to think that you'd need a 64bit editor to handle such big files, but imho it's perfectly possibly to handle with a (smartly programmed) 32bit editor... if you need to handle really big files, it's folly to try and do full-memory loading anyway

3265

General Software Discussion / Re: Dying technologies: do you still use a printer much?

« Last post by f0dder on August 26, 2009, 06:09 PM »

I use my printer about as much as I've always done, really. Not very often, but certainly from time to time...

-TucknDar (August 26, 2009, 04:11 PM)

Same here - I've never been the type that printed a lot, but sometimes when I need to read something it's better to have it in text form. Maps/directions are handy on paper too... and for some reason, school requires us to hand in stuff in paper form O_o

3266

Living Room / Re: RIAA Says DRM is Dead

« Last post by f0dder on August 25, 2009, 06:57 PM »

Doesn't matter what you say to the tracker, it's the peers that up/down-prioritize the speed they give you. And if you want to fool a tracker on a ratio site, you're playing with fire - unless you're being very, very subtle you will get caught on any of the interesting sites.

3267

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 30-09

« Last post by f0dder on August 25, 2009, 06:54 PM »

I didn't know about that "bad sectors go read-only" thing! That's just great
Having a temperature-efficient disk would also be great, my laptop heats a lot

-jgpaiva (August 25, 2009, 01:08 PM)

Well, I think that's what happens to bad sectors on SSDs, but I could very well be wrong - and I suppose they could be more sensitive to power surges than mechanical drives.

As for temperature-efficient, I bet the CPU and GPU are going to be the hottest parts of the laptop, not the disk

3268

Find And Run Robot / Re: Another FARR similar app - Executor

« Last post by f0dder on August 25, 2009, 10:41 AM »

Remember to look at the actual application memory consumption, rather than it's working set size

3269

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls, What you need to know...

« Last post by f0dder on August 25, 2009, 09:52 AM »

Old thread

Run as a non-admin user (and if on Win7, crank UAC all the way to the top). Don't run random crap from unreputable sources. Presto: no need for a software firewall.

If you get bad stuff on your system, all bets are off so you might as well not run a software firewall; there's too many possibilities of subverting them. And even if you have something that's not easily bypassed, you need high paranoia settings with a lot of bo-ther-some popups in order to have any security at all - usually leading to auto-rules and yes-clicking and a false sense of security.

NAT'ing router (without any DMZ crap!) + limited user account + common sense = great success. Add some antivirus software and perhaps a non-IE browser (though IE8 is OK) to the mix if you want to, but an outbound software firewall is really just a lullaby.

3270

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 30-09

« Last post by f0dder on August 25, 2009, 09:45 AM »

Well, the standby power consumption issues might already have been fixed, I haven't read about the issue for a while . Also, I don't know what amount of write (or rather, erase) cycles the current SSDs can handle; there doesn't seem to be much conclusive data, and people are quick to shout off their mouths without anything to back up their claims. Iirc AnandTech has said that even MLC-based drives with heavy usage should last 3+ years, which is good enough for me... especially if, as I've understood, a "failling" drive simply blocks sectors go read-only (compare that to a failing harddrive where all bets are off).

As far as heat is concerned, I suppose SSDs should run a lot cooler than mechanical drives. Haven't tested my own SSD, but it feels ambient case temperature to the touch

3271

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 30-09

« Last post by f0dder on August 25, 2009, 12:42 AM »

Keep in mind that just about all SSDs have had those physical fragmentation issues, and that intel is one of the few manufacturers that has been active about it. I haven't looked at the SSD market for some months (having something to do with getting an X25-E), but back then you basically had two choices: Intel or OCZ Vertex (specifically only the Vertex) - EVERYTHING else sucked (the short story: manufacturers optimizing for high linear speeds ending up with performance lower than harddrives once random read/writes were used).

Cost is still pretty high on SSDs, but once you've had one in your workstation you really don't want to go back. It's not about those ludicrious hundreds-of-megs-per-second linear rates, it's all about the low latency. Couple with a traditional fast HDD for bulk storage and you're flying. I'm considering replacing the 120GB disk in my laptop with a somewhat smaller SSD; I could live with ~60gig there for better speed and no mechanical parts making "hi, I'm about to die" sounds

PS: SSD doesn't necessarily mean lower power consumption; conventional laptop drives are quick to go into standby modes, many SSDs don't have standby mode (not because they can't, but because the manufacturers are silly and lazy).

3272

Living Room / Re: stunning 3D projections on buildings

« Last post by f0dder on August 25, 2009, 12:10 AM »

[edit] Oh, yeah, and tinyurls are evil and should be banned from the internets (except, maybe, from twitter) [/edit]

-jgpaiva (August 24, 2009, 05:28 PM)

Or just do what I do. Use a GreaseMonkey script to turn those tiny URLs back into their long form.

-Innuendo (August 24, 2009, 10:23 PM)

That doesn't solve their inherent evilness and internet-breaking potential, though.

3273

Developer's Corner / Re: Fabricate: the better "make". Finds dependencies automatically for any language

« Last post by f0dder on August 24, 2009, 04:45 PM »

Yeah, I've used SCons for a while - never did anything big with it though, and put it on hold for a while because it didn't pick up VS2008 paths by default (and didn't feel like hacking up my construction files). But it's a good tool, and I plan on taking it up again

3274

Developer's Corner / Re: Fabricate: the better "make". Finds dependencies automatically for any language

« Last post by f0dder on August 24, 2009, 02:41 PM »

You could also go for SCons? Solid enough that id software uses it, supports parallelization, is super flexible (written in Python), and not that hard to use

3275

Living Room / 8-bit trip with animated lego bricks

« Last post by f0dder on August 24, 2009, 11:25 AM »

Kudos goes to p3lb0x for linking this on facebook. What can I say? It rocks - remember to click HD.